1 LADAKH. 11
2 tive dialect of the aboriginal people inhabiting the vast mountain
3 region between Hindostan and Tartary. It is very rough, and
4 abounds in harsh combinations of consonants, unutteytble even
5 by those accustomed to the most rugged tongues 6§ northern
6 Europe. It has many roots in common with Chinese, and not a
7 few with the language of the Samoeides, Ostiaks, and other tribes
8 of Arctic Asia. Some consider that it has an affinity with the
9 dialects of Turkestan and Kashmir.* Adelung? knew little of ? Mithridates, i.
10 this language, though he gives the names of perhaps a dozen mn
11 who have treated of it. Whatever may be the value of
12 Tibetan literature, it has been cultivated by native scholars
13 to considerable extent and with much industry. Csoma Ké6-
14 rési + mentions one compilation in ofe hundred and thirty- nas Res, xvill,
15 six printed volumes, consisting of treatises ‘‘de omni scibili, et ®
16 in quovis ente,” theology, logic, grammar, rhetoric, prosody,
17 astronomy, astrology, ethics, medicine, mechanics. ‘The religion
18 is Lamaism, a form of Bhuddhism,’ resembling apparently in its s Jour. As.Soc.
19 moral and spiritual tenets those entertained by the early ascetics Qn Pow,
20 and by the quietists of later date.{ In the existence of monastic Pref. to his Dict.
21 establishments for both sexes, the acknowledgment of a supreme
22 infallible head of the whole religious community, and the adop-
23 tion of pageantry in public worship, some seeming resemblance
24 has been traced to the characteristics of the Romish church. §
25 Moorcroft® describes Lamaism as “a strange mixture of meta- c 4, s10,
26 * “The language of Tibet has much in common with the dialects of Tur-
27 kestan and Cashmir. It abounds with nasals like the latter, whilst in articu-
28 lation and accent it resembles Turkish.’ This position may be considered Oriental Mag.
29 to have received the sanction of Professor Wilson, the translator and anno- !5%5; March, 111,
30 Izzet Ullah, ‘Tra-
31 tator of Izzet Ullah. vels beyoud the
32 + This Transylvanian left his country in search of knowledge, and without Himalaya.
33 funds traversed Persia, Turkestan, and Afghanist@a, and made his way to
34 Calcutta.’ He subsequently explored Great Tibet, and gave the results of | Jour. Roy. As
35 his researches into its literature and philology in a Tibetan grammar and dic- S0¢- 1854, p. 128.
36 tionary, 2 vols. 4to., published in Calcutta. He, however, has abstained
37 from tracing the affinity between this language and others.? He also gave 2 Jour. As, Soc.
38 publicity in various other forms to a vast mass of information on Tibetan 1894, p. 653,
39 literature and religion. Csoma Kérisi died of fever at Darjeeling, in Nepal,
40 in 1842, apparently a victim to his zeal for knowledge. * Id. 1842, p. 308.
41 t An extraordinary proof of this will be found in the summary of the spirit Jour. As. Soc,
42 of Lamaism given by Csoma Kirisi, 1938, p. 147.
43 § This view is supported by Wiseman, as quoted in Vigne, vol. ii. 251—256.