there sent expeditions to the mainland and Borneo.[9] But the history
of Java is curiously fragmentary whereas the copious inscriptions of
Camboja and Champa combined with Chinese notices give a fairly
continuous chronicle. And a glance at the map will show that if there
were Hindu colonists at Ligor it would have been much easier for
them to go across the Gulf of Siam to Camboja than _viâ_ Java. I have
therefore not adopted the hypothesis of expansion from Java (while
also not rejecting it) nor followed any chronological method but have
treated of Camboja first, as being the Hindu state of which on the
whole we know most and then of Champa and Java in comparison with it.

In the later sections of the book I consider the expansion of Indian
influence in the north. A chapter on Central Asia endeavours to
summarize our rapidly increasing knowledge of this meeting place of
nations. Its history is closely connected with China and naturally
leads me to a somewhat extended review of the fortunes and
achievements of Buddhism in that great land, and also to a special
study of Tibet and of Lamaism. I have treated of Nepal elsewhere. For
the history of religion it is not a new province, but simply the
extreme north of the Indian region where the last phase of decadent
Indian Buddhism which practically disappeared in Bengal still retains
a nominal existence.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: _Geog. Jour_. Aug., 1916, p. 362.]

[Footnote 2: The presence of Brahmans at the Courts of Burma and Siam
is a different matter. They were expressly invited as more skilled in
astrology and state ceremonies than Buddhists.]