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14
EAST ASIA.
meanino- strength," or " empire " in a pre-eminent sense, and this is the interpretation
supplied by the missionaries of the seventeenth century, who give the
country the Italian name of Potente, or "Powerful." But however this be, the present
inhabitants use the term Bod-ynl alone ; that "
is, land of the Bod," itself probably
identical with Bhutan, a Hindu name restricted by Europeans to a single
state on
the southern slope of the Himalayas.
The Chinese call Tibet either Si-Tsang that is, West Tsang, from its principal
province
or Wei-Tsang, a word applied to the two provinces of Wei and Tsang,
which jointly
constitute Tibet proper. To the inhabitants they give the name of
Tu-Fan, or "Aboriginal Fans," in opposition to the Si-Fan, or " Western Fans,"
of Sechuen and Kansu. The in this imitated
Mongolians, by the Russians of the
last century, often called. Tibet the Tangut country, from the tribes inhabiting its
northern parts. But they more commonly gave it the name of Baron-tola, or
" Right Side," in contrast to Zegun-tola, or " Left Side ;
" that is, the present
Zungaria.
PHYSICAL OTTLINKS.
Tibet forms almost exactly one-half of the vast semicircle of highlands which
stretch with a radius of 480 miles west of China from the first Mongolian spurs of
the Tian-shan to the gaps in the Eastern Himalayas, through which the Tsangbo, the
Salwcn, and Mekhong escape to the Indian Ocean. The lofty border range of
the Kuen-lun divides this semicircle into two parts presenting striking contrasts
with each other In the north stretches the closed basin of the Tariiu and several
other streams which are lost in the sands. In the south rises the elevated table-
land of Tibet. Thus the most massive plateau on the earth's surface rises close to
one of the deepest depressions in the interior of the dry land.
Overlooking the irregularities of outline caused by its political frontiers, Tibet
is. on the whole, one of the most clearly defined natural regions in the Old World.
Resting towards the north-west on the broken masses intersected by the Ladak and
Kashmir valleys, it spreads out gradually towards the cast and south-east between
the main continental chains of the Kuen-luu and Himalayas. Like the Pamir, these
two mighty ranges are regarded by the peoples dwelling at their base as "roofs of
the world," and the "Abode of the Gods." They
seem to form the limits of
another world, to which its snowy diadem sparkling in the sun gives the appearance
of an enchanted land, but which its few explorers learn to recognise as the region
of cold, snow-storms, and hunger. Suspended like a vast terrace sonic 14,000 or
Hi, INK) feet above the surrounding plains, the Tibetan plateau is more than half filled
with closed basins dotted with a few lakes or marshes, the probable remains of
inland seas whose overflow discharged through the breaks in the frontier ranges.
But at a distance of about 700 miles from the highlands on its western frontier the
Tibetan plateau is limited eastwards by a broken ridge running south-west and
north-east. West of these mountains the plateau slopes east and south-eastwards,
here branching into numerous chains with intervening river
valleys. Yet on this
On the
side the plateau is even less accessible than elsewhere round its periphery.