Identifier: ruinsofdesertcat01stei (find matches)
Title: Ruins of desert Cathay : personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Stein, Aurel, Sir, 1862-1943 Archaeological Survey of India
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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d settle-ments of the living, the sight of these paintings was morethan an archaeological treat. I greeted it like a cheeringassurance that there really was still a region where fairsights and enjoyments could be found undisturbed by icygales and the cares and discomforts of desert labours.The distance which separated me from it seemed toshrink as I examined again and again the fascinatingfigures of this dado, so Western in conception andtreatment. Hence it was scarcely surprising that during the nextdays I often felt tempted to believe myself rather amongthe ruins of some villa in Syria or some other Easternprovince of the Roman empire than those of a Buddhistsanctuary on the very confines of China. And yet thewinter climate of this desert was just then doing its bestto keep me painfully alive to our true situation. Thebitter winds blew almost constantly and stiffened at timesto real gales. Their force was quite as cutting amongstthe ruined walls as it had been amidst the wind-eroded
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X V h bj O _c O ^ c/2 03 . 6 a O c 3 oj cr tf C>0 1 O N Xj c W Z ^ ^ < 7. w s ^ c S p!-( I—1 rt M o % ^ ^ ^ 2 Ph W 4-. T3 Cii g -^ B w 2 ^i: o J H bJO O ffi C/2 § a H S ? QQ . D Q m •o ■= Q § s < z w-S Q ^ 3d: Q a ■^ o (3 u o 03 w m Cii rt fc ^ t. o o ^ o o S 0 O x; 0. 43 CH. xLiii VARIED PLEASURES OF LIFE 485 Yardangs of Lop-nor, and the thick dust clouds madephotographic work practically impossible for a couple ofdays. Luckily these could be used for detailed study andthe taking of elaborate notes, even though the fingers feltbenumbed and the ink in the fountain pen froze. CHAPTER XLIV MURAL PAINTING OF BUDDHIST LEGEND This cycle of youthful figures, proclaiming as it were therights of the senses, seemed a strange decoration for thedado of a Buddhist temple, and the problem presented bythe contrast between it and Buddhas orthodox preachingmade me turn with increased interest to what remained ofthe fresco decoration above. The wall of the northernhemicycle had suff

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