24 Notes hy the Able Desgodins on Thibet. [Jan. 



Khokand and Osh, generally of a rather agreeable construction, are all more 

 or less modern. At Namangan, however, there are two old mosques called 

 Hojamne Kabri and Aziz Haifa, the first of which is an architectural chef- 

 d'oeuvre. I have brought back some of the inscriptions I was able to 

 copy. Near Kasan, the oldest town in Farghana, is a cemetery called Sad- 

 pir, which contains nearly 70 tombs, all with inscriptions. This cemetery 

 dates from upwards of 600 years ago, when the Calmucks invaded and 

 pillaged the country and slaughtered its richest and most notable inhabi- 

 tants. I have taken impressions of more than 20 inscriptions, and shall take 

 back three stones to Tashkend. The Tajiks of Kasan say that they came 

 into the country before the introduction of Islam. At 16 kilometres from 

 Kasan there is another rather curious tomb, called Safed Boulan. Unfor- 

 tunately there are no inscriptions about it. Finally, near Tus, not far 

 from the little village of Hauva, is another cemeterj'- named Mazar ; there 

 are in it five stones with inscriptions. I have taken impressions of three 

 of these stones which appeared to me the finest, and which the mullahs of 

 the place could not decipher. I go back to Tashkend and hope to return 

 to Europe .by Siberia." 



Extract from a letter by the Abbe Desgodins to his brother, dated 28th 

 March 1877, containing Notes on Thibet. 



" The following is some new information which should confirm the 

 identity of the Yar-Kiu-tsang-po river of Thibet with the Brahmaputra. An 

 old Llama related to me yesterday that in his youth he had travelled a great 

 deal and had visited nearly the whole of Thibet. He had followed the great 

 river from its source in or near the lakes of Tso-ma-pang (Manasarowar), 

 which are situated in the western part of the province of Ngare, the most 

 western province of Thibet, and while making his pilgrimages of devotion, he 

 had arrived as far as the frontiers of the savage tribe of Lhopas. He said that 

 at a distance of some days' march from Lhassa, the river turns towards the 

 south and making a long bend passes through the Tibetan district of Hia- 

 yul governed by the Kalun Doring of Lhassa, a v-ery populous and rich 

 district which is situated just to the north of the Lhopas. The river enters 

 the country occupied by this wild tribe and passes through perpendicular 

 rocks, precipitous and bare, without paths, and over which the only passage 

 is by means of bad ladders made of the stems of climbing plants. After 

 a certain course through the Lhopas country, the river falls perpendicularly 

 from the top of a rock into a valley the name of which he did not know. 

 The height of the fall is so great that it makes one giddy. At this spot, 

 he said, the stream is almost as considerable as the Kin-cha-Kiang at Bat- 

 hang and the Lan-tsang-kiang at the Salt Lakes. The details he gave me 

 regarding these Lhopas removes all doubt. They are the same as those 



