xplained as Yang ( = God
in Malay) Hari.]

[Footnote 455: Groeneveldt, pp. 19, 58, 59.]

[Footnote 456: This word appears to be the Sanskrit area, an image for
worship.]

[Footnote 457: _E.g._ Van Eerde, "Hindu Javaansche en Balische
Eeredienst" in _Bijd. T.L. en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie_,
1910. I visited Bali in 1911.]

[Footnote 458: See Pleyte, _Indonesian Art_, 1901, especially the
seven-headed figure in plate XVI said to be Krishna.]

CHAPTER XLI

CENTRAL ASIA

1

The term Central Asia is here used to denote the Tarim basin, without
rigidly excluding neighbouring countries such as the Oxus region and
Badakshan. This basin is a depression surrounded on three sides by
high mountains: only on the east is the barrier dividing it from China
relatively low. The water of the whole area discharges through the
many branched Tarim river into Lake Lobnor. This so-called lake is now
merely a flooded morass and the basin is a desert with occasional
oases lying chiefly near its edges. The fertile portions were formerly
more considerable but a quarter of a century ago this remote and
lonely region interested no one but a few sportsmen and geographers.
The results of recent exploration have been important and surprising.
The arid sands have yielded not only ruins, statues and frescoes but
whole libraries written in a dozen languages. The value of such
discoveries for the general history of Asia is clear and they are of
capital importance for our special subject, since during many
centuries the Tarim region and its neighbouring lands were centres and
highways for Buddhism and possibly the scene of many changes whose
origin is now obscure. But I am unfortunate in having to discuss
Central Asian Buddhism before scholars have had time to publish or
even catalogue completely the store of material collected and the
reader must remember that the statements in this chapter are at best
tentative and incomplete. They will certainly be supplemented and
probably corrected as year by year new documents and works of art are
made known.

Tarim, in watery metaphor, is not so much a basin as a pool in a tidal
river flowing alternately to and from the sea. We can imagine that in
such a pool creatures of very different provenance might be found
together. So currents both from east to west and from west to east
passed through the Tarim, leaving behind whatever could live there:
Chinese administration and civilization f