EDITOR’S PREFACE. 
Very few words seem to be required by way of introduction 
to the present reprint. 
The pioneer work of Csoma de KGrés in the field of Tibe- 
tan research has a permanent value for scholars ; and on the 
occasion of the 125th anniversary of Csoma’s birth,' I sug- 
gested to the Asiatic Society of Bengal that it would be a fit- 
ting tribute to the great Hungarian traveller and scholar, if 
they were to publish in a collected form all the articles he had 
contributed to their Journal. These articles are scattered 
over seven different volumes of the Journal. Some of the 
earliest volumes are very difficult to procure, and time has 
played sad havoc with the existing copies owing to the bad 
paper on which they were printed. Of the fourteen articles 
contained in this collection, Nos. I to XIII were published 
during the author’s lifetime, and they have consequently been 
reprinted exactly as they were sent to Press by Csoma de 
Korés. No. XIV, however, did not appear till many years 
after his death—and although, as we learn from an editorial 
note, the proofs were corrected by a Lama, the Tibetan text 
in the original article is full of misprints and misspellings. I 
have, therefore, revised the text, and in this connection I have 
to acknowledge with grateful thanks the assistance received 
from Lama Lobzang Mingyur of the Darjeeling High School, 
who possesses a knowledge of Tibetan orthography rare among 
Lamas of to-day. 
E. Denison Ross. 
1 Csoma de Kérés was born in Transylvania, April 1784, and died in 
Darjeeling, April 1842. 
