National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 |
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XXXIX STRATEGIC VALUE OF MIRAN 451
when the former became impracticable through desiccation
about the fourth century of our era.
But a still more essential reason for the Tibetans to
garrison Miran probably lay in the fact that at this little
oasis debouch the two most direct routes leading from
Central Tibet and Lhasa across the high plateaus and
ranges of the Kun-lun to the easternmost part of the
Tarim Basin. Thus Miran must have been for them a
point d'aj5j5ui of strategic value. Once the Tibetan power
had disappeared from the north of those great inhos-
pitable mountain wastes, Miran must have rapidly sunk into
insignificance ; since for whatever traffic passed along the
ancient route from Khotan and the other southern oases
to Tun-huang and China during Uigur, early Muhammadan,
and Mongol times, Charklik offered a far better base.
Thus it is easy to understand why there is no mention
of Miran in Marco Polo, whose ` town of Lop ' undoubtedly
represents Charklik. No doubt, when the Venetian's
caravan passed the old fort on its way into the ` Desert
of Lop,' the crumbling walls which looked down upon it
were quite as silent and deserted as now. Once, late in
the evening when the icy gale was howling its wildest, a
large caravan numbering sixty or seventy camels, all laden
with brick tea from Tun-huang, made its way past our
desolate camp by the fort wall. The enterprising Kashgar
traders who owned them were eager to reach water and fuel,
and would not stop for more than a hasty greeting even
though we were the first people they had met for twenty-
three days past. So the whole tinkling train soon vanished
again in darkness like some phantom from an age long
gone by.
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