Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist pilgrims : from China to India (400 A.D. and 518 A.D.) / translated from Chinese by Samuel Beal.

  • Faxian
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist pilgrims : from China to India (400 A.D. and 518 A.D.) / translated from Chinese by Samuel Beal. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    following: “From Skardo to Rongdo, and from Rongda to Makpou-i-shang-rong, for upwards of 100 miles, the Indus sweeps sullen and dark througli a mighty gorge in the mountains, which, for wild sublimity, is perhaps unequalled. E-ongdo means the country of defiles ... Between these points the Indus raves from side to side of the gloomy chasm，foaming and chafing with un- governable fury. Yet even in these inaccessible places has daring and ingenious man triumphed over oppo- sing Nature. The yawning abyss is spanned by frail rope bridges and the narrow ledges of rock are con- nected by ladders to form a giddy pathway overliang- ing the seething caldron below ” (p. 89). “ The Gilgit river is a mighty stream, perhaps not inferior to any of the mountain tributaries. From the junction of this river with the Indus, tlie course is S.W. and the dis- tance to Attok 300 miles ’’ (p. 80). On the whole, I am tolerably satisfied that Fah-Hian travelled about W.S.W. from Kartchou, and then S.W. to the Gfilgit river (which lie calls the Sintou), over which, lie passed by one of the frail bridges referred to above, into ]STor- thern India. Had he really passed over the Indus proper, lie must have crossed it twice (in Klaproth’s map il- lustrating his route, lie is made to pass it four times) before lie could have reached Oudyana, of which we should doubtless have been apprised; his course, more- over, would in that case have been S.E. instead of west from Kartchou, which, we cannot think possible.