Author: Han, Hong
[Abstract] Based on the Ladakh Akhbar and related historical materials discovered in Germany, this paper argues that it should be the earliest Tibetan newspaper in history. On the basis of analyzing Ladakh’s geographical environment, the textual research on the origin of Akhbar and investigating the historical background of the Moravian missionary in Germany, this paper sorts out the format features, column composition, language application and basic contents of the newspaper, and finds that it is composed of news, stories and proverbs and has distinct characteristics of modern newspapers. Frank the founder made a preliminary exploration of Tibetan readers’ content preferences, ritual reading, cognitive models and other characteristics, showing obvious Orientalism and religious tendency. From the perspective of media geography, “Ladakh Akhbar” had started the history of Tibetan mass communication across the Himalayas. It shows that the development of modern newspapers and periodicals in China is not only a gradual advance from the southeast coast to the western mainland, but also a two-way entry from the east and west, Ladakh News started the formation of the trans- Himalayan Tibet-related communication belt in the first half of the 20th century.
