Written source · English

What pilgrims from 'Chinese Tartary' told a Bombay official in 1835

A British official in Bombay writes down what Muslim pilgrims from Yarkand, Kashgar and Khotan told him about their Qing-ruled homeland.

Full title Memoir on Chinese Tartary and Khoten

William Henry Wathen

Read the 4 passages Open the original book

W. H. Wathen, Persian Secretary to the Bombay Government, published this memoir in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in December 1835. He never went to the region. Instead, over many friendly conversations, he questioned at least ten natives of 'Chinese Tartary' (the Tarim Basin, in today's Xinjiang) who were passing through Bombay on pilgrimage to Mecca, among them a prince from Aksu and a pirzada, and he checked one informant against another. The memoir covers the towns of Yarkand, Kashgar, Aksu, Khotan and others, Qing garrisons and taxes, trade routes, a volcano, recent Muslim revolts against the Chinese, and a short Turki word list.

How they knew: From informants
Who “Tartar” means here: 'Chinese Tartary' is the Qing-ruled Tarim Basin (Altishahr, today's southern Xinjiang); 'Independent Tartary' is the Central Asian khanates such as Kokand. Wathen calls the settled Turki-speaking Muslims 'Usbeks' (the ancestors of today's Uyghurs) and also mentions Kalmuks (Oirats), Manchus and Tungans (Chinese Muslims).
Why read it: Rare testimony from people of the region itself, around 1830: what Yarkand's forts and houses were built of, what people ate and drank, a rain-making stone, and local anger at forced labour on Chinese walled towns.
Watch out: Everything is oral report retold by Wathen, and he says himself that such information needs 'great caution'. The corpus OCR of this Indian scan is badly garbled on several pages, so two quotes below were transcribed from the page images.

What it says: 4 passages

Cities Chinese Tartary (Tarim Basin, Xinjiang)about 1830 to 1835

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.

W. H. Wathen, reporting his informants

See the original page (p. 662)

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.

Buildings Yarkand (Shache), Xinjiangabout 1830 to 1835

Yarkand: 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

W. H. Wathen, reporting his informants

See the original page (p. 654)

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).

Daily life Yarkand (Shache), Xinjiangabout 1830 to 1835

Horse meat at the butcher's, kumiss only on the steppe

Editorial contextIn Yarkand horse meat was sold openly in butchers' shops, cost the same as mutton and was not thought unlawful. Kumiss (fermented mare's milk), the classic 'Tartar' drink of older books, was drunk not by the townspeople but by the Kalmuks and other nomadic tribes. The informants also said Islam was not kept very strictly there, and that people were more tolerant than in Kokand.

Horse-flesh is sold in the butcher's shops, and generally eaten: it is not considered unlawful food by the people of the country, and generally sells for the same price as mutton. Kimmiz is not used by the inhabitants of the towns, but by the Kalmuks, and other roving tribes.

W. H. Wathen, reporting his informants

See the original page (p. 654)

About Townspeople of Chinese Tartary; Kalmuks and other nomads

A note on this quote

Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this page is garbled).

Strange tales Guma (Pishan), Xinjiangabout 1830 to 1835

A stone that makes it rain

Editorial contextThe chief of Guma, a town between Yarkand and Khotan, was said to own the 'Yedeh Tash', a rain-stone that made rain fall whenever it was placed in sweet water. Belief in the rain-stone (yada tash) is an old Turkic and Mongol tradition. Wathen reports it as 'popular belief', not as fact.

who was said to be in possession of the stone called “Yedeh Tásh,” (rain-stone,) which, according to popular belief, possesses the extraordinary virtue of causing rain to fall, whenever it is placed in sweet water.

W. H. Wathen, reporting his informants

See the original page (p. 657)

About Turki-speaking Muslims of the Khotan road

Keep in mind

Popular belief reported at third hand. The sentence begins with the town of Gúma (the spelling is unclear in the scan) and its former chief, a Beg, as the stone's owner.

Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this page is garbled).

The fine print

How we know

informant testimony Written down from what informants reported.

Interviews with regional visitors

Research notes

Wathen's informants, not Wathen, traveled the described region.

Why it matters

Explicitly gathered accounts from natives of Chinese Tartary.

Places named

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