Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 514 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0514	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

establishment in it of a fortified post, for the accommodation of a small Chinese garrison, and
perhaps of some local authority which the former was to support and control, would in that case
have probably followed as a matter of course. Or if the tract remained deserted, as Hsüan-tsang
saw it in 645 A.D., we should have to recognize in the Endere fort a small stronghold established
on the great route from China to Khotan for the express purpose of assuring its safety.

Itinerary of
T'ang
Annals
from Sha-
chou to
Khotan.
It seems difficult to decide between the two alternatives thus presented. The T'ang Annals
furnish us, indeed, with an itinerary for the old route leading from Sha-chou to Khotan as it
existed during this period of Chinese supremacy¹³. But though M. Chavannes' notes on it clearly
show that the route passed through Chü-mo (Tsiu-mo) or Charchan, where a Chinese garrison is
specially mentioned, it is impossible to identify with certainty any of the stages recorded on it
further west until we get relatively close to Khotan, as the distances between them are indicated
only in one instance¹⁴. On the whole, I am inclined to favour the first supposition, in view of the
analogy offered for it by the case of Chü-mo (Tsiu-mo) or Charchan, which, though wholly deserted
in Hsüan-tsang's day, was again inhabited and the seat of a Chinese garrison in T'ang times¹⁵.

Marco Polo
on route
from Pein to
Charchan.
Marco Polo's description, too, 'of the Province of Charchan' would agree with the
assumption that the route west of Charchan was not altogether devoid of settlements even as
late as the thirteenth century. After referring to the numerous towns and villages of 'Charchan',
he tells us : 'The whole of the Province is sandy, and so is the road all the way from Pein,
and much of the water that you find is bitter and bad. However, at some places you do find
fresh and sweet water¹⁶.' This account of the route agrees accurately with the conditions now
met with between Niya and Charchan. Yet in the passage immediately following the Venetian
tells us how 'when an army passes through the land, the people escape with their wives, children,
and cattle a distance of two or three days' journey into the sandy waste; and, knowing the
spots where water is to be had, they are able to live there, and to keep their cattle alive,
while it is impossible to discover them'. It seems to me clear that Marco Polo alludes here
to the several river courses which, after flowing north of the Niya-Charchan route, lose themselves
in the desert. The jungle belt of their terminal areas, no doubt, offered then, as it would
offer now, safe places of refuge to any small settlements established along the route southwards.

Chrono-
logical
connexion
between
Endere fort
and site
The presumption that the Endere fort had by its side a cultivated area with a settled
population would, of course, be definitely established if it were proved that the débris-strewn
area to the north-west of it, together with the Stūpa, dated from the same epoch. Unfor-
tunately, conclusive evidence is not at present available on this point. No coins were found

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