684 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



(Laud of the Lainas, p. 211.) Amoug the pastoral tribes, the sons 

 divide the Hocks aud herds of their deceased father, after deductiug a 

 considerable portion for presents to the clergy, bnt among them, as in 

 the more civilized regions of the country, the widow does not inherit; 

 she goes back to her family, or, if she has children, becomes depend- 

 ent on them, or else she becomes an ani. 



IV. 



DRESS AND PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 



The earliest description I have met with of a Tibetan tribe, the 

 T'ang-hsiang previously referred to, is in the Annals of the T'aug 

 dynasty of China (A. D.G18-907). It is said of them : " Men and women 

 wear long skin gowns, or gowns of coarse woolen stuff with a rough 

 surface" (Land of the Lamas, p. 338). Of the Tukuhun, who inhabited 

 the Kokonor, and were possibly of Tibetan stock, we read in the 

 Annals of the Sui dynasty (A. D., 581-618) that their women " did up 

 their hair in plaits, on which they sewed beads and cowrie shells; they 

 wore long gowns and the men wore broad-brimmed hats." {0}). .su}). 

 cit., p. 33G). 



Friar Odoric, who visited Tibet in the early part of the fourteenth 

 century remarked that "the women have their hair plaited in more 

 than one hundred tresses" (H. Yule, Cathay and the way thither, 

 I, p. 150), and since that time the fashion of dressing and wearing the 

 hair has not materially altered in the wilder parts of the country, 

 although under Chinese and Indian influences the fashion has been 

 sliglitly changed in parts of the country adjacent to those inhabited by 

 people of these two races. 



The national dress of both sexes consists in a very full, high col- 

 lared, large, and long-sleeved gown called ch'uha (a word of Turkish ori- 

 gin). This gown is of sheepskin in winter, of native cloth {trulc or ta)* 

 in summer. It is tied tiglitly around the waist with a woolen girdle so 

 as to make it very baggy about the waist, and it reaches down to about 

 the knee when worn by men aud to the ankle when worn by women. 

 In a large part of the country this is the only garment worn. The col- 

 lar and cuff's and hem are sometimes faced with black velvet or red or 

 blue cloth, or striped truJc, or with otter or leopard skin. Buttons are 

 not usually used, although those of Chinese make or army buttons 

 obtained from India are much sought after, and small silver coins (half 

 rupees generally) are frequently made into buttons, but more on 

 account of them being ornamental than for any use they are put to. 



The cut of the cfi'uba and the way of wearing it differ in various 

 parts of the country; the pastoral Tibetans wear it much shorter than 

 those living in towns and villages, and who do not pass much of their 

 time riding or climbing. So likewise the trimming of the cuffs and 

 sleeves differs according to the tribe. 



* See for a descrii^tiou of these native clotbs, p. 699. 



