DEDICATED
BY K IN D P ERM IS S IO N
TO
THE R IG H T HONOURABLE
LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON
G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.
PREFACE
A t a time like the present when, owing to freer access'-
to the country, books on Tibet are becoming multiplied
and the reading public is beginning to appreciate the
homely truth which tells us that “ of making many
books there is no en d ; and much study is a weariness
of the flesh,” it is not too much to say that the general
information on matters Tibetan is wonderfully advanced
in comparison with what it was even five years ago. In
fact, so far have matters gone along the whole line of
Tibetan exploration, that the public expects nowadays
something which is decidedly new and distinctly additional
to what has already been so ably put before it by
writers in the past. I t is therefore to a more highly
enlightened and more exacting reader that an author
has nowadays to address himself, and year by year the
task will become more difficult. What has been the
charm of the past is not to the same extent the charm
of the present: what was once novel in the paucity
of literature has now become familiar owing to the
numerous books lately published which- have become
the classics of Tibetan research.
I t is, then, with the greatest diffidence that I present