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On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 |
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historical past. But opportunities for actual exploration were
restricted for a variety of reasons; so my account of this
journey may be brief.
Continued occupation coupled with intensive irrigation
has allowed but few structural remains to survive within the
smaller oases, while on the desert ground around or between
them there was not enough drift-sand to aid in the preser-
vation of antiques. Thus at the oasis of Bugur, five marches
to the west of Korla, where I believe the ancient Lun-t'ai,
mentioned in the Former Han Annals as the seat of the
Chinese Protector General of the whole Tarim basin, to have
been situated, no ancient ruins whatever could be traced.
But in the clayey desert beyond it, towards Kucha, I found
a series of massive watch-towers along the caravan route
clearly proving that the ancient Chinese highroad must
have followed this identical line.
At Kucha the highroad reaches an oasis which after
Kashgar is the largest at the south foot of the T'ien-shan.
Apart from the size of the cultivated area and its economic
resources which the irrigation facilities derived from two
considerable rivers assure, Kucha enjoys also the advantage
of a geographical position particularly favourable for trade;
for the highroad is joined here by routes leading north
across the mountains to rich tracts of Dzungaria, while to
the south Khotan can be directly reached by the route that
crosses the Taklamakan desert along the bed of the Khotan
river. All this accounts for the importance, political as well
as cultural, that has attached to the territory throughout
historical times. This importance is reflected by numerous
and impressive remains of temples and cave-shrines which
illustrate the flourishing conditions of Buddhist religious
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571
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578
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