WORST DESERT IN ASIA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 118, 5 October 1912, Page 10

WORST DESERT IN ASIA

SAND MOUNTAINS 12,000 FEET HIGH. The Rev. Zuicho Tachibana, a priest of the great West Hongwanji Temple at Kyoto, returned to that place in June after five years spent in exploration in the virgin parts of Central Asia. Ilis journey ws undertaken for purposes of research under the instructions of Count Otani, the Lord Abbot of the Hongwanji Temple, and an enthusiastic geographer. Mr. Tachibana is a young man of 23 years of age, and of such delicate physique that the natives said he must be a woman disguised as a man. ■Mr. Tachibana proceeded from London to Omsk, and thence by stage coach to Semiplatatinsk; thence to Turfan, in Sin-kiang ("the new territory"), passable roads being found. During his explorations Mr. Tachibana travelled across the Takla-Makan Desert, which he describes as the worst of iill deserts of Central Asia. Neither birds nor even insects are to be found there. The desert is a sea of sand, where there is only the wind to hear and the moon to see. The party constantly met sand mountains over 12,000 feet high, and the men began to grumble, fearing that they would be buried by the constant sand storms.

On arriving at Goma, on the right bank of the river Tarim, he caused considerable fright among the shepherds, as his was the first party from the south for thirty Years. At first the shepherds fled, but were brought back. The feat of crossing the desert caused Mr. Tachibana to be treated with the greatest reverence by the shepherds. At this point he left the camel caravan to follow on slowly, whilst he proceeded on horseback to Kuchar, which place lie reached after three days. This is a large town, though not to be compared with civilised cities. "Nevertheless," said Mr. Tachibana, "'I felt on entering it as though •I had suddenly been put down in Piccadilly." Some time was spent in the neighborhood of Ivashgar investigating the buried cities, and afterwards the explorer proceeded through the valley to the east of Tzunling to Khotan, the districts previously explored by Dr. Stein (now Sir Marc Aurel Stein). Thence the party proceeded to Tibet for the purpose of geological investigation. Several districts were visited by Mr. Tachibana which had been omitted by Dr. Sven Hedin. These regions are absolutely blank on tlie maps, and have never been visited before. Among the relics brought back are a quantity of writings of the Wigol tribes, by whom the Buddhist religion was first introduced into Sin-kiang and propagated throughout China. This tribe was entirely wiped out by Mohammedan invaders. ' The .writing of the Wigols is from left to right horizontally, and ajipears tri, hnvi>- heen produced by reed are on 6tones, papyrus aid paper. *