The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-02-05
LAND OF RED-FAcED MEN.
Thibet, Its People, It's Customs. and II

Thibet, Its People, It's Customs, and It's
Government--What is Known OF the
Country in Which Lander, the Eng
lish Explorer Was Tortured-The
Thibetans' Legend of Their Origin.
The graphic recital of the tortures re-
Gently inflicted upon A, Savage Lander,
the British explorer who sought to
reach Lhasa, the capitol of Thibet, by
the barbarous inhabitants of that wild
country has served to draw attention to
the remarkable dearth of knowledge
possessed by western people in regard
to that portion of Asia. Thibet, which
is perhaps less known to modern civili-
cation than any other inhabited re-
gion of equal size in the world, consists
of series of lofty table lands, ranging
from 10000 to 1860 feet above the sea
level bounded on all sides by great
mountain ranges.
On the south lie the Himalayas, to the
east the Yun-Ling mountains of China,
on the north, toward Yurkestan and
Mongolia, the Kuen-Lun ranges, while
on the west are the Pamir table lands,
recently the scene of Russian activity.
The extreme length Of the country from
east to west is more than 1000 miles,
and its breadth from north to south
varies from $50 miles in, the west to
700 miles in the east, the total area ex-
ceeding 100000 squares miles.
The country Is subdvided into Great
and Little Thibet, the latter occupying
the western portion. The entire region
may be divided into three zones, in
creasng in elevation from south to
north
OF these the southern zone contains
most of the towns and the agricultural
population; the middle zone, a region
peopled by pastoral nomads, while the
north is given over to few wild
nomadic tribes and to wild animals.
An old name for Thibet in the native
books signifies country of the red
| faced men," the ancient national Gus
| tom of painting the face red. The bulk
| of the population and most of the
large towns are in the southern\part of
| the country in region called Bodyal,
| the people of which are called Bodpas.
| Most of this section is under the sway
of China, the province being governed
| by lamas and gyalpos, ecclesiastical
and lay Bodpas, although other por-
| tons are subject to Nepal and Kashmir
| and to independent chiefs The princi-
pal seat of Chinese power is Lhasa, the
most popular city of Thibet.
| Being difficult Of access on all sides,
| possessing in some parts climate al
most arctic in it's severity, and inhab-
| tied by people who have long sought to
prevent by every means in their power
| the entry of Europeans into their terri
| tory, Thibet has up to this time been
| literally an almost unknown region to
civilized nations. But few European
| travellers have entered its borders,
and most of these have been compelled
| to turn back before penetrating far into
the interior, and during the present
| century especial care has been taken
| to keep out or expel all such intruders.
The first Europeans known to have
| entered Thibet were Catholic priests,
| Friar Odoric of Pordenone, having, 1t is
said, reached Lhasa as early as 1928.
| Three centuries later the Jesuit An
| tonic Andrada, travelling from India,
| made his way eastward across the
| country to China. In 1861 Father Grue-
| Der and DOrville travelled from Pekin
to Lhasa and thence to India, and prior
to 1850 several Capuchin friars ira
| versed the region between Delhi and
| Lhasa.
The first Englishnlan to enter the
country was George Boyle, who went
on an embassy from Warren Hastings
| to one Of the most powerful lamas in
1714. In 1871, nearly a century later,
Thomas Manning made his way from
India to Lhasa but was soon forced to
leave the sacred city, which no other
Englishman is known to have reached.
In 1S4446 Hue and CADET, French mis-
sionaries, reached Lhasa from China
but were soon deported, and In 1856
Able Desgodins penetrated some dis
tance into the country, but he, too
| was forced to turn back by the inhabi-
tants. Col. Prievalsky, a Russian sub
| sequently made a determined effort to
explore northern Thibet, but was pre-
vented from continuing his progress tc
the south.
The early history Of Thibet is purely
legendary, but 1t seems probable that a
state was founded in the eastern por-
ton about 433 A. d. by member oil
the Tubat family, the governor of q
Chinese province, who was obliged tc
flee for his life. The Chinese name TO,