Tibetan people

“ Tibet has been an integral part of China since ancient times. Prior to the 1950s, Tibet was a society of feudal serfdom under theocratic rule, a society characterized by a combination of political and religious powers. Government officials, aristocrats and monasteries collectively maintained tight control over Tibet's resources and wealth, and the Tibetan people lived in dire misery without any freedom. ”

“ After forty-four days' march due southwards we came to a part of the country where footprints of men were seen in several places, and Lhasa was only 300 miles away. Up to this time all Europeans who had tried to reach the holy city had been forced by Tibetan horsemen to turn back. The Tibetans are at bottom a good-tempered, decent people, but they will not allow any European to enter their country. They have heard that India and Central Asia have been conquered by white men, and fear that the same fate may befall Tibet. ”

“ Nearly all the people of eastern Tibet have adopted the peculiar form of Buddhism which as Lamaism we have learned to associate with that country, and their languages and customs are saturated with Tibetan influences. In spite of many dialectical peculiarities I found that the people of the Yalung watershed were nearly always able to speak and268 understand Tibetan. Yet many of them are bi-lingual, and their own languages—as may be seen from the vocabularies in the Appendix—appear to be nearly as distinct from Tibetan as they are from Chinese. ”

“ People.—The Tibetan race, which probably belongs to the Turko-Mongol stock, is divided between the nomadic tent dwelling Tibetans of the lake region and transition zone between it and the river region, and the settled sedentary population of the valleys. The tent-dwelling Tibetans, called Dokpa or Drupa (spelt hbrog-pa) , or “Steppe-dwellers,” are generally of a more Mongolized type than the people of the lowlands. The males measure about 5 ft. 5 in., except in eastern Tibet, where 5 ft. 9 in. is a common stature; the females are appreciably less. ”

“ The people were forbidden to style themselves subjects of the Lamas or of the T’u Ssu. And being subjects of the Emperor, every man was to shave his head and wear the queue. Headmen of villages were to be elected for triennial periods by the villagers themselves, and were to be removable by the villagers if they acted unjustly. Under each district official (presumably a Chinaman) were to be three Chinese and three Tibetans, to be jointly responsible for the collection of the land tax and the hearing of suits, and all six of them were to know both the Chinese and Tibetan languages. ”

“ While preserving and developing the Tibetan language, the state also popularizes standard Chinese throughout the country, including Tibet, so as to promote economic and cultural exchanges between ethnic groups and regions. ”

“ Steadfast under the twin banners of the Constitution and the law, Tibet has firmly resisted infiltration and sabotage by the 14th Dalai Lama and his supporters, continued to build the region into a place of ethnic solidarity and progress, strengthened the keen sense of identity of the Chinese nation, stayed committed to managing religion in the Chinese context, and guided Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to socialist society and become a bastion of stability in the region. ”

“ If anything—barring the Lamas—the people are rather good-natured and easygoing, easily led and influenced if taken the right way.
Tibetan men are not fighting men, and are, perhaps, the most contemptible cowards in face of danger. ”

“ The more north-westerly part of Tibet is Belti-yul—Baltistan or little Tibet—divided among several chiefs. In the mountain defiles on the south live the predatory people known as the Dardús; they are barbarians of Afghan or Hindu origin. [178] The inhabitants for the most part are Shiah Mohammedans. Their language is a dialect of the Tibetan, but what literature there is, is Persian. The climate is warm; in the lower part snow never falls.
Lakes in Tibet are few. The principal one is Ma-pham-yu-tsho (Mansarovara) , in Nari ”

“ W. W. Rockhill, who is less severe, thinks that "the Tibetan's character is not as black as Horace della Penna and Desgodins have painted it. Intercourse with these people extending over six years leads me to believe that the Tibetan is kindhearted, affectionate, and law-abiding [393] ." He concludes, however, with a not very flattering native estimate deduced from the curious national legend that "the earliest inhabitants of Tibet descended from a king of monkeys and a female hobgoblin, and the character of the race perhaps from those of its first parents. ”

