A full index has been provided, also a chronological table and bibliography.
I have to acknowledge the special aid afforded me by the learned Tibetan Lāma, Padma Chhö Phél; by that venerable scholar the Mongolian Lāma She-rab Gya-ts’ô; by the Ňiṅ-ma Lāma, Ur-gyän Gya-ts’ô, head of the Yang-gang monastery of Sikhim and a noted explorer of Tibet; by Tun-yig Wang-dan and Mr. Dor-je Ts’e-ring; by S’ad-sgra S’ab-pe, one of the Tibetan governors of Lhāsa, who supplied some useful information, and a few manuscripts; and by Mr. A. W. Paul, C.I.E., when pursuing my researches in Sikhim.
And I am deeply indebted to the kind courtesy of Professor C. Bendall for much special assistance and advice; and also generally to my friend Dr. Islay Muirhead.
Of previous writers to whose books I am specially under obligation, foremost must be mentioned Csoma Körösi, the enthusiastic Hungarian scholar and pioneer of Tibetan studies, who first rendered the Lāmaist stores of information accessible to Europeans.[1] Though to Brian Boughton Hodgson, the father of modern critical study of Buddhist doctrine, belongs the credit of discovering[2] the Indian nature of the bulk of the Lāmaist literature and of procuring the material for the detailed analyses by Csoma and Burnouf. My indebtedness to Köppen and Schlagfntweil has already been mentioned.
- ↑ Alexander Csoma of Körös, in the Transylvanian circle of Hungary, like most of the subsequent writers on Lāmaism, studied that system in Ladāk. After publishing his Dictionary, Grammar, and Analysis, he proceeded to Darjiling in the hope of penetrating thence to Tibet, but died at Darjiling on the 11th April, 1842, a few days after arrival there, where his tomb now bears a suitable monument, erected by the Government of India. For details of his life and labours, see his biography by Dr. Duka.
- ↑ Asiatic Researches, xvi., 1828.
