account just given stands good whatever solution the question of prefixes may receive in future.
Literature.—The religious literature, which is very considerable, is referred to under Lamaism. The non-religious literature of Tibet is not extensive, probably owing to the printing being in the hands of the priests. One of the most popular and widely circulated books is called The Hundred Thousand Songs of the Venerable Milaraspa. Their author Milaraspa (unless the work should be attributed to his disciples), often called Mila, was a Buddhist ascetic of the 11th century, who, during the intervals of meditation travelled through the southern part of middle Tibet as a mendicant friar, instructing the people by his improvisations in poetry and song, proselytizing, refuting and converting heretics, and working manifold miracles. His legends are not without wit and poetical merit. An equally popular book is the Love Songs of Ts'angs-dbyangs rgyamts'o, attributed to the dissipated young Dalai lāma who was deposed in 1701 (see Lhasa). There are a number of poems written in an elevated style, also dramatic works chiefly of the character of mystery plays, and collections of fairy tales and fables. The Kesar Epic, which has been translated by A. H. Francke under the title of the Kesar Saga, is a widely known tale of a heroic warrior king of northern Asia named Kesar (believed by some to be a transcription of “Czar”), but it is not found as a printed book. Several collections of folk songs have also been published by A. Francke from Ladak. A long story book, called the Djiung yi (Sgrungs gyi gsungs?), and regarded as the national epic in Khām, has been partly seen by Desgodins and Baber. It is in prose; but the dialogue, interspersed with songs, is metrical, and is much more extensive than the prose framework. Religious discussions and philosophical dissertations alternate with comic episodes. It includes three divisions—the Djiung ling, which describes the invasion of part of Tibet by the Djiung or Moso; the Hor ling, which recounts the conquest of the Hor (Turk tribes) by the Tibetans, and conveys much historical information in a tale of magic and marvel; and the Djia ling (Chinese division), which narrates a contest of unknown date between the Tibetans and the Chinese. This work has apparently never been published, and even the manuscripts of the three divisions cannot, says Baber, be obtained in a complete form. But every Tibetan, or at least every native of Khām, who possesses any education, is able to recite or to chant passages of great length. Another Tibetan epic in Khaur, the Gyaldrung, praises Dagyolong, a famous warrior who subdued the savage men of Khām. Dramatic works exist, as also a version of the Ramayana in the first volume of the Bstodts'ogs of the Bstan-hgyur.
Writing.—Writing was not introduced until the 7th century. Notched sticks (shing-chram) and knotted cords were in current use, but the latter contrivance is only faintly alluded to in the Tibetan records, while of the other there are numerous examples. No mention is anywhere made of a hieroglyphical writing, but on the eastern frontier the medicine-men or tomba of the Moso have a peculiar pictorial writing, which is known in Europe from two published MSS. (in Journ. Roy. Asiatic Soc., 1885, vol. xvii.); though apparently now confined solely to purposes of witchcraft, it perhaps contains survivals of a former extensive system superseded by the alphabetic writing introduced from India. According to tradition—a tradition of which the details are still open to criticism—the alphabet was introduced from India by Tonmi, a lay Tibetan minister who was sent to India in 632 by King Srong-btsan to study the Sanskrit language and Buddhist literature. Tonmi introduced the modified Sanskritic “writing in thirty characters” (already detailed under Language and six of which do not exist in Sanskrit) in two styles—the “thick letters” or “letters with heads” (u-ch'en), now commonly used in printed books, and the half-cursive “cornered letters,” so called from their less regular heads. The former are traditionally said to have been derived from the Landza character. The Landza of Nepal, however, is certainly not the origin of the Tibetan letter, but rather an ornamental development of the parent letter. The close resemblance of the Tibetan characters “with heads” to the Gupta inscriptions of Allahabad shows them to have been derived from the monumental writing of the period; and various arguments appear to show that the other Tibetan letters came from the same Indian character in the style in which it was used in common life. The Tibetan half-cursive was further developed into the more current “headless” (u-med) characters, of which there are several styles. The ancient manuscripts discovered by Dr M. Aurel Stein in Khotan seem to include very early, if not the earliest known, Tibetan documents.
