TIBET, a country of great extent, in Independent Tartary, stretching from east to west 1500 miles in length. It extends from the sources of the Indus to the borders of China, and from Hindustan to the great desert of Cobi, in Central Asia. It is of unequal breadth, and many parts of it are unknown. It is distinguished by different names. It is called Tibbet in Bengal; but in Nepaul, Lower Tibet receives the appellation of Kutchar, and in Hindustan that of Potyid. In the native language of the inhabi[7:21:255]tants it is called Pue. or Puckoachim; the first being the term for northern, and the latter for snow; thus indicating the severity of the climate. The distinguishing feature of this country is its great elevation, being for the most part a table-land, in which the rivers of India and China which run south and east, and those also which run northward into Siberia and Tartary, take their rise. Tibet is separated, about the twenty-eighth degree of north latitude, from Bootan by the Sumoonang Mountains, part of the great Himalaya chain; and the boundaries are marked by a long row of little inscribed flags, fixed in rude heaps of stones, which were seen by Turner when he passed, fluttering in the wind. The summit of one of the mountains, Chumularee, constitutes the highest land in what is called Little Tibet. It is highly venerated by the Hindus, who resort thither for the purpose of paying their adorations to the snow-clad summit.

Tibet appears at first under a most unfavourable aspect to travellers, and to be in a great measure incapable of culture. It is mountainous towards its frontier bordering on Bootan. Here perpetual winter may be said to reign; the great mountain of Chumularee is for ever clothed with snow. Its elevation is not precisely known, but this circumstance indicates a height of several thousand feet. In other parts the country exhibits low rocky hills, where no vegetation is visible, and extensive arid plains, of the most stern and stubborn aspect, and extremely barren. Where the country is capable of cultivation, the usual crops are wheat, pease, and barley. In many parts the grain never ripens. About fourteen miles from Phari, on the frontier mountains, Turner saw a small enclosure of green wheat, which had just strength enough to give out its ear, but which, he was told, would proceed no farther, the cold being too intense to admit of its ripening. It is cultivated merely as forage for cattle, when the plains become bare of grass, and they are hindered from going abroad during the depth of winter. The periodical rains give birth to a little herbage, whose growth stops immediately as they cease: from the extreme dryness of the air, the grass then begins to wither, so that it may be crumbled between the fingers into dust. Yet large droves of cattle are fed in this neighbourhood, the pasture, though short and dry, being extremely sweet and nutritive; and animals ranging in a state of nature are found to prefer it to the more exuberant herbage of milder climates. These plains accordingly, as well as the adjacent mountains, are frequented by large droves of cattle, shawl-goats, deer, musk-deer, horses, great multitudes of foxes, and other wild animals; also by many coveys of partridges and pheasants, and some quails. It is the practice of the cultivators in Tibet to flood the low lands on the approach of winter with water, which freezes and covers their surface with a sheet of ice, and thus shelters them from the violent winds, which would strip off the scanty soil. In some parts they pluck up the corn by the root, and afterwards place it in small bundles to dry. From Phari, in the mountains, however, to Nainee, a distance of fifty miles, the country is very little removed in its aspect, population, or culture, from a perfect desert. The hills are bare, and composed of a stiff, dry, mouldering rock, which splits and shivers with the frost; and, on account of the severity of the climate, the inhabitants are obliged to seek for shelter in the valleys and hollows. The north winds, meeting with no interruption in the w ide and barren plains, sweep along in furious blasts of the most cutting severity; and so uniform is the intense cold, that the inhabitants arc in the practice of killing their meat at the beginning of winter, and keeping it for three months, at the end of which period it is perfectly fresh.

In Tibet the temperature and seasons exhibit a remarkable uniformity, both in their periodical duration and in their return; and they exactly resemble those in the more southern region of Bengal. Variable weather prevails in the spring from March to May; the climate is warm, with thunder-storms and occasional refreshing showers. From June to September is the season of rains, which being heavy and continued, refresh the country, and cause the rivers to overflow, and, descending with rapidity from the mountains in their progress to the sea, to assist in inundating Bengal. From October to March the sky is uniformly clear; it is neither obscured by fogs nor clouds; and a much more intense degree of cold prevails than is known in the same latitudes in Europe. In these elevated plains the most boisterous winds perpetually prevail, in the dry summer months raising clouds of dust, almost intolerable to the traveller; and in other seasons, says Turner, “conveying a degree of cold unknown even in the severest winters in Europe. Such is sometimes the intenseness of the frost here, though in so low a latitude as twenty-eight degrees, that animals exposed in the open fields are found dead with their heads absolutely split by its force.”^[1. Turner’s Embassy to the Court of Teshoo Lama in Tibet, p. 210. ]

