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The  Open  Court 

Founded  by  Edward  C.  Hegeler 

Editors: 
GUSTAVE  K.  CARUS  ELISABETH  CARUS 


SECOND  MONOGRAPH  SERIES  OF 

THE  NEW  ORIENT  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICA 

NUMBER  TWO 


CENTRAL  AND  RUSSIAN  ASIA 

EDITED  BY 

BERTHOLD  LAUFER 


Published 

Monthly :    January,   June,    September,   December 

Bi-monthly :    February-March,  April-May,  July- August,  October-November 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
337  EAST  CHICAGO  AVENUE  CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 

Subscription   rates :   $3.00   a   year,   35c   a   copy,   monograph   copies,   50c 

Entered  as  Second-Class  matter  March  26,  1887,  at  the  Post  Office 
at  Chicago.  Illinois,  under  Act  of  March  3,  1879. 


CDl'VUIGlll 

THE  OPEN   COURT   PUBLISHING    CO. 

1933 


CONTENTS 

Preface    65 

Berthold  Lanfer 

Tibet 67 

Sven  Hediii 

Chinese  Turkistan    97 

Owen  Lattiuwre 

Russian  Asia   1 20 

/.  A.  Lopatin 


RUSSI/ 


5IA 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

1.  View  of  a  side  glen,  Tibet Frontispiece 

2.  The  bridge  between  Chaga  and  Pindsoling,  Tibet 79 

3.  The  Targo-gangri  to  the  northwest  from  Camp  150,  Tibet 91 

4.  Urumchi  from  a  temple  on  the  hill,  Chinese  Turkistan 10.) 

5.  A  Kazak  family  group,  Chinese  Turkistan 106 

6.  Kirghiz  weaving.    Near  Sanju.    Chinese  Turkistan Ill 

7.  Caravan  master  and  camels  in  snow.    Chinese  Turkistan 114 

8.  A  typical  old  Goldi,   Siberia 123 

9.  Goldi  woman  with  huge  earrings  and  a  nose  ring.    Siberia 126 

10.  A  Goldi  in  full  equipment  for  winter  hunting.  He  has  a  long  spear 
in  his  right  hand  and  a  gun  in  the  left.  On  the  ground  can  be  seen 
his  skis  and  a  small  spear.  The  dog  is  tied  to  a  strap.    Siberia 127 

11.  An  Orochc  in  full  equipment  for  winter  hunting,   Siberia 123 


THE  NEW  ORIENT  IN  BOOKS      I 


The   Origin  and  Development  of  the  State  Cult  of  Confucius.    By  John  K. 

Shrvock.    Publication  of  the  American  Historical  Association.    New  York. 

The'  Century  Co.    Pp.  xiv  +  298.    Price  $4.00. 

While  matiy  scholars  have  written  on  the  doctrines  of  Confucius,  there 
has  not  been  an  adequate  account  of  the  origin  and  development  of  the  cult. 
Mr.  Shryock  has  here  collected  complete  and  adequate  historical  sources 
which  consist,  for  the  most  part,  of  imperial  edicts  and  records  in  the  tem- 
ples. He  has  followed  the  development  of  the  cult  from  its  origin  in  the 
Han  period  (before  this  only  the  K'ung  family  offered  sacrifices)  when 
sacrifices  to  the  sage  were  ordered  in  the  schools,  through  the  various  periods 
to  the  revolution,  "1911-1927.  The  state  no  longer  seems  vitally  interested  in 
the  cult.  Yet  for  2,400  years  Confucius  has  been  a  model  for  men — "a  teacher 
of  ten  thousand  generations." 

Religion  in  Various  Cultures.  By  Friess  and  Herbert  W.  Schneider.  New 
York.  Henry  Hok  and  Co.  1932.  Pp.  xxiv  +  598.  Illustrated.  Price  $5.00. 
This  book  presents  a  general  survey  of  the  most  significant  material, 
gathered  from  many  sources,  on  religion  in  its  relation  to  various  cultures. 
After  describing  some  of  the  religions  in  primitive  cultures,  the  authors  re- 
present in  full  Shintoism,  Hinduism,  and  Buddhism  from  the  Far  East,  and 
the  Greek,  Jewish  and  Christian  religions  of  the  West.  Their  aim  has  been 
to  stress  the  significance  of  these  religions  at  dift'erent  times  and  places  and 
to  clarify  their  role  in  the  life  and  organization  of  particular  cultures.  The 
excellent  exposition  as  well  as  the  many  unusual  illustrations  make  the  book 
most  interesting. 

Daily  Meditation  or  the  Practice  of  Repose.    By  Dhan  Gopal  Mukerji.    New 

York.    Button  &  Co.    Pp.  40.    Price  90c. 

Mr.  Mukerji  here  sets  forth  in  detail  the  technique  of  meditation;  the 
meditation  which  brings  repose,  and  also  that  which  brings  the  individual  into 
closer  harmony  with  the  Infinite.  In  closing  he  remarks,  "At  the  present  time 
the  Oriental  thinks  he  lives  by  it.    Can  the  modern  American  do  without  it?" 

The  Orient  in  American  Transcendentalism.  By  Arthur  Christy.  Columbia 
University  Press.  New  York,  1932.  Pp.  xx  +  382.  ($4.00). 
This  is  a  study  and  an  analysis  of  Oriental  thought  in  Emerson,  Thoreau, 
and  Alcott.  The  task  set  by  the  author  was  "to  tell  why  the  Concord  men 
read  the  Orientals  and  to  what  end;  and  most  important  of  all,  the  sources 
from  which  they  took  Oriental  ideas  and  ornamentation  for  some  of  the 
classic  pages  of  American  literature."  Mr.  Christy  has  had  access  to  the  li- 
braries used  by  them  and  to  some  unpublished  material. 

After  a  general  introduction,  the  book  is  divided  into  three  parts,  Emer- 
son and  the  Over-Soul,  Thoreau  and  Oriental  Asceticism,  and  Alcott  the 
Propagandist.  In  conclusion  there  is  an  appreciation  of  the  Transcendental- 
ists  by  Orientals.  A  Hindu  has  written  that  Emerson  translated  the  wis- 
dom of  Ancient  India  into  "the  language  of  modern  culture."  And  it  is 
from  Thoreau  that  Mahatma  Ghandi  "has  taken  much  of  his  philosophy  of 
civil  disobedience." 


THE  NEW  ORIENT  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICA 

The  New  Orient  Society  of  America  is  now  completing  its  first  year,  and 
and  it  can  look  back  upon  a  successful  time  during  a  difficult  economic  period. 
At  the  annual  meeting  of  November  18,  the  following  Officers  and  Directors 
were  elected : 

PROFESSOR    JAMES    H.    BREASTED Honorary    President 

■    Director    Oriental    Institute,    University    of    Chicago 

DR.    BERTHOLD   LAUFER Honorary   Vice-President 

Field    Museum   of   Natural   History,    Chicago,   Illinois 

PROFESSOR    WILLIAM    R.    SHEPHERD President 

Columbia   L'niversity,    New   York,    N.Y. 

MR.   JOHN   PAYNE  KELLOGG Treasurer 

MISS    CATHERINE    COOK Secretary 

BOARD    OF   DIRECTORS: 

PROFESSOR  JAMES  H.  BREASTED  :\IR.  EDWIN  H.  CASSELS 

MR.  HENRY  FIELD  MR.  JOHN  PAYNE  KELLOGG 

DR.   BERTHOLD   LAUFER  PROFESSOR   A.    T.    OLMSTEAD 

PROFESSOR   MARTIN   SPRENGLING 

Six  monographs,  listed  below,  have  been  published.  During  1933  we  will 
publish  the  second  series  of  six  monographs  as  special  numbers  of  The  Open 
Court.  These  monographs  will  deal  with  various  cultural  aspects  of  the 
New  Orient,  and  will  be  edited  by  leading  American  scholars. 

FIRST  MONOGRAPH  SERIES  PUBLISHED  BY 
THE  OPEN  COURT 

January,     1932.     The    Heritage     of       July,  1932.    Syria-Palestine. 

Western    Asia  F.dited     by     Professor     A.     T.     Olmstead, 

Edited    by    Professor    Martin    Sprengling,  University    of    Lnicago. 

University    of    Chicago. 

March,     1932.      The     Heritage     of       September,    1932.    Egypt, 

Eastern  Asia  Edited  by   Professor  Halford  L.  Hoskins, 

Edited  by    Professor   A.    E.   Haydon,    De-  Department    of    History,    Tufts    College, 

partment   of    Comparative    Religion,    Uni-  Massachusetts, 
versity  of   Chicago. 

May,  1932.    Modern  Turkey.  December,    1932.    Arabia. 

Edited   bv   Professor   A.   II.    Lybyer,   Uni-  Edited    by    Professor    Martm    Sprengling. 

versity   of   Illinois.  University    of    Chicago. 

SECOND  MONOGRAPH  SERIES  TO  BE  PUBLISHED 
DURING  1933 

January,  1933.   Persia.  July,  1933.    India. 

Edited      by      Professor      Arthur      Upham  Edited    by    Professor    Walter    E.     Clark. 

I'oi-c,    Director   of   the    Persian    Institute.  Department    of    Sanskrit,    Harvard    Uni- 

March,   1933.    Central  and  Russian  versity. 

Edited  by    Dr.    Rcrthold   Laufer,   Curator,         October,    1933.     China. 

Department    of   Anthropology,    Field    Mu-  F.dited    by     Dr.     Berthold    Laufer,     Field 

seum    of   Natural    History,    Chicago.  Muscvun    of    Natural    History. 

May,  1933.    Japan. 
n^rtm'L't^'ofi^Xfn?"'.?''''  ^^"^n'-°^^       December,   1933.    Northern  Africa. 

partment     ot     Political     Science,     Univer- 
sity  of   Chicago. 

Those  who  are  desirous  of  becoming  members  of  the  New  Orient  Society 
of  America  are  invited  to  apply  for  particulars  of  purposes  and  privileges 
of  membership  to  the  Secretary,  CATHERINE  F..   COOK. 

The  New  Orient  Society  of  America 

337  E.  CHICAGO   AVE.  CHICAGO 


The  Open  Court 


Volume  XLVII  (No.  2)         March,  1933  Number  921 

NEW  ORIENT  SOCIETY  MONOGRAPH  :  SECOND  SERIES  NUMBER  TWO 

CENTRAL  AND  RUSSIAN  ASIA 
PREFACE 

BY    BERTHOLD    LAUFER 

TN  PLANNING  this  monograph  it  has  been  my  aim  to  secure  the 
■*■  good  offices  of  the  best  Hving  authorities  on  the  three  countries 
which  are  here  represented.  I  was  particularly  fortunate  in  obtain- 
ing the  collaboration  of  Dr.  Sven  Hedin  while  he  resided  in  Chicago 
last  year,  supervising  the  erection  of  the  Jehol  Lama  temple  on  the 
grounds  of  the  Century  of  Progress.  Dr.  Sven  Hedin,  incontestably 
the  greatest  geographical  explorer  of  Tibet  of  all  times,  past  and 
present,  has  devoted  his  lifetime  to  science  and  research  with  a 
stupendous  productivity  in  books  and  maps  to  his  credit,  all  of  per- 
manent value.  No  one  is  more  qualified  than  he  to  write  on  Tibet, 
which  is  his  second  home.  In  the  sketch  here  presented  he  has  out- 
lined with  the  hand  of  a  master  a  magnificent  fresco  painting,  trac- 
ing the  development  in  the  exploration  and  opening  of  the  land  of 
mysteries,  characterizing  its  geographical  features,  surveying  its 
history,  setting  forth  and  interpreting  its  hierarchical  system  with 
the  complex  machinery  of  this  priest-government  and  its  relations 
to  China.  India,  and  England. 

Mr.  Owen  Lattimore,  author  of  The  Desert  Road  to  Turkistan, 
High  Tartary,  and  Manchuria  Cradle  of  Conflict,  has  extensively 
traveled  in  northern  China,  Manchuria,  and  Chinese  Turkistan,  and 
has  studied  political  and  social  conditions  with  an  open  mind  and 
keen  observational  power.  His  sketch  of  present-day  Chinese 
Turkistan  is  a  brilliant  and  penetrating  analysis  of  intense  interest. 
One  of  his  statements  that  furnishes  food  for  reflection  is  that  al- 
though the  currency  of  the  country  is  worthless,  yet  its  economic 
condition  is  remarkably  steady,  compared  not  only  with  China  proper 
but  with  almost  any  country  in  the  world  and  that  although  back- 
ward in  every  respect,  it  is  probably  more  stable  and  contented  than 
any  region  of  equal  area  in  the  world.   The  latest  news  from  Turki- 


66  THE  OPEN  COURT 

Stan  is  that  it  seeks  complete  independence  from  Chinese  sovereignty ; 
Mr.  Lattimore's  article  gives  a  clear  answer  to  the  why  of  this 
movement. 

Mr.  Lopatin  is  a  young  and  energetic  Russian  ethnologist,  now 
living  and  studying  in  this  countr}-.  He  has  successfully  explored 
the  Goldi  and  Tungusian  tribes  of  the  Amur  region,  and  has  pub- 
lished many  scientific  monographs.  The  vivid  picture  that  he  un- 
rolls here  before  our  eyes  of  the  transformation  of  Russian  Asia 
under  Soviet  rule  will  be  especially  welcome  at  this  moment  when 
our  Government  seems  to  be  determined  to  grant  official  recogni- 
tion to  the  U.S.S.R. 

I  wish  to  express  my  warmest  thanks  to  the  three  eminent 
scholars  for  their  excellent  contributions  to  this  monograph. 

A  chapter  to  be  devoted  to  Mongolia  was  scheduled  in  the  original 
plan  for  this  monograph.  The  subject,  however,  proved  too  large 
to  be  included  here.  Both  Dr.  Hedin  and  Mr.  Lattimore  have  briefly 
touched  on  ]\Iongolian  problems,  and  in  the  monograph  pertaining 
to  China  the  editor  will  discuss  modern  cultural  movements  among 
the  Mongols. 


TIBET 

BY    SVEN    HEDIN 

NOT  BEFORE  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  did  the 
first  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  a  country  called  Tibet 
reach  Europe.  At  least  1500  years  earlier  the  people  of  India  had 
some  scanty  notions  of  Tibet  which,  however,  chiefly  consisted  of 
epic  songs,  legends,  and  tales  of  Mount  Kailas  and  the  sacred  Lake 
Manasarovar.  In  the  Buddhistic  world  system  Mount  Meru  or 
Sumeru  rises  like  a  venerable  Olympus  from  the  axis  of  the  earth 
and  forms  the  center  and  foundation  of  the  universe.  But  only  as 
glimpses  or  mere  names  do  the  eternal  mountains  of  Himalaya,  Meru 
and  Kailas,  and  Lake  Manasarovar  light  up  the  interminable  and 
dull  stories  of  the  Ramayana  and  other  sacred  scriptures  of  the  In- 
dians. In  the  Bhagavata  and  Vayu  Purana  eight  mountains  are  enum- 
erated of  which  Humboldt  and  Ritter  recognized  the  Altai,  Mustagh 
or  T'ien-shan,  Kunlun,  and  Himalaya.  The  farther  north,  east, 
and  west  from  the  sacred  mountain  and  lake,  the  more  foggy  and 
fictitious  became  the  knowledge  about  Tibet  in  Indian  antiquity. 
This  is  quite  natural,  for  Manasarovar  was  probably,  already  in  a 
very  remote  antiquity,  an  important  "tirtha,"  and  the  pilgrims  wan- 
dered to  its  shores  to  bathe  in  the  sacred  waters,  as  they  still  do, 
persuaded  as  they  are  that  the  sacred  Kailas  is  Siva's  paradise  and 
the  abode  of  gods.  The  sacred  lake  was  supposed  to  give  rise  to  four 
great  rivers,  among  them  the  Indus  and  the  Sutlej. 

Both  Lake  Alanasarovar  and  Mount  Kailas  are  sacred  to  the 
Tibetans  as  well  as  to  the  Hindus.  In  Tibetan  the  mountain  is 
called  Kang  Rimpoche  and  is  surrounded  by  four  monasteries  ;  the 
lake  is  called  Tso  Mapang  and  is  surrounded  by  eight  monasteries. 

Herodotus  who  had  heard  of  the  great  gold  production  of  India 
does  not  mention  the  existence  of  mountains  in  this  part  of  Asia. 
But  he  has  heard  the  strange  story  about  the  gold-digging  ants  which 
has  been  so  much  discussed  and  so  well  explained  by  Laufer. 

An  immense  step  forward  in  geographical  knowledge  was  made 
by  Alexander  and  his  generals  which  embraced  the  land  of  the  Paro- 
pamisadae  or  Kabulistan  and  India  to  the  Ganges.  Himalaya  was 
called  Emodus  and  regarded  as  a  part  or  rather  continuation  of  the 
Paropamisus  or  Indian  Caucasus.  All  writers  agree  in  placing  the 
sources  of  the  Indus  in  the  Emodus.    Eratosthenes  (born  276  B.C.) 


68  THE  OPEX   COURT 

believed  that  a  great  range,  under  ditlerent  names  in  ditterent  sec- 
tions, Taurus.  Paropamisus,  and  Imaus,  traversed  the  whole  of  Asia 
from  west  to  east.  Strabo  describes  the  mountain  range  that  served 
as  a  boundary  of  India  to  the  north.  His  geographical  knowledge  is 
remarkable  for  his  time.  He  places  the  source  of  the  Indus  not  far 
above  the  Ganges  and  mentions  its  tributaries.  It  took  centuries  be- 
fore Europe  acquired  such  a  correct  conception  of  the  hydrography 
of  India  as  that  given  by  Strabo.  Pliny's  hydrography  is  not  as  good 
as  that  of  the  Greek  geographers,  who  knew  India  and  the  moun- 
tain barrier  to  the  north,  but  never  had  heard  a  word  about  Tibet. 

The  greatest  among  the  ancient  geographers  was  Ptolemy,  who 
used  the  best  sources  of  his  time  (about  a.d.  160).  His  repre- 
sentation of  the  Indus,  Sutlej,  and  Ganges  is  wonderful.  On  maps 
of  1800  the  source  of  the  Sutlej  is  not  improved  on  Ptolemy. 

Tibet  was  called  by  Arabic  geographers  Tobit  or  Tobbat.  The 
greatest.  Masudi  (died  956),  tells  a  good  deal  about  Tibet.  Ista- 
kri  and  Ibn  Haukal  also  mention  Tibet.  Alberuni  has  even  heard  of 
Lake  Manasa,  but  he  derived  his  information  from  the  Puranas. 
He  places  the  source  of  the  Jehlum  and  Ganges  in  the  same  moun- 
tain range  behind  which  China  is  situated,  but  the  Indus  comes 
from  another  range  in  Turkish  territory.  Idrisi  (born  1100)  tells 
both  of  the  mountains  and  rivers.  His  and  the  other  Arabs'  Tibet 
is  in  reality  identical  with  Ladak.  Abulfeda  (born  1273)  mentions 
Tobbat,  but  only  quotes  Istakri.  Like  most  other  travelers  and 
geographers,  Ibn  Batuta  (1304-77)  avoided  Tibet,  the  inaccessible 
country  beyond  the  mountains.  Of  the  Indus  he  says  that  "it  is  the 
greatest  river  in  the  world,"  and  of  the  mountains  of  Kamru,  north 
of  Bengal:  "These  are  extensive  mountains,  and  they  join  the 
mountains  of  Tibet,  where  there  are  musk -gazelles.  The  inhabitants 
of  these  mountains  are,  like  the  Turks,  famous  for  their  attention 
to  magic."  Sherefeddin  from  Yesd  (died  1446),  the  historian  of 
Tamerlane,  mentions  Tibet  in  his  Zafar  Xauia  or  Book  of  \*ictory. 
Tamerlane,  who  had  drenched  lialf  Asia  in  l)lood,  did  not  care  for 
the  uninhabited  country  north  of  India,  Imt  he  i)r()l)al)lv  knew  some- 
thing about  it;  for  he  sent  special  cxin'ilitinns  and  scouts  all  over 
the  interior  of  .\sia.  In  his  autol)iograiih\  ihc  s^rcat  I'-alicr  (  1482- 
1530)   makes  a  short  reference  to  the  mountains  in  the  north, 

Mirza  Ilaidar.  who  in  1533  was  sent  by  the  Khan  of  Yarkand 
upon  a  campaign  against  Ursang  (Lhasa)  to  destroy  the  temples 
and  their  idols,  is  tiu-  first  reliable  traveli-r   t'rom  Leh  along  the  up- 


TIBET  69 

per  Indus  and  the  np]ier   1  Brahmaputra.    He  mentions  a  lake  that 
must  be  Manasarovar. 

It  is  surprising  that  the  great  Shah  Akbar  knew  so  little  about 
Tibet.  His  historians  and  geographers  had  a  very  detailed  knowl- 
edge of  the  tributaries  of  the  Indus,  but  the  source  of  the  main 
river  they  placed  either  "between  Kashmir  and  Kashgar"  or  "in 
China."  As  to  the  mountains  north  of  India,  the  old  Hindu  orogra- 
phy was  adopted.  In  Shah  Jahangir's  time  Tibet  embraced  only 
Baltistan  and  Ladak.  Himalaya  was  called  the  mountains  of  Jam- 
mu  and  Kangra.  On  European  maps  of  the  same  time  Himalaya 
was  called  "the  mountains  of  Nagracot." 

The  first  European  to  mention  Tibet  (Ruri-Tabet)  was  Friar 
John  of  Pian  de  Carpine  who  started  from  Lyons  in  1245  and  de- 
livered a  letter  from  the  Pope  to  Kuyuk  Khan. 

Of  much  greater  importance  was  the  journey  of  the  Flemish 
Franciscan,  William  of  Rubruk,  who  started  in  1252  and  returned 
three  years  later.  He  made  a  series  of  great  geographical  discover- 
ies and  was  the  first  to  describe  the  Lamas,  their  temples,  ritual, 
living  Buddhas,  their  use  of  the  prayer-wheels  and  of  the  famous 
formula  Om  mani  padmc  liuiu.  He  found  out  the  true  peculiarities 
of  writing  of  Tibetan  and  other  languages.  Even  the  animals  did 
not  escape  his  keen  observation,  and  he  is  the  first  to  tell  us  of  the 
wild  ass  or  kiang  of  Tibet,  and  of  the  wild  sheep  which  later  on 
became  so  celebrated  with  Marco  Polo's  name  (Oz'is  poll). 

In  his  admirable  narrative  the  great  Alarco  Polo  mentions  Tibet 
three  times.  He  traveled  through  Asia  in  1273  and  remained  in 
China  for  some  twenty  years.  His  account  is  the  first  reliable  one 
on  Tibet  ever  written  by  a  European.  As  he  approached  much  nearer 
to  the  inaccessible  country  than  Pian  de  Carpine  and  Rubruk,  and 
probably  got  information  from  natives  on  the  trade  route  between 
Tibet  and  western  China,  he  has  more  to  tell  of  the  inhabitants, 
their  customs,  and  their  country.  Though  he  visited  only  the 
eastern  borderland,  his  description  of  Tibet  is  in  many  respects  very 
characteristic,  and  certain  portions  of  it  could  well  have  been  writ- 
ten in  our  own  days.  He  knew  that  Tibet  was  a  new  country  of 
verv  great  extent,  embracing  eight  kingdoms,  subject  to  the  Great 
Khan,  a  fact  that  was  completely  unknown  to  cartographers  even 
some  four  hundred  years  later. 

It  is  curious  that  Alarco  Polo  does  not  mention  the  Himalayas 
or  the  Kunlun,  though  he  traveled  along  the  northern  foot  of  the 


70  THE  OPEN   COURT 

latter  from  Kashgar  to  Lop.  But  he  knew  that  Tibet  contained 
lakes  in  several  sections.  He  told  something  of  corals,  woolens,  en- 
chanters, and  astrologers,  mastiff  dogs  and  musk,  all  things  that 
agree  with  later  observations.  He  even  observed  that  the  Tibetans 
used  salt  instead  of  money,  which  now,  six  hundred  and  seventy 
years  later,  is  still  the  case.  W'lien  Alarco  Polo  speaks  of  Tibet,  he 
does  not  mean  Ladak  and  Baltistan  as  do  nearly  all  other  travelers, 
even  four  hundred  years  after  his  time  ;  for  he  had  come  in  contact 
witli  Tibetans  in  western  Szechuan,  and  he  knew  that  it  bordered 
upon  Kashmir  and  that  it  was  subject  to  the  Great  Khan. 

From  the  year  1328  we  have  to  remember  Friar  Odoric  di  Por- 
denone  who  had  nothing  of  ]\Iarco  Polo's  perspicacity  or  intelli- 
gence. Even  such  great  experts  on  Asiatic  exploration  as  Klaproth 
and  Sir  Henry  Yule  accepted  him  as  being  the  first  European  who 
ever  traversed  the  whole  of  Tibet  and  reached  Lhasa.  His  kingdom 
of  Rybot  or  Tybot  was  supposed  to  be  Tibet  proper,  for  he  tells  us 
that  the  inhabitants  live  in  black  tents,  their  capital  is  very  beauti- 
fully built  of  white  stone  and  the  streets  well  paved.  Its  name  is 
Gota.  It  is  forbidden  to  shed  blood  of  human  beings  or  animals  by 
reason  of  an  idol  who  is  worshiped  there.  There  lives  their  obassy 
or  pope.  Then  follows  the  old  story  of  the  treatment  of  the  dead, 
the  head  being  cut  off  the  dead  father  and  given  to  the  son  who 
eats  it,  while  the  body  is  cut  to  pieces  and  given  to  eagles  and  vul- 
tures. Regarding  Odoric's  narrative,  however.  Dr.  Laufer  has  ar- 
rived at  the  following  conclusion : .  "Odoric  of  Pordenone  has  never 
traversed  Tibet  proper,  has  never  been  at  Lhasa — a  feat  with 
which  he  has  been  unduly  credited  for  so  long  a  time,  and  to  which 
he  himself  lays  no  claim."  Odoric's  definition  of  Tibet  "which  is 
on  the  confines  of  India  proper"  indicates  that  he  means  Ladak, 
and  his  Gota  may  indicate  koffa  or  k^t  which  means  "fort"  or 
"castle,"  a  term  widely  spread  in  the  western  Himalayas. 

The  East  India  travelers  of  the  seventeenth  century  practically 
knew  nothing  about  Tibet.  In  1610  William  Finch  had  heard  of 
Kashmir  and  Kashgar  and  the  musk  trade  and  that  "u]ion  these 
mountains  keeps  a  small  king  called  Tibbot."  J.  1*.  Travcrnier  also 
found  out  that  the  best  musk  comes  from  the  kingdom  of  P)hutan 
(Tibet),  wliich  is  situated  "beyond  the  Ganges  towards  the  north." 
Thevenot,  in  1666,  knew  that  Kashmir  had  "to  the  east  a  part  of 
Tibet,"  and  to  the  north  Tartary.  In  the  seventeenth  century 
Ptolemy  was  still  regarded  as  the  greatest  authority  on  these  re- 


TIBET  71 

gions.  Even  after  the  journeys  of  Andrade  and  Grueber  and  Dor- 
ville,  the  mysterious  country  remained  hidden  behind  impenetrable 
clouds  and  insurmountable  mountains. 

None  of  these  European  travelers  had  ever  heard  the  name 
of  the  famous  lake  Manasarovar.  The  first  who  mentioned  it  was 
Father  Antonio  Monserrate  (1536-1600)  who  called  it  Mansariior 
and  even  offered  a  small  map  of  the  lake.  Much  later  (1638), 
Johann  van  Twist  has  some  notion  of  Purbet  (Kailas),  Jankenck- 
haer  (Sutlej),  and  Maseroor  (Manasarovar).  Walter  Schouten, 
who  traveled  1658-65,  speaks  of  "a  great  sea"  Massrout,  which  he 
identifies  with  the  Black  Sea !  Later  on  it  happened  that  Manasaro- 
var was  confounded  with  Koko-nor,  and  Lago  di  Chiamay,  that  for 
a  hundred  years  was  shown  northeast  of  India  on  all  European 
maps,  is  certainly  nothing  but  the  famous  Lake  Manasarovar. 

European  exploration  in  Tibet  had  a  brilliant  start  through  the 
wonderful  journey  of  the  Portuguese  Jesuit,  Father  Antonio  de 
Andrade,  the  founder  of  the  first  Catholic  mission  in  Tibet.  His 
journey  to  Tsaparang  or  Chaprang  on  the  Sutlej  and  the  ten  years 
of  missionary  work  at  that  place  have  been  ably  recited  by  C.  Wes- 
sels,  who  also  has  rediscovered  a  score  of  other  missionaries  to 
Tsaparang  and  other  parts  of  Tibet.  It  would  take  us  too  far  to 
mention  them  all.  In  1624  Andrade  and  Alanuel  Marques  crossed 
the  Mana  Pass  and  arrived  at  Tsaparang.  During  his  second  stay 
in  that  city  1625  Andrade  heard  of  the  great  country  Utsang,  and 
the  next  year  the  two  Jesuit  missionaries  Cacella  and  Cabral  were 
sent  to  Tibet.  In  the  beginning  of  1627  they  went  to  Bhutan.  Ca- 
cella continued  to  Shigatse.  In  1628  Cabral  joined  him.  The  same 
year  Cabral  returned  to  India  by  way  of  Nepal  to  Katmandu,  he 
being  the  first  European  to  set  foot  in  this  Himalayan  state.  He 
regarded  Shigatse  as  "the  gate  to  the  whole  of  Tartary,  China, 
and  many  other  pagan  countries."  Cacella  also  returned  to  India, 
and  on  his  way  back  to  Tibet  died  at  Shigatse  in  1630.  After  a  visit 
in  Shigatse  by  Cabral  the  L^tsang  ]\Iission  was  given  up.  Thus,  this 
early  Jesuit  mission  had  entered  Tibet  by  three  roads.  The  geo- 
graphical results  were  meagre,  for  these  missionaries  crossed  the 
highest  mountain  system  in  the  world  without  having  a  word  to 
say  about  it. 

