General knowledge about Tibet before the studies of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös

Abstract

Tibet started to attract European missionaries and explorers as early as the 17th century. Although the missions failed to convert Tibetans to Christianity, they greatly contributed to our knowledge about Tibet. These people worked on Tibetan history, culture, linguistics and translations. Their travel accounts provided later scholars of Oriental studies, like Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, with a lot of useful information. This paper aims to summarize the contents of letters, diaries and official reports about Tibet prior to the first half of the 18th century, when Alexander Csoma de Kőrös began his Tibetan studies in Ladakh.