A New Year banquet in a felt tent 14 metres wide
Editorial contextAt the Mongol New Year (Tsagan Sar, 'White Month') about 300 nobles feasted in one enormous round felt kibitka, some 20 arshins (about 14 metres) across. The lattice walls were hung with blue cloth and a fire burned on an iron hearth in the middle. Tea, meat and vodka were served and musicians played fiddles, long flutes and a three-stringed instrument.
The kibitka was of felt, very large and round, about 20 arshins across; inside, the lattice walls (on which the roof is fixed) were hung with blue cloth; in the middle was a hearth made of iron, on which wood was burning.
Working translation
Original wording
Кибитка была войлочная зѣло великая, круглая, въ діаметрѣ около 20 аршинъ; внутри термы (на которыхъ крышка утверждена) завѣшаны голубымъ сукномъ; посрединѣ очагъ, на которомъ дрова горѣли, сдѣланъ изъ желѣза.
About Dzungars (Oirats)
Continue in this sourceCaptain Unkovsky's embassy to the Dzungar khan1722 to 1724 · 13 passagesHorned masked dancers and stones thrown at China
Editorial contextBefore the New Year the lamas performed a masked dance (the Buddhist tsam) before a great tent. Unkovsky describes masked dancers wearing caps with horns, one like a cow's, one like a wild goat's, cymbals, drums and long brass trumpets, and an offering blown up in a fire. At the end the whole crowd, the ruler among them, marched east and hurled stones, sticks and earth toward the east with a great shout, 'as if for victory over the Chinese', their enemy at the time.
Two men came out with covered faces, with two horns each on their caps; one had cow's horns, the other horns like a wild goat's … and all the people, seizing whatever came to hand (a stone or a stick or earth), threw it toward the east with a great shout, as if for victory over the Chinese; and the Kontaisha himself walked with them.
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Original wording
Вышли два человѣка, закрытыя лица, на шапкахъ по два рога было; у одного коровей, у другого яко у дикой козы … и весь народъ, ухватя что попало въ руки (камень или палку или земли), съ великимъ крикомъ бросали на востокъ, будто бы въ побѣду на Китайцевъ; притомъ и самъ Контайша шелъ.
About Dzungars (Oirats), Buddhist lamas
Keep in mind
The meaning of the stone-throwing ('as if for victory over the Chinese') is Unkovsky's reading.
Forty-eight bridges built by Chagatai
Editorial contextBelow the mountain lake that Changchun named the Lake of Heaven (Sayram Lake), the road ran down a gorge of birch and pine, and the diarist credits Chinggis's second son Chagatai with cutting it through the rocks and building forty-eight timber bridges wide enough for two carts abreast. Earlier the cart road over the Altai had likewise been 'planned and constructed' by the third son, Ogedei, where the escort hauled the carts up with ropes and dragged the wheels going down (p.62). Here the Mongols appear as builders of roads and wooden bridges for their armies.
The second prince, who was with the emperor at the time he went to the west (in 1219), first made a way through these mountains, cut through the rocks, and built forty-eight bridges with the wood cut on the mountains. The bridges are so wide that two carts can pass side by side.
About Mongol army under Chagatai, Chinggis Khan's second son
Keep in mind
'(in 1219)' is Bretschneider's insertion. The diarist saw the bridges but was told who built them, and he does not say whose labour the prince used.
Almaliq: running water, fruit, Uighurs and Chinese settlers
Editorial contextBeyond the Iron Pass, guarded by Chinese soldiers, Chang De reached Almaliq, a Mongol-ruled city of the Chagatai realm. Its streets were crossed by running water and its melons, grapes and pomegranates were excellent. Muslim Turks lived mixed with Chinese and had picked up Chinese ways, and a town further south was full of settlers from Shanxi.