The  journey  undertaken  (1661-62)  by  the  two  Jesuit  fathers, 
Grueber  and  Dorville,  from  Peking  by  way  of  the  Koko-nor  through 
Tibet  to  Lhasa  and  thence  to  India  was  a  brilliant  achievement  for 


12  THE  OPEN   COURT 

its  time.  They  were  the  first  Europeans  who  ever  reached  the  capi- 
tal of  Tibet.  Though  Father  Gerbillon,  who  in  1688-98  made  several 
journeys  in  eastern  ^Mongolia,  never  was  in  Tibet  himself,  the  de- 
scription he  gives  of  the  roads  from  Koko-nor  to  Lhasa  is  much 
better  than  that  of  Father  Grueber.  Gerbillon  tells  more  of  the 
gigantic  mountains  and  the  accentuated  plastic  features  of  the  high- 
lands than  Grueber.  The  French  Jesuit,  friend  of  the  great  em- 
peror K'ang-hi,  heard  that  the  Dalai  Lama  resided  in  a  palace  on 
a  mountain,  Poutala.  "At  the  foot  of  this  mountain  one  sees  a 
rather  great  river  flowing,  which  is  called  Kaltjou  muren.  It  is 
said  to  be  a  very  nice  place,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  mountain  is 
the  pagoda  with  its  seven  stories." 

In  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  scientifically 
trained  Jesuits  in  Peking  accomplished  the  famous  imperial  map 
of  China.  The  order  to  make  this  work  was  given  in  1708  by  the 
emperor  K'ang-hi.  The  Jesuits  Bouvet,  Regis,  Jartoux,  Fridelli, 
Cardosa,  IMailla,  and  Henderer  undertook  the  work.  After  long 
preparations  the  emperor  ordered  two  Lamas  to  make  a  map  of 
the  countries  subject  to  the  Great  Lama  from  Sining  to  Lhasa 
and  thence  to  the  sources  of  the  Ganges.  In  1717  the  material  of 
the  Lamas'  survey  was  delivered  to  Father  Regis,  who  found  it 
good  and  mapped  it  out  into  three  sheets.  In  1773  these  were  pub- 
lished in  Paris  by  D'Anville.  Some  parts  of  these  maps  are  rather 
good,  others  are  far  from  reality.  We  find  Mount  Kailas  and 
Lake  Manasarovar,  and  they  had  gained  the  erroneous  idea  that  the 
Ganges  originated  there.  Mount  Everest  is  to  be  found  under  its 
Tibetan  name  Chomo-lungma.  The  source  of  the  Tsangpo-Brahma- 
putra  is  far  better  than  Nain  Sing's  a  hundred  and  fifty  vears  later. 

At  the  same  time  European  missionaries  were  at  work  in  Tibet. 
In  1707  and  1709  Cai)uchin  missionaries  founded  a  station  at  Lhasa, 
and  in  1716  three  more  arrived.  Half  a  year  before  their  arrival 
the  most  brilliant  and  intelligent  of  all  missionaries  in  Tibet,  Ip- 
l)nlit(t  l)csi(lcri,  had  made  his  entrance  into  the  holy  city.  Accom- 
panied by  luuanuel  l<"rcyrc,  he  started  from  Ladak  in  June,  1715, 
and  as  the  first  luu-opcan  traveled  along  the  upper  Indus  to  Mana- 
saro\ar  and  then  in  the  Aalley  of  the  Tsangpo  to  Lhasa.  Desidcri 
remained  '(^\i::  years  in  Tibet  and  left  Lhasa  in  AimmI,  1721.  He  was 
the  last  missionarv  of  the  Jesuits  in  Tiliet. 

Dr.  De  I'"ilip])i  has  just  piilih'shcd  Dcsideri's  inanuscri])ts  with 
an   inln  i(hu'ti(in   b\    ('.   W'essels.     llcre   full   inslico  has  l)ccn  done  to 


TIBET  IZ 

this  admirable  Jesuit  father  who  knew  "the  wide  plains  called  Ciang 
Tang  (Chang-tang),  Trescij-Khang  (Tashi-kang),  Cartoa  (Gar- 
tok),  Mount  Ngnari-Giongar  (Kailas),  and  the  plain,  Retoa,  with 
a  great  lake,  of  which  Desideri  says:  "It  is  believed  to  be  the  source 
of  the  Ganges.  But  from  my  own  observation  and  from  what  I 
heard  from  various  people  who  knew  this  country  and  the  whole 
of  Mogol,  it  seems  that  the  above  mentioned  mountain  Ngnari-Gion- 
gar (Kailas)  must  be  regarded  as  the  fountain-head  not  only  of  the 
river  Ganges,  but  also  of  the  Indus,  Mount  Ngnari-Giongar  being 
the  highest  point  of  this  region  the  water  drains  off  on  two  sides." 
He  tells  us  that  the  Indus  drains  to  the  west.  "On  the  eastern  side 
another  large  body  of  water  flows  into  Lake  Retoa  and  eventually 
forms  the  river  Ganges."  There  is  such  a  river  falling  into  the 
lake,  though  Desideri  could  not  see  it  in  the  beginning  of  December. 

Desideri  is  the  first  European  traveler  who  ever  visited  Mana- 
sarovar,  as  he  is  also  the  discoverer  of  Mount  Kailas  and  tells  about 
the  korle  or  "pilgrimage"  around  the  sacred  mountain.  He  started 
the  controversy  about  the  location  of  the  source  of  the  Indus,  and  his 
own  view  comes  very  near  the  truth.  He  is  also  the  first  who  ven- 
tilated the  question  as  to  the  source  of  the  Ganges.  He  was  told 
that  the  sacred  river  originated  from  the  Manasarovar,  but  in  his 
own  opinion  it  was  situated  on  the  Kailas  and  then  entered  the 
lake,  a  problem  which  he  could  not  solve  as  he  did  not  go  sufficiently 
far  south  and  southeast.  At  the  same  time  the  Lamas  confounded 
the  Sutlej  with  the  Ganges.  Desideri  discovered  the  water-parting 
between  the  Sutlej  and  the  Brahmaputra  in  Maryum-la,  and  he  is 
the  first  European  to  follow  the  Tsangpo  from  Maryum-la  to 
Chetang.  His  description  of  the  people  of  Tibet  and  its  religion  is 
surprisingly  clear  and  correct. 

On  his  w'ay  to  Kutti  he  crossed  "the  high  and  difficult  moun- 
tain called  Langur."  Wiser  than  other  travelers  of  the  time,  who  be- 
lieved that  the  mountain  sickness  was  due  to  exhalations  from 
poisonous  plants  or  minerals,  Desideri  gives  an  excellent  description 
of  his  symptoms  and  says,  "Many  believe  such  discomforts  are 
caused  by  exhalations  from  some  minerals  in  the  bowels  of  the 
mountains,  but  as  until  now  no  trace  of  these  minerals  has  been  dis- 
covered, I  am  inclined  to  think  the  keen  penetrating  air  is  to  blame ; 
I  am  the  more  persuaded  of  this  because  my  chest  and  breathing 
became  worse  when  I  met  the  wind  on  the  top  of  Langur." 


74  THE  OPEX   COURT 

For  a  hundred  years  after  Desideri  no  European,  as  far  as  we 
know,  visited  the  sacred  lake  and  the  region  of  the  sources  of  the 
great  rivers.  In  1812  \\'iniam  ^Moorcroft  made  his  interesting  jour- 
ney to  the  lakes  and  stated  that  no  river  flowed  out  of  ^Slanasarovar 
and  Rakas-tal. 

In  the  following  years  the  region  was  visited  by  James  B.  Fraser, 
Alexander  Gerard,  J.  D.  Herbert,  Francis  Hamilton,  and  Henry 
Strachey  (1846),  who  found  no  superficial  effluence  from  Rakas- 
tal,  but  a  stream  a  hundred  feet  broad  and  three  feet  deep  going  out 
of  Manasarovar  and  emptying  itself  in  Rakas-tal.  In  1848  Richard 
Strachey  traveled  to  the  lakes  and  found  an  effluence  from  Mana- 
sarovar  to  Rakas-tal. 

Alexander  Cunningham,  the  brothers  Schlagintweit,  and  many 
other  travelers  have  visited  these  parts  of  Tibet.  About  1861, 
Captain  T.  G.  ]\rontgomerie  began  to  send  pandits,  British  subjects, 
who  were  trained  for  exploration,  into  the  unknown  parts  of  Tibet. 
One  of  the  most  famous  of  these,  Xain  Sing,  went  to  Lhasa  through 
central  Tibet  and  through  the  whole  valley  of  the  Tsangpo,  the 
same  road  as  Desideri.  From  their  reports  Montgomerie  published 
excellent  narratives  and  maps. 

In  1897-1903  the  Japanese  priest,  Ekai  Kawaguchi,  made  his  in- 
teresting journey  through  southern  Tibet.  He  says  that  all  Euro- 
peans who  have  visited  Manasarovar  represent  it  too  small.  In 
reality,  he  says,  its  circumference  is  about  200  miles,  though  as  a 
matter  of  fact  it  is  only  45  miles.  He  also  says  that  the  Rakas-tal 
is  the  higher  of  the  two  lakes,  though  Manasarovar  in  reality  is  thir- 
teen meters  higher  than  Rakas-tal. 

In  1904  four  British  officers,  i\Iajor  C.  H.  D.  Ryder,  Captain 
C.  G.  Rawling,  Captain  H.  Wood,  and  Lieutenant  F.  M.  Bailey, 
traveled  the  same  way  from  Lhasa  to  Manasarovar  as  Desideri, 
though  in  opposite  direction.  Ryder  found  "the  lakes  being  now  en- 
tirely disconnected  at  all  times  of  the  year  from  the  Sutlej  river," 
and  he  therefore  places  the  source  of  the  Sutlej  in  the  hills  west 
of  the  lake. 

In  1907  T  readied  the  sources  of  the  Tsangpo-r>rahmaputra  and 
the  Indus  and  located  the  source  of  the  .Sutlej  aj')pr(~)Nimately.  At 
that  time  there  was  no  connection  between  the  two  lakes,  nor  were 
they  connected  with  the  Sutlej.  but  in  1*^11  T  received  information 
that  water  again  flowed  from  the  Manasarovar  to  the  Rakas-tal, 
but    not    from   the   l.'ittcr  to   tlic   .'^utlcj. 


TIBET  75 

In  1864  Thomas  W.  Webber  made  a  hunting  trip  in  the  region 
around  the  upper  Tsangpo  without  penetrating  to  its  source,  nor 
did  Nain  Sing  on  his  journey  (1865)  through  the  Tsangpo  valley 
reach  the  source  of  the  famous  river.  Kawaguchi  has  some  valuable 
information  about  its  source.  Desideri  is  as  usual  the  most  perspi- 
cacious of  the  old  travelers  and  even  tells  us  that  the  Tsangpo  is 
the  upper  course  of  the  Brahmaputra.  This  settled  a  problem  that 
took  nearly  200  years  for  European  geographers  to  solve. 

Fra  Cassiano  Beligatti,  who  in  1741  traveled  from  Nepal  to 
the  Capuchin  station  in  Lhasa,  gained  the  curious  impression  that 
the  Ki-chu,  the  river  of  Lhasa,  was  the  upper  course  of  the  Tsangpo. 

Still  in  1906  a  patch  of  65,000  square  miles  to  the  north  of  the 
Tsangpo  was  unknown.  The  mountain  system  filling  this  region 
and  stretching  from  west  to  east  I  have  called  the  Trans-Himalaya. 
Its  eastern  continuation  had  in  1661-62  been  crossed  by  the  Jesuit 
fathers,  Grueber  and  Dorville.  They  went  from  Koko-nor  by  the 
pass  of  Tang-la  to  Reting-gompa  and  Lhasa  and  continued  by 
Shigatse  to  Katmandu.  The  Capuchin  father,  Orazio  della  Penna, 
has  written  a  good  description  of  the  Chang-tang  or  Northern  Plain 
and  other  parts  of  Tibet,  but  he  only  traveled  to  and  from  Lhasa 
himself  and  therefore  quotes  the  Dutchman,  Samuel  van  de  Putte, 
who  in  1738  traveled  from  Lhasa  to  Peking  and  back  and  who 
shortly  before  his  death  at  Batavia  burnt  all  his  notes.  Nearly  two 
hundred  years  elapsed  until  the  famous  journey  of  the  French 
Lazarist  fathers,  Hue  and  Gabet.  along  the  same  route  as  Grueber 
and  Dorville  and  van  de  Putte.  They  crossed  the  Trans-Himalaya 
at  Tang-la. 

A  little  before  that  time  three  great  German  geographers,  Julius 
Klaproth,  Carl  Ritter,  and  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  with  all  avail- 
able material  tried  to  construct  the  main  features  of  the  orographical 
backbones  of  Asia.  Brian  Hodgson  in  1857  made  a  similar  attempt, 
though  less  successful  than  the  Germans.  Such  able  and  learned 
scholars  as  Joseph  Hooker,  Thomas  Thomson,  A.  Campbell,  and 
Alexander  Cunningham  could  possibly  see  some  parts  of  the  Trans- 
Himalaya  at  a  distance,  but  had  no  real  conception  of  its  existence 
as  a  gigantic  mountain  system.  In  the  years  1867  and  1873  a  few 
pandits  were  sent  by  Major  Montgomerie  into  the  interior  of  Tibet, 
but  none  of  them  crossed  the  white  patch  of  unknown  land.  One  of 
them  in  1871-72  crossed  the  Trans-Himalaya  at  Khalamba-la  which 
is  situated  east  of  my  easternmost  pass,  Sela-la.    In  1873-74  Nain 


76  THE  OPEN   COURT 

Sing  made  his  important  journey  along  the  northern  foot  of  the 
Trans-Himalaya,  on  which  he  discovered  several  of  the  great  cen- 
tral lakes,  Dangra-yum-tso,  Ngangze-tso,  and  Kyaring-tso. 

Sarat  Chandra  Das  traveled  in  Tihet  in  1879-1881  and  made 
many  important  observations,  most  of  them  with  reference  to  the 
people  and  their  religion. 

From  1870  to  1885  General  X.  M.  Prshevalsky  carried  out  a 
series  of  epoch-making  journeys  in  eastern  Tibet.  His  pupils,  Ro- 
borovsky  and  Koslofif,  continued  his  brilliant  work. 

In  1877  Baron  Ferdinand  von  Richthofen,  who  was  thoroughly 
familiar  with  the  geography  and  geology  of  China,  published  his 
magnificent  work.  China,  which  shows  an  enormous  increase  in  our 
knowledge  since  Ritter  and  Humboldt. 

Gabriel  Bonvalot  and  Prince  Henry  of  Orleans  crossed  Tibet 
from  Lop-nor  in  1889  and  reached  the  Trans-Himalaya  at  Dam-la 
whence  they  were  forced  to  turn  east.  The  same  was  true  of  Du- 
treuil  de  Rhins  and  Fernand  Grenard  in  1893-94 ;  in  the  course  of 
this  journey  Dutreuil  de  Rhins  was  murdered.  From  the  north  shore 
of  Tengri-nor  they  were  forced  east  by  the  Tibetans.  St.  George 
R.  Littledale,  in  1895,  made  a  similar  attempt  and  crossed  the 
Trans-Himalaya  at  Goring-la,  and  was  turned  west.  The  follow- 
ing year  I  crossed  northern  Tibet  between  Arkatagh  and  Kokoshili 
at  the  same  time  as  Captain  Wellby  crossed  the  country  south  of 
Kokoshili. 

Captain  Bower  crossed  the  whole  of  Central  Tibet  from  west  to 
east  in  1890,  and  in  1896  Captain  C.  Deasy  explored,  in  western 
Tibet,  a  region  which  was  the  object  of  Captain  C.  G.  Rawling's 
exploration  in  1903,  the  same  year  as  the  American,  O.  T.  Crosby, 
and  the  Frenchman,  Fernand  Anginieur,  traveled  a  little  farther 
north. 

In  eastern  Tibet  the  American,  W.  W.  Rockhill,  has  conducted 
two  very  important  expeditions  which  he  has  described  with  the 
knowledge  and  perspicacity  of  a  real  oriental  scholar.  Approximate- 
ly on  Hue's  route  Tibet  was  crossed  in  1905  by  Count  de  Lesdain. 
In  the  same  region  we  have  also  to  remember  General  George 
I'ercira  who  went  on  foot  to  Lhasa  (1921-22)  with  only  six  native 
followers.  There  also.  Professor  Nicolai  Roerich  made  his  journey, 
and  two  r)ther  travelers  have  jienctrated  int^  Lhasa  in  recent  years, 
Mnie  D.'i\id  .Xcel  and  William  Maclloxcrn.  In  nitrtheastcrn  Tibet 
the  most  ini])<)rtant  work  was  done  li\    hi-.    Mlicrt  Tafcl.    Twi^  jour- 


TIBET  ■  n 

neys  were  made  by  Dr.  Wilhelm  Filchner,  one  in  the  northeast  and 
the  other  (1925-28)  from  east  to  west  through  Central  Tibet  on 
which  he  touched  a  couple  of  the  central  lakes.  Jebbu  and  Chone  on 
the  boundary  of  northeastern  Tibet  to  Kansu  have  been  visited  by  the 
American  scientists,  Dr.  Rock  and  Dr.  Berthold  Laufer,  and  by  the 
Swede,  Dr.  Daird  Hummel,  a  member  of  my  last  expedition. 

Sir  Henry  Hayden  and  Cesar  Cosson,  in  1922,  proceeded  from 
Lhasa  to  Dangra-yum-tso.  It  was  a  great  loss  to  science  that  Sir 
Henry  was  killed  in  the  Alps  before  he  had  elaborated  his  very  im- 
portant geological  results.  So  far.  his  is  the  only  expedition  that 
has  crossed  the  great  white  patch  after  my  journey  in  1906-08.  In 
1900-02  I  crossed  Tibet  in  several  directions. 

It  would  take  us  too  far  would  we  try  and  remember  all  the 
travelers  in  westernmost  Tibet.  Less  than  a  century  has  passed  away 
since  the  Karakorum  first  was  looked  upon  as  an  individual  moun- 
tain system.  One  of  the  first  travelers  to  get  some  information 
of  these  regions  was  Franqois  Bernier  in  1664,  but  all  he  knew  was 
that  a  caravan  road  joined  Kashmir  and  Ladak  with  Kashgar  and 
Khotan.  Lieut.  Macartney  of  the  Kabul  Mission  of  1808  is  probably 
the  first  European  to  use  the  name  "Karra-Koorrum." 

Herman  and  Robert  Schlagintweit  in  1856  gave  Europe  very 
valuable  scientific  knowledge  of  these  parts  of  Tibet,  and  so  did 
Adolph  Schlagintweit  who  was  murdered  in  Kashgar  in  1857.  \V. 
H.  Johnson,  in  1865,  was  the  first  to  cross  the  highland  to  Khotan. 
In  western  Tibet  and  the  Karakorum  we  have  to  remember  K.  H. 
Godwin-Austen,  Robert  Shaw,  J.  W.  Hayward,  and  T.  Douglas 
Forsyth's  two  important  expeditions  in  1870  and  1873,  the  latter 
with  a  great  staff  of  scientists,  most  able  among  them  the  geologist. 
Dr.  Stoliczka.  During  the  Great  War  Dr.  Filippo  de  Filippi's  well- 
organized  scientific  expedition  in  the  Karakorum  advanced  our 
knowledge  of  these  regions.  And  in  1927-29  Dr.  Emil  Trinkler  and 
Dr.  de  Terra  did  excellent  work  in  western  Tibet.  Just  now,  in 
1932,  Dr.  Erik  Xorin,  geologist  of  my  expedition,  has  crossed  north- 
ern and  western  Tibet  from  the  region  of  Lake  Lighten  to  Ladak, 
while  my  astronomical  member,  Dr.  Nils  Ambolt,  is  on  his  way 
through  northern  Tibet  to  Temirlik  and  Astintagh.  He  has  carried 
out  a  great  number  of  pendulum  observations  for  determination  of 
gravity.  In  1928  two  other  members  of  my  staff,  Folke  Bergman 
and  Lieut.  H.  Haslund,  traveled  in  northeastern  Tibet. 


78  THE  OPEN   COURT 

Thus,  our  geographical  knowledge  of  Tibet  has  grown  gradually 
through  centuries.  Every  new  expedition  has  contributed  more  or 
less,  and  since  Fra  Alauro's  first  entry  of  the  name  Tebet  on  his 
map  of  1459,  our  conception  of  the  country  has  increased  step  by 
step.  In  later  years  some  political  and  sporting  expeditions  have 
given  their  valuable  share  to  our  knowledge ;  for  instance.  Sir  Fran- 
cis Younghusband's  campaign  in  1903-04,  and  the  Mount  Everest 
expeditions  of  1921,  1922,  and  1924,  which  cost  Mallory,  Irvin,  and 
several  natives  their  lives.  A  very  valuable  contribution  has  been 
given,  also,  by  Burrard's  and  Hayden's  Sketch  of  the  Himalaya 
Mountains  and  Tibet,  and  nobody  has  more  thoroughly  studied  the 
Tibetans  in  their  daily  and  religious  life  than  Sir  Charles  Bell  who 
spent  a  year  in  Lhasa. 


Tibet  is  the  highest  and  the  greatest  mountainous  upheaval  of 
the  earth's  crust.  At  its  southern  edge  is  Mount  Everest,  the  high- 
est peak  in  the  world,  rising  29,002  feet.  Since  the  middle  of  the 
Tertiary  epoch  and  during  the  following  geological  periods,  strong 
tangential  movements  in  the  earth's  crust  forced  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  which  then  covered  most  of  Europe  and  Asia,  to  rise.  Against 
the  resistance  of  Indo-Africa,  the  whole  southern  part  of  Eurasia 
was  raised  into  enormous  earth-waves,  and  the  ridges  of  these  folds, 
the  tops  of  the  future  mountain  ranges,  were,  in  the  course  of  ages, 
gradually  rising  above  the  sea.  The  oldest  folds,  Kunlun,  were  lo- 
cated in  the  north,  after  them  Karakorum,  Trans-Himalaya,  and 
finally  Himalaya  were  formed,  the  last-mentioned  being  the  south- 
ern edge  of  the  magnificent  region  of  upheaval.  The  wall  that  was 
strong  enough  to  offer  resistance  to  the  continued  formation  of  folds 
farther  south  was  the  Indian  peninsula  and  the  mountain  masses  in 
it  which  are  hidden  below  the  surface  of  the  earth.  Toward  the 
end  of  the  Pliocene  and  before  the  beginning  of  the  Pleistocene,  the 
folding  activity  ceased  after  having  definitely  built  up  the  great 
mountain  systems,  in  which  the  atmospheric  agencies  were  active 
as  they  still  are  to  this  day — denudation,  weathering,  erosion,  and 
deposition.  According  to  Anders  Hennig,  who  has  worked  out  and 
published  the  interpretation  of  the  collection  of  specimens  of  rocks 
which  I  Ijrought  home  in  1909,  the  latitudinal  valley  which  sepa- 
rates Trans-Himalaya  from  Himalaya  and  through  which  the  upper 
courses  of  the  Indus  and  the  Brahma])utra  How,  is  mainly  an  ero- 
sive  formation,   even    if   this   valley   originally   was   of   tectonic   or 


80  THE  OPEN   COURT 

orogenetic  character.  The  other  latitudinal  valleys  in  central  and 
northern  Tibet  may,  on  the  other  hand,  be  regarded  as  tectonic  fold- 
valleys. 

Some  sixty  years  ago  knowledge  of  the  plastic  of  the  Tibetan 
highland  \vas  very  scanty.  When  the  Indian  Pandit,  Nain  Sing,  in 
1873  told  us  that  one  could  drive  in  a  car  from  Panggong-tso  to 
Dangra-yum-tso  without  crossing  a  single  pass,  one  got  the  im- 
pression of  a  rather  even  plateau.  On  his  journey  (1876-77) 
Prshewalsky  showed  that  the  Tibetan  highland  with  very  high  moun- 
tain ranges  stretched  the  whole  way  to  the  neighborhood  of  Lop-nor, 
a  fact  of  which  even  the  al)le  Jesuits  had  been  ignorant.  Since  then 
the  expeditions  to  the  interior  of  Tibet  have  proved  that  several  great 
mountain  systems,  somewhat  diverging  to  the  east,  are  filling  up 
the  whole  interior  of  Tibet,  the  Kunlun,  Karakorum,  Trans-Hima- 
laya, and  Himalaya  being  the  principal  ones. 

We  know  also  that  the  whole  interior  of  the  Tibetan  highland  is 
self-contained,  i.e.,  has  no  outlet  either  to  the  sea  or  to  Central  Asia. 
I  have  calculated  that  this  self-contained  portion  occupies  an  area 
of  718,000  square  kilometers,  nearly  as  much  as  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way together.  In  the  west,  south,  and  east  the  boundary  of  the  tri- 
angular self-contained  region  coincides  with  the  continental  water- 
parting,  outside  of  which  the  peripheric  regions  are  situated  with 
their  accentuated  relief,  their  vertical  lines,  and  their  deep-cut  val- 
leys occupied  by  the  source  branches  of  the  Indus,  Ganges,  Tsangpo- 
Brahmaputra,  Mekong,  Salwen,  Yangtse-kiang  and  Hwang-ho.  The 
self-contained  interior  of  Tibet  consists  of  some  hundred  and  fifty 
large  and  several  thousand  small  individual  basins.  The  largest  of 
all,  that  of  Selling-tso,  has  an  area  of  33,000  square  kilometers. 
In  the  lowest  part  of  each  basin  there  is  a  salt  lake.  \"ery  often 
fresh  water  lakes  are  connected  with  them.  The  lakes  are  formed  by 
three  dififerent  causes — by  the  damming  up  of  a  main  valley,  by  the 
gravel  scree  from  a  tributary  valley,  and  by  glacial  erosion  or  dif- 
ferential movements  in  the  earth's  crust. 

All  lakes  of  Tibet  are  in  a  state  of  dessication,  and  old  beach- 
lines  may  very  often  be  seen  around  them.  At  Poru-tso  I  found 
them  at  108  meters  and  at  Lakor-tso  at  133  meters  above  the  present 
level  of  the  lake.   P.oth  are  situated  in  western  Tibet. 

It  has  l)cen  suggested  that  the  lakes  are  drying  up  because  of  the 
still  continued  rising  of  the  Himalayas  by  which  the  water-carrying 
cloud  masses  of  the  southwest  monsoon  in  constantlv  incrcasiner  de- 


TIBET  81 

gree  are  prevented  from  crossing  the  mountain  ranges.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  dessication  proceeds  much  quicker  than  the  up- 
heaval of  the  mountains.  The  drying-up  of  the  lakes  seems  rather 
to  be  due  to  the  periodical  changes  of  climate.  In  the  famous  pair  of 
lakes,  Manasarovar  and  Rakas-tal,  it  is  easy  to  observe  a  double 
period,  one  of  higher  order  on  which  the  outflow  of  the  Sutlej  from 
the  Rakas-tal  depends,  and  one  of  lower  order  that  influences  the 
channel  betwen  the  two  lakes.  Two  hundred  years  ago,  when  De- 
sideri  traveled  there,  the  Sutlej  flowed  out  of  Rakas-tal,  but  since 
then  both  lakes  have  been  cut  off  from  the  river.  In  the  years  1819, 
1846,  1848,  and  1910  the  channel  between  the  lakes  was  in  function, 
but  during  other  years  it  has  been  dry.  These  two  lakes  constitute 
the  best  instrument  for  studying  the  two  periods  one  of  which  em- 
braces centuries,  the  other  decades.  However,  Sir  Sidney  Burrard 
is  perfectly  correct  in  saying  that  both  lakes  still  belong  to  the 
drainage  of  the  Sutlej. 

In  the  interior  of  Tibet  the  leveling  is  still  going  on.  As  there 
is  no  vegetation,  except  scanty  grass,  and  as  the  differences  of  tem- 
perature between  day  and  night,  summer  and  winter,  are  so  great, 
the  weathering  is  very  eff'ective.  Wind  and  running  water  constant- 
ly carry  the  fine  material  down  to  the  central  parts  of  the  basins. 
In  the  course  of  thousands  of  years  the  mountain  ridges  are  lowered, 
and  the  bottoms  of  the  basins  are  gradually  filled.  The  relative  al- 
titudes decrease  and  the  surface  becomes  more  and  more  even.  The 
absolute  altitudes  above  the  sea  are  enormous,  in  the  north  16,000 
feet,  in  the  valley  of  the  Tsangpo-Brahmaputra  14,000. 

An  interesting  geographical  homology  is  the  following.  At  the 
northern  foot  of  the  Gurla-mandata  is  Lake  Manasarovar,  at  the 
northern  foot  of  Targo-gangri  is  Dangra-yum-tso,  and  at  the  north- 
ern foot  of  Nien-chen-tang-la  is  Tengri-nor.  Each  of  the  three 
highest  mountains  of  Tibet  thus  has  at  its  northern  foot  one  of 
the  largest  lakes  of  the  country,  and  all  three  are  sacred  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Tibetans.  Here,  of  course,  the  differences  of  altitude  are 
great.  As  Burrard  shows,  it  is  also  a  curious  fact  that  the  great 
ocean-going  rivers  have  cut  their  valleys  through  the  Himalayas 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  highest  mountain  peaks. 

The  climate  of  Tibet  is  very  hard.  In  winter  I  experienced 
— 39.8°  C.  The  summers  are  pleasant,  especially  in  the  southern 
parts.  In  the  north  one  encounters  hail-storms  and  snow  even  in 
midsummer.  A'ery  trying  are  the  hard  storms,  generally  coming  from 


82  THE  OPEN   COURT 

the  southwest  and  west.  As  a  rule  the  snowfall  in  winter  is  not  very 
heavy,  though  occasionally  one  must  travel  through  deep  snow.  The 
summer  is  the  rainy  season,  and  the  rains  in  the  east  and  the  south- 
east may  be  rather  heavy  and  continuous.  The  abundant  precipi- 
tation in  these  parts  of  the  countrv  gives  rise  to  the  great  rivers. 
Wild  animals  abound,  especially  in  the  northern  and  the  central 
parts  of  Tibet.  The  wild  yaks  roam  about  in  herds  of  many  hun- 
dreds, and  the  kiang  or  wild  asses  by  thousands,  though  occasional- 
ly in  small  herds  or  even  alone.  The  antelopes  and  gazelles  are  very 
numerous,  and  in  rock  regions  the  wild  sheep.  The  Tibetan  bear 
is  mostly  living  on  hares ;  the  wolves,  on  antelopes.  Foxes  are  sel- 
dom seen. 

