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| 0317 |
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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It was founded in honour of an Arhat who had by various miracles
won the special worship of one of the first Buddhist kings of the
country. Under its Stupa, which was a hundred feet high, a great
collection of sacred relics from Buddha's body had been deposited.
Fa-hien also, two and a half centuries earlier, had seen this
monastery, and describes "the magnificent and very beautiful hall
of Buddha" that rose behind its Stupa. Judging from what
previous experience has taught me of the fate which has overtaken
all ancient structures within the cultivated area of the oasis, I did
not expect to find remains of what was undoubtedly only a pile of
sun-dried bricks doomed to rapid decay. All the more delighted
was I when among the villages westwards I heard the name of
Somiya mentioned. Other phonetic analogies prove that this
represents the direct derivative of the ancient local name which
is intended by the Chinese transcription of 'Sa-mo-joh,' and to the
evidence of the name there was soon added topographical con-
firmation.
Leaving the excavated area of the ancient city at its north-west
corner, I reached first the hamlet of Eskente half a mile to the
west. There I was told of a 'Döbe' or mound that exists near
the cemetery of Somiya. The latter place I found to be situated
only three-fourths of a mile further west, and to consist of some
thirty scattered dwellings. I went at once to the local Mazar,
which is surrounded by an extensive cemetery, and on asking for
the 'Döbe' was taken to a field adjoining its north-eastern corner.
A little low mound, rising scarcely five feet above the surrounding
ground, is respected by the villagers with a kind of superstitious
fear, though it shares in no orthodox way the sacred character
of the neighbouring Mazar and cemetery. I soon had the oldest
men of the village summoned to the spot, and in what they told me
of the mound we may, I think, yet trace the last lingering recollec-
tion of the ancient shrine that has left its name to Somiya. Shami
Sope, a withered old man of about ninety, had heard from his
father and grandfather, who had both died at a great age, that the
little mound had ever been respected by the folk of Somiya as a
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