ABSTRACT

Now this Third Thibet is one large kingdom, but in former days it was divided into several small states governed by absolute and independent petty Kings. One state was called Gang; the capital was the city of Jegaçé, and it consisted of the provinces lying to the West and bordering on the Kingdom of Nepal and the Great Desert I have already described. Another state was called Uù, the capital was Lhasà and it consisted of the provinces in the centre of this Thibet. Yet another was called Hŏr, and consisted of some provinces to the North and the Desert to the North-East on the road to China. Another state was called Kham, larger than the others and consisting of the provinces bordering on China and Lower Tartary, of those lying to the East, and of the large one of Kongbò, stretching from North to South for 10° lat., from China to the frontier of the people called Lhobà, already mentioned. Mon was the name of the state consisting of the Southern provinces, and another was called Brêe-mê-jong [Sikkim], bordering, on the South-West, with Negrikot, Altibari and Porania [Nagrakata, Haldibari and Purnea], which are now provinces belonging to the Empire of Mogol, lying beyond the Ganges, and reaching to Raje-Mahel [Rajmahal], belonging to the Great Subadaria of Maksud-Aabad [Murshidabad], which is in the region of the tropics. All these states were successively conquered by the Grand Lamà or by the King of Lhasá, and their rulers deposed, with the exception of the King of Brêe-mè-jong, otherwise Dam-scior, who is now a feudatory, paying tribute to the King of Lhasá. From time immemorial until the present century Thibet was governed by petty Kings, natives of Thibet, but at the beginning of this century it fell under Tartar rule and since 1720 under the Emperors of China.