over the watershed between this and the Tsangpo. This watershed was found to lie much farther north than had been supposed, and to consist of very lofty mountains, in complicated ranges, from which large tributaries descend to the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra). After a journey of half a year Hedin reached Shigatse; on leaving it he turned north again, intending to explore the large sacred lake Dangra-yumso, west of Ngantse t'so, but when within sight of it he was prevented by Tibetans from approaching it. He now followed a devious route to Lake Manasarowar, entering Nepal for a short distance from Tradum, discovering the main source of the Brahmaputra in a great mass of glaciers called Kubigangri, in the northernmost chain of the Himalaya. He next investigated the sources of the Sutlej, made hydrographic investigations of the Manasarowar lakes, with the neighbouring underground waterways, and proceeded thence to Gartok. He confirmed the existence, long suspected, of a lofty mountain chain extending right across the country from the lake Tengri Nor (i.e. about 90° E.) to the district north of Gartok (about 81° E.). He returned to Ladak in 1908. He was created a K.C.I.E. in 1910.
In May 1900 Kozlov, in command of the Russian Geographical Society's expedition to Central Asia and Tibet, left Barong Tsaidam, and travelling southwards, came to the Dre Captain P. K. Kozlov, 1900-1901. chu (his Ndu chu, or Blue river), at about the same point as Rockhill in 1889. Assisted by the old chief of Nyamtso, he crossed the river and reached Yekundo (his Iarku Lomba). One stage beyond this place he left the route followed by former travellers and pushed northwards to near the town of Chiamdo, where after a sharp fight with the natives he turned eastwards. The winter was passed in the valley of the Ra chu, a tributary of the Chiamdo chu (his Dza chu), and excursions were made as far as Derge droncher. In the spring of 1901 the expedition resumed its march eastwards around the Dre chu and the Ja chu (Yalung river), followed up the left bank of the latter and got back to Russian Lelu (Oring t'so) on the 30th of May 1901.
In 1903 Captain C. G. Rawling and Lieut. A. J. G. Hargreaves of the Somerset Light Infantry, starting from Leh as Captain C. G. Rawling, 1903. a base, carried out careful survey work (their chief object being to extend that of Captain Deasy) in the territory lying east of the British frontier, i. e. about 80° to 83° E., and 34° N.
The British armed mission of 1904 performed a brilliant feat of marching and reached Lhasa, whose mysteries were thus unveiled, but this exploit belongs to the section dealing with history, below.
- (T. H. H.*; L. A. W.; O. J. R. H.)
History.—Previous to the 7th century A.D. there was no indigenous recorded history of the country, the people being steeped in barbarism and devoid of any written language. The little that is known of this prehistoric period is gathered from the legends and the more trustworthy sidelights of contemporary Chinese records.
From the 11th century B.C. the Chinese used to call by the name of Kiang (or Shepherds) the tribes (about 150 in number) of nomads and shepherds in Koko Nor and the north-east of present Tibet; but their knowledge continued to be confined to the border tribes until the sixth century of our era. In the annals of the T'ang dynasty it is said that the population of the country originated from the Bat-Kian or Fah Kiang; and, as the information collected in the first part of the notice concerning Tu-bat, afterwards Tu-ban, the modern Tu-fan, dates partly (as is proved by internal evidence) from a time anterior to the T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618), some degree of reliance may be placed on it. There we are told that Fanni, a scion of the southern Liang dynasty of the Tu-bat family (which flourished from 397 to 415 at Lian-chow in Kansuh), who had submitted to the northern Liang dynasty, fled in 433 with all his people from his governorship of Lin-sung (in Kan-chow) westwards across the Yellow river, and founded beyond Tsih-shih (“heapy stones”) a state amidst the Kiang tribes, with a territory extending over a thousand li. By his mild and just rule he was soon enabled to establish his sway over an immense territory. His original state was apparently situated along the upper course of the Yalung river, an affluent of the Kin-sha-kiang.
