The Lhopa are quarrelsome and cruel, but not brave ; and Dr. Hunter says the rude, unlettered part are aimless, both morally and intellectually.
The higher classes are the Khain-pa, the Bhot-pa, and the Kushi.
The Nampa or Kham - pa are properly the Eastern Tibetans ; but this nomadic tribe is spread widely over Tibet and a portion of China, and their name is also applied in Bhutan to the adjacent division of Tibet to the south of Tsang-po. The present royal family of Sikkim is a Kham-pa importation. A previous dynasty was the Tsang. \Yang is a Chinese title equivalent to regains, which has been adopted in Tibet, and the Bhutan class who bear it may probably be the descendants of the original Tibetan rulers during the Tsang dynasty.
The Sang/a, the Bandung, and the Telmla are inferior classes, who are not eligible for the higher offices of government. They are supposed to be remnants of the pre - Tibetan tribes of Bhutan, and to have been originally of the same stock with the Abor, etc., that is, the Gangetic race, although they have become assimilated to their Tibetan conquerors.
There are four dialects of Tibetan in use,viz. the Sangla, which is spoken south of Tassgong ; the Bramhi in the north as far as Tongso ; and the Ga long and Bom-dang beyond the Bmmhi, to the west.
The Bhutanese Lhopa, Dukpa, or Brukpa are an undoubted branch of the Tibetans in form, cus toms, and language, although they differ slightly from their trans-Himalaya relations. True Tibetans are spread over the higher habitable baud of the mountains from Bhutan to Kamaon, or from the Dhansri to the Kali. They are called Rong-po,
Siena, or Kath-Bhotia, Serpa, etc., but Rong-bo or lowlander is the name now applied by the Tibetans to the Bhotias or Tibetans on the southern side of the Himalaya, and it seems to have been formerly applied by the early Tibetan conquerors to some or all the Gangetic or Tibeto Gangetic tribes.
The Lhopa or Bhutanese, from their unscrupu lous marauding habits, are on bad terms with every one of their neighbours. Though nominally subject to Tibet, were the annual tribute withheld, it would not be inquired after, so anxious are the Tibetans to have no dealings with the Bhotia. For years all Bhotias entering Tibet were dis armed at the frontier, beyond which the tribute bearers were permitted to proceed. The British annexed the Doars of Bhutan from the Lhopa in 1865 ; and the Sikkimese have, less than the Tibetans, to do with the Bhotia, whom they look upon as unscrupulous robbers, while to the east the Towang raja has to keep up a frontier force for the especial purposes of preventing Bhotia raids.
Tak or Tak-pa or Tak-poni is a district enclosed within the great bend of the Brahmaputra ; it lies in a line from Lhassa to Jorhat in Assam, and overlies the north-eastern part of Bhutan. It is the country of the Tak race.
The Tak-pa language seems to be spoken only in the country of the Towang raja, on the upper habitable, portion of the southern side of the Himalayas, to the east of Bhutan. It is more Sifan than Bhotian, though it has dialects of the latter at least on two sides of it This province was conquered by the Tibetans.