Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 539 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0539	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

other hand, plenty of young Toghraks were growing up among the ruins, indicating the relatively
small depth of subsoil water. It was interesting to note at different points a number of big
Toghraks, declared by the villagers to be very old, which were still in vigorous life. There could
be no doubt that these trees were far older than the ruined dwellings. Their presence in this
area, after what I had seen at Malakalagan, distinctly suggested that the ground occupied by the
ruin of 'old Domoko' had previously, at no very distant period, been occupied by desert jungle.
And with this the fact that most of the dead fruit-trees seemed but of small size and modest
age curiously agreed.

The villagers accompanying me, as well as the people I subsequently examined on my Cause of
return to the oasis, all agreed in asserting that the gradually increasing difficulty of conducting abandon-
the irrigation water sufficiently far had caused the cultivation of the Domoko oasis to be shifted ment.
from this old area to the lands along the Khotan–Keriya road within the memory of living men.
Local tradition, in fact, maintained that in the case of Domoko such shifts of the cultivated
area, backwards and forwards, had occurred already five times and a sixth was to follow. What-
ever the basis of this tradition may be, the explanation given by the villagers as to the cause
of these shifts seemed sufficiently matter-of-fact. They attributed the abandonment of 'old
Domoko' not to any diminution of cultivation or of the water-supply available for it, but simply
to the fact that the particular area could no longer be reached by the water carried in the
irrigation canals.

The lands of Domoko, as far as I could ascertain, at all times depend for their water on Irrigation
the Domoko Yâr, fed mainly by springs. These may be supposed to bring again to the surface of Domoko
the water which the Sai absorbs higher up from the Nûra river and neighbouring mountain oasis.
streams. That the level or position in which springs of this kind appear is here subject to
considerable changes within short periods I had occasion to learn subsequently in the case of
Kara-kir, a small oasis just east of Domoko. There the fresh appearance of abundant springs
north of the Khotan–Keriya road some ten years before my visit had promptly been followed
by the creation of a new colony, with irrigable land sufficient for 700 to 800 households. With
such evidence before me it seemed possible to assume that the position of the Domoko villages
might have been similarly affected by earlier changes. But a gradual alteration of ground-levels
consequent on irrigation deposits also suggested itself as a possible explanation of the alleged
shifts. Nor did the villagers' assertion induce me to overlook the possibility of a diminution in
the available quantity of water being the true cause.

It was clear that a prolonged and detailed investigation of all local conditions, particularly Archæo-
those connected with the supply of irrigation water, would be needed in order to arrive at any logical
safe conclusion as to the cause or causes at work here. But, however that may be, I could interest of
feel no doubt as to the archæological interest of the ruins I saw here. Modern as they modern
are, they furnish the best illustration of the course of decay through which the 'köne-shahrs', ruins.
or Tatis, found along the western route to Khotan and on the outskirts of the oasis, must be
supposed to have passed. There, too, village sites were deserted owing to irrigation ceasing
from one cause or another, and as they were so much further away from the desert centre than
the terminal oases of Dandân-Uiliq or the Niya Site, the heavy drift-sand could not arrive in
time and in masses sufficiently large to give effective protection to the ruins.

For nearly three miles we traversed the desolate remains of these village homesteads, but Desert
it was not until about two miles further to the north-west that the region of true dunes was beyond
entered near a little wooden tomb known as Supuji Mazâr, and worshipped as the supposed abandoned
resting-place of a saintly associate of Lachin-atâ. The Mazâr of the latter was not in view, settlement.

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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

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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