Page:Narratives of the mission of George Bogle to Tibet.djvu/31

xxvi and Manning ; and the narratives of two of these are printed for the first time in this volume. But a magnificent view of the Central Chain was obtained by Dr. Hooker from the Donkia pass, looking north, and it has been traversed, in four different places, by explorers employed by Colonel Montgomerie. It contains several snowy peaks and large glaciers, while transverse saddles intersect the region between it and the Southern Range of the Himalaya. Tibet extends, as a rule, to the passes over the Southern Range.

Tibet, the name now adopted by Europeans, came from the Turks and Persians, and is unknown in the country. Formerly the name used in the west was Tangut, the origin of which has been explained by Colonel Yule.^ But the true name is Bod and Bodyul, called Bhot and Bhotiya in India, literally "Bod Land." Tibet or Bodyul is divided into four great provinces, called Kam, U, Tsang, and Ari. Kam is the eastern province, bordering on Szechuen, in China; and Ari is the mountainous region west of the Mariam-la pass, including Ladak.^ U and Tsang, or Utsang, form Central or Great Tibet, extending from the Mariam-la down the valley of the Brahmaputra, bounded on the north by the great Northern Himalayan Kange, and on the south by the series of snowy peaks overhanging Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan. Great Tibet thus embraces the region between the Northern and

'Marco Polo,' i. p. 209. The Mongols called Tibet by the name of Baran-tola (S.W.), or the "right side," while Mongolia was called Dzegun-tola, or the left (N.E.) side ; hence^ Dzungaria (i. p. 216).

A great part of Ari has been explored and described by many European travellers and surveyors during the present century, whose works are enumerated by me in the 'Memoir on tbe Indian Surveys,' p. 247, and note.

Kam is still almost entirely unknown. Huc and Gabet traversed it on their return from Lhasa to Szechuen. An itinerary of the same route is given by Klaproth. Mr. T. T. Cooper, in the narrative of his adventurous journey to Bhatang, gives additional information respecting the eastern province of Tibet (see 'Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce in Pigtail and Petticoats,' London, 1871); and M. Des Godins furnishes further details, especially as regards the geography of the great rivers supposed to be the upper courses of the Cambodia, Salwin, and Irrawaddy. (See 'La Mission du Thibet,' par 0. H. Des Godins, Verdun, 1872; and the 'Bulletin de la Socie'te de Geographie' for Nov., 1871, p. 343, and Oct., 1875, p. 337).