A Tartar prince's widow commands the frontier
Editorial contextAt Gartok on the western frontier Desideri found a permanent force of Tartar and Tibetan soldiers guarding the fortress of Tashigang and watching everyone who entered Tibet. Its commander, a Tartar prince, had died, and his widow had taken over the command until a new governor arrived. Desideri and his companion travelled to Lhasa under her protection; later in the book he says this 'Tartar princess' retired to a nunnery near Shigatse.
in a large plain called Cartoà a strong, permanent force of Tartar and Tibetan soldiers was stationed not only for the defence of the frontier-fortress of Treéscy-Khang and the surrounding settlements, but more especially to watch all those who from that side entered the country. The commander, a Tartar prince, had died and his widow had taken over the command
About Tartar (Mongol) garrison of Tibet
Keep in mind
Wessels's paraphrase rather than Desideri's exact words; the Tartars here are the Mongol garrison serving the Mongol-descended ruler of Lhasa.
Tartar raiders on the road to the Great Wall
Editorial contextThe Portuguese lay brother Bento de Goes travelled overland from India towards China in 1603 to 1605. On the last stretch he found the country between Cialis and the Chinese wall 'notorious for its Tartar raids': merchants crossed it by night in silence, and the bodies of lone Muslim travellers lay by the road. Goes adds a telling detail (in the sentence that follows this excerpt): the Tartars did not usually kill the local people, whom they treated as their servants and herdsmen and occasionally robbed of their flocks.
"The country between Cialis and the Chinese wall," Goes writes, "is notorious for its Tartar raids, so that traders always cross it in the greatest fear, sometimes even under cover of night and in the strictest silence. One often comes across the dead bodies of Mohammedans who have attempted the journey unaccompanied, though on the other hand the Tartars are not wont to kill the native population
About Tartars (Mongol and Turkic nomads of the steppe)
Keep in mind
Goes died in China in 1607; his account survives through Ricci's reworking of his notes, so the wording is Ricci's.
Decrees in Chinese, Tartar and Tibetan
Editorial contextAfter the Qing armies drove the Dzungars out in 1720, Desideri reports, Tibet's government passed to the Emperor of China, run by ministers some of whom were Chinese, some 'Chinese Tartars' and some Tibetans. Every decree had to be issued in three languages: Chinese, Tartar and Tibetan. 'Chinese Tartars' was the usual period term for the Manchus, so within one book 'Tartar' shifts from Mongols to Manchus.
Till October 1720 Tibet was a monarchy under an absolute and independent king. From that time, however, all power has passed into the hands of the Emperor of China and the actual government consists of a body of ministers appointed by him, some of whom are Chinese, some Chinese Tartars, others again Tibetans. All decrees must be promulgated in three languages Chinese, Tartar and Tibetan.
About 'Chinese Tartars' (Manchus of the Qing court)
Keep in mind
A summary by Wessels, not Desideri's own words. Which 'Tartar' language is meant (Manchu or Mongol) is not stated.
Tibet plus Mongolia make 'great Tartary'
Editorial contextWriting from Tsaparang in 1626, the Portuguese Jesuit Antonio de Andrade lists the kingdoms of Tibet and says that, together with the empire of the 'Sopo' (Mongols), they make up 'great Tartary'. He also demotes fabled Cathay to a single large town ruled by the Mongol king. It is a neat example of how elastic the European label 'Tartary' was: here it swallows Tibet as well as Mongolia.
Together with the great empire of the Sopò [Mongolia], which borders on China on the one side and on Moscovia on the other, they form great Tartary". … "The famous Cathayo is not a separate kingdom but a large town which is called Katay, the capital of a province situated much nearer to China and which is said to be ruled by the great king of the Sopôs"
About Tibetans and the Sopo (Mongols)
Keep in mind
Andrade had not been to Mongolia; his picture of 'great Tartary' and Cathay comes from what he was told in western Tibet and from European maps.
