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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
The fame of the chüeh of the West and of the chien of the South has been transmitted through the Erh-ya. The white pheasants of Ch'i-kung, the palaces of the tributary princes, how flourishing they were! The excellence of the creation of things, of their growth and diffusion, is it not like the benevolence of the Emperor, which is as heaven and earth?
page 270 note 1 
The Siberian jerboa or helamys (Dipus sibirica). The Chinese say that one helps to carry another, whence its descriptive name of 
“mutualshouldering beast.”—Williams, Dict. s.v. Küeh.
page 270 note 2 
Described in Chinese works as a strange bird like a duck; the 
or “paired-wings bird,” with one eye and one wing, two of them must unite for either of them to fly. It is also the spoonbill (Platalea major).— Williams, op. cit. s.v. Kien.
page 270 note 3 Kang-chü = Sogdiana.—See T'ang shu, B. 221. Shu-i = Kashgar.
page 270 note 4 The Hou Han shu, B. 88, says, “The fu-pa (
) has the shape of a lin (unicorn), but has no horn.” An-hsi=Parthia. Tiao-chih = Chaldæa, according to Hirth, , China and the Roman Empire, p. 144Google Scholar.
page 271 note 1 The Tibetan names for turnips (la-p'u), cabbages (pé-tsé), onions (ts'ong), show that they are of Chinese origin. White potatoes are common at present in some parts of Eastern Tibet, especially around Ta-chien-lu. It is strange that the text mentions neither rhubarb nor musk among the products of Eastern Tibet.
page 271 note 2 The Cordyceps sinensis.—See Smith, Porter, Materia Medica of China, p. 73Google Scholar. Tibetans call the plant Chyar-tsa gon-bu (
). The Li-t'ang chih lüeh, p. 17, says, “On the Pu-lang-kung monntain there grows an extraordinary medicine called Tung-ch'ung hsia-ts'ao; it is thus called because while torpid in winter it is an insect, whereas in summer it puts out sprouts and is a plant. The natives call it hsieh tsa ngo-ma (see above). Its root is like a wriggling silkworm, the shoots like those of alliacious plants, and at first they are all closed one over the other. If picked on or before the 5th of the fifth month (early part of June), it is good; later than that the shoots sprout forth and the root gets spongey. The natives say that it is a tonic, and that eaten boiled with pork or chicken, it developes the procreative powers; and that if barren women eat it habitually, they can conceive.” Cooper, T. T., Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce, p. 300Google Scholar, calls it a “ground caterpillar.” In New Zealand a fungus (Spharia Robertsii) grows on a caterpillar (Hipialis virescens); it is called by the natives aweto.
page 272 note 1 Dzo (
), yak bull and common cow; Bri dzo (
), common bull and yak cow.
page 272 note 2 
“A species of leontice and justicia,” Williams.
page 272 note 3 
lit. “concave glass” The only explanation which suggests itself is that po-li-wa is a transcription of the Tibetan bul-wa “borax, tincal”; but at Ta chien-hi, where I consulted several merchants about this word, they failed to identify it as that of any known product of Tibet.
page 273 note 1 Gold is said to be found in the mountains of Shobando.—Hsi-Ts'ang chien wen-lu, I. 22.
page 273 note 2 Wild horses are found in the Huor-ha (Horpa, plains of North Tibet?)— Hsi-Ts'ang chien-wen-tu, I. 22. The Hsi-yü tsung-chih, B. I. p. 19, says that the wild horses of Central Asia live in bands among the rocky recesses of the mountains.
page 273 note 3 Sulphur, cedars, pines, and parrots are mentioned as being products of Kung-pu., — Hsi-Ts'ang fu, pp. 28, 31Google Scholar.
page 273 note 4 These are the “mastiff dogs as big as donkeys, which are capital at seizing wild beasts,” of which Marco Polo speaks. See Yule's second edition, vol. ii. p. 41. They are rare in Eastern Tibet.
page 273 note 5 The reservoir at the Jo-vo k'ang is probably the source of the legend of the subterranean lake mentioned previously. I am told that at present no more rice is grown around Lh'asa.