In  the  southeast  barley,  mustard,  wheat,  radishes,  turnips,  peas, 
and  other  vegetables  are  cultivated.  A  good  deal  of  arable  ground 
is  to  be  found  in  the  lower  valleys.  Only  there  trees  are  seen.  The 
apricot  and  walnut  are  not  rare,  and  even  forests  grow  in  valleys 
and  on  mountain  slopes.  Hail-storms  and  frosts  are  the  most  dan- 
gerous enemies  of  the  crops.  In  the  interior  there  is  not  one  tree, 
and  even  bushes  are  extremely  rare.  Only  in  the  Indus  valley  from 
Gartok  to  Ladak  and  not  far  from  the  southern  shore  of  Dangra- 
yum-tso  did  I  find  scanty  bushes.  Otherwise  even  grass  is  very  rare 
in  the  interior,  though  quite  sufificient  for  the  flocks  of  sheep  and 
yaks  of  the  nomads  and  for  the  wild  animals. 


The  name  Tibet  as  used  in  the  western  w^orld  is  unknown  to  the 
Tibetans  themselves.  They  call  their  country  Bod-yul  or  Po.  To-po 
or  Upper  Tibet  may  have  created  the  form  Tobbot  used  by  the 
Arabic  geographers.  Pian  de  Carpine  introduced  the  name  Thabet 
to  Europe  whereas  Rubruk  and  Marco  Polo  used  the  form  Tebet 
which  also  appears  on  Fra  Mauro's  and  many  other  maps.  The 
Chinese  called  it  by  different  names  at  dififerent  periods — T'u-fan, 
Hsi-fan,  and  Wu-tsang.  r>arontola  is  a  Mongol  appellation  of  Lhasa 
which  found  its  way  to  many  old  European  maps. 

Tibet  is  situated  between  27°  and  39^  N.  latitude  and  78°  and 
100°  E.  longitude.  It  is  about  one  seventh  of  the  area  of  the  United 
States  and  se\cn  times  the  area  of  the  r)ritish  Isles. 

( )n  the  Lch-Cartok  trade  route,  the  boundary  between  Ladak 
(Kashmir)  and  Tibet  is  very  well  demarcated,  but  north  of  that 
road  the  boundary  is  very  much  imaginary,  and  this  is  to  a  still 
higher  degree  the  case  in  tlir  nDith,  in  the  system  of  the  Kunlun 


TIBET  83 

mountains  where  nobody  can  tell  where  the  boundary  line  between 
Sin-kiang  and  Tibet  runs.  If  the  extent  of  the  wanderings  of  the 
Tibetan  yak-hunters,  to  about  33°  or  34°  N.  latitude,  should  be  re- 
garded as  signifying  the  extension  of  Tibet,  this  country  would  not 
even  reach  as  far  as  the  Kunlun  system.  In  the  east  the  Chinese 
provinces  of  Kansu,  Szechuan,  and  Ytinan  are  neighbors  of  Tibet ; 
of  several  districts  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  they  belong  to  China 
or  to  Tibet,  as  they  are  in  dispute  between  both  countries.  British 
India  shares  a  boundary  of  some  two  thousand  miles  with  Tibet, 
which  is  generally  demarcated  by  the  Himala}'as. 

According  to  Dr.  Laufer,  Tibet  was  uninhabited  some  two  thou- 
sand years  ago,  and  we  cannot  speak  of  a  state  of  Tibet  as  a  national 
and  political  unit  before  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  a.d. 
We  know  nothing  of  an  ancient  culture  within  its  boundaries.  Be- 
fore that  time  numerous  tribes,  who  were  not  aborigines,  but  im- 
migrants from  western  China  at  a  very  early  date,  lived  amid  the 
mountains.  Thus  the  expansion  has  gone  from  east  to  west,  and 
Tibet  has  been  its  limit.  The  only  struggles  these  immigrants  en- 
gaged in  were  to  press  the  Himalayan  tribes  southward  which  must 
have  taken  place  not  earlier  than  the  fourth  or  fifth  century  of  our 
era. 

According  to  their  own  tradition,  the  Tibetans  are  descended 
from  a  monkey  who  was  an  incarnation  of  the  compassionate  Bo- 
dhisattva,    Chen-re-zi    (x\valokitesvara). 

The  early  history  of  the  "Snowland"  is  hidden  in  clouds,  and 
not  before  the  seventh  century  do  we  meet  a  real  historical  person- 
age, the  great  king,  Song  Tsen  Gampo  (written  Srong  btsan  sgam- 
po),  who  was  converted  to  Buddhism  by  his  two  queens,  a  Chinese 
and  a  Nepalese  princess,  in  allusion  to  the  fact  that  Tibetan  civili- 
zation came  from  both  China  and  India.  Song  Tsen  Gampo  organized 
the  priesthood,  built  monasteries,  and  introduced  writing,  laws,  and 
religious  spirit,  though  much  of  the  old  animistic  Bon  religion  with 
its  shamanistic  worship  of  nature,  its  good  and  evil  spirits  of  earth, 
sky,  rivers,  and  lakes,  its  sacrifices  of  human  beings  and  animals, 
its  sorcerers  and  soothsayers,  and  magical  drums  remained,  and  was 
adopted  into  the  new  religion.  In  eastern  and  southeastern  Tibet 
survivals  of  the  old  Bon  religion  and  even  Bon  monasteries  still 
exist.  Every  traveler  in  Tibet  has  observed  many  superstitious 
features  among  the  people,  obviously  survivals  of  their  old  primi- 
tive faith. 


84  THE  OPEN   COURT 

King  Song  Tsen  Gampo  was  also  the  victorious  warrior  who 
conquered  great  parts  of  Burma,  Nepal,  and  western  China.  Where 
Potala  is  now  situated  he  built  his  royal  palace.  The  civilization 
he  gave  Tibet  was  strongly  influenced  by  China,  while  the  religious 
influence  came  from  Nepal  and  India. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  eighth  century  King  Ti-Song  Detsen 
(written  K'ri  Srong  Ideu  btsan)  made  himself  famous  by  summon- 
ing the  Tantric  Buddhist.  Padma  Sambhava,  from  northwestern 
India  to  Tibet,  where  he  became  the  real  founder  of  the  new  re- 
ligion. He  built  the  first  famous  monastery.  Samye,  southeast  of 
Lhasa,  and  is  the  chief  saint  of  the  original  Buddhism  of  Tibet, 
the  sect  of  the  Red  Hats.  Padma  Sambhava  is  much  venerated 
and  is  worshiped  in  the  Lamaistic  world. 

During  the  reign  of  Ralpachan  (ninth  century"),  the  religion 
deyeloped  more  and  more,  and  several  temples  were  built.  Tibet 
was  a  power  in  those  days  and  included  great  parts  of  China,  Nepal, 
and  Turkistan. 

As  an  enemy  of  Buddhism  King  Langdarma  was  hated  by  the 
Lamas  who  wrote  Tibetan  history.  He  was  therefore  assassinated 
by  a  priest. 

When  in  1270  Kublai  Khan  invited  the  high  priest  of  Sakya  and 
gave  him  the  sovereignty  of  Tibet,  the  first  step  was  then  taken  in 
establishing  a  series  of  priest-kings. 

King  Changchub  Gyaltsen  was  a  supporter  of  Buddhism  and  ap- 
proached China.  He  was  the  founder  of  the  Sitya  dynasty  which 
in  1635  was  ousted  by  the  king  of  Tsang  who  soon  afterwards  was 
beaten  by  Gushi  Khan  and  his  Olot  Mongols. 

While  the  existing  priesthood  was  called  the  Red  Hats,  a  new 
sect,  the  Yellow  Hats  or  the  "\"irtuous,"  was  founded  by  Tsong- 
khapa,  a  native  of  Amdo  (1356-1418).  He  was  a  great  reformer, 
introducing  a  more  severe  code  of  morals  and  forbidding  the  priests 
to  marry  and  to  drink  wine.  Black  art  and  magic  were  abolished  to 
a  great  extent.  He  also  w^as  the  founder  of  the  two  great  monas- 
teries, Galdan  and  Sera,  which,  together  with  Drepung,  are  called 
"the  three  i)illars  of  the  State."  All  three  are  situated  near  Lhasa. 
Tsongkhapa  is  buried  at  Galdan.  His  image  is  found  in  almost  every 
temple  of  Tibet  and  Mongolia,  and  is  as  much  honored  and  wor- 
shiped as  Buddha  himself.  The  no  less  famous  monastery,  Tashi- 
Ihunpo,  was  founded  by  Ganden  Truppa,  and  became  later  the 
residence  of   the  Tashi-Lania. 


TIBET  85 

Ganden  Triippa  died  in  1474,  and  after  him  the  behef  in  the 
system  of  reincarnation  was  diffused  all  over  the  country.  At  the 
present  time  it  is  estimated  that  nearly  one  thousand  incarnate 
Lamas  live  in  Tibet. 

Sonam  Gyatso  spread  the  new  religion  both  over  Tibet  and  Mon- 
golia, and  was  honored  by  the  Mongol  chieftain  with  the  title  Dalai 
Lama  Vajradhara,  "the  all-embracing  Lama,  Holder  of  the  Thunder- 
bolt." 

The  famous  fifth  Dalai  Lama,  Lobzang  Gyatso,  in  1641,  called 
on  the  Olots  for  help  against  the  old  church.  The  Olots  came  and 
subdued  the  Red  Hats,  whereupon  the  Dalai  Lama  became  sovereign 
of  Tibet  and  took  up  his  residence  in  the  Potala  palace.  His  teacher 
became  Grand  Lama  of  Tashi-lhunpo  and  an  incarnation  of  Amita- 
bha,  god  of  Boundless  Light  and  lord  of  the  Western  Paradise.  The 
Dalai  Lama  was  and  is  an  incarnation  of  Avalokitesvara.  The 
Tashi  Lama  (Panchen  Rinpoche  or  Panchen  Bogdo)  is  regarded 
as  occupying  a  higher  spiritual  standing  than  the  Dalai  Lama. 

Lhasa  was  made  the  seat  of  the  central  power  by  the  prime  minis- 
ter of  the  fifth  Dalai  Lama.  The  fifth  Dalai  Lama  died  in  1680.  His 
death,  for  political  reasons,  was  kept  secret  for  some  time.  His 
successor,  Tsangyang  Gyatso,  led  a  frivolous  life.  China  now  grew 
more  powerful  in  Tibet  and  conquered  Tachienlu.  In  1718  the  em- 
peror K'ang-hi  made  war  against  Tibet,  took  Lhasa,  and  left  a 
strong  Manchu  garrison  there.  His  grandson,  the  emperor  Ch'ien- 
lung,  strengthened  China's  power  in  Tibet  and  installed  two  Am- 
bans  in  Lhasa  (1750). 

The  great  Governor  General  of  India,  Warren  Hastings,  in  1774, 
sent  George  Bogle  to  Tashi-lhunpo  for  the  purpose  of  opening  the 
country  to  trade  with  India  and  studying  its  possibilities  and  wealth. 
Five  years  later  the  emperor  Ch'ien-lung  invited  the  third  Tashi 
Lama,  Palden  Yeshe,  to  Peking  Avhere  he  died  in  1780. 

In  1783  Samuel  Turner  was  sent  to  Tashi-lhunpo  with  the  same 
commission  as  Bogle.    In  1811  Manning  traveled  to  Lhasa. 

After  some  trouble  on  the  boundary  the  Gurkhas  of  Nepal  at- 
tacked Shigatse  aild  Tashi-lhunpo  in  1791.  The  next  year  the  em- 
peror Ch'ien-lung  sent  a  Chinese-Tibetan  army  the  whole  way 
through  Tibet  and  Himalaya  against  the  Gurkhas  who  were  beaten 
one  day's  journey  from  Katmandu,  capital  of  Nepal.  Thereupon  the 
power  of  China  and  the  Ambans  increased  in  Tibet,  and  Chinese 
officials  were  posted  in  Shigatse,  Tingri,  Chamdo,  and  Traya.    The 


86  THE  OPEN   COURT 

Chumbi  A'alley  and  Phari  came  under  Tibetan  rule.  The  Ambans 
also  became  influential  in  the  elections  of  Dalai  Lamas  and  Tashi 
Lamas. 

The  following  Dalai  Lamas  all  died  young  as  victims  of  political 
and  religious  intrigues.  The  present  Dalai  Lama,  Xgavang  Lobzang 
Tupden  Gyatso,  was  born  in  1876  of  humble  parentage  from  Takpo. 
He  is  the  thirteenth  of  the  dignity,  and  has  occupied  his  high  posi- 
tion since  1903.  He  can  therefore  look  back  upon  a  very  long  and, 
on  the  whole,  happy  reign.  The  occupant  of  the  divine  throne  in 
Potala  is  a  Bodhisattva,  and  as  such  he  is  entitled  to  enter  Nirvana, 
though  he  consents  to  be  reborn  for  the  benefit  of  humanity. 

The  Dalai  Lama's  power  is  absolute,  though  he  depends  upon  the 
Council,  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  and  the  Chief  Secretary.  After  the 
death  of  a  Dalai  Lama,  the  Tashi  Lama,  the  abbots  of  Sera,  Drepung 
and  Galdan,  the  state  oracle  at  Lhasa  and  the  oracle  at  Samye 
gather  and  select  a  successor.  Among  several  boys  they  decide  as 
to  who  is  the  right  one ;  this  is  revealed  by  signs  and  miracles. 
For  the  final  decision  the  golden  urn  given  by  the  emperor  in  1793 
may  be  used. 

In  the  Dalai  Lama's  surroundings  the  Lord  Chamberlain  is  the 
head  of  all  ecclesiastical  officials  in  Tibet,  whereas  the  Chief  Secre- 
tary is  responsible  for  the  communication  between  the  Dalai  Lama 
and  the  outer  world  ;  he  may  be  more  powerful  even  than  the  Coun- 
cil, and  he  has  ten  assistants.  Further,  there  are  a  Master  of  the 
Bed  Chamber,  a  Court  Chaplain,  a  Chief  Butler,  and  others. 

A  few  important  dates  in  the  modern  history  of  Tibet  may  be 
of  interest,  the  more  so  as  the  present  Dalai  Lama  has  proved  to 
be  an  able  statesman  and  a  clever  politician.  In  1890  the  British 
took  a  step  approaching  Tibet  on  the  treaty  that  recognized  a  British 
protectorate  over  Sikkim,  and  three  years  later  a  new  treaty  estab- 
lished Yatung  as  a  trade  mart  on  the  Tibetan  side.  After  some 
frontier  disputes  in  1899,  the  Dalai  Lama  returned  letters  from  Lord 
Curzon  unopened.  At  the  same  time  he  seemed  to  be  in  negotiations 
with  Russia  through  the  assistance  of  his  old  tutor,  the  Buriat 
Dorjiefif,  who  was  sent  with  rich  presents  to  the  czar.  Lord  Cur- 
zon regarded  a  strong  Russian  influence  in  Tibet  as  a  danger  to 
India,  and  in  1903,  therefore,  sent  a  military  expedition  under  Sir 
Francis  '^'ounghusband  by  way  of  Gyangtsc  and  Tima  to  Lhasa, 
where  it  arrived  in  the  spring  of  1904.    Shortly  before  its  arrival 


TIBET  87 

the  Dalai  Lama  had  fled  to  Urga,  capital  of  Mongolia  and  seat  of 
the  Gegen  Hutuktu. 

Among  the  paragraphs  of  the  treaty  of  Lhasa  were  the  follow- 
ing: Two  new  marts  to  be  opened  for  British  trade — Gyangtse  and 
Gartok.  No  duties  on  British  merchandise.  Half  a  milHon  pounds 
to  be  paid  in  75  annual  installments.  The  Chumbi  Valley  to  be  oc- 
cupied by  the  British  until  the  whole  amount  be  paid.  Tibet  to  have 
no  intercourse  with  other  powers. 

After  Russian  protests  in  London  the  British  Government  dis- 
avowed a  good  deal  of  what  Younghusband  had  accomplished.  The 
indemnity  was  cut  down  to  166,000  pounds,  and  the  Chumbi  Val- 
ley was  to  be  evacuated  within  three  years.  The  main  result  of  the 
mission  to  Lhasa  was  a  great  increase  of  China's  power  in  Tibet. 
The  Chinese  paid  the  sum  of  166,000  pounds,  and  in  1907  the 
Chumbi  Valley  was  restored  to  Tibet. 

After  the  convention  between  Great  Britain  and  China  in  1906, 
which  granted  China  the  exclusive  right  to  concessions  in  Tibet, 
Chang  Yin  Tang  was  appointed  High  Commissioner  for  Tibet,  He 
controlled  the  intercourse  between  India  and  Tibet  and  lessened 
British  influence. 

In  1907  Great  Britain  and  Russia  made  an  agreement  to  prevent 
friction  in  Asia.  It  concerned  Persia,  Afghanistan,  and  Tibet. 
The  two  powers  decided  to  abstain  from  interference  in  Tibetan 
affairs.  Negotiations  in  Tibet  should  be  carried  out  only  through 
China  as  intermediary.  N'o  representatives  should  be  allowed  in 
Lhasa.  No  concessions  for  roads  or  mines  should  be  made.  During 
three  years  no  scientific  expeditions  should  be  allowed — as  if  the 
scientific  exploration  of  Tibet  had  not  sufficient  difficulties  to  over- 
come even  without  the  assistance  of  European  powers ! 

The  Chinese  lost  face  by  not  taking  part  in  the  agreement,  by 
which,  however,  their  power  in  Tibet  increased  considerably.  In 
1908  trade  regulations  signed  by  Great  Britain,  China,  and  Tibet 
prohibited  British  subjects  from  traveling  in  Tibet  beyond  the 
new  marts,  Gyangtse  and  Gartok.  Therefore  the  old  Hindu  pilgrim- 
ages to  Manasarovar  could  not  be  undertaken  without  breaking 
the  law.  In  a  few  years  Tibet  had  come  under  Chinese  domination, 
a  direct  consequence  of  the  strange  policy  of  Great  Britain,  Young- 
husband's  mission,  and  the  treaties.  Chang  Yin  Tang  made  ener- 
getic propaganda  in  Tibet.  Through  Tachienlu  Chinese  troops  were 
sent  into  the  country,  and  great  parts  of  eastern  Tibet  were  occupied. 


88  THE  OPEN   COURT 

The  Dalai  Lama,  who  had  fled  in  1904.  was  deposed  by  the  em- 
peror. In  1908  the  Tibetan  hierarch  went  to  Peking-  where  he  per- 
formed rites  at  the  burial  of  the  emperor  Kuang-sii  and  the  old 
Empress  Dowager.  In  December  of  the  same  year  he  left  Peking 
and  returned  to  his  capital  a  year  later.  On  February  12,  1910, 
Chinese  troops  entered  Lhasa.  The  following  night  the  Dalai  Lama 
with  all  his  ministers  again  fled  from  his  capital,  taking  the  seals 
of  office  along.  At  Chaksam  Ferry  on  the  Tsangpo  he  left  a  de- 
tachment of  soldiers  to  hold  back  his  Chinese  pursuers.  After  a 
nine-day  journey  he  crossed  the  frontier  of  Sikkim  and  a  few  days 
later  arrived  in  Darjeeling,  where  he  was  very  well  received.  A 
second  time  the  Chinese  deposed  him,  an  action  ridiculed  by  the 
Tibetans. 

China  had  some  three  thousand  soldiers  in  Tibet,  and  her  power 
was  absolute.  Great  Britain  was  prevented  by  treaties  from  helping 
Tibet.  She  had  to  abandon  Tibet  to  China.  The  Ambans  were  ab- 
solute despots  in  Lhasa,  and  China  now  turned  her  attention  to 
Nepal  and  Bhutan  as  feudatory  states,  though  without  success.  The 
Chinese  revolution  of  1911  suddenly  changed  the  situation.  In  No- 
vember the  garrisons  mutinied,  and  during  the  summer  of  1912 
China  lost  her  power  in  Central  Tibet.  After  spending  two  years  in 
Darjeeling  as  guest  of  the  British  with  Sir  Charles  Bell  as  inter- 
preter, the  Dalai  Lama  returned  to  Lhasa.  The  Chinese  troops  were 
expelled  by  way  of  Sikkim  and  India.  At  the  same  time  the 
governor  of  Szechuan  sent  troups  to  restore  Chinese  power  in  Tibet. 

Far  north  of  Tibet  other  political  moves  took  place.  At  the  end 
of  1912  Russia  made  an  agreement  with  IMongolia  in  LTrga,  agreed 
to  preserve  Mongolia's  autonomy,  and  obtained  economical  and  po- 
litical privileges  which  gradually  led  to  complete  control  over  Outer 
Mongolia.  The  next  year  an  agreement  was  concluded  between  Rus- 
sia and  China  in  which  Russia  acknowledged  the  suzerainty  of 
China  over  Mongolia,  and  China  recognized  Mongolia's  autonomy. 
The  same  year  a  treaty  was  concluded  between  Mongolia  and  Tibet 
to  aid  each  other  in  case  of  danger.  Autonomy  in  Tibet  was  a 
British  interest  as  a  strong  Tibet  would  mean  a  protection  to 
India  in  the  north. 

In  October  of  1913  a  conference  took  place  in  Simla,  and  in 
Ajiril  of  the  following  year  a  convention  was  concluded  in  which 
China's  suzerainf}-  was  recognized.  China  was  not  to  convert  Tibet 
into  a  Chinese  province,    drcat  Britain  was  not  allowed  to  make  any 


TIBET  89 

annexations.  Autonomy  was  accorded  to  outer  Tibet  (Lhasa,  Shi- 
gatse,  etc.)-  Chinese  troops  were  not  allowed  in  outer  Tibet.  But 
China  was  not  forbidden  to  send  troops  to  inner  Tibet  (Litang, 
Batang,  etc.).  A  Chinese  Amban  in  Lhasa  was  granted  a  guard  of 
three  hundred  men.  The  British  trade  agents  were  allowed  to  have 
an  escort. 

Despite  the  mistakes  made  by  British  statesmen  Tibet  gradually 
approached  Great  Britain.  The  Tibetan  army  should  be  organized 
according  to  British  principles,  and  British  assistance  was  desired 
for  mining  purposes. 

In  eastern  Tibet  the  situation  was  unsettled  as  both  China  and 
Tibet  were  up  in  arms  there.  During  the  great  war  the  sympathy  of 
Tibet  was  shown  by  the  Dalai  Lama's  offer  to  send  one  thousand 
soldiers  and  by  the  great  monasteries  praying  for  a  British  victory. 

Sir  Charles  Bell,  in  1920,  obtained  the  Dalai  Lama's  permission 
for  the  Mount  Everest  Expedition,  and  was  in  constant  contact  with 
the  Dalai  Lama,  his  Prime  Minister,  the  Grand  Council,  and  the 
National  Assembly. 

The  great  Manchu  emperors  were  very  keen  to  establish  China's 
power  in  Tibet  for  the  sake  of  Mongolia.  The  two  countries  were 
closely  connected  by  the  same  religion.  If  China  lost  her  grasp  on 
Tibet,  Mongolia  would  also  be  lost.  Now  everything  has  changed. 
Outer  Mongolia  is  under  Russian  control,  and  the  old  trade  route 
from  Urga  to  Lhasa  is  completely  cut  off.  In  1923  I  could  easily 
get  permission  to  travel  from  Peking  to  Urga.  When  I  asked  for 
the  same  favor  in  1929,  if  was  refused.  Before  the  revolution  a  great 
Mongol  caravan  was  twice  a  year  sent  to  Lhasa.  For  a  long  period 
a  Tibetan  mission  was  sent  to  Peking  once  in  three  years,  and  a 
Nepalese  mission  once  in  five  years.  This  practice  also  came  to 
an  end  in  1911.  The  political  situation  of  Tibet  has  improved  despite 
the  ties  with  Mongolia  being  broken.  The  administration  is  better, 
and  brigandage  is  disappearing.  The  Tibetans  still  have  great  re- 
ligious sympathy  with  the  Mongols.  Hitherto  some  seven  hun- 
dred Lamas  in  Tibet  have  been  Mongols,  a  figure  which  probably 
will  decrease  on  account  of  the  political  barriers. 

We  have  recited  the  history  of  the  present,  the  thirteenth,  Dalai 
Lama.  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  say  a  few  words  about  the  Tashi 
Lama,  the  Panchen  Rinpoche,  the  sixth  who  has  played  a  less  im- 
portant part  in  the  history  of  Tibet,  but  whose  great  religious  au- 
thoritv  and  influence   and   whose  charming   personality   make  him 


90  THE  OPEN  COURT 

worthy  of  special  attention.  In  1905  the  Tashi  I.ama  was  in  India 
to  visit  the  sacred  places  of  Buddhism.  In  1907  when  I  was  his  guest 
in  Tashi-lhunpo  for  forty-seven  days,  he  was  twenty-five  years  old, 
and  had  occupied  his  high  position  for  nineteen  years.  In  1924  hos- 
tilities, as  so  often  before,  broke  out  between  Lhasa  and  Tashi-lhun- 
po, not  so  much  between  the  two  hierarchs  as  between  the  high 
priests  of  the  principal  monasteries.  The  Dalai  Lama  followed  a 
policy  approaching  India-England,  while  the  Tashi  Lama  adhered 
to  China.  Many  high  priests  were  on  his  side,  especially  the  Lamas 
of  Drepung,  the  headquarters  of  the  Chinese  party  in  Tibet.  The 
Dalai  Lama  was  the  stronger  of  the  two,  the  Tashi  Lama  fled  by 
way  of  Koko-nor  to  Suchow  with  the  intention  to  continue  to  LTrga. 
The  military  chief  of  Suchow  presented  to  him  the  invitation  of  the 
Chinese  government  to  come  to  Peking.  There  he  was  received  with 
royal  honors  and  established  his  residence  in  the  palace  of  the  late 
emperor  Kuang-sii  in  the  Nan  Hai  of  the  Forbidden  City,  where  I 
visited  him  several  times  in  December,  1926. 

Afterwards  he  traveled  in  Manchuria  and  Mongolia.  During 
the  summer  1929  he  was  for  a  long  time  the  guest  of  the  Sunit  Wang, 
blessing  pilgrims  by  the  thousands  and  visiting  the  greater  monas- 
teries. Finally  he  traveled  to  Mukden,  where  he  still  resided  in  1930. 
In  October  1932  he  returned  to  Peking. 

Why  is  he  tarrying  so  long  in  China,  Manchuria,  or  Mongolia? 
Is  he  waiting  for  some  new  important  political  change  that  may 
open  for  him  the  rocky  gates  to  his  beloved  Tibet  and  allow  him  to 
return  to  A]mitabha's  throne  in  Tashi-lhunpo?  What  really  hap- 
pened in  Tibet  in  1924  is  not  clear.  Ever  since  Lhasa  and  Tashi- 
lhunpo  became  the  two  great  centers  of  Lamaism  there  has  been 
a  rivalry  between  them.  Lhasa  has  officials  in  Shigatse  to  watch 
e\'ents  in  Tashi-lhunpo,  as  I  was  very  well  aware  in  1907.  Despite 
the  British  mission  to  Lhasa  in  1904,  the  Dalai  Lama  has  turned 
his  sympathy  entirely  to  India-England,  and  it  seems  possible  that 
the  Tashi-T^ma  would  not  go  so  far  in  pro-British  politics.  There- 
fore he  had  to  leave  the  country.  That  the  Chinese  Government 
forced  him  to  go  to  Peking  instead  of  to  Urga  is  easy  to  under- 
stand. Only  a  few  years  previously  Mongolia  had  belonged  to 
China.  An  independent  Mongolia  or  to  a  still  higher  degree,  a 
Mongolia  in  the  hands  of  Soviet  Russia  could  easily  be  a  danger  to 
China,  and  the  highest  spiritual  authority  in  the  Lamaist  world 
could  possibly  ])ecomc  dangerous   if  he   used  his   influence   for  po- 


TIBET 


91 


THE   TARGO-GANGRI   TO   THE   NORTHWEST   FROM    CAMP    150 
Photograph   by   Dr.    Sven   Hedin 


litical  aims.  Therefore  he  was  forced  to  go  to  Peking  and  to  be 
under  Chinese  control.  Since  then  the  poHtical  situation  has  changed 
again.  Manchuria  has  been  transformed  into  the  state  of  Manchu- 
kuo,  and  there  the  Tashi  Lama  would  be  free.  The  Russians  would 
probably  not  allow  him  to  go  to  outer  Mongolia,  the  Mongolian 
republic  with  its  capital,  Ulan  Batur  Khoto  ("The  Red  Hero's 
City"),  as  Urga  is  now  called. 

What  is  going  to  happen  in  the  future?  Nobody  knows.  It  is 
hazardous  to  prophesy.  Everything  that  happens  is  surprising.  If 
China  should  come  again  under  the  iron  hands  of  a  T'ang  Tai  Tsung 
or  a  K'ang-hi,  she  would  probably  extend  her  power  over  Tibet  as 
during  two  hundred  years  of  ]\Ianchu  rule,  and  then  the  Tashi 
Lama  would  no  doubt  be  allowed,  and  might  even  wish  to  return  to 
Amitabha's  throne.  Lender  such  circumstances  Great  Britain  will 
try  as  hitherto  to  maintain  cordial  relations  with  both  the  Lamaist 
hierarchs,  whose  relations  with  China  probably  will  remain  friendly. 


92  THE  OPEN  COURT 

As  could  be  expected,  the  highest  mountain  land  in  the  world 
is  very  sparsely  populated.  The  population  is  estimated  by  some 
as  about  three  or  four  million,  by  others  as  only  one  million  and  a 
half. 

