IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
Religion 177
exorcism, necromancy, and magic, even to obtain spiritual blessings, enact pious mysteries, perform strange and furious dances to drive away or destroy the demon; and thus is Tibet wildly caught up and carried off by the whirlwind of religious insanity."
It is not intended here to treat at length of the language and literature of Tibet. Several specialists —such as Csoma de Körös, Ed. Foucaux, A. A. Georgi, H. A. Jaeschke, and W. W. Rockhill—may be consulted by those who desire to study these subjects.
Very briefly it may be stated that the Tibetan dialects are said to be of the Tibeto-Burman family, which, in turn, is referred to the Turano-Scythian stock.
Changes of pronunciation that have taken place in the last twelve hundred years have not been followed by corresponding changes in the original written forms of words. Tibetan orthography, therefore, as tested by present usage of spoken words, is perhaps farther removed from a true phonetic system than is the orthography of any other language pretending to represent sounds by letters.
Tibetan literature consists almost exclusively of sacred writings and historical records. Their character may be given approximately by the one word "monkish." It is the literature of our own dark ages.
In Appendix C are to be found some examples of Tibetan songs, as gathered from the lips of the people by Moravian missionaries. Many readers, I think, will be surprised at the gracefulness of thought appearing in these compositions.
I2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.