Page:Narratives of the mission of George Bogle to Tibet.djvu/181

Ch. I.] 8. To ascertain the value of their trade with Bengal by their gold and silver coins, and to send me samples of both.

9. Every nation excels others in some particular art or science. To find out this excellence of the Bhutanese.

10. To inform yourself of the course and navigation of the Brahmaputra, and of the state of the countries through which it runs.

Tibet is a cold, high, mountainous country. The inhabitants approach more in figure to the Persians and other inhabitants of Western Asia, than to any of their neighbours, Chinese, Hindus, or Tatars.

It should seem that Tibet consisted of a great variety of tribes more or less addicted to the pastoral life. At times they appear to have united into powerful confederacies, and become formidable to their neighbours. At other times, when divided, they fell a prey to irruptions of Tatars, or to the policy and power of the Chinese. The Caucasus formed a barrier on the south that protected reciprocally both Hindustan and Tibet from any dangerous hostilities in that quarter.

In the fourth century, the Tatar confederacy of the Typa subdued the north and east of Tibet. In the eighth and ninth centuries, when the Tatar confederacy of the Turks became feeble, the power of those nations, which now acknowledge the supremacy of the Dalai Lama, was very great. Sometimes they penetrated into the heart of China, but at other times the Chinese took advantage of their divisions to recover what had been lost.

In 1102, the chief of Great Tibet seems to have resided at Lhasa. He at that period found it necessary to become lama, in order to strengthen his authority over the different tribes that had