page 274 note 1 Sha-ka-ma pö “saffron-coloured incense.” The best incense is called Djam-ling kun kyab “world-pervarling.” I am told that a package (five or six sticks) of it costs about Tls. 20 at Lh'asa. This last is the one referred to in the text. Some of the latter was given me at Ta-chien-lu, but I prefer the odour of the Shakama-pö.
page 274 note 2 ham-pa-spos “mouldy incense.” The Bsi-Ts'angfu, p. 30, has it that black incense is called ku-ku and white an-pa. All incenses procured from pine trees are called Yün-hsiang 
in Chinese.
page 274 page 3 See above.
page 274 page 4 A medicine of the same species as the huang-lien. Barkhausia repens, according to Porter Smith.
page 274 page 5 A red dye, also used as a tonic medicine. See Williams, , s.v. ts'ien 4, p. 983Google Scholar.
page 274 page 6 Also a red dye. See Williams, , s.v. tsz 3, p. 1031Google Scholar.
page 274 page 7 An astringent nut used for toothache. The fruit of the Terminalia chebula or myrobolanus. See Williams, , s.v. ho 1, p. 215Google Scholar.
page 274 note 8 Called dza-ya shing and ho-lo shing by Tibetans, dza-ya means “markings or veins in wood.” Hooker, , Himalayan Journals, vol. ii. p. 68Google Scholar, says that the Balanophera produces the great knots on the maple trees from which the Tibetans form their cups. Dzaya wood cups sell as high as 50 taels.
page 274 note 9 Species of antelope.
page 274 note 10 Lit. “black (or blue) antelope.”
page 275 note 1 The Mongolian barkut or burgut.
page 275 note 2 I take this to be the 
, a species of labrax.
page 275 note 3 There are yellow, white and violet ones.—Hsi–Ts'ang fu, p. 30. “A pale (yellow) flower with violet petals, dentalated, odour like cassia. Called in Chinese chien-ching-la, in Tibetan chen-to.” Shinto is colloquially used iu Tibet for “fruit.”
page 275 note 4 Klaproth translates it wrongly “chrysanthemum.”
6 The Hsi-Ts'ang fu, loc. cit., mentions red and white camellias blooming in the fifth month, asters blooming in the fifth and sixth months, edible lilies, Kusha grass, poplars, willows, etc., among the plants of Lh'asa.—See also Nain Singh, op. cit. p. xxv. The same Chinese work mentions white cranes, wild duck, swans, a species of sheldrake called huang-yang or lama huang-yang, snow fowls (ptarmigan?), elephant-nose pheasants (hsiang-pi chi) with variegated plumage, beak five or six inches long touching the comb, changing colour of beak from violet to white, small pheasants, swallows, partridges, in season during the fourth and fifth months, mud fish, white fish, like Chinese hsi-lin or small scaled fish Potatoes are well known throughout Eastern and Central Tibet; in the former they are called drama or liseu, and in the latter country shu-ko. Mr. Jaeschke gives several other local names for this tuber. Its use is confined to the poorer classes. Sai-lan (Sairam) is the name of a city in Russian Turkestan, between Kucha and Aksu. On English maps the name figures as Sailim or Sairim. See Bretschneider, , Not. med. geo. Central Asia, p. 266Google Scholar.
page 276 note 1 The present garrison is vastly more important, comprising over 200 men under a Colonel. The Commissary-general (chün-liang-fu) stationed here is also the chief magistrate of the locality. The Taot'ai at Ya-chou supplies him with funds for the Chinese troops in Tibet.
page 276 note 2 In 1759, when the Hsi-Ts'ang chien-wen-lu was written, the garrison of Lit'ang was composed of one quartermaster, one sergeant and twenty-five soldiers. These garrisons are nominally the same at the present day.
page 276 note 3 One quartermaster, one captain, one sergeant and fifty soldiers.—Hsi Ts'ang chien-wen-lu, II. 23.