As  to  Tibet  proper  I  would  divide  it  into  four  belts  stretching 
from  west  to  east.  The  northernmost  embracing  the  Kunlun  and 
Arka-tagh,  the  Kokoshili,  Dungbure  and  Buka-magna's  nearly  paral- 
lel mountain  systems,  and  the  latitudinal  valleys  between  them,  is 
uninhabited  and  uninhabitable  on  account  of  its  tremendous  altitude. 
Only  in  those  parts  of  this  belt  which  open  to  eastern  Turkistan  and 
where  the  altitude  is  moderate  are  there  small  communities  of  East- 
Turkish  tribes,  Kirghiz  and  Tagliks,  nomads,  and  occasionally  na- 
tives from  the  southern  oases  of  eastern  Turkistan  going  farther 
south  to  dig  for  gold  and  called  Altunchis  or  Gold-diggers.  In  the 
southern  outskirts  we  sometimes  come  across  a  few  Tibetan  yak 
hunters,  usually  possessing  a  small  number  of  sheep  and  yaks,  but 
mainly  living  on  the  meat  of  the  wild  yak  and  the  Orongo  ante- 
lope (Pantolops). 

South  of  this  belt  and  all  the  way  to  the  northern  foot  of 
the  Trans-Himalaya  we  find  the  country  of  the  nomads  (Drokpa). 
They  are  far  from  being  numerous.  Sometimes  one  may  travel  for 
several  days  without  seeing  a  single  tent.  The  Drokpas  are  wander- 
ing shepherds  living  on  the  milk,  butter,  and  cheese  of  their  sheep 
and  yaks.  Some  of  these  shepherds  are  also  hunters.  In  the  south- 
ern regions  of  this  belt  there  are  also  sedentary  people ;  for  instance, 
at  the  shore  of  Dangra-yum-tso,  Kyaring-tso,  and  Tengri-nor,  and 
there  are  even  a  few  temples,  as  Sershik-gompa,  Mendong-gompa, 
Lunkar-gompa,  and  Selipuk-gompa,  and  several  places  where  gold 
dust  is  dug  out  from  sand  deposits,  as  for  instance  Thok-jalung. 
The  two  northern  belts  together  are  called  Chang-tang  or  the  North- 
ern Plain,  and  the  inhabitants  are  called  Changpas  or  Northerners. 

The  third  belt  is  Trans-Himalaya,  which  may  be  subdivided 
into  two  halves,  the  l)oiuKlary  between  which  coincides  with  the  con- 
tinental water  parting.  The  southern  half  is  much  more  densely 
populated  than  the  northern.  In  the  transverse  valleys  opening  to 
the  south  and  carrying  tril)utaries  to  the  r>rabniaputra  there  are  a 
number  of  villages  of  stone  huts  and  small  houses,  and  there  are  a 
good  many  temple  monasteries  or  gompas.  The  population  increases 
from  west  to  east,  as  T  found  on  my  eight  crossings  of  the  Trans- 
Himalayan  system.     Still    fartlicr  cast,  in  the  valley  of  the  Ki-chu 


TIBET  93 

where  Lhasa  is  situated,  the  country  is,  of  course,  well  populated. 
There  are  numerous  nomads  who  live  in  black  tents  the  whole  year 
round,  and  half-nomads  who  during  the  summer  live  in  stone  huts 
and  cultivate  barley,  but  otherwise  graze  their  flocks  in  the  sur- 
rounding mountains.  In  the  valley  of  Mii-chu  there  are  many  small 
villages.  Tong  is  quite  a  group  of  villages.  Barley,  peas,  and  some 
wheat  are  cultivated.  As  a  rule  the  villages  are  placed  in  the  mouths 
of  the  tributary  valleys  to  make  use  of  the  water  for  irrigating 
purposes.  But  even  here  you  may  travel  a  day  without  seeing  a 
single  tent.  In  the  region  Tsaruk-gunsa  there  were  thirty  tents  near 
together.  In  the  district  of  Bongba-kyangrang  some  forty  tents  re- 
mained over  winter.  The  inhabitants  of  sixtv  tents  have  to  provide 
the  monks  of  Selipuk  with  fuel  and  water  and  to  take  care  of  their 
flocks.  The  district  Rundor  had  a  hundred  and  fifty  tents,  and  at 
the  uppermost  Indus  I  counted  thirteen  tents.  Along  the  shores 
of  the  lakes  one  never  sees  a  tent.  x\t  Ngangtse-tso,  for  instance, 
there  are  fifty  or  sixty  tents,  all  of  them  in  the  lower  parts  of  val- 
leys opening  to  the  lake. 

The  southernmost  belt  includes  the  broad  valley  of  the  Tsang- 
po  and  the  land  to  the  southern  boundary  of  Tibet.  As  a  rule  the 
region  of  the  Tsangpo  and  eastern  Tibet  are  the  most  densely 
populated  parts  of  Tibet. 

The  Tibetans  have  several  trade  routes  to  China  and  India. 
Tachienlu  on  the  eastern  border  is  the  greatest  trade  depot  be- 
tween China  and  Tibet.  The  old  trade  route  to  Urga  in  Mongolia 
does  not  exist  any  more.  From  Kalimpong  through  Sikkim  a  very 
important  road  enters  the  Chumbi  Valley,  by  Jelep-la  to  Phari, 
Gyangtse,  and  Lhasa,  and  there  are  other  roads  from  Assam  to  Tibet. 
From  Ladak  a  road  passes  along  the  upper  Indus  and  Tsangpo,  but 
there  trade  is  insignificant.  The  most  important  import  article  is 
Chinese  brick  tea,  and  the  principal  export  articles  are  wool,  hides, 
musk,  and  medical  herbs.  Yaks,  ponies,  and  donkeys  are  used  as 
beasts  of  burden,  and  sheep  are  used  for  the  transport  of  salt. 

As  said  before,  the  whole  northern  part  of  Tibet  is  called  Chang- 
tang.  U  is  the  central  province  with  Lhasa  as  capital,  Tsang  is  a 
province  of  southern  Tibet  whose  capital  is  Tashi-lhunpo.  Ngari 
khorsum  is  western  Tibet,  and  central  Trans-Himalaya  is  Bongba. 
Kham  is  the  name  of  the  eastern  part,  and  the  easternmost  district 
of  Kham  is  Xyarong.  Considerable  parts  of  Kham  are  under  Chin- 
ese control.    There  are  other  tribes  than  Tibetans  in  eastern  Tibet ; 


94  THE  OPEN   COURT 

for  instance,  the  Derge  who  are  clever  metal  workers,  the  Goloks, 
nomads  and  brigands,  and  others ;  in  northeastern  Tibet  on  the 
borderland  of  Kansu  there  are  Tanguts  who  practically  are  Tibetans. 
In  the  south  are  the  Lepchas  and  Buthias. 

The  whole  country  is  for  the  sake  of  administration  subdivided 
into  a  great  number  of  districts,  whose  chiefs  have  the  title  of 
dzongpon. 

The  population  of  Tibet  is  slowly  decreasing,  the  most  import- 
ant causes  being  polyandry  and  the  celibacy  of  the  Lamas.  In  the 
same  way  the  manly  w^arlike  qualities  of  the  people  of  Jengis  Khan 
have  deteriorated.  As  this  development  was  in  the  interest  of  the 
great  Manchu  emperors,  they  encouraged  Lamaism  by  all  means 
and  built  the  famous  temples  of  Jehol. 


Traveling  in  Tibet  is  and  has  always  been  a  serious  undertaking, 
far  more  difficult  than  in  most  other  parts  of  the  globe  outside  the 
poles.  Therefore  our  geographical  knowledge  of  the  country  has 
developed  so  slowly,  and  the  scientific  exploration  has  just  begun. 
This  is  natural  by  reason  of  the  enormous  altitude  of  the  highlands 
and  of  the  still  higher  mountain  ranges  and  their  passes.  As  an 
example  I  may  mention  the  Trans-Himalayan  passes  I  have  crossed 
and  of  which  seven  were  unknown  before : 

Sela-la    -. --...  5506  meters 

Chang-la-Pod-la    5572  meters 

Angden-la    5643  meters 

Sangmo-bertik-la    5820  meters 

Samye-la    5527  meters 

Surnge-la  - 5276  meters 

Lhamo-latse-la    5426  meters 

Jukti-la    5825  meters 

'J1uis  the  highest,  Jukti-la.  has  an  altitude  of  19,100  feet,  and  the 
lowest  one  Surnge-la  17,300  feet  which  is  very  low  for  Trans- 
Plimalaya. 

Every  ex])C(Hlion  through  Til)et  proper  must  therefore  be  very 
well  equipped  with  good  ponies  and  mules,  and  at  the  start  from 
Ladak  or  Chinese  Turkistan  take  with  them  a  hundred  donkeys 
or  more  carrying  maize  for  the  beasts  of  burden.  The  donkeys 
have  to  be  sent  back  when  the  supply  of  maize  is  exhausted,  and 
on  the  wav  they  have  to  pick  up  the  dung  of  yaks  and  wild  asses  to 
keep  alive.    The  most  difficult  task  is  to  start  from  the  north  where 


TIBET  95 

I  once  had  to  march  two  months  and  four  times  three  months  be- 
fore meeting  the  first  nomads.  During  these  three  months  through 
the  highest  part  of  the  country,  about  three  quarters  of  the  caravan 
was  lost  by  starvation,  fatigue,  storms,  and  cold,  and  the  survivors 
were  in  a  miserable  state  when  the  first  nomads  were  reached  and 
new  pack  animals,  usually  yaks  and  sheep,  could  be  bought. 

The  journey  therefore  becomes  a  continuous  fight  against 
natural  difficulties,  and  the  traveler  has  to  look  out  for  comparative- 
ly favorable  places  for  camping ;  that  is,  where  some  grass  is  to  be 
found.  As  a  rule  he  has  no  difficulty  in  finding  water  and  fuel,  which 
nearly  always  consists  of  yak  dung.  As  soon  as  he  has  reached 
nomads,  the  worst  difficulties  are  behind  him.  Usually  he  finds 
guides  who  may  show  him  the  best  grazing  grounds.  The  marches 
are  very  short,  thirteen  or  fourteen  miles  a  day,  in  winter  even 
less,  as  it  is  hard  to  expose  oneself  to  the  terrible  cold  and  the 
biting  wind.  Quiet  days  without  a  storm  or  a  heavy  wind  are  very 
rare. 

Despite  all  these  hardships  a  journey  through  Tibet  is  very  fas- 
cinating and  full  of  exciting  interest,  especially  in  unknown  coun- 
try, where  every  mountain,  glacier,  lake  or  river  and  every  village, 
monastery,  or  nomad's  camp  is  a  new  addition  to  human  knowledge. 
The  landscape  is  nearly  always  majestic  in  the  great  solitude  of 
mountain  desert,  where  only  the  wild  yaks,  kiangs,  and  antelopes 
roam  in  undisturbed  peace.  Every  evening  the  cloud  formations  are 
modeled  in  fantastic  beauty,  and  the  sunsets  are  brilliant.  As  a 
rule  it  is  easier  than  in  other  parts  of  the  world  to  see  the  shadow 
of  the  earth  just  after  sunset,  slowly  rising  above  the  eastern  horizon. 

Approaching  the  high  mountains.  Trans-Himalaya  and  Himalaya, 
a  pilgrim  from  the  western  world  will  enjoy  the  increasing  interest 
of  deep-cut  valleys,  imposing  ridges,  and  chains,  gigantic  mountain 
peaks,  considerable  rivers,  nomads  in  black  tents  or  sedentary  agri- 
culturists in  simple  stone  huts,  or  the  Lamas  in  their  picturesque 
gompas  or  monasteries.  There  he  will  be  captivated  by  the  color 
and  pomp  of  the  religion  of  Tibet  with  its  mysterious  ceremonies 
and  its  survivals  of  spirits  and  demons  of  which  earth,  water,  and 
air  are  supposed  to  be  full.  A  westerner  who  has  been  fortunate 
enough  to  pass  some  years  in  Tibet  will  feel  a  constant  longing  to 
return  to  the  fascinating  beauty  of  a  magnificent  alpine  world  and 
to  the  mvsterious  tinkling  of  golden  temple  bells. 


JJ£- 


i  M.    o       If      r 

iTAH.BAG/ay-_. ^        / 

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JUNGARIAN    DESEK.T       / 

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"— ./ 


CKX'IKAI,  ASIA 


CHINESE  TURKESTAN 

BY   OWEN    LATTIMORE 

SIN-KEA.NG  (Hsin-chianq-,  the  New  Erontier)  or  Chinese  Turki- 
stan,  like  Manchuria,  AfongoHa,  and  Tihet,  is  a  part  of  the  en- 
circling land  frontier  of  China.  Its  history  and  its  modern  prob- 
lems are  inseparable  from  those  of  China,  yet  always  distinct.  It 
has  been  the  regular  historical  practice  to  treat  all  of  these  border 
countries,  which  are  not  quite  dependencies  and  not  truly  nations, 
as  the  proper  field  for  the  expansion  of  Chinese  influences.  This 
does  not  give  the  whole  picture.  Actually,  periods  of  Chinese  ex- 
pansion have  alternated  with  periods  when  'the  power  of  the 
frontier  barbarians  extended  into  China. 

"Chinese"  dynasties  "ruling"  the  border  ])arbarians  have  fre- 
quently been  established  by  the  barbarians  themselves,  either  as  the 
result  of  open  invasion  or  through  the  alliance  of  tribesmen  beyond 
the  Great  Wall  with  political  factions  in  China.  The  barbarian  dy- 
nasties became  Chinese,  and  the  capitals  remained  in  China ;  but 
power  often  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  still  barbarian  tribesmen. 
The  frontier  tended  to  rule  the  country.  Erom  this  arises  the  para- 
dox that  the  periods  of  maximum  expansion  of  Chinese  influence 
and  culture  beyond  the  Great  Wall  are  not  necessarily  the  periods 
in  which  the  frontier  dominated  China,  taking  from  China,  in  the 
way  of  cultural  influences,  not  what  was  imposed  on  it  but  what  it 
wanted.  This  is  true  even  of  the  great  Han  dynasty  (206  b.c- 
A.D.  220).  The  real  Han  expansion  stopped  at  the  outer  Great  Wall 
systems ;  the  activities  of  its  most  able  statesmen  and  generals  in 
Central  Asia  were  not  the  result  of  genuine  conquest,  but  were  made 
possible  by  adroit  manipulation  of  the  diiTerent  Central  Asian 
peoples. 

Another  characteristic  of  the  frontier  as  a  whole  is  its  division 
into  an  "inner"  and  an  "outer"  region.  This  division  is  most  ob- 
vious in  Inner  and  Outer  IMongolia  ;  but  the  same  structure  exists 
in  Manchuria,  Central  Asia,  and  Tibet.  Briefly,  it  may  be  said  of 
this  "inner"  and  "outer"  structure  that  the  "inner"  region  is  more 
closely  associated  with  China,  alternately  as  the  garrison-territory 
of  barbarians  holding  power  in  China,  or  as  the  outpost-region  of 


98  THE  OPEN   COURT 

Chinese  power  beyond  the  Great  Wall  in  periods  of  Chinese  ascen- 
dency. The  "outer"  region  is  that  which  less  frequently  took  part 
in  direct  assaults  on  China,  and  was  less  affected  by  Chinese  con- 
trol in  the  periods  of  reaction.  Chinese  Turkistan  belongs  to  the 
'"outer"  sphere,  and  unless  this  is  clearly  apprehended  its  relation 
to  China  cannot  properly  be  appreciated.  The  important  Moslem 
"pale"  in  western  Kansu  province  stands  to  Chinese  Turkistan  as 
Inner  IMongolia  to  Outer  Mongolia,  and  graduates  in  the  same  way 
the  interaction  of  China  and  Chinese  Turkistan  on  each  other. 

It  is  against  this  historical  background  that  Chinese  Turkistan 
must  be  considered.  The  province,  which  is  really  a  group  of  "na- 
tive protectorates,"  has  been  closely  linked  with  China  from  the 
time  of  the  Han  dynasty,  when  a  great  silk  traffic  through  the  Cen- 
tral Asian  deserts  brought  the  empires  of  China  and  Rome  into 
remote  relation  and  when  Central  Asia  was  the  key  to  the  foreign 
policies  of  China.  In  the  succeeding  two  thousand  years,  however, 
Chinese  authority  over  what  is  now  Sin-kiang  has  only  been  opera- 
tive during  some  425  years, i  divided  into  several  periods,  of  which 
the  present  Chinese  overlordship  is  the  fifth  important  period. 

The  present  geographical  boundaries  of  Chinese  Turkistan,  and 
its  tribal  and  administrative  organization,  follow  the  lines  laid  down 
under  the  Manchu  or  Ch'ing  dynasty  (1644-1911).  Although  nomi- 
nally determined  by  Manchu  conquest,  they  were  actually  the  result, 
in  the  main,  of  the  advantage  taken  by  the  iNIanchus  of  internecine 
wars  among  the  tribes  themselves.  At  the  time  when  the  Manchus 
conquered  China,  the  whole  frontier  region,  from  Tibet  to  the  Pa- 
cific, was  riven  bv  war.  The  gravest  preoccupation  of  the  Manchus 
was  the  prevention,  within  the  frontier  region,  of  the  rise  of  any 
tribal  power  that  might  rival  their  own.  They  accomplished  their 
aim  only  in  very  small  measure  by  direct  conquest.  They  relied 
chiefly  on  setting  one  tribal  element  against  another,  coming  for- 
ward as  arbitrators  when  the  different  rivals  were  exhausted  by  lo- 
cal warfare,  and  arranging  settlements  on  the  basis  of  tribal  "spheres 
of  interest"  and  the  acceptance  of  the  Manchu  liouse  as  nominal 
overlord  by  each  pair  of  combatants.  The  element  of  compromise 
in  these  nominal  conquests  is  revealed  by  the  fact  that  the  "tribute" 
to  the  cui])eror  was  regularly  offset  by  handsome  subsidies  and 
presents  to  the  ])rinccs  and  chiefs. 

IC.   P.  Skrinc,  Chinese  Central  .Lua,  London.  1928. 


CHINESE  TURKISTAN  99 

At  the  time  of  the  Chinese  revohition  in  1911,  the  position  held 
by  the  Manchus  passed  to  the  Chinese.  The  fall  of  the  empire 
prompted  a  series  of  outbreaks  in  Chinese  Turkistan,  which  were 
cut  short  by  the  emergence  of  a  single  able  individual,  a  Chinese 
(not  native  to  the  province)  named  Yang  Tseng-hsin.  He  succeeded 
in  effecting  what  was  virtually  a  confirmation  of  the  status  quo, 
with  the  government  transferred  from  imperial  appointees  to  a  Chin- 
ese civil  service,  which  maintained  the  general  services  of  the  prov- 
ince and  continued  to  hold  the  old  balance  between  the  different 
tribal,  racial,  and  religious  elements.  The  government  was  composed 
in  the  first  instance  of  Chinese  who  had  served  under  the  Manchus, 
and  has  since  hardened  into  a  group  of  office-holding  families,  which 
recruit  new  members  only  with  caution.  While,  therefore,  China 
has  been  struggling  for  twenty-one  years  with  the  inevitable  re- 
sults of  the  revolution,  Chinese  Turkistan  has  lived  almost  com- 
pletely at  peace,  by  virtue  of  avoiding  every  implication  of  the 
revolution,  under  what  amounts  to  the  fiction  that  the  revolution 
never  occurred. 

The  Chinese  governing  minority  in  Sin-kiang  is  comparable  to 
the  British  element  in  India ;  but  with  the  difference  that  there  is 
no  valid  connection  between  the  government  of  Chinese  Turkistan 
and  the  government  of  China.  They  are  sundered  by  the  "inner 
frontier"  of  Moslem  Kansu.  The  power  of  the  Chinese  in  Turki- 
stan is  largely  a  fiction,  and  in  so  far  as  it  is  real  is  maintained  not 
by  the  real  strength  of  the  Chinese  themselves,  but  by  playing  off 
against  one  another  the  dift"erent  subject  populations — Moslems 
against  Lama-Buddhists,  nomads  against  settled  peoples,  towns 
against  country  districts.  The  compactness  of  the  Moslems  as  the 
most  important  minority  is  discounted  by  the  hostility  of  sects.  Is- 
lam, as  the  "protestantism"  of  the  Middle  Eastern  religions,  has 
the  protestant  characteristic  of  splitting  into  innumerable  sects.  Un- 
der the  lulled  rhythm  of  all  life  in  Central  Asia,  so  long  as 
economic  conditions  and  general  political  relations  are  reasonably 
tranquil,  the  quarrels  of  religious  sects  are  not  primary  causes  of 
disturbance ;  but  they  are  nevertheless  constantly  in  dispute,  and 
when  other  conditions  combine  to  precipitate  war,  they  flare  up 
vigorously.  It  is  the  incompatibility  of  sects  that  prevents  cohesion 
both  within  the  Moslem  "pale"  of  Kansu  and  the  Moslem  popu- 
lation of  Chinese  Turkistan,  and  has  enabled  the  Chinese  to  keep  the 


100  THE  OPEN   COURT 

upper  hand:  it  has  hcen  the  ruin  of  each  of  the  great  ^Muhammadan 
rebelHons. 

The  province  of  Sin-kiang  has  an  area  of  roughly  400,000  square 
miles  (about  twice  the  size  of  the  pre-war  German  empire)  of  which 
the  greater  part  is  desert.  The  population  is  probably  about  two  mil- 
lion, which  may  include  between  one  and  two  hundred  thousand 
Chinese  :  but  not  even  roughly  accurate  figures  are  available.  Ex- 
ternally its  frontiers  are  well  defined  by  mountains  and  deserts ; 
the  commanding  internal  features  are  the  great  southern  and  cen- 
tral desert  of  the  Taklamakan,  the  northern  desert  of  Jungaria, 
and  the  T'ien-shan  range.  This  range  forms  a  kind  of  backbone 
to  the  country,  and  is  roughly  the  historical  frontier  between 
nomads  on  the  north  and  settled  peoples  on  the  south.  The  main 
precipitation  of  rainfall  is  on  the  north,  and  for  this  reason  there 
has  always  been  a  corridor  of  migration  along  the  pasture  belts  on 
the  northern  side  of  the  T'ien-shan,  linking  ^Mongolia  and 
Russian  Central  Asia. 

South  of  the  T'ien-shan  the  rainfall  is  insufficient  to  support  con- 
tinuous grazing.  The  water  supply  depends  chiefly  on  the  rivers 
which  come  down  from  the  crests  of  the  high  ranges — the  Kun- 
lun  and  Karakorum  ranges  on  the  south  as  well  as  the  T'ien-shan 
on  the  north.  Nomads  live  in  the  upper  mountains,  but  the  regular 
mountain  formation  is  one  in  which  an  arid  foothill  range  is  in- 
terposed between  the  main  range  and  the  plains,  acting  as  a  barrier 
between  the  nomads  and  the  people  of  the  oases.  Where  the  streams 
issue  from  the  foothill  range  it  is  possible  to  spread  the  water  out 
fanwise  through  irrigation  systems,  to  form  an  oasis  of  great  fer- 
tility. This  accounts  for  agricultural  conditions  of  extraordinary 
stability,  because  the  water,  depending  not  on  rainfall  but  on  the 
melting  of  snows  and  glaciers,  becomes  most  plentiful  when  it  is 
most  needed.  Speaking  in  general,  there  are  two  periods  of  abun- 
dant water ;  one  in  the  spring,  when  the  snow  melts  in  the  lower 
hills,  and  one  in  summer  when  the  thaw  extends  to  the  highest  snows 
and  the  glaciers.  This  greatly  favors  the  growth  of  cotton  (the 
most  important  export  crop),  as  well  as  the  grapes,  melons,  and 
other  fruits,  for  which  the  oases  are  fatuous. 

Thus,  the  economic  geography  of  the  c«nintr\,  with  which  racial 
grou])ing  closely  corresponds,  may  be  summarized  as  follows:  an 
inner    backbone    range    of    high    mountains,    with    jicaks    rising    to 


CHINESE  TURKISTAN  101 

about  24,000  feet ;  an  outer  range  of  desert  mountains,  and  an  ir- 
rigated oasis  at  each  point  where  a  stream  from  the  inner  moun- 
tains issues  by  a  difficult  gorge  through  the  barrier-range.  Below 
the  oasis  the  water  of  the  stream  runs  to  waste,  vanishing  in  the 
desert  or  ending  in  reed-beds,  meres,  or  lakes,  in  the  Taklamakan 
desert  in  southern  Chinese  Turkistan  or  the  Jungarian  desert  in 
Jungaria  or  northern  Chinese  Turkistan.  In  these  terminal  basins 
and  reed-beds  there  are  zones  of  grazing  land  ;  but  these,  in  south- 
ern Chinese  Turkistan,  are  separated  by  desert  ga])s  which  impede 
nomadic  migration. 

In  southern  Chinese  Turkistan,  therefore,  population  is  distrib- 
uted vertically,  from  the  low-lying  reed-beds  to  the  oases,  and  so 
up  through  the  barrier  mountains  into  the  main  ranges.  Lateral 
communication  is  difficult.  The  oases  are  connected,  like  beads  on 
a  string,  by  an  arterial  road  following  the  foot  of  the  hills.  Local 
trade  is  between  the  plain  and  the  mountains,  with  the  oasis-town 
as  center  of  distribution  and  of  the  petty  manufactures  which  meet 
most  local  needs.  The  arterial  road,  therefore,  serves  in  the  main 
only  for  the  export  of  such  surplus  as  can  be  taken  entirely  out  of 
the  country ;  since  to  transport  it  to  an  exactly  similar  neighbor- 
ing oasis  would  be  useless. 

Under  modern  conditions  the  chief  exports  are  cotton,  wool, 
hides,  furs,  small  amounts  of  gold  and  jade,  and  the  raisins  that 
have  been  a  delicacy  in  China  ever  since  the  introduction  of  the 
grape  in  the  Han  dynasty.  The  imports  are  silks,  tea,  piece-goods, 
and  a  certain  number  of  sundry  goods.  Generally  speaking,  not  use- 
ful goods  but  luxuries  are  the  most  profitable  to  import ;  the  smaller 
the  bulk  and  weight,  and  the  higher  the  value,  the  more  chance  of 
profit,  because  of  the  great  distances  over  which  goods  have  to  be 
transported.  The  movement  of  culture,  historically,  has  been  paral- 
lel to  that  of  trade.  There  has  been  a  marked  tendency  to  import 
the  incidental  aspects,  rather  than  the  basic  values,  of  Chinese  cul- 
ture. In  more  ancient  times,  the  luxury  class  of  trade  was  even 
more  important.  Practically  the  only  exports  of  Chinese  Turkistan 
were  gold,  jade,  and  horses  of  specially  fine  breed,  while  the  im- 
ports were  silk  and  tea  :  and  probably,  from  the  \A'est,  weapons  of 
superior  make. 

There  have  been  two  great  arterial  trade  routes,  each  with  its 
minor  variations,  in  southern  Chinese  Turkistan :  the  Lop-nor  route. 


102  THE  OPEN   COURT 

now  abandoned  in  part,  and  the  T'ien-shan  Xan  Lu,  the  Road  South 
of  the  Heavenly  ]\Iountains.  This,  the  great  route  of  the  present 
day,  enters  Sin-kiang  from  Kansu  and  passes  from  Hami  (Komul) 
to  Urumchi,  which  is  actually  north  of  the  T'ien-shan.  Then  it 
passes  back  to  the  south  of  the  mountains  and  runs  through  Tur- 
fan,  Toksun,  Karashahr,  Korla,  Kuchar,  Aksu,  and  ]\Iaralbashi  to 
Kashgar.  Here  it  joins  the  western  terminal  half  of  the  Lop-nor 
route,  which  now  survives  chiefly  as  an  internal  trade  route,  not 
communicating  with  China  but  running  from  Lop-nor  along  the 
foot  of  the  Kunlun  and  Karakorum,  through  Keriya,  Khotan,  and 
Yarkand  to  Kashgar. 

These  two  roads  link  together  the  oases  of  the  agricultural 
eastern  Central  Asian  Turks — the  Turki,  called  by  the  Chinese 
Ch'an-t'ou  or  Turbaned  Heads.  Among  the  Turki  are  also  found 
(chieflv  in  the  cities)  a  Chinese  population;  the  T'ung-kan  or  Dun- 
gan,  a  settled  Moslem  people  probably  of  mixed  Chinese  and  Turk- 
ish blood  :  and  a  few  minor  peoples,  such  as  the  Dulani  and  the 
Lopliks.  In  the  mountains  back  of  the  trade  routes  are  found  such 
peoples  as  the  Kazaks  (nomadic  Central  Asian  Turks)  in  the  Kar- 
lik  Tagh,  a  part  of  the  T'ien-shan,  north  of  Hami ;  the  Mongols, 
north  of  Karashar  in  the  Yulduz  region  of  the  central  T'ien-shan ; 
and  the  Kirghiz  (another  division  of  nomadic  Central  Asian  Turks) 
in  the  western  T'ien-shan  and  in  the  Karakorum  and  Kunlun.  In 
the  mountains  south  of  Kashgar  there  are  also  the  Sarikolis,  a 
sedentary  people,  related  to  the  Tajiks  of  the  highlands  of  Rus- 
sian Central  Asia. 

The  chief  center  of  Chinese  population  is  Urumchi,  capital  and 
nodal  point  of  the  province.  The  Chinese  diminish  rapidly  in  num- 
bers along  the  road  to  Kashgar,  but  are  fairly  numerous  in  the  Hi 
region.  As  agricultural  settlers  they  are  most  important  in  the  lat- 
ter, but  they  are  also  found  in  some  of  the  oases  between  Urum- 
chi and  Hi,  and  around  Chuguchak.  For  the  most  part,  however, 
they  are  city  dwellers ;  large  traders  handling  the  long-distance  cara- 
van trade,  jietty  traders  retailing  imports  from  China,  members  of 
the  government  services,  and  military  officers.  As  private  soldiers 
the  Chinese  are  the  poorest  material  in  the  province ;  they  are  very 
consciously  the  ruling  race,  and  it  is  so  easy  for  a  man  of  any 
industry  and  intelligence  to  make  a  good  living  that  as  a  class  they 
feel  themselves  above  the  bad  pay  of  the  soldier.  As  a  rule,  there- 
fore, it  is  only  the  worthless  and  incompetent  am(ing  the  Chinese 


CHINESE  TURKISTAN 


103 


URUMCHI    FROM    A    TEMPLE    ON    THE    HILL 
Photograph  by  Owen  Lattimore 

who  enlist ;  the  best  troops  in  the  province  are  Mongols,  largely 
under  their  own  officers,  and  Moslems  under  Chinese  officers. 

