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Tibet: Description of Tibet in 1947

Hindustan Times

Called the land of the Lamas, Tibet is one of the most inaccessible countries in the world. The total area of the country is 469,294 square miles and the population about 43.7 million. Lamaism is a mixture of Bon and Shamanist cults, Tantric mysticism and Buddhism.

Lamism was firmly established in Tibet by the end of the 11th century when Kublai Khan, first Mongol Emperor of China, became a convert to Lamaism and made the Lama of Sakya Monastery, the ruler of the country. The present ruler, the 14th Dala Lama Theocracy, is Jamel Ngawang Lobsang Yishey Tenzing Gyatso (tender, mighty in speech, excellent in intellect, absolute wisdom, holding to the dotrine of the ocean wide). He is assisted both in temporal as well as spiritual affairs by the Tashi Lama Panchen Rimpoche, who is believed to be the incarnation of the Buddha and the spiritual father of the Dalai Lama himself.

Members of the Lama brotherhood form the ruling class in Tibet. They live in monasteries which are more or less educational institutions modelled on the ancient Nalanda university. They are centres of art and culture and have strong hold on the people. In all, their number is about 3,000, excluding those in Kashmir-Tibet (Ladak), Lahoul, Sikkim and Bhutan. The biggest monastery is located at Drepung, five miles from Lhasa.

The monasteries are decorated with murals and paintings. The Lama painters have fondness for depicting some fundamental mystery of the Lamaistic pantheon in order to interpret it. The Lama dances and music are also meant to interpret the mystery of life and death for the common people.

The staple food of the Tibetans is sattu and they drink chang. The main items of export from Tibet are music, turquoise stones and pashmina wool. Due to intense cold vegetation is poor. Northern Tibet is a desolate waste. Southern Tibet is well inhabited and contains the cities of Lhasa, Gyantse and Shigatse. Eastern Tibet has good grazing lands and forests. Gold is found in Western Tibet at Jalung. There are rich, though untapped, copper, lead and borax deposits.

Tibet is the source of the great rivers of India — Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra. The Manasarovar Lake is considered sacred by the Hindus. Pack ponies, yaks and dzos are the only means of transport and there are no vehicles of any kind. Tibet is linked with India through trade routes well known even in ancient times. They are the Srinagar-Leh-Shigatse-Lhasa Road, the Hindustan-Tibet Road via Simla, the Kathmandu-Lhasa Road, the Kalimpong-Lhasa Road via the Chumbey Valley to Phari.

Published in Hindustan Times