File:Ruins of desert Cathay - personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China (1912) (14596419380).jpg

Identifier: ruinsofdesertcat01stei (find matches)
Title: Ruins of desert Cathay : personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Stein, Aurel, Sir, 1862-1943 Archaeological Survey of India
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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with my former work and travels in this region, was able
to explain quickly and clearly what I stated about the
objects of my renewed visit. The plates of my Ancient
Khotan were of great help in demonstrating the results
of my former labours ; and though the Amban modestly
refused to put himself in the same category with so learned
a man as Pan Ta-jen, it was easy to see from his questions
that his historical sense was equally keen.
But what pleased me even more was Ch'ê Ta-jên's
evident interest in matters geographical. I badly needed
his help for the renewal of my explorations in the Kun-lun
range south of Khotan. Our surveys of 1900 had left
interesting problems unsolved as to the uppermost course
of the Yurung-kash River far away to the east and of the
glacier sources of its main feeders from the south. To
force our way up those difficult gorges, which form the only
approach to the true head-waters of the great river, was a
task I had long kept before my eyes. Without strict
orders from the Amban the passive resistance of the wily

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52. ' HAJI ' AKHUN BEG, MY HOST AT KHOTAN.


CH.XIV. AT THE YA-MÊN OF KHOTAN 173

hill-men of Karanghu-tagh was sure to baffle all efforts in
that direction. With so much wholly unexplored ground
before us and the certainty of exceptional physical diffi-
culties to be encountered, it was very reassuring that Ch'ê
Ta-jên quickly grasped my aims and the way in which I
wished to attempt their realization. Though he had come
to Khotan only a few months before, his acquaintance with
the general topography of the district and those adjoining
it eastward seemed surprisingly good. He followed my
explanations on the map of our previous surveys without
any difficulty and readily promised all help in his power.
When in the afternoon, accompanied by Chiang-ssŭ-yeh,
I returned the Amban's visit at the familiar Ya-men, I was
received not only with a tasteful collation and all possible
marks of honour, but with the information that all the
various official orders needed to assure effective assistance
were already drafted and ready for my secretary's perusal.

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