1903.] E. H. Walsh —Tibetan Language , 8f Recent Dictionaries. 
73 
It contains the works of the Tibetan saints Milaraspa and Atisa and 
various others who followed them. 
To these two periods, Sarat Chandra Das adds a third, commencing 
from the establishment of the Dalai Lama’s Sovereignty over the whole 
of Tibet in the beginning of the eighteenth century. With regard to 
this more recent period he remarks : “ Neither he (Jaschke) nor Csoma 
de Koros had any means or opportunities of studyiug either the current 
literature of every-day business, or the refined idiomatic literature of 
Tibet itself, which is quite distinct from the Indian literature that was 
imported into the language. They do not seem to have ever during the 
course of their study of Tibetan come across works on drama, fiction, 
correspondence, &c. It is, therefore, no wonder that the compiler of the 
later Dictionary should assign only two periods to the history of the 
literature of Tibet, entirely ignoring the third which is indeed not the 
least important of the three.” 
We do not know what books Rai Sarat Chandra Das may be refer¬ 
ring to as “the current literature of every-day business,” but think 
that he must have employed a term which is unintentionally misleading, 
as, so far as I am aware, no current books that would answer such a des¬ 
cription exist. Rai Sarat Chandra Das brought a large number of books 
with him from Lhasa, a catalogue of which was published; but there is 
no book in that list that would answer to such a description. 
As regards “ correspondence,” Rai Sarat Chandra Das has obtained 
a large amount of entirely new matter, which has been published by 
Government separately under the title of “Yig Kur Nam Shag” 
J-&J' £Tj(ejZTj ) being a collection of letters, both official and pri- 
vate, and illustrating the different forms of correspondence used in Tibet. 
The first part of this book consists of copies of the original letters, 
chiefly official, issued by the minister Sheda, also known as Pishipa, the 
minister who favoured Abbes Hue and Gabet during their visit to 
Lhasa in 1846. These letters are among the papers in the State offices 
at Lhasa, but Rai Sarat Chandra Das was able to obtain copies of them 
through the kindness of the two sons of another minister, Shape Phala, 
whose guest he had been at Lhasa. The second part consists of letter- 
forms, partly composed and partly compiled by the late Lama Sherab 
Gyatsho, Head Lama of Ghoom Monastery ; and the third part is a popu¬ 
lar complete letter writer intended for business and ordinary corres¬ 
pondence, a copy of which was obtained by Mr. A. W. Paul, C.I.E., 
Political Officer of the Sikhim expedition of 1888, among the things which 
the Tibetans left behind in their flight. 
It must, however, be borne in mind that although a large number 
J. t. 10 
