Page:EB1911 - Volume 26.djvu/958

 desolation is unrelieved by the existence of trees or vegetation of any size, and where the wind sweeps unchecked across vast expanses of arid plain. All the western region is but slightly affected by the monsoon. The central lake region, extending from the Kuen-lun to the Himalaya, is also characterized by extreme dryness in autumn, winter and spring, with an abundance of rain in summer, whilst the eastern mountain region, extending to China south of the Dang la (which, with an altitude of about 20,000 ft., stretches from 90° to 97° E. along the parallel of 33° N., and arrests the monsoon currents), is subject to much the same climatic influences as the eastern Himalaya. The southern slopes of the Dang la are deluged with rain, hail and snow throughout the year. Northern Tibet is an arid waste, subject to intense heat in summer and intense cold in winter. In March snow still lies deep in the Tsaidam passes, while Wellby found the heat oppressive in June at 16,000 ft. elevation on the plateau south of the Kuen-lun, and a temperate climate prevailing about the sources of the Dre chu (Yangtsze) in August.

All travellers testify to the perpetual wind currents from the west, which sweep across the salt bogs of Tsaidam (9500 ft.) and through the higher valleys of eastern Tibet. Wind is a prevailing feature throughout Tibet at certain seasons of the year, as it is in the Pamirs, in Turkestan, in western Afghanistan and in Persia. The climate of southern Tibet is, however, subject to considerable modifications from that of the northern and central regions, owing doubtless to its geographical connexion with northern India. Here, at an elevation of 15,000 ft., about the great Lake Dangra, we hear of well-built villages and of richly cultivated fields of barley, indicating a condition of climate analogous to that which prevails in the districts south of Lhasa, and in contrast to the sterility of the lake region generally and the nomadic character of its population. Modern travellers bear witness to a gradual progress of desiccation in the Tibetan uplands. Everywhere there are signs of the diminution of the lakes and the recession of the water line—a phenomenon that has also been observed in the Pamirs. There are still enormous glaciers about the head of the Brahmaputra, but the glacial epoch of the Chang-t'ang highlands has passed away, though comparatively recently.

Flora.—Our knowledge of the flora of northern and central Tibet has been considerably increased by the collections of Prjevalsky, Wellby, Bower, Thorold, Littledale and the Lhasa Mission, and that of eastern Tibet by Rockhill. The former and other collections have been described in W. B. Hemsley's The Flora of Tibet or High Asia. Western and southern Tibetan flora were partially explored previously to the advent of these travellers. Professor Maximowicz concludes from an analysis of the Prjevalsky collection that the flora of Tibet is extremely ancient, and that it is chiefly composed of immigrants from the Himalaya and Mongolia. There is also a large percentage of endemic species. Chinese and European plants followed in the process of immigration. Those species which are distinctive of the eastern border ridges are found to reach the plateau, but do not spread westwards, so that a botanic separation or distinction is found to exist between the true plateau of Tibet in the west and the alpine tracts of the east. Thiselton-Dyer classes the flora of Tibet on the whole as belonging to the Arctic-Alpine section of the great northern division, but containing a purely endemic element. Two typical species are Lychnis apetala, which extends to Spitsbergen, and the well-known edelweiss. A single fern specimen obtained by Littledale (Polypodium hastatum) is indicative of eastern China. Of the forty or fifty genera obtained by Littledale in central Tibet a large proportion are British, including many of the most characteristic mountain forms. In the higher regions of northern and western Tibet the conditions under which vegetation exists are extreme. Here there are no trees, no shrubs, nor any plants above a foot high. Wellby says he saw nothing higher than an onion. The peculiar form of tussocky grass which prevails in the Pamirs is the characteristic feature of the Tibetan Chang-t'ang of the Tsaidam plains and of the bogs north-east of Lhasa. Of grasses indeed there are many forms, some peculiar to Tibet, but no trees or shrubs at any elevation higher than 15,000 ft., except in the Kharo Pass of central Tibet, where Waddell has recorded trees (? Hippophae sp.) about 20 ft. high at an elevation of 16,300 ft. A flowering plant (Saussurea tridactyla) was discovered by Bower at an elevation of 19,000 ft. In south-eastern Tibet, where Himalayan conditions of climate prevail, we have a completely different class of flora. Of the flora of Tibet Rockhill writes: “In the ‘hot lands’ (Tsa-rong) in southern and south-eastern Tibet, extending even to Batang, peaches, apricots, apples, plums, grapes, water-melons, &c., and even pomegranates, are raised; most of Tibet only produces a few varieties of vegetables, such as potatoes, turnips, beans, cabbages, onions, &c. The principal cereals raised are barley and buckwheat, wheat in small quantities, and a little oats. A few localities in the extreme southern portions of the country and around Lhasa possibly, are said to produce a non-glutinous variety of rice. A variety of mountain bamboo is found in southern and parts of eastern Tibet, and is much used for basket work. Tibet produces a large number of medicinal plants much prized by the medical profession in China and Mongolia, among others the Cordyceps sinensis, the Coptis teeta, Wall., and Pickorhiza kuwoa, Royle, &c. Rhubarb is also found in great quantities in eastern Tibet and Amdo;

