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0330 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
中央アジア踏査記 : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / 330 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000214
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which by then had once more resumed its air of utter
desolation and silence, and established my camp there for
a prolonged stay, I confess what kept my heart buoyant
were hopes of another kind. Very soon after my first arrival
at Tun-huang a vague rumour had reached me about a
great mass of ancient manuscripts which had been dis-
covered by chance several years before hidden away in one
of the cave temples. There they were reported to be guarded
by a Taoist priest who had come upon them in a walled-
up side chapel while restoring that temple. He was supposed
to have locked them up under an official order, and there
were reasons for caution in endeavours to secure access to
the trove.

On my first visit to the caves the Taoist priest or Tao-
shih, Wang by name (Fig. 85), was away on a begging tour
in the oasis. So I had to rest content at the time with as-
certaining from a young Tangutan monk, then the solitary
dweller at the site, that the place of discovery of the manu-
script hoard was a large shrine near the northern end of the
main group of caves. The entrance had been formerly
blocked by fallen rock debris and drift sand. While the
priest was slowly carrying on the restorations upon which
he was engaged for years with pious zeal and devotion, a
crack in the frescoed wall of the passage revealed an opening
that led to a small chamber excavated from the rock behind.

It was said to have been completely filled with manuscript
rolls, written in Chinese characters but in what was sup-
posed to be a non-Chinese language. The hoard, estimated
at several cart-loads, was now guarded behind a carefully
locked door with which the recess had been furnished. All
I could see of it then was a long and excellently preserved