ABSTRACT
21 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429267949/a7894cf8-f1be-4da6-a5b8-25af3ccb2a6d/content/inline2.tif"/> Before Xuanzang met up with the strong-willed king of Turfan, he stopped at the oasis of Hami, the beginning of the string of oases at the foot of the Tian Shan Mountains. When he lifted his eyes to the snow-capped peaks of this range, he was looking at the source of life of the desert oases below. From the icy summits of these mountains rivers flow, passing beside fir-clad slopes, down brown, barren valleys below, rushing ever downward to desert dunes and further west to the Taklamakan Desert, until they disappear eventually in the sand. 1
