394 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [August, 1910. 



In addition to the Indian Varh6avalis, Tibetan historio- 

 graphy was also influenced in very early times by Chinese 

 historiographers. I think that Rockhill is quite right when he 

 compares the seven Tibetan Khri (throne) kings with the 

 twelve celestial sovereigns of the Chinese Sanhwang ; the six 

 Tibetan Legs with the eleven terrestrial sovereigns of the Chinese : 

 and the eight Tibetan Lde with the nine human sovereigns of 

 the Chinese. Possibly, the Tibetans were not at once furnished 

 with sufficient names to satisfy a Chinese historian. Therefore, 

 they had to manufacture new names, or classes of names, and 

 insert them in their lists. This may account for more than one 



mnin 

 find i 



Thus , 

 Of the palace of 



was 



been in existence during the reign of the first king, we hear 

 again ten or eleven generations later that it was then built as the 

 first palace of the country. Then, although the country is 

 described as having been in a high state of civilisation under its 



kin 



his successors. From the Chinese, the Tibetans 



learnt writing history 



writin 



was not acquired before the 15th century, when quite a new 

 way of recording facts made its appearance. This last and best 

 form of chronicling was probably learnt from the Mohamedan 

 writers of the neriod. 



Yarlun 



as 



tion from chronicles in prose or verse, but also made use of the 

 folklore of his time, and thereby added a new charm to his chapter 

 of the history. Thus, we find an old proverb on folio 11a, and 

 popular ditties on folios 14a and 6, and 196. The first song on 

 folio 9a is probably a verse from Buddhist literature which had 

 become popular, whilst the second song once formed part of the 

 ancient metrical VaihSavall, with which it has the metre in 

 common, as stated above. It is interesting that also in Dr. 

 K. Marx's BMS., an ancient popular song is found which it was 

 the historian's endeavor to turn into prose. My attention was 

 drawn to this • interesting fact in the following way : I told my 

 Tibetan assistant, Phunthsogs of Khalatse, to read through the 

 third chapter of Schlagintweit's Tibetan text of the chronicles, 

 to see if he could find poetical parts in it. He read it and said 

 that he had not found anything, because the old song of Ali Mir, 

 which was contained in K. Marx's rGyalrbas, was omitted in 

 Schlagintweit's copy. He said that he had often heard people 

 sing a song of Ali Mir. When I examined Marx's text, I could 

 see at once that seven lines of the old song could be easily restored . 

 by making only very slight alterations in the text. It then runs 

 as follows : — 



