DEAD CITY’S WONDERS.

Shannon News, 29 September 1925, Page 1

DEAD CITY’S WONDERS.

j RELICS IN MONGOLIA. | EXPLORER’S GREAT FINDS. 1 ___ ! MANY PAINTED BOOKS I j PRESERVED FOR CENTURIES | One of the most interesting exhi- | bitions seen in London was opened at j the British Museum recently. It is | an exhibition of archaeological objects brought back by Sir Aurel Stein I from his Central Asia expedition, j which led him over vast portions of i Eastern Turkestan and Western-most i China, and which was carried out | under the orders of the Indian Gov- ' ernment. During his travels he visitj ed Khara-lvhoto, the dead city of ■ Mongolia, not long ago discovered by ■ the eminent Russian explorer, ColI onel Kqsloff. Mr. Lancelot Lawton j in the London Daily Chronicle says: “Sir Aurel’s report on his expedition is now in the press, but I have just received from Moscow an elaborate record with photographs of Colonel Kosloff’s discovery of Kharai Khoto. It is one of the most important discoveries of the age, for here archaeology breaks new ground How ancient the city is no one knows; but it is certain that it goes ! back to the period (about 1368) , which led up to the Golden Horde when Mongolia, it seems, was a world power. Some original fragments of the teachers of Ghengiz Khan set down by the scribes from his own words were found amid the ruins; also business correspondence ! and the Debt Act of that period. The Book of Sindibab. j “More wonderful still, part of the celebrated Persian writings of the Book of Sindibab, “The stories of the Seven Sages” (or Masters), was found in the original.* One Arabic ‘Thousand and One Nights.’ Whole libraries of books, 2000 copies in all, including one of 34 pages on medicine for horses. Many were written on silk, "and the binding was of - blue. They were as new looking as though tljcy had been inscribed yesterday. Several editions were printed; thus it is established (hat the art of printing was known in the East much earlier than had been thought. Nor was this all. Immense quantities of objects of all kinds were found, including hand-weaved gobelins of exquisite beauty. But of these, perhaps the most .valuable were 300 Buddhist paintings, chiefly on silk and thick linen cloth, which had been treated beforehand with a preparation of chalk and glue. The' colours are fresh, and even brilliant some quite original tints are introduced, as, for example, a tender pinkish violet. “Looking at Huso Buddhist paintings, one is at once reminded of early Christian art. Often the Buhj dha is enveloped ip clouds, and each side is to be seen the little figure of a monk, or ..in a corner that of a pious layman, censer in hand. Some of these ikons are unimaginably fantastic. The Mongolia of those days, the ! days of the Ghengiz Khan, was evid- | cntly a land of great culture, a land ‘ in which people from many different parts of the civilised world assembled It would appear that the Mongols were not altogether the savages that we have imagined them to he.

Strange aiul Mystical City. “Kha-ra-Khoto, about which we' now learn for the first time, is a strange and mystical city. The Mongolians of to-day call it the Black City ,and, believing that it is haunted by spirits, will not enter it. No one would even tell the expedition where it was located. “One night a woman, caught by a storm, was forced to take shelter there. Next day, raking over ihe ruins, she found a magnificent necklace composed of three ropes of pearls It is said that the late ruling prince, when beseiged by the Chinese, buried 80 cart loads of gold, silver and other treasure in the city. The Mongolians are confident that this treasure is there but none dare seek it lest, harm befall him. “The city, which shows traces of having been well planned .contains a number of tapering towers and a temple of original design, with a cupola. In one of the towers, called the praying tower, most of the books and paints were found. Some of them were strewn about, but others were neatly piled, as if t-hev had been carefully stored away for centuries. The dry air of the desert had enabled them to survive for hundreds of years m an almost perfect state of preservation. Magical fairy Tales. "The country around Kliara-Klioto is as strange as the dead city itself. But it is beautiful beyond dreams. Colonel Kosloff states that life in Mongolia is a magical fairy tale., Everything is fairy-like. In the daytime the sky is a perfect torquoise blue .and at night the moon is surrounded by a ring of rainbow colours. On the plain enormous herds of camels horses, antelopes, and sheep are to be seen the explorer says that he has never seen so many animals assembled together before in his life. But all the animals are of an original shape,’ even the bears which he came across looked unusual. . Every night the expedition was entertained to a concert of howls from hundreds and hundreds of wolves which crept out. ‘Colonel Kosloff says that he saw

lakes literally covered with ducks, geese, seagulls and storks, while overhad flew immense flocks of cygnets. Of vultures there were au abundance, and of small birds, too; indeed, the desert is thickly populated with bird life. Hares as Tamo as Cats. “The explorer frequently observed an eagle swooping down upon a hare; but on each occasion the hare lept over the back of his enemy and made off. One curious fact is that hares are tamed and run about the houses of the -Mongolian is just as cats do with British people. In the winter there as a great lamental activity. Storms sweep over Mongolia, the wind splits the rock of the mountains, and polishes the stones until they are exquisitely smooth and curiously formed. Then the whole silhouette of the landscape is changed. So fascinated were the members of the expedition with the endless variety and beauty of these stones, that they stuffed their pockets with them, until the load became cumbersome, and they had to lighten it.”