Mirror of Jewels which Clears away Errors

Descriptions of the World: Of all the Tibetan works dealing with geographical knowledge, not only in the sense of the Buddhist canonical description of Jambudvipa, but of descriptions of lands like India and Nepal, two texts come immediately to mind: the 'Gen-eral Description of the World' ('dzam gling spyi bshad) of Sum-pa mkhan-po Ye-shes dpal-'byor (1704-1788) and the 'Extensive Description of the World' ('dam gling rgyas bshad) of the Fourth bTsan-po No-min-han bsTan-'dzin phrin-las (1789-1839). The first work was written in the year 1777 and focuses on India and its peoples and regions, together with details of the major tantric places of pilgrimage; it then goes on to Nepal, pauses over Tibet, provides information on Manchuria, Korea and Japan, and leads finally to China and Russia. It has been observed that, while the author was by no means ready to abandon the authority of traditional book learning.