The Tibetan Dictionary, now presented to the learned world, is indebted for its appearance to the liberality and patronage of the British Indian Government, with which the author of this work, during his Tibetan studies, has been favoured, under the administration of two successive Governors General of India, Lord Amherst and Lord William Cavendish Bentinck. It is with profound respect that he offers his performance as a small tribute of his grateful acknowledgement for the support he has enjoyed, and particularly for the resolution of the Government in the beginning of the last year - sanctioning the publication of the Grammar and Dictionary at the public expence. Since by this means the elementary works, absolutely necessary for a fundamental knowledge of the Tibetan language, have been secured for such as shall interest themselves hereafter in acquiring a knowledge of the literature of Tibet.

Besides the general patronage by the British Government, the author acknowledges himself to have been obliged by the liberal assistance and kindness of several gentlemen of the same nation, to whom he publicly returns herewith his respectful thanks for the favours conferred on him. And be begs to inform the public, that he had not been sent by any Government to gather political information; neither can he be accounted of the number of those wealthy European gentlemen who travel at their own expense for their pleasure and curiosity; but rather only a poor student, who was very desirous to see the different countries of Asia, as the scene of so many memorable transactions of former ages; to observe the manners of several people, and to learn their languages, of which, he hopes, the world may see hereafter the results; and such a man was he who, during his peregrination; depended for his subsistence on the benevolence of others.

He has been particularly indebted to the attentions of Messieurs Henry and George Willock; as also of Mr. Richard, the Surgeon to the British Embassy, when at Teheran, in Persia; to the late Mr. W. Moorcroft, and his companions, Mr. George Trebeck and Meer Izzet Ullah, when in Ladák and Cáshmir, and to Captain (now Major) C. P. Kennedy and Dr. J. Gerard, at Subathu. Upon the first he depended for protection, and pecuniary assistance from Government, during his studies in Tibet and in Knáor, or Upper Bésár, and who has kindly reported his communications to Government; while Dr. Gerard assisted him with several useful books.

After his arrival at Calcutta, he was placed under obligations to Mr. H. H. Wilson, late Secretary to the Asiatic Society, (now Professor of Sanscrit at the University of Oxford,) for the trouble which Mr. Wilson took in making extracts of his papers on the Tibetan literature, and publishing them. Lastly, he gratefully acknowledges the favours which Mr. J. Prinsep, present Secretary to the Asiatic Society, continues to confer on him, in correcting and smoothing the English part of his works during their progress through the press.

Besides the British assistance thus afforded, he thankfully acknowledges the kind and generous treatment he met with, during his peregrination, from two French officers, Messieurs Allard and Ventura, now of high rank, in the service of the Mahá Rájá Renjit Sing, at Lahore; from Mr. Ignatz Pohle, a Merchant of Bohemia, at Aleppo; and, upon his kind recommendation, from his agent at Bagdad, Mr. Anton Swoboda, of Hungary; from Mr. Bellino of Vienna, Secretary to the late Mr. Rich, Resident at Bagdad (then in Curdistan). And lastly, from a good-hearted man, Jos. Scháfer, of Tyrol, a Smith by profession, at Alexandria, in Egypt. The foregoing is a public and grateful avowal of the favours and good services conferred on the author. Now of the work itself.

Though the study of the Tibetan language did not form part of the original plan of the author, but was only suggested after he had been by Providence led into Tibet, and had enjoyed an opportunity, by the liberal assistance of the late Mr. Moorcroft, to learn of what sort and origin the Tibetan literature was, he cheerfully engaged in the acquirement of more authentic information upon the same, hoping, that it might serve him as a vehicle to his immediate purpose; namely, his researches respecting the origin and language of the Hungarians. The result of his investigation has been that the literature of Tibet is entirely of Indian origin. The immense volumes, on different branches of science, &c. being exact or faithful translations from Sanscrit works, taken from Bengal, Magadha, Gangetic or Central India, Cáshmir, and Nepal, commencing in the seventh century after Christ. And that many of these works have been translated (mostly from Tibetan) into the Mongol, Mantchou, and the Chinese languages; so that, by this means, the Tibetan became, in Chinese Tartary, the language of the learned, as the Latin in Europe.

