Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/360

Rh between 79° and 82°, conterminous with the Himalayan provinces of British India; and Mang-yul or Dokthol, between 82° and 87°, conterminous with western Nepal. The last two are under the government of Lhása. Western Nári is bounded on the south by that portion of the Himalayan chain of snow-peaks which stretches in almost a direct line north-west from the Manasarowar Lake region to the Nanga Parbat peak (26,620 feet), at first facing the plains of the Punjab, then passing north of Kashmir. The provinces appertaining to Kashmir have already been described in the article (q.v.). The Karakoram chain, although its principal pass is 18,500 feet above sea-level, nowhere rises very high above the tableland. It constitutes a portion of the water-parting between India and Turkestan, separating the Lingzi-tang plateau, the highest in all Tibet, from the broad and open valley of Cháng-chenmo; it has been traced eastwards to the meridian of 82°, but no farther.

Khorsum is mainly cháng-táng, but has some upland cultivation round the capital, Rudok, and in the Gartang valley, and lowland cultivation in the rong of the great plateau (120 miles long by 15 to 60 broad) of Guge or Hundes, the upper basin of the Sutlej. In this province lie, within the small area of a square degree, the sources of four great rivers—the Indus, the Yaro-tsanpo, the Sutlej, and the Karnali—the sacred lakes of Manasarowar and Rakas Tal, 15,300 feet above the sea and each 50 miles in circumference, and two famous mountains, Nimo Namling (25,360 feet) to the south, believed by the Tibetans to be their highest mountain, and to the north the sacred Kailas Gangri (21,830 feet), the Kantysee of the lamas survey. From the Kailas Gangri a chain of hills stretches to the north-west, separating the upper basins of the Sutlej and the Indus; to the north of that another chain, running east and west, culminates in the Aling Gangri peaks (24,000 feet) and separates the Indus basin from the Pangong Lake (100 miles long, from 3 to 7 broad, and 14,000 feet in altitude), near which Rudok is situated. Roads pass from Ladak to Lhása through the plains of Rawang and Sarthol, the gold-fields of Thok Jalung and Thok Daurakpa, and the Hor country.

Mang-yul, or Dokthol, contains the upper basins of the Yaro-tsanpo—here known as the Nári-chu—and its principal affluents, the Cha-chu and the Charta-tsanpo. The province is wholly Cháng-táng and its population nomadic, the capital, Sarka Jong, being merely a good-sized village.

The common border of the provinces of Nári and Tsáng falls nearly on the 87th meridian. Here the Cháng-táng recedes from the Himalayas, and its southern scarp, trending north-east, forms the upper fringe of tracts appertaining to U-tsáng that are capable of producing a single crop annually. This region constitutes the most important portion of the basin of the Yaro-tsanpo, for it contains the chief towns and monasteries of the settled Bod-pas. Cultivation commences on a slight scale where the river enters Tsáng on the west. The first town of any importance is Junglache (13,600 feet), on the right bank, with a large monastery. Thence goods may be taken down the river for some distance by boats of leather over a wooden framework, light enough to be carried back overland. Eighty-five miles lower down, also on the right bank, are the city of Shigatze or Digarchi (12,000 feet) and the great monastery of Tashilunpo (Teshu-Lumbo), the residence of the "tashi lama," one of two spiritual incarnations of equal rank, of which the other, the "dalai lama," resides at Lhasa; the monastery contains 3500 lamas. Between Junglache and Shigatze the river receives the Raka-tsanpo from the cháng-táng on its left, and the Sákya-Jong-chu from that on its right. The latter descends from the Himalayan water-parting past the monastery of Sákya (13,900 feet), which is surrounded by cultivation and governed by a chief lama called the "sákya-gángma," who is held in considerable reverence as an avatar. At Shigatze the Yaro-tsanpo receives the Pena-Nyang-chu from a valley to the south-east which contains the towns of Pena-jong and Gyangtse-jong (13,000 feet), and numerous monasteries and villages, and through which passes the main road from Bhutan to Shigatze travelled by Bogle in 1774. A little lower down it receives from the left the Shiang-chu, which rises in the Ninchen-thangla range and flows past the town of Namling (12,200 feet, 200 houses), where sheep are employed as baggage animals, the country being too cold for donkeys and the roads too stony for yaks. Then at Shangpa (Jagsa) it receives from the right the Rong-chu from the famous Yamdok-tso or Scorpion Lake to the south-east. This lake is 120 miles in circumference, 13,800 feet above the sea, and is surrounded by villages and monasteries; its scorpion claws embrace a peninsula which rises above 16,000 feet, is grass-grown to its summit, and embosoms the Damo-tso, a sacred lake, 24 miles round and 500 feet above the main lake, which is expected some day to rise and destroy all animal life by a flood. Here the roads from India via Bhutan and from Shigatze to Lhása converge, and after crossing the Khamba-lá (15,000 feet) strike the Yaro-tsanpo at Chiak-jam-chori ( = "the iron bridge at the rocky bank"). The river in its course from Shangpa down to this point is unnavigable, passing over rapids between precipitous hills; there is no road on either bank. A little below the bridge it receives from the left the Ki-chu, the river of (q.v.), the chief city of Bodland. Below the junction of the Ki-chu the Yaro-tsanpo continues its eastward course through a broad and well-peopled valley. It is crossed at Chetang by a ferry on the road from Lhása to Tawang in Bhutan via the Yarlung-chu valley (right bank), which is said to be the pleasantest and most populous in Tibet; fruits grow in profusion at its lower extremity and the hills are forest-clad. At Chetang the river is 350 yards broad, 20 feet deep, and 11,000 feet above the sea, and has a sluggish current. On crossing the meridian of 92° 30′ E. it passes out of the province of U into that of Khám and enters its eastern basin. After traversing the Eastern Kongbo (Khombo) district, it trends north-east for 100—miles in general parallel with the contiguous Kongbo Yar ranges and the distant Ninchen-thangla—and on reaching 94° turns abruptly to the south. Its course has been explored 20 miles below the bend, to Gya-la-Sindong (8000 feet), but no farther. The basin is bounded on the north and east by the continuous plateaus of Lharugo, Arig, Pemba and Lhojong, Pashu, Dainsi, and Nagong, and on the south by the inner Himalayan water-parting. Numerous tributaries join the river from both sides, but little is known of them. Those from Kongbo, Lharugo, and Arig are said to unite and join it a little above Gya-la-Sindong, and one from Nagong a little below. This last rises near the Ata-Gang-lá, a pass over the Himalayas between the Nagong plateau and the Zayul district, and is said to be on the direct road from Lhása to Zayul via Gya-la-Sindong; it is probably joined by the Kenpu river of the lamas' survey, which rises in the southern scarp of the Pemba-Lhojong plateau and probably flows through the Potod and Pomed districts of Khám. The independent Lhoyul country lies to the south of the Nagong-chu (lit. "black water"). The region is generally of a comparatively low elevation, is said to have much more of rong than of cháng-táng, and probably contains much more forest and luxuriant vegetation than any other part of Tibet north of the Himalayas.

The lower course of the Yaro-tsanpo has long been a matter of controversy between English and French geographers: the former