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CHAPTER II.
THE CHINESE EMPIRE.
I. TIBET.
EYOND the " Middle Kingdom " the Chinese Empire embraces vast
regions, with a joint area more extensive than that of China proper.
It includes Tibet, the Tarim, and Kuku-nor basins, the upland valleys
draining to Lake Balkhash, Zungaria, Mongolia, Manchuria, and
the islands of Formosa and Hainan. It also claims as tributaries
the Corean peninsula, and even, on the southern slope of the Himalayas, Nepal and
Bhutan, lands which belong, at least geographically, to India. All these countries,
while recognising the common supremacy of China, are severally distinguished by
their physical features, the institutions and habits of their inhabitants. But none
of them have, in recent times, so effectually repelled foreign influences as Tibet, which
is still what China formerly was an almost inaccessible land. In this respect it
may be said to represent tradition, henceforth lost by most of the other East Asiatic
states.
NOMENCLATURE.
The name of Tibet is applied not only to the south-west portion of the Chinese
Empire, but also to more than half of Kashmir occupied by peoples of Tibetan
origin. These regions of " Little Tibet " and of " "
Apricot Tibet so called from
the orchards surrounding its villages consist of deep valleys opening like troughs
between the snowy Himalayan and Karakorum ranges. Draining towards India,
these uplands have gradually been brought under Hindu influence's, whereas Tibet
proper has pursued a totally different career. It is variously known as " Great,"
the "Third," or " East Tibet;" but such is the confusion of nomenclature that the
expression "Great Tibet " is also applied to Ladak, which forms part of Kashmir.
At the same time, the term Tibet itself, employed by Europeans to designate two
countries widely differing in their physical and political conditions, is unknown to
the people themselves. Hermann it Schlagintweit regards as an old Tibetan word