The present government of Tibet is superintended by two _ta chin_, or ‘great ministers,’ residing at H’lassa, who act conjointly, while they serve as checks upon each other; they do not hold their office for a long time. They have absolute control over all the troops in the country, and the military are generally confined to the garrisons, and do not cultivate the soil. The collection of revenue, transmission of tribute to Peking, and direction of the persons who carry it, and those who conduct the trade at Batang and Síning fu, are all under their control. The Dalai-lama, and the Teshu-lama are the high religious officers of the country, each of them independent in his own province, but the former holding the highest place in the hierarchy. The Chinese residents confer with each concerning the direction of his own province. All their appointments to office or nobility must be sanctioned by the residents before they are valid, but merely religious officers are not under this surveillance. In the villages, the authority is administered by secular deputy lamas called _deba_, and by commandants called _karpon_, who are sent from the capital. Each _deba_ is assisted by a native _vazir_ of the place, who, with the chief lama, form the local government, amenable to the supreme magistracy. The western province of Nari is peopled by nomads, who wander over the regions north of Ravan-hrad, and are under the authority of _karpons_ sent from H’lassa, without the assistance of lamas. The two high-priests themselves are likewise assisted by councillors. One of these, called Soopoon Choomboo, who held the office of _sadeek_ or adviser when Turner visited Teshu-Lumbo, was a Manchu by birth, but had long lived in Tibet. The nomadic clans of Dam Mongols and other tribes occupying the thirty-nine feudal townships or _tu-sz’_ in Anterior Tibet, are governed by the residents without the intervention of the lamas. The disturbances in Ulterior Tibet in 1792, resulting from the irruption of the Nípalese and sack of Teshu-Lumbo, were speedily quelled by the energy of Kienlung’s government, and the invaders forced to sue for mercy. The southern frontier was, in consequence of this inroad, strongly fortified by a chain of posts, and the communication with the states between Tibet and India strictly forbidden and watched. It gave the Chinese an opportunity to strengthen their rule and extend their influence north to Khoten and into Ladak. The natural mildness of character of the Tibetans, and similarity of religion renders them much easier under the Chinese yoke, than the Mohammedans.[149] FOOTNOTES: [95] Klaproth (_Mémoires Relatifs à l’Asie_, Tome I., Paris, 1824) has translated from the Manchu a narrative of a visit made in 1677 by one of the grandees of Kanghí’s court to a summit in this range. _Chinese Repository_, Vol. XX., p. 296.