A
Great Mass Of Highly Interesting Finds Of Ancient Art Pottery, Engraved
Stones, And Early Khotan Coins With Kharosthi-Chinese Legends, Coming From
This Site, Have Recently Been Thoroughly Examined In Dr. Hoernle's Report
On The "British Collection Of Central Asian Antiquities." Stein.
- (See
Three further Collections of Ancient Manuscripts from Central Asia, by
Dr. A. F. R. Hoernle ...
Calcutta, 1897, 8vo.)
"The sacred sites of Buddhist Khotan which Hiuen Tsang and Fa-hian
describe, can be shown to be occupied now, almost without exception, by
Mohamedan shrines forming the object of popular pilgrimages." (M. A.
Stein, Archaeological Work about Khotan, Jour. R. As. Soc., April, 1901,
p. 296.)
It may be justly said that during the last few years numerous traces of
Hindu civilisation have been found in Central Asia, extending from Khotan,
through the Takla-Makan, as far as Turfan, and perhaps further up.
Dr. Sven Hedin, in the year 1896, during his second journey through
Takla-Makan from Khotan to Shah Yar, visited the ruins between the Khotan
Daria and the Kiria Daria, where he found the remains of the city of
Takla-Makan now buried in the sands. He discovered figures of Buddha, a
piece of papyrus with unknown characters, vestiges of habitations. This
Asiatic Pompei, says the traveller, at least ten centuries old, is anterior
to the Mahomedan invasion led by Kuteibe Ibn-Muslim, which happened at the
beginning of the 8th century. Its inhabitants were Buddhist, and of Aryan
race, probably originating from Hindustan.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 736 of 1256
Words from 199771 to 200020
of 342071
