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 a 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 committing gross mistakes. Francke's own pioneering researches into the dialects, customs, folklore, 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 outcome of scholarly enterprise and research as much as of familiarity with the country and the people. The book is profusely illustrated, and illustrations and maps vis-a-vis the text make the readers move apace with the different phases of the history of the Western Tibet.

History of Western Tibet, A.H. Francke, Motilal Banarsidass, Hardcover, 1907/1998, 141 pages, $12.20

A. H. Franke's pioneering researches into the dialects, customs, folk-lore, ethnoloty, and archaeology of Western Tibet are widely known. The credit for finding such a prolifice and versatile scholar as Mr. Francke to take up this work goes to the Morabvian Mission.

	Contents: A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET - One of the Unknown Empires
	Author's Preface	v
	Preface	vii
	List of Illustrations	xi
	Introduction	1
1.	Greek and Roman Authors on the Nations of Western Tibet	9
2.	The Mission of the Mons to Western Tibet	15
3.	The Migrations of the Dards	21
4.	Chinese Records of Western Tibet, Say 640-760 A.D.	31
5.	The Time of the Tibeto-Dard Kigdoms, about 500-1000 A.D.	37
6.	The Inauguration of the Central Tibetan Dynasty and its First Kings, about, 900-1400 A.D.	45
7.	The Days of the Great Reformer Tsongkapa, and the Fall of the First Dynasty, about 1400-1580	57
8	The Time of the Balti Wars, about 1560-1640	67
9.	The Great Mongol War, about 1646, 1647	79
10.	The Quarrel for the Succession, about 1680-1780	87
11.	The Last Two Kings, about 1780-1834	95
12.	The Fall of the Western Tibetan Empire, 1834-1840	103
13.	The Conquest of Baltistan, 1841	115
14.	The War Against Central Tibet, 1841-1842	121
15.	Missionary's Review	137
	Appendices	133-141
	I.. Rinchana Bhoti's Career	133
	II. The Ancient History of Lahoul	134