In der Catholic Encyclopedia befindet sich auf der site: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14718a.htm eine kurze Einführung zu Tibet. Neben den Themen Hydrography, Geography, Lamaist Hierarchy and Secular Administration, History, Chinese Administration, Travellers in Tibet und Relations with China, Russia, and England finden sich hier auch als Einführung die beiden Kapitel Missions und Missionaries, language, and literature of Tibet.
(Siehe im Anhang für den Fall, daß diese site abgeschaltet wird.)

Missions

Since the Capuchins were expelled in 1760, except the Lazarists Huc and Gabet, who paid a visit to Lhasa in 1844, no missionary entered Tibet proper. The Vicar Apostolic of Hindu Tibet, Giuseppe Antonio Borghi, Bishop of Batsaïda, begged to be relieved of part of his work, and consequently on 21 March, 1846, Gregory XVI created the Vicariate Apostolic of Lhasa. The new vicariate was placed in charge of the Foreign Missions of Paris, and in 1847 Mgr Pérocheau, of Sze-ch’wan, sent Father Charles- René Renou (b. 22 Aug., 1812); d. 18 Oct., 1863) through Bat’ang to Cha-mu-to, some thirty days in the interior of Tibet, but being discovered, he was sent back to Ch’eng-tu. Renou being appointed Prefect Apostolic of Eastern Tibet was to enter his mission via Yun-nan, while Rabin, Prefect Apostolic of Southern Tibet, was to penetrate into the country by the way of Northern India with athers Krick and Bernard. Nicholas-Michel Krick (b. 2 March, 1819) and Auguste-Etienne Bourry (b. 26 Dec., 1826) were murdered by the Abors on 1 Sept., 1854. Finally the vicariate was established in the eastern portion of Tibet and the western portion of Sze-ch’wan with Jacques-Léon-Thomine Desmazures (b. 17 Feb., 1804; d. 25 Jan., 1869), Bishop of Sinopolis (1857), who resigned in 1864. His successors have been Joseph-Marie Chauveau (b. 24 Feb., 1816; d. 21 Dec., 1877), Bishop of Sebastopolis (1850) and Vicar Apostolic of Tibet (1864-77); Félix Biet (b. 21 Oct., 1838; d. 9 Sept., 1904), Bishop of Diana. The present Vicar Apostolic is Pierre-Philippe Giraudeau (b. 17 March, 1850), since 1901, Bishop of Tiniade (12 Dec., 1897), with his residence at Ta-Tsien-lu. The mission includes (1910) 21 European priests, 2407 Catholics, and 600 catechumens. It has endured cruel persecutions during recent years. Among the missionaries of Tibet must be mentioned the well-known traveller and scholar, Auguste Desgodins (b. 1826), now living at Darjeeling, author of a large “Dictionnaire thibétain-latin-français”, and of a Tibetan grammar, printed at Hong-Kong in 1899.

Appendix: Missionaries, language, and literature of Tibet

The missionaries of Tibet were the first Tibeta scholars. The Jesuit Hippolito Desideri laid the foundation of Christian Tibetan literature by the composition (1716-21) of two apologetic works, one against the erroneous belief that everybody could be saved by his own religion, the other against transmigration of souls. The Capuchin Francesco Orazio della Penna (b. 1681; d. at Patan in Nepal, 1745) translated into Tibetan for the neophytes Cardinal Bellarmine’s “Christian Doctrine” and Thurlot’s “Treasure of Christian Doctrine”. He compiled with the assistance of his confrères the first Tibetan dictionary, containing 35,000 words in Tibetan characters with corresponding Italian translation. He also translated from Tibetan into Italian “History of the life and works of Shakiatuba, the restorer of Lamaism”, “Three roads leading to perfection”, “On transmigration and prayer to God” (”Anal. Ord. Cap.”, VI, Rome, 1890, 349). These were the first translations made from Tibetan or from any Indian language into a European language. All remained unpublished, unless the Tibetan-Italian Dictionary “executed by some Roman missionary and collected and arranged by F. C. G. Schroeter of the (Protestant) Church Missionary Society and edited by J. Marshman of te Baptist Missionary Society at Serampore (India) in 1826, consisting of nearly 500 quarto pages” (Bagster, “Bible of Every Land”, London, 1851, p. 17 sq.) is the afore-mentioned work compiled by the Capuchin Fathers. The first printed dictionary and grammar of the Tibetan language is the “Alphabetum Tibetanum missionum apostolicarum commodo editum” (Rome, 1762) by the Italian Augustinian Antonio Agostino Giorgi (d. 1797; cf. Cath. Encycl., VII, 285; Heimbucher, “Orden u. [K]ongregationen”, II, Paderborn, 1907, p. 202). “Much valuable information derived from notes and letters written by the Jesuit and Capuchin Fathers in Tibet is found in this work” (Rockhill, “Journey through Mongolia and Tibet”, Washington, 1894, p. X, note). The origin of Tibetan studies among Europeans, generally accorded to the Hungarian savant Oosma de Koros (d. 1842), must be given to the Catholic missionaries and, above all, to the Augustinian Giorgi. For a century after his time this study was cultivated only by some European scholars and a few Protestant missionaries, but their works, especially the Tibetan translation of the Bible by Protestant missionaries, owe much to the researches of the older Catholic missionaries. The zalous priests of the Foreign Missions, especially Renou (d. 1863) and Desgodins, took up the work of their predecessors.