Indian Antiquary Vol 46

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 235

OCTOBER, 1917]
THIRD JOURNEY OF EXPLORATION IN CENTRAL ASIA
A THIRD JOURNEY OF EXPLORATION IN CENTRAL ASIA, 1913-16. BY SIR AUREL STEIN, K.C.LE., D.LITT.
221
(Continued from p. 204.)
ON
N February 16, I left Turfan for the Kuruk-tagh, and having secured from Singer Abdur Rahim's youngest brother as guide, examined several localities in the mountains westwards, such as Po-ch'êng-tzu and Shindi, where traces of earlier occupation were reported. The succession of remarkably rugged ranges and deeply eroded valleys, through which we had to thread our way, contrasted strikingly with the appearance of worn-down uplands presented by most of the Kuruk-tagh eastwards. I was able to map here a considerable extent of ground which had remained unsurveyed. Apart from another brother of Abdur Rahim, who was grazing his flocks of sheep in the gorge of Shindi, and a solitary Turki, who was taking supplies to a spot where a few Chinamen were said to dig for lead, we met no one. The absence of springs or wells precludes the regular use of what scanty grazing is to be found in the higher valleys. Yet in the Han Annals this westernmost portion of the Kuruk-tagh is referred to as a sporadically inhabited region under a separate chief.
Over absolutely barren gravel wastes I then made my way south-eastwards to the salt spring of Yardang-bulak, recte Dolan-achchik, at the extreme foot of the Kuruk-tagh, where wild camels were encountered in plenty. Taking my ice-supply from there, I proceeded by the second week of March into the waterless desert south, and mapped there the dried-up ancient river-bed, which once had carried the water of the Konche-darya to the Lou-lan sites, over the last portion of its course left unsurveyed last year. The season of sand-storms had now set in, and their icy blasts made our work here very trying. It was under these conditions, fitly recalling the previous year's experience at the Lou-lan cemeteries, that I explored two ancient burial-grounds of small size, which were found on clay terraces rising above the wind-eroded plain. The finds closely agreed with those which the graves, searched on the fortified mesha in the extreme north-east of Lou-lan, had yielded. There could be no doubt that the people buried here had belonged to the autochthonous population of hunters and herdsmen living along the 'Dry River' until the tract became finally desiccated in the fourth century A.D. The objects in these graves and the clothes of the dead strikingly illustrated how wide apart in civilization and modes of daily life these semi-nomadic Lou-lan people were from the Chinese frequenting the ancient high-road which passed by the dried-up river.
I had been eagerly looking out along the foot of the Kuruk-tagh for traces of Afrazgul, who was overdue, and had taken the precaution to leave messages for him under cairns. So it was a great relief when, the day after my return to Yardang-bulak, he safely rejoined me with his three plucky Turki companions, including doughty Hassan Akhun, my camel factotum, and Abdul Malik, a fourth hardy brother from Singer. Considering the truly forbidding nature of the ground hey had to traverse, and the length of the strain put on our brave camels, I had reason to feel anxious about the safety of the party. Now I was cheered by the completeness with which Afrazgul had carried through the programme I had laid down for him. Having gained Altmish-bulak by the most direct route and taken his supply of ice there, he had explored certain ancient remains in the extreme north-east of the once watered Lou-lan area, for the examination of which I had been unable to spare time on lastyear's march.