VI.] THE SOUTHERN MONGOLS. 1/5 



more or less civilised section, who occupy most of the southern 

 and more fertile provinces of which Lhasa is the 



Bod-pa, 



capital, who till the land, live in towns, and have Dru-pa, Tan 

 passed from the tribal to the civic state. 2. The 



-pa*-, peaceful though semi-nomadic pastoral tribes, who live 

 in tents on the northern plateaux, over 15,000 feet above sea-level. 

 3. The Tanguts*, restless, predatory tribes, who hover about the 

 north-eastern borderland between Koko-nor and Kansu. 



All these are true Tibetans, speak the Tibetan language, and 

 profess one or other of the two national religions, Bonbo and 

 Lamaism (the Tibetan form of Buddhism). But the original 

 type is best preserved, not amongst the cultured Bod-pa, who 

 in many places betray a considerable admixture both of Chinese 

 and Hindu elements, but amongst the Dru-pa, who on their 

 bleak upland steppes have for ages had little contact with 

 the surrounding Mongolo-Turki populations. They are described 

 by Mr Rockhill from personal observation as about 5 feet 

 5 inches high, and round-headed, with wavy hair, clear-brown 

 and even hazel eye, cheek-bone less high than the Mongol, 

 thick nose, depressed at the root, but also prominent and even 

 aquiline and narrow but with broad nostrils, large-lobed ears 

 standing out to a less degree than the Mongol, broad mouth, long 

 black hair, thin beard, generally hairless body, broad shoulders,, 

 very small calves, large foot, coarse hand, skin coarse and greasy 

 and of light brown colour, though "frequently nearly white, but 



Bod," i. e. the central and western parts in contradistinction to Man- Bod, 

 " Lower Bod," the eastern provinces (Notes on the Ethnology of Tibet, 

 Washington, 1895, p. 669). This writer finds the first mention of Tibet in 

 the form Tobbat (there are many variants) in the Arab Istakhri's works, about 

 590 A.H. while the late T. de Lacouperie would connect it with the Tatar 

 kingdom of Tu-bat (397 475 A.D.). This name might easily have been ex- 

 tended by the Chinese from the Tatars of Kansu to the neighbouring Tanguts, 

 and thus to all Tibetans. 



1 Hbrog-pa, Drok-pa, pronounced Dru-pa. 



- The Mongols apply the name Tangnt to Tibet and call all Tibetans 

 Tangutn, " which should be discarded as useless and misleading, as the people 

 inhabiting this section of the country are pure Tibetans" (Rockhill, p. 670). 

 It is curious to note that the Mongol Tangutu is balanced by the Tibetan 

 Sok-pa, often applied to all Mongolians. 



