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On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 |
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to lay in victuals in order to cross the great "desert which
extends forty days' journey to the north and on which you
meet with no habitation nor baiting-place".
The position thus indicated was found to correspond
exactly to that of Khara-khoto, and the identification was
completely borne out by the antiquarian evidence brought
to light at the ruined site (Fig. 114). This soon showed me
that though the walled town may have suffered consider-
ably, as local Mongol tradition asserts, when Chingiz Khan
with his Mongols first invaded Kansu from this side about
A.D. 1226, yet it continued to be inhabited down to Marco
Polo's time and at least partially even later, down to the
fifteenth century. This was certainly the case with the agri-
cultural settlement for which it had served as a local centre,
and of which we discovered extensive remains in the desert
to the east and north-east. But the town itself must have
seen its most flourishing times under the Tangut or Hsi-
hsia rule from the beginning of the eleventh century down
to the Mongol conquest.
It was from this period, when Tibetan influence seems
to have made itself strongly felt from the south, that most
of the Buddhist shrines and memorial Stupas dated, which
filled a great portion of the ruined town and were conspicu-
ous also outside it. In one of the latter Colonel Kozloff had
made his important find of Buddhist texts and paintings.
But a systematic search of this and other ruins soon showed
that the archaeological riches of the site were by no means
exhausted.
By a careful clearing of the debris, which covered the bases
of Stupas and the interior of temple cellas, we brought to
light abundant remains of Buddhist manuscripts and block
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157
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168
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178
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189
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200
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212
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273
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284
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295
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306
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317
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327
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337
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418
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431
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435
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442
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453
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466
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477
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491
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502
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513
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525
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537
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550
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561
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571
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578
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