g 
No. IV. Translation of a Tibetan Passport, dated 
A.D. 1688, 
[J.A.8.B., Vol. II, p. 201 (1833).] 
[Read 24th April, 1833.] 
In Hyde’s Historia Religionis Veterum Persarum (2nd 
edition, page 552-3), there is an engraving of a passport granted 
by the governor (or grand Lama) of Lassa, to an Armenian, of 
which, at the time of its publication, no European was able to 
decypher the characters. The learned author’s account of it is 
in the following wor 
‘Secundd damus Seripturam Tatarorum de Boutan* (al. Boutunt) citra 
cial eS Indiam. Hujus lectio.est 4 dextra mm. 
elegantissi speci imen est, id quod vulg6 sonat, wn passport, seu sal- 
vioondustie | liters, 8 a Sop ae urbis et provincie de Boutan datx, nuperis 
annis, a uanne (i. - Domino Joanni) mercatori Armeno ibidem 
negotianti: et dictus pr josie omen suum (ut vides) sigiili loco et forma 
ie nearer et implicatis characteribus infra apposuit., Talis sigilli im- 
pressio arabibus dicitur esx taukia; Persis et Turcis | rb togra, unde, 
apud eos, talis majusculorum characterum scriptor, aut talis sigilli 
factor, hes appos me gi seu psa subsignator, vocatur Togrdt. Hanc 
chartam nobiscu mmu cavit singularis amicus D. Joh. rake 8.T. Dy 
napere acnke ex idk 
The character of this curious manuscript proves to be the 
small running-hand of the Tibetans, written and engraved with 
hardly a single error. The following is a version of it in Roman 
characters, ae — be interesting to those who possess Hyde’s 
very learned v 
Chhos-hkhor dPal-gyi Lha-sa nas.—rGya-gar hphags-yul bar-gyi ae 
du hkhod-pahi Ser, skya, drag, zhan, Lhahi mi-rje rdsong bsdod gn 
hgri 
dag-la springs pa.—-Lha-sa p hun-ts’ hogs Ichang-lo-chan-gyi Agron-po 
mGo dkart Te’hang-ne-chan mi bzhi zhon khal bchu-drug bchas nyé- 
B er applied iy uropeans and Mohammedans to Tibet 
generally, is properly the 75 of one of the southern provinces, sien 
in Tibetan Llopato : a hassa ae capital of Tibet Proper or U-ts 
[See Journ. As. Soe. i. 123. 
+ This is of c ourse js Aa the Tibetan reads like the Sanskrit from 
Mohammedans of India and to the Europeans. But of late the Tibetans 
have commenced calling the Europeans by the name of Philing-pa, and 
hig of British India by that of rGye-Philing (-pa) or Indo-Euro- 