The country, though barren, is not, as already observed, destitute of animal life; it abounds in a great variety of wild fowl, game, beasts of prey, flocks, droves and herds of cattle. Among the most remarkable animals is the Yak of Tartary, named also the Soora Goy, or bushy-tailed bull of Tibet. This animal resembles an English bull in height, the general figure of the body, the head, and the legs. He is the bos grunniens of modern naturalists. See Mammalia. These cattle, though not large boned, yet, from the profuse quantity of hair with which they are provided, seem to be of great bulk. They have a downcast heavy look, and appear, as indeed they are, sullen and suspicious, discovering much impatience at the approach of strangers. They pasture on the coldest parts of Tibet, on the short herbage peculiar to the summits of mountains and to bleak plains; their favourite haunt being the chains of mountains situated between twenty-seven and twenty-eight degrees north latitude, whose summits are usually covered with snow. During the severity of winter they take shelter in the southern glens; and in milder seasons they take a wider range on the northern aspect of the mountains. They form a very valuable property to the tribes of itinerant Tartars, who live in tents, and tend them from place to place: they at the same time afford their herdsmen an easy mode of conveyance, a good covering, and wholesome subsistence. These animals are strong, sure footed, and carry a great weight. They are never employed in agriculture; but are extremely useful as beasts of burden. They afford an abundance of rich milk, the butter produced from which is excellent. It is the custom to preserve this in skins and bladders, and the air being excluded, it will keep in this cold climate throughout the year. The musk-deer is another animal which abounds in Tibet, in the vicinity of the coldest mountains, and produces a valuable article of revenue. He delights in the most intense cold, and in places which border the line of perpetual snow. He has two long curved tusks, which proceed from the upper jaw, and, being directed downwards, seem intended principally to serve him for the purpose of digging roots, his usual food; or they may be also given as weapons of defence. These animals are about the height of a moderately sized hog, to which they bear a resemblance in the bigness of the body; but they are still more like the hog-deer. They have a small head, a thick and round hind quarter, no snout, and extremely delicate limbs. The body is covered with prodigiously copious hair, which grows erect all over the body, between two and three [7:21:256]inches long, lying smooth only where it is short, on the bead, legs, and ears. On examination it seems to partake more of the nature of feathers, or of the porcupine’s quills, tl∣an of hair, though it is thin, flexible, and not straight, but undulated. The musk is a secretion formed in a little bag or tumour, resembling a wen, situated at the navel, and is found only in the male. The musk-deer is here deemed the property of the state, and hunted only by the permission of the government. Another animal of great importance in Tibet is the goat, whose coat affords materials for that exquisitely fine and beautiful manufacture, the shawl. Captain Turner saw numbers of this valuable animal feeding, in large flocks, upon the thin dry herbage that covers those naked looking hills. It is the most beautiful species among the whole tribe of goats; of various colours, black, white, of a faint bluish tinge, and of a shade somewhat lighter than a fawn. They have straight horns, and are of a lower stature than the smallest sheep in England. The outward covering of the animal is of coarse long hair; but the wool that is next the skin is of a light fine texture; and its softness is preserved by the external coat. This delicate creature is indebted for the softness of its coat to the nature of the climate which it inhabits; and it will not thrive in the hot atmosphere of Bengal, nor will it bear transportation by sea. A breed of wild horses is found in Tibet, which are distinguished for their fleetness, and which are never taken alive, so as to be rendered serviceable, or domesticated; and even when they are taken young they pine away and die, being vicious, stubborn, and untameable. They are said to be hunted, and, when they are killed, their flesh is esteemed a great delicacy. The domestic horses which they use are extremely docile. They are not natives of Tibet, but arc brought from Eastern Tartary and the borders of Toor-kistan as merchandise. They are never shod. Before they are permitted to be transported, care is taken to deprive them of the power of propagating their species, and mares are never met with in the country. They are quiet, sure-footed creatures, but slow and ugly. Among the valuable animals of Tibet, their breed of sheep merits a distinguished place. Their flocks are numerous, and their chief reliance is placed on them for present support, as well as for winter food. A peculiar species seems indigenous in this climate, marked almost invariably by black heads and legs. They are of a small size, with soft wool; and their flesh, which is almost the only animal food eaten in Tibet, is of a very fine flavour. They are occasionally employed as beasts of burden, and numerous flocks of them are often to be seen laden with salt and grain, each carrying from twelve to twenty pounds. They are the bearers of their own wool to the best market, where it is usually fabricated into a narrow cloth resembling frieze, or a thick coarse blanket. When slaughtered, their skins are most commonly cured with the wool on, and form a most excellent defence against the winter cold to the peasant and the traveller. The skins of lambs are also cured with the wool on, and constitute 3 valuable article of traffic; and to obtain the skin in its highest perfection, the dam is sometimes killed before her time of yeaning, by which a silky softness is secured for the fleece, which gives it a very high value. It serves particularly for lining vests, and is in equal estimation all over Tartary, as well as in China.