While  southern  Chinese  Turkistan  is  the  classical  land  of  the 
great  silk  trade  routes,  northern  Chinese  Turkistan,  or  Jungaria,  is 
the  land  of  the  migration  routes.  It  is  known  to  the  Chinese  as 
T'ien-shan  Pei  Lu,  the  Road  North  of  the  Heavenly  Mountains, 
because  of  the  main  route  which,  diverging  from  the  South  Road 
at  Urumchi,  runs  westward  into  Russian  Central  Asia.  This  route 
divides  at  Hsihu,  about  halfway  to  the  Russian  frontier,  into  two 
branches ;  one  which  enters  Russian  Turkistan  by  the  Hi  Valley, 
and  one  which  enters  southern  Siberia  by  Chuguchak,  in  the  Emil 
Valley. 

Jungaria  is  named  from  the  Jungar,  the  Left  or  East  Wing  of 
the  great  confederation  of  Western  Mongols,  who  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  came  very  near  to  winning  the  mastery  over  all 
Mongolia,  and  would  in  that  case  have  seriously  challenged  the 
Manchus  in  the  conquest  of  China.  Owing  to  disagreements  among 
the  Western  Mongols  themselves,  a  large  body  broke  away,  mi- 
grating through  Russian  Central  Asia  to  the  A  olga.    Some  seventy 


104  THE  OPEN   COURl 

years  later  most  of  these  migrated  Mongols  returned  to  Chinese 
Tnrkistan,  by  arrangement  with  the  Alanchiis  ;  those  who  remained 
on  the  \'olga  are  the  Russian  Kalmuks  of  the  present  day.  This 
double  migration  is  important  in  history  because  it  is  the  last  of  the 
great  Mongol  migrations,  involving  really  large  numbers  and  really 
great  distances.  It  is  also  important  because  it  reveals  how  the 
Manchu  dominion  in  Chinese  Turkistan,  which  was  later  claimed 
as  a  direct  conquest,  was  founded  actually  on  diplomatic  manipula- 
tion of  the  different  racial  and  tribal  groups,  after  the  Mongols 
had  already  overrun  the  whole  country  and  then  quarreled  among 
themselves. 

The  geographical  structure  of  the  communities  along  the  North 
Road  is  comparable  to  that  of  the  South  Road.  There  is  the  same 
string  of  oases,  with  its  background  of  mountains.  There  is,  how- 
ever, one  cardinal  difference,  in  that  the  string  of  oases  is  dominated 
by  a  line  of  country  suitable  for  uninterrupted  nomadic  migration. 
The  power  of  the  nomads  is  reinforced  by  a  route  running  along 
the  flanks  of  the  x'Mtai,  north  of  the  Jtmgarian  desert  and  converg- 
ing on  the  North  Road ;  it  forms  a  corridor  from  Mongolia,  through 
the  Tarbagatai  region  and  the  Emil  A^alley,  into  Russian  Central 
Asia  and  southern  Siberia. 

Because  it  lay  open  to  nomad  incursions,  the  social-economic 
oasis-structure  of  the  North  Road  was  periodically  overwhelmed  by 
invasions,  and  the  growth  of  society  and  civilization  was  much  less 
continuous.  For  this  reason  the  archaeological  remains  of  the  North 
Road  are  not  so  rich  as  those  of  the  southern  oases — apart  alto- 
gether from  the  greater  dryness  of  the  south,  which  is  comparable 
to  that  of  Egypt  in  favoring  the  preservation  of  ruins  and  the 
objects  in  them.  Conquests  of  the  southern  oases  must  normally 
have  been  effected  by  indirect  approach  from  the  North  Road.  Who- 
ever holds  the  North  Road  has  comparatively  free  scope  of  move- 
ment, and  by  striking  across  the  passes  of  the  T'ien-shan  can  mas- 
ter separately  the  oases  of  the  South  Road  ;  which  though  to  a  high 
degree  uniform  in  race,  language,  religion,  and  culture,  have  no 
political  cohesion  and  no  sense  of  united  nationality.  They  are  is- 
lands, which  know  of  each  other  but  do  not  belong  to  each  other. 
These  i^henomena  continue  to  be  of  importance  in  our  own  day,  be- 
cause the  North  Road  lies  open  to  access  from  Siberia  and  Russian 
Central  Asia,  while  the  approach  from  China  is  exceedingly  long 
and  as  difficult  as  it  is  long. 


CHINESE  TURKISTAN  105 

Freedom  of  movement  and  large-scale  migration  along  the  North 
Road  have  blurred  the  local  historical  outlines.  In  each  oasis 
"pocket"  of  southern  Chinese  Turkistan  the  po]iulation  tends  to 
be  stable.  Each  oasis  has  seen  many  conquests ;  but  the  conquerors 
came  in  small  detachments  and  imposed  only  a  small  ruling  class  on 
top  of  the  local  population.  Even  in  the  most  flourishing  ages  of 
the  Silk  Route  there  do  not  seem  to  have  been  sweeping  movements 
of  population.  Communities  of  merchants  from  all  over  Asia  had 
their  separate  quarters  in  the  prosperous  towns  ;  they  brought  their 
languages  and  their  religions,  but  they  did  not,  on  the  whole,  dis- 
place what  they  found  ;  they  added  to  it.  Even  the  Chinese,  in  the 
long  period  of  their  modern  influence,  which  began  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  (under  the  Manchus),  displaced  but  little.  They 
represent  one  more  addition  ;  and  both  in  cjuantity  and  quality  that 
addition  is  remarkably  small,  west  of  Hami  and  Turfan. 

Along  the  North  Road,  on  the  other  hand,  racial  and  cultural 
history  tends  to  be  disconnected  and  confused.  It  is  a  succession  of 
catastrophes  and  sweeping  replacements.  In  times  of  strong  govern- 
ment, settled  populations  grow  up  in  the  oases  ;  in  times  of  war, 
they  are  obHterated.  Sometimes  they  are  replaced  immediately 
by  the  conquerors,  sometimes  they  are  left  desolate  for  years.  Some- 
times, even,  the  remnants  of  the  oasis-people  turn  nomad.  This 
is  a  type  of  historical  change  that  is  too  little  appreciated,  because  of 
the  emphasis  given  to  the  changes  that  take  place  when  nomadic 
peoples  invade  civilized  regions  and  are  absorbed  in  them.  Yet  the 
region  north  of  the  Great  Wall  of  China  has  frequently  seen  the 
conversion  of  settled  people  into  pastoral  nomads. 

The  Hi  Valley,  the  "promised  land"  of  Chinese  Central  Asia,  is 
enclosed  between  two  arms  of  the  T'ien-shan,  and  opens  into  what 
is  now  the  Kazakistan  Soviet  Socialist  Republic  of  Russian  Central 
Asia.  It  is  the  richest  part  of  the  dominion,  but  the  least  developed. 
Forests,  mines,  rich  mountain  pastures,  and  fertile  arable  lands  lie 
close  to  one  another,  but  the  land  has  never  enjoyed  long-continued 
development.  Cities  have  been  founded  only  to  be  destroyed.  The 
great  valley  forms  a  bay  into  which  have  eddied  racial  elements 
from  each  of  the  migrations  that  has  swept  along  the  Nomads'  High- 
way between  Mongolia  and  Russian  Central  Asia.  Here  are  found 
Mongols,  Kazaks,  and  Kirghiz  ;  Taranchis — immigrant  settlers  from 
the  Kashgar  region ;  Solons,  Sibos,  and  Chinese.  The  Solons  and 
Sibos  came  from  northern  ^vlanchuria,  from  the  region  historicallv 


THE  OPEN   COURT 


A  I-L.\ZAK  FAMILY  GROLT 
Photograph  by  Owen  Lattimore 

equivalent  to  Outer  Mongolia,  and  were  "planted"  as  Manchu  mili- 
tary colonists.  They  still  preserve  their  Manchu  dialects  better  than 
the  Manchu  language  is  preserved  in  Manchuria.  The  Sairam  Nor 
approach  to  the  Tli  Valley  is  held  by  Chahar  Mongols  in  the  Bore- 
tala  Valley.  They  migrated  from  the  Chahar  region  of  Mongolia, 
some  2,000  miles  away,  under  Manchu  orders. 

Hi  at  the  present  time  is  the  most  desired  goal  of  immigrants 
from  China,  because  its  lack  of  development  gives  them  the  maxi- 
mum of  op])Ortunity.  l^v  long  tradition,  however,  it  is  politically 
violent  and  rnstable.  Here  occurred  almost  the  only  massacres  of 
the  town  Manchu s  and  severe  fighting  during  the  Chinese  revolu- 
tion. Frontier  conditions  are  still  more  uncertain  than  in  any  other 
part  of  the  province.  The  political  frontier  does  not  accord  with 
the  needs  of  the  nomads.  Across  the  frontier  are  those  of  the  Ka- 
zaks  who  arc  under  Russian  rule.  The  Kazaks,  although  thus  politi- 
calK  (lixidcd  and  further  sul)dividcd  into  many  tribes,  are  culturally 
one  nation.  It  has  long  been  their  practice  to  migrate  across  the 
political  boundary  at  their  own  discretion  ;  a  practice  which  their 
overlords   have   always   ])rcvented    if   thc\-    could.     When   they   find 


CHINESE  TURKISTAN  107 

Chinese  rule  lighter  than  Russian,  there  is  an  inevitahle  tendency  to 
move  into  Chinese  territory,  moving  back  again  when  conditions 
change.  During  the  period  of  rapid  Russian  colonization,  just  be- 
fore 1914,  and  again  during  the  Russian  revolution,  the  migration 
was  from  Russian  into  Chinese  territory.  At  the  present  time  there 
is  attempted  migration  in  both  directions.  Tribesmen  who  are  not 
reconciled  to  the  Soviet  order  try  to  escape  into  Chinese  territory : 
while  others,  from  the  Chinese  side,  dissatisfied  with  Chinese  rule 
and  attracted  by  the  growing  prestige  of  Russia,  attempt  to  enter 
Russian  territory.  Russian  Kazaks  are  allowed  to  carry  arms, 
while  the  Chinese  do  everything  in  their  ])ower  to  prevent  the  tribes 
under  their  rule  from  acquiring  modern  arms.  The  frontier  is  con- 
tinually disturbed  by  surreptitious,  forbidden  fiittings,  and  also  by 
bold  thieving  raids  on  the  horse-herds,  in  which  the  well-armed 
tribesmen  from  the  Russian  side  usually  get  the  better  of  it. 

Finally,  there  is  the  Tarbagatai-Altai  region,  which  forms  a  sort 
of  outer  northwest  ward  of  Chinese  territory.  A  large  part  of  it, 
administered  from  Sharasume  (called  by  the  Chinese  Ch'eng-hua- 
se)  is  geographically  and  ethnically  part  of  the  Altai  region  of  ^lon- 
golia.  It  was  so  administered  until  the  Chinese  revolution,  when 
Outer  Mongolia  declared  for  and  achieved  a  measure  of  autonomy. 
Many  of  the  Mongols  of  this  region,  however,  are  related  to  those 
established  in  the  T'ien-shan,  and  under  the  influence  of  one  of 
their  princes  they  adhered  to  the  province  of  Sin-kiang  in  prefer- 
ence to  remaining  with  Alongolia. 

It  is  precisely  in  this  region  that  the  Altai  migration-corridor 
converges  on  the  North  Road,  so  that  strategically  the  region  is  of 
the  greatest  importance.  The  population,  although  predominantly 
Mongol,  contains  also  a  number  of  Kazaks,  of  the  Altai  division  of 
that  group  of  tribes,  and  a  number  of  Altai-Urianghai,  of  a  I\Ion- 
golized  Turkish  stock.  The  Sharasume  frontier  is  a  matter  of  much 
concern  to  the  Chinese  authorities,  who  are  always  afraid  that  the 
influence  of  Outer  Mongolia  will  cause  a  rising  there,  the  more 
so  since  the  Mongols  under  Chinese  rule  in  Turkistan  have  gradual- 
ly but  obviously  been  growing  less  contented  with  the  treatment 
they  receive. 

The  province  of  Sin-kiang  and  its  heterogeneous  peoples  are 
governed,  as  has  already  been  described,  by  a  small  alien  minority, 
the  Chinese,  under  the  fiction  that  the  Chinese  are  conquerors  who 
are  in  a  position  to  vindicate  their  rule  by   force  and  to  hold  the 


108  THE  OPEN   COURT 

province  against  any  insurrection  from  within  or  invasion  from 
without.  This  fiction  has  worked  admirahly.  The  government  com- 
bines local  corruption  w^ith  admirable  general  efficiency.  Its  cur- 
rency is  worthless,  yet  its  economic  condition  is  remarkably  steady, 
compared  not  only  with  China  proper  but  with  almost  any  country 
in  the  world.  It  is  politically,  economically,  and  socially  backward, 
but  probably  more  stable  and  contented,  at  least  until  very  recently, 
than  any  region  of  equal  area  in  the  world.  It  has  dealt  success- 
fully with  the  danger  of  invasion,  and  handled  well  a  numerous  in- 
cursion of  armed  men  thrown  out  of  Russia  by  the  revolution.  Its 
record  for  civil  war  during  the  twenty-one  years  of  the  Chinese 
republic  has  been  astonishing ;  one  or  two  factional  crises  among 
the  ruling  Chinese  and  a  very  few  risings  among  subject  peoples 
brought  about  by  excessive  assertion  of  authority. 

The  final  paradox  is  that  the  government,  although  nominally  it 
represents  the  power  of  China  over  a  colonial  dominion,  exhibits 
the  utmost  caution  in  dealing  with  the  Central  Government,  and 
avoids  altogether  any  implication  in  the  politics  of  China.  It  con- 
ducts its  own  foreign  relations  with  Russia  and  India,  and  fears 
intervention  from  China  at  least  as  much  as  it  fears  either  foreign 
aggression  or  native  rebellion. 

Chinese  Turkistan  is  divided  from  China  by  great  distances 
and  formidable  deserts.  There  is  one  great  cart-road  approach, 
through  Kansu.  The  first  Republican  governor  of  the  province 
used  to  refer  to  the  eighteen  stages  of  desert  travel  just  beyond  his 
border  as  his  eighteen  ten-thousands  of  loyal  troops,  protecting  him 
from  Chinese  civil  wars.  Apart  from  its  natural  difficulties  the 
cart-road  is  frequently  closed  bv  civil  war,  banditry,  or  conflict  be- 
tween the  Aloslem  and  Chinese  elements  in  Kansu.  There  is  one 
other  main  line  of  approach ;  that  by  the  Mongolian  caravan  routes. 
The  two  or  three  original  caravan  routes  have  been  reduced  to  one 
since  the  secession  of  Outer  Mongolia  from  China,  and  the  one 
remaining  route,  being  accessible  at  one  point  from  Kansu,  has 
been  almost  put  out  of  commission  by  the  extortions  of  the  Kansu 
tax-gatherers. 

With  the  trade  between  the  i)ro\ince  and  China  thus  reduced, 
Soviet  Russia  has  for  some  years  enjoyed  a  virtual  monopoly  of 
the  foreign  trade  of  Chinese  Turkistan.  The  prosperity  of  foreign 
trade  is  essential  to  Chinese  rule,  for  so  long  as  their  subjects  are 
prosperous,  they  arc  much  less  likely  to  rebel.    The  importance  of 


CHINESE  TURKTSTAN  109 

Russian  trade  means  that  the  Soviet  (Government  can  exercise  great 
pressure  on  the  local  authorities.  I'or  this  reason,  the  province  in- 
dependently opened  relations  with  Russia  in  1925,  and  since  then 
the  Russian  consulates  have  remained  open  in  Turkistan,  although 
they  have  heen  withdrawn  from  China  proper. 

Russian  interests  also  succeeded  in  opening  an  experimental  mo- 
tor traffic  between  the  frontier  at  Chuguchak  and  the  capital  at 
Urumchi,  in  spite  of  Chinese  reluctance.  The  conservative  Chinese 
opinion  has  always  been  that  traffic  ought  to  pass  freely  within  the 
province,  for  the  sake  of  trade ;  but  not  rapidly,  because  rapid  trans- 
port would  increase  the  danger  of  spread  of  any  local  insurrection, 
and  also  would  benefit  Russia  more  than  Turkistan  in  the  event  of 
conflict.  The  peculiar  attitude  of  the  Chinese  toward  motor  trans- 
port is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  when  it  was  first  discussed,  no 
Chinese  were  trained  as  drivers  and  mechanics.  Only  "natives" 
were  to  be  employed.  It  was  feared  that  if  Chinese  were  employed, 
they  might  be  tempted  to  meddle  in  politics,  since  control  of  the 
motor  transport  would  be  of  grave  importance  in  the  event  of  a 
political  crisis.  Since  then  the  attitude  toward  motor  services  has 
been  modified  by  the  desire  to  revive  trade  with  China  at  least  enough 
to  break  down  the  Russian  economic  domination.  Attempts  are  now 
being  made  to  develop  a  motor  route  through  Inner  Mongolia,  but 
they  are  much  hampered  by  political  difficulties  and  sandy  deserts. 

The  difficulties  of  Chinese  traders  at  present  are  acute.  Being 
almost  cut  ofif  from  markets  in  China,  they  become  little  more  than 
middlemen  between  the  natives  and  the  Russians.  In  Turkistan, 
as  elsewhere,  the  Russians  prefer  to  work  through  monopoly  firms. 
As  each  firm  has  no  competitor  in  its  area,  the  Chinese  and  native 
merchants  dealing  with  Russia  have  to  take  what  is  ofifered  for 
their  exports  and  pay  what  is  demanded  for  their  imports.  It  is 
for  this  reason  that  Russian  political  influence,  which  is  strong  in 
Outer  Mongolia  and  intermittently  evident  in  Manchuria,  is  nor- 
mally suspended  in  Turkistan.  The  Russians  can  buy  and  sell  in 
what  is  practically  a  closed  market,  which  is  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance to  them,  since  Russia  is  in  need  of  foreign  trade,  but  can 
only  trade  in  an  open  market  at  the  cost  of  great  sacrifice. 

In  Kashgar,  Yarkand.  and  Khotan  there  is  a  limited  trade  with 
India.  It  is,  however,  hardly  likely  to  expand  to  any  important  ex- 
tent, because  of  the  enormous  physical  difficulties  of  crossing  the 
mountain  barriers.    There  is,  however,  a  certain  amount  of  cultural 


110  THE  OPEN   COURT 

influence  from  India  and  an  important  pilgrim  traffic.  Pilgrims  to 
Mecca,  who  used  to  go  chiefly  through  Russian  Turkistan,  now  go 
through  India.  In  actual  trade,  however,  conditions  are  so  awk- 
ward that  Indian  traders  invest  a  great  part  of  their  profits  in 
money-lending :  with  the  result  that  probably  the  most  important 
function  of  the  British  consular  officials  in  Turkistan — with  the 
exception  of  the  diplomatic  benefits  of  proximity  to  their  Russian 
colleagues — is  to  attend  to  friction  arising  out  of  lawsuits  between 
Indian  money-lenders  and  Chinese  subjects. 

The  financial  arrangements  of  Chinese  Turkistan  are  extraor- 
dinary. It  has  long  been  the  practice  in  China  for  the  provincial 
authorities,  usually  under  the  control  of  the  military,  to  debase  the 
currency  by  demanding  good  money  in  payment  of  taxes  and  is- 
suing fiduciary  currency,  which  rapidly  depreciates,  in  paying  troops 
and  settling  other  obligations.  This  is  possible  largely  because  of 
banking  arrangements  which  allow  the  officials  to  remit  their  profits 
to  safe  places  in  Shanghai  and  the  foreign  concessions.  This  is  not 
possible  in  Sin-kiang,  because  the  province  has  no  banks,  no  banking 
connection  with  China  proper,  and  no  money  in  use  that  passes 
current  in  China.  The  only  way  in  which  either  officials  or  private 
individuals  can  transfer  any  important  sum  to  China  is  to  export 
goods  and  bank  the  proceeds  of  the  sale.  For  this  reason,  most  of- 
ficials are  interested  in  trading  firms  and  therefore  in  the  pros- 
perity of  trade  generally.  Even  within  the  province  'several  dift'erent 
regional  currencies  are  in  use.  and  this  tends  to  stabilize  political 
conditions  ;  for  it  is  almost  impossible  to  accumulate  sufficient  cash 
funds  in  any  one  place  to  finance  a  political  venture,  without 
detection. 

The  progress  of  "sinization"  has  been  and  still  is  extremely  slow. 
Higher  culture,  it  is  true,  and  such  higher  technical  development  as 
exists  are  predominantly  Chinese. 

''Do  you  smelt  copper  here?"  "No,  we  don't  know  how,  but  the 
Chinese  do."  This  conversation,  recorded  as  typical  by  Huntington- 
a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  is  still  typical.  "The  people  do  not 
seem  to  care  to  learn  to  do  anything  new,"  says  Huntington.  "They 
might  learn  much  from  their  Chinese  masters,  but  no  one  has  suf- 
ficient ambition."  1  luntington  deals  with  the  characters  of  the  Cen- 
tral .Asian  peoples  in  relation  to  their  environments.  There  is,  how- 
ever, 1  think,  another  important  factor  to  be  considered.    The  same 

-Ellsvvorlli   lluntin|:;t()n,  'J'lic  I'lilsc  of  .Isia,  Boston,  1907. 


CHINESE  TURKISTAN 


111 


indifference  to  "progress 
and  civilization"  as  taught 
by  the  Chinese  is  noticeable 
throughout  the  frontier  re- 
gions. It  has,  I  think,  part- 
ly an  historical  basis,  in  the 
privileged  position  so  often 
held  by  the  border  peoples. 
They  tend  to  accept  the 
benefits  made  available  to 
them  as  privileges  to  which 
they  are  entitled.  Not  only 
have  people  no  ambition  to 
learn ;  they  consider  it  a 
loss  of  status  when  they 
have  to  learn.  People  who 
wish  to  keep  their  status 
hire  Chinese  to  do  things 
for  them.  It  needs  familiar 
contact  with  the  "barbar- 
ians" to  bring  out  the  fact 
that  the  serene  Chinese 
contempt  for  the  barbarian 
is  quite  equaled  by  the  contempt  of  the  barbarian  for  the  Chinese. 

In  this  connection  it  is  illuminating  to  consider  the  attitude 
of  these  peoples  to  the  West,  to  which  they  have  never  stood  in  a 
position  of  privilege.  It  is  congruent  with  the  fact  that  historically 
the  importance  of  Chinese  culture  in  the  transfrontier  region  has 
been  balanced  by  the  strategic  advantage  of  the  frontiers  over  China. 
Historically,  the  spread  of  Chinese  culture  has  always  been  as 
much  a  matter  of  what  the  barbarians  felt  like  taking  as  of  what  the 
Chinese  felt  it  necessary  to  impose.  These  same  "ignorant  and  un- 
ambitious" Central  Asians  take  to  \\'estern  "progress,"  of  which 
Russia  is  the  disseminator,  quite  readily.  Railways,  motor  cars,  and 
all  things  mechanical  they  regard  with  enthusiasm  :  anri  tliis  atti- 
tude I  believe  is  to  be  closely  related  to  the  fact  that  hisroncaliv 
power  and  conquest  have  tended  to  come  from  the  north  and  west. 

Education,  in  a  country  living  in  the  past,  is  not  a  matter  of 
obvious  importance  until  the  present  breaks  in  on  the  past.  For 
both   Moslems  and   Mongols,  generally  speaking,   education   means 


KIRGHIZ    WEAMNG.    NEAR     SANJU 
Photograph  by  Owen   Lattimore 


112  THE  OPEN   COURT 

only  religious  education.  The  Chinese  have  their  own  schoofs,  but 
"higher  education"  has  gained  ground  very  slowly,  though  the  num- 
ber of  men  in  the  government  services  who  have  been  educated 
in  modern  schools  and  universities  in  China,  or  even  abroad,  is 
gradually  increasing. 

The  Chinese  also  maintain  schools,  of  no  very  high  quality,  for 
educating  "natives"'  on  Chinese  lines.  It  is  a  regular  characteristic 
of  the  Chinese  that  petty  merchants  learn  the  languages  of  the  sub- 
ject peoples,  while  officials  do  not.  Thus,  on  the  whole,  the  Chinese 
practice  is  the  reverse  of  that  of  Western  nations  which  rule  in 
the  Orient.  The  Chinese  administrator  knows  and  cares  little  about 
the  language,  life,  customs,  and  point  of  view  of  the  people  he 
governs.  He  works  through  a  "native"  interpreter  who  can  speak 
Chinese.  This  leads  to  a  great  deal  of  corruption,  but  is  not  al- 
together to  the  disadvantage  of  the  Chinese.  Local  resentment  is 
likely  to  be  directed  first  against  the  interpreters  and  headmen  who 
are  in  immediate  contact,  and  can  often  be  mollified  by  punishment 
of  an  underling.  On  the  other  hand  it  damages  Chinese  prestige  in 
one  important  respect.  It  is  the  common  opinion  of  the  "natives" 
that  "the  Chinese  books  are  full  of  all  wisdom,  and  the  way  to  get 
rich  and  powerful  is  to  model  yourself  on  the  Chinese ;  but  also  the 
Chinese  must  be  the  most  corrupt  people  in  the  world,  for  all  who 
have  anything  to  do  with  them  become  oppressors,  thieves,  and 
liars."  This  does  not  matter  so  much  as  long  as  Chinese  prestige 
remains  high.  The  Central  Asian  peoples  tend  to  think  that  op- 
pression is  the  chief  function  of  any  ruler,  native  or  alien ;  but  when 
another  power  begins  to  rise  in  prestige,  resentment  against  the 
Chinese  can  easily  be  exploited. 

Chinese  Turkistan,  then,  is  a  country  in  which  the  geographical 
distribution  of  peoples  and  types  of  economy,  the  relation  of 
settled  oasis  populations  to  nomads,  and  of  the  Chinese  culture  to  the 
patchwork  of  the  native  cultures,  as  inherited  from  a  long  history 
of  slow  development  but  strongly  established  pattern,  are  plainly 
reflected  in  the  asjiect  of  the  present.  The  influence  of  inherited 
relationshi])s  and  antagonisms  remains  important  largely  because 
isolation,  distance,  and  imperfect  communications  deaden  the  impact 
of  new  forces  and  ideas.  The  bitterest  hostilities  and  local  wars, 
when  they  break  out,  are  not  yet  related  to  the  clash  between  new 
civilization  and  old,  as  they  are  so  generally  in  the  rest  of  the 
Rast,  but  are  still  generated  primarily  by  ancient  incompatibilities 


CHINESE  TURKISTAN  113 

between  nomad  and  peasant,  between  Moslem  and  non-Moslem, 
and  between  one  Moslem  sect  and  another. 

Chinese  rule,  though  successful  as  an  expedient,  has  not  been  able 
to  free  itself  from  the  cycle  of  Central  Asian  history.  Its  own  sta- 
bility and  success  are  now  gradually  producing  a  tension  that  must 
break  down  in  war  and  rebellion.  Its  most  important  phenomenon 
is  one  that  must  often  have  been  seen  in  the  past — expansion  from 
the  South  Road  oases  into  the  regions  of  the  North  Road.  Such  an 
expansion  is  inevitably  produced  by  a  long  period  of  tranquil 
government,  especially  when  it  represents  the  power  of  the  "civi- 
lized" over  the  "uncivilized."  Agriculture  creates  a  denser  popula- 
tion and  a  larger  and  more  easily  collected  tax-revenue ;  and  the 
government  always  knows  where  the  people  are.  A  nomadic  popu- 
lation always  tends  toward  tribal  loyalties,  and  the  tribal  leaders 
are  less  easily  supervised  than  village  headmen. 

The  lack  of  a  free  supply  of  colonists  from  the  outside  (from 
China)  reduces  colonization  to  a  shifting  of  population  within  the 
province.  A  few  Chinese  come  in  from  Kansu,  but  most  of  the 
colonists  are  T'ung-kan  from  the  Urumchi-Manas  region  moving 
farther  west,  or  Turki  cultivators  crossing  over  from  the  oases 
of  the  South  Road.  Some  of  the  colonization  is  directed  toward  oases 
that  have  been  depopulated  since  the  Moslem  insurrections  of  the 
late  nineteenth  century ;  but  the  nomads  are  also  affected,  and  are 
decidedly  resentful. 

It  is  commonly  said  of  colonization  at  the  expense  of  nomads 
that  they  have  plenty  of  spare  land.  In  Central  Asia  and  in  many 
parts  of  Mongolia,  this  is  not  true.  The  severity  of  the  climate 
makes  prosperous  nomadic  life  possible  only  if  good,  sheltered  win- 
tering-grounds are  available.  This  is  responsible  for  a  remarkable 
difference  in  the  summer  and  winter  relations  between  nomadic 
tribes  ;  notably  between  the  Kazaks  as  one  main  group  and  the  ]\Ion- 
gols  as  another.  In  summer  they  scatter  out  over  wide  grazing 
grounds,  and  raid  each  others'  herds.  In  winter,  the  lack  of  good 
quarters  drives  them  in  close  to  each  other ;  a  tacit  truce  is  declared, 
and  they  spend  the  winter  in  comparative  amity. 

