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0136 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
中央アジア踏査記 : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / 136 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000214
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the locality and that of one of its convents called Hu-kuo,
'the country-protecting'. Curiously enough, several monks
there seem to have combined business as money-lenders with
their religious occupations. The names given in one of the
documents of the superintending priests of this monastic
establishment are Chinese; but that the population which
supported it was not Chinese is plainly indicated by the
transcribed names of the borrowers and sureties.

But the essential value of these documents lies in their
chronological evidence. From their very character and the
condition in which they were found, scattered amidst
rubbish in ground-floor rooms used as quarters or kitchens,
it is quite safe to conclude that they were penned during
the closing years of the occupation of the site and left
behind when it was finally abandoned. This inference is
completely borne out by the Chinese copper coins found
on the site which bear dates reaching down only to A.D. 760.

The time of abandonment thus established is in remark-
able agreement with what the Chinese historical Annals tell
us of Chinese control over the Tarim basin under the T'ang
dynasty having finally come to its end about 791. The
collapse of Chinese authority and the successful Tibetan
invasion must have meant for Khotan a period of excep-
tional trouble. The effects of a great political upheaval
in that part of the world are always felt most seriously in
small outlying oases; for these are wholly dependent on a
system of irrigation which only a firm and watchful admi-
stration can maintain. Considered in this light, the evidence
furnished by the finds at Dandan-oilik may well help us in
tracing the true relation between the abandonment of other
ancient sites in this region and the cause or causes which,