Thibet and its People.

Manawatu Herald, 8 March 1904, Page 2

Thibet and its People.

THE COUNTRY OfcmiE LAMAS. Whatever other effects the Indian mission to the capital of Thibet may have, it is certain to awaken a great deal of interest in that little known and comparatively little explored country, Marco Polo visited it in the thirteenth century, and several Jesuit missionaries travelled at any rate as far as Lhassa, the capital, in the seventeenth century. In 1783 Warren Hastings despatched Samuel Turner in charge of a mission to the Dalai-Lama, or chief ecclesiastical ruler of the country. Moorcroffe partially explored the country in 1812, Captain Strachey in 1846, the French Jesuits Hue and Galet in 1855, and the brothers Schlagintweibinlßs7. In later years Hedin, the distinguished traveller, and a Henry Savage Landor, who met with great cruelty at the hands of the Thibetans, also travelled through portions of the territory of the Lamas. All have contributed literature on tlfe subject, but notwithstanding all that has been written, Thibet in the ordinary sense of the word is little unknown. The Thibetan authorities have always resisted attempts to explore their country, and although they have not always dealt with explorers as outrageously as they did with Mr Landor, their policy has been one of suspicion and isolation. They want little to do With the outside world, and they do not want the outside world to have much to do with them. Still, the country is a vastly interesting one, and the jealousy with which it has been been guarded from intrusion has invested it with all the mystery and romance that attaches to the hidden or the forbidden. That it is a land of great and varied mineral resources, of wonderful mountain scenery, of a strange and interesting people, all the travellers agree. That if it were opened up and free of access to-mor-row it would attract any except the hardest of European travellers, and the most venturesome of traders, is very doubtful. Political reasons have necessitated strong measures in order to impress the Grand Lama with the power of the British Empire, and the mission being led by Captain Younghusband will be watched with keen interest from many parts of the world. Thibet, spoken of, on accounfc-q|J its great elevation, as the roof of the* world, lies on the slopes of the Himalayas, between the Indian State of Kashmir and the Chinese province of Sze-chuen, It is the most southern of the three great tablelands of Middle Asia, On its western boundary lies independent Turkistan, and on the south it is hemmed in by the Puujaub, Nepaul, Bhotan, and Assam. The south-east boundaries are made by Assam and China, and the northern by the desert of Gobi and Chinese Turkistan. The total area is supposed to be from 600,000 to 800,000 square miles, and -the population has been estimated at something like six millions.

Although Thibet is termed a tableland, its surface is traversed by mountain chains, which, near its western and eastern frontiers, interlace and ramify in a complicated manner. The highest plains are more than 15,000 ft above the level of the sea, and the average from 10,000 ft to 12,000 ft. The elevated roads by which the country is entered from India pass through deep ravines cut by the streams, and present scenes of the wildest and most impressive grandeur. The Himalaya, twenty summits -of which are higher than the loftiest of the Andes, stand out from the plateau, and are only connected with it by ridges of lesser elevation. They project from the highlands like buttresses, which rise higher than the walls they support. Mountain systems divide Thibet into several natural regions. The Karakorum Range, which runs parallel to the Himalaya, forms with them a great valley, drained on the west by tributaries of the Indus, and on the east by the Sanpu. To the whole basin of the Indus, north of the Himalaya, the name of Little Thibet is sometimes given j'btlfcmore generally the upper basin is known as Ngari, the middle /basin as Ladak or Middle Thibet, ,&nd the lower as Bultistau or Lower Thibet. The countries drained by the Sanpu are described as Thibet proper, which, in turn, is divided into Dsang, the district of the Upper Sanpu, apd Wei, surrounding Lhassa, the district of the Lower Sanpu. Farther east, the tract drained by the tributaries of the Yang-tse-Kiang, in which are Lethang and Bathang, is known as Kham. North of the basin of the Sanpu lies a great elevated desert called Khor on the west, and Katchi on the east; and at the north-east-ern extremity is a hilly tract in .which the Hoangho takes its rise, and in the centre of which is the Lake Ko-ko-nor, or “ The Blue,” or “ Celestial Lake.” (To be continued.)