Lawrence Waddell, Thomas Holdich, Albert de Lacouperie, and Osbert Howarth

“ The northern portion of Tibet is an arid and wind-swept desert; but in the southern portion the valleys of Lhasa, Shigatse, Gyantse and the Brahmaputra are covered with good soil and groves of trees, well irrigated, and richly cultivated.
The valley of the Brahmaputra (q.v.) , or Yaru Tsang-po or simply Tsang-po—the river has also various local names—is the great arterial valley of southern Tibet. On the south it is bounded by the Himalayas, on the north by a mountain-system still more vast. ”

“ The beard is sparse, and, with the exception of the moustache, which is sometimes worn, especially in central Tibet, it is plucked out with tweezers. The shoulders are broad, the arms round; the legs are not well developed, the calf is especially small. The foot is somewhat small but broad, the hand coarse. The women are usually stouter than the men. The colour of the skin of the Tibetans is a light brown, sometimes so light as to show ruddy cheeks in children; where exposed to the weather it becomes a dark brown. Their voices are full, deep and powerful. ”

“ The loftiest lake so far as observed is Hospa t’so, near the Lingshi plain on the Kashmir frontier; its altitude is given as 17,930 ft. The lake region is noted for a vast number of hot springs, which are widely distributed between the Himalayas and 34° N., but are most numerous to the west of Tengri Nor (north-west of Lhasa) . So intense is the cold in Tibet that these springs are sometimes represented by columns of ice, the nearly boiling water having frozen in the act of ejection. ”

“ An active or causal verb requires before it the instrumental instead of the nominative case, which goes only before a neuter or intransitive verb. The chief differences between the classical language of the Tibetan translators of the 9th century and the vernacular, as well as the language of native words, existed in vocabulary, phraseology and grammatical structure, and arose from the influence of the translated texts. ”

“ In the market at Lhasa opium sells for its weight in silver. The exports from Tibet are silver, gold, salt, wool, woollen cloth, rugs, furs, drugs, musk. By the Nepal, Kumaon and Ladak routes go borax, gold and ponies. Patna in Bengal is the chief market for the Nepal trade; Diwangiri and Udalguri for Assam, and Darjeeling and Kalimpong for Sikkim and Chumbi. One of the most universal articles of consumption in Tibet is the Chinese brick-tea, which even passes as currency. ”

“ This was the opportunity for a series of valuable exploratory journeys through the Tibetan provinces adjoining the Indian and Nepalese frontiers, which added greatly to our stock of information about Lhasa and the districts surrounding that city. In their first journey the travellers set out from Jongri in Sikkim, and traversing the north-east corner of Nepal, crossed into Tibet by the Chatang la, and travelled northwards to Shigatse and Tashilhunpo. ”

“ A few localities in the extreme southern portions of the country and around Lhasa possibly, are said to produce a non-glutinous variety of rice. A variety of mountain bamboo is found in southern and parts of eastern Tibet, and is much used for basket work. Tibet produces a large number of medicinal plants much prized by the medical profession in China and Mongolia, among others the Cordyceps sinensis, the Coptis teeta, Wall., and Pickorhiza kuwoa, Royle, &c. Rhubarb is also found in great quantities in eastern Tibet and Amdo ”

“ 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 ”

“ The strike of these folds is usually east and west and roughly parallel to the axes of elevation of the plateau. A remarkable economic feature is the almost universal distribution of gold throughout Tibet. The gold-digging is referred to in somewhat mythical terms by Herodotus. Every river which rises in Tibet washes down sands impregnated with gold, and it has been proved that this gold is not the product of intervening strata, but must have existed primarily in the crystalline rocks of the main axes of upheaval. In western Tibet the gold mines of Jalung have been worked since 1875. ”

“ Wind is a prevailing feature throughout Tibet at certain seasons of the year, as it is in the Pamirs, in Turkestan, in western Afghanistan and in Persia. The climate of southern Tibet is, however, subject to considerable modifications from that of the northern and central regions, owing doubtless to its geographical connexion with northern India. ”

“ The best artisans are Nepalese and Chinese, the former being the best workers in metal and dyers.
The great trade routes are, first, that which, starting from Cheng-tu, the capital of the Chinese province of Szechuen, passes by way of Tachienlu or Dartsedo, Litang, Batang, Chiamdo, Larego, Lhasa, Gyantse, Shigatse, reaches the Nepalese frontier at Nielam and goes thence to Katmandu. This route is called Gya-lam, “the China road” (or “high road”) ; Trade Routes, &c.the great bulk of Tibetan travel goes over it. ”

“ Money.—It is curious that Tibet, though using coined money, seems never, strictly speaking, to have had a coinage of its own. Till nearly the end of the 18th century the coinage had for a long time been derived from Nepal. ”

“ Many of these old soft initial consonants which are now hardened in the modern dialects are preserved in classical Tibetan, i.e. in Tibetan of the 7th to the 9th century A.D. The old language seems to have pronounced prefixes extensively which in modern pronunciation in central Tibet are largely lost, whilst the soft initials have become aspirated or hardened and tones have developed, and in the west and east, where prefixes and soft initials have been preserved, there are no tones. ”

“ The Gork goldfields, which are visible from Koko Nor, are reported to have yielded to China considerable quantities of gold as lately as 1888. They are now deserted. Prjevalsky, indeed, predicts of northern Tibet that it will prove a “second California” in course of time. But little gold at present finds its way across the Tibetan passes to India; and the export to China has diminished of late years.
Iron is found in eastern Tibet in the form of pyrites, and is rudely smelted locally. Salt and borax exist in abundance in the western lake regions. ”

“ 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 years the chiefs send a tribute mission to the capital of Szechuen, and once every ten years to Peking, but the tribute sent is purely nominal. The Chinese maintain a few small military posts with from six or eight to twenty men stationed in them; they are under the orders of a colonel residing at Tachienlu. There are also a few lama chiefs. ”

