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| 0386 |
The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 |
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one approaches it much more closely than the ordinary
traveler or inhabitant of Turfan is likely to do. One fea-
ture alone, the little red range along the fault-line, redeems
Turfan from being utterly commonplace and almost unin-
habitable.
Evidences of changes of climate in Turfan are as abun-
dant as in the Lop basin. Everywhere one encounters vast
beds of dead reeds, not only in regions where the digging
of kariz has lowered the water-level, but even in places
where the activities of man might be supposed to tend to
increase the amount of water locally. Grum-Grshimailo,
a Russian explorer, who visited Turfan in 1889, says that
though now the playa of Böjanti is dry most of the year,
Chinese records and an old song seem to indicate that for-
merly there was at least a large reed-swamp, if not a lake.
From this and from the evidence of ruins he concludes
that the water supply has greatly diminished. The plain
is dotted with ruins not only in districts which are now in-
habited, but in more remote regions, where no surface water
is now available and the underground supply is saline. Ten
such places (Assa Bulak, Pokluck, Cholak, Böjanti, Kak-
shal, Olpang, Tura Kariz, Chong Assa, Kichik Assa, and
Kosh-Dung) appear on the map on page 297, and I heard
of still others. In some cases the only relics of human occu-
pation are adobe "turas," as Buddhist stupas are called
in this region, and a few bits of pottery. Elsewhere, as at
Cholak, Chong Assa, and Kichik Assa, there are ruins of
forts, houses, and lamaseries. The stupas appear to indi-
cate the sites of villages, for they are on the prolonga-
tions of watercourses in places where agriculture would
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