Tibet was long a terra incognita to Europeans. It is difficult of access on all sides, and everywhere difficult to traverse. Its great elevation causes the climate to be rather arctic than tropical, so that there is no gradual blending of the climates and physical conditions of India and Tibet, such as would tend to promote intercourse between the inhabitants of these neighbouring regions; on the contrary, there are sharp lines of demarcation, in a mountain barrier which is scalable at only a few points and in the social aspects and conditions of life on either side. No great armies have ever crossed Tibet to invade India; even those of Jenghiz Khan took the circuitous route via Bokhara and Afghanistan, not the direct route from Mongolia across Tibet. Thus it was no easy matter for the early European travellers to find their way into and explore Tibet. Friar Odoric of Pordenone is supposed to have reached Lhása circ. 1328, travelling from Cathay; three centuries afterwards the, Jesuit Antonio Andrada, travelling from India, entered Tibet on the west, in the Manasarowar Lake region, and made his way across to Tangut and north-western China; in 1661 Fathers Grueber and D’Orville travelled from Peking via Tangut to Lhása, and thence through Nepal to India; and during the first half of the 18th century various Capuchin friars appear to have passed freely between Delhi and Lhása, by way either of Nepal or Kashmir. The first Englishman to enter Tibet was George Bogle, in 1774, on an embassy from Warren Hastings to the tashi (teshu) lama of Shigatze. In 1811 Thomas Manning made his way from India to Lhása; he is the only Englishman who has succeeded in reaching the sacred city, and he had soon to leave it. During the 19th century Europeans have been systematically prevented from entering the country or speedily expelled if found in it. In 1844-46 the French missionaries Hue and Gabet made their way to Lhása from China, but were soon deported back again. In 1866 the Abbé Desgodins travelled through portions of eastern Tibet and reached Chiamdo (in Khám), but was prevented from approaching any closer to Lhása. Last of all the Russian Colonel Prej evalsky succeeded in exploring portions of northern Tibet, but was unable to penetrate southwards into Bodland.

Geographers have long been in possession of maps of Tibet, compiled from surveys executed early in the 18th century by lamas, under instructions from the Jesuit fathers who made a survey of China for the emperor Kang-he. The lamas’ maps were the basis of D’Anville’s Atlas, published in 1733, and were employed by Klaproth in constructing his map of Asia in 1824; but they are generally very meagre, only reliable in the vicinity of the principal roads, and occasionally very misleading. They must have been compiled at best from rude estimates of distance and direction, and in some parts from mere hearsay or conjecture. They are, however, supposed to have been based on astronomical determinations of position; but this is improbable, for the latitudes of such important places as Lhása and Bátang are 30 to 60 miles in error. Our knowledge of the geography of the country is complete only for portions of western Tibet, which are subject to the maharajah of Kashmir, and have been regularly surveyed. This knowledge has been largely supplemented during the last twenty years by the work of natives of India—the so-called trans-Himalayan explorers of the Indian Survey, notably Pandits Nain Singh and Krishna (A—K)—who have been trained to carry route surveys through regions which they may, but Europeans may not, enter.

Tibet is commonly divided into two parts called Great and Little Tibet, the former lying between 102° and 79° E. long., the latter between 79° and 74°. Great Tibet is broadly divisible into a western region, in which there is a considerable preponderance of tableland over hill and mountain and of lake basins over river basins, and an eastern region, in which the reverse holds good and the surface of the ground is so greatly corrugated that the natives call it rong-rtsub, “a rough country full of ravines.” In Little Tibet the Himalayas converge towards the KuenLun, and the breadth of the plateau meridionally diminishes to less than a fourth of what it attains in Great Tibet. The entire region may be broadly divided into three longitudinal zones, increasing in elevation from south to north, viz., a southern zone, which contains the centres of the settled and agricultural population; a middle zone, comprising the pasture lands of the Bod-pa nomads; and a northern zone, for the most part abandoned to wild animals, but partly occupied by tribes of Turkic and Mongolian nomads. The southern and middle zones comprise Bodland proper and are divided into four provinces, viz.,— Nári (Ngári, Ari) on the west, between 74° and 85° E. long.; Khám, otherwise Do-Khám, on the east, between 92° 30' and 102°; and in the centre, Tsáng, adjoining Nári, and U or Us (otherwise Y or Wei), adjoining Khám; the two central provinces are commonly called U-tsáng, as one. A considerable belt of the middle zone is known as the Hot country. The middle and northern zones embrace the greater portion of the region known to Bod-pas as the Cháng-táng (Byán-táng, Ján-táng) or “Northern Plain,” which, however, protrudes southwards and abuts upon the Himalayas from 80° to 85° E. long., thus interposing a nomad population between the settled populations to the east and the west. The northern zone merges on the west into the Pamir tablelands.

