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| 0313 |
The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 |
Citation Information
OCR Text
Abdal, on Lop-Nor, twenty miles to the north, come in sum-
mer to cultivate the reedy fields, and, by using all the water
available in spring, raise grain for about fifteen families.
The fields can be cultivated only once in three years, for in a
single season of irrigation, a cake of clay two or three inches
thick is deposited — a cake so stiff that crops cannot grow
in it until it has been softened by two years of sun and rain.
The natives think that the clay is gathered after the river
begins to spread over the huge gravel flood-plain, ten miles
long and one or two wide. In reality, the river is charged
with fine clay when it leaves the mountains, where it is said
to be equal to the river which supports the large village
of Charklik. On reaching the flood-plain, the water sinks
rapidly into the coarse gravel, but, as the current is swift,
the fine clay is borne along, until at Miran the river is liter-
ally a stream of mud.
Formerly, conditions must have been far different. The
old Buddhist Miran was neither a hamlet, such as to-day
might be located here, nor a village like old Vash Sheri, but
a town. It covered an area of at least five square miles, all of
which, judging from the canals and pottery, and still more
from the number and location of public and religious struc-
tures, must have been thickly populated. The houses, being
made of clay, have disappeared, with two exceptions. Thir-
teen other structures remain, of which one is a fort, four hun-
dred feet square; one is a lamasery, the outer walls of which
are adorned with clay reliefs of Buddha; two are stupas, or
shrines; and the other nine are solid rectangular masses of
sun-dried brick, capped in most cases by the walls of what
may, perhaps, have been monastic dwellings, or Buddhist
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