CHAPTER XVI

THE SYSTEMS OF RECKONING TIME

1. CALENDARS AND ASTROLOGICAL TABLES.--2. THE VARIOUS MODES OF CHRONOLOGY. The cycle of 12 years. Counting back from the current year. The cycle of 60 years. The cycle of 252 years.--3. THE YEAR AND ITS DIVISIONS.

1. Calendars and astrological tables.

The Tibetans received their astronomical science from their neighbours in India and China; the Chinese also becoming their teachers in the art of divination. Their acquaintance with the astronomical and calendrical systems of these nations coincides with the propagation of the Buddhist religion by the Chinese and Indian priests, to whom they are also indebted for the respective systems of defining the year.[1] Both systems are based upon a

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unit of sixty years, differing, however, in the modes of denominating the years. The Indian denomination is called in Tibetan Kartsis, "white mathematics;" the Chinese method, on the other hand, goes by the name of Naktsis, "black mathematics, a term also extended to the "black art," or the science of divination and of astrological calculations.[1]

The Tibetan designations for almanacs are Leutho,[2] Lotho, or Ritha; they are sketched by the Lamas.

It is a very general custom to append to the almanacs various tables for astrological purposes. These additional tables differ widely in contents as well as in size; they are rarely wanting for the following purposes:

Gabtsis,[3] "the concealed calculations," are tables framed upon the common calendrical system, the occasions for which they are consulted being most various.

Grubtsis,[4] "the perfect astronomy," for deciding the character and influence of the planets.

Tserab las-tsis[5] is the name of the calculations for the duration of life, and of the fate of man.

Bagtsis[6] are -the tables consulted in cases of marriage.

Shintsis[7] are those used to find an answer to inquiries respecting the form in which the dead shall be re-born.

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Plate XV.

PRINTS FROM SLIPS OF WOOD USED IN TÍBET AS A SUPPOSED PROTECTION AGAINST EVIL SPIRITS

No. 2; from Síkkim

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Plate XVI.

PRINTS FROM SLIPS OF WOOD USED IN TÍBET AS A SUPPOSED PROTECTION AGAINST EVIL SPIRITS

No. 3; from Síkkim

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Naktsis, which also designates the art of divination in general, is predominantly applied to tables by means of which the lucky and unlucky times affecting a particular individual, with the reasons of their being so, can be determined. Several tables of this kind will be described in a subsequent chapter.

Tables relating to particular classes, such as Rajas, Lamas, and the like, are less frequently met with.

2. The various modes of chronology.

The various systems of reckoning time have already been the object of the most learned and successful researches by Csoma and Ideler. I give an abstract of their results on account of the connexion of the calendrical systems with the interpretation of the astrological calculations; this affords me, at the same time, the opportunity of combining with it the informations which Hermann obtained from natives during his stay in Síkkim.

1. When any thing is to be defined referring to a period not too distant from the present time, it is not the practice to use a standard unit of sixty years, but a cycle of twelve years is employed instead, each year bearing the name of an animal,[1] which names are invariably repeated in the following order:--

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Thus, when a particular year is to be specified, the Tibetan term for year, Lo, is added to the name of the animal, and it is called Ji-lo, "mouse year;" Lang-lo, "ox year," &c.[1] When the date of an event which has taken place previous to the present duodecimal era is, to be indicated, the number of cycles that have passed since the time in question is first put down, and by adding to it the number of the animal year the entire sum of years is accurately arrived at.

2. In books, as well as generally in conversation, the dates of past events are not unfrequently determined by counting back from the current year. For instance, the present year being 1863, the birth of Tsonkhapa, which occurred in 1355 A.D., would be said to have taken place 508 years ago. This method is also applied. in the Baidûrya Karpo, from which Csoma has extracted his highly important chronological table.[2]

3. A cycle of sixty years seems to have been in very general use in Tibet a long time ago.[3] As a novelty,

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it was ordained, probably in the eleventh century A.D., that the cycles of sixty years should be counted from the year 1026, which is the year next to 1025, in which the Kâla Chakra system had been introduced into Tibet (see p. 47). The year 1026 being the first year of the first cycle, 1086 became the first year of the second cycle. If the number of the cycles that have already elapsed were regularly added in books and documents to the definition of the current year, this system would be as precise as our way of counting by centuries; but the number of the cycle being omitted before the year to be determined,[1] the reader frequently finds it no easy task to assign the correct era by weighing and comparing dates of an indirect nature.

