I09 



were counted supplies of tortoise shell, coral, amber and 

 chank ornaments. The last named commodity com- 

 prises in present day trade massive single-piece bracelets 

 without ornamentation, tabular pieces of shell and some 

 of the columellae which are broken out from the shell 

 before it is sawn into circlets. 



Chank bangles appear to be worn very generally 

 throughout Thibet, from Ladakh in the west to the 

 Kham country in the east. Neve records * seeing the 

 poorer women in Kashmiri Thibet wearing broad shell- 

 bangles in shape like a cuff on both wrists, while on the 

 march of the British expedition to Lhassa in 1904 they 

 were noted as in frequent use by Thibetan women. 

 This ornament is assumed early in life while the hand is 

 still small and pliable ; after a few years it becomes 

 impossible to remove it without breakage which these 

 women will suffer only in the last resort, as it cannot be 

 replaced except by one of large diameter which will fit 

 more loosely on the arm than they like. A medical 

 officer with the Thibet mission has informed me that 

 in one instance a Thibetan woman was brouoht to him 

 for the treatment of a festerino- wound on the wrist. 

 On examination the cause of the trouble was found to 

 be the presence of a chank bangle so small that the wrist 

 had been wounded and circulation impeded ; gangrene 

 was imminent and although the woman was loth to part 

 with her bangle it had to be filed oft to save the hand. 



The export of round and square discs of chank shell 

 to the Buddhist countries of the north appears to be 

 much less than in Tavernier's time, as it is now com- 

 paratively insignificant. From information gleaned in 

 Dacca, it would appear that these tabular pieces are 

 usually worn suspended from the hair as charms, and 

 my informants stated that this custom is found princi- 

 pally among Thibetans, (Bhotia as they term them) and 

 also to some extent amono- the Naoa and Khasia 

 peoples. Among the Nagas, the discs are employed to 

 ornament the men's hair-bedecked helmets. As already 

 noted, some Bhotia tribes are also said to wear the 

 columella of the chank as an ear-ornament and Prince 

 Henri d'Orleans t found the women of the wild 



* "Beyond the Tir Panjal," London, 1912. 



t "From Tonkin to India," English Translation. London, 189S 