4 One major, one commissary, one captain and one sergeant, op. cit. II. 24.
page 277 note 1 Prior to this there was a garrison at Jaya composed of one commissary officer, one sergeant and fifty men. This seems to have been removed together with that of Atsu before the Gorkha expedition, probably in 1745, when Jaya was joined on to the Lh'ari district.
page 277 note 2 The Hsi-Ts'ang-chien-wen-lu, which was written in 1759, says (II. 26) that there was stationed at Lh'asa, one Minister (Chin-chai ta-jen), one Assistant-Secretary of the Colonial Office, one Colonel, one Commissary, one Captain, two Sergeants and two Corporals. It does not state the number of soldiers.
page 278 note 1 This seems to allude to the name 
“Lh'asa the very centre.” This orthography is probably a corruption of 
“Lh'asa district,” the pronunciation in both cases being Lh'a-sa de-wa dzong. The total number of towns in Tibet is, Wei 30, Tsang 18, K'ams 9, and Ngari 12: total 68.—Sheng-wu-chi, V. 27.
page 278 note 2 The Hsi-Ts'ang fu, p. 28, says that the number of lamas in Tibet as compared to the laymen, is as three to one. The following numbers of lamas in the principal convents of Central Tibet were given me by a lama friend whose statements I have generally found correct.
It must be understood that all the lamas who belong to a given convent do not necessarily reside there, but wherever they may be they remain a Séra lama, a Drébung lama, etc. See also Hsi-Ts'ang-t'u-k'ao, V., which gives Gadän over 5000 lamas, Dräbung 5000, Séra 3000, Muru 300 to 400, Samyé several thousand, etc.
page 279 note 1 “There are eighteen Hutuketu and twelve Shaburung in Tibet, nineteen Hutuketu in North Mongolia, fifty-seven in South Mongolia, thirty-five in Kokonor, five in Ch'amdo and Ssuch'uan, fourteen resident in Peking: total 160. Among these the Nomenhan of the Kokonor is alone hereditary. All these dignitaries are hubilhan.”—Sheng-wu chi, V. 19.
page 279 note 2 In 1793 Ch'ien-lung sent to Lh'asa a golden urn (ser-bum) to be used in selecting the new incarnations. Little slips of wood, each, bearing the name of one of the candidates, are thrown into the vase, which is then placed in the Jok'ang before the image of Tsong-k'a-pa. A slip is drawn from the bowl and the child whose name it bears is declared the hubilhan (subject to the approval of the Emperor).—See Hsi-Ts'ang fu, p. 15. He is enthroned at the age of four years. The father of the Talé lama receives from the Court of Peking the rank of kung or noble of the first rank, and is permitted to wear a button of precious stone with a peacock's feather. This title is hereditary.—See Peking Gazette, May 8th and August 29th, 1879; also J.R.A.S. n.s. Vol. IV. p. 284 et seq. The other members of the family of the Talé lama receive titles from China, the said titles being hereditary.—See Peking Gazette, August 22nd, 1872, and September 4, 1887. AH hubilhan are registered at the Chinese Colonial Office (Li-fan-yüan). Sheng-wu-chi, V. 19.
page 280 note 1 “In 160 books, written by Ma-su; a work of historical records extending from the creation down to the end of the Chin dynasty, b.c. 206.” See Wylie, , Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 23Google Scholar. The title correctly written is 
.
page 280 note 2 A fabulous beast of the lion species which devours tigers and can go over 500 li a day. Other authors describe it as a fleet horse.—See Williams, Dict. s.v. Swan.
page 281 note 1 
, but it is also known as 
“spreading pills,” at least this is the name by which it goes at Peking. My informant told me that it had the power of flying (hui fei), and that it was thus enabled to go to the Talé lama of itself. These pills are known in Tibetan as 
pron. Maṇi ri-bu, and are considered moat potent medicine. Those I have are painted red, about the size of a hempseed. The ceremony of making them is known as the mani rilbu grub-gi ch'oga.—See Proceedings American Orient. Soc. Oct. 1888, p. xxii, where I have minutely described this ceremony.
page 281 note 2 Mention is also made of this personage on a previous page.
page 281 note 3 Colloquially known as pom pü. The finest quality of red and yellow incense, is manufactured at Shang-ma k'ang near Trashil'unpo. Hsi- Ts'ang fu, p. 29.
page 282 note 1 Hsüan-chuang, or Hiuen Tsiang, was born in 603. He started on his travels in 629 and returned in 645. His life was written by one of his disciples named Hui-li, and this work has been translated by Stanislas Julien. 
in the text is for 
, which last character, being the personal name of the Emperor K'ang-hsi, is not used.
