86 S. C. Das— The Origin of the Tibetans. [Feb. 



In the passage of the Udyoga parva "Bajinaiicha Sahasram Chinadesod- 

 bhavanicha" the Tibetan pony was evidently referred to.* 



In the Buddhist work called Sambhwra Samudra Tibet is men- 

 tioned as one of the 24 abodes of the celestial nymphs, where sages still 

 in their human shape, resided in peace. Even when Buddha preached his 

 doctrine in India, there lived, in the country of Himavata men, who by 

 the dint of their moral perfections, were able to achieve wonders. The 

 plaee where these intellectual giants, male and female, called in Tibetan 

 Pah-vo and Pah-mo lived, is conjectured by the historians of Tibet to 

 be the district of Pha-bonkha near Lhasa. The Mahabharata also tells 

 us that the sacred abode of the divine sages was a place in Himavata 

 called Paraloka, beyond the snowy Himalayas, where to the holy brother- 

 hood there was immunity from disease and the troubles of a worldly life. 

 The author of the Surya Siddhanta called this country by the name 

 of Siddha-pura, the land of perfection and accomplishment, and the 

 description that he has given of the place tallies with that of the Maha- 

 bharata. 



The name Pur-gyal by which Tibet was called in early times, as 

 may be gathered from Pon, as well as old Buddhist works, may have 

 been derived from the name Para loka where loJca means world and gyal 

 (dominion). Pur in Tibetan means " the JeocZ." Hence Para loka, the 

 future world, may be brought very near to the meaning of the name 

 Pur-gyal. 



The legendary accounts of Tibet as preserved in the Debther Nonpo 

 and other works give different stories about the origin of the Tibetans. 

 It is said that in early times a race of people called Noi-jin, (yaksha) 

 i. c, the mischief-makers inhabited the country. Though they were rich, 

 having in their possession precious stones and metals, yet they used to do 

 mischief to each other and to live in a state of continual warfare. So 

 late as the first century B. C. twelve Noi-jin chiefs are said to have parti- 

 tioned the country among themselves, a few years before the Indian 

 prince Nyah-thi-tsanpo visited Tibet. The tradition about the Tibetans 

 as related in Gyalrab and other works which is credited by the people 

 rit large as the true storyf of their origin, is both interesting and 

 curious. A certain monkey, having gone to Tibet, lived in a solitary 



* In the early records of Tibet, it is mentioned that the Chinese language was 

 called Nagabha8ha by the Indians, while Sanskrit was called the language of the 

 gods; tad that the people who traded with India, coming from beyond the seas 

 with such commodities as satin (ohinam Saka), camphor porcelain, &c, were called 

 the Nagaa From this, it, appears, that in olden times the merohants, who coming 

 from the direction of the Indian Ocean used to trade with India, were no other 

 people than the Chinese. These Nag a merchants had settlements at Tatalipntra 

 and other great centres <>f trad.'. 



t Some identify this monkey with Hanumana the hen; of the ELamayana. 



