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0281 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
中央アジア踏査記 : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / 281 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000214
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CHAPTER X

DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT BORDER LINE

It was on February 21, 1907, after I had completed my
excavations at the Miran ruins and the safe packing of their
archaeological yield, that I started on the long desert journey
which was to take us from the dreary Lop-nor marshes
right through to Tun-huang on the westernmost border of
Kansu and China proper. It was the same route by which
Marco Polo had travelled 'through the desert of Lop'. Six
centuries before him it had seen a traveller scarcely
less great, Hsüan-tsang, the pilgrim of pious memory,
returning to China laden with Buddhist relics and sacred
books after many years' wanderings in the 'Western
Regions'.

Though less important and less direct than the ancient
Lou-lan route, this desert track, close on 380 miles long
leading south of Lop-nor, must have seen much caravan
traffic during successive periods, only to be practically for-
gotten again when Chinese power westwards weakened or
a policy of rigid seclusion strangled trade. Thus after the
last Chinese reconquest of the Tarim basin it had to be re-
discovered. Since then this route has been frequented again
on occasion by traders from Khotan and Yarkand, but only
during the winter months when the use of ice makes it
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