Leaving the pass he reached the city of Alimali (Almaliq). Its streets and markets are all crossed by running water. There are all kinds of fruit; the melons, grapes and pomegranates are the best. The Huihe (Muslim Turks) live mixed with the Han Chinese, and their customs have gradually been coloured until they are rather like China's. Further south is the city of Chimur, whose inhabitants are mostly people from Bing and Fen (Shanxi).
Working translation
Original wording
出関至阿里麻里城市井皆流水交貫有諸菓唯瓜蒲萄石榴最佳囬紇與漢民雜居其俗漸染頗似中國又南有赤木児城居民多并汾人
About Uighurs/Muslims (Huihe) and Chinese under Mongol rule
Continue in this sourceFine Talk from the Jade Hall: two Chinese journeys through the Mongol world1220 to 1259 · 14 passagesYarkand: a clay fort, a stone fort and clay houses
Editorial contextWathen's informants described Yarkand, the biggest town of Chinese Tartary, as having two forts: a large, empty one with clay walls, and a smaller, inhabited one with four gates, built of stone and chunam (lime plaster) with a ditch. Ordinary houses were one storey and built of clay, which served well because it hardly ever rained. The same page says the city had many mosques and colleges and two big bazaars.
It has two forts: the principal one is of large extent, but its walls are of clay; and it is uninhabited; the other, which is rather smaller, has four gates, is inhabited, and is considered by the natives as very strong, being built of stone and chunam, and surrounded with a ditch … The houses are generally one story high, and built of clay
About Turki-speaking Muslims ('Usbeks') under Qing rule
Keep in mind
Second-hand description from pilgrims interviewed in Bombay.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this page is garbled).
A capital of tents laid out like streets
Editorial contextRiding to his first audience, Unkovsky entered the ruler's urga, the moving headquarters camp. He describes rings of Kalmyk and Bukharan tent-camps (kuri) set out 'like streets', which he was led around for about a verst, and a bazaar in front of the ruler's own tent. This is what the capital of a powerful steppe state looked like: a planned city of portable dwellings.
When we rode into the first kuri (tent-rings), which are set out like streets, Kalmyk and Bukharan, they led us among them for about a verst, not straight but around the Urga; and when we came to the front of the Kontaisha's Urga, where the bazaar is held, about a hundred sazhens short of it, Kashka said we must get off our horses here.
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Original wording
Какъ въѣхали въ первые кури, которые яко улицами поставлены, калмыцкіе и бухарскіе, и вели насъ между оными около версты не прямо, но вкругъ Урги, и какъ пріѣхали съ лица контайшиной Урги, гдѣ базаръ бываетъ, около ста сажень не доѣхавъ, сказалъ Кашка, что тутъ надлежитъ съ лошадей слезть.
About Dzungars (Oirats, 'Kalmyks') and Bukharans
Continue in this sourceCaptain Unkovsky's embassy to the Dzungar khan1722 to 1724 · 13 passagesA Muslim saint-khan's tomb, and the wrestling match that converted his people
Editorial contextThe Tobolsk Bukharans in Unkovsky's party told him of the tomb of 'Temer khan', a ruler of the Ili who, they said, had worshipped idols until a Muslim merchant threw his strongest wrestler three times. The khan then converted, his people were circumcised and threw the tassels from their caps into the Borotala river, damming it. Muslims built chambers over his grave and still brought offerings. Unkovsky wanted to see it but was not allowed. The tomb is generally identified with the mausoleum of the Chagatai khan Tughluq Timur near Khorgos.
For that reason Temer khan accepted the Muhammadan law, and all the people of his realm were circumcised and threw the tassels from their caps into the river Borotala, and supposedly dammed the river with them. And for this the Muhammadans revere Temer khan as a saint, and chambers have been built over his tomb, and to this day the Muhammadans bring offerings to his tomb, and there are guards at that tomb.
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Original wording
Того ради Темерханъ принялъ Махометской законъ, и всѣ его владѣнія люди обрѣзались и съ шапокъ залы (или кисти) въ рѣку Борталъ побросали, и будто оными рѣку запрудили. И для вышеозначенного махометане оного Темерхана, святымъ почитаютъ, а надъ гробомъ его полаты построены и приносятъ доднесь махометане приносы на гробъ его, и сторожи при томъ гробѣ имѣются.