The tableland of Tibet attains its maximum elevation, 17,600 feet above sea-level, on the 79th meridian, in the Lingzi-táng plateau of the northern zone; thence there is a gradual fall east, west, and south, the plateau level on the 97th meridian being about 13,500 feet in the northern zone and 10,000 in the southern. Between the 82d and 90th meridians the northern zone is known only from the maps of the lamas’ survey, which indicate a surface slightly corrugated with hills and containing numerous lakes, some of great size, but no rivers of importance.

The river basins in this zone apparently commence to the east of the 90th meridian and from them issue the Di-chu (Chinese Kin-sha-kiang), whose headwaters unite at Di-chu Rab-dun, in 94° 30' E. long.; the Chiamdo river or Lan-tsan-kiang; the Hoang-ho, in about 96°, which flows through the Kiaring and Orin lakes (13,500 feet above the sea and each exceeding 80 miles in circumference) and passes northwards out of Tibet through the Kuen-Lun; and the Ja-chu or Yalung-kiang, also in about 90° E. long., which flows southwards through eastern Tibet. In the middle zone a system of lakes on the 90th meridian gives birth to the Nag-chu, which becomes the Sok-chu and lower down the Giama-Nu-chu—known to the Chinese as the Lu-tse-kiang—and, trending southwards, winds round the eastern extremity of the Himalayas. In the lower zone the Indus and the Yaro-tsanpo rise on either side of the 82d meridian and flow in opposite directions parallel to the Himalayas, and then, passing through openings in those mountains twenty degrees apart in longitude, enter India on the extreme east and west. The Lohit Brahmaputra rises behind the eastern Himalayas and flows south-westwards into India. The Giama-Nu-chu, Chiam-do-chu, and Di-chu flow southwards into Burma and Yunnan, through closely contiguous valleys between a system of meridional ranges which project as spurs from the Tibetan plateau. West of 82° a single water-parting between north and south—that of the Mus-tagh and Karakoram, sometimes called the Turkic—separates Indo-Tibetan from Turko-Tibetan waters; east of that meridian there are longitudinal water-partings between the basins of the several rivers already mentioned.

The Himalayan Mountains, which constitute so considerable a portion of the southern scarp of Tibet, consist of a succession of longitudinal chains, running in general parallel to each other along the glacis of the plateau. These chains are much higher on their southern than on their northern faces, and are connected in some parts by transverse ridges, but in other parts are broken and interrupted by fissures and valleys. The principal chain is the one of high peaks covered with perpetual snow which culminates in Mont Everest, 29,000 feet above the sea. This chain may be regarded as the geographical boundary between Tibet and India. In some parts it is the water-parting; but at the several points where its continuity is broken the water-parting recedes to an inner chain on the plateau, and basins are formed between the two chains, the waters of which descend in rivers to the plains of India. The plateau is a region of plains and wide open valleys of little depth; the scarp is a region of mountains and narrow confined valleys of great depth. The narrow valleys of the scarp, being lower, are warmer and more favourably adapted for cultivation than the broad valleys of the plateau.

Higher than these last are the plains of the Cháng-táng, which are, for the most part, too high and cold for any but pastoral uses. All such tracts the inhabitants call cháng-táng, though the word strictly signifies “the Northern Plain”; and all tracts which contain valleys warm enough for cultivation they call rong (signifying a ravine or narrow valley or cleft in a hill), but more particularly the lower and warmer valleys which produce crops twice in the year; the word is also commonly employed to indicate a warm country. The alluvial beds in the valleys are composed of the débris of the surrounding rocks, laid out in horizontal deposits, which in course of time have become furrowed into gigantic ravines with a succession of narrow terraces in steps on each flank. It is on the existing lower alluvial beds and the remnants of higher beds that cultivation is carried on, in plots which are usually well watered and very fertile. The sharp needle-peaks, which are highest of all and bare of soil, but covered with perpetual snow, are met with most frequently in tracts of rong, and the rounded hills coated with grass to altitudes sometimes exceeding 16,000 feet in tracts of cháng-táng. The forest-clad mountain slopes which are occasionally met with occur chiefly in the rong. The general direction of the hill and mountain chains is east and west, but north-west and south-east in western Tibet, north-east and south-west in the province of U, and north and south in eastern Tibet. The peaks rise in many parts to between 20,000 and 25,000 feet—in the Mus-tagh range to 28,250—above the sea-level, but rarely to more than 10,000, and often to not more than a few hundred, feet above the general level of the plateaus from which they spring. The principal water-partings in some districts follow the crests of low ridges and gentle undulations which are of barely appreciable elevation above the surface of the ground.

