Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/735

 THIBET "Wild fowl and fish are abundant, but Lamaism prohibits them as articles of food. The Thi- betans belong to the Mongolian race, and it is believed that all were once nomadic, as those in the north still remain. They are pliant and agile, usually brave, generous, frank, and hon- est, eminently commercial in tbeir habits, and many of them skilled workers in gold, silver, and precious stones. They are rude agriculturists. The fine wool which their flocks afford, and the hair of the shawl goat, enable them to manu- facture superior woollens and shawls of fine texture. Sacking and other articles are also woven in considerable quantities for the Chi- nese market. Cloths are dyed with great skill, and the manufacture of pottery and of idols is a thriving trade. The traffic with China is carried on along the great road between Lassa id Tasienloo, a town in the western part of the Chinese province of Sechuen. The ex- ports are drugs, blankets and other woollens, furs, musk, salt, and silver, in return for which China sends cotton goods and thread, ponies from Yunnan, porcelain, and tea. The chief trade routes from India lead through Cash- mere and Ladakh, Nepaul, and Bootan, over lofty mountain passes. English woollen cloths, >wered calicoes, indigo, rice, and precious >nes, including pearls, turquoises, and dark >rals (which here sell for their weight in gold), .jach the country by these highways; while gold and silver, salt, borax, wool of the shawl goat, coarse blankets, ponies, and yaks' tails are sent southward into India over the same )utes. The roads throughout the country re poor. The language which is common to Thibet and Bootan, and hence called indiffer- itly Thibetan or Bhotanta, is classed with the monosyllabic languages, though possessing some polysyllables. Its alphabet is phonetic, reads from left to right, and is evidently bor- rowed from the Sanskrit; but the language owes most of its derivatives and some of its )t words to the Chinese. It is copious and rell adapted for the expression of philosophi- and religious ideas. There is an extensive literature, mainly composed of translations and commentaries on the Buddhist sacred books. The religion of Thibet is Lamaism. (See LA- MAISM.) There are some Mohammedans in western Thibet, chiefly natives of Cashmere, and, according to Hue, several thousand Ro- man Catholics. Polyandry prevails in many districts. Politically Thibet is tributary to the emperor of China, and is therefore usually classified as a part of the Chinese empire. But the direct government of the country is vested in the two great lamas or priestly rulers, who hold sway respectively in the two prov- inces into which Great Thibet is divided for spiritual and administrative purposes. These are the province of U, of which Lassa is the capital, ruled over by the dalai lama, and the province of Tsang, to the southwest, over which presides the equally sacred teshu lama, with his capital at the city of Shigatze, about THIERRY 705 140 m. further up the Sanpo valley. The com- bined names of these two provinces form the native appellation Utsang, applied to Great Thibet. As Lassa is the sacred capital of all Buddhistic countries, it is regarded as the cap- ital of Thibet in preference to Shigatze. There are many other large towns, in most of which the Chinese government has its governors or representatives, who exert great influence if not positive authority over the Thibetan rulers. A considerable Chinese military force has usu- ally been maintained in the country. As a kingdom Thibet is said to date from A. D. 313. Buddhism was first introduced, accord- ing to some authorities, as early as the 4th or 5th century ; but its general diffusion there is of later date. After various struggles with China, Thibet finally became tributary to that empire about the middle of the 17th century. The country was visited by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries. Thomas Man- ning, an English traveller, made his way to Lassa in 1812, and the abbe Hue in 1845-' 6. Although western Thibet has been frequently and quite thoroughly explored, Great Thibet and the eastern and northern parts of the country are very imperfectly known. Much valuable geographical information has recently been acquired, however, through the efforts of the trigonometrical survey of British India, by which native Asiatics trained for the purpose have been despatched to explore the regions N. of the Himalaya, In 1865 and 1871 Great Thi- bet was visited by three of these trans-Himalay- an explorers, and many of the results of their observations are incorporated in this article. THIERRY. I. Jacqncs Nicolas Aagnstin, a Frendi historian, born in Blois, May 10, 1795, died in Paris, May 22, 1856. He was educated at the college of Blois and the normal school in Paris, where he began his eareer in 1814 as a disci- ple and literary collaborator of Saint-Simon, whom he left in 1817 to elaborate his new historical theories according to the principles of nationalities. He wrote much for the Cen- seur europeen (1817-'20), and established his reputation as the most original historian of his day by his Histoire de la conquete de VAngle- terre par les Normands (3 vols., 1825; 10th ed., 2 vols. 8vo, 1858, and 4 vols. 12mo, 1860), English translations of which were published in 1825 and 1847, the latter by Hazlitt. These labors impaired his sight, which he lost alto- gether in 1826, but he continued them with the assistance of secretaries, of whom Armand Carrel was one of the first. After the acces- sion of Louis Philippe, he spent several years with his brother Amedee at Vesoul. At Lux- euil, where he resided in summer, he married in 1831 Julie de Querangal, daughter of a rear admiral, who became of great assistance to him as an amanuensis, and who published sev- eral works of her own. She died in 1844, and after residing for some time with the princess Belgiojoso, he spent the rest of his life with his brother's family. Guigniaut characterized