Political Divisions.—Tibetans divide their country into five provinces: (1) Amdo, which comprises that part of the Chinese province of Kansuh which is inhabited by Tibetans, and Koko Nor region, extending southwards to the Yellow river and westwards as far as the Tsaidam. Amdo is inhabited in its eastern part by Tibetans, called Rongwa or “ravine-folk,” who are agriculturists, and in the western by pastoral tribes, collectively called Panaka or the Three Panakas. (2) Khams or Khamdo, which includes all eastern Tibet between the Chinese provinces of Szechuen and Yunnan, and the district of Lhorong jong, which forms the eastern border of the Lhasa-governed territory. This province is divided into the five Horba tribes, the eighteen Nyarong states in the valley of the upper Yalung, and the districts of Litang, Batang, Dergē, Gartok Chiamdo and Draya. In Khamdo, but subject to the direct rule of Lhasa, are several small districts, the principal are Nyarong, Tsarong, and Mar Khams or “Lower Khamdo.” Most of these districts are governed by dēba or chiefs, while a few have kings or gyalpo, the most powerful of the latter being the king of Dergē, famous for its inlaid metal and leather work, and of Chagla, or, as it is better known, Tachienlu, as it is called by the Chinese or the Dartsemdo of the Tibetans, the headquarters of the tea trade with China. Khamdo is under the direct rule of the Chinese provincial authorities of Szechuen. Some of its rulers send also tribute missions to Peking. For convenience of classification we may include in Khamdo a long strip of country extending along the northern border of the Lhasa territory of Lhorong jong and Larego as far as Tengri Nor, and bounded to the north by the Dang-la mountains, which is designated by Tibetans as Gyade or “the Chinese province.” This strip of country has its own native chiefs, but is under the control of a high Manchu officer stationed at Lhasa, known colloquially as the “superintendent of savage tribes.” (3) The third political division of Tibet is Ü (written Dbus), meaning “Central.” It includes Lhasa and a large number of outlying districts in south-eastern Tibet, such as Po, Pemakoichen, Zayul. The pastoral or Dokpa tribes, north and north-east of Tengri Nor, are also under its rule. (4) The fourth division of Tibet, called Tsang, includes all south-west Tibet from the Lhasa or Central province to the Indian frontier as far as Lake Manasarowar. (5) The fifth division, called Nāri (Mngah-ris) by the Tibetans or Hūndēsh by the Indians, who call the inhabitants Hūniyas, comprises the whole country around the sources and along the upper course of the Indus and the Sutlej, and also all north-western Tibet generally, as far as Ladak and the border of Kashmir. Tsang and Nari are under the rule of Lhasa, all the high civil and military authorities in these provinces holding their offices from it. These five provinces, however, do not include the elevated steppes of Tsaidam (extending between the Kuen-lun and the Altyn Tagh or Nan Shan ranges), inhabited by a mixed race of marauding people, Tunguts and Mongols. Yet Tsaidam is geographically but a northern extension of the great Tibetan plateau, and in most of its essential physical features it is more closely allied to the Chang-t'ang of the south than to the great sandy depressions of Chinese Turkestan or Mongolia on the north.
Government.—Though the whole of Tibet is under the suzerainty of China, the government of the country is divided into two distinct administrations, the one under the rule of the Dalai lama of Lhasa, the other under local kings or chiefs, and comprising a number of ecclesiastical fiefs. Both are directed and controlled by the high Chinese officials residing at Lhasa, Sining Fu, and the capital of the Chinese province of Szechuen. Northeastern Tibet or Amdo, and also a portion of Khamdo, are under the supervision of a high official (Manchu) residing at Sining Fu in Kansuh, whose title is Imperial Controller-General of Koko Nor. The native chiefs of the Panaka and other Tibetan tribes of this region are styled pömbo (“official” or “headman”) by both the natives and the Chinese. The region under the supervision of the imperial controller includes all the countries north of the upper course of the Dre chu (Yangtsze-kiang). The people pay a small poll-tax to China, and are exempted from any other impost; they also pay a small tax in kind, sheep, butter, &c., to their chiefs. The province of Khamdo, including all eastern Tibet, is governed by local chiefs, styled gyalpo, “king,” and dēba, “chief,” succession to the chieftainship being usually assured to the eldest son not a lama. Each chief appoints a certain number of civil and military officers to assist in the government of the country, and each village has its headman or besē, also an hereditary office. None of these officials receive salaries; they are only exempt from taxation, and some have grants of land made to them. The only tax paid to China is a so-called “horse-tax” of about 5d. for each family. Once in every five