About Chagatai Mongols (Temer khan) and Muslim Bukharans
Keep in mind
A conversion legend passed on by Muslim merchants; Unkovsky did not see the tomb. The identification with Tughluq Timur is a modern one, not Unkovsky's.
A town emptied by Turkish soldiers near Kucha
Editorial contextOn Kucha's eastern border lay a town with no wells, whose people drank from a dragon pool. The story went that dragons had fathered a race of strong, swift men there who defied the king, so the king called in the Turks, who killed everyone, young and old. The town was now waste, with no smoke of hearths. A dragon legend wraps what may be a real memory of a Turkish massacre.
There were no wells in the city; they drew water from the pool. The dragons turned into men and lay with the women, who bore sons brave and fierce, able to outrun a galloping horse. Gradually all the people became of dragon stock; trusting in their strength they defied the king's orders. So the king called in the Turks to slaughter the people of this city, young and old alike, leaving hardly a soul. The city is now a waste, with no smoke of hearths.
Working translation
Original wording
城中無井取汲池水龍變為人與諸婦㑹生子驍勇走及奔馬如是漸染人皆龍種恃力作威不恭王命王乃引搆突厥殺此城人少長俱戮畧無噍類城今荒蕪人煙㫁絶
About Turks, called in by the king of Kucha
Keep in mind
Told as a tradition from 'earlier records'; the dragon ancestry is legend, the ruined city was there to see.
A city buried overnight by a rain of sand and earth
Editorial contextEast of Khotan Xuanzang heard of Ho-lo-lo-kia, a rich city that mistreated a holy man and was buried when 'it rained sand and earth' for a night. One man escaped by a tunnel. The town was now a great sand mound; kings who came to dig for its treasure were driven off by sudden winds and darkness. Beal's note points to other sand-buried towns reported by nineteenth-century travellers in the region.
The town of Ho-lo-lo-kia is now a great sand mound. The kings of the neighbouring countries and persons in power from distant spots have many times wished to excavate the mound and take away the precious things buried there; but as soon as they have arrived at the borders of the place, a furious wind has sprung up
About People of Ho-lo-lo-kia (Khotan region)
Keep in mind
A moral legend about punishment for disrespecting a Buddhist saint. It has nothing to do with Tartars; the region is the one 19th-century English writers called 'High Tartary'.
Walled towns built by forced labour
Editorial contextThe pilgrims told Wathen that Chinese rule was very unpopular, and that resentment had grown because the Chinese were building large fortifications and walled towns with the forced labour of the local people. After the revolts of the 1820s the Qing did build new walled garrison towns in the region. Here the builders of the walls are named plainly: Qing authorities using conscripted local workers.
The feeling of dislike, with which the Chinese are regarded, has been latterly much increased, in consequence of their carrying on vast works of fortification, and building walled towns, by the forced labour of the natives.
About Turki-speaking Muslims ('Usbeks') under Qing rule
Keep in mind
The informants were Muslim subjects hostile to Qing rule. The corpus lists no printed page here; 662 comes from the page sequence.
The Toghuzghuz khan's city of twelve iron gates
Editorial contextIn his own route list, Ibn Khurradadhbih says the Toghuzghuz khan's capital lay three months' march beyond Upper Nushajan, through pasture land with large villages. The king lived in a great city with twelve iron gates and had a golden tent on top of his palace, visible five parasangs away, while the Kimek king camped among pastures in tents. Steppe Turks here have both cities and tents.