“ The sources of the Indus, Sutlej, Gogra, and Brahmaputra are in Nári. Tibetan writers, in describing the situation of Tibet, have likened Nari to a water-pond, the provinces U and Tsang to four canals, and Kham-yul to a field of crops.
On the north, Tibet is bounded by the countries of the Turks and Mongols, called by Tibetans Hor and Sok. [177]
On the east by China (Gyanak) ; on the south by India (Gyagar) ; and on the west by India, Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Turkestan.
The neighbouring hill people are called by Tibetans “Mon,” their country Mon-yul ”

“ As an important part of Chinese culture, Tibetan culture attracts people from all over the world with its unique charm. Over the years, the Central Government and the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region have worked together to preserve and promote the outstanding traditional Tibetan culture while developing advanced socialist culture, and to protect places of unique folk cultures. ”

“ Tibetan is widely used in political life. Resolutions, laws and regulations adopted at people's congresses at all levels, and formal documents and declarations published by people's governments at different levels and their subsidiary departments in Tibet are written in both Tibetan and Chinese. ”

“ He states that in travelling from Chung-tien viâ Muli to Tachienlu—a journey of about a month's duration—he did not meet a single Chinese. "All the inhabitants," he says, "belong to the Tibetan race." (Bulletin de la Soc. de Géog., 1898, p. 393.)
NOTE 25 (p. 161) RACE-TYPES OF YALUNG WATERSHED
THE PA-U-RONG T'U PAI HU
These people owe their tall and well-built frames to their non-Tibetan blood. It is probably the "Man-tzŭ" blood that tells. "The stature of the Tibetans of Lhasa," says Colonel Waddell, "is even less than that of the Chinese, and considerably429 below the European average ”

“ Major Davies, who saw much of the Yün-nan Tibetans, has remarked that it is curious how little impression the civilization and customs of the Chinese have produced on the Tibetans. Elsewhere, one of the principal characteristics of Chinese expansion is its power of absorbing other races, but with the Tibetans exactly the reverse takes place. The Chinese become Tibetanized and the children of a Chinaman married to a Tibetan woman are usually brought up in the Tibetan customs. ”

“ Then I would leave my two men concealed in some secluded spot, and assuming a disguise, I would penetrate alone during the night into the city. This would have been easy enough, as Lhassa [190] has no gates, and only a ruined wall round it.
I was able to purchase some clothing and boots from the Tibetans. The pigtail that I needed in order to pass for a Tibetan I could make with the silky hair of my yaks. I would pretend to be deaf and dumb, as I could not speak the Tibetan language perfectly enough to pass for a native. ”

“ From our elevated point of vantage we looked down on a sea of heads, a conglomeration of human beings, a mosaic of vivid glaring colours, an exhibition of national costumes, among which the Tibetan dress was certainly the most conspicuous, but where the eye lighted on figures hailing from Bhotan and Sikkim, Nepal and Ladak, while Chinese merchants, or soldiers and pilgrims from the grassy steppes of Mongolia, were easily distinguishable. ”

“ And, in dismissing them, he simply said over his shoulder to his interpreter, “Tell them to go.” Our countrymen are often accused, and sometimes with justice, of being too high-handed with Asiatics, but we are not so high-handed with Asiatics as Asiatics are with one another.
In another respect the Chinese are very different from us in their dealings with a feudatory State. Hardly one of the Chinese officials we met in Tibet could speak a word of Tibetan. ”

“ The Tibetan portion of this wild region, known as Kham, is inhabited by a rough race, of warlike and independent character, retaining many primitive superstitions beneath the engrafted Lamanism, and treating with little respect the Chinese pretensions to sovereignty. Through this region the missionaries Huc and Gabet were escorted back to China—the first Europeans, there can be little doubt, who ever trod those wilds. The plundering excursions of the Kham-pa extend all across the breadth of Tibet, and the fear of them haunts even the pilgrims to Kylass and the Manusaráwur Lake. ”