In Bhutan, Tartary is called 'Sopo'
Editorial contextIn a Portuguese letter of 1627 from the kingdom he calls Cambirasi (Bhutan), Estevao Cacella reports that the local king says the people of Sopo are more valiant than the Chinese and usually beat them, which Cacella links to the well known wars of the Tartars with China. He then explains why nobody there has heard of 'Cathay': local people use quite different names, calling China 'Guena', Tartary 'Sopo' and Tibet 'Potente'.
but that the [people] of Sopo are more valiant, and so this one commonly defeats the Chinese, all of which agrees with what is so well known of the war of the Tartars with the Chinese … for neither China nor Tartary nor Tibet is known by these names, of which they have no knowledge; and they call China Guena, Tartary Sopo and Tibet Potente
Working translation
Original wording
porem que a do Sopo he mais esforçada, e assi commummente esta vence os Chinas, o que tudo diz com o que he tão sabido da guerra dos Tartaros com as Chinas … pois nem a China nem a Tartarea, nem o Tibet são conhecidos por estes nomes, dos quaes não tem noticia; e a China chamão Guena, a Tartarea Sopo e ao Tibet Potente
About Sopo (Mongols) as described to Jesuits in Bhutan
Keep in mind
Cacella is reporting what the Bhutanese king told him and matching it to European ideas about Tartars and Cathay; the equations are his own guesses.
'Sokpo, also called Giongar, that is to say, independent Tartary'
Editorial contextDescribing Ladakh, Desideri lists its neighbours and names the land to the north as 'Sokpo, also called Giongar, that is to say, independent Tartary'. Sokpo is the Tibetan word for the Mongols, and Giongar is the Dzungar state. The same page describes Leh, the Ladakhi capital, as a town climbing a mountain to the palace and fort, with 'no large towns' elsewhere, only villages, farmsteads and castles.
On the former side it borders on Baltistan, towards the north on Caxkar and some parts of the kingdom of Sokpo, also called Giongar, that is to say, independent Tartary.
About Dzungar Mongols
Keep in mind
Translation by Wessels from the manuscript; Desideri knew Ladakh first hand but the Dzungar lands only by report.
A Lhasa ruler 'of ancient Tartar stock'
Editorial contextThe Austrian Jesuit John Grueber reached Lhasa in 1661. As Wessels summarises his report, Tibet then had two kings: a secular governor 'of ancient Tartar stock' who ran the government, and the Dalai Lama, worshipped as a god in his palace. Wessels adds that the Potala was begun in 1642 by the Fifth Dalai Lama, who had risen to power 'with the aid of the Tartar prince Gushi Khan'. The Tartars here are the Qoshot Mongols who held military power in Tibet.
There are two kings in this kingdom; one, the Deva (Deba), of ancient Tartar stock, carries on the government; the other, who is worshipped as a deity, lives in seclusion within the precincts of his palace. … the energetic Ngavang Lobsang, who from being the head of the Tashi Lhumpo monastery had, with the aid of the Tartar prince Gushi Khan, worked his way up
About Qoshot Mongols (Gushi Khan and his heirs)
Keep in mind
The first sentence is Wessels's paraphrase of Grueber as printed by Kircher; the Gushi Khan sentence is Wessels's own history, not Grueber's.
Shambhala placed in 'Great Tartary' on the maps
Editorial contextJoao Cabral, writing in 1628 after travelling in central Tibet (U-Tsang), says the kingdom is bounded on the north by the Tartars, with whom the king sometimes fights, and that many Tartars come there who say their religion is the same. He then decides that the famous kingdom of 'Xembala', which his companion Cacella had hoped was Cathay, is really the 'Great Tartary' of European maps. Xembala is the European spelling of Shambhala, the hidden kingdom of Tibetan Buddhist tradition, so here a legendary land is being matched to a map label.
On the north it borders on the Tartars, with whom this king sometimes quarrels, and many of them come here who say that their religion is the same. … Xembala, which in my opinion is not Cathay but that which on the maps they call Great Tartary, lies further off to the north.
Working translation
Original wording
Pollo norte confina com os Tartaros com os quaes este Rei as vezes briga, e aqui vem muitos os quaes dizem que a sua Lei he a mesma. … Xembala que a meu ver não he o Catayo, mas aquella que nos Mapas chamão gram Tartarea fica mais desviada para o Norte.
About Tartars north of Tibet
Keep in mind
The identification of Xembala with Shambhala is a modern one; Cabral himself treats it as a real kingdom he has only heard of. The 'same religion' remark refers to Mongol Buddhists.