The shortest and officipl road passes through Litang (13,400 feet and Batang (8,150 feet) on the Yangtze river, and Chiamdo, the capital of Kham, on the Mekhong, and over lofty passes into Lhassa. The commercial road crosses the rivers higher up where the watercourses are less difficult and there is an abundance of pasture. Near Darchiendo the country seems to be independent alike of China and Tibet, and farther W. is Darge, a dis trict described as rich and flourishing. Chiamdo and others parts of Kham are under the direct rule of China.
table-lands supply food to the flocks and herds of a large nomad population. Agri culture is confined chiefly to the valleys of the Indus and Sanpo, the grain chiefly grown being barley; the kitchen herbs and fruits of Europe are also cultivated. Irrigation and terrace cultivation are necessary to secure even scanty crops.
Minerals.—The mineral products of Tibet are of high value, and include gold, silver, iron, copper, zinc, mercury, co balt, borax, salt, sulphur, etc., but few mines are yet developed.
Industries and Commerce.—The Tibe tans are good blacksmiths and cutlers; their chief industrial occupation, how ever, is the preparation of woolen cloth. They are active traders, and large cara vans, in which yaks and sheep are the beasts of burden, are constantly travers ing the country on their way to the great fairs in Tibet, and the entrepOts of the surrounding countries. Lhassa is the chief mart, and here are found silk, carpets, tea and hardware from China; leather goods and livestock from Mongolia; rice, tobacco, sugar, pearls, coral, etc., from the S. At one time there was a busy commerce with India, but since Tibet be came a Chinese dependency the passes have been closed. In 1894, Yatung on the frontier of India was opened by treaty as a trade mart and the Chinese and Indian governments each stationed an official at that post. The most im portant commerce is in the hands of rich Tibetan and Chinese traders, who jeal ously watch anything likely to interfere with the existing great routes. Of the distribution of population in Tibet little is known. The most densely peopled part of the country is certainly the basin of the Sanpo, in which are the towns of Shigatze and Lhassa.
Ethnology, Tibetans are a Mongolic race, much more closely allied to the Burmese than to the Chinese or Mongols proper. They are broad-shoul dered and muscular and have Mongol fea tures, but not in an exaggerated form. They are said to be intelligent, but with out initiative. The Tibetans by race peo ple nearly the whole of Tibet. A few no mads, Mongols and Turkish tribes, have penetrated into the N. steppes, and Chi nese in large numbers have colonized the S. E. In Tibet polyandry is practiced, the husbands of one wife being gener ally brothers. This form of marriage is almost universal among the poor. The rich are polygamists. Both systems check
population. In Little Tibet, where mo nogamy has penetrated from the W., population increases rapidly.
Religion and exist in Tibet two religions: (1) the Bon or Bon-Pacreed, which is a development of Mongol Shamanism, and is the native re ligion; and (2) Lamaism, a form of the Buddhism introduced from India. The Tibetan clergy are very numerous, there being, it is estimated, one monk for every family. The Tibetan language as spoken differs much from the old written lan guage; it has been losing its monosyl labic character. Books abound in Tibet, and every monastery has its library. The literature consists chiefly of translations from the Sanskrit, and of religious works. The art of engraving by wooden blocks has for centuries been used by the Tibetans.
1720 Tibet has been a dependency of China, which, how ever, interferes only with foreign and military affairs. There are two imperial Chinese residents or Ambans at Lhassa. Civil and religious government are left to the Tibetan clergy. In theory supreme rule is in the hands of the Dalai Lama, the sovereign pontiff, who resides at Lhassa. The Tesho or Bogdo Lama, who has an inferior spiritual power, resides at Shigatze. The Dalai Lama hands over the active duties of government to the de-sri or king, who rules with the assist ance of four ministers.
earliest date in Tibetan history which can be relied on as his torical is A. D. 639, when the King Sbrong tsan-Sgam-po introduced Buddhism from India, and founded Lhassa. His dominions extended from the Himalayas N. to the Koko-Nur lake. In the Middle Ages down to the 10th century the Tibetan country is said in the Chinese annals to have ex tended to the Gulf of Bengal, then de scribed as the Tibetan sea. In the 9th century a war broke out with China, which terminated in 821, when bilingual tablets still existing were erected at Lhas sa. In 1071 eastern Tibet was broken up into small states, opening the country to Chinese and Mongol invasion. Kublai Khan, who annexed Tibet to his vast em pire, called to his court a Tibetan monk, Phagspa. The latter converted his pa tron and the Mongols to Buddhism, and the sovereignty of Tibet was conferred on the Dalai Lamas. In 1720 the Chinese, after many struggles, finally conquered Tibet. Seven years later Batang and other parts of Kham were detached from Tibet, and incorporated with the Chinese province of Szechuen. Early in the 18th century Lamas, under the guidance and instruction of Jesuit missionaries, carried out a survey of the Tibetan part of the Chinese empire. From the information supplied, D'Anville, in 1733, prepared a map of Tibet. In 1840 Ladakh was con quered by the Maharajah of Kashmir, and now is a British dependency. In 1854 there was a struggle between Tibet and Nepal which ended in a treaty by which both countries recognized the su zerainty of China.