Nári, the western province of Bodland, is divided into the sub-provinces of Ladak and Balti on the west, between 75° and 79 β E. long., now a part of Kashmir; Khorsum, between 79° and 82°, conterminous with the Himalayan provinces of British India; and Mang-yul or Dokthol, between 82° and 87°, conterminous with western Nepal. The last two are under the government of Lhása. Western Nári is bounded on the south by that portion of the Himalayan chain of snow-peaks which stretches in almost a direct line north-west from the Manasarowar Lake region to the Nanga Parbat peak (26,620 feet), at first facing the plains of the Punjab, then passing north of Kashmir. The provinces appertaining to Kashmir have already been described in the article Ladak and Balti (^.v.). The Karakoram chain, although its principal pass is 18,500 feet above sea-level, nowhere rises very high above the tableland. It constitutes a portion of the water-parting between India and Turkestan, separating the Lingzi-táng plateau, the highest in all Tibet, from the broad and open valley of Chang - chenmo; it has been traced eastwards to the meridian of 82°, but no farther.

Khorsum is mainly cháng-táng, but has some upland cultivation round the capital, Rudok, and in the Gartang valley, and lowland cultivation in the rong of the great plateau (120 miles long by 15 to 60 broad) of Guge or Hundes, the upper basin of the Sutlej. In this province lie, within the small area of a square degree, the sources of four great rivers—the Indus, the Yaro-tsanpo, the Sutlej, and the Karnali—the sacred lakes of Manasarowar and Rakas Tai, 15,300 feet above the sea and each 50 miles in circumference, and two famous mountains, Nimo Namling (25,360 feet) to the south, believed by the Tibetans to be their highest mountain, and to the north the sacred Kailas Gangri (21,830 feet), the Kantysee of the lamas’ survey. From the Kailas Gangri a chain of hills stretches to the north-west, separating the upper basins of the Sutlej and the Indus; to the north of that another chain, running east and west, culminates in the Aling Gangri peaks (24,000 feet) and separates the Indus basin from the Pangong Lake (100 miles long, from 3 to 7 broad, and 14,000 feet in altitude), near which Rudok is situated. Roads pass from Ladak to Lhása through the plains of Rawang and Sarthol, the gold-fields of Thok Jalung and Thok Daurakpa, and the Hor country.

Mang-yul, or Dokthol, contains the upper basins of the Yaro-tsanpo—here known as the Nári-chu—and its principal affluents, the Cha-chu and the Charta-tsanpo. The province is wholly Cháng-táng and its population nomadic, the capital, Sarka Jong, being merely a good-sized village.