it is largely exported for European use, but does not appear to be used medicinally in the country. The trees most commonly found are the plane, poplar, maple, walnut, oak, the Cupressus funebris, and various varieties of the genera Pinus, Abies and Larix. Some valuable plants are obtained in the mountains of south and south-western Tibet, yielding the excellent yellow and red colours used to dye the native cloths.” Waddell gives a list of 164 species of plants collected by him at Lhasa, several being new species.

Fauna.—The fauna of Tibet has been by no means exhaustively investigated, especially the rodents and smaller species of animals. Among domesticated animals are to be found the horse, mule, donkey, cattle, sheep and goats, dogs, fowls and pigs, ducks and geese. Probably no country in the world, excepting perhaps inner Africa, so abounds in wild animals as the cold solitudes of the northern plateau. Here are to be found yak, wild asses (kyang), several varieties of deer, musk deer and Tibetan antelope (Pantholops); also wild sheep (the bharal of the Himalaya), Ovis hodgsoni and possibly Ovis poli, together with wild goats, bears (in large numbers in the north-eastern districts), leopards, otter, wolves, wild cats, foxes, marmots, squirrels, monkeys and wild dogs. To this list must be added the curious sloth-bear Aeluropus melanoleucus, a rare eastern species, and the so-called “unicorn” antelopes, the “tākyin” (Budorcas taxicolor), also an eastern Indo-Malayan species. Birds are fairly numerous, and include many varieties of water-fowl, several of which (Anser indicus, the bar-headed goose, for instance) breed in Tibet, while others are only found as birds of passage. In eastern Tibet, on the Chinese border, varieties of the pheasant tribe abound, some of which are rare. Among them are the “white” pheasant, the Ceriornis temminckii, two kinds of eared pheasant and Anderson's pheasant. The Tibetan sand-grouse is peculiar to the country, and the snow-partridge (Lerva nivicola) and the snow-cock (Tetraogallus tibetanus) are occasionally met with in the uplands, while the ordinary partridge (Perdix hodgsoni) is common in the ravines on the plateau.

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 head is mesati-Cephalic, verging on brachycephalic in the case of many of the Dokpa; the hair is black and somewhat wavy; the eyes are usually of a clear brown, in some cases even hazel; the cheek-bones are high, but not so high as with the Mongols; the nose is thick, sometimes depressed at the root, in other cases prominent, even aquiline, though the nostrils are broad. The teeth are strong but irregular; the ears, with tolerably large lobes, stand out from the head, but to a less degree than with the Mongols. The mouth is broad, the lips not full, and, among the people of the lower altitudes, decidedly thin. The beard is sparse, and, with the exception of the moustache, which is sometimes worn, especially in central Tibet, it is plucked out with tweezers. The shoulders are broad, the arms round; the legs are not well developed, the calf is especially small. The foot is somewhat small but broad, the hand coarse. The women are usually stouter than the men. The colour of the skin of the Tibetans is a light brown, sometimes so light as to show ruddy cheeks in children; where exposed to the weather it becomes a dark brown. Their voices are full, deep and powerful. They can endure exposure without much apparent inconvenience; and though the nature of the food they use is such that they cannot stand absolute privation for any considerable length of time, they can exist for long periods on starvation rations, if eked out with weak soup or buttered tea, which is drunk at frequent intervals.

The sedentary population of Tibet has to a greater or less degree the same physical traits as the Dokpa, but as one approaches China, India or the border lands generally, one observes that the admixture of foreign blood has considerably modified the primitive type. Among the customs of the Tibetans, perhaps the most peculiar is polyandry, the brothers in a family having one wife in common. Monogamy, however, seems to be the rule among the pastoral tribes, and polygamy is not unknown in Tibet, especially in the eastern parts of the country.

Their religion is described under.