670 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



word by an European author is found in Piano Carpini's Historia Mon- 

 galorum (A. D. 1247), wliere it occurs under the form Thabet-, Kubruk 

 in his Itinerariuin uses the form Tehet, as does also Marco Polo. (See 

 H. Yule, Glossary of Anglo-Indian words, pp. 332, 698.)* 



Mongols speak of Tibet as Tan</ut, and Tibetans they call Tan- 

 gutu, and this is the origin of another appellation for this people and 

 country sometimes used by European authors, Tangast (Tlieopliy- 

 lactus) and Taugut (Prjevalsky), which should, however, be discarded 

 as useless and misleading, as the people inhabiting this section of 

 country are pure Tibetans. 



Tibet is geographically, roughly speaking, that section of central Asia 

 which extends between the 76° and 102° of east longitude and from 

 the 28° to 36° of north latitude, and, with the exception of its extreme 

 western, southwestern, and southern portions, it forms an integral por- 

 tion of the Chinese Empire. 



Elisee Reclns (Geographic Universelle, vii, p. 20 et seq.) says that 

 Tibet forms a vast half circle with a radius of 800 kilometers, and that 

 it is one of the best defined natural regions in the world. He roughly 

 estimates its area, rightly including in it the Kokonor Tibetan region 

 on the northeast, and the other Tibetan-speaking countries on the west 

 and south, at about 2,000,000 square kilometers. 



It would be premature at the present stage of our researches into 

 the question to give any opinion on the varied affinities of the Tibetans. 

 Philologically they belong to the same linguistic family as the Bur- 

 mese. Their national records have been so badly kept that they are of 

 little service to us in solving the problem of their early home, and the 

 Chinese annals do not enable us to go back earlier than the eighth 

 century, A. D., at which time the Chinese came in contact with tribes 

 of this race, then scattered throughout the northeast corner of Tibet 

 between the upper Yang-tzu kiang, the Kokonor, and the western 

 section of Kan-su and Ssu-ch'uan as far east as the river Min, in the 

 latter province. 



The purest type of Tibetan is still to be found among the pastoral 

 tribes of that race, and when proper allowance has been made for foreign 

 influences, everything points to a time when the whole Tibetan race 

 lead a purely pastoral life, and it would seem that the early home of 

 the Tibetan nuist be sought, not as they claim, in the valleys to the 

 south of the city of Lh'asa, but to the northeast section of the country, 

 somewhere near the Kokonor, to which region they probably caiue, as 

 Chinese annals lead us to believe, from the east. 



Reference has been made to Tibetan historical works as a guide in 

 the intricate question of their national origin, but it is believed that 

 these works are of little, if any, assistance. As a means of studying 



^Thronshont this paper Tibetan words are written phonetically, consonants are 

 pronounced as in English and vowels have the sound of the corresponding Italian 

 cues. 



