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| 0233 |
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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ample out-houses. This building attests the enterprise of
Niaz Hakim Beg, governor of Khotan in the days of Yaqub
Beg—the same whose country mansion gave me shelter at
Yarkand. A tank is provided, into which water flows for one
day in the week by a small canal brought down from the
outer hills. A ruined mound of sun-dried bricks, some 30
feet high, which rises from the desert plain about a mile
and a half northwards, may possibly mark the remains of a
Stupa. But its decay was too far advanced to permit any
certain conclusion.
On the 3rd of October my march lay entirely through
desert ground. To the south the line of outer hills was
faintly visible through the haze, but no canal or watercourse
of any kind descends from them to the plain. After the chilly
nights the heat and glare of the midday hours were very
perceptible. The dreary route we were now following along
the southern edge of the great sandy desert, the Taklamakan,
had for me a special historical interest. It was undoubtedly
the ancient line that led from the Oxus region to Khotan and
China. Walking and riding along the track marked here and
there by the parched carcases and bleached bones of animals
that had died on it, I thought of travellers in times gone by
who must have marched through this same waterless, unin-
habited waste. Hinen-Tsiang, who travelled here on his way
back to China, has well described the route. After him it
had seen Marco Polo and many a less-known mediæval
traveller to distant Cathay. Practically nothing has changed
here in respect of the methods and means of travel, and thus
my thoughts could wander back into the past the more readily.
It is certain that, with the caravans that once trod this sand,
the Buddhist religion and the elements of Indian as well as
of classical culture and art travelled to the land of the Sinæ.
Shall we ever learn how much they brought back that has
influenced the civilization of the ancient world?
Cholak Langar, which I reached in the early afternoon, has
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