National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Tsangbochú, or Dihóng, the principal river
in Eastern Tibet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . གཙང་བོ་ཆུ gtsang-bo-chhu. Tib.
"The pure (sacred) water." Gtsang-bo, the pure; chhu, water. In its upper course
it is also often combined with Yáru = Yáru Tsangbochú; yáru meaning upper.
The Tsangbochú river is the principal affluent of the Brahmapútra, and the same
which with the Indians in Assám bears the name of Dihóng; it was long mistaken for the
Iravadi (Klaproth, Mémoires relatifs à l'Asie, Vol. III., p. 370), and is even still very often
erroneously considered to be the Brahmapútra, though the direction as well as the quantity
of water unmistakably define the principal river as such.
Tsangbochú also occurs in Bálti as the name chiefly used by the natives for the
Shayók river.
Tsángbo, or Tsángpo seems to be repeated not unfrequently even for smaller rivers,
either alone or in composition; as an instance I mention the Shung Tsángpo, near
Khargyál, in Bálti.

Tsetháng, in Bhután, Lat. 27°, Long. 92° . . . . . . . . . རྩེ་ཐང rtse-thang. Tib.
"The flat top." Rtse, top, point; thang, plain, open flat.
Both component parts are frequently met with in Tibetan names.

Tso Gam, in Rúpchu, Lat. 33°, Long. 78° . . . . . . མཚོ་སྐམ mts'ho-skam. Tib.
"Dry lake." Mts'ho, lake; skam, dry. I should have written, as generally, k for the
Tibetan letter here used, if I had not heard it distinctly pronounced g; probably a
provincial modification so frequently met with in every language, particularly in moun-
tainous countries.¹

Tso Gyagár, in Rúpchu, Lat. 33°, Long. 78° མཚོ་རྒྱ་གར mts'ho-rgya-gar. Tib.
"Lake with the white plain." For details, compare Gyagár. The sandy shores of
this salt-lake are well characterized by its name.

Tso Kar, in Rúpchu, Lat. 33°, Long. 77° . . . . . མཚོ་དཀར mts'ho-dkar. Tib.
"White lake." Mts'ho, lake; kar, white.
The name white in this case probably refers to the thin layers of salt along its shores.

Tsomognalarí, a lake in Pangkóng, Lat. 33°, Long. 78°.
མཚོ་མོ་མངར་ལ་རི mts'ho-mo-mngar-la-ri. Tib.
"The fresh (water) lake in the mountains." Mts'ho-mo, the lake; mngar, sweet,
fresh; la is the sign of the locative; ri, mountain.