Through the exertions of Prinsep, Csoma de Koros, Emil Schlagintweit, Chandra Das, Rockhill, Huth, Waddell and others, we possess many copies of lists of kings, forming the dynasties of Tibet from the legendary beginnings between the 5th and 2nd century B.C. down to the end of the monarchy in 914. But the serious divergences which they show (except as to later times and in general outlines) make their unauthentic character plain. As one of the lists is accompanied by a commentary, it is the easiest to follow, and requires only to be supplemented here and there from the other lists and from the Chinese sources, translated by Bushell and Rockhill. The first king, Gnya-khri btsan-po, is said to have been the fifth son of King Prasenajit of Kosala, and was born with obliquely drawn eyes. He fled north of the Himalayas into the Bod country, where he was elected king by the twelve chiefs of the tribes of southern and central Tibet. He took up his residence in the Yarlung country south of Lhasa. This Yarlung, which borrowed its name from the Yalung of the state of Fanni Tu-bat, is a river which flows into the Yaro-tsangpo (Brahmaputra). The first king and his six successors are known as the seven celestial khri; the next series consists of six kings known as the earthly legs; and they were followed by eight terrestrial ldé. This threefold succession is apparently an imitation or a debased form of the ancient legend of heavenly, earthly and human rulers, which was carried into Persia and China, and from the latter country into Japan and Tibet—the relative number of kings being altered in the last-named countries to suit local convenience and the small amount of truth which they contain. Whilst giving an Aryan descent to their first kings, the ancient Tibetans assigned to their princesses a divine origin, and called them lhamo, “goddess”. The gynaecratic habits of the race are manifested in the names of all these kings, which were formed by a combination of those of their parents, the mother's generally preceding that of the father. The ldé kings were followed by four rulers simply called btsan ("migty”).
Then occurs a break in the lineal descent, and the king next in order (c. 461) may be the Tatar Fanni Tu-bat, but most probably his son and successor. His name was Lha-tho thori gnyan-tsan, otherwise Gnyan-tsan of Lha-tho thori, according to the custom usual in Tibet of calling great personages after the name of their birthplace. Lha-tho means “heaps of stones,” and therefore appears to be a translation of Tsih-shih, “heapy stones,” the country mentioned in connexion with the foundation of a state by Fanni Tu-bat. It was during his reign that the first Buddhist objects are reputed to have reached Tibet, probably from Nepal. Little is said of his three immediate successors. The fourth was gNam-ri srong btsan, who died in 630. During his reign the Tibetans obtained their first knowledge o arithmetic and medicine from China; the prosperity and pastoral wealth of the country were so great that “the king built his palace with cement moistened with the milk of the cow and the yak.” To the same king is attributed the discovery of the inexhaustible salt mine called Chang-gi tsa'wa (Byang-gi-tsa'wa = “northern salt”), which still supplies the greater portion of Tibet. The reign of his illustrious son, Srong tsan gam-po, opened up a new era; he introduced Buddhism and the art of writing from India, and was the founder (in 639) of Lha-ldan, afterwards Lha-sa. He was greatly helped in his proselytism by his two wives, one a Nepal princess, daughter of King Jyoti varma, the other an imperial daughter of China; afterwards, they being childless, he took two more princesses from the Ru-yong (= “left corner” ō) and Mon (general appellative for the nations between Tibet and the Indian plains) countries. As a conqueror he extended his sway from the still unsubdued Kiang tribes of the north to Ladak in the west, and in the south he carried his power through Nepal to the Indian side of the Himalayas. How far southward this dominion at first extended is not known; but in 703 Nepal and the country of the Brahmans rebelled, and the Tibetan king, the third successor of Srong tsan gam-po, was killed while attempting to restore his power. It is rather curious that nothing is said of this Tibetan rule in India, except in the Chinese annals, where it is mentioned until the end of the monarchy in the 10th century, as extending over Bengal to the sea—the Bay of Bengal being called the Tibetan Sea. J. R. Logan has found ethnological and linguistic evidence of this domination, which was left unnoticed in the Indian histories. Mang-srong mang tsan, the second son and successor of Srong tsan gam-po, continuing the conquests of his father, subdued the Tukuhun Tatars around the Koko-Nor in 663, and attacked the Chinese; after some adverse fortune the latter took their revenge and penetrated as far as Lhasa, where they burnt the royal palace (Yumbu-lagang). Khri lde gtsug-brtan-mesag-ts'oms, the grandson of Mang-srong and second in succession from him, promoted the spread of Buddhism and obtained for his son, Jangts'a Lhapon, who was famous for the beauty of his person, the hand of the accomplished princess Kyimshang, daughter, otherwise kung-chu, of the Chinese emperor Juy (? Tai) tsung. But the lady arrived after the death of her betrothed, and after long hesitation became the bride of the father. She gave