From Upper Nushajan to the capital of the khaqan of the Toghuzghuz is three months' march, through pasture country covered with large villages … Their king lives in a great city closed by twelve iron gates … The king of the Toghuzghuz owns a golden tent set on the top of his palace; it can shelter a hundred people
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Original wording
De Nouschadjan la supérieure à la capitale du khakân des Toghozghor, il y a trois mois de marche, à travers un pays de pâturage couvert de vastes bourgades … Leur roi réside dans une grande ville fermée par douze portes de fer … Le roi des Toghozghor possède une tente d'or placée au faîte de son palais; elle peut abriter cent personnes
About Toghuzghuz (Uyghur) Turks and Kimek
Keep in mind
From route reports, not a visit. The capital is usually identified with the Uyghur city Ordu-Baliq (Karabalgasun) in the Orkhon valley, near later Karakorum.
The khan's felt house inside a fence of reeds and willow
Editorial contextThe ruler of the Dzungars received the Russian envoy in a 'felt house' (a large yurt), set inside an enclosure woven from reeds and willow withies, entered through a door made of six planks. Unkovsky had to lift the felt door flap himself. The detail shows the materials of a steppe palace: felt, reed, willow and a little timber.
When we came within about 6 sazhens of the enclosure (kosha), which is woven of reed and willow around the Kontaisha's felt house, they opened the doors, which are joined from six planks.
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Original wording
Какъ дошли сажень за 6 до коши, которая вкругъ контайшиной войлошной избы изъ камыша и талнику сплетена, отворили двери, которыя изъ шести плахъ сплочены.
About Dzungars (Oirats)
Continue in this sourceCaptain Unkovsky's embassy to the Dzungar khan1722 to 1724 · 13 passagesSacred rats that gnawed a Xiongnu army's harness
Editorial contextWest of Khotan stood mounds made by rats 'as big as hedgehogs', with gold and silver fur. Long ago, the story went, a Xiongnu army camped there; the king of Khotan prayed to the rats, and in the morning the raiders found every strap, bowstring and fastening gnawed through. Khotan built the rats a temple, and travellers still got down from their carts to bow as they passed.
The Hiung-nu, hearing their approach, were overcome by fear. They hastened to harness their horses and equip their chariots, but they found that the leather of their armour, and their horses' gear, and their bow strings, and all the fastenings of their clothes, had been gnawed by the rats.
About Xiongnu (Hiung-nu), ancient steppe raiders
Keep in mind
Xuanzang introduces it as 'the common story' he heard. Beal notes a parallel in Herodotus (mice gnawing an Assyrian army's bowstrings).
'The name of Tartary is unknown in those regions'
Editorial contextSetting out the geography north of the Hindu Kush, Elphinstone divides the lands into Turkestan (west of the Pamirs) and 'Chinese Turkestan' (east of them), using the local name for Turk-speaking country. Then he adds a blunt note: the people who live there do not call it Tartary. The word was a European map label, not a local one.
All the country west of Beloot Taugh, and north of the Oxus, is called Toorkistaun, a term which may be extended to the east of Beloot Taugh, as far as there is reason to think the Turkish language is spoken … The name of Tartary is unknown in those regions.
About Uzbeks and other Turkic peoples of Central Asia
Keep in mind
Based on what his Central Asian informants told him, not on a visit.
Kalmyk chiefs who wear deer antlers
Editorial contextFrom Bukhara merchants Burnes heard that Kalmyk Tartars settled around Ili and Yarkand marked their chiefs and nobles by fixing deer's horns on their skull-caps, the size of the antlers showing rank. He adds a crude rumour about their women, and says the Chinese used Kalmyks to guard the frontier.
There are Calmuk Tartars settled around Eela and Yarkund, who have a singular custom to distinguish their chiefs and grandees, by fixing deer's horns on their skull-caps.
About Kalmyk Tartars (Oirats) under Qing rule
Keep in mind
Hearsay; the next page adds a sexual slander Burnes 'was assured' of.
