Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 54 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0054	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

CHAPTER II

SARĪKOL AND THE ROUTE TO KĀSHGAR

Section I.—THE GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND ETHNOGRAPHY
OF SARĪKOL

Meeting of
ethnic areas
near Kilik
Pass.

THE great alpine valley of the Tāghdumbāsh Pāmīr, to which I crossed on the 29th of June,
1900, over the Kilik Pass (15,800 feet above the sea, Fig. 8), was certain to prove interesting
ground from more than one point of view. At its head I was close to the point where the drainage
areas of the three great river systems of the Indus, the Oxus, and the Tārim meet, the
representatives as it were of the still greater ethnic areas of India, Īrān, and Turkestān. That
the view from the height of the Khushbēl Peak, my first survey station, simultaneously comprised
the confines of British India, Afghānistān, Russia, and China, was the best illustration of the
abiding influence which geographical facts must exercise over political developments even in
this desolate region. The wide expanse of level or easily undulating grazing land which the
same view disclosed at the bottom of the Tāghdumbāsh Valley, formed a striking contrast
to the rocky and almost impassable gorges of Hunza, and could not fail to impress me at
the outset with the advantages for communication which the Pāmirs offer, notwithstanding their
elevation and severe climate. But it was only in the light of subsequent observations, gathered
on my marches along the whole length of the Tāghdumbāsh Pāmīr from the Wakhjīr Pass and
the Oxus source down to Tāsh-kurghān, that I fully realized the historical interest of the route
which leads through this valley.

Position of
Tāghdum-
bāsh Pāmīr.

In order to explain the importance which may be claimed for the Tāghdumbāsh Pāmīr
as an early line of communication between Chinese Turkestān and the Oxus Valley, it is not
necessary to consider the historical topography of the whole Pāmīr region. Lord Curzon, in
his justly famous memoir on 'The Pamirs and the source of the Oxus', has furnished a lucid
and critical summary of that much-discussed subject, and to it the reader may be referred
with confidence for information on all general questions¹. An important geographical fact,
aptly recognized in Lord Curzon's analysis², helps to limit the scope of our inquiry. The
Tāghdumbāsh Pāmīr, though it shares the designation and also, in its upper portion, the main
physical characteristics of the other Pāmīrs, lies in a different watershed from the rest, and is
thus plainly marked as part of a different system. We find this physical division emphasized
at the present day by the political boundaries, which leave the Tāghdumbāsh the only Pāmīr
under Chinese jurisdiction, and we may safely attribute to it a determining influence upon the
earlier historical conditions of this mountain tract.

Importance
of Tāgh-
dumbāsh
route.

While all the other Pāmīrs are situated within the drainage area of the Oxus, the waters
of the Tāghdumbāsh Pāmīr discharge themselves eastwards into the great Turkestān Basin.

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