Nowhere Do They Mention
Pein, Or Pima, For It Appears To Be Kiria Itself, Which Is The Only Real
Town Between Khotan And The Lobnor.
Grenard says in a note (p. 54, vol.
ii.):
"Pi-mo (Keria) recalls the Tibetan bye-ma, which is pronounced
Pema, or Tchema, and which means sand. Such is perhaps also the
origin of Pialma, a village near Khotan, and of the old name of
Charchan, Tche-mo-to-na, of which the two last syllables would represent
grong (pronounce tong = town), or kr'om (t'om = bazaar). Now, not
only would this etymology be justified because these three places are
indeed surrounded with sand remarkably deep, but as they were the first
three important places with which the Tibetans met coming into the desert
of Gobi, either by the route of Gurgutluk and of Polor, or by Karakoram
and Sandju, or by Tsadam, and they had thus as good a pretext to call them
'towns of sand' as the Chinese had to give to T'un-hwang the name of
Shachau, viz. City of Sand. Kiria is called Ou-mi, under the Han, and
the name of Pi-mo is found for the first time in Hiuen Tsang, that is to
say, before the Tibetan invasions of the 8th century. It is not possible
to admit that the incursion of the Tu-ku-hun in the 5th century could be
the cause of this change of name. The hypothesis remains that Pi-mo was
really the ancient name forced by the first Tibetan invaders spoken of by
legend, that Ou-mi was either another name of the town, or a fancy name
invented by the Chinese, like Yu-t'ien for Khotan, Su-lo for Kashgar...."
Sir T. D. Forsyth (J. R. G. S., XLVII., 1877, p. 3) writes: "I should
say that Peim or Pima must be identical with Kiria." - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - The Jasper and Chalcedony of our author are probably only
varieties of the semi-precious mineral called by us popularly Jade, by
the Chinese Yue, by the Eastern Turks Kash, by the Persians Yashm,
which last is no doubt the same word with [Greek: iaspis], and therefore
with Jasper. The Greek Jaspis was in reality, according to Mr. King, a
green Chalcedony.
The Jade of Turkestan is largely derived from water-rolled boulders fished
up by divers in the rivers of Khotan, but it is also got from mines in the
valley of the Karakash River. "Some of the Jade," says Timkowski, "is as
white as snow, some dark green, like the most beautiful emerald (?),
others yellow, vermilion, and jet black. The rarest and most esteemed
varieties are the white speckled with red and the green veined with gold."
(I. 395.) The Jade of Khotan appears to be first mentioned by Chinese
authors in the time of the Han Dynasty under Wu-ti (B.C. 140-86). In A.D.
541 an image of Buddha sculptured in Jade was sent as an offering from
Khotan; and in 632 the process of fishing for the material in the rivers
of Khotan, as practised down to modern times, is mentioned.
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