“ Industries and Trade.—The industries are confined to the manufacture of woollen cloth of various degrees of fineness, and colour, and called truk, tirma and lawa, to that of small rugs, pottery of an inferior quality, utensils of copper and iron, some of which show considerable artistic skill in design, and to such other small trades as are necessary to supply the limited wants of the people. ”

“ Minor roads go from Sining Fu in the Chinese province of Kansuh via Tsaidam and the Tang la pass to Nagchuka and Lhasa. This road, called the Chang lam or “northern road,” was much used by traders till the middle of the 19th century, when the Mahommedan rebellions in north-western China practically closed it. Another road starts from Sung-pan in north-western Szechuen, and, by way of the sources of the Yellow River, joins the Gya-lam at Chiamdo; it is little used, as it passes through the country of the wild marauding Golok. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The remarkable area of gold-mining industry which lies to the north-east of Gartok is reached by another route from Leh, which, crossing the Chang la close to Leh, passes by Rudok at the eastern extremity of Lake Pangong in a south-easterly direction, running north of the great mountain masses which crowd round the Indus sources. It continues through the central lake district to Tengri Nor and Lhasa. The principal trade with China is carried on over the Lhasa-Tachienlu road. ”

“ Those species which are distinctive of the eastern border ridges are found to reach the plateau, but do not spread westwards, so that a botanic separation or distinction is found to exist between the true plateau of Tibet in the west and the alpine tracts of the east. ”

“ Northern Tibet is an arid waste, subject to intense heat in summer and intense cold in winter. In March snow still lies deep in the Tsaidam passes, while Wellby found the heat oppressive in June at 16,000 ft. elevation on the plateau south of the Kuen-lun, and a temperate climate prevailing about the sources of the Dre chu (Yangtsze) in August.
All travellers testify to the perpetual wind currents from the west, which sweep across the salt bogs of Tsaidam (9500 ft.) and through the higher valleys of eastern Tibet. ”

“ Chandra Das also brought back from his journeys a large number of interesting books in Tibetan and Sanskrit, the most valuable of which have been edited and published by him, some with the assistance of Ugyen Gyatso and other lamas.
The Russian explorer Prjevalsky, although he was not, strictly speaking, an explorer of Tibet, did much incidentally towards determining the conformation of its north-eastern and eastern mountain systems. His third journey into Central Asian wilds, which lasted from March 1879 to October 1880, included the sources of the Hwang Ho, orRussian Explorers. ”

“ The total distance from Siliguri railway station is 357 m. From Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, a difficult mountain route runs by Kirong to the No la (16,600 ft.) , descending from which pass it strikes the Tsangpo about midway between Lhasa and Lake Manasarowar. Farther west Tibet may be reached from Kumaon by one of a group of passes (of which the best known is the Milam) leading to Lake Manasarowar. The lake becomes a sort of obligatory point on all routes to Tibet which lie between Ladak and Nepal. ”

“ A flowering plant (Saussurea tridactyla) was discovered by Bower at an elevation of 19,000 ft. In south-eastern Tibet, where Himalayan conditions of climate prevail, we have a completely different class of flora. Of the flora of Tibet Rockhill writes: “In the ‘hot lands’ (Tsa-rong) in southern and south-eastern Tibet, extending even to Batang, peaches, apricots, apples, plums, grapes, water-melons, &c., and even pomegranates, are raised; most of Tibet only produces a few varieties of vegetables, such as potatoes, turnips, beans, cabbages, onions, &c. ”

“ It is difficult of access on all sides, and everywhere difficult to traverse. Its great elevation causes the climate to be rather arctic than tropical, so that there is no gradual blending of the climates and physical conditions of India and Tibet, such as would tend to promote intercourse between the inhabitants of these neighbouring regions ”

“ Western and southern Tibetan flora were partially explored previously to the advent of these travellers. Professor Maximowicz concludes from an analysis of the Prjevalsky collection that the flora of Tibet is extremely ancient, and that it is chiefly composed of immigrants from the Himalaya and Mongolia. There is also a large percentage of endemic species. Chinese and European plants followed in the process of immigration. ”

“ Waddell gives a list of 164 species of plants collected by him at Lhasa, several being new species.
Fauna.—The fauna of Tibet has been by no means exhaustively investigated, especially the rodents and smaller species of animals. Among domesticated animals are to be found the horse, mule, donkey, cattle, sheep and goats, dogs, fowls and pigs, ducks and geese. Probably no country in the world, excepting perhaps inner Africa, so abounds in wild animals as the cold solitudes of the northern plateau. ”

“ Thiselton-Dyer classes the flora of Tibet on the whole as belonging to the Arctic-Alpine section of the great northern division, but containing a purely endemic element. Two typical species are Lychnis apetala, which extends to Spitsbergen, and the well-known edelweiss. A single fern specimen obtained by Littledale (Polypodium hastatum) is indicative of eastern China. Of the forty or fifty genera obtained by Littledale in central Tibet a large proportion are British, including many of the most characteristic mountain forms. ”

“ In 1890 Captain H. Ramsay published at Lahore his useful Practical Dictionary of Western Tibet. In 1902 was brought out at Calcutta Sarat Chandra Das's Tibetan English Dictionary with Sanskrit synonyms, a massive volume compiled with the aid of Tibetan lamas and edited by Graham Sandberg and the Moravian missionary A. W. Heyde. The Tibetan Manual by V. C. Henderson (1903) is a useful work, and so is the Manual of Colloquial Tibetan by C. A. Bell (Calcutta, 1905) , which has full English-Tibetan vocabularies, graduated exercises and examples in the Lhasa dialect of to-day. ”