720 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



Printiufi. — Printing is done in Tibet exactly as in China. The manu- 

 script, written on very thin paper, is pasted over a smooth, thin bh)ck of 

 wood, and with a small chisel the surfoce of the block around the letters 

 is carefully removed to a depth of about one-eighth of an inch. Ink is 

 rnbbed lightly over the block, a sheet of paper is then placed on it and 

 a brush lightly passed over the sheet, which is, when removed, left to 

 dry, when the other side is printed in like manner from another block. 



The Tibetans distinguish nine or ten diflerent styles of writing, but 

 these may be reduced to three, capitals [icu-chan), small capitals 

 (icu-med), and running hand {chyuff-yiff). Books are usually written in 

 the first, and the two other forms are used in correspondence and for 

 all the ordinar}^ purposes of life.* 



Like most Asiatics the Tibetans never sign their letters but seal 

 them, nearly every one, even those who can not write, carrying a small 

 seal {titse) suspended from his girdle. These seals have on them a letter 

 or a religious symbol surrounded by an ornamental design. They are 

 cut in iron and are frequently of very delicate workmanshiix In pi. 29, 

 fig. 4, is shown a seal made in Derge; it is cylindrical, 2^ inches long, 

 terminates in a knob head, and is bored out, chased, and fretted. 

 The design is a sirastila or "hooked cross" in the center of a foliated 

 motive. 



Letters and i^ackages are sealed with wax {lajya) made of lac, and on 

 the wax is an impress of the sender's seal. A piece of wax is carried 

 suspended to the girdle with the seal, as shown in the figs. 1, 2, and 5. 



Time recloning. — '• The Tibetans received their astronomical science 

 from their neighbors in India and China, the Chinese also becoming 

 their teachers in the art of divination. Their acquaintance with the 

 astronomical and calendrical systems of these nations coincides with 

 the propagation of the Buddhist religion by the Chinese and Indian 

 priests, to whom they are also indebted for the respective systems ot 

 defining the year. Both systems are based upon a unit of sixty years, 

 differing, however, in the modes of denominating the years.'' (Emil 

 Schlagintweit, Buddhism in Tibet, 273.) 



In these cycles of sixty years, when numbered according to the 

 Indian principle, each year has its particular name, but when the 

 Chinese mode is used, the names used in the Chinese duodecimal cycle 

 are used five times, coupled with the names of the five elements or their 

 respective colors, each of the latter being introduced in the series twice 

 in immediate succession. A masculine and feminine are also frequently 

 added to the above, represented alternately by p^o (male) and mo 

 (female). 



* For further details on the suhject aud for specimens of all the various Tihetau 

 scripts, I must refer the reader whom the subject interests to Sarat Chandra Das' 

 paper ou " The sacred and oruanieutal characters of Tibet," in Journal Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal, Lvii, part 1, pp. 41-48, and to the Appendix in Csoma de Koros' 

 Tibetan grammar. 