The year 1026 was also the first year of the contemporaneous Indian cycle, and thus the identity of the Tibetan and the Indian order of years within the cycle became possible. The first, second, third year, &c., of any Tibetan cycle is consequently the first, second, third year, &c., of an Indian cycle; the number of cycles, however, do not accord with each other, the Indian not dating from the year 1026, but from one, or even two other and anterior epochs.[2]

It is already long ago, at least under the dynasty Han, or 206 B.C., that the Chinese began to measure time by cycles of sixty years, a period formed by the combinations of a decimal and a duodecimal series. But

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between the Chinese cycle and that of the Indo-Tibetan the coincidence was not perfect, a third year of the Chinese cycle being coeval with the first of the Tibetan cycle, and so on. This difference, however, remained without any influence upon Tibetan chronology so long as China possessed no political weight in the country; but when the Chinese government, in 1718,[1] made Tibet a dependency, it soon followed that the inhabitants were obliged to adapt the cyclic order of their years to that of the Chinese, and this could only be effected by advancing the number of the year throughout by two. Thus two years are virtually cancelled from the Tibetan calendar, so that the cycles commence two years earlier than before the change; e. g. in 1864 instead of 1866. The altered chronology is used at present in all official matters, and is generally adopted for private business.

In support of this explanation I quote the document from Dába.[2] It is dated from the sixth month (month

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Plate XVII.

TREATY

BETWEEN ADOLPHE SCHLAGINTWEIT

AND

THE CHINESE AUTHORITIES OF DÁBA.

This was in reference to the Routes he and his brother Robert should be allowed to take in Gnári Khórsum.

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of July) of the wood-hare year. This year is the fifty-second in the cycle. If fifty-one is added to 1806 (not fifty-two, because 1806 is the first year of a new cycle, the fourteenth of the Indo-Tibetan chronology), we obtain the year 1857; but my brothers were in Dába in 1855, which year can only be found by deducting two years (compare p. 287).[1]

Within these cycles of sixty years the single years are denominated differently in the Indian and in the Chinese manner. According to the Indian principle, each year is called by a particular name; these Sanskrit terms the Tibetans have simply translated into their own language.[2] In imitation of the Chinese mode[3] of reckoning time the sixty years of the cycle are designated in the following way. The twelve animals already mentioned are five times repeated in the order given above, and are coupled with the five elements, each of the latter being introduced

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in the Series twice in immediate succession. We obtain, therefore, sixty combinations each differing from the other. The years are then distinguished in two ways; they are either called by the names of the element and animal combined, or by the names of the colour of the element and the animal combined. A combination of the one form is, e. g., water-hog year; and the same combination, in the second form, blue-hog year. Water-hog or blue-hog year stands for the 60th of the Indo-Tibetan cycle. If the names of the years are given in full detail, a gender is also added to the combinations of element and animal, this being represented alternately by pho, a particle denoting the masculine gender, and mo, the feminine particle; and the gender of every combination is, therefore, defined by its very position in the cycle. The year beginning the cycle has the element and animal masculine, the next year has the same element and the successive animal both feminine; and the same alternations of the gender being kept up throughout it results that every year the numeral of which is an odd number, as 1, 3, 5, &c., must be masculine, while the years represented by the even numerals 2, 4, 6, &c., are feminine. It must be noticed that a distinctive power is not conferred by the addition of these particles, m at first might appear to be the case. The natives employ the mode of counting by colours when pointing out a year in an almanac, because the elements are there represented by colours and symbolical signs, and not by words;[1] on all other occasions the

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name of the element is more usually resorted to. The following table shows the succession of the elements and their colours, from which no deviation is made in counting time.

In order to facilitate the determination of our era in Tibetan terms, I append, as an example, the following table, which contains the Tibetan mode of counting and the numbers now used in compliance with the Chinese prescription. The table is, at the same time, selected so as to embrace seventy-five years belonging to three different cycles.[1]

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TIBETAN CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

of the cycle of sixty years.

