[383] W. W. Rockhill, our best living authority, accepts none of the current explanations of the widely diffused term _bod_ (_bhot, bhot_), which appears to form the second element in the word _Tibet_ (_Stod-Bod_, pronounced _Teu-Beu_, "Upper Bod," _i.e._ the central and western parts in contradistinction to _Maen-Bod_, "Lower Bod," the eastern provinces). _Notes on the Ethnology of Tibet_, Washington, 1895, p. 669. This writer finds the first mention of Tibet in the form _Tobbat_ (there are many variants) in the Arab Istakhri's works, about 590 A.H., while T. de Lacouperie would connect it with the Tatar kingdom of _Tu-bat_ (397-475 A.D.). This name might easily have been extended by the Chinese from the Tatars of Kansu to the neighbouring Tanguts, and thus to all Tibetans. [384] _Hbrog-pa_, _Drok-pa_, pronounced _Dru-pa_. [385] The Mongols apply the name _Tangut_ to Tibet and call all Tibetans _Tangutu_, "which should be discarded as useless and misleading, as the people inhabiting this section of the country are pure Tibetans" (Rockhill, p. 670). It is curious to note that the Mongol Tangutu is balanced by the Tibetan _Sok-pa_, often applied to all Mongolians. [386] _Notes on the Ethnology of Tibet_, 1895, p. 675; see also S. Chandra Das, _Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet_, 1904; F. Grenard, _Tibet: the Country and its Inhabitants_, 1904; G. Sandberg, _Tibet and the Tibetans_, 1906; and L. A. Waddell, _Lhasa and its Mysteries, with a record of the Expedition of 1903-1904_, 1905. [387] _Isvestia_, XXI. 3. [388] _Ethnology_, p. 305. [389] _Abor_, _i.e._ "independent," is the name applied by the Assamese to the East Himalayan hill tribes, the _Minyong_, _Padam_ and _Hrasso_, who are the _Slo_ of the Tibetans. These are all affiliated by Desgodins to the Lho-pa of Bhutan (_Bul. Soc. Geogr._, October, 1877, p. 431), and are to be distinguished from the _Bori_ (_i.e._ "dependent") tribes of the plains, all more or less Hinduized Bhotiyas (Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 22 sq.). See A. Hamilton, _In Abor Jungles_, 1912. [390] Not to be confused with the _Khas_, as the wild tribes of the Lao country (Siam) are collectively called. Capt. Eden Vansittart thinks in Nepal the term is an abbreviation of Kshatriya, or else means "fallen." This authority tells us that, although the Khas are true Gurkhas, it is not the Khas who enlist in our Gurkha regiments, but chiefly the Magars and Gurungs, who are of purer Bhotiya race and less completely Hinduized ("The Tribes, Clans, and Castes of Nepal," in _Journ. As. Soc. Bengal_; LXIII. I, No. 4). [391] _Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama_, p. 350 sq. [392] "Voila, je crois, le vrai Tibetain des pays cultives du sud, qui se regarde comme bien plus civilise que les pasteurs ou bergers du nord" (_Le Thibet_, p. 253).