《拉达克新闻报》:史上最早的藏文报纸考辨及其价值探析

Ladakh Akhbar: A Textual Analysis of the First Tibetan Newspaper and Its Value

本文基于作者在德国发现的《拉达克新闻报》原文及相关史料的考证,认为该报应系目前已知史上最早的藏文报纸。文章在分析拉达克的地理环境、考证Akhbar一词的来源、考察德国摩拉维亚教派历史背景的基础上,对该报的版式特征、栏目构成、语言运用和基本内容进行梳理,发现其具有明显的"接触地带"文化特征。该报内容由新闻、故事、谚语三大版块构成,具有鲜明的近代报刊特色。创办者弗兰克对藏族读者的内容偏好、仪式性阅读、认知基模等特征进行了初步探索,呈现出较明显的宗教偏见和东方主义色彩。从媒介地理学的视角看,《拉达克新闻报》开启了跨喜马拉雅地区藏文大众传播的历史,显示中国近现代报刊的发展并非只是从东南沿海到西部内地的梯度推进,而是呈现为从东、西两个向度的双向进入。该报同时也推动了20世纪上半叶跨喜马拉雅地区涉藏大众传播带的形成。

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 20^(th) century.