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| 0322 |
Southern Tibet : vol.1 |
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CHAPTER XXII.
TIBET IN EUROPEAN BOOKS AND NARRATIVES OF THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
It would be a very useless and unnecessary task to try and pick out from all
geographical works of the seventeenth century the passages which deal with Tibet.
The result of so much trouble would be very disappointing. And after the examina-
tion we should feel obliged to admit that the knowledge about this country had
gained very little in the course of one hundred years. The brilliant travels of
Andrade and Grueber, which are now so easy to follow, could not be placed on
the maps existing, as clearly proved by the attempt of Father Kircher. Other in-
formation had been gathered by Jesuit missionaries, but was either not published, or
published at a much later date.
The present chapter has therefore only one object: to give an idea of the
store of knowledge possessed by European geographers, and for this purpose a few
examples will be quite sufficient. The ordinary way in which the geographers save
themselves from all difficulties is to copy the words of their predecessors from the
classics and Marco Polo down to Ramusio, Roë and Terry. One of the pas-
sages which are copied over and over again is the one in *Libro Odoardo Barbosa
Portoghese*, where the sacredness of the Ganges, in the religious opinion of the
Hindus, as well as the source of the river as situated in the terrestrial paradise, is
described.¹ Such is also the case with the passage in Nicolo di Conti's narrative
where he speaks of the marvellous lake between the Indus and the Ganges.² From
Barros' assertion regarding the Chiamay lake, first published in Ramusio's work a
traditional mistake of 150 years took its origin.
In some books one also recognises the eloquent description Father Jarric
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