Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/787

 TIBET

719

TIBET

the treasury {shang shang) presided over by a kalon with three first-class councillors (tsai peng), and two second-class councillors {shang chodba) ; two con- trollers of the revenue (yerls' angha) ; two controllers of streets and roads (kierbang); two superintend- ents of police (shediba); two controllers of the stud (lapeng) ; there are six military commanders (taipeng), with the fourth degree of Chinese rank, with twelve commanders of 200 men (jupeng), twenty-four kiapeng, and 120 ting peng. Civil and military officials are designed under the general term of fan muh.

History. — Little is known of the ancient history of Tibet, the first dynasty having been founded by the Indian prince Rupati; but the historical period begins at the end of the sixth century a. d. when the first king, Luntsang, made inroads to India. Lunt- sang's son is the celebrated Srong-tsang Gam-po, one of the great champions of Buddhism; in 639 he married Bribtsun, daughter of An^uvarman, sovereign of Nepal, and in 641 the princess of Wen ch'eng, daughter of the Chinese emperor T'ai-tsung. Under their influence, the Tibetan prince gave a great extension to Buddhism in his empire; he founded in 639 Lhasa, formerly Lha-ldan, where for centuries his heirs governed the countrj' with the title of gialbo in Tibetan, and of tsnnp'o in Chinese. The Tibetans were the allies of the Khalif of Bagdad and they invaded the Chinese provinces of Yun-nan, Sze-ch'wan and Kan-su, as far as Ch'ang ngan. cajiital of the T'ang emperors. The two most ancient historical edicts have been found by Dr. L. A. Waddell upon a lofty pillar of victory which stands at the foot of Potala Hill, under the castles of the ancient kings, now incorporated in the palace of the dalai lama; they date between a. d. 730 and 763, are the earliest historical Tibetan docu- ments hitherto discovered, and throw a sidelight on the ancient history and geography of China. The eighth century is the culminating point of Tibetan power, which was destroyed when the Uighurs became the masters of the whole country between Peit'ing and Aks«.

During the eleventh eentvn-y the priests of the Sakya Monastery began to be predominant in Tibet; they were called Hung Kiao, Red Church, on account of the colour of their garments and of their headgear. The laxness of their morals, the marriage of monks, and sorcery were the chief causes of the reform imder- taken by Tsong K'apa or Je Rinpoch'e (b. at Amdo near Kuku-nor in 1358), fovmder of the Gelupa Sect, who adopted a yellow dress (hwang kiao), and obliged his followers to return to the primitive religion of Buddha; he founded the Monasteries of Gadan and of Sera, and died in 1418, having established the lamaist hierarchy. His succes.sor, Gedundub, built the Monastery oif Ta.shilurabo, which became in the seventeenth century the residence of the second lama, the jmncli'en rinpoch'e, while the first lama or dalai lama settled in 1641 to the west of Lhasa. The pnnch'en lamn, Paldan-yoshes, died at Peking on the 27 Nov., 1780. during a visit to the Emperor of China. During the eighteenth century the Chinese Em- peror, K'ien-lung, began to establish his supremacy over Tibet; already in 1725 two high Chinese commissioners had been appointed to control the temporal affairs of the country, and in the first moon of 1793 an imperial edict ordered that future dalai lamas were to be chosen from the names of children drawn from a "golden urn".

Chinese .\dmimstration.— The Chinese admin- istration of Tibet includes an imperial resident (chu tsang la ch'?n) or iimban (nqang pai) with an :issistant resident (pang pan la ch'en); among their duties, they act as intc-rmediary between China an<i Nepal (Ghorkhas Country); a .secretary {yi ts'ing rhang- king) has to deal with native affairs. Three Chinese commissioners (Hang l'ai),o! the class of sub-prefect,

are stationed at Lhasa, Tashilumbo, and Ngari. The imperial resident is Chao Erh-fung (appointed March, 1908), formerly Director-General of the Sze-ch'wan Hu-Pe Railway and acting viceroy of Szech'wan.

Travellers in Tibet. — Marco Polo and Rubruk mention Tibet but did not visit it; the first European traveller who appears to have visited Lhasa is the Franciscan Odorio of Pordcnone in the first half of the fourteenth century. It was but in 1624 that we have real information on this country in a letter of the Portuguese Jesuit, Antonio de Andrade, datetl Agra, 8 Nov., 1624, relating the journey of this father to Lake Mansarovar and to Rudok; Andrade erro- neously called the country he visited, Cathay. Two years later, two other Jesuits, Grueber and d'Orville, (1661) left Peking, and by the route of Si-ning reached Lhasa, where they resided two months; they returned to India via Nepal. Two other Jesuits, Desideri and FrejTe, went (1715-16) from Leh to Lhasa, where the former lived until 1729, when he was obliged to leave on account of the intrigues of the Capuchins, who had founded a mission which lasted to 1760, when they were expelled by the Tibetans. One of these monks, Francesco Orazio della Penna di Billi, has wTitten an account of Tibet. A most re- markable journey was made by the Dutchman Samuel Van de Putte (d. at Batavia, 27 Sept., 1745), who went from India to Peking via Lhasa, and returned by the same road. In 1774 Warren Hastings, Gover- nor of Bengal, sent George Bogle to the Court of the panch'an lama; Captain Samuel Turner went on a visit in 1783 to the Court of the new panch'cn lama: finally the Englishman Thomas Manning visited Lhasa in 1811. Next we come to the cele- brated journey to Lhasa of the Lazarists Hue (q. v.) and Gabet in 1844. For many years afterwards the ex- ploration of Tibet was carried on by "pundits" in the Indian Government service, especially by Natn Sing and the lama, Ugyen Gyatso. We must men- tion also among the travellers to Tibet the Russian, Prjevalskv (1880-85); the American, W. W. Rock- hill (1888-89, 1891-92), who went to the north-east of Tengri-nor, 110 miles west of Lhasa; the French- men, Gabriel Bonvalot and Prince Henri d'Orleans with the Belgian missionarv, De Deken (1889-90); Captain Hamilton Bower "(1891-92); Miss A. R. Taylor (1892); the Frenchman, Dutreuil de Rhins (who was murdered, 5 June 1894, at Tungbumdo by the red lamas), and his companion, Fernand Grenard (who escaped); Sir George K. Littledale (1895); Captain M. S. Wellbv and Lieut. Malcolm (1896); Captain H. H. P. Deasy (1896); the celebrated Swedish explorer, Sven Hedin; and finally the Russian captain, P. K. Kozlov.

Relation.s with China, Russia, and England. — By a separate article of the Che-fu Convention (13 Sept., 1876) it had been stipulated that the English Government might in the next year send a mission of exjjloration by way of Peking through Kan-su and Kuku-nor, or by way of Sze-ch'wan to Tibet, and thence to India. The Tsung-li-Vaman, having due regard to the circumstances, w.as, when the time ar- rived, to i.ssue the necessary passports, and address letters to the high provincial authorities, and to the imperial resident in Tibet. The English did not take advantage of this article and countermanded the mission by Article 4 of the Convention signed at Peking, 24 .Inly, 188t), regarding Burmah and Tibet. A convention with China w;is signed on 17 March, 1890, at Calcutta, settling the boundary frontiers between Sikkim and Tibet, and trade regulations were also signed in December, 1893. But the Tibetans occu- pied land inside the treaty boundary; on the other hand R\issian activity in Tibet was causing great anxiety to the Indian (Jovernment; Lord Curzon had attempted to open direct communication with the dalai lama; there were rumours of a Russo-