Though the soil of Tibet is in genera) barren and unimprovable, and though no great return can ever be expected from agriculture, the country abounds in mineral wealth, and industry and skill are only wanting to turn these sources to account. Gold is found in great quantities, and frequently very pure. It is obtained sometimes in large masses, lumps, and irregular veins. It is also found in the beds of rivers in the form of gold dust, and at their several bendings generally attached to small pieces of stone, with every appearance of its having been a larger mass. Cinnabar, containing a large portion of quicksilver, is found in Tibet, and might be advantageously extracted by distillation if fuel were more plentiful; but it is remarkably scarce, which is a great disadvantage; and they are often forced to substitute for fire-wood the dried dung of animals. The most valuable discovery that could be made for Tibet would be a coal-mine; and this mineral is found in some parts of the country bordering on China. Two days’ journey from Teshoo Loomboo there is a lead-mine. The ore is much the same as that found in Derbyshire, mineralized by sulphur, and the metal is easily obtained, namely, by the simple operation of fusion. Copper-mines are found, which furnish materials for the manufacture of idols, and all the ornaments disposed about the monasteries on which gilding is bestowed. Iron is more frequently to be found in Bootan than in Tibet; and it is not a branch of industry which could be followed in Tibet, owing to the want of fuel for smelting the valuable ores. Rock-salt is obtained in great abundance; and tincal is found in the bed of a lake about fifteen days’ journey from Teshoo Loomboo. The country contains inexhaustible quantities of it. It is brought to market in the state in which it is dug out of the lake, and afterwards refined into borax in this country.

Tibet carries on trade with the surrounding states, though not to any great extent; the inhabitants not being either commercial or industrious, and the surplus produce of the country being besides inconsiderable. Neither is commerce favoured by the government, the first member of the state being a merchant, who enjoys a monopoly for himself and others of all the chief branches of trade. The exports consist of gold, musk, tincal, goats’ hair, and rock-salt. The goats’ hair is conveyed to Cashmere, and is of that superior sort of which the celebrated shawls are manufactured; and the salt is exported to Nepaul and Bootan. A considerable commerce is carried on with China, for the most part at a garrison town on the western frontier of China named Silling or Sinning. The exports are gold dust, precious stones, musk, and woollen cloths; in return for which are received gold and silver brocades, silks, teas, tobacco, quicksilver, China ware, furs, and some silver bullion. Gold dust, musk, and tincal, are exported to Bengal; and the imports are broad cloth, trinkets, spices, particularly cloves, pearls, coral, amber, kincobs, Matilda cloths, Rungpoor leather, tobacco, and indigo. British manufactures of woollen would furnish a considerable article of import. The extreme rigour of the climate requires warm clothing; and the dress of the lower classes consists of woollens of an inferior kind, and in winter of sheep or foxes’ skins cured with the wool and fur on. When they travel, they carry a weight of clothing that bids defiance to the most piercing winds. Having no other manufactures, they are obliged to encumber themselves with a heavy load of their own rude clothing. When woollen cloths of a better description are brought to the country by the travelling merchants who frequent it, they are bought up with great eagerness. The better classes are dressed in silks and furs. A trade is also carried on with Russia, though not to any great extent. This principally consists in hides, which are prepared in the adjacent districts, and are brought also from Kalmuc Tartary to the same mart, where all the rich and valuable furs that pass in merchandise between the Russians and Chinese may be procured on easy terms. There are few manufactures, and those only such as are of the coarsest kind and required for domestic use. They are famous, however, for the manufacture of images. At Teshoo Loomboo there is an extensive board of works established under the direction of the monastery, which is constantly employed in this manufacture.