page 282 note 2 He is known to the Tibetans as T'ang-Tseng lama or “the lama Tseng of the T'ang period.” Klaproth says Ts'ai-li or Begonithang. The text is 
. I am told by Tibetans that Ts'ai-li or Tsa-li is some three days' journey S. W. of Trashil'unpo on the road to India,—but I am not quite clear in my mind as to the meaning of the text, and I can find no reference to a village of this name in the travels of Hsüan chuang.
page 283 note 1 It is called by Tibetans Djab-chyak 
.
page 283 note 2 The reason I haye heard Tibetans assign for not eating fish is their custom of throwing the dead into the streams.
page 283 note 3 It is called in Tibetan ri ja “mountain tea,” and Pai ch'a 
or “white tea” by the Chinese of Ta-chien-lu.
page 284 note 1 This probably means that the roots are white and curled up.
page 284 note 2 It is the potentilla anserina, and is eaten all over Tibet and Chinese Turkestan; it grows in great quantities in Eastern Tibet where the country is damp, mostly in old cattle pens.
page 284 note 3 In Korea a husband has the right to cut his wife's nose off if she be found committing adultery.
page 284 note 4 Lit. “the wall and moat temple” (Ch'eng-huang miao).
page 285 note 1 This custom or superstition prevails all over Tibet and Mongolia. To see anything empty which ought to be full is a sign of impending danger or bad luck, the reverse being a sign of good luck. So likewise it is unlucky to offer a person anything which is cracked or broken, even slightly. Water-carriers are not the only persons to whom the superstition applies, the sight of any one carrying any vessel is looked upon in the same light.
page 285 note 2 The Vaidurya karpo (Csoma, op. cit. p. 187) says 1389; all the dates Csoma gives disagree with those I have given by being two years earlier.
page 286 note 1 The Tibetan name of the Talé lama is Jyal-wa jya-ts'o 
“Ocean of victory.” He is also spoken of as Chyab gon rin-po-ch'é “Precious protector.”
page 286 note 2 Sheng-wu-chi, V. 4, says he belonged to the Mongol T'u-ku-ling-han tribe.
page 286 note 3 The Hsi-yü k'ao hu lu, B. 6, p. 7, speaks of him as the Talé lama Pu-t'ung ao chi, and says he died in 1682.
page 287 note 1 Belonged to the family of the Chahan Nomenhan.—Hsi-Ts'ang t'u k'ao, VI. 17.
page 288 note 1 See Hsi-Ts'ang-fu, Hsi-yü-t'ung wen-chih, Howorth, , History of the Mongols, vol. i. p. 511Google Scholaret sqq., and Markham's Tibet, to which works I am indebted for some of the above facts.
page 288 note 2 For a full account of his journey to Peking and death, see Turner, , Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama, p. 443et sqqGoogle Scholar.
page 289 note 1 See Bsi-Ts'ang fu and Hsi-yü t'ung-wen-chih.
page 289 note 2 In a work of his called the Sumbum (Gsung hbum) in sixteen vols.
page 289 note 3 Georgi, , Alphabetum Tibetanum, p. 319Google Scholar, says he was born in 1232, the Hsi-Ts'ang fu, in 1418. Csoma, op. cit. p. 186, says 1355, the Sheng-wu-chi, V. 2, 1417, and Hue, Souvenirs, etc., puts this event in 1357.
page 290 note 1 Georgi, loc. cit. says, “In asceteriis Bricum legem et disciplinam asceticam … ‥ didicit.” Founded in 1177. Csoma, , Tib. Grammar, p. 185Google Scholar.
page 290 note 2 Georgi has it that he studied medicine at the Chapori medical college at Lh'asa. Gung-t'ang may be the same place under another name, for all I know.
page 290 note 3 This is a curious expression, but too much weight must not be given it, nor must the words be taken literally. I suppose it means that he travelled the country over.
page 290 note 4 Instituted in 1407, according to the Vaidurya karpo (Csoma, op. cit. p. 187). The same authority says he founded the Gadan convent the same year.
page 290 note 5 Georgi, loc. cit. says, “Impuram denique animam exhalavit annos natus octoginta, post Chr. 1312.” Howorth (quoting Kœppen?) puts his death at about 1417. Csoma, op. cit. p. 187, also has 1417, sheng-wu-chi, loc. cit. 1478, and Hue, loc. cit. 1419.