CHAPTER XV
SKETCH OF TIBETAN HISTORY FROM MISTY BEGIN-
NINGS, 350 A.D. (?), TO JOHN BULL'S
APPEARANCE
HERE all is darkness until the fourth or fifth century of our era. In Chinese records, long anterior to the establishment of an ordered state, reference is made to the Kiang tribes of the Koko-nor and adjoining regions ; but they seem to have been then merely savage bands, not constituting an organised government advanced beyond the tribal status. The impulsion toward centralisation came from without, and may have been accompanied by some measure of compulsion, though the record runs that a disaffected prince from the province of Kan-su (North China) moved his people westward and established himself among the Kiang tribes, who were won to his sway by his justice and firmness as a ruler. This exodus is presumed to have taken place about 433 A.D. The name of Fanni is given the leader, and his nationality is presumptively Chinese. It must be remembered, however, that the region from which he came lies not far from the home of the northern barbarians, and that the time was, and for a century had been, one of great disorder, marked by incursions of the Mongols across the line of the Great Wall.
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