Not  only  Chinese  officials  going  out  to  survey  land  for  coloniza- 
tion grants,  but  foreign  travelers  also,  usually  visit  the  nomads  in 
summer.  Thus,  the  universal  report  is  of  vast  ranges  of  pasture 
with  a  very  thin  population.  The  scarcity  of  good  winter  quarters 
is  not  given  proper  attention.    Now  it  is  these  very  winter-quarter 


114 


THE  OPEN   COURT 


CARAXAN    MASTER    AND    CAMELS    IN    SNOW 
Photograph  by  Owen  Lattimore 

valleys,  because  they  are  sheltered,  that  first  attract  the  colonist. 
The  nomads,  therefore,  feel  pinched  in  and  oppressed  much  earlier 
than   is  generally  supposed. 

Then  again,  many  enthusiasts  of  colonization  would  like  to  see 
settlement  from  the  outside  reinforced  by  conversion  of  the  nomads 
themselves  to  agricultural  life.  Popular  theory  argues  that  agricul- 
tural economy  is  a  "higher  form  of  civilization"  than  nomadic  life, 
and  innocently  assumes  that  the  nomads  will  be  "attracted  by  the 
opportunities  of  progress."  This,  so  far  as  Chinese  colonization  is 
concerned,  is  a  complete  fallacy.  The  central  characteristic  of  all 
the  nomad  peoples  in  contact  with  China  is  that,  far  from  looking 
up  to  China,  they  look  down  on  the  Chinese.  This  historic  truth 
has  been  unduly  obscured  by  the  standard  histories,  which  dwell  on 
the  sinization  of  the  l)arbarian  invaders  of  China  and  neglect  the 
fact  that  throughcnU  histnry  real  j^ower  tended  to  reside  in  the 
hands  of  those  barbarians  who  remained  outside  the  Great  Wall, 
to  breed  fresh  contingents  of  conquerors. 

The  traditional  attitude  remains  strong;  even  in  periods  like  the 
present   when,  owing  solely  to  the  accident  that  the  Chinese  have 


CHINESE  TURKISTAN  115 

more  modern  arms  than  the  nomads,  the  nomads  are  weak  in  rela- 
tion to  China.  They  still  prefer  to  avoid  the  Chinese,  not  to  "raise 
themselves  to  the  Chinese  level."  This  is  proved  conclusively  by 
the  fact  that  wherever  nomads,  in  contact  with  the  Chinese,  settle 
down  to  agriculture  and  the  Chinese  way  of  life,  it  is  always  and 
only  the  feckless  and  unenterprising,  or  the  helpless,  who  settle 
down ;  and  in  so  doing  they  earn  the  contempt,  not  the  respect  or 
admiration,  of  their  fellows.  It  is  not  the  rich,  the  socially  superior, 
those  best  able  to  "appreciate  the  advantages  of  the  higher  civili- 
zation," who  embrace  the  chance  of  "progress."  These,  on  the 
contrary,  are  the  people  who  keep  up  most  doggedly  their  pride 
in  the  ancient  wav  of  life,  who  refuse  to  the  last  possible  moment 
to  compromise,  and  who  form  the  backbone  of  those  last  bitter  re- 
bellions that  either  turn  back  the  process  of  colonization  or  end  in 
the  extinction  of  the  nomads.  Another  little-known  proof  of  the 
high  standing  of  the  nomadic  life  is  the  fact  that  a  certain  number 
of  the  immigrants,  notably  among  the  Turki,  abandon  the  settled 
life  in  favor  of  the  nomad  life. 

It  is  the  eternal  tragedy  of  China  that  all  the  peoples  of  the 
barrier-regions  of  the  northern  and  northwestern  frontiers  face 
inward  on  China.  The  rhythm  of  their  history  has  been  determined 
from  of  old  as  an  alternation  of  advance  and  retreat,  with  their  faces 
toward  China.  It  is  virtually  impossible  to  convert  them  to  face 
about  and  take  part  in  Chinese  expansion.  The  complementary  as- 
pect of  this  historical  bias  is  that  Mongols  and  Central  Asian  peoples 
■  have  always  tended  to  accord  prestige  and  admiration  more  readily 
to  Russia  than  to  China.  It  is  demonstrably  true  that  the  Rus- 
sians are  more  successful  even  in  converting  nomads  to  agricul- 
ture than  are  the  Chinese.  This  has  been  true  even  in  the  past,  al- 
though the  Russian  expansion  in  Siberia  was  marked  by  bitter  con- 
flicts with  different  tribes ;  it  is  more  true  in  the  present,  because 
even  the  small  degree  of  mechanization  in  Russian  farming  gives 
an  appeal  that  China  cannot  offer. 

Above  all,  the  radical  difference  in  character  between  Russian 
and  Chinese  agriculture  is  important.  The  wooden  plow  and  in- 
tensive cultivation  of  the  Chinese  have  never  been  regarded  as  any- 
thing but  the  marks  of  slaves  and  subject  peoples  ;  but  it  is  possible 
to  accept  the  superior  plows  and  extensive  cultivation  of  the 
Russians  as  worthy  of  free  men.  The  intensive  Chinese  agricul- 
ture is  bound  ud  with  a  social  order  which  is  never  successful  with- 


116  THE  OPEN   COURT 

out  close  settlement,  crowded  villages,  and  frequent  towns.  The 
extensive  Russian  agriculture  is  possible  in  isolated  wilderness 
settlements  with  mixed  pastoral  and  agricultural  economy,  which 
makes  much  easier  the  transition  from  nomadic  life.  In  Chinese 
Turkistan,  the  very  regions  where  a  long  period  of  peaceful 
Chinese  rule  has  brought  out  the  old  opposition  between  oasis  and 
free  pasture  are  the  regions  which  lie  more  open  to  Russia  than  to 
China,  and  the  peoples  afifected  are  related  in  blood,  language,  and 
religion  to  peoples  who,  under  Russian  rule,  have  been  granted  re- 
publics of  their  own  and  encouraged  (perhaps  as  a  distraction  from 
the  drawbacks  of  rigid  economic  control)  to  take  pride  in  strong 
local  nationalism. 

The  immemorial  Chinese  practice  in  dealing  with  "natives"  is 
to  work  through  their  chiefs.  In  times  of  barbarian  ascendancy  the 
best  way  of  minimizing  the  impact  is  to  bargain  with  separate  chiefs. 
In  times  of  Chinese  ascendancy  the  best  method  of  preventing 
barbarian  unity  is  to  favor  the  chiefs  against  one  another  in  rotation. 
In  recent  years,  however,  the  lack  of  obvious  resistance  and  the 
success  in  maintaining  the  continuity  of  Chinese  rule  at  the  time  of 
the  revolution  and  again  after  the  murder  of  Governor  Yang  a 
few  years  ago — both  obvious  occasions  for  native  insurrection — 
have  encouraged  the  feeling  that  the  natives  are  no  longer  dangerous. 

Success  in  Chinese  colonization,  notably  in  Mongolia  and  Alan- 
churia,  gave  rise  to  a  conviction  that  the  day  of  the  barbarian  was 
finally  over.  The  Kuomintang  urged  that  the  time  had  come  to 
set  about  the  business  of  making  all  natives  either  turn  Chinese  or 
get  out.  The  Kuomintang  has  but  little  political  powder  in  Chinese 
Turkistan,  because  the  ruling  Chinese  faction,  as  has  been  pointed 
out,  can  only  maintain  itself  by  keeping  free  of  commitments  to 
political  factions  in  China.  Nevertheless,  the  general  cast  of  thought 
which  the  Kuomintang  represents  has  been  spreading. 

During  the  long  period  of  strong  rule,  the  privileges  and  sub- 
sidies of  the  native  Turki  "princes,"  who  had  once  been  at  the  head 
of  "native  states"  in  a  number  of  the  southern  oases,  had  been 
either  cut  down  or  abolished.  Even  on  the  Xnrth  Road  the  powers 
of  the  K'nzak  chiefs  and  Mongi)!  ])rinces  were  being  ])rogressivcly 
curtailed.  The  only  im])orlant  surviving  "native  state"  in  the  south 
was  that  of  Ilanii  (Koniun.  In  l')20  it  was  decided  to  discontinue 
the  "native  state"  administration  and  substitute  the  ordinary  form 
of  Chinese  administration.    It   is  ])rol)able  that   the  \-ear  1*^2*^  marks 


CHINESE  TURKISTAN  117 

the  peak  of  Chinese  expansion  in  Manchuria,  Mongolia,  Central 
Asia,  and  Tibet. 

When  an  attempt  was  made  to  remeasure  lands  for  taxation  pur- 
poses, a  rebellion  broke  out  among-  the  mountaineers  who  are  the 
outlying  subjects  of  the  ITami  {principality.  It  rapidly  became  so 
serious  that  Chinese  authority  throughout  the  province  was  im- 
periled. There  was  a  danger  of  risings  all  over  the  province.  The 
very  inferior  troops  of  the  standing  army  were  incapable  of  putting 
down  the  insurrection,  and  for  the  first  time  the  practice  of  using 
Mongols  against  Moslems  was  inadequate.  The  Chinese  met  the 
situation  by  an  application  extraordinary  of  the  old  principle  of 
using  one  subject  race  to  hold  down  another.  They  enlisted  "White" 
Russians — non-Soviet  exiles  and  refugees — in  the  Hi  region,  turned 
over  to  them  the  arms  of  the  regular  troops,  transported  them  to 
Hami,  and  with  them  put  down  the  uprising:  though  it  still  smolders 
in  the  mountains. 

With  the  outbreak  of  the  Hami  trouble,  the  present  regime  in 
Chinese  Turkistan  passed  its  peak.  There  is  now  more  banditry — 
in  a  province  notalily  free  of  banditry — than  ever  before,  and  it  is 
closely  associated  with  racial  trouble.  Increased  efforts  are  now  be- 
ing made  to  renew  contact  with  China,  in  spite  of  the  known  dan- 
ger of  implication  in  civil  wars,  and  this  weakening  of  the  old  con- 
fident isolation  probably  means  a  loss  of  conviction  in  their  own 
sufficiency  among  the  ruling  minority. 

What,  then,  is  the  present  state  of  Chinese  Turkistan?  The 
Chinese,  after  prolonged  contact,  have  not  amalgamated  with  the 
native  population.  Nor  has  Chinese  culture  penetrated  deeply.  It 
remains  an  alien  veneer,  affecting  onlv  a  limited  number  of  activi- 
ties and  a  small  proportion  of  the  people.  Chinese  political  and 
military  supremacy,  long  a  fiction,  but  a  fiction  handled  with  emi- 
nent skill  and  functioning  well  as  a  working  theory,  is  in  danger 
of  collapse.  The  province  is  an  insecure  salient  in  the  line  of  the 
frontier;  and  China  itself,  in  the  eyes  of  many  of  the  subject 
peoples,  appears  to  be  crumbling  inward  on  its  own  center. 

The  position  of  Chinese  Central  Asia  can  hardly  be  clarified 
without  catastrophe.  For  more  than  a  generation  it  has  been  com- 
pletely occupied  in  a  cycle  of  its  own  history  of  the  immemorial 
cast ;  controled  by  an  outside  power,  under  title  of  conquest,  but 
actually  ruled  by  manipulation  of  one  native  element  against  an- 
other.   In   the  days   of  the  Silk  Route,  the   Han  dynasty  asserted 


118  THE  OPEN  COURT 

its  power  chiefly  by  negotiation  among  the  petty  Central  Asian 
states,  while  the  silk  trade,  passing  through,  was  more  an  affair 
of  resident  alien  trading  communities  than  of  the  desert-isolated 
oasis-dwellers  themselves.  Religions  from  India  and  the  Near  East 
were  later  imported ;  the  costumes  and  languages  of  many  lands 
and  nations  became  familiar,  but  the  basic  forms  of  life  altered 
little.  The  rhythm  of  history  grew  out  of  the  relation  of  oasis  to 
desert  and  mountain,  of  caravan  route  to  migration  route,  and 
through  it  ran  also  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  power  of  the  Border 
over  China,  and  of  China  over  the   Border. 

So,  in  our  own  time,  the  affairs  of  nations  have  passed  over  the 
heads  of  nomads  and  oasis-dwellers.  For  them  the  great  affairs  of 
the  world  have  been  the  creeping  extension  of  Chinese  control,  re- 
flected in  the  decline  of  native  princes  and  rulers,  the  spread  of 
oasis-life  into  the  traditional  domain  of  the  nomads,  the  balance 
between  ^Moslem  and  Mongol,  and  the  rivalries  of  the  sects  which 
forever  rend  the  ^Moslem  world  internally.  They  have  said,  in  ef- 
fect, of  the  alien  civilization  of  China,  "It  is  true,  there  are  such 
things"  ;  of  India,  "Alen  have  been  there,  and  returned"  •.  of  Russia, 
"Men  speak  of  wonders." 

Yet  all  the  while  the  relative  position  of  this  Inner  Asian  world 
has  been  altering.  Alien  forces  have  been  crowding  closer  to  it. 
They  have  artificially  been  held  back,  and  therefore,  when  they 
do  break  in,  the  effect  of  the  shock  will  be  all  the  more  like  the 
foundering  of  one  world  and  the  creation,  in  agony,  of  another. 
The  apprehensive  efforts  of  the  Chinese  in  Sin-kiang  to  renew^  con- 
tact with  China,  and  the  important  modern  movement  in  China  it- 
self to  stimulate  expansion  into  the  northwest,  appear  to  be  only 
echoes  of  the  probably  more  important  fact  that  real  Chinese  power 
on  the  frontier  is  more  unstable  than  at  any  time  since  the  revolu- 
tion. Political,  financial,  and  physical  difficulties  impede  the  exten- 
sion of  railway  approach  toward  Chinese  Central  .\sia.  A  turbu- 
lent Moslem  population  in  Kansu  stands  like  an  "Inner  Mongolia" 
between  China  and  the  "Outer  Mongolia"  of  Chinese  Turkistan. 
Xor  can  the  Chinese  in  Sin-kiang  ol^tain  a  free  supply  of  the 
modern  arms  which  might  refresh  their  title  to  rule.  To  attempt  to 
import  tlu-m  from  China  would  be  to  ])rc'scnt  them  to  some  mili- 
tarist on  the  way  ;  nor  could  they  be  imported  through  Russia  or 
India  without  some  compensation  of  the  kind  that  one  government 
considers  appropriate  from  another. 


CHINESE  TURKISTAN  119 

In  Russian  Central  Asia,  on  the  other  hand,  the  drift  toward 
Chinese  Turkistan  is  inexorable.  The  political-economic  and  social- 
economic  movements  there  demand  extension  into  Chinese  Turki- 
stan if  they  are  to  fulfil  themselves.  Certain  important  irrigation 
projects  in  Kazakistan  cannot  be  undertaken  unless  they  are  based 
on  works  constructed  on  the  Hi  River  in  Chinese  territory.  The 
Turk-Sib  railway,  flanking  the  whole  western  frontier  of  Chinese 
Turkistan,  has  confirmed  its  economic  orientation  toward  the  Union 
of  Socialist  Soviet  Republics. 

Thus,  when  the  forces  of  the  new  world  do  at  last  break  in  on 
Chinese  Central  Asia,  it  is  almost  inevitable  that  they  will  enter 
raw,  strong  and  overwhelming  from  the  Russian  side  instead  of 
in  a  graduated,  attenuated,  and  semi-Chinese  form  from  the  Chinese 
side.  The  internal  history  of  Chinese  Turkistan  shows  an  alter- 
nating interaction  between  the  oases  of  the  south  and  the  "land  of 
free  movement"  of  the  north.  It  is  likely  that  a  period  of  oasis  as- 
cendancy is  ending  and  that  the  alternate  period  historically  repre- 
senting nomad  ascendancy  will  be  transformed  into  an  inrush  from 
the  North  Road,  comparable  to  the  old  nomad  descents  in  form, 
but  infused  with  a  new  and  strange  vigor  and  many  unknown 
qualities  derived  from  Russian  Central  Asia. 


RUSSIAN  ASIA 

BY   I.    A.    LOPATIX 
LIFE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN   COLONISTS  AND  SETTLERS 

IT  IS  generally  believed  that  the  Russians  first  came  into  Asia  in 
1581  under  the  leadership  of  Yermak,  a  Don  Cossack.  This, 
however,  is  an  erroneous  idea.  The  Russian  traders  of  Great  Nov- 
gorod penetrated  into  Siberia  more  than  two  centuries  earlier.  They 
established  trading  posts  on  the  lower  Ob  and  started  peaceful  coloni- 
zation of  the  country.  Yermak,  on  the  contrary,  had  a  military  mis- 
sion. \\'ith  the  financial  aid  of  Stroganov,  wealthy  and  powerful 
merchant  of  the  Ural  district,  he  organized  a  military  detachment  and 
attacked  Kuchum,  Khan  of  the  Siberian  Kingdom  bordering  on  Rus- 
sia. After  Yermak's  triumphal  entry  into  Kuchum's  capital,  Ivan 
the  Terrible,  then  czar  of  Russia,  sent  five  hundred  soldiers  as  re- 
inforcement, and  the  conquest  of  Siberia  began  in  earnest.  By  1630 
the  Lena  was  occupied:  in  1640  Semen  Dejnev  rounded  the  north- 
eastern point  of  Asia,  and  in  1643  Poyarkov  sailed  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Amur.  Three  years  later  Khabarov  successfully  invaded  the 
whole  Amur  region  ;  thus  was  the  vast  territory  of  northern  Asia 
conquered  in  the  course  of  fifty  years.  Xo  similar  feat  is  known  to 
history. 

The  ad\ance  of  the  Russians  into  Transcaucasia  and  Central 
Asia,  however,  was  not  so  rapid.  A  part  of  Georgia  surrendered  in 
1798,  and  by  1810  the  entire  province  had  been  added  to  the  Rus- 
sian empire.  The  remaining  Transcaucasian  territory  was  taken 
after  the  war  with  Turke\-  in  1878,  while  Central  Asia  was  con- 
quered by  the  Russians  only  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

As  already  stated,  the  first  Russian  settlers  in  Siberia  were  the 
fur  traders  of  Great  Novgorod.  The  adventurers  and  soldiers  who 
formed  Yermak's  army  or  followed  him  as  traders  were  also 
northerners  of  the  provinces  A'ologda,  \'iatk;i,  and  Perm.  These 
settlers  establi.she(l  the  northern  dialect  of  the  Russian  language 
in  western  and  eastern  Siberia.  Immediately  following  the  conquest, 
the  Russian  Government  began  sending  colonists  into  Siberia.  Since 
the  native  population  of  the  country  was  hostile  toward  the  con- 


RUSSIAN  ASIA  121 

querors,  the  first  colonists  to  be  sent  to  Siberia  were  the  Cossacks. 
They  were  warlike  horsemen  of  the  steppes  who  had  lived  in  con- 
tinuous war  with  Tatars  and  other  native  tribes  along  the  boundary 
line  of  European  Russia.  This  movement  of  the  Cossacks  into  Si- 
beria was  partly  voluntary,  partly  compulsory.  They  were  sent  by 
the  Government  with  their  families,  cattle,  horses,  and  all  house- 
hold goods  and  implements.  Thereafter,  for  a  number  of  years, 
the  hardy  pioneers  had  not  only  to  establish  themselves  in  the  new 
territory,  but  were  faced  with  the  constant  necessity  of  repelling 
the  frequently  recurring  attacks  of  the  aborigines.  For  this  service 
the  Russian  government  granted  them  a  vast  territory  and  certain 
privileges.  Even  at  the  present  time  the  Cossacks  form  the  most 
conspicuous  part  of  the  population  of  Siberia. 

In  many  remote  and  isolated  corners  of  Siberia,  the  Russian 
government  established  prison  camps.  Convicts  and  political  of- 
fenders were  sent  to  these  places  in  great  numbers.  The  territories 
of  Yakutsk  and  Sakhalin  Island  were  noted  especially  as  places  of 
exile.  It  has  been  pointed  out  by  several  investigators  that  the 
convicts  sentenced  by  the  civil  courts  did  not  affect  the  population 
of  Siberia  to  any  great  extent.  They  were  prisoners  kept  in  strict 
isolation  without  families.  Most  of  them  were  short-lived  and  left 
no  progeny.  They  were  feared  by  the  colonists  who  aided  the 
authorities  in  keeping  them  isolated,  even  killing  them  if  they  tried 
to  escape.  During  the  last  thirty  years  many  of  these  penal  colonies 
have  been  abolished.  Since  1905,  Sakhalin  Island  has  been  cleared 
of  the  convicts  and  opened  to  free  colonization.  On  the  other  hand 
the  political  exiles  have  had  a  great  cultural  influence  upon  the  Si- 
berian population.  Be'ing  highly  educated  intellectuals  (frequently 
men  with  families  and  being  granted  freedom  within  certain  limited 
areas),  they  helped  to  spread  education  among  the  colonists,  or- 
ganized libraries,  theaters,  museums,  and  other  cultural  institutions. 
They  have  made  many  great  contributions  to  the  scientific  inves- 
tigation and  exploration  of  Siberia.  Among  them  were  anthropolo- 
gists such  as  Bogoraz,  Sternberg,  Pekarsky,  Seroshevsky,  and  sci- 
entists such  as  Chersky,  Pilsudsky,  and  others. 

A  very  important  role  in  the  early  Siberian  colonization  was 
played  by  the  Russian  sectarians.  After  the  reforms  of  the  patri- 
arch  Nikon,   the   Russian   Orthodox    Church   split   into   two   sects. 


122  THE  OPEN   COURT 

The  Starov\ers  or  old-believers,  who  did  not  accept  the  reforms  of 
the  patriarch,  very  soon  broke  up  into  a  number  of  smaller  sects 
which  were  severely  persecuted  by  the  official  church  and  the  govern- 
ment. These  old-believers  left  their  homes  and  went  into  the  remote 
northeastern  corner  of  European  Russia  and  finally  into  Siberia. 
\\'hen  new  settlers  came  to  their  villages  in  Siberia,  the  old-believers 
left  their  homes  again  and  moved  farther  east,  choosing  the  most  re- 
mote and  isolated  places,  where  they  could  live  peacefully  according 
to  their  old  religious  traditions. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  Cossacks  and  old-believers  proved  to 
be  excellent  colonists  of  Siberia.  Their  descendants  represent  the 
strongest,  most  daring,  and  most  industrious  people  of  Siberia  to- 
dav.  Because  of  their  enterprising  spirit  they  are  called  "Russian 
Americans"  by  the  rest  of  the  colonists. 

After  the  opening  of  the  port  of  Madivostok  and  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Trans-Siberian  railway  colonists  were  sent  in  large 
numbers  into  Siberia.  Xow  they  were  not  northerners,  but  peasants 
from  the  middle  provinces  of  European  Russia  (Great  Russians), 
Ukrainians,  and  \Miite  Russians.  The  Great  Russians  colonized 
the  unsettled  prairies  of  western  and  eastern  Siberia  and  the  Amur 
\'alley  :  the  Ukrainians  (or  Little  Russians)  formed  numerous  and 
large  settlements  in  the  Ussuri  A'alley,  while  the  White  Russians 
settled  several  other  districts  of  the  Ear  East.  Each  of  these  colo- 
nies speaks  its  own  dialect  and  adheres  to  its  peculiar  culture.  Even 
the  names  of  their  settlements  are  the  same  as  the  cities  from  which 
they  came.  On  the  Amur  there  are  again  A'oronej,  Orel,  Tambov, 
as  in  the  central  part  of  European  Russia  ;  and  on  the  Ussuri  there 
are  Chernigov,  Kiyev,  Poltava,  and  other  names  of  well-known 
cities  of  Ukraine.  Eor  the  colonization  of  the  mouth  of  the  Amur 
where  fi.shing  should  be  the  chief  occupation,  the  Russian  govern- 
ment, at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  centurs',  transported  a  large 
group  of  the  Ural  Cossacks  who  were  known  as  skilful  fishermen. 

In  tlie  history  of  Siberian  colonization  there  have  been  several 
distinct  jicriods  centering  around  certain  natural  res(~)urces  of  the 
country.  The  first  of  these  periods  centered  around  fur  trade  in 
which  sable  predominated.  The  trader  penetrated  into  Siberia,  mov- 
ing along  the  iKirtbcrn  part  of  the  country  from  ])lace  to  place  where 
sable  was  jjlentiful.  The  skin  of  this  valuable  animal  even  played 
the  role  of  a  unit  of  exchange.    Sable  disappeared  in  many  places 


RUSSIAN  ASIA 


123 


in  western  Siberia,  Irat 
in  the  eastern  provinces 
of  Yakutsk,  Kamchatka, 
and  the  Far  East  this 
valuable  fur-bearing  ani- 
mal is  still  plentiful. 
Other  animals  in  order 
of  the  value  of  their  fur 
are  squirrel,  fox,  ermine, 
weasel,  otter,  bear,  wolf, 
wildcat,  and  tiger  (in 
the  Far  East). 

Gold  comes  second  in 
chronological  sequence 
of  economic  develop- 
ment of  Siberia.  In 
European  Russia  gold 
has  been  mined  only  in 
the  Urals  in  limited 
quantities.  Gold-bearing 
areas  occur  in  western 
and  eastern  Siberia  and 
in  the  Far  East. 

Agriculture  developed  about  fifty  years  after  the  first  coloniza- 
tion in  eastern  Siberia,  especially  in  southern  Transbaikalia — in 
the  fertile  valleys  of  the  Onon,  Ingoda.  Argun,  and  their  tributaries. 


A    TYPICAL    OLD    GOLDI 
Photograph   by   I.   O.    Lopatin 


RELATIONS    OF    THE    RUSSIAN    COLONISTS    WITH    NATIVE    TRIBES 

The  primitive  Finnish  and  Tungus  tribes  made  little  resistance 
to  the  Russian  advance  into  Asia,  but  the  more  civilized  Turkish 
peoples  and  especially  the  Buryat  of  Transbaikalia  proved  a  seri- 
ous obstacle.  The  natives  of  the  Amur  Region,  the  Chukchee,  and 
Koryak  offered  considerable  resistance.  Frequently  the  first  Rus- 
sian military  detachments  were  completely  annihilated  by  the  na- 
tives, who  treacherously  violated  the  treaties  made  with  them  and 
rebeled  repeatedly.  The  subjugation  of  the  natives  required  great 
effort  and  much  military  skill  on  the  part  of  the  Russians.  On  the 
Amur  they  had  to  contend  with  the  well-organized  and  well-equipped 
Manchu  troops  who  at  that  time  (seventeenth  century)  were  at  the 
height  of  their  military  glory.    The  natives  of   the   Caucasus,  the 


124  THE  OPEN   COURT 

Gortsy  or  Alountaineers;  offered  such  strong  military  resistance  to 
the  Russians  that  the  final  conquest  took  place  only  after  sixty 
years  of  continuous  warfare.  The  Central  Asiatic  rulers  also  put 
up  a  stubborn  resistance,  and  the  conquest  of  this  country  cost  Rus- 
sia heavily  in  both  money  and  men.  ^^lauy  sanguinary  battles  were 
fought,  and  the  final  victory  was  due  only  to  the  greater  number  of 
the  Russian  troops  and  to  the  military  skill  of  their  generals. 

Rebellions  have  broken  out  among  the  Siberian  natives  even  in 
recent  times,  but  on  the  whole  the  enmity  of  early  days  between 
natives  and  Russian  colonists  has  disappeared.  The  Russian  sett- 
lers have  adopted  a  certain  amount  of  native  culture.  First  of 
all,  almost  all  existing  geographical  names  in  the  new  country  were 
accepted  by  the  colonists,  for  instance,  Ob,  Irtysh,  Altai,  and  others. 
Likewise,  a  certain  type  of  overcoat,  shoes,  and  mittens  suitable 
for  the  climate  of  the  country  were  immediately  borrowed  by 
the  Russians  from  the  natives.  Even  some  dishes  and  peculiar 
methods  of  cooking  were  adopted,  also  a  few  words  of  the  native 
languages ;  thus  purga  designates  a  Siberian  snowstorm,  yiikola, 
dried  fish,  paiitoi'at  means  to  hunt  the  wapiti. 

On  the  other  hand,  natives  have  been  greatly  influenced  by  Rus- 
sian culture.  The  Turkish  tribes  of  western  Siberia,  the  Buryat, 
the  Tungus  of  Transbaikalia  adopted  Russian  types  of  houses  and 
dress,  and  became  peaceful  tillers  of  the  soil.  Even  the  Goldi  on 
the  Amur  and  Ussuri  who  live  in  close  proximity  to  the  Russian 
settlers  have  learned  to  grow  vegetables.  Great  cultural  work  has 
also  been  done  by  the  Russian  missionaries.  The  conversion  to 
Christianity  has  changed  not  only  their  faith,  but  also  their  occupa- 
tion, citizenship,  hair-dress,  and  costume.  All  natives  at  baptism 
receive  Russian  names  (Christian  name  and  family  name)  and  after 
that  consider  themselves  Russians. 

The  Russian  peasants  in  .Sil)cria  very  seldom  look  down  upon 
the  natives,  which  leads  to  friendly  relations  between  them.  Tt  is 
true  that  a  Russian  girl  will  never  marry  even  a  half-breed  native, 
but  a  Russian  man  ma\'  have  a  love  affair  with  a  native  woman 
and  does  not  consider  it  a  disgrace  to  luarry  a  half-breed.  The  Rus- 
sian missionaries  and  ])]iilanthr()])ic  societies  have  helped  a  great 
nian\-  natives  lo  ac(|uire  a  higher  education.  Auioul;  tlu-se  educated 
natives  of  .'^iberia  there  are  now  such  well-known  names  as  Dorji 
Banzarov,  a  iUiryat,  orientalist;  \'alikhanov,  linguist:  X.  Katanov, 


RUSSIAN  ASIA  125 

an  Altaian  Turk,  professor  of  Persian  and  Turkish  languages  at 
the  University  of  Kazan ;  Tsybikov,  a  Buryat,  formerly  professor 
at  the  Oriental  College  of  Vladivostok ;  and  Badmayev,  also  a 
Buryat,  a  noted  physician  in  Leningrad. 

Some  modern  Russian  writers  have  become  known  through  their 
novels  dealing  with  the  life  of  Siberian  natives,  as,  for  instance, 
W.  Tan-Bogoras  (Tungus,  Yakut,  and  Chukchee  stories),  Syero- 
shevski  (Tungus  and  Yakut  stories),  V.  K.  Arseniyev  (Dersti 
Usala,  a  story  of  a  Goldi),  Karazin,  and  Mamin-Sibiryak. 

