552 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIX. 
The first Chinese traveller who mentions Nepal is Hiouen 
Tsang who visited the countries of the West in 629-44 A.D. He 
however did not visit Nepal in person and his account is rightly 
held by Lévi to reflect the prejudice of the plainsmen against 
the mountaineers. According to him, the country is very 
suitable for cultivation of grain and abounds in fruits and 
flowers ; copper is mined and exported and used as currency. 
The people are treacherous, cruel and ignorant of any literary 
knowledge but clever in the arts. 
Much greater Hintaumtions is available from the mentions 
of Nepal in the annals of the Tang dynasty. Lévi considers 
that the lost accounts of Wang Hiuen Tse, who came to Nepal 
at about the time of Hiouen Tsang’s departure from India, 
‘supplied the greater part of the materials. In any case the 
‘description evidently refers to the time of Narendra Deva of 
Nepal who was reigning when Wang Hiuen Tse visited the 
country. 
According to the om ogg os people shave their heads to 
the level of their evebrows: they pierce their ears, preeene 
tubes of bamboo or horn of oxen, and it is a mark of beauty 
to have ears falling to the shoulders. All their utensils (and 
implements)! are of copper, which is also used as currency. 
cultivators are scarce, as they do not know how to work with 
oxen. Their houses are of wood and the walls sculptured and 
painted. They are fond of dramatic J Raianarpelr and of 
playing the trumpet and tambourine. They are also clever at 
forecasting destinies and in natural siianiss: as also at 
drawing up almanacs. They worship five celestial deities, 
sculpturing their images in s 
Then follows a description of the magnificence of the King, 
wearing pearls and precious stones and the palace with its 
seven-storied copper-roofed tower and its columns, balustrades 
and beams all inlaid with gems and precious stones.” 
It is therefore evident that as early as the seventh century, 
the people of Nepal were skilful workers of stone, wood and 
copper and had attained excellence in other departments also. 
As regards the statement about cultivation, I take it in the 
sense of plough-cultivation with the help of bullocks, which 
seems to be the meaning from the context. It would be inter- 
esting to know the exact connotation of the Chinese ideograph 
translated by “cultivation ” in French. 


! Tous leurs utensils sont faits de cuivre. 
? Sylvain Lévi in Journal Asiatique, 1894, Part II, pp. 65-67. Quoted 
also in his Le Nepal, Vol. I, pp. 163-5. 
actual writing | down of these details i in their here form dates 
materials 
a believed to have been mainly gathered from the lost coos of Wan 
about: 7 ma 

