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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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| 0029 |
Southern Tibet : vol.1 |
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OCR Text
INTRODUCTION.
For the reader's initiation and guidance, I think it essential briefly to give an
indication of the plan and arrangement of the following four geographical volumes.
The object I have in view, is to show in what ways, during the course of the cen-
turies, the knowledge of Tibet has slowly gained the ears of Europe. When first
heard of, the news of its existence came in the shape of vague and mysterious ru-
mours which, already in the middle ages, were receiving a more fixed form and,
later on, in times not too far remote, were succeeded by narratives of more or less
fantastical colour. My intention is to expose in how unwieldy lines, labouriously
drawn up, the notion of Tibet appears on the maps, how unsteadily and vacillatingly
it hovers above the dark expanses North of the Himalayas, and how long it is able
to shield, as in a fortress, its secrets from the insatiable explorative spirit of the
Europeans. The situation of Tibet, among the highest and most inaccessible moun-
tains of the globe, was by itself a guarantee to the effect that, of all countries on
the earth — the polar regions excepted — it should last be conquered by the Euro-
pean attacks for discovery.
I go back as far as to the Indian antiquity and endeavour to search out from its
epic songs, legends and religious tales, the foundation of geographical reality on which
they are built up, though even in a poetic mould. The Indian cosmographers allow
their myths to soar around the legendary mountain of Meru, on whose dizzy height
the great city of Brahma raises its shining bastions. Their hymns seek out Hima-
vant, the sacred, and love to dwell amid the dazzling splendour encircling the home
of Siva on Kâilâsa, the king of mountains. They sing the praises of Mâna-sarovara
with a charm mighty of arousing the surprise and admiration even of present-day
occidentals. It is true, the geographical knowledge which can be disentangled from
all this splendour of ancient lore, is very uncertain and vague, but still it is sufficient
to convince us that the Hindoos were no strangers to the country to their North,
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