Abstract
By utilizing multi-lingual sources in Chinese, Tibetan, Manchu, and French, the present study investigates the activities of Lama Tsultrim Zangpo Rapjampa (Wylie. bla ma tshul khrims bzang po rab ’byams pa), who served as the Qing imperial envoy during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods. This research shows that Tsultrim Zangpo had studied European knowledge of mathematics at Mengyangzhai Academy of Mathematics and joined the proofreading project of the Tibetan translation of Johann Adam Schall von Bell’s Xiyang xinfa lishu (Shixian calendar). Between 1716 and 1718, he conducted a cartographical survey of the Tibetan plateau and traveled through Xining, Lhasa, and Mountain Kailas as an imperial envoy on behalf of the Qing court. Passing through Chamdo and Garzê, he finally arrived in Chengdu, where he completed his map of Tibet and sent it back to the Qing court. His map not only made significant contributions to the update of the Huangyu quanlan tu in 1719, but also promoted the geographical knowledge of the Himalayas in China and Europe. In the 1720s, he traveled between Lhasa, Xi’an, and Darzedo to manage issues of border intelligence, local taxes, and ethnic relationships. Based on the archival research of Tsultrim Zangpo, this article argues that Qing China’s cartography of Tibet and intelligence networks directly facilitated both the globalization of the geographical knowledge of the Himalayas and the integration of Eurasian information networks in the eighteenth century.
Keywords
Tsultrim Zangpo Rapjampa (tshul khrims bzang po rab ’byams pa), Huangyu quanlan tu of Kangxi (Map of a Complete View of Imperial Territories), Mengyangzhai Academy of Mathematics, Mountain Kailas and Ganges River, Knowledge of the Himalayas
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