Russian  architecture,  sculpture,  painting,  and  decorative  art  have 
also  been  influenced  by  the  native  art  of  Russian  Asia,  especially 
that  of  Turkistan.  The  bulb-like  domes  of  the  Russian  churches  in 
Moscow  resemble  to  a  great  extent  the  domes  of  Samarkand  and 
Bukhara.  Through  Central  Asia  and  the  Caucasus  Russian  art  has 
absorbed  some  elements  of  Arabian,  Persian,  and  even  Indian  art. 
Among  modern  artists  there  are  several  like  Roerich  and  Klementiev, 
who  consciously  absorb  the  beauty  of  the  decorative  art  of  Turks 
and  Tungus,  Goldi  and  Gilyak. 

LIFE  AND   CULTURE  OF  THE   NATIVE  TRIBES 

The  population  of  Russian  Asia  is  extremely  varied  in  its  racial 
and  linguistic  composition.  In  the  Caucasus  alone  there  are  more 
than  one  hundred  different  dialects  and  languages  spoken  by  the 
natives.  Some  of  the  Russian  Asiatics  belong  to  the  civilized 
peoples  whose  culture  may  be  traced  to  great  antiquity,  such  as  the 
Georgians,  Armenians,  and  Tajiks.  There  are,  however,  also 
primitive  peoples  whose  culture  is  not  higher  than  that  of  most 
Indians  of  North  America ;  for  instance,  the  aborigines  of  north- 
eastern Asia,  such  as  the  Chukchee,  Gilyak,  Tungus,  and  the 
Orochee. 

The  Caucasus  and  Turkistan  are  two  of  the  most  interesting  an- 
cient centers  of  civilization.  The  natives  of  Turkistan  may  be 
divided  into  four  groups:  (1)  the  Aryans  (the  Tajiks,  Persians, 
Hindus,  and  Gypsies,  (2)  the  Semites  (Jews,  Arabs,  and  Afghans), 
(3)  the  Turks  (Kirghiz,  Tatars,  Taranchi,  and  Sarts),  and  (4) 
the  Mongols   (Dungan  and  Sart-Kalmuk). 

Turkistan  was  conquered  by  the  Persians  in  the  reign  of  Cyrus, 
and  was  invaded  by  Alexander  the  Great.  At  the  end  of  the  second 
century, B.C.  the  country  was  subjected  to  the  invasions  of  foreign 
peoples,  first,  the  Yiie-chi,  and  second,  the  White  Huns  in  a.d.  450. 


126 


THE  OPEN   COURT 


In  550  the  Turks  of  the 
Altai  country  defeated 
the  White  Huns  and  be- 
came masters  of  the 
country.  The  subju- 
g-ated  Aryan  population 
not  only  had  a  new  lan- 
guage superimposed  up- 
on its  own,  but  under- 
went an  admixture  of 
Turkish  blood.  At  the 
close  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tury, the  Arabs  con- 
quered Turkistan  and 
forced  its  conversion  to 
Islam.  In  1219  Jenghis 
Khan  ra^■aged  the  coun- 
try like  a  terrible  hurri- 
cane, and  at  the  end  of 
the  fourteenth  century 
Timur  established  his 
rule.  He  chose  Samar- 
kand as  the  capital  of 
his  empire  and  made  it 
one  of  the  most  magnificent  cities  of  the  world.  The  last  conquerors 
of  Turkistan  are  the  Russians. 

Russian  Trrkist?n  is  a  corntr^•  luoking  back  to  an  ancient  civili- 
zation. Excavations  at  Anau  ha\e  proved  that  this  place  was  in- 
habited by  a  peo])lc  with  stone-age  culture  a  little  earlier  than  8000 
R.c.  Domestication  of  animals  was  achieved  by  them  soon  after 
that  date.  Central  Asia  is  the  ])rimary  home  of  some  of  our  domes- 
tic animals  and  plants.  Agriculture  as  well  as  irrigation  was  well 
developed.  From  time  immemorial  the  Central  Asiatic  peoples 
fostered  trade  between  east  and  west  and  brought  about  culture 
exchanges  between  the  Iwn.  Tbc  history  of  luirope  has  been  deeply 
influenced  by  Central  .Asia  which  is  n  hi\e  of  humanity.  Niunerous 
tribes  i)erio(lically  swarmed  wcstw;ir(l  into  l".nrn])c.  Thus,  in  the 
fourth  anrl  fifth  centuries,  the  Nuns  advanced  into  the  heart  of 
Euro])e,  while  the  .Avars  and  the  llungarians  invaded  France.  From 
the  fourth  to  the  tenth  century  the  iUilgars  and  Khazars  were  very 


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AXn   NOSE   RING 


RUSSIAN  ASIA 


127 


active  in  southeastern  Europe. 
Then  the  waves  of  the  Peche- 
negs  and  Polovtsi  rushed  over 
Russia.  The  Mongols  invaded 
Europe  and  reached  eastern 
Germany  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury. The  Osman  wave  spent 
itself  against  the  walls  of 
Vienna.  The  Kalmuks  en- 
tered southern  Russia  as  late 
as  the  eighteenth  century. 
Europe  still  harbors  in  the 
Magyars,  the  Turks,  and 
numerous  Finnish  and  Mon- 
golian tribes  the  remnants  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Central 
Asia. 

The  natives  of  Siberia  and 
the  Far  East  are  of  many  ra- 
cial strains.  Western  Siberia 
is  peopled  by  Finno-Ugrian 
and  Turkish  tribes.  To  the 
latter  belong  the  Tatars  of  the 
Tomsk  and  Altai  provinces. 
All  Finns  of  western  Siberia 
are  reindeer  breeders,  even  the  Karagas  and  Soyot,  who  live  in  the 
southernmost  corner  of  Siberia,  the  upper  Yenisei  and  its  tributaries. 

Eastern  Siberia  and  Yakutsk  are  peopled  by  three  ethnic  groups 
— the  Tungrs,  Mongols,  and  Turks.  The  whole  of  the  vast  area  from 
the  Yenisei  in  the  west  to  the  coast  of  the  Pacific  on  the  east  and 
from  the  Arctic  Ocean  in  the  north  to  China  in  the  south  is  po- 
pulated by  Tungus.  The  Yakuts  are  a  Turkish  tribe.  Transbaikalia 
is  inhabited  by  the  Buryat,  a  Mongolian  tribe.  It  should  be  kept  in 
rhind.  however,  that  the  Trngus  constitute  a  large  portion  of  the 
population  in  both  Yakutsk  and  Transbaikalia. 

The  population  of  the  Russian  Far  East  is  extremely  hetero- 
geneous. The  Tungus,  again,  as  everywhere  in  northeastern  Asia, 
form  a  considerable  portion  of  the  aborigines,  and  live  in  the  Amur 
region.  The  Manchus  reside  in  small  numbers  in  the  towns  along 
the  Manchurian  boundarv  line.    \\'ith  the  exception  of  the  civilized 


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128 


THE  OPEN  COURT 


^lanchus  all  these  tribes  are 
primitive  hunters  and  fisher- 
men. The  extreme  northeast  of 
Asia  and  Kamchatka  is  in- 
habited by  the  Gilyak,  Ainu, 
Chukchee.  Koryak,  Kamchadal, 
Yukaghir.  Chuvantzi,  Asiatic 
Eskimo,  and  Aleut.  All  these 
peoples  are  known  in  the 
modern  classification  as  the 
Americanoids  of  Siberia.  In 
their  language,  religion,  cul- 
ture, and  in  bodily  character- 
istics thev  are  closely  related 
to  the  American  Indians.  It  is 
believed  by  anthropologists  that 
all  these  peoples  reemigrated 
from  America  into  Asia  at  the 
end  of  the  last  glaciation. 

The  culture  of  the  natives 
of  Siberia  and  the  Far  East  is 
primitive.  The  Finnish  tribes, 
the  Tungus  proper,  and  the 
Orok  are  reindeer  breeders  and 
to  a  certain  extent  hunters  and 
fishermen.  The  Buryat  at  present  raise  cattle,  horses,  and  camels,  but 
this  j)astoral  occupation  is  of  comparatively  recent  origin.  Because  of 
the  cultural  contact  with  their  kindred  folk,  the  Mongols  proper,  the 
Buryat,  are  the  most  advanced  people  among  all  the  native  tribes  of 
Siberia  and  the  Far  Fast.  The  Yakut  raise  cattle  and  horses,  and  to  a 
small  extent  till  the  soil,  but  their  chief  occupations  are  hunting  and 
fishing.  The  .Americanoids  of  Siberia  are  fishermen  and  hunters. 
\\'ith  the  exception  of  the  Buryat  and  a  small  number  of  the  Yakut, 
none  of  the  native  tribes  of  Siberia  and  the  Far  Fast  are  engaged  in 
agriculture.  I'esides  the  Buryat  nnd  tlio  iMnnish,  Tungusian,  and 
.Americanoid  reindeer  breeders  the  remaining  tribes  have  no  domestic 
animals  except  the  dog.  The  latter  is  used  for  dri\  ing.  Real  potterv 
is  imknown  tn  the  tribes  of  Siberia  and  tlic  I'^ar  l^ast.  and  tluM'r  uten- 
sils are  made  either  of  birch-bark,  wood,  or  skin.  Their  diet  con- 
sists largely  of   raw   meat  and  fish.    They  but   rarel\    use  iron  or 


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RUSSIAN  ASIA  129 

other  metals,  chiefly  employing  bone  or  horn,  and  the  Americanoids 
even  stone  in  making  their  tools  and  implements.  None  of  these 
peoples  knows  the  art  of  weaving,  and  their  clothing  is  made  of 
skins,  chiefly  reindeer-skins,  though  the  pelts  of  all  fur-bearers  of 
the  region  are  used  for  this  purpose.  The  Tungusian  tribes  of  the 
Amur  region  employ  fish-skins  for  the  same  purpose,  while  the 
Chukchee,  Aleut,  and  the  Asiatic  Eskimo  even  use  guts  of  seal  and 
walrus  for  certain  articles  of  clothing.  Their  dwelling  is  generally 
a  tent  made  of  the  bark  of  a  tree  or  of  felt  (as  the  yurt  of  the 
Buryat)  or  of  skins.  The  Koryak  and  other  natives  of  northeastern 
Asia  also  have  semi-underground  dwellings. 

The  religion  of  the  Siberian  and  Far  Eastern  natives  embraces 
the  belief  in  spirits,  the  cult  of  the  dead,  and  primitive  magic. 
The  shamans  (medicine-men)  are  believed  to  have  intercourse  with 
spirits.  They  conjure  up  spirits,  cure  the  sick  with  the  assistance  of 
their  spirit-protectors,  foretell  the  future,  and  so  on.  On  the  whole 
it  may  be  said  without  much  exaggeration  that  all  Finnish  and  Tun- 
gusian tribes  of  Siberia,  and  especially  the  Americanoids,  have  only 
recently  emerged  from  the  old  stone  age.  Like  the  prehistoric  man 
of  the  Paleolithic  age  in  Europe,  they  too  are  extremely  skilful  in 
carving  bone  and  reindeer  horn,  and  resemble  him  to  a  great  extent. 

ADMINISTRATIVE,    SOCIAL,   AND  ECONOMIC   CHANGES   IN    SIBERIA 
BROUGHT   ABOUT   BY   THE   SOVIET   GOVERNMENT 

A dministrathfe  Changes 

Great  administrative  changes  have  taken  place  in  Russian  Asia 
since  the  revolution.  Under  the  czar's  regime  all  Russian  posses- 
sions in  Asia  were  divided  into  eastern  Siberia,  western  Siberia, 
Far  East,  Turkistan,  and  Transcaucasia.  Eastern  Siberia  was  sub- 
divided into  four  provinces :  Transbaikalia,  Irkutsk,  Yakutsk,  and 
Yeniseisk :  western  Siberia,  into  the  two  provinces  Tobolsk  and 
Tomsk.  The  four  provinces  of  Amur,  Maritime,  Sakhalin,  and 
Kamchatka  composed  the  Far  East,  and  the  seven  provinces  and  the 
semi-independent  Khanates  of  Khiva  and  Bukhara  composed  Turki- 
stan. Transcaucasia  was  divided  into  eleven  districts.  Thus,  Asiatic 
Russia  did  not  dififer  much  in  point  of  administration  from  the 
European  part  of  the  empire  before  the  revolution,  except  for  the 
governors-general  who  were  at  the  head  of  the  administration  of 
the  larger  units.  Each  governor-general  controlled  the  governors 
of  the  provinces  which  formed  the  larger  unit.    This  administrative 


130  THE  OPEN  COURT 

system  had  the  practical  aim  of  concentrating  power  in  the  hands 
of  the  governor-general,  because  it  was  more  convenient  to  control 
the  remote  parts  of  the  empire  through  governors-general  than  di- 
rectly through  governors  of  each  province. 

The  official  language  in  all  Asiatic  possessions  of  the  empire  was 
Russian,  and  instruction  in  all  schools  was  given  in  this  language. 
Only  missionaries  preached  among  the  aborigines  in  their  native 
tongues. 

The  Soviet  Government  has  made  profound  changes  in  the  ad- 
ministrative system  of  Russian  Asia.  Nationality  has  been  the  basis 
for  the  new  divisions.  All  minor  nationalities  have  been  given  the 
right  to  establish  their  own  autonomous  republics.  The  semi-inde- 
pendent Khanates  w^ere  abolished,  and  their  territories  divided  on 
the  basis  of  nationalities.  As  a  result  of  this  policy  Russian  Asia  is 
now  divided  into  the  following  parts : 

(a)  Constituent    Republics:     Transcaucasian,    Turkoman,    Uz- 
bekistan, and  Tajikistan. 

(b)  Autonomous   Soviet   Socialist   Republics:     Buryat-Mongol, 
Kazakistan,  Kirghiz,  Yakut. 

(c)  Autonomous  Provinces:  Kara-Kalpak  and  Kara-Kirghiz. 

Social  and  Economic  Changes 

(I)    Socialization  of  Agriculture 

The  life  of  the  people  in  Siberia  has  undergone  tremendous  so- 
cial and  economic  changes  under  the  Soviet  regime.  The  most  radi- 
cal change,  which  explains  and  covers  all  others,  is  socialization. 
The  Communist  government  endeavors  to  socialize  evers'thing:  agri- 
culture, industries,  trade,  transportation,  dwellings,  even  the  cities 
themselves.  Anything  individual  and  private  is  considered  unlaw- 
ful, and  the  government  is  doing  everything  possible  to  eliminate 
it.  The  process  of  socialization  is  not  yet  completed,  but  in  some 
lines  it  has  already  advanced  very  fast.  Thus,  in  agriculture  in  some 
parts  of  Russian  Asia  60  per  cent  of  the  peasants  are  already  so- 
cialized. The  percentage  of  farms  collectivized  in  the  republic  of 
Kazakistan  was  forty-two  on  March  20,  1930.  In  the  basic  cotton 
districts  of  the  republic  80  per  cent  of  the  peasant  households  have 
been  organized  into  collectives. 

The  socialization  of  agriculture  was  undertaken  by  the  Soviet 
Covernmcnt  in  the  very  first  years  of  its  existence.  This  enterprise 
has  been  taken  over  on  a  large  scale  by  the  Five- Year  Plan.    First 


RUSSIAN  ASIA  131 

experiments  in  socialization  were  made  on  the  nationalized  estates 
of  former  landlords.  Large  and  well-organized  estates  were  taken 
over  by  the  government  and  became  sovhos  or  state  farms  at  that 
time.  The  individual  peasant  farms  were  not  touched  by  this  policy. 
Only  in  1929  did  the  government  start  to  socialize  them,  com- 
bining a  number  of  small  individual  peasant  farms  into  one  large- 
scale  collective  farm.  Making  a  collective  farm,  the  peasants  elimi- 
nate all  boundaries  dividing  the  land  allotments  of  the  members 
of  this  collective.  All  means  of  production  are  also  to  be  socialized, 
such  as  agricultural  machinery,  working  animals,  seed  reserves, 
cattle  fodder  necessary  for  the  socialized  live-stock,  farm  buildings 
necessary  for  the  operation  of  the  collective.  All  work  on  the  col- 
lective farm  is  carried  on  by  its  members  in  accordance  with  the 
rules  and  regulations  adopted  by  the  general  assembly.  The  distribu- 
tion of  labor  in  the  collective  is  carried  out  by  the  administration, 
and  no  member  of  the  collective  may  refuse  work  that  he  has  been 
commissioned  to  do.  Disciplinary  measures  may  be  taken,  and  a 
penalty  may  be  imposed  on  the  oiifender  in  case  of  failure  to  ap- 
pear for  work. 

In  order  to  accelerate  the  influx  of  individual  farmers  into  col- 
lectives the  government  took  a  number  of  suggestive  measures.  The 
collective  farms  from  the  very  beginning  of  their  existence  were 
partially  or  entirely  exempted  from  various  all-union,  republican, 
and  local  taxes  and  assessments.  The  State  Bank  instructed  its 
branches  to  grant  short-term  credits  to  collective  farms,  and  in- 
structors in  agriculture  were  sent  out  to  assist  the  collective  farms 
in  starting  their  work.  However,  such  a  collective  farm  is  not  a 
commune,  and  the  members  of  it  may  retain  their  houses,  small  gar- 
dens, clothing,  and  other  small  personal  property.  If  in  addition 
to  completely  socializing  the  means  of  production  the  collective  farm 
also  creates  enterprises  to  take  care  of  the  individual  needs  of  its 
members,  such  a  collective  becomes  a  commune.  The  latter  is  the 
final  aim  of  the  Soviet  Government.  In  a  commune  all  property  of 
the  member  is  in  common  use.  They  live  in  a  common  house,  have 
one  common  kitchen  and  common  food ;  they  eat  in  one  large  din- 
ing room;  their  children  are  cared  for  by  special  trained  nurses. 
Thus,  at  present  there  are  three  degrees  of  socialization  of  agri- 
culture in  Russian  Asia :    state  farm,  collective  farm,  and  commune. 

One  of  the  most  important  developments  in  the  socialization 
movement  was  the  creation  of  machine-tractor  stations.    In  a  cen- 


132  THE  OPEN   COURT 

tral  village  among  the  collective  farms  such  a  machine-tractor  sta- 
tion is  organized  with  all  kinds  of  up-to-date  agricultural  machinery 
for  common  use  and  with  shops  for  repairing,  mending,  and  re- 
modeling it. 

Socialization  of  agriculture  is  progressing  so  rapidly  that  the 
government  itself  did  not  expect  such  great  results.  It  was  sup- 
posed by  the  government  that  there  would  be  over  a  hundred  farms 
in  Siberia  in  1931,  employing  100,000  workers.  It  was  believed 
that  they  would  cover  over  three  million  hectares  of  arable  land. 
During  1*^31  thirteen  of  these  farms  were  supposed  to  plant  488,000 
hectares  with  grain,  or  an  area  314  times  greater  than  that  of  1930, 
and  to  use  3,000  tractors  and  79  combines.  It  is  believed  that  by  the 
end  of  the  Five-Year  Plan  period  (1933)  Siberia  will  have  over 
5,300,000  hectares  under  state  farms.  On  August  1,  1931  there  were 
93  state  animal  husbandry  farms  in  Kazakistan  with  1.500,000  head 
of  cattle,  596  collective  dairy  farms,  and  108  machine-haying  sta- 
tions. The  state  livestock  farms  had  2,200,000  head  of  cattle  by  the 
end  of  1931.  Nine  state  fruit-growing  farms  are  to  be  organized  in 
Kazakistan  with  a  total  area  of  45,000  hectares  during  1932.  By  the 
decision  of  the  government  thirty  state  farms  for  animal  breeding 
are  to  be  organized  in  Central  Aisia.  The  combined  pasturage  of 
these  farms  will  amount  to  5,500,000  hectares.  The  two  largest  of 
these  farms,  which  will  have  a  capacity  of  77,000  head  of  sheep, 
will  be  located  near  Samarkand  and  in  the  Zerovshansk  district. 
The  question  of  animal  husbandry  is  now  the  chief  center  of  at- 
tention in  the  reorganization  of  agriculture  in  Russian  Asia.  The 
large  state  farms  serve  both  as  model  farms  and  experimental 
stations. 

In  connection  with  socialization  of  agriculture  and  development 
of  large-scale  farming  a  number  of  large  irrigation  projects  are  be- 
ing developed  in  Central  Asia.  Two  hundred  large  excavators  were 
ordered  for  1932.  The  l"^nited  Construction  Equipment  Industry 
is  now  building  a  factory  in  Tashkent  for  the  manufacture  of  irri- 
gation c(|uipm(Mit  of  the  simpler  types,  which  will  have  an  animal 
out])Ut  valued  at  four  million  rubles.  An  excavator  plant,  now  un- 
der construction  in  the  Urals,  which  is  scheduled  to  begin  opera- 
tions at  tile  end  of  ]'^?i2,  will  su])ply  excaxating  machinery  for 
Turkistan.  A  CDUiprehcnsive  irrigation  development  is  being  car- 
ried through  with  the  help  of  a  niunbcr  of  prominent  American 
engineers  in  this  field,  including  .\.  P.  Davis,  formerly  head  of  the 


RUSSIAN  ASIA  133 

U.  S.  Reclamation  Service  and  past  president  of  the  American  So- 
ciety of  Civil  Engineers.  For  the  year  1932  a  sum  of  $120,000,000 
has  been  appropriated  for  irrigation  work  in  Tnrkistan. 

Agriculture  is  being  organized  by  the  Soviet  Government  as 
a  large-scale  industry.  Thus  the  cultivation  of  grain  and  grain 
trade  were  organized  in  1928  into  the  powerful  Zernotrest  (the  State 
Grain  Trust).  This  organization  is  in  charge  of  gathering,  storing, 
and  selling  all  the  grain  in  Russia.  Similar  to  this  are  the  Ovtsevod 
(Sheep-Breeding  Trust),  Sakharotrest  (State  Sugar  Trust),  Soyuz- 
moloko  (State  Dairy  Products  Trust),  and  others.  The  State  Rice 
Trust,  which  has  been  organized  by  a  decision  of  the  government  in 
1929,  will  combine  all  organizations  connected  with  the  cultivation 
of  rice.  Before  the  revolution  rice  cultivation  was  in  an  embryonic 
state,  but  the  Soviet  Government  is  developing  this  branch  of  agri- 
culture very  successfully.  Rice-planting  is  now  concentrated  chiefly 
in  Turkistan,  Transcaucasia,  and  in  the  Far  East.  The  Rice  Trust 
has  been  commissioned  to  organize  large  state  farms  in  these  sec- 
tions. The  program  of  rice-sowing  for  1932  provided  for  an  in- 
crease in  the  sown  area  to  250,000  hectares  (617,500  acres),  of 
which  the  Grain  Trust  will  sow  50,000  hectares,  the  collectives 
175,000,  and  individual  peasants  25,000  hectares. 

The  further  development  of  the  Soviet  dairy  industry  in  Rus- 
sian Asia  is  planned  also  largely  along  the  lines  of  the  organization 
of  large  collective  and  state  dairy  farms.  There  are  dairies  with 
as  many  as  a  thousand  or  two  thousand  cows  on  a  single  farm. 
So^oizmoloko  (United  Dairy  Industry),  a  powerful  organization 
which  is  in  charge  of  storing  and  distributing  milk  in  all  Soviet 
Russia,  invested  in  new  constructions  and  reequipment  of  exist- 
ing dairy  enterprises  a  total  of  17,300,000  rubles  in  1930.  A  large 
factory  for  the  production  of  condensed  milk  is  being  built  in  the 
Novo-Sibirsk  district  (formerly  Xovo-Xikolayevsk)  in  western 
Siberia,  which  will  produce  three  thousand  tons  of  condensed  milk 
annually.  Refrigerating  plants  are  being  scheduled  for  construction 
in  Siberia  and  Kazakistan. 

The  cultivation  of  cotton  in  Soviet  Russia  has  also  been  given 
a  new  impetus.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  Russian  textile  in- 
dustry for  a  long  time  depended  almost  entirely  on  imported  cot- 
ton. Then  the  czar's  government  started  to  develop  cotton  cultiva- 
tion in  Russian  Turkistan  where  it  had  been  a  native  occupation 
from   ancient   times.     In    1913   the   Russian    factories   had   already 


134  THE  OPEN  COURT 

two  thirds  of  their  demand  in  domestic  cotton.  But  during  the 
Revolution  the  production  of  cotton  fell  off.  Thus,  in  1913  the 
area  culti\ated  with  cotton  in  Russia  totaled  512,984  desiatin,  in 
1919  only  50,C00  desiatin,  and  in  1920  it  fell  to  a  miserable  30,000 
desiatin.  The  Soviet  Government  has  endeavored  to  increase  the 
cultivation  of  cotton,  and  in  1931  the  area  sown  to  cotton  totaled 
2,137,000  hectares  (5,280,000  acres),  an  increase  of  31  per  cent 
above  1930,  more  than  double  the  1929  area,  and  over  three  times 
that  of  1913.  Russian  Central  Asia  is  the  chief  cotton-growing 
region,  accounting  for  about  60  per  cent  of  the  total  acreage ;  Trans- 
caucasia (especially  Azerbaidjan)  is  second  accounting  for  10  per 
cent.  The  remaining  cotton-growing  areas  are  Ukraine,  Crimea, 
the  northern  Caucasus,  and  the  lower  A'olga.  State  and  collective 
famis  have  taken  a  large  share  in  cultivation  of  cotton  and  ac- 
counted for  nearly  75  per  cent  of  the  area  under  cotton  in  1931, 
as  compared  with  43  per  cent  in  1930  and  only  7  per  cent  in  1929. 
One  of  the  largest  cotton  state  farms  in  Russia,  known  as  Pakhta 
Aral  (Cotton  Island),  is  located  in  Kazakistan.  Its  sown  area  in 
1931  totaled  25,000  hectares  (over  60,000  acres),  and  the  Soviet 
Government  expects  that  by  1933  it  will  have  from  55,000  to  65,000 
hectares  of  irrigated  land  under  cotton.  This  farm  is  situated  where 
formerly  there  was  only  a  sandy  waste.  The  farm  is  being  equipped 
with  an  experimental  laboratory,  a  meteorological  station,  and  its 
own  cotton  gin.  Another  large  state  cotton  plantation  is  the  Vakhsh 
state  farm  in  Tajikistan. 

All  state  and  collective  cotton  farms  are  equipped  with  up-to- 
date  machinery.  There  are  9,600  tractors  for  all  districts  of  cot- 
ton cultivation,  and  harvesting  is  done  by  mechanical  pickers.  The 
first  factory  designed  especially  for  the  manufacture  of  equip- 
ment and  machinery  for  cotton  plantations  has  been  established  at 
Tashkent.  Chemical  fertilizers  are  used  extensively.  Modern  tech- 
nique is  also  being  introduced  as  regards  the  ginning  of  cotton. 
The  numerous  small,  poorly  equipped  mills  existing  prior  to  the 
war  have  been  replaced  by  a  lesser  number  of  large  up-to-date 
plants,  with  a  combined  capacity  over  four  times  that  of  the  pre- 
war plants. 

Similar  achievements  have  been  made  in  the  silk  industry.  Turki- 
stan  and  Transcaucasia  constitute  the  chief  regions  for  silkworm 
breeding,  the  former  accounting  for  60  ]ier  cent  and  the  latter  for  36 
per  cent  of  the  total  output  of  cocoons.    The  North  Caucasus,  the 


RUSSIAN  ASIA  135 

Ukraine,  and  the  maritime  districts  of  the  Far  Eastern  region  con- 
tribute a  small  share  (4  per  cent).  A  dozen  new  silk-reeling  fac- 
tories have  been  built  near  the  sources  of  raw  material — more  than 
half  of  them  in  Central  Asia,  where  there  was  none  at  all  before 
the  war.  Among  the  largest  are  those  at  Margelan,  in  Uzbekistan, 
with  480  basins  and  at  Nukha  in  Azerbaidjan,  with  600  basins.  The 
government  endeavors  to  organize  state  and  collective  silk-worm- 
breeding  farms  and  to  introduce  scientific  methods  in  all  phases  of 
the  industry.  In  1931  the  output  of  raw  silk  in  Soviet  Russia 
amounted  to  860  metric  tons,  more  than  double  the  pre-war  figure. 

A  start  has  been  made  toward  the  development  of  the  tea  in- 
dustry in  Transcaucasia.  The  State  Agricultural  Academy  has  or- 
ganized an  institute  for  scientific  research  in  the  tea  industry  in 
Tiflis  with  a  number  of  experimental  stations. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  entirely  new  crops  have  been 
introduced  into  Russian  Asia.  A  special  committee  (the  Commis- 
sariat for  Agriculture)  has  worked  out  measures  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  such  crops  on  a  large  scale.  Special  attention  is  being  given 
to  the  development  of  kendyr  and  kenaf  cultivation.  Kendyr  is  a 
fiber  plant  which  may  serve  as  a  partial  substitute  for  cotton  in 
the  production  of  cloth  and  for  jute  in  the  manufacture  of  rope 
and  twine.  Kendyr  has  been  shown  by  scientific  research  to  be  more 
valuable  than  cotton  for  certain  kinds  of  cloth.  It  is  a  hardy  per- 
ennial plant  which  grows  wild  over  large  areas  in  the  valleys  of 
almost  all  rivers  in  Russian  Central  Asia  and  also  in  the  North 
Caucasus,  Dagestan,  and  along  the  lower  courses  of  the  Volga  and 
Dniepr  Rivers.  The  cultivation  of  kendyr  may  be  carried  on  with- 
out extensive  irrigation.  The  government  plans  to  establish  a  num- 
ber of  large  kendyr  farms  and  to  spread  the  cultivation  of  this 
useful  plant  on  a  large  scale.  Kenaf  is  also  a  fiber  plant,  and  grows 
almost  in  the  same  districts  as  kendyr.  Kenaf  may  be  a  good  sub- 
stitute for  jute.  In  order  to  eliminate  gradually  the  import  of  the 
latter,  the  Commissariat  of  Trade  increased  the  cultivation  of  kenaf 
to  67,000  hectares  in  1930.  A  special  organization — the  State  Kenaf 
Company — was  created  to  carry  on  the  cultivation  of  this  new  in- 
dustrial crop. 

