Indian Antiquary Vol 62

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 101

MAY, 1933
ON ANCIENT TRACKS PAST THE PAMERS
Tâsh-kurghân, passes for a great distance, down to its junction with the Zarafshân or Yarkand river, through an almost continuous succession of deep-cut gorges very difficult even on foot and quite impracticable for laden transport, except during the short period of the winter while the river is hard frozen and its ice can be used as a passage. Already early in June 1906, before the summer flood from the melting glaciers and snow beds had come down, my experienced travel companion, Surveyor Rai Ram Singh, of the Survey of India, an excellent mountaineer, found it very difficult to make his way down as far as the point where the stream of the Tangi-tar valley joins the river from the north. But it was then still possible for me for a shorter distance to follow the river with laden transport down to the mouth of the Shindi defile, and then, by ascending this to its head on the Chichiklik plateau, to avoid the much steeper ascent to this over the Kök-moinak pass above Tagharma.
Over the Chichiklik plateau leads the regular caravan route to Sarîkol both from Kashgar and Yarkand, and here we find ourselves on ground for which interesting old accounts are available. The plateau known as the Chichiklik Maidan, lying at an elevation from about 14,500 to 14,800 feet, is situated between two great mountain spurs radiating southward from the Muz-tågh-atâ massif. Its position is such that it must be passed by all travelling from Sarîkol to the south of that great glacier-clad massif towards Yårkand and Kashgar, by whichever of the several passes they may traverse the more easterly of those spurs. The Chichiklik Maidân, owing to its great height and still more to its position exposed to bitter winds and heavy snowfall, is very trying ground for travellere at most seasons of the year. And to the troubles here often encountered by travellers we owe the interesting accounts which Hsüan-tsang and Benedict Goëz have left us of their experiences on the Chichiklik plateau at an interval of nearly a thousand years.
The narrative of the great Chinese pilgrim tells us that starting from the capital of Chieh-p'an-t'o, i.e., Tásh-kurghân, he reached an ancient hospice after travelling for two hundred li (or two daily marches) across " mountains and along precipices."21 The distance and the bearing alone would suffice to indicate that the two marches leading from the Taghdum. bâsh river up the Dershat gorge to the Chichiklik Maidån are meant. The position of the hospice is described as a level space of about a thousand Chinese acres" in the midst of the four mountains belonging to the eastern chain of the Ts’ung-ling mountains."
"In this region, both during summer and winter, there fall down piles of snow; the cold winds and icy storms rage. The ground, impregnated with salt, produces no crops ; there are no trees and nothing but wretched herbs. Even at the time of the great heat the wind and snow continue. Scarcely have travellers entered this area when they find them. selves surrounded by vapours and clouds. Merchant caravans, in coming and going, suffer severely in these difficult and dangerous spots." According to an old story' Hsuan-tsang heard, a great troop of merchants, with thousands of followers and camels, had once perished here by wind and snow. A saintly person of Chieh-p'an-t'o was said to have collected all the precious objects left behind by the doomed caravan, and with their help to have constructed on the spot a hospice, providing it with ample stores, and to have made pious endowments in neighbouring territories for the benefit of travellers.
On my first passage across the Chichiklik, on the 4th June 1906, I was able to locate the old hospice to which Hsüan-tsang's story relates and which probably he saw already in ruins.22 At the head of the Shindi valley, through which my approach then lay-on my third and fourth expeditions I reached the Chichiklik Maidan by the very troublesome ascent in the Dershat gorge-there extends an almost level plain, about two and a half miles from north
21 For translations of the narrative, se Julien, Mémoires, ii, p. 216; Wat ters, Yuan Chwang, ii, p. 285; also Beal, Si.yu-ki, ii, p. 303.
99 Cf. Serindia i, p. 77 sq.