Kalmuk pilgrims bring silver, furs and camels
Editorial contextWhile Bogle stayed at Teshu Lumbo a large Kalmuk caravan arrived to worship the Panchen Lama, offering silver, furs, silk and dromedaries. They stayed a month, went on to Lhasa, and then went home, about three months' journey north. Elsewhere Bogle says Kalmuk tribes came every year with camels loaded with Siberian furs and hides.
Among the rest of his votaries were a large caravan of Kalmuks, who offered up to his shrine talents of silver, furs, pieces of silk, and dromedaries. They remained about a month at Teshu Lumbo, and then proceeded to Lhasa, where, having spent about ten days, they returned to their own country, which was about three months' journey to the northward.
About Kalmuks (Mongol pilgrims)
Fighting on horseback 'the Kalmuk way'
Editorial contextThe Panchen Lama told Bogle that the Lhasa regent did not want Gorkha envoys to enter Tibet in case they learned 'the manner of the Kalmuks fighting on horseback', which Tibetans practised too, and showed him the style with his hands. It hints at how Mongol cavalry methods were treated as a military secret.
Gesub, among other reasons, objects to their coming into Tibet lest they should learn the manner of the Kalmuks fighting on horseback, which is practised in this country (describing it at the same time by motions), and should teach it to the Gorkha Rajah's people.
About Kalmuks (Mongols) and Tibetans
The Tatars' mare's-milk beer
Editorial contextDella Penna compares Tibetan barley brandy with 'the beer which the Tatars make from the milk of mares', which he says looks and tastes like water but is surprisingly strong. It is a passing but clear reference to Mongol distilled milk spirit (arkhi) or kumiss.
a kind of brandy (mixed with the beer referred to), which does not differ greatly from the beer which the Tatars make from the milk of mares, and which is like water in appearance and taste, but is of considerable strength.
About Tatars (Mongols)
Tibet: 'the kingdom of dwellers in houses'
Editorial contextThe Capuchin della Penna, who lived in Lhasa for many years, explains the name Tibet as a Tatar (Mongol) word: Tangat katzar, which he says means the kingdom of people who live in houses, because the Tatars lived in tents of felt or yak-hair cloth while Tibetans lived in houses. Whatever the real etymology, it shows how people at the time drew the line between the two peoples by their dwellings.
The word Tibet is a Tatar corruption, the proper term being Thobot, or Tangat katzar. Tangat means dwellers in houses, and katzar country or kingdom; so the whole expression signifies "the kingdom of dwellers in houses," the Tatars dwelling in tents of felt, or of a coarse material woven from the hair of the yak or hairy ox, and the Tibetans in houses.
About Tibetans contrasted with Tatars (Mongols)
Keep in mind
The etymology is della Penna's and is doubtful; the contrast in ways of living is the useful part.
A Tatar gift that made Bogle look Russian
Editorial contextAn eccentric official decided that English dress was exactly like Russian dress, because Bogle wore a tunic and square cap that the Lama had been given by 'some Turki Tatars'. Markham adds a footnote calling this 'an instance of the confusion caused by the indiscriminate use of the word Tatar or Tartar'.
the tunic which I wore, and also my cap, the cut of which was four-square instead of being round, had been made a present of to the Lama by some Turki Tatars.
About Turki Tatars (Central Asian Turks)
The Torghut flight to China, as told by the Panchen Lama
Editorial contextThe Panchen Lama told Bogle he had been busy with Kalmuk business, and explained that some years before 'a tribe of Tatars' subject to Russia had gone over to China (the Torghut exodus from the Volga in 1771), that the Chinese emperor had imprisoned Russian envoys sent to reclaim them, and that war might follow. It shows news of the steppe travelling through Tibetan religious networks.
He told me that he had been so much engaged with some Kalmuks, and had so much to write on their account, that he had not been able to see me sooner; that several years ago a tribe of Tatars, who were subject to Russia, had gone over to the Chinese
About Torghut Kalmyks (a tribe of Tatars subject to Russia)
Every northern empire was a 'Tatar confederacy'
Editorial contextIn his memorandum Hastings sketches Tibetan history from Chinese sources and calls every northern power a 'Tatar confederacy': the Typa (Tuoba) in the fourth century, the Turks in the eighth and ninth, and on the next page the Mongols under Möngke Khan. It shows 'Tatar' used as a catch-all for any steppe people in the 1770s.
In the fourth century, the Tatar confederacy of the Typa subdued the north and east of Tibet. In the eighth and ninth centuries, when the Tatar confederacy of the Turks became feeble, the power of those nations, which now acknowledge the supremacy of the Dalai Lama, was very great.
About Tuoba, Turks and Mongols, all called Tatars
Manning's 'Tatar mandarin' at Lhasa
Editorial contextThomas Manning, travelling to Lhasa in disguise, was dismayed to learn that the chief imperial official there was 'the identical Tatar chieftain' who had been disgraced at Canton over the British occupation of Macao in 1808. Throughout his diary 'the Tatar' means this Manchu amban, whom Manning also calls 'the Tatar dog'.
I had learnt now, to my great sorrow and discomfort, that the chief mandarin at Lhasa was the identical Tatar chieftain who had been disgraced at Canton for his management during the Bengal expedition to Macao. That he was a man of a particular suspicious temper, detested at Lhasa, and that he certainly would give us all the trouble in his power.
About Manchu (Qing) officials
Holy relics sold among the Tatar tribes
Editorial contextWarren Hastings's briefing memorandum for Bogle passes on what he had been told about Tibetan Buddhism: each Tatar tribe had its own living Buddha (Kutuktu), all of whom deferred to the Dalai Lama, 'so that his excrements are sold as charms at a great price among all the Tatar tribes of this religion'. It is a startling piece of hearsay from a governor who had never been there.
Among the different Tatar tribes which are of this religion, there are persons called Ku-tchuck-tus, who are likewise esteemed living Fos. … it is even pretended that the Ku-tchuck-tus admit a superiority in the Dalai Lama, so that his excrements are sold as charms at a great price among all the Tatar tribes of this religion.
About Mongol ("Tatar") Buddhist tribes
Keep in mind
Hearsay collected in Calcutta; Hastings himself hedges with 'it is even pretended'.