Respecting the religion of the inhabitants of Tibet, little is known. It seems to be a schismatical offspring of the religion of the Hindoos, deriving its origin from one of the followers of that faith, a disciple of Buddh, who first broached[7:21:257] the doctrine which now prevails over the wide extent of Tartary. It is reported to have been first received in that part of Tibet adjacent to India, which hence became the seat of the sovereign lamas; to have traversed over Mant-chieux Tartary, and to have been ultimately disseminated over China and Japan. However it may differ from the Hindoo in many of its outward forms, it still bears a close affinity with the religion of Brahma in many important particulars. The principal idol in the temples is the Buddha of Bengal, worshipped under the denomination of Maha-moonie, a sanscrit term meaning “great saint,” and under various other epithets over all Tartary, and among the nations to the east of the Brahmapootra. The same places are considered sacred in Tibet and in Bengal, and are resorted to by pilgrims; and the water of the Ganges, which is considered holy, is carried in loads from the river over the mountains of Tibet, on the shoulders of men, who are hired by enthusiasts for this pious purpose. Their ritual or ceremonial worship differs, however, materially from the Hindoo; the Tibetians assemble in chapels, and in prodigious numbers, to join in chanting alternate recitative and chorus, with the accompaniment of an extensive band of loud and powerful instruments; so that it forcibly impressed on those who heard it, the solemn sounds of the popish mass. The people play in private on many other musical instruments; and Turner mentions, that on a visit to the mother of Teshoo Lama, she sung a very pleasing air, which she accompanied on the guitar, and her husband on the flageolet. The religion of Tibet is entirely free from the illiberal and perplexing distinctions of castes. A Brahmin would deem it a profanation of the deepest dye even to eat in presence of one of an inferior caste, much more to partake of the same repast with a person of a different religion. But the inhabitants of Tibet have no such scruples; even the sovereign lama has no objection to drink tea from the same vessel with any foreigner. Turner mentions, also, that in the great variety of visitors that came to him, he never observed the slightest scruple to partake either of tea or of other liquors prepared by his own servants. The Hindoo pays the blindest reverence to the Brahmin class. This reverence is only paid, in the ignorant idolatry of the Tibetians, to the sovereign lama, immaculate, immortal, and omnipresent, esteemed the vicegerent of the only God, the mediator between mortals and the Supreme. They view him as perpetually absorbed in religious duty, and when called upon to attend to the concerns of mortals, as being employed only in the benign office of distributing comfort and consolation, forgiveness and mercy. He is also the centre of all civil government, which derives from his authority all influence and power. He is the head of the whole system, which is a regular gradation from the most venerated lama, through the whole order of gylongs, to the young noviciate. The inferior gradations, from the president, who is always styled lama, are gylong, tohba, and tuppa. For the performance of daily service in the temple at Teshoo Loomboo there are 3700 gylongs or priests; and four lamas chosen from amongst them superintend and direct their religious ceremonies. Youth intended for the service of the monastery are received into the establishment at the age of eight or ten years. They are then called tuppa, and are occupied in receiving instruction suited to their age. At fifteen they are usually admitted into the order of tohba, if found sufficiently qualified; and thence into the order of gylong between the age of twenty-one and twenty-four. They are then eligible to the superintendence of some endowed monastery, of which there are multitudes spread all over Tibet, with lands assigned them for their support; their promotion depending on their interest or their character. In this station, as chief of a flock, they are honoured with the appellation of lama. Those who enter the religious order are enjoined sobriety, celibacy, and all the austere practices of the cloister. There is a considerable number of nunneries as well as monasteries; and the strictest prohibitions exist against any woman even accidentally passing a night within the walls of the one, or a man within those of the other. The ecclesiastical class, who hold intercourse with heaven, are entirely divided from the lay class, who carry on the business of the world; and no interference ever interrupts the regulated duties of the clergy. Their religion is divided into two sects, who are extremely hostile to each other, and one of whom was forced to seek shelter from the persecution of their opponents in that tract of country bordering on Tibet towards the south, and marked by a high ridge, inhospitable in the extreme, but which was thought capable of affording them a safe retreat. Here they fixed their abode, while others of the same sect still live in tents, and tend their flocks, rambling from place to place. The priests are habited in long robes of yellow cloth, with a conical cap of the same colour; and this peculiarity of colour is adopted as a distinction to mark one of the two religious sects that divide almost the whole of Tartary, from Toorkistan to the eastern limits of this continent. The other colour is red; and the tribes are known as belonging to the red or the yellow cap. The former differ principally from the sectaries of the yellow in admitting the marriage of the priests; but the latter are considered as the more orthodox, as well as possessed of greater influence. The emperor of China is decidedly a votary of the yellow sect, and has sanctified it by a sumptuary law, which limits it to the service of religion and the imperial use. Dalai Lama, Teshoo Lama, and Taranaut Lama, preside over the yellow, who have their residences at Poo-talah, Teshoo Loomboo, and Kharka. This sect prevails over a great part of Tibet, and a branch of it is said to be established in the Deccan. In like manner, three lamas preside over the red sect. The principal of the red class in Tibet has his residence in Sakia. The dress of these religious orders is the regular costume of every attendant at court, consisting of a vest of woollen cloth, with sleeves of a deep garnet colour; and a large mantle, either of the same or of a thinner texture, resembling a shawl, a sort of philibeg, and huge boots of bulgar hides, lined either with fur or cloth, complete their equipage.

