DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20134#0285
TIBET-TTPPEEA.
253
Tibet.
This is the name now employed by Europeans to designate the longitudinal valley lying between
the Himalaya and the Karakorum, which is drained on the east by the Dihong (by mistake
sometimes called the Brahmaputra), and on the west by the river-system of the Indus
and Satlej.
Ritter, Cunningham, and recently Koppen,1 have collected several of the older modes of
spelling Tibet. Marco Polo writes Thebeth, Simeon Sethi2 gives it Tovitccz; the Arabian
annalists, Abu Zaid Al Hasan in the year 915 a.d., Ibn Haukal in about 950, Abu Richan
in 1030, and Edrisi in 1154, write Ti-bat. In the Chinese description of Tibet, translated
by Klaproth,3 it is said that a victorious chief who founded a powerful empire in Tibet
(about 630 a.d.), called it Thu-pho, or Thu-fa, a name which Chinese historiographers
have changed into Thou-fan. In Mongolian this country is called Tubed, the vowel u
having a sound between the u as we use it, and the French u in tu; the same sound
also exists in the Swedish language. In Kalmuki the name sounds Tobod.4 The names
Tobbat and Tobot are incorrect, as Schiefner has shown, who also has made evident)5
that the word Tibet, or its modifications in use, are to be derived from the Tibetan
V
words thub and phod SJ^, which have both the meaning of to be able, to have
strength, to dare; they have been combined for the purpose of increasing the power of their
meaning.
The name now in use in Tibetan, besides several descriptive designations,6is Bod, Bod-yul,
(yul, country), decidedly a softer form of phod. To the Tibetans themselves Tibet is now a
foreign word. In the districts bordering on the British dominions they have learned it from
English, but in Balti the natives say that the Mussalmans are considered to have intro-
duced it long before Europeans visited the country.
Tiloknathj or Triloknath, in Chamba,
Lat. 32°, Long. 76°........^ib d^Aj Hind., properly f%<f^7TPZT Sander.
lCZ/ord of the three worlds." Particularly an epithet of Siva.
Tippera, properly Tripura, in Bengal, Lat. 23°, Long. 91° . . . f^"lj^ Sanskr.
"Three towns."
1 Ritter, "Erdkunde von Asien," Vol. III., p. 177; Cunningham, "Ladak," p. 19; Koppen, "Die Religion des
Buddha," Vol. II., p. 41. 2 "De Alimentor. Facultate." Edit. Paris., p. 70. —According to Thomas's most
interesting report, "On Marco Polo, from a Cod. Ital. Monacensis," Sitzungsberichte der baier. Acad., p. 261-70, Tubet
is also found in Marco Polo, who calls it, however, "una citta chel gran chane ghuasto per ghuerra."
3 Klaproth, "Nouveau Journal Asiatique," Vol. IV., p. 106. Compare "Asia polyglotta," p. 343.
4 Also I. J. Schmidt writes it so in his "Forschungen im Gebiete der alteren Bildungsgeschichte der Vc'ilker
Mittelasiens." Petersburg 1824.
5 "Melanges Asiatiques de St. Petersbourg," Vol. I., p. 332, note.
0 Such descriptive designations for Tibet are: Kha-va-chan-gyi-yul, the land full of show, q. v.; gangs-
ri'i-khrod, an assemblage of snowy tracts; gangs-ri'i-Zjongs, a tract of icy or snowy mountains; sa-yi-Zte-va,
the navel (the centre) of the earth.
253
Tibet.
This is the name now employed by Europeans to designate the longitudinal valley lying between
the Himalaya and the Karakorum, which is drained on the east by the Dihong (by mistake
sometimes called the Brahmaputra), and on the west by the river-system of the Indus
and Satlej.
Ritter, Cunningham, and recently Koppen,1 have collected several of the older modes of
spelling Tibet. Marco Polo writes Thebeth, Simeon Sethi2 gives it Tovitccz; the Arabian
annalists, Abu Zaid Al Hasan in the year 915 a.d., Ibn Haukal in about 950, Abu Richan
in 1030, and Edrisi in 1154, write Ti-bat. In the Chinese description of Tibet, translated
by Klaproth,3 it is said that a victorious chief who founded a powerful empire in Tibet
(about 630 a.d.), called it Thu-pho, or Thu-fa, a name which Chinese historiographers
have changed into Thou-fan. In Mongolian this country is called Tubed, the vowel u
having a sound between the u as we use it, and the French u in tu; the same sound
also exists in the Swedish language. In Kalmuki the name sounds Tobod.4 The names
Tobbat and Tobot are incorrect, as Schiefner has shown, who also has made evident)5
that the word Tibet, or its modifications in use, are to be derived from the Tibetan
V
words thub and phod SJ^, which have both the meaning of to be able, to have
strength, to dare; they have been combined for the purpose of increasing the power of their
meaning.
The name now in use in Tibetan, besides several descriptive designations,6is Bod, Bod-yul,
(yul, country), decidedly a softer form of phod. To the Tibetans themselves Tibet is now a
foreign word. In the districts bordering on the British dominions they have learned it from
English, but in Balti the natives say that the Mussalmans are considered to have intro-
duced it long before Europeans visited the country.
Tiloknathj or Triloknath, in Chamba,
Lat. 32°, Long. 76°........^ib d^Aj Hind., properly f%<f^7TPZT Sander.
lCZ/ord of the three worlds." Particularly an epithet of Siva.
Tippera, properly Tripura, in Bengal, Lat. 23°, Long. 91° . . . f^"lj^ Sanskr.
"Three towns."
1 Ritter, "Erdkunde von Asien," Vol. III., p. 177; Cunningham, "Ladak," p. 19; Koppen, "Die Religion des
Buddha," Vol. II., p. 41. 2 "De Alimentor. Facultate." Edit. Paris., p. 70. —According to Thomas's most
interesting report, "On Marco Polo, from a Cod. Ital. Monacensis," Sitzungsberichte der baier. Acad., p. 261-70, Tubet
is also found in Marco Polo, who calls it, however, "una citta chel gran chane ghuasto per ghuerra."
3 Klaproth, "Nouveau Journal Asiatique," Vol. IV., p. 106. Compare "Asia polyglotta," p. 343.
4 Also I. J. Schmidt writes it so in his "Forschungen im Gebiete der alteren Bildungsgeschichte der Vc'ilker
Mittelasiens." Petersburg 1824.
5 "Melanges Asiatiques de St. Petersbourg," Vol. I., p. 332, note.
0 Such descriptive designations for Tibet are: Kha-va-chan-gyi-yul, the land full of show, q. v.; gangs-
ri'i-khrod, an assemblage of snowy tracts; gangs-ri'i-Zjongs, a tract of icy or snowy mountains; sa-yi-Zte-va,
the navel (the centre) of the earth.