No bread, only meat and fermented milk; the Tatars will drink it
Editorial contextInstead of flour the Dzungars sent the embassy chigan, fermented milk, saying they had no grain and ate only meat and drank chigan. Unkovsky answered that some of his people would drink it and some would not, since a Christian fast was about to begin: during it nobody but the Tatars would drink chigan. The 'Tatars' here are the Muslim service Tatars of Tobolsk and Tara travelling with him.
and instead of flour and groats they brought chigan, declaring that they have no bread now, and their people are not eating now, only meat, and drink chigan. They were told that some of our people will drink chigan and some will not; and especially since from tomorrow our fast begins … and nobody except the Tatars will drink chigan
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а вмѣсто муки и крупъ привезли чигану, объявляя, что у нихъ нынѣ хлѣба нѣтъ, и люди ихъ нынѣ не ѣдятъ, токмо мясо, и пьютъ чиганы. Сказано имъ, что наши люди иные будутъ пить чиганъ, а иные не будутъ; а особливо съ завтрешнего числа начнется у насъ постъ … и никто, кромѣ Татаръ, чигану пить не будутъ
About Dzungars (Oirats); Siberian service Tatars in the Russian suite
Continue in this sourceCaptain Unkovsky's embassy to the Dzungar khan1722 to 1724 · 13 passages'Hu': the Chinese word the translator turns into Uighurs or Tartars
Editorial contextThe royal family of Tashkurgan in the Pamirs looked Chinese but dressed like the 'Hu'. Hu was a broad Chinese word for foreigners of the west and north. Beal adds '(Uighurs)' here, and in his index he lists 'Tartar (Hu) pilgrims', so the English 'Tartar' in this book is often the translator's choice for a Chinese catch-all word, not Xuanzang's.
The members of the royal family in appearance resemble the people of the Middle Country (China). They wear on their heads a square cap, and their clothes are like those of the Hu people (Uighurs).
About Hu (western and northern foreigners), glossed by Beal as Uighurs
Keep in mind
The bracketed identification is the translator's, not the pilgrim's.
Wrestlers in rolled-up trousers
Editorial contextInvited to watch wrestling, Unkovsky sat near the ruler under awnings on tall poles. He describes bouts between the ruler's side and his son Galdan Tseren's side, with bets and judges who wrote down the results. The wrestlers came out bare but for trousers rolled above the knee, raised their arms, glared to look fearsome, and gripped each other by the trousers. A bout only counted when a man was thrown flat on both shoulders.
And so from both sides the wrestlers come out naked, only in trousers rolled up well above the knee. And when they are about four sazhens from each other they raise their arms, and, rolling their eyes (to make themselves look fearsome), slowly close in; and when they meet they bend forward and seize each other by the trousers
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И тако съ обѣихъ сторонъ выходятъ борцы нагіе, токмо въ штанахъ, которыя подобраны выше гораздо колѣнъ. И не дошедъ единъ отъ другого сажени за четыре, подымутъ руки вверхъ, и искося глаза (являя себя страшливыми), потихоньку сходятся; и какъ сойдутся, и принаклонясь, схватываются за штаны
About Dzungars (Oirats)
Continue in this sourceCaptain Unkovsky's embassy to the Dzungar khan1722 to 1724 · 13 passagesAlmaliq: a Muslim ruler beside a Mongol governor
Editorial contextAt Almaliq in the Ili valley the local Muslim ruler and the Mongol governor (darughachi, Bretschneider explains) rode out together to greet the sage, a glimpse of how the Mongols ruled a town through its old prince. The city was named for its apples (alma in Turkic). The travellers bought cloth woven from 'vegetable wool', cotton, then little known in China, saw people carrying water in jars on their heads, and heard the locals praise the Chinese as 'very able men' when they saw a Chinese well-bucket (pp.70-71).
The ruler of the realm of P'u-su-man came out of the city, together with the Mongol ta-lu-hua-chi, to meet the master. We stopped at a fruit orchard west (of the city). The people here call a fruit a-li-ma; and as the place is famed for its fruits, the city received the above name.
About Muslim ruler of the P'u-su-man; Mongol darughachi
Keep in mind
P'u-su-man (Muslims) and darughachi are Bretschneider's readings of the Chinese transcriptions; he places Almaliq near modern Kuldja.
