Chapter 17 - Country of Shang-mi (Shambi)

Note: This is the country over which one of the banished śākya youths reigned (see ante, p. 21). It is restored by Julien to śāmbī in the passage before us, but to śāmbī.^[1]

This country is about 2500 or 2600 li in circuit. It is intersected with mountains and valleys; with hills of various heights. Every kind of grain is cultivated; beans and wheat are abundant. Grapes are plentiful. The country produces yellow arsenic. They bore into the cliffs and break the stones, and so obtain it. The mountain spirits are cruel and wicked; they frequently cause calamities to befall the kingdom.

On entering the country, sacrifice is offered up to them, after which good success attends the persons in coming and going. If no sacrifice is offered them, the wind and the hail attack the travellers. The climate is very cold; the ways of the people are quick, their disposition is honest and simple. They have no rules of propriety or justice in their behaviour; their wisdom is small, and in the arts they have very little ability. Their writing is the same as that of the kingdom of Tu-ho-lo, but the spoken language is somewhat different. Their clothes are mostly made of woollen stuff. Their king is of the race of śākya.^[2] He greatly esteems the law of Buddha. The people follow his example, and are all animated by a sincere faith. There are two saṅghārāmas, with very few followers.

On the north-east of the frontier of the country, skirting the mountains and crossing the valleys, advancing along a dangerous and precipitous road, after going 700 li or so, we come to the valley of Po-mi-lo (Pamir).^[3] It stretches 1000 li or so east and west, and 100 li or so from north to south; in the narrowest part it is not more than 10 li. It is situated among the snowy mountains; on this account the climate is cold, and the winds blow constantly. The snow falls both in summer and spring-time. Night and day the wind rages violently. The soil is impregnated with salt and covered with quantities of gravel and sand. The grain which is sown does not ripen, shrubs and trees are rare; there is but a succession of desert without any inhabitants.

In the middle of the Pamir valley is a great dragon lake (Nāgahrada); from east to west it is 300 li or so, from north to south 50 li. It is situated in the midst of the great T'sung-ling mountains, and is the central point of Jambudvīpa.^[4] The land is very high; the water is pure and clear as a mirror; it cannot be fathomed; the colour of the lake is a dark blue; the taste of the water sweet and soft: in the water hide the kau-ki fish (shark-spider), dragons, crocodiles, tortoises; floating on its surface^[5] are ducks, wild geese, cranes, and so on; large eggs are found concealed in the wild desert wastes, or among the marshy shrubs, or on the sandy islets.

To the west of the lake there is a large stream, which, going west, reaches so far as the eastern borders of the kingdom of Ta-mo-si-tie-ti (?Tamasthiti), and there joins the river Oxus (Fo-t'su) and flows still to the west. So on this side of the lake all the streams flow westward.

On the east of the lake is a great stream,^[6] which, flowing north-east, reaches to the western frontiers of the country of Kie-sha (? Kashgar), and there joins the Si-to (śītā) river^[7] and flows eastward, and so all streams on the left side of the lake flow eastward.

Passing over a mountain to the south of the Pamir valley, we find the country of Po-lo-lo (Bolor);^[8] here is found much gold and silver; the gold is as red as fire.

On leaving the midst of this valley and going south-east, along the route there is no inhabited place (no men or village). Ascending the mountains, traversing the side of precipices, encountering nothing but ice and snow, and thus going 500 li we arrive at the kingdom of K'ie-p'an-t'o.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Vol. ii. p. 318. Eitel (op. cit., s. v.) speaks of this kingdom as founded by refugees of the śākya family, and situated near Chitral, lat. 35°35' N., and long. 72°27' E.

[2]:

See previous note.

[3]:

Pamir, according to Sir T. D. Forsyth (Report fo Mission to Yārkand, p. 231 n.) is a Khokandi Turki word signifying "desert." For a description of this district and its watersheds, see Forsyth (op. cit., p. 231), also Wood's Oxus, chap. xxi.

[4]:

This no doubt refers to the Sarik-kul lake, otherwise called Kul-i-Pamir-kulān, the lake of the Great Pamir; see ante, vol. i. p. 12, n. 33. The great Nāga lake is sometimes called the Rāvaṇahrada; Rāvaṇa also dwelt on Laṅka-giri (Potaraka?), and possibly from him is derived the Arabic name for Adam's Peak, Mount Rahwan. The remark in the text "that it cannot be fathomed" is a mistake. Wood found soundings at 9 fathoms (Oxus, p. 237).

[5]:

Hiuen Tsiang's visit was during the summer months (probably of A.D. 642); in the winter, the lake is frozen to a thickness of two feet and a half (Wood's Oxus, p. 236). But in the summer the ice on the lake is broken up, and the hills in its neighbourhood clear of snow; this (according to the statement of the Khirghiz who accompanied Wood) takes place as early as the end of June, "at which time the water swarms with aquatic birds" (op. cit., p. 239); this confirms the remark in the text. For the other remarks, see Marco Polo, book i. chap. xxxii., and Yule's notes.

[6]:

"The story of an eastern outflow from the lake is no doubt a legend connected with an ancient Hindu belief (see Cathay, p. 347), but Burnes in modern times heard much the same story" (Yule, Marco Polo, vol. i. p. 166).

[7]:

For some remarks on the śītā river see ante, vol. i. n. 34. Julien, in a note found on p. 572, vol. iii., corrects the name to śītā meaning "cold;" his authority is the Chinese Dictionary, I-tsi-king-in-i.

[8]:

Perhaps the same as Balti, a Tibetan kingdom. See Cunningham (quoted by Yule. M. P., vol. i. p. 168).