53. “In the present year of the Christian æra (1825) the Tibetans count the nineteenth year (shingmocha) of the fourteenth cycle of sixty years, which commenced with the new moon in February last. But this mode of counting years is of very recent date, commenced about eight hundred years since, and probably was adopted from the Chinese. As with respect to more ancient times, there is a great uncertainty in chronology: Padma Karpo, a celebrated Lama in the Bhutan country of Tibet, in the twenty-sixth year of the tenth cycle of sixty years, in 1592 after Christ, collected a short disquisition (now extant, in nicely printed copies of thirty-one leaves each), containing the different opinions of learned men in ancient times of Tibet, Nepal, and Kashmere, on the æra of Shakya or Buddha, the great prophet of the Buddhists. These opinions or æras were found to be twelve in number, to which he added his own. 54. “According to these thirteen opinions, the numbers of years which elapsed from the death of Shakya till the author’s time, in which he wrote, viz., 1592 A.D., and then the total number of years from Shakya till the present year, 1825 after Christ, would be as follows:— The Numbers Of Opinion. Of years till 1592. Till 1825 after Christ. 1st 4012 4245 2d 3738 3971 3d 3725 3958 4th 3729 3962 5th 2900 3133 6th 2342 2575 7th 2243 2476 8th 2136 2369 9th 2470 2703 10th 2427 2660 11th 2166 2399 12th 2474 2707 13th 2650 2883 55. “Thus I have endeavoured, to the best of my abilities, to give a summary report of the contents of the Tibetan books and papers in my possession as Government required from me. Both the Sanskrit and the Tibetan literature open a wide field before me, for future speculation on the history of mankind. I possess the same ardour as I felt at the beginning, when I planned and determined to come to the East. Should these first rough drafts of my labours, arguments, and sentiments have the Government’s approbation, I shall be happy if I can serve them with my ulterior literary researches.”