On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c7.s7: The Iron Pass
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c7.s7
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The Iron Pass
v1.c7.s7.1
Our pilgrim's narrative proceeds— From Kesh he proceeded south-west above 200 *li* and entered a range of mountains. Here his path was a narrow risky track; there were no inhabitants and little grass or water. Travelling among the hills in a south-east direction for above 300 *li* he entered the Iron Pass (lit. Iron Gate). Along this Iron Pass on either side is a very high precipitous mountain. Although there is a narrow path in it this is still more inaccessible. The rocks which rise up on both sides are of an iron colour; when the gates were set up they were also strengthened with iron, and numerous small iron bells were suspended on them. The name it bears was given to the Pass on account of its impregnable nature.
v1.c7.s7.2
Yuan-chuang apparently went from Kesh to the neighbourhood of the place now called Ghuzar Fort, and then turning south-east followed the Ghuzar river until he reached the Iron Pass. But the Life does not make any mention of the change of direction from south-west to south-east. The words for "Although there is a narrow path" are in all my texts *Sui-yu-hsia-ching* (雖有狹徑), but Julien's text seems to have had instead of *sui* the word *li* (離). So his translation of the clause which seems to give better sense is—"Elles (i. e. the "deux montagnes parallèles") ne sont séparées que par un sentier qui est fort étroit, et, en outre, hérissé de précipices." But one does not see how there could be "précipices," and *sui* is the correct reading.
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In Dr Bretschneider's learned treatise, to which reference is so often made in these pages, the reader will find much information about the Iron Pass (or Gate).¹ It is the Buzgola-Khana or Goat-house of the Hindus and it is known by other names. According to some its width varies from 40 to 60 feet and it is about two miles in length: a stream flows through it and it contains a village. The Life represents the actual gate as being made of the raw iron of the mountains plated with iron and furnished with iron bells, and hence, according to it, came the name of the pass or rather Gate. But the pilgrim used *mên* in the sense of Pass or Passage and he understood this to have the epithet Iron because it was strong and impregnable. Later travellers relate that the Pass was guarded by a barrier (or barriers) of the iron-stone of the place clamped or faced with iron. But no one after Yuan-chuang's time seems to have seen an actual gate hung with bells, and we read only of a tradition that there had once been a great gate. This Pass once checked the Tu-kue or Turks in their western advances, and kept them and Tokharans apart; and it became famous in the time of the Mongol conquests. In Chinese works of the T'ang and later periods it is often called the T'ie-mên-kuan or "Pass of the Iron Gate." It is thus described by a recent writer—"The famous ravine of the Iron Gate winds through a high mountain chain, about twelve versts to the west of Derbent. It is a narrow cleft, 5 to 36 paces wide and about two versts long. It is known now as Buzghala Khána (i. e. the house of Goats). Its eastern termination is 3540 feet above the sea; its western termination 3740 feet. A torrent, Buzghala Khána bulák flows, through it."¹
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¹ Op. c. I. p. 82 and II. p. 274. See also Reclus, Geog. T. VI. p. 502. Rémusat, Nouv. Mel. As. T. 1. p. 238; Sui-Shu *ch*. 83; T'ang-Shu *l*. c.; Hirth's Nachworte op. c. p. 84 ff.
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¹ Tarikh-i-Rashid by Elias and Ross p. 20.