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0549 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / 549 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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painting closely resembling that of the 'Thousand Buddhas,'
though big gaps on the plastered wall showed where the
best panels had been cut out to become treasures of the
Berlin Ethnographic Museum. How much greater would
be the chance for the survival of these art remains *in situ* if
only Turfan still held such a pious image-loving population
as Tun-huang ?

When I subsequently transferred my headquarters to
Turfan, the chief modern town of the district, I could see
*en route* plentiful evidence of the severe struggle for water
which now proceeds on this ground. Most of the barren
steppe we crossed below the gravel Sai of the outer range
was being overrun by big dunes. Yet the Karez, in
spite of the fact that their pit mouths are exposed to the
smothering drift sand, are pushed right across this broad
zone over a stretch of eight miles to the head wells in order
to secure water for part of the Turfan oasis. Everywhere
we saw abandoned Karez which had run dry or collapsed
and been replaced by others. The total number of pits on
a single Karez was said to reach 200 in some cases, while
the cost might rise to over £300. The level of subsoil
water was declared to have sunk within recent times,
and consequently the cultivation dependent on Karez
had shifted farther south. The result was visible in the
numerous abandoned farms we passed when approaching
the old canal-irrigated part of the oasis.

Only exceptional fertility assured by climate and soil
could account for so expensive a system of cultivation, and
of that there was ample proof in the brisk trade which kept
the Turfan Bazars ever filled with produce and throngs.
Cotton, which is eagerly bought up and exported to the
Siberian railway *via* Urumchi and Tarbagatai, is, no doubt,
the chief factor of Turfan commercial prosperity. But also
for all surplus produce in food-stuffs and fruit there is a
convenient market in Urumchi, the provincial capital, and
the other large settlements north of the T'ien-shan. The
resulting return trade in imports from the Russian side
is most striking. Nowhere in the Tarim Basin or in
Kan-su had I seen 'Europe' goods so widely brought into
use. What with kerosene lamps, chintz-covered ceilings,