272
Socotra, makes that an interesting possibility; but altogether the scene on the reliefs is more strongly suggestive of Dhofar, the Sachalites of the Periplus. (See also pp. 120, 141-2, and 218.)
See Ptolemy, I, 11-12, VI, 13; — De Guignes, Sur les liaisons et le commerce des Romains avec les Tartares et les Chinois : in Memoir es de r Academie Roy ale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Vol. xxxii (1798) pp. 355-69; — Remusat, Remarques sur /’ extension de /’ Empire Chinois du cote de l' accident (1825) ;— Lassen, I, 13-14, 11,519-660; — Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither -, — Stein, Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan ; — Gen. M. R. Haig, The Indus Delta Country-, — Richthofen, China, Vol. I; — Vincent, II, 573-618; — Merzbacher, The Central Tian-Shan Moun- tains -, — Bonin, Grandes votes commercials de ! Asie Centrale; — Manifold, Recent Exploration and Economic Development in Central and Western China (with map) in Geographical Journal, xxiii, 281-312, Mar. 1904; — Geil, The Great Wall of China-, — Keane, Asia, I, chap. v. Col. Al. S. Bell, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1890, de- scribes his journey of 1887 along the entire Central Asian trade- route between Kashgar and Peking.
64. To Damirica by way of the Ganges. — This was the route across the Tibetan plateau, starting in the same direction as the Turkestan routes, from Singanfu to Lanchowfu; branching here, it led to Siningfu, thence to Koko Nor, and southwestward, by Lhasa and the Chumbi Vale to Sikkim and the Ganges. The route from Lhasa by the lower Brahmaputra was little used, owing to the savage tribes inhabiting it. There were numerous other passages into India; as, for instance, a frequented route by the Arun River through Nepal to the Ganges, or by following the upper Brahmaputra to the sacred peak of Kailas and the source of the Sutlej, or continuing through Gartok to the upper Indus. But natural conditions, as stated in § 66 of the Periplus itself, made these routes through Western Tibet almost impracticable for commerce.
This was the route which later became the great highway of Buddhist pilgrim-travel between Mongolia and Lhasa. It is best described by one of the few white men who have ever traversed it: Hue, Recollections of a Journey through Tartary, Thibet and China during
1844-46.
The Chinese Buddhist monk Fa-Hien spent two years in ‘‘the country of Tamalipti, the capital of which is a seaport . . . after this he embarked in a large merchant-vessel, and went floating over the sea to the southwest. It was the beginning of winter and the wind
