国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

> > > >
カラー New!IIIFカラー高解像度 白黒高解像度 PDF   日本語 English
0235 The Pulse of Asia : vol.1
アジアの鼓動 : vol.1
The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 / 235 ページ(カラー画像)

New!引用情報

doi: 10.20676/00000233
引用形式選択: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR読み取り結果

combined population of the two must have been about equal
to that of modern Chira. The chronicle does not mention
Dumuka and Ponak, but there is a local tradition that
their Buddhist inhabitants fled from the Mohammedans
and went northward down the Keriya River to Ak Su, cross-
ing the Takla-Makan desert where now there is no water
and no road. As to the other chief village of the region,
Gulakhma, between Chira and Dumuka, tradition says that
it has occupied the same location from time immemorial.
As it occupies the site where the waters of its river can
most easily and with least waste be utilized, and as there
are traces of ruins in the suburbs, there is no cause to doubt
the tradition. Choka, on the upper part of the Karatash
River, which waters Chira, was inhabited at this time, it
will be remembered; and we have seen reason to believe
that the slope of the mountains whence flow the rivers of
Chira, Gulakhma, Ponak, and Dumuka was then occupied
by a population of Kalmucks, more numerous than that
of to-day. Thus it appears that about 1000 A. D., not only
was the total population supported by the rivers larger than
it now is, but the streams flowed through the modern vil-
lages, where their water is at present entirely consumed,
and reached places like Ulugh Mazar, ten or fifteen miles
farther north. This could happen only if the rivers were
decidedly and permanently larger than now. There has
been no diversion of the upper waters of the rivers except
in the insignificant and easily preventable case of a small
part of the Ak Sai or Dumuka River; and there is not the
slightest evidence that the irrigation system of the past
was better than that of to-day. The true cause of the