4. Another method of counting is that based on a cycle of 252 years; it was made known for the first time in Georgi's "Alphabetum Tibetanum," and again reported by Huc.[1] From the above mentioned elements and animals a cycle of 252 years is formed by imputing to the masculine and feminine particles a discriminating power, and thus multiplying the combinations. The first

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twelve years of this cycle are counted by the names of the twelve animals only; the next sixty years (13-72) by coupling them with the five elements (each being introduced twice, as described in the preceding table); the period from 73 to 132 is denominated by affixing the masculine particle "pho" to the combinations; that from 133 to 192 by appending the feminine particle "mo." The years from 193 to 252, as Abbé Huc concludes, are distinguished by the alternate employment of pho and mo till the end of the cycle. This is not quite clear. If it were to be understood that, in this last series, a male combination alternates with a female combination, we should obtain only those terms which are already contained in the periods from 73 to 192. As one combination which would provide the addition of the 60 years required for completing the sum of 252 without a repetition, and which could be brought into final accordance with Hues words, I might suggest the uniting of elements and animals of different genders. According to this mode, the year 193 has the element male and the animal female, 194 has the same element female, the animal male, 195 has the next element male and the animal female, 196 the same element female and the animal male, and so on; while in the previous series the entire combination is of the same gender in both its parts. In this, however, there is a theoretical disadvantage which ought not to be overlooked. When completely worked out, it would not conclude with 252, but would proceed as far as 312; for sixty more combinations, differing from those already obtained, are

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at once formed, if we continue the series by now making the first element female and the first animal male, and then the same element male and the next animal female, &c.

Perhaps the following combination may not be unworthy of our attention, since it equally excludes repetitions, and has besides the advantage of not extending the series beyond 252. In the group from 13-72 the genders of the elements are undecided, the animals also have no particle appended; failing this, however, usage warrants us in regarding them as males. This supposition is confirmed by the representations wherever they are distinct enough; moreover, in verbal explanations the male nouns are almost exclusively used, as, e. g. ram in stead of sheep, &c. In the concluding series from 193 to 252 the gender of the elements might also be considered to remain undefined, while the animals might all be taken as females. The combination of two parts of diverse gender rather seems not to be in contradiction with what we may suppose to be intended in Hue's words; and the combination of the elements with female animals, besides, derives probability from its being that particular connexion which properly completes the series in form as well as in number.

As an illustration of the combinations resulting, I add a list of all the years in the cycle of 252 in which the mouse, the first of the series of animals, occurs.

Year 1. Mouse.

Year 13. Wood-mouse.

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Year 73. Male wood-mouse.

Year 133. Female wood-mouse.

Year 193. Male wood, female mouse. (Huc).

Wood, female mouse. (Schlagintweit).

This cycle of 252 years is not in general use; Csoma heard nothing at all about it, neither did Cunningham; nor did my brothers find it actually employed. As an instance, I may mention that the date wood-hare year of the Dába document gives, according to the 252 years cycle, the year 1845, if we begin with 1026 as the first,--1843, if we correct it for the modifications recently introduced; while it must be 1855 (see p. 277). This cycle may, however, be expected to be in use in the very centres of the Lamaic institutions, such as Lhássa, Tashilúnpo, &c.[1] At some distance from Lhássa it seems to be no longer known, even if it were ever employed; the Lamas in Síkkim were not acquainted with it.

3. The Year and its Divisions.

The year with the Tibetans is a lunar one, i. e. the phases of the moon regulate the duration of the mouth, and twelve such months--after the lapse of which nearly the same season begins to return-are the basis of the definition of the annual period. Twelve of these lunar

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months are equal to 354 days, 8 hours, 48 min., 36.6 sec.--a total which is less than the solar year by 10 days, 21 hours, 0 min., 11 sec. The Tibetan year nominally amounts to 360 days; and in order to bring it into accordance with the moon, one day,[1] from time to time, is not counted at all. But as this does not occur with exact regularity, the mouths and years do not always begin on the same day as the Chinese months and years.[2]

The difference between the lunar and the solar year is compensated by the Tibetans by inserting, for every period of nineteen years, seven intercalary months (Tib. Dashol); the error then remaining is not more than about two hours for this period, for seven lunar months give 206 days, 17 hours, 8 min., 20 See., and the inferiority of the lunar year for 19 years is altogether 206 days, 15 hours, 3 min., 29 see. It is only after about two centuries that the error amounts to one day.[3] With respect to the principle which is followed in the intercalation of the seven months I am not in possession of any details. Csoma says, that generally one month is inserted every third year.[4]

The year begins in February with the appearance of

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the new moon.[1] The twelve months, in Tibetan Dava, are called the first, second, third month, &c., from one to twelve, or also by the names of the cyclic animals with the word "Dava" added.[2] The months are subdivided into thirty days, in Tibetan Tsei, which are quoted by their numerals, and into weeks, in Tibetan Gungdun. Within the week the days bear the names of the sun, moon, and five planets.[3] Certain symbolical signs are also connected with the different days, as in the following enumeration:

The days are subdivided into twenty-four hours, each hour into sixty minutes, in Tibetan Chusrang.

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