Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 529 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0529	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

character of the remains indicated a relatively large but roughly-built dwelling. The very fact
of its survival suggested that what structures may have once existed near by must have been
of a still less substantial type.

It seems to me very significant that here, too, just as in all the structures of the ruined Use of
quadrangle, only Toghrak was used for the timber-work. This species of wild poplar grows Toghrak
plentifully, as we have seen, in the jungles of all the rivers which lose themselves in the sand; timber.
it manages to survive even in desert tracts which surface water never reaches now. But its
twisted knotty trunks and branches by no means furnish as good a building material as the
Terek or white poplar, the Jigda, and other trees planted in cultivated areas. At Dandān-
Uiliq, at the Niya and Endere Sites, only timber of these latter trees appears to have been
used for the framework of houses, and this accordingly bore there a far more finished look
than at Kara-dong. At those other old sites the dead trunks of Terek and other trees depending
on systematic irrigation formed a conspicuous feature. But around Kara-dong I looked for
them in vain. Dead trees rising from between the sand-dunes were plentiful on the ground
close to the east and south of the main ruin, but they were all old Toghraks or tamarisks,
such as are still found growing luxuriantly in a broad belt west of the relatively recent river-
bed of Toldāma. I think it justifiable to conclude from this observation that cultivation could
not have existed to any considerable extent in the vicinity of the Kara-dong site at the period
from which its buildings date.

What then can have been the purpose of the great ruined quadrangle, situated, as it Purpose
evidently was, in the forest land between the desert and the river, and contrasting so strikingly of ruined
by its size with the modest character and limited extent of the other remains? Keeping in quadrangle.
view the position and the peculiar plan of the structure, I think the suggestion may be hazarded
that we have here the ruin of an ancient 'Langar' or roadside Saraï, built primarily to afford
accommodation for a large number of people, yet capable of defence, too, if the need should
arise. Such a suggestion of course presupposes traffic along the Keriya Daryā at an early
period, and for the existence of such, I believe, adequate historical and topographical evidence
can be adduced.

Mirzā Haidar, when speaking of the rivers which empty their waters into the great lake Historical
of the Turkestān desert, i. e. the Lop-Nor, distinctly mentions the Keriya Daryā along with indications
'the river of Yárkand, the Ak-Kásh (i. e. the Yurung-kāsh), and the Kára-Kásh' and 'the of Keriya
Chárchan'⁹. Seeing how thoroughly well acquainted from personal experience the Moghul river route.
historian was with the Khotan region, and how exact his description of it has proved to be,
it seems very unlikely that he would have made this statement unless the Keriya river was
still in his days believed to reach the Tārim. Also in the Turki legendary of Mahmūd Karam
Kābulī, which purports to relate events of the twelfth century A.D., a force of Muhammadan
warriors, coming from the conquest of Ak-su, is described as attacking the infidels in the vicinity
of Keriya by the route of the Keriya river¹⁰.

Whatever the historical value of this tradition may be, M. Grenard was fully justified in Project of
quoting it in connexion with the plan which an energetic Amban of Keriya formed in 1893 for re-opening

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