Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/786

 TIBET

718

TIBET

Tiberius

Antique Fragment in the Lateran

Museum

rapidly increased during the second half of his reign, and the gloom which pervaded Rome induced Tibe- rius to leave the capital altogether in the year 26 and to live partly in Campania and partly on the Island of Capri. Before this date the question as to the suc- cession to the empire had led to a terrible family tragedy. By his first marriage Tiberius had a son called Drusus, while his second marriage with the immoral .Julia, daughter of Augustus, was childless. After the death of his nephew Germanicus (a. d. 19), whom he had been obliged to adopt at the command of Augustus to the exclusion of his own son, he hoped to secure the suc- cession for Dru- .^ius. A low in- trigue was formed agaiii.'st this plan, in which the wife of Drusus, Livilla, who had illicit re- 1 a t i o n s with Sejanus, took part. In the year 2.3 Drusus was poi-soned by Se- janus and Livilla. However, when in 31 Sejanus formed a conspiracy to secure the throne for himself, Tibe- rius was warned at the last moment and had Sejanus executed. Tibe- rius spent his last years in constantly increasing seclusion, misanthropy, and cruelty on the Island of Capri, where it is said he abandoned himself to de- bauchery. However, these reports are at least coloured by prejudice and have not been satisfac- torily proved. Neither is it probable that Tiberius was murdered.

The ministry and death of John the Baptist and of Jesus Christ occurred durmg the reign of Tiberius. According to St. Luke (iii, 1), St. John the Baptist was called by God, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, to prepare the way for Christ as His pre- cursor. Shortly before his death Tiberius recalled the procurator Pontius Pilate from Judea. Tertul- lian (Apologeticum, v, xxi), from whom Eusebius and Orosius take the story, relates that Tiberius recei^■ed a report concerning Christ and that he called upon the Senate to place Christ among the gods. The Senate rejected the request; Tiberius then threatenetl the accusers of the Christians with punishment. The narrative is not worthy of belief, still it is probable that Tertullian knew a document that professed to be a report of Pilate.

Stahr, Tiberius (2nd ed., Berlin, 1873); Dom.aszbwski, Gesch. der TSmisch. Kaiser, I (Leipzig, 1909), 250-319; Tarver, Tiberius the Tyrant (London, 1902); Schiller, Gesch. der romisch. Kaiser- zeil, I (Gotha, 1883), 248-304; Harnack, Gesch. der altchriM. Litteratur. II (Leipzig, 1897), pt. I, 604-10; Bardenheweh, Gesch. der altkirchl. Litteratur, I (Freiburg, 1902), 410-11,

Klemens Loffler.

Tibet, a vast plateau, about 46.3,.320 square miles, .about 1240 miles in its greatest length from cast to west, and 740 miles in its greatest breadth from north to south, with an elevalion from Ki.OOO to 1,,500 feet, and with a population of some 6,.')00,- 000 inh;ihitants, according to Chinese estimates; ot her estimates place it ;is low as 2 or ,3,000,000. It is hounded on the north by Kiin-su and Sin-ki;ing; on the west by India; on the .south by India, Nepal, Sikkim, iind Bhutan; on the east by Yun-nan, Sze- ch'wan, and Kan-su; or rather the plateau on the

north is bounded by the Kwenlun Mountains which limit on the south the Desert of Gobi; and on the south bv the Himalaya Mountains with their high peak. Mount Everest, 29,000 feet.

Hydrography. — From this plateau flow the follow- ing rivers: to the south, the Indus, with its tributary Sutlej, which runs into the Gulf of Oman; to the north of the Himalayas, the Ts'anpo or Brahmaputra River, which falls into the Gulf of Bengal after meet- ing in an estuary the Ganges, which follows a similar coiu-se on the southern side of the Himalayas; to the east, the great Chinese rivers, Hwang-ho or Ma-chu, and Yang-tze; to the south-east, the streams of Indo- China, the Lutze-kiang (Irrawadi), the Lu-kiang (Salwen), and the Lan ts'an kiang (Me-kong). The principal lakes are: on the north-east, the Kuku-nor or Ts'ing hai; on the south. Lake Palti or Yamdok; on the plateau, the Iki-Namur, the Pang-kong, the Tengri-nor, and the famed Mansarovar and Rakas.

Geography. — Many roads lead to Lhasa: (1) by Si-ning in the Kan-su Province and the Kuku-nor; (2) from Sze-ch'wan to Ta-Tsienlu, Ba-tang, Litang and Chamdo; (3) from Yun-nan by Li-kiang (these are the three main routes from China) ; (4) from Sik- kim, in the south, through the Chumbi Valley and Gyan-tze; (5) from the west, by Leh, in Ladakh; (6) from Khotan, through the Aksai Chin, to Rudok. Tibet includes five provinces: (1) Amdo, part of the Chinese province of Kan-su and the Kuku-nor region (Ts'ing-hai), inhabited by Tibetans and administered by a Chinese official at Si-ning; the other four prov- inces form Tibet proper which is controlled by the viceroy of Sze-Ch'wan; (2) Ts'ien-tang, Eastern or Anterior Tibet (or K'ang, Kham, Khu, Khamdo, Chamdo), which extends between the Chinese Provinces of Sze-Ch'wan and Yun-nan, and the dis- trict of Lhorong djong, frontier of Lhtisa; (3) Wei, Wu, or Chung-Tsang, Central Tibet, Kingdom of Lhasa; (4) Tsang or Hou Tsang, Ulterior Tibet, i. e. south-west Tibet, extending to Lake Mansarovar, with the town of Shigatze, near which stands the Tashilumbo Monastery at the junction of the Nyang- chu and the Ts'an-po; (5) Ngari (0-li), Western Tibet, which includes the upper courses of the Indus and the Sutlej, and generally north-western Tibet with the towns of Gartok and Rudok, the Kailas Moimtain, the Refuge of Siva; it is bounded by the British district of Kumaun.

L AM Ai.sT Hierarchy AND Secular Administration. — At the head of the lamaist hierarchy of Tibet are the dalai lama and the panch'en erdeni lavia; the word "lama" is derived from a Tibetan word, in Chinese, MfM .s/ionfl, meaning "unsurpassed". The dalai lama is a re-embodiment of one of the disciples of the reformer Tsong K'apa, and at the same time an incarnation of the Bodhisattwa Avalokite^vara ; he lives at the mon;istery Po-ta-la at Lhasa; his title is Cheplsun Djnmts'o Rinpoch'e (Venerable Ocean Treasure). The panch'en erdeni Inma lives at Tashilumbo. The supporters of the faith may receive the title of Nnmen 'H&n (regent), or Dhannd Rdja. Celibacy would render impossible the re-embodiment if the 'hul'ukht'ii. or saints were not chosen to represent the principles of the transmission of authority; these s.aints are known as the "Living Buddhas". The third lama in the hierarchy is the Chipt.'nin Dnmpa 'Hul'iikht'u, Patriarch of the Khalkhtis. living at Urga; the Cliahan Nnmen 'Han is the descendant of a coun- sellor sent in the sixteenth century by the dalai lama to the chief of the Ordos; his residence is at Kuku- Khoto; the metrojiolitan lama, Ch'ang Kia 'Hut'- ukhl'u, has his see at Dolonnor; the head of lamaist monasteries is called K'anpii (abbot). The secular ixdministrat ion of Tibet includes a council (ka Ilia) of four ministers {kalon or kiihlon) of (he third rank of Chinese officials, elected :uii a rule by the Peking Government, on presentation by the Chinese nmban;