A  hitherto  unknown  rubber  plant  was  discovered  by  an  expedi- 
tion of  the  Institute  of  Central  Asia  in  the  Samarkand  district  in 
Uzbekistan,  in  1930.  This  plant  contains  about  8  per  cent  of  rub- 
ber, and  is  found  in  large  quantities  in  various  regions  of  the  re- 


136  THE  OPEN   COURT  ^ 

public.  Ill  the  same  year  a  botanical  expedition  of  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  discovered  a  number  of  rubber-bearing  plants  and  others 
containing  volatile  oils  in  the  Altai  Mountains,  near  the  town  of 
I'st-Kamenogorsk.  In  the  following  year  the  newly  organized  trust 
for  the  development  of  rubber  plantations  began  work  in  the  Kuyuk 
Mountains  in  Kazakistan.  The  yield  of  that  year  (1913)  was  about 
200  tons,  and  that  for  the  next  year  is  expected  to  be  2,500  tons.  A 
new  experimental  factory  for  the  extraction  of  rubber  from  rub- 
ber plants  is  being  erected  in  the  Kara-Tau  Mountains. 

Scientific  experiments  are  being  made  in  planting  varieties  of 
sugar  cane  and  other  tropical  and  subtropical  plants  near  Sukhum, 
in  Transcaucasia.  The  Leningrad  Agricultural  Academy  is  to  or- 
ganize a  special  station  for  growing  winter  vegetables  near  Su- 
khum also.  Some  of  the  southern  regions  of  Central  Asia  and  Trans- 
caucasia are  using  sweet  potatoes — a  new  crop  here — instead  of 
potatoes.  The  Soy-bean  and  Corn  Institute  is  to  prepare  a  special 
regional  plan  for  growing  various  kinds  of  beans  and  corn.  Special 
studies  are  to  be  made  of  the  use  of  various  feed  mixtures  for  the 
state  and  collective  stock-breeding  farms. 

(2)    Socialization  and  Development  of  Industry 

All  industries  were  socialized  in  the  beginning  of  the  Soviet 
Revolution,  and  at  present  there  is  no  private  enterprise  or  private 
capital  invested  in  mining,  textile,  or  any  other  basic  industry.  With 
the  excejition  of  very  few  concessions,  all  mines  and  factories  are 
run  l)y  the  government.  All  individual  industries  are  organized  as 
trusts  and  syndicates,  such  as  Sakharotrest  (the  State  Sugar  Trust), 
Neftye-syndicate   (the  .State  Oil  Syndicate),  and  so  on. 

Since  the  Revolution  all  industries  underwent  the  same  changes 
as  agriculture.  In  the  first  years  of  the  Soviet  Revolution  the  out- 
put of  products  fell  to  an  extremely  low  level,  the  worst  year"  being 
1920-21.  Then  with  the  Xew  Economic  Policy  (NEP)  the  output 
started  to  rise,  and  in  the  Five-Year  Plan  period  it  has  reached  the 
highest  level.  In  some  industries  the  output  has  already  reached 
and  e\'en  surpassed  the  pre-war  level,  but  in  others  it  still  remains 
below  it. 

The  most  interesting  enlerprise  of  the  .So\ict  Coxernment  in  Si- 
beria is  the  Kuznetsk  Steel  Plant.  Although  the  opening  of  such 
a  i)lant  was  already  decided  by  the  czar's  government  in  1916, 
nothing  was  done  until   1929.    The  Kuznetzk  steel  plant  will  have 


RUSSIAN  ASIA  137 

initially  four  blast  furnaces  averaging  505,000  tons  a  year.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  the  Ural  Mountains  contain  a  high  grade  iron  ore, 
but  have  no  coal  good  enough  for  the  production  of  coke.  All  steel 
plants  in  the  Urals  have  worked  not  with  coke,  but  with  charcoal. 
The  Kuznetsk  basin,  on  the  contrary,  possesses  enormous  deposits  of 
high  quality  coal,  which  has  already  been  worked  for  thirty  years. 
The  Soviet  Government,  therefore,  decided  to  unite  the  Urals  and 
Kuznetsk  into  one  Industrial  Combine.  The  iron  ore  will  be  shipped 
from  the  Urals  to  Kuznetsk,  and  the  coke  in  turn  will  be  trans- 
ported in  the  same  cars  from  the  Kuznetsk  to  the  Urals  over  a  dis- 
tance of  more  than  1,500  miles.  How  profitable  such  an  enterprise 
is  only  the  future  will  show.  The  Ural-Kuznetsk  Combine  is  going 
to  be  an  enormous  undertaking.  According  to  the  program  of  the 
State  Planning  Commission  for  1933,  the  output  of  pig  iron  of  the 
combine  is  expected  to  be  6,500,000  tons.  Large  power  plants  and 
all  the  auxiliaries  required  of  a  modern  steel  plant  were  already 
built,  and  operations  started  on  July  27,  1931. 

Another  great  enterprise  in  the  mining  industry  is  the  huge  cop- 
per plant  of  Almalik  in  Kazakistan,  which  is  to  be  built  during  the 
course  of  the  next  three  years.  Since  it  is  only  thirty-seven  miles 
from  Tashkent,  the  transportation  difficulties  are  not  great.  At 
present  a  railway  line  is  under  construction  between  Tashkent  and 
Melnikova. 

■A  still  larger  copper  mining  and  smelting  plant  with  an  annual 
capacity  of  175,000  metric  tons  of  copper  is  to  be  built  at  Bertiss, 
at  the  western  end  of  Lake  Balkhash,  in  Kazakistan.  The  cost  of 
construction  is  estimated  at  450  million  rubles,  of  which  100  mil- 
lion rubles  were  allotted  in  1931.  The  plant  is  scheduled  to  be  com- 
pleted and  in  full  operation  in  1935.  A  section  of  a  railroad  which 
will  connect  the  Trans-Siberian  railroad  at  Petropavovsk  and  the 
Turkistan-Siberian  at  Lake  Balkhash  was  completed  in  1931. 

A  huge  lead  mining  and  smelting  plant  (combine)  is  to  be  built 
in  Central  Asia.  The  centers  of  this  combine  are  Chimkent  and 
Turlan  in  Kazakistan.  Capital  investments  are  set  at  25-30  million 
rubles,  of  which  14  million  rubles  were  to  be  expended  in  1931. 

The  machine-building  industry  is  also  being  developed  in  Rus- 
sian Asia.  Thus  in  August,  1932,  construction  work  on  a  huge  loco- 
motive plant  was  begun  at  Verkhne-udinsk,  in  Transbaikalia.  The 
plant  is  scheduled  to  be  finished  in  December  of  1933.  Another  large 
locomotive-building  plant   is   under   construction   on   the   banks   of 


138  THE  OPEN   COURT 

the  Tom  River,  nine  miles  from  the  Stahnsk  Steel  plant  in  western 
Siberia.  It  will  cost  $77,000,000.  The  construction  is  expected  to 
be  completed  within  a  year.  A  large  harvester-thresher  plant  is  to 
be  erected  in  Xovo-Sibirsk  at  a  cost  of  60,000,000  rubles.  Another 
large  plant  is  under  construction  in  the  same  city,  which  will  pro- 
duce coal-mining  equipment  for  the  Kuznetsk  Basin  coal  fields. 

In  meat-packing  and  canning  industry  the  Soviet  Government 
endeavors  to  organize  large  factories  with  up-to-date  equipment  and 
machinery.  All  such  enterprises  are,  of  course,  socialized.  Among 
the  recently  completed  plants  are  those  at  Omsk  in  western  Siberia 
and  at  Frunze  in  the  Kirghiz  Republic.  Besides,  seventeen  bacon 
factories  have  also  been  constructed,  the  largest  of  which  is  lo- 
cated at  Biisk  in  western  Siberia.  The  Five-Year  Plan  provides 
for  the  construction  of  fifty-seven  packing  plants  for  all  Russia  by 
1933,  and  one  will  be  built  in  Semipalatinsk,  in  the  center  of  the 
livestock  production  in  Kazakistan.  Its  daily  killing  capacity,  work- 
ing in  two  shifts,  will  be  1,200  cattle,  2,400  hogs,  and  4.800  sheep. 
The  canning  department  will  produce  daily  300,000  cans,  working 
in  three  shifts.  A  large  fruit  and  vegetable  cannery  is  to  be  built 
at  Sardar-Abad  in  Armenia.  It  will  cost  about  ten  million  rubles. 
The  plant  is  scheduled  to  begin  operations  in  1934.  Raw  material 
for  the  cannery  will  be  supplied  by  a  state  farm  in  the  vicinity, 
which  controls  5,900  acres  of  orchards,  vineyards,  and  truck-gar- 
dens. A  large  condensed  milk  cannery  was  recently  completed  in 
the  Sokolsk  district  of  the  Northern  Region.  The  annual  capacity 
of  the  cannery  will  be  ten  million  cans. 

Since  the  industrialization  of  East  Siberia  is  dependent  to  a 
large  extent  upon  electric  power,  the  Soviet  Government  has  de- 
cided to  build  large  power  stations  on  the  Baikal,  near  the  city 
of  Irkutsk.  The  first  is  to  be  built  at  the  Cheremkhovo  coal  mine 
by  1934,  then  the  Irkut  River  dam  will  be  built  in  1937,  and  the 
Barkhatovo  and  Baikal  dams  on  the  Angara  in  1938  and  1941,  re- 
spectively. In  November,  1930,  the  foundation  was  laid  for  the 
first  regional  power  and  heating  station  in  Kemerovo,  in  western 
Siberia. 

Even  fur  industry  is  being  socialized.  The  government  organ- 
izes hunting  camps,  fur-animal-breeding  farms,  and  fur  factories. 
In  1930  there  were  1,358  animals  on  seven  of  the  larger  farms,  in- 
cluding 738  silver  foxes,  258  blue  foxes,  82  other  foxes,  95  sables, 
59  martens,  and  131  miscellaneous  species.    More  than  sixty  differ- 


RUSSIAN  ASIA  139 

ent  kinds  of  pelts  are  exported.  vSoviet  Russia  supplies  about  25 
per  cent  of  the  world  fur  output.  The  bulk  of  the  furs  comes  from 
Asiatic  Russia. 

(3)  Development  of  Transportation 

One  of  the  first  great  achievements  of  the  Five-Year  Plan  was 
the  completion  of  the  Turkistan-Siberian  Railway.  It  should  be 
kept  in  mind,  however,  that  the  project  of  building  a  railway  to  con- 
nect Siberia  with  Turkistan  was  by  no  means  new.  The  question 
was  raised  in  1878,  and  some  preparatory  work  was  done  at  that 
time.  The  entire  line  of  the  Turk-Sib  (the  abbreviated  name  of 
the  road)  is  1,445  kilometers.  The  economic  significance  of  the 
railroad  cannot  be  overestimated ;  it  connects  cotton  and  fruit  grow- 
ing Turkistan  with  grain  and  lumber  producing  Siberia.  At  the 
same  time  the  Turk-Sib  makes  possible  the  development  of  the  rich 
natural  resources  of  Kazakistan.  The  cultural  significance  of  the 
railroad  is  undoubtedly  enormous :  it  marks  the  beginning  of  an 
industrial  revolution  for  the  peoples  of  Central  Asia. 

(4)  Socialization  of  Cities 

In  its  efiforts  to  socialize  all  sides  of  life  the  Soviet  Government 
does  not  hesitate  to  socialize  the  dwellings  and  the  cities  themselves. 
Every  endeavor  is  made  to  adapt  old  cities  to  modern  life.  All 
larger  buildings  and  apartment  houses  were  confiscated  in  the  very 
beginning  of  the  Soviet  Revolution.  Only  small  houses  have  been 
left  in  the  possession  of  their  owners.  At  present  the  Soviet 
Government  is  erecting  a  large  number  of  buildings  throughout 
Russia  as  homes  for  the  workers.  All  such  houses  are  social  dwell- 
ings, extremely  modern  in  their  construction,  with  up-to-date  con- 
veniences. It  is  supposed  that  the  inhabitants  of  such  a  social  house 
form  a  commune.  Private  property  is  reduced  to  an  insignificant 
minimum.  In  an  ideal  case  even  food  is  in  common  use.  Special 
cooks  prepare  the  food  for  all  the  members  of  the  commune,  and 
trained  nurses  take  care  of  all  the  children.  Particular  attention  is 
being  paid  to  new  cities  and  towns  which  spring  up  in  new  in- 
dustrial centers  and  new  industrial  projects.  Such  cities  in  Siberia 
are  Novo-Sibirsk  (formerly  Novo-Nikolayevsk),  the  port  of  Igarka, 
towns  at  the  Kuznetsk  Steel  Plant,  Kounrad  near  Lake  Balkhash, 
and  Karaganda  in  Kazakistan.  Forty  million  rubles  have  been 
appropriated  for  the  building  of  these  new  cities.  The  most  inter- 
esting of  them  is  Novo-Sibirsk,  now  the  capital  of  Siberia  and  one 


140  THE  OPEN   COURT 

of  the  fastest  growing  of  the  pioneer  cities  in  Russia.  In  the 
past  five  years  its  population  has  increased  about  75  per  cent,  and 
is  now  estimated  at  210,000  inhabitants.  Novo-Sibirsk  is  the  cen- 
ter of  a  large  and  prosperous  agricultural  district  and  also  the  cen- 
ter of  the  Ural-Kuznetsk  Combine. 

.\  broad  extension  of  the  network  of  entertainment  has  been 
made  in  order  to  satisfy  the  cultural  needs  of  the  workers.  At  present 
a  large  number  of  new  theaters,  talking  picture  houses,  workers' 
clubs,  and  libraries  are  being  bnilt  in  various  cities  throughout  the 
country.  One  of  the  most  striking  of  such  new  structures  is  the 
theater  of  Novo-Sibirsk.  It  seats  three  thousand,  and  has  been  de- 
signed along  the  most  modern  lines.  The  stage  is  placed  in  the  cen- 
ter of  the  theater  with  the  seats  surrounding  it.  The  stage  is  large 
enotigh  for  trains,  tractors,  and  automobiles  to  move  on  it  easily. 

(5)     The  Far  North 

In  recent  years  a  development  has  taken  place  in  the  Far  North. 
In  Igarka  and  in  the  Yartsev  and  Kirensk  regions  a  few  vegetable 
and  dairv  state  farms  have  been  organized.  Several  collective  farms 
are  also  to  be  established.  A  state  reindeer-breeding  farm  is  being 
established  in  the  tundras  on  the  Yenisei  River.  According  to  the 
Government's  plan,  it  will  have  20,000  head.  A  newly  organized 
Deer-Breeding  Trust  is  expected  to  place  the  farm  on  a  scientific 
basis  and  enlarge  the  number  of  farms  to  such  an  extent  that  it 
might  take  care  of  the  entire  reindeer-breeding  industry.  The  num- 
ber of  deer  in  the  herds  raised  by  the  natives  of  the  northern  re- 
gions of  Soviet  Russia  is  estimated  at  two  million.  It  is  expected 
by  the  Government  that  by  1933  the  number  of  animals  w'ill  be 
increased  to  3.500,000,  with  800,000  on  state  farms,  one  million  on 
collective   farms,  and  the   rest  raised  by  individuals. 

Even  grain  cultivation  has  been  given  a  chance  for  greater  de- 
velopment in  the  Far  North.  A  state  grain  farm  of  30,000  hectares 
(74.000  acres)  w^as  recently  organized  by  the  State  Grain  Trust 
in  the  Amginsk  Valley  in  Yakutsk.  The  farm  will  be  mechanized  to 
a  large  extent.  Forty- four  tractors  have  already  been  delivered 
there  as  well  as  tractor-drawn  machinery  and  automobiles. 

The  most  important  feature  of  the  Far  North  is  the  rapid  de- 
velopment of  the  Northern  Sea  Route  leading  through  the  Kara  Sea 
to  the  nionlb  nf  tlic  (  )b  River  in  western  Sil)eria  and  the  Yenisei 
in  eastern  Siberia,    b'irst  e.\j)crinH'nts  in  the  navigation  of  this  route 


RUSSIAN  ASIA  141 

were  begun  by  Xordenskiold  as  early  as  1875  ;  then  Russian  navi- 
gators (General  \'ilkitsky  among  them)  tried  to  establish  regular 
communication  between  their  European  and  Asiatic  ports  and  at 
last  Xansen  made  his  expedition  in  1913.  But  commercial  develop- 
ment did  not  begin  until  1921,  when  the  Komsevput  (Northern 
Commercial  Route  Company)  was  organized.  The  increase  of  ship- 
ping via  this  route  is  already  remarkable:  from  five  ships  carrying 
8,317  tons  of  freight  in  1921  to  forty-six  vessels  carrying  195,(X)0 
tons  in  1930.  Igarka,  a  new  river  port  on  the  Yenisei,  is  being  rapid- 
ly developed.  Three  large  lumber  mills  are  already  in  operation 
there.  The  town  is  growing  very  rapidly :  the  population  in  1931 
was  more  than  six  times  as  large  as  that  in  1930.  During  the  long 
polar  nights  the  port  is  constantly  illuminated  by  electricity.  At  Ust, 
another  port  on  the  Yenisei  (400  kilometers  below  Igarka),  a  large 
canning  factory  began  operations  in  1931. 

In  1930  Komsevput  started  fisheries  on  the  lower  Yenisei  River 
and  the  hunting  of  fur-bearing  animals.  The  first  fur  factory  was 
built  in  the  same  year  at  the  Bay  of  Nydoyamsl.  Mineral  resources 
of  the  Far  North  are  also  exploited,  especially  the  graphite  of 
Kureika,  which  is  being  used  successfully  in  different  industries.  The 
development  of  aviation,  radio,  meteorological  and  ice-breaking  serv- 
ices has  greatly  aided  in  the  development  of  the  northern  sea  route. 
Changes  in  the  Culture  of  the  Natives 

The  Soviet  regime  has  brought  about  great  changes  in  the  culture 
of  the  natives  of  Russian  Asia.  Most  important  are  those  which 
have  afTected  education,  position  of  women,  hygiene,  and  public 
health.  Before  the  Soviet  revolution  instruction  in  public  schools 
was  given  in  Russian,  and  because  of  lack  of  schools  and  teachers 
illiteracy  was  widely  prevalent  among  the  natives.  The  Soviet 
Government  substituted  Russian  for  the  native  tongues,  and  since 
1930  has  introduced  universal  compulsory  education  which  will  reach 
Georgia  and  Armenia  in  1933  and  Azerbaidjan  in  1934.  Some  tribes 
comparatively  advanced  in  culture,  such  as  the  Abkhazians  and  the 
Ossets,  had  no  alphabet  before  the  revolution.  Almost  all  the  Finn- 
ish and  Tungus  tribes  also  were  illiterate.  A  few  Turkish  tribes  used 
the  Turkish  or  Arabic  alphabets,  but  the  majority  of  them  had  none. 
The  Soviet  Government  introduced  alphabets  among  some  of  these 
peoples.  Especially  great  success  has  been  achieved  in  the  Caucasus. 
Publication  of  newspapers  and  books  is  rapidly  increasing  there. 
There  were  six  newspapers  in  Transcaucasia  prior  to  the  revolu- 


142  THE  OPEN  COURT 

tion,  with  a  circulation  of  80,000.  But  in  1932  ninety-seven  news- 
papers were  published  in  fourteen  languages,  with  a  circulation  of 
1,200,000.  In  pre-revolutionary  days  there  was  one  publishing  house 
in  all  Transcaucasia,  but  in  1931  there  were  twenty.  Success  is  not 
so  great,  however,  in  Turkistan,  and  as  to  Siberia  and  the  Far  East, 
the  natives  of  these  countries  still  remain  in  the  darkness  of  illiter- 
acy. Education  in  these  countries  is  even  worse  than  before  the 
revolution  :  then,  there  were  missionary  schools  there,  but  now  they 
are  not  functioning,  and  no  substitute  has  been  introduced. 

Among  the  natives  of  Russian  Asia  the  position  of  women  in  so- 
cial and  economic  life  is  very  low.  The  veil  of  Mohammedan  women 
practically  imposes  slavery  upon  them.  The  educational  and  politi- 
cal campaign  under  the  Soviet  Government  has  resulted  in  much 
freedom  for  the  Asiatic  women.  During  the  election  campaign  of 
1928-29.  a  great  demonstration  of  freedom  for  women  was  held 
in  Baku  during  which  30,000  Mohammedan  women  cast  ofif  their 
veils,  trampled  them  under  their  feet,  and  burned  them  in  huge 
bonfires.  A.nother  custom,  which  lowers  the  social  position  of 
women,  is  the  kidnapping  of  a  woman  for  the  purpose  of  a  mar- 
riage. This  custom  is  wide-spread  among  the  natives  of  Russian 
Asia.  The  Soviet  Government  has  taken  measures  to  abolish  it.  Thus, 
laws  were  entered  on  the  statute  books  of  Georgia  in  1929  making 
kidnapping  punishable  by  a  maximum  imprisonment  of  five  years. 

Native  women  are  engaged  in  all  kinds  of  industry.  In  1931 
there  were  seven  thousand  women  in  the  oil  industry  in  Azerbaidjan, 
where  formerely  no  woman  worked.  A  number  of  these  women 
now  hold  responsible  posts,  such  as  managers  of  factories,  engi- 
neers, or  superintendents  of  schools.  A  number  of  women  have  been 
elected  to  the  village  Soviets  and  other  governing,  bodies. 

March  8  has  been  selected  as  International  Women's  Day.  Every 
year  on  this  day  great  demonstrations  take  place,  and  mass  meet- 
ings are  held  to  celebrate  women's  achievement  of  complete  equality. 

In  order  to  combat  backwardness  in  hygiene  and  public  health 
among  the  natives,  the  government  establishes  hospitals,  ambula- 
toria,  clinics,  and  dispensaries  with  special  attention  to  the  care  of 
mothers  and  children. 

A  Jeunsh  Home  in  the  Far  East 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  new  Russian  Asia  is  the 
Jewish  colonization  in  the  Far  East.  The  plan  for  settling  Jews 
on   laud  was  conceived  in   1924  when  the   Soviet  Government  had 


RUSSIAN  ASIA  143 

difficulty  with  the  Jews  who  had  been  pushed  out  of  the  capitalist 
class  and  middle  class  of  traders  after  the  elimination  of  private 
trade.  Bolshevism  then  was  exterminating  the  last  remnants  of  the 
Jewish  bourgeoisie.  The  Jewish  merchants  and  traders  enjoyed  no 
rights.  Jewish  agricultural  colonization  came  as  a  solution  of  this 
problem.  The  mere  transfer  from  the  city  to  the  agricultural 
colony  made  the  Jewish  merchant  a  full-fledged  citizen.  In  several 
places  in  Ukraine,  Crimea,  and  southern  Russia,  Jewish  national 
districts  have  been  formed.  The  expenditures  of  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment for  Jewish  colonization  from  1924  to  1930  amounted  to 
9,500,000  rubles.  Aside  from  that,  Soviet  and  foreign  public  or- 
ganizations spent  21,000,000  rubles.  The  Soviet  Government  has 
also  met  70  per  cent  of  the  transportation  cost,  has  given  certain 
privileges  in  regard  to  taxation,  and  has  permitted  imports  of  equip- 
ment duty  free.  An  enormous  area  of  about  ten  million  acres  of 
land  has  been  allotted  to  Jews  in  Biro-Bidjan,  in  the  Far  East.  Biro- 
Bidjan  has  rich  natural  resources  in  iron,  graphite,  coal,  gold,  build- 
ing materials,  and  lumber.  The  Jewish  agricultural  population  in 
this  colony  amounts  to  1,500  persons.  According  to  the  Five- Year 
Plan,  48,000  Jewish  families  were  to  be  transferred  to  agricultural 
work  by  1933,  and  60,000  by  1935.  Preparations  have  been  made 
to  organize  this  colony  into  an  autonomous  Jewish  administrative 
territorial  unit,  in  which  Yiddish  will  be  the  official  language. 

Nevertheless  the  Jews  are  not  willing  to  go  to  Biro-Bidjan  be- 
cause the  industrial  development  of  the  Five- Year  Plan  period  has 
opened  the  doors  of  the  factories  to  them.  The  former  Jewish 
trader  prefers  to  be  a  wage-earner  rather  than  a  plowman  in  Biro- 
Bidjan.  Taking  this  into  consideration,  the  Soviet  Government  has 
opened  Biro-Bidjan  to  Jewish  workers  from  outside  Soviet  Rus- 
sia. But  foreign  Jews  are  not  much  inclined  to  settle  at  Biro-Bid- 
jan. Zionists  look  upon  this  colony  as  a  competitor  to  Palestine, 
and  non-nationalist  Jews,  on  the  other  hand,  are  suspicious  of  the 
elements  of  Jewish  nationalism  in  it.  Many  a  Jew  is  discouraged  by 
the  fact  that  Biro-Bidjan  is  far  away  from  the  centers  of  Jewish 
population  and  that  it  is  a  wild,  uninhabited,  and  undeveloped  coun- 
try. The  Soviet  Government,  however,  endeavors  to  do  everything 
to  attract  the  Jews  to  Biro-Bidjan. 

OUTLOOK  OF  RUSSIAN  ASIA  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

The  future  of  Russian  Asia  depends  upon  the  development  (1) 
of  transportation,  (2)  colonization,  and  (3)  better  organization  of 


144  THE  OPEN   COURT 

industries.  Although  some  parts  of  Siberia  are  now  densely  popu- 
lated, vet  in  the  greater  part  of  the  country  the  population  is  sparse. 
Under  such  conditions  neither  economic  nor  cultural  development 
is  possible.  The  government,  therefore,  should  encourage  the  in- 
flux of  colonists  into  Siberia,  especially  into  countries  as  rich  in 
natural  resources  as  eastern  Siberia,  the  northern  part  of  western 
Siberia,  and  the  Far  East.  Even  Kazakistan  needs  new  settlers  and 
colonists.  But  all  these  countries  are  isolated  and  in  many  cases  al- 
most inaccessible.  The  first  measure  to  be  taken  therefore  is  to 
build  new  roads  and  railways  and  to  improve  maritime  transporta- 
tion. Without  better  transportation  no  colonization  is  possible. 
When  these  three  needs  are  satisfied,  Russian  Asia  may  be  a  very 
prosperous  country.  Western  Siberia,  Transbaikalia,  and  the  Amur 
region  will  form  an  immense  granary  not  only  for  Russia,  but  also 
for  countries  abroad.  The  output  of  dairy  products,  meat,  and 
wool  will  also  be  very  large.  Turkistan  and  Transcaucasia  will 
"easily  be  great  producers  of  cotton,  silk,  and  fruit,  provided  irriga- 
tion is  well  organized.  The  Altai,  Transbaikalia,  and  the  Far  East 
may  greatly  increase  the  output  of  gold,  copper,  lead,  silver,  coal, 
and  other  minerals.  The  northern  part  of  Siberia  and  the  Far  East 
may  easily  develop  fishing  and  lumber  industry. 

As  to  its  political  aspect,  I  should  mention  that  there  has  been 
a  tendency  toward  the  independence  of  Siberia,  sponsored  by  Yad- 
rintsev  and  Potanin  in  the  past  and  at  present  by  a  group  of  Rus- 
sian intellectuals  abroad.  A  magazine  is  being  published,  and  even 
a  flag  has  been  originated.  But  from  a  geographical  point  of  view 
Siberia  is  not  a  separate  country ;  there  is  no  natural  boundary  line 
between  European  Russia  and  Siberia  (the  Ural  IMountains  are  in- 
significant), and  Siberia  is  a  natural  extension  of  European  Rus- 
sia. It  is  the  same  country,  predominantly  with  the  same  population, 
language,  and  traditions. 


GOETHE 
CENTENARY    PAPERS 

Read  in  Observance  of  The  One  Hundredth  Anniversary 

of  Goethe's  Death,  March  22,  1932 

At  the  University  of  Chicago,  March  8  and  9,  1932 

Edited  By  PROFESSOR  MARTIN  SCHUTZE 

Goethe's  universal  significance,  as  a  person  and  man  of  letters  is  pre- 
sented in  a  well-rounded,  imaginative,  and  instructive  manner.  These  papers, 
by  well-known  scholars  and  men  of  letters,  will  be  valuable  for  school  and 
college  use,  and  at  the  same  time  of  comprehensive  general  interest. 

CONTENTS 

Address  of  Welcome 
President  Robert  M.  Hutchins,  the  University  of  Chicago 

Goethe  and  the  German  Spirit 
Dr.  H.  F.  Simon,  German  Consul  General,  Chicago 

Goethe  in  English  Literature 
Professor  Robert  Morss   Lovett,  the  University  of  Chicago 

Goethe's  Language 
Professor  George  O.  Curme,  Northwestern  University 

Goethe  and  France 
Professor  E.  P.  Dargan,  the  University  of  Chicago 

On  Re-Reading  Three  Thwarted  Romances: 
La  Nouvelle  Heloise,  Die  Leiden  des  Jungen  Werthers,  Jacopo  Ortis 

Professor  Walter  L.  Bullock,  the  University  of  Chicago 

Goethe  and  Older  German  Literature 

Professor  Gustave  Arlt,  the  University  of  Indiana 

Goethe  and  Present-Day  German  Writers 

Professor  Albert  W.  Aron,  the  University  of  Illinois 

Emerson's  Goethe 
Professor  Peter  Hagboldt,  the  University  of  Chicago 

Goethe  in  Chicago 

Miss  Rose  Seitz,  Tilden  High  School,  Chicago 

Goethe's  Relations  to  Philosophy 
Professor  Edward  L.  Schaub,  Northwestern  University 

Goethe  as  a  Lyrical  Poet 

Professor  Martin  Schiitze,  the  University  of  Chicago 

Price  $1.25  For  Students  and  Literary  Groups,  10  copies  $7.50 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  CO. 

337  B.  CHICAGO  AVE.  CHICAGO