And This Country
Of TEBET Forms A Very Great Province, Of Which I Will Give You A Brief
Account.
NOTE 1.
- The mountains that bound the splendid plain of Ch'eng-tu fu on
the west rise rapidly to a height of 12,000 feet and upwards. Just at the
skirt of this mountain region, where the great road to Lhasa enters it,
lies the large and bustling city of Yachaufu, forming the key of the hill
country, and the great entrepot of trade between Sze-ch'wan on the one
side, and Tibet and Western Yunnan on the other. The present political
boundary between China Proper and Tibet is to the west of Bathang and the
Kin-sha Kiang, but till the beginning of last century it lay much further
east, near Ta-t'sien-lu, or, as the Tibetans appear to call it,
Tartsedo or Tachindo, which a Chinese Itinerary given by Ritter makes
to be 920 li, or 11 marches from Ch'eng-tu fu. In Marco's time we must
suppose that Tibet was considered to extend several marches further east
still, or to the vicinity of Yachau.[1] Mr. Cooper's Journal describes
the country entered on the 5th march from Ch'eng-tu as very mountainous,
many of the neighbouring peaks being capped with snow. And he describes
the people as speaking a language mixed with Tibetan for some distance
before reaching Ta-t'sien-lu. Baron Richthofen also who, as we shall see,
has thrown an entirely new light upon this part of Marco's itinerary, was
exactly five days in travelling through a rich and populous country, from
Ch'eng-tu to Yachau.
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