Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/241

 228 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [August, 1875. cm tribes who brought to king Yndhish- thira the paipUika gold the K lias a 3 are expressly mentioned ; and not only are the Kliasas frequently alluded to in the Kas- mirian chronicle Bdja Taraiujim, which locates them in the neighbourhood of the city of K&s- mir,* but they are even known at the present day under the name of Khasiyas, as a people speaking one of the Indian languages, and dwelling on the borders of Tibet.f In the passage relating to the tribute brought to the king by the K h a s a s and other northern tribes. the ~Muhiihhth'ata also speaks of "sweet honey made from the flowers of Hiinavat," and of •' fine black c h a m a r a s, and others that were white and brilliant as the moon." Now Eima- v a 1 13 only another name for the Himalaya, and chamara is the name of the fans or fly- flaps which in India kings only are allowed to nse, and which are made from the tail of the T a k or Tibetan 01 (Bos (jrimniene).^ Tibet, and especially Eastern or Chinese Tibet, has for a long time been a terra inco . We owe the best information of recent date respecting tins country to the Pandits, or learned Bruhmaus, who were commissioned by the British Government to explore Eastern Tibet, and passed themselves off in that country as Bisahiri merchants. The first expedition undertaken by them was in 1865-6, and in tbo coarse of it one of the Pandits reached L a s a a, the capital of Eastern Tibet, and the course of the Brahmaputra was carefullyobserved.§The second lition, which took place in 1867 t placed it beyond a doubt that the Indus has near its source, north of the Himalaya, an eae tributary, and that this tributary, named by the Tiltetans Singh-gi-Chu or Singh -gi- Khaniba, is is fact the true Indus ; while the other branch, till then wrongly considered the principal one, is much smaller than the eastern one, and is called by the natives Garjung- C h u. 1 1 D urin g this expedition, the Pand it who had been at L a s s a fell in at T h o k - J a 1 u n g, an important gold-field in the province of N ari " Troyer'a trausl. II. 821 ff. ; Neumann. Qtschichte dea rnvlischen Reirhts in Asitn {Leipzig, l&j, ), I. 209 ; Lassen Ind. Alt. I. 1020; Hue. Souvonwi d'ua Km/age d Tartaric, Ac. 201-06,311 ,881 t EodJmao in . tang, (1848) XVII. 546- Lassen, hid. Alt. I. 24, 07. 450, 478-74, K-lfi, 1020-21. t^iian, de Not. An. XV. 14; cynf. Beraier, VovCUt (Amst. 1899}, II. 808. * v § Montgonierie, Report of a Snute Survey, in Joicr i'.. Uw $o?. flS&Sj v u l. XXXVIII. pp. 129-21 J. Khorsum, with a large encampment of Ti- betan miners, and took the opportunity to gain information relative to the working of mines. In the third expedition, in 1868, another Pandit pushed on as far as Ru d ok, at the north-west extremity of Chinese Tibet, on the frontier of L a d a k, and on his way back from Rudok visited the gold fields of Thok-Nianmo, Thok- Sarlung.Tand Thok-Jalnng, The map which accompanies Major Montgomerie's narra- tive of the journeys of the Pandits gives in addition the gold-fields of Thok-Munnak, Thok-Ragyok, Thok-Raguug, and Thok-Dalung, situate in the same district. Now we know from the Tibetan annals that the S a r t h o 1* or 'gold-country,' with which these expeditions of discovery have made ns more familiar, already bore this characteristic name in the tenth century of our era. And we will now endeavour to prove that fifteen hundred years before the tenth century this country was the scene of the identical mining operations that are witnessed there at the present day — or, in other words, that the gold-digging ants of anti- quity are no other than the Tibetan miners with whom the Pandits have made us acquainted. In the first place the features of the country agree with the descriptions of tho ancient writers. Herodotus places the gold-digging ants in a desert (tpi^l), and S t r a b o makes them live on a mountain plateau (upoir*8u,v) gl stadia, or from seventy to eighty geographical miles.t in circumference. This description very fairly corresponds with the lofty plateau of Tibet, containing the gold-fields of Nari- Khorsum. The Pandits who visited the country in 1 < 7 found that eastward ofGarthokJit formed a vast table-land, arid and desolate,§ enlled,frorn the great number of antelopes found i C h o j o t o 1, or 4 plain of antelopes.'H " No signs of a path or of either houses or tents were to be seen, and the party became anxious as to fresh water.— No palatable water could bo got till they found a glacier and melted its ice."|| The single Pandit who, in spite of these difficulties, sner II Jour. R. Oeot/. Soc. vol. XXXIX. pp. 146-187. J fro* i c XIV. 210 ; Jour. XXXVIII. 171. • Bar is the Tibetan i hi. t Octiihiu gii-Ki-.tpliiru! mil' i degree (?).— Kk I Garth ok is situated on the banks of the Gun C h u. Tho second part if i tu name, T h o k or T h o g, implies great elevation. Schlagintweit-SakuuJuaeki, Reisen m. bidden md Hochotim, 111.54. § Jlontgomerio, in Jour, R. Qeog. Soc.XXXIX. 149, 150. Ibid.