Houses of earth with windows of glass
Editorial contextAt the city of Bolad (here spelled in its Siku form) Chang De noted fields of wheat and rice, stunted cypresses on the rocky hills, and a town where houses, shops and gardens were interspersed. The houses were built of earth, and the windows and doors were of glass (liuli). Bretschneider rendered the same line 'the houses are built of clay, and the windows furnished with glass'.
Going further southwest he passed the city of Boluo (Bolad). What they sow is all wheat and rice. The hills have many cypresses, which cannot grow into proper trunks but grow twisting among the rocks. In the city, dwellings, shops and gardens are interspersed; the houses are of earth, and the windows and doors are all of glass.
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Original wording
又西南行過博囉城所種皆麥稻山多栢不能株絡石而長城居肆囿間錯土屋忩户皆琉璃
About Townspeople under Mongol rule
Keep in mind
The Siku editors re-spelled the name as 博囉; the older text has 孛羅. Liuli can mean glass or glazed material.
Vambery: East Turkestan, 'also called Chinese Tartary'
Editorial contextIn his introduction Vambery places the Uighur homeland in 'today's East Turkestan or Chinese Tartary, as it is also called'. For a nineteenth-century scholar, 'Tartary' is just an older map name for the region where the Kutadgu Bilig was written, next to the modern term. He also claims Samarkand and Karshi as Uighur foundations from the meaning of their names, an etymological guess.
If we therefore describe the homeland of the Uighurs as present-day East Turkestan, or Chinese Tartary as it is also called, it must be noted that some colonies lay outside these borders.
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Wenn wir daher als die Heimat der Uiguren das heutige Ostturkestan oder die Chinesische Tatarei, wie es auch genannt wird, bezeichnen, so muss jedoch bemerkt werden, dass einzelne Colonien sich auch ausserhalb der bezeichneten Grenzen befanden
About Uighurs
Keep in mind
Vambery's statement that Samarkand means 'rich city' in Uighur and that it was an Uighur colony is his own speculation.
Checked against the page image.
Empty cities of an old kingdom in the desert
Editorial contextCrossing the drifting sands east of Niya, travellers piled up bones to mark the way, and people heard singing or wailing that led them astray, which Xuanzang blames on demons. After 400 li he reached the 'old country of Tukhara', long empty, its cities all desolate. He credits the ruins to a vanished kingdom, not to any Turks or Tartars.
So those who come and go pile up the bones of the dead to mark the way. Water and grass are lacking and hot winds are frequent... At times one hears singing and whistling, or wailing and crying, and between what is seen and heard one is bewildered and does not know where one is going; many die this way, which is the work of demons and goblins. Going 400 li or so one reaches the old country of Tukhara. The country has long been empty and its cities are all in ruins.
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Original wording
是以往來者聚遺骸以記之乏水草多熱風…時聞歌嘯或聞號哭視聽之間怳然不知所至由此屢有喪亾蓋鬼魅之所致也行四百餘里至覩貨邏故國國久空曠城皆荒蕪
About The old Tukhara kingdom (not Turks)
Keep in mind
Beal's English (page 325) is badly garbled in this OCR, so the Chinese is quoted.
Kalmak Tatars moved to Ili as horse breeders
Editorial contextFrom merchants' reports Moorcroft learned that many 'Kalmak Tatars' had once lived around Khotan but had been deported by the Chinese to the Ili valley, where some 200,000 families bred cattle, camels and horses and paid one head in a hundred as tax. They brought ten to twenty thousand geldings a year to Ili for sale.
A considerable portion of the population of Khoten consisted formerly of Kalmak Tatars, but it is said that when the Chinese subjugated the province, they deported the Kalmaks to the cities which collectively constitute the modern city of Ila, on the river of the same name, and to the adjacent districts.
About Kalmak Tatars (Oirats) under Qing rule
Keep in mind
Secondhand information; the population figure is a trader's estimate.
