JOURNAL 



OF 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



No. 7.— July, 1832. 



I. — Translation of a Tibetan Fragment, by Mr. Csoma de Kotos, 

 with remarks by H. H. Wilson, Secy. 



(Read, July 4th.) 



In the 9th volume oftheGyut class of the Kahgyur occurs the 

 original of a Tibetan fragment, which created in the beginning of the 

 last century a lively sensation amongst the learned men of Europe, and 

 the history of which furnishes an amusing instance of the vanity of li- 

 terary pretensions, and of the patience and pain with which men of 

 talent and erudition have imposed upon themselves and upon the 

 world. 



In the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, the Rus- 

 sians in their incursions into Siberia came upon various deserted temples 

 and monasteries, in some of which considerable collections of books 

 were deposited. These were in general destroyed or mutilated by the 

 ignorant rapacity of the soldiery, but fragments of them were preserved, 

 and found their way as curiosities to Europe. 



Amongst these, some loose leaves, supposed to have been obtained at 

 the ruins of Ablaikit, a monastery near the source of the Irtish, were 

 presented to. the emperor Peter the Great. Literature being then at a 

 low ebb in Russia, no attempt was made to decypher these frag- 

 ments, and they were sent by the Czar to the French Academy, whose 

 sittings he had attended when at Paris, and who deservedly enjoyed 

 the reputation of being the most learned body in Europe. In 1723, the 

 Abbe de Bignon, on the part of the Academy, communicated to the 

 Czar the result of their labour, apprising him, that the fragments sent 

 were portions of a work in the Tibetan language, and sending a trans- 

 lation of one page made by the Abbe Fourmont with the help of a Latin 



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