NOTES ON THE ETHNOLOGY OF TIBET. 697 



belt or prayer beads. * In the more civilized portions of the country, 

 especially in the south and near China and India, it is not uncommon to 

 see men wearing- a mustache, aud in some instances, among- lamas 

 especially, I have seen men wearing full beards, some quite thick and 

 long. Chinese razors, or the sheath knives above referred to, are used 

 to shave the head and face. I have seen no razor of native manufacture. 



Dr. Griffiths, speaking of the ornaments worn by the women of Bhu- 

 tan, says that they "wear a plate of silver fastened round the head and 

 crossing on the upper part of the forehead, wire earrings of large dimen- 

 sions, and peculiar rings fastened to a straight silver wire, and worn 

 projecting beyond the shoulder." (William Griffiths, Journal of the 

 Mission to Bootan in 1837-'38, p. IGO.) 



Dr. Hooker (Himalayan Journals, ii, p. 86) describes as follows the 

 dress of some Tibetan women from K'amba djong,t a district to the 

 north of Sikkim, witliiii the confines of Ulterior Tibet (Tsang): 



The men were dressed as usual in the bhinket cloak, with brass pipes, long knives, 

 flint, steel, aud amulets; the women wore similar but shorter cloaks, with silver and 

 copper girdles, trousers, aud flannel boots. Their headdresses were very remark- 

 able. A circular band of plaited yak's hair was attached to the back hair, aud encir- 

 cled the head like a saint's glory, at some distance round it. A band covered the 

 forehead, from which coins, corals, and turquoises hung down to the eyebrows, 

 while lappets of these ornaments fell over the ears. Their own hair was plaited iu 

 two braids brought over the shoulders, aud fastened together in front, aud a little 

 yellow felt cap, traversely elongated, so as not to interfere with the shape of the 

 glory, was perched on the head. 



This mode of dressing the hair, as well as that of Bhutan referred to 

 by Griffiths, are but modilicatioiis of the crowns worn at Lh'asa. 



Tattooing as a means of ornamentation is hardly ever practiced by 

 Tibetans. I have seen a few men from Lh'asa, or the adjacent coun- 

 tries, who had a "hooked cross" [yung-drunij) tattooed on the back 

 of their hands near the thumb, and some others with a round dot or 

 two tattooed at the same place, but beyond this I have neither read nor 

 heard of any tattooing among tins people. The jiersons on whom I 

 saw tattooing were traders, who had frequently visited China and India, 

 where tattooing is known and practiced to a limited extent, and in 

 either one of these countries, or by a man from one of these countries 

 residing- in their own, they may have had the marks on their persons done. 

 Weavinfj. — Although according to Tibetan accounts (see p. OTi') the 

 art of weaving was only introduced into this country iu the seventh 

 century, after intimate relations with China had been established, we 

 may on good grounds doubt the accuracy of this tradition, for the Sui 

 shu, or Chronicles of the Sui dynasty (A. D. 589-618) Bk. 83, speaking 

 of the Tibetan T'ang-hsiang tribes, says: "They weave yak and goat 



* Du Plan Carpin (Historia Mongalorum, 658) says of the people of Tibet (his Terra 

 Biirithabet) : " Isti pilos iu barba uon