Indian Antiquary Vol 46

SR No.: 032538
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 508
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 129

JUNE 1917
A THIRD JOURNEY OF EXPLORATION IN CENTRAL ASIA
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latter have not yet been adequately surveyed. So it was scarcely surprising that the unexplored pass above Gafarbodo, which I chose as a short cut, proved nearly impossibie for our load-carrying men. It took fully eight hours' scrambling over huge masses of rock débris left behind by ancient glaciers, the worst I ever encountered in this region, to reach the pass at an elevation of close on 16,000 feet.
Then I pushed up rapidly in the open and relatively fertile valiey of Yasir.. It leads due north, flanked by mighty spurs which descend from the glacier-crowned main Hindukush range, and has always been an important route, as it forms the nearest connection between Oxus and Indug. I found myself thús on ground claiming distinct historical interest, ali there was a good deal even in things of the present to attest the strong Central Asian influence to which it has been subject since early times. In addition to much fine old wood. carving in dwellings and mosques, I was able to trace a ruined Stupa with relics of Buddhist times and the remains of several old forts, which tradition significantly enough connects with early Chinese invasions..
It was owing to an early and historically well attested Chinese conquest of these valleya from the uppermost Oxus, that I felt a special interest in the glacier pass of the Darkot by which we crossed on August 29 to the headwaters of the Yarkhun or Mastuj River. It had been the scene of that remarkable exploit by which a Chinese force, despatched in A.D. 749 from Kashgar against the Tibetans, had effected its entry into Yasin and Gilgit. Already in May, 1916, on my way up from Chitral, I had been able to ascertain how closely the topographical featuces of the Derkot Pase agreed with the exact account which the Chinese Annals of the T'ang dynasty have preserved for us of General Kao Hsien-chih's famous expedition. I had then succeeded in reaching the top of the pass, 15,400 feet above the sea, from the Mastuj side ; but no examination of the southern approach, which also figures in that account, had been possible.
In view of the very serious natural obstacles presented by the glaciers of the Darkot, Kao Hsien-chih's passage doserves to rank us & great military achievement, like his successful march across the whole width of the Pamirs, with a relatively large Chinese army, which proceded it, and to which I shall have occasion to refer further on. So it was & particularly gratifying find, when I discovered an old Tibetan inscription scratched into a large boulder on the track where it ascends by the side of a steep moraino flanking the southern glacier of the Darkot. It is very probable that it is a relic of that short-lived Tibetan advance on the uppermost Oxus which the T'ang Annals record towards the close of the second quarter of the eighth century, and which Kao Hsien-chih's adventurous expedition successfully stopped.
On the top of the Darkot I was met by Captain H. F. D. Stirling, of the 57th (Wilde's) Rifles, then bommanding the Chitral Scouts, with fresh transport from the Mastui side. Thus the descent over the big and much-crevassed northern glacier could be effected without undue risk to men or baggage. I have special reason to feel grateful for the most effective arrangements made by Captain Stirling as I pushed on eastwards after crossing the Darkot. Our sasiest route to the Chinese border would have led over the Baroghil saddle to Sarhad on the Oxus and thence across the Afghan Pamirs along the line I had followed in 1906. But apart from the fact that its use would have required the sperial permission of H.M. the