Of the diseases in this country, the most singular is a glandular swelling in the throat, which is found in Europe among the inhabitants of mountainous countries, and is generally ascribed to an impregnation of the water from snow. This, however, is a doubtful theory, as it is sometimes seen where snow is not to be found. It has been little attended to, as it is not painful, is seldom fatal, and is only common among the poorer class of the people. The small-pox is a most fatal disorder in Tibet. It is not less dreaded than the plague, and is hardly less fatal; for they neither know nor use any remedies for it, but, as soon as it appears in any village, the healthy desert the sick, and leave them to chance and the natural course of the disease. There is little variety in their other diseases. Coughs, colds, and rheumatisms are more frequent than in Bengal. Fevers arise occasionally from temporary causes, but seldom prove fatal. The hot bath is used in many disorders, particularly in bowel complaints and cutaneous eruptions. The hot wells of Tibet are resorted to by thousands.

A singular and licentious practice is said by travellers to prevail here, namely, of one woman cohabiting with a whole family of brothers. Turner states, that one woman was pointed out to him who lived with five brothers, to each of whom she was married; and he states that this custom, so contrary to purity of morals and any idea of social happiness, is common among all ranks; and that families are seen living happily in this impure manner. He even endeavours to find out plausible reasons for the practice, founded on the danger in a poor country of the too rapid [7:21:258]increase of population. It cannot be considered, however, in any other light than as a mark of gross barbarity and licentiousness; and it agrees well with the author’s account of their loose conduct before they marry, and the want of chastity in the women. Their marriage ceremonies are simple, consisting only in the mutual consent of the two parties; and neither the one nor the other is at liberty to withdraw, unless, as Turner expresses it, “the same union of sentiment that joined their hands should prompt their separation.” In other words, they are considered to be bound until they tire of each other, when they are left at liberty to form a new alliance; a proof, along with former facts, of their want of morals. In their manners they arc mild, humane, and kind; and always obliging without being servilely officious.

It is the custom in Tibet to preserve the mortal remains of the sovereign lamas; but, with this exception, every other corpse is consumed by fire, or exposed in the open air to be devoured by ravens, kites, and other carnivorous birds. In the most populous parts of the country the dogs are also allowed to prey upon this extraordinary carrion. A chief lama, as soon as he expires, is placed upright in an apparent attitude of devotion, his legs being folded under him with each thigh resting on the instep, and the soles of the feet turned upwards. In this posture they are deposited in shrines. The inferior lamas are usually burned, and their ashes deposited in little metallic idols; but common subjects are treated with less ceremony, as already mentioned.

The history of Tibet is involved in obscurity. They have no annals of their public transactions, nor of the ancient extent of their kingdom, or of their religious institutions. It is known, however, that about the year 1720 the emperor of China acquired the sovereignty of Tibet by interfering in the quarrel of the two contending parties. In 1792 the country was invaded by the Nepaulese without provocation, and they made such a rapid and unexpected progress, and appeared so suddenly before Teshoo Loomboo, as scarcely to allow the lama and his gylongs time to effect their escape across the Brahmapootra. The Nepaulese army having carried off a large plunder, the accumulated contributions of ages, from Teshoo Lomboo, and having despoiled the tombs of their most valuable ornaments, withdrew to their own country, whither they were pursued by the Chinese, defeated, and forced to sue for peace, of which one of the conditions was the restoration of the plunder they had taken at Teshoo Loomboo, and the payment of an annual tribute. Since this period the country has enjoyed profound peace. But the spiritual influence of the lamas has been much weakened by that of their earthly protectors, the emperors of China. They retain officers or residents at the court of Lassa, styled umbas, invested with all real authority; and maintain a constant intercourse with the court of Pekin by means of jacoos, which means “communicaters of intelligence,” and who duly report to China every thing that takes place in Tibet. (f .)