accompanied Prince
Kublai in 1253 against Yunnan, did in the following year direct his arms
against the Tibetans. But this campaign, that no doubt to which the text
alludes as "the wars of Mangu Kaan," appears to have occupied only a part
of one season, and was certainly confined to the parts of Tibet on the
frontiers of Yunnan and Sze-ch'wan. ["In the _Yuen-shi_, Tibet is mentioned
under different names. Sometimes the Chinese history of the Mongols uses
the ancient name _T'u-fan_. In the Annals, _s.a._ 1251, we read: 'Mangu
Khan entrusted _Ho-li-dan_ with the command of the troops against
_T'u-fan_." _Sub anno_ 1254 it is stated that Kublai (who at that time was
still the heir-apparent), after subduing the tribes of Yun-nan, entered
_T'u-fan_, when _So-ho-to_, the ruler of the country, surrendered. Again,
_s.a._ 1275: 'The prince _Al-lu-chi_ (seventh son of Kublai) led an
expedition to _T'u-fan_.' In chap, ccii., biography of _Ba-sz'-ba_, the
Lama priest who invented Kublai's official alphabet, it is stated that this
Lama was a native of _Sa-sz'-kia_ in T'u-fan. (_Bretschneider, Med Res._
II. p. 23.)--H.C.] Koeppen seems to consider it certain that there was no
actual conquest of Tibet, and that Kublai extended his authority over it
only by diplomacy and the politic handling of the spiritual potentates who
had for several generations in Tibet been the real rulers of the country.
It is certain that Chinese history attributes the organisation of civil
administration in Tibet to Kublai. Mati Dhwaja, a young and able member of
the family which held the hereditary primacy of the Satya [Sakya] convent,
and occupied the most influential position in Tibet, was formerly
recognised by the Emperor as the head of the Lamaite Church and as the
tributary Ruler of Tibet. He is the same person that we have already (vol.
i. p. 28) mentioned as the Passepa or Bashpah Lama, the inventor of
Kublai's official alphabet. (_Carpini_, 658, 709; _D'Avezac_, 564; _S.
Setzen_, 89; _D'Ohsson_, II. 317; _Koeppen_, II. 96; _Amyot_, XIV. 128.)

With the caution that Marco's Travels in Tibet were limited to the same
mountainous country on the frontier of Sze-ch'wan, we defer further
geographical comment till he brings us to Yunnan.

NOTE 2.--Marco exaggerates a little about the bamboos; but before
gunpowder became familiar, no sharp explosive sounds of this kind were
known to ordinary experience, and exaggeration was natural. I have been
close to a b