A History of Western Tibet: One of the Unknown Empires

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A history of Western Tibet is based on foreign and western Tibetan sources of information. The western Tibetan sources of information are records on stones and on paper. Records on stones cover the period 200 B.c. to 1900 A.D. Records on paper are the chronicles of the Kings of Leh (or Ladakh). Though these are edited ones, much remains to be done. According to Francke, it's not time for the compilation of a "scientific history". That may be written when all the historical records of whose existence-we know have been edited. There are historical records, which it is extremely difficult for a European to get hold of, although there can be no doubt about their existence.

Among them are the chronicles of several lines of Vassal-Princes. Basing his work on the Book of the "Kings of Ladakh". Masterly translated by Dr. Karl Marx, the author ventures on a popular history of the Western Tibet, without the risk of commit-ting gross mistakes. Francke's own pioneering researches into the dialects, customs, folk-lore, ethnology, and archaeology of Western Tibet are widely known.

The credit for finding such a prolific and versatile scholar as Mr. Francke to take up this work goes to Moravian Mission. The readers will find A History of Western Tibet interesting which is the outcclme of schol-arly enterprise and research as much as of familiarity with the country and the people. The book is profusely illustrated, and illus-trations and maps vis-a-vis the text make the readers move apace with the different phases of the history of the Western Tibet.

**Contents and Sample Pages**