The common border of the provinces of Nári and Tsáng falls nearly on the 87th meridian. Here the Cháng-táng recedes from the Himalayas, and its southern scarp, trending north-east, forms the upper fringe of tracts appertaining to U-tsáng that are capable of producing a single crop annually. This region constitutes the most important portion of the basin of the Yaro-tsanpo, for it contains the chief towns and monasteries of the settled Bod-pas. Cultivation commences on a slight scale where the river enters Tsáng on the west. The first town of any importance is Junglache (13,600 feet), on the right bank, wdth a large monastery. Thence goods may be taken down the river for some distance by boats of leather over a wooden framework, light enough to be carried back overland. Eighty-five miles lower down, also on the right bank, are the city of Shigatze or Digarchi (12,000 feet) and the great monastery of Tashilunpo (Teshu-Lumbo), the residence of the “tashi lama,” one of two spiritual incarnations of equal rank, of which the other, the “dalai lama,” resides at Lhása; the monastery contains 3500 lamas. Between Junglache and Shigatze the river receives the Raka-tsanpo from the cháng-táng on its left, and the Sákya-Jong-chu from that on its right. The latter descends from the Himalayan water-parting past the monastery of Sákya (13,900 feet), which is surrounded by cultivation and governed by a chief lama called the “sákya-gángma,” who is held in considerable reverence as an avatar. At Shigatze the Yaro-tsanpo receives the Pena-Nyang-chu from a valley to the south-east which contains the towns of Pena-jong and Gyangtse-jong (13,000 feet), and numerous monasteries and villages, and through which passes the main road from Bhutan to Shigatze travelled by Bogle in 1774. A little lower down it receives from the left the Shiang-chu, which rises in the Ninchen-thangla range and flows past the town of Namling (12,200 feet, 200 houses), where sheep are employed as baggage animals, the country being too cold for donkeys and the roads too stony for yaks. Then at Shangpa (Jagsa) it receives from the right the Rong-chu from the famous Yamdok-tso or Scorpion Lake to the south-east. This lake is 120 miles in circumference, 13,800 feet above the sea, and is surrounded by villages and monasteries; its scorpion claws embrace a peninsula which rises above 16,000 feet, is grass-grown to its summit, and embosoms the Damo-tso, a sacred lake, 24 miles round and 500 feet above the main lake, which is expected some day to rise and destroy all animal life by a flood. Here the roads from India via Bhutan and from Shigatze to Lhása converge, and after crossing the Khamba-lá (15,000 feet) strike the Yaro-tsanpo at Chiak-jam-chori ( = “the iron bridge at the rocky bank ”). The river in its course from Shangpa down to this point is unnavigable, passing over rapids between precipitous hills; there is no road on either bank. A little below the bridge it receives from the left the Ki-chu, the river of Lhasa (ç.v.), the chief city of Bodland. Below the junction of the Ki-chu the Yaro-tsanpo continues its eastward course through a broad and well-peopled valley. It is crossed at Chetang by a ferry on the road from Lhása to Tawang in Bhutan via the Yarlung-chu valley (right bank), which is said to be the pleasantest and most populous in Tibet; fruits grow in profusion at its lower extremity and the hills are forest-clad. At Chetang the river is 350 yards broad, 20 feet deep, and 11,000 feet above the sea, and has a sluggish current. On crossing the meridian of 92° 30' E. it passes out of the province of U into that of Khám and enters its eastern basin. After traversing the Kongbo (Khombo) district, it trends north-east for 100 miles—in general parallel with the contiguous Kongbo ranges and the distant Ninchen-thangla—and on reaching 94° turns abruptly to the south. Its course has been explored 20 miles below the bend, to Gya-la-Sindong (8000 feet), but no farther. The basin is bounded on the north and east by the continuous plateaus of Lharugo, Arig, Pemba and Lhojong, Pashu, Dainsi, and Nagong, and on the south by the inner Himalayan water-parting. Numerous tributaries join the river from both sides, but little is known of them. Those from Kongbo, Lharugo, and Arig are said to unite and join it a little above Gyada-Sindong, and one from Nagong a little below. This last rises near the Ata-Gang-lá, a pass over the Himalayas between the Nagong plateau and the Zayul district, and is said to be on the direct road from Lhása to Zayul via Gya-la-Sindong; it is probably joined by the Kenpu river of the lamas’ survey, which rises in the southern scarp of the Pemba-Lhojong plateau and probably flows through the Potod and Pomed districts of Khám. The independent Lhoyul country lies to the south of the Nagong-chu (lit. “black water ”). The region is generally of a comparatively low elevation, is said to have much more of rong than of cháng-táng, and probably contains much more forest and luxuriant vegetation than any other part of Tibet north of the Himalayas.

The lower course of the Yaro-tsanpo has long been a matter of controversy between English and French geographers: the former have maintained, in accordance with information from natives of Tibet and Assam, that it enters the Assam valley and is the principal source of the Brahmaputra river, of which the Lohit Brahmaputra river is the eastern source; the latter have maintained, on the authority of Chinese geographers, that it flows into Burma and is the principal source of the Irawadi river. But now its eastern basin has been explored, and the Lohit Brahmaputra has been found to have its sources in a range bordering the Giama-Nu-chu; the Yaro-tsanpo must therefore necessarily pass into Assam, and measurements of the discharges of the principal rivers entering Assam from the north conclusively identify it with the Dihong. That river, which receives the...