After thus being familiarised with the terminology, spirit, and general contents of the Buddhistic works in Tibetan translations, the author of this Dictionary estimates himself happy in having thus found an easy access to the whole Sanscrit literature, which of late has become so favorite a study of the whole learned Europe. To his own nation he feels a pride in announcing, that the study of the Sanscrit will be more satisfactory, than to any other people in Europe. The Hungarians will find a fund of information from its study, respecting their origin, manners, customs, and language; since the structure of the Sanscrit (as also of other Indian dialects) is most analogous to the Hungarian, while it greatly differs from that of the languages of occidental Europe. As an example of this close analogy; - in the Hungarian language, instead of prepositions, postpositions are invariably used, except with the personal pronouns; again, from a verbal root, without the aid of any auxiliary verb, and by a simple syllabic addition, the several kinds of verbs, distinguished as active, passive, causal, desiderative, frequentative, reciprocal, &c. are formed in the Hungarian, in the same manner as in the Sanscrit; and in neither of them is the auxiliary verb "to have" required for the formation of the preterite and other tenses, as in the languages in general of western Europe. But this is not the place to pursue an inquiry, in which the author, from patriotic as well as philological predilections, feels necessarily the deepest interest.

With respect to the Dictionary (as well as to the Grammar, by which it will soon be accompanied,) now published through the liberality of this Government, the author begs to inform the public that it has been compiled from authentic sources, after he himself became sufficiently acquainted with the language, with the assistance of an intelligent Lama, (whose name is respectfully mentioned on the title-page,) in whose intellectual powers the author had full confidence, and whom he found to be thoroughly versed in Buddhistic literature in general, well acquainted with the customs and manners of his nation, and possessed of a general knowledge of those branches of science that are more essential for the preparation of a Dictionary. In every respect qualified as a gentleman, to mix and converse daily with the first men of his country, having also visited the greatest part of Tibet, he knew very well the respectful terms, (marked in this Dictionary by h. meaning honorific or respectful,) the multiplied use of which is a peculiarity in the language of Tibet. Such terms, though they strictly belong to the Tibetan language, constitute a sort of poetical dialect: they occur frequently in the literary works, as also in the conversation of the educated classes, especially among the nobility.

Sanscrit terms seldom occur in their books, with the exception of a few proper names of men, places, precious stones, flowers, plants, &c., where the translators could not determine what their proper signification would be in Tibetan. But the technical terms, in arts and sciences, found in Sanscrit, have been rendered (not as European nations have done with their translations out of Greek and Latin) by their precise syllabic equivalents in Tibetan, according to a system framed expressly for the purpose by the Pandits who engaged in the translation of the sacred works of the Buddhists into the latter language; as may be seen in the several vocabularies extant of Sanscrit and Tibetan terms; of which a large one has been translated into English by the author of this Dictionary, and presented to the Asiatic Society; the same, he afterwards found, had been previously made known to the learned of Europe by the late Mons. Abel Remusat.

The scheme prefixed to the Dictionary will give a general idea, (in the absence of the Grammar) how to read the Tibetan words. The structure of the language is very simple. There is one general form for all sort of declinable words. In the verbs, there is no variation with respect to person or number; the noun or pronoun, in the singular or plural, showing how the sense of the verb must be taken. When the student is acquainted with the auxiliary verbs, and particles for forming the different moods and tenses, he can conjugate every verb. There are some irregular verbs, of which it is required previously to know the present, preterite, and future tenses, and the imperative, but these are mostly a sort of compound verbs: they have been explained in the Grammar, and introduced, at their respective places, in the Dictionary. In the whole of Tibet an uniform orthography is observed, but the orthoëpy differs according to different and distant provinces, especially with respect to the compound consonants.

Not to swell the volume too much, few Sanscrit terms and proper names have been introduced in the present edition. When there shall be more interest taken for Buddhism, (which has much in common with the spirit of true Christianity,) and for diffusing Christian and European knowledge, throughout the most Eastern parts of Asia, the Tibetan Dictionary may be much improved, enlarged, and illustrated by the addition of Sanscrit terms.

The author necessarily experienced many difficulties in the first years of his Tibetan studies, there being no interpreter between him and the Lama, who knew no other language besides his own; neither had he any European elementary work on this language, except the large quarto volume of the Alphahetum Tibetanum by P. Giorgi; nor had he seen the Tibetan Dictionary, edited by Mr. Marshman, Serampore, 1826, until his arrival at Calcutta, in 1831, when it could prove of no use to him, since this Dictionary had been long since ready in the same form and extent, as is it now published: - he begs therefore the learned public's indulgence for the numerous defects which may be doubtless manifest to the experienced eye in this his first essay of a Tibetan Dictionary.

Calcutta, February, 1834.