The Tarim, Lop Nur and northern Tibet

Sven Hedin · 1899 CE – 1902 CE · Earth

The Tarim, Lop Nur and northern Tibet — Sven Hedin · 1899 CE – 1902 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Map the Tarim from a boat, find where Lop Nur had lain and why it moved, and cross Tibet, reaching Lhasa in disguise if he could.

Historical context

Since Przhevalsky had reached the reed lakes at the end of the Tarim in 1876 and 1877 and taken them for Lop Nur, geographers had argued: the Chinese maps put the lake farther north, and Ferdinand von Richthofen, under whom Hedin had studied in Berlin, suggested that the river had changed its course. Hedin had seen the lakes in 1896 and believed that Lop Nur migrated. In 1899, with King Oscar’s help and Emanuel Nobel’s backing, he went back for three years: to map the Tarim from a boat, to find the old lake bed, and then to cross Tibet. The work was done with caravan men from Osh and Kashgar, boatmen of Lailik, Loplik fishermen and guides, and four Cossacks lent by the Tsar, and his maps carry the names these men gave him for banks, fords and springs.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Kashgar

    1899 CE

    He leaves Stockholm on midsummer day 1899 and fits out at Kashgar, where the Russian consul-general turns his money into Chinese silver.

  2. A ferry rebuilt at Lailik

    17 September 1899

    Across the Yarkand-daria from Merket, where his desert crossing of 1895 began, he fits out a ferry-boat, and on 17 September 1899 he casts off with a map sheet on his work-table.

  3. Down the Tarim

    1899 CE

    Through October and November the ferry drifts down the Yarkand-daria and the Tarim, past river arms abandoned within living memory, until the ice stops it on 7 December 1899.

  4. The wandering lake

    April 1900

    In April 1900 Lop fishermen take him by canoe through the reed channels of the Kara-koshun, a marsh that has changed shape in the four years since his last visit.

  5. The ruins of Loulan

    March 1901

    He returns with spades to the ruins Ördek found by accident the year before, digs out the papers of a Chinese outpost of the third century, and levels the dry bed of the old lake.

  6. The lake country

    1901 CE

    In June and July 1901, south of the Arka-tagh, the largest caravan he ever led loses camels at every pass on a high plateau of salt and fresh lakes.

  7. Stopped short of Lhasa

    August 1901

    Shaven, painted and dressed as a Mongol pilgrim, he is stopped in August 1901 at Jallokk and turned back by Kamba Bombo, the governor of Nakchu.

  8. Out at Leh

    20 December 1901

    After a long march west across Tibet that costs two men, he rides into Leh on 20 December 1901; the caravan follows on Christmas Day with nine camels left of thirty-nine.

Outcome

Mapped the Yarkand-daria and the Tarim from a ferry-boat in 1899, found the ruins of Loulan in 1900 and dug out their documents in 1901, levelled the dry bed of the old Lop Nur, was turned back on the road to Lhasa in August 1901 and reached Leh on 20 December 1901, going home in 1902.

Sven Hedin

Swedish geographer who mapped the Tarim from a ferry-boat, found the ruins of Loulan, argued that Lop Nur wandered between two basins and crossed Tibet, and whose later support for Germany damaged his name.

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Sources

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