“ It must be understood that all Tibetan literature is 'sacred,' though some of the volumes of exquisite calligraphy on parchment, which for our benefit were divested of their silken and brocaded wrappings, contain nothing better than fairy tales and stories of doubtful morality, which are recited by the lamas to the accompaniment of incessant cups of chang, as a religious duty when they visit their 'flocks' in the winter. ”

“ At all events, whatever be its origin and meaning, no other prayer used by human beings in any quarter of the globe is repeated so often. Every Tibetan believes it to be a panacea for all evil, a compendium of all knowledge, a treasury of all wisdom, a summary of all religion. ”

“ It is owing to this custom that most Tibetan men, when seen at first, impress one as being very stout, whereas, as a matter of fact, they are somewhat slight in figure. Tibetans leave one arm and part of the chest bare, letting the sleeve hang loose. ”

“ As I have fully explained in a previous book, In the Forbidden Land, marriages are principally family arrangements, where a girl becomes the wife of several brothers; and, in any case, bachelors are, as a whole, to be greatly congratulated in Tibet.
Other minor causes there are which tend to [134] limit population, but which cannot very well be mentioned here. Several diseases of the blood—very common—decidedly do not improve the race; and possibly all these evils—some natural, some unnatural—may in time bring about the disappearance of the Tibetan race from their lofty and sacred land. ”

“ Tibet is so remote and rude a land that it is a surprise to learn that it has a voluminous literature and further that much of this literature, though not all, is learned and scholastic. The explanation is that the national life was most vigorous in the great monasteries which were in close touch with Indian learning. Moreover Tibetan became to some extent the Latin of the surrounding countries, the language of learning and religion. ”

“ Probably the great cause which keeps the Tibetan from being absorbed is the cold, inhospitable nature of his country. There is little to tempt the Chinese to emigrate into Tibet and consequently they never are there in sufficient numbers to influence the Tibetans around them. A similar cause has preserved some of the low-lying Shan states from absorption, the heat in this case being the reason that the Chinese do not settle there. ”

“ As a special concession to the spirit of modernity, when the insistent guards were reminded that the abandoned machine could not 155advance of its own will, they permitted the chauffeur to climb in again and technically break the divine law by riding across the prospective trail of the blind god.
Tibetan, as I have said, is the Latin of lamaism. Even in Peking, where branch clusters of the faith exist, only two or three temples are permitted, by special dispensation, to carry on their services in Mongolian, and there is said to be only one in Asia where Chinese is used. ”

“ The trouble is that the Tibetan not unnaturally has the greatest possible suspicion and dislike for strangers. The Chinese he loathes and despises, and foreigners he knows only too well are symptoms of missionaries and punitive expeditions or other disturbances of his immemorial peace. ”

“ The Tibetans are one of the most highly endowed people in the world. Nearly all travellers are unanimous in praise of their gentleness, frank and kindly bearing, unaffected dignity. Strong, courageous, naturally cheerful, fond of music, the dance and song, they would be a model race but for their lack of enterprise. ”

“ Or a mendicant lama comes with his praying mill in his hand and two hand-grooves hung by a strap round his neck. In these he pushes his hands as in a curry-comb, when he prostrates himself on the ground in making a circuit of the temple. They are much worn, and this moves the hearts of the people to generosity, so that his alms bowl is filled daily.
These pious men are the parasites of Tibet, living at the expense of the working population. And yet they are endured and treated by every one with the greatest consideration and respect. To give them a mite brings a blessing on the giver. ”

“ What, then, can we expect of this Tibetan community, the most conservative in a country that has prided itself for centuries on its bigotry and isolation—men who are ignorant of science, literature, history, politics, everything, in fact, except their own narrow priestcraft and confused metaphysics? ”