Discovering The Buried City Of Takla-makan.
The Buried City Of Takla-makan.
On
January 14th, 1896 I departed from the city of Khotan with a small
handpicked caravan consisting of 4 men, 3 splendid male camels and 2 donkeys.
For on this expedition I have decided to conduct an experiment to see how the resiliency
of the common donkey will hold up in a forced desert march. The men I have
engaged on this journey are my trusty servant and assistant Islam Bai and his
trusted acquaintance Kerim Janm. I also made the decision to employ two local
hunters named Ahmed Merghen and Kasim Akhun. Me and Islam Bai owe a great of
deal gratitude to these 2 men as they are the individuals who saved both mine
and Islam Bai’s lives during last years disastrous attempt to traverse the
Takl-Makan desert. But alas last years
expedition was not a complete failure, valuable lessons where learned. I made
the decision on this expedition to travel as lightly equipped as possible and
only carry items of absolute necessity to ensure that the camels will have as
light of a burden as physically possible. This also ensures that should I have
to abandon my caravan for any such reason the financial hit to my own pocket
shall be as minimal as possible.
The
plan was to explore the region previously traversed by Przhevalsky known as the
Masar-Tagh and afterwards to proceed eastward through the Gobi Desert down to the
banks of the Keriya-daria river where I shall explore and document the ruins of
an ancient city known as Takla-makan. From there our return journey shall take
us southward along the bank of the Keriya-daria through the town of Keriya and
back to the city of Khotan. For this journey I calculated that we would require
provisions for approximately 50 days of travel and the decision was made to
take along the hunters as a mere insurance policy should the provisions run low.
Unfortunately, after departing on our great journey I realized that I had
forgotten my Chinese passport back in the city Khotan, but I was however carrying
a great deal of Chinese currency which I could subsequently use in place of my
missing passport.
We departed from Khotan through the Ak-su-darvaseh gate
and journeyed to the the nearby village of Hazrett-i-Sultan where we were
received an welcomed in a most extraordinary fashion! A large red tent had been
set up and furnished in the traditional Chinese fashion. Here we met and
engaged with a variety of local dignitaries who offered us a great feast of
local delicacies and bade us good luck and safe travels on our journey. We then
traveled for 4 days through a barren region of scattered woods as far as
Islamabad, the last inhabited village of the region where then we crossed the
river onto the strong ice to reach the village of Tavek-kel. It was in this
town that after engaging in conversation with local merchants that I made the
decision to hired 2 young local guides who had previously visited the lost city
in search of both gold and treasure. Finally, on January 19th, 1896
we departed on our great expedition, we headed east into the heart of the
Takl-makan desert, measuring the sand dunes as we went. To not overwork the
pack animals, I made the decision to only march for 5-6 hours an hour a day.
Over the next few days we developed an efficient form of
camp set up. I had quickly come to realise that if one was to dig near a live
tamarisk or poplar tee the chances of finding potable fresh water where quite
high. Thus, upon reaching our 5-6-hour
travel limit, two men would immediately be tasked with digging a well of around
6-7 feet deep, while an additional two men would be tasked with the digging up
of tamarisk roots to provide us with fuel for the evenings fire. While all this
was going Islam Bai would begin preparing my dinner for the evening and Kerim
Jab would be tasked with the well being of the pack animals. I would assume a
supervisory position and in the process, take down the notes and details of the
days journey. We carried on in this fashion until the 22nd of
January 1896, when we arrive near a strip of dead forest located along the dried-up
bank of Keriya-daria river. The guides at this point become quite excited and
informed me that we where not to far off from the lost city! I immediately
dispatched the two guides to locate the ruins of the city and ordered the rest
of the men to set up camp within the heart of the dead forest.
The guides returned the very next day with great news,
they had located the city! I immediately set work to work gathering the necessary
supplies for the exploration of an ancient city and on January 24th,
1896 while riding bareback upon my majestic camel I entered the once great city
with my men following shortly behind on foot carrying spades and shovels. This
city was unlike any ruined site I have ever seen in East Turkestan! Typically
ruins of towns and villages consist of sundried or burned clay type of
dwellings but this city Talka-makan was made of wood! Poplar to be exact, there
was not a single stone or clay house in sight. The shape of these dwellings was
also quite particular, they were laid out in a square pattern enclosed by another
square that acted as some sort of gate or fence like structure. Each dwelling
was in a quite fragile and the walls would shatter like glass when stuck. There
where hundreds of such dwellings that covered the entirety of the site approximately
2 to 2 and half miles in diameter. Unfortunately, I was not able to make out
the ground plan of the city due to sheer volume of sand that covered every inch
of the once great settlement. I quickly came to realize that excavating in dry
sand is desperate work, as fast as you dig it out more sand fills it place. It was
almost impossible! But none the less I made a number of great discoveries within
the city.
Inside
one of the buildings which the men called Bud-khaneh, (the temple of Buddha) I discovered
many magnificent paintings on the walls. These paintings represented kneeling female
figures clasping there hands together as if in prayer. They were superimposed
on a layer of plaster that had been placed atop a bundle of kamish reeds that
had been bound together and then fasten to the wall. Their hair was twisted in
a black knot on the top of the head and the eyebrows were traced in a continuous
line, with a mark located above the root of the nose just like modern customary
Hindus of today. I also found paintings of men
with black beards and mustaches in whom the Aryan type was clearly
distinguishable at the first glance much in the same manner as the modern Persians.
Beside them were figures of dogs, horses and boats rocking upon the waves of a
great water source! Quite A odd paradox in the heart of a dry arid desert.
But alas I could not recover any of the majestic
paintings! The paintings and plaster peeled off at the slightest touch this forced
me to take a series of sketches, all the while taking notes on the dimensions
and colours. While I busied my self with my drawings my men set to work
excavating and uncovered unearthed a number of gypsum figures, 4 to 8 inches
tall. I believe that these figures represent an image of the Buddha seated against
a background of lotus leaves or possibly a wreath of flames. While we busied
our selves with the exploration of the city the camels and donkeys helped them
selves to the dried reed walls of various structures.
As we explored this once great city I began to ask my
self, what period is this city from? When was it abandoned? Who lived here and
what language did they speak? While these questions remain unanswered for the foreseeable
future I was how ever due to my ingenious detective work quickly able to assign
a possible date range to this once great city. You see this city is unlike any that has ever
existed among the Turki races who now currently inhabit East Turkestan. The
level of sophistication represented by this city is simple too high. There is
also no doubt in my mind that this city is of Buddhist origin. As a result, it must be older that the Arab
invasion that was led by Kuteybeh Ibn Muslim in the beginning of the 8th
century. All these features combined led
me to conclude that this city was established approximately 1500 years ago by a
people who where Buddhists and of the Aryan race.
Source
Hedin, Sven Anders, and J. T. Bealby. 1899. Through Asia. New York and London: Harper and Bros. This book is Sven Hedin’s first hand account of what is known as his first large expedition throughout Central Asia. The chapter used for this entry as well as the source of the two pictures is chapter 63, The
Buried City Of Takla-makan.
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