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0300 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 / Page 300 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000234
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reliable "treasure-seeker" from
a village of the Yurung-kash
canton, had visited the most
distant of the locally known
sites, called by them Dandan-
Uiliq ("the houses with ivory").
Among the specimens brought
back by them I found to my
great satisfaction several pieces
of fresco inscribed with Indian
Brahmi characters, fragments
of stucco relievos representing
objects of Buddhist worship, and
also a small but undoubtedly
genuine piece of a paper docu-
ment in cursive Central-Asian
Brahmi.
It turned out, on further
examination of the "treasure-
seekers," that the ruins from
which they had unearthed these
remains, and which they de-
scribed as reached after nine to
ten marches north-eastwards through the desert, were apparently
identical with the site which Dr. Hedin had seen on his
memorable march to the Keriya Darya, and which is spoken
of in the narrative of his travels as the "ancient city Takla-
makan." He had reached it by another route from Tawakkel
on the northern edge of the oasis. So Pan-Darin, whom I
informed of the results of this reconnaissance, sent word to the
Beg of Tawakkel to produce the two hunters who had guided
Dr. Hedin on his journey. On November 20 the Ahmad
Merghen and Kasim Akhun, the men I wished to examine,
were duly produced by the Beg himself, who had brought them
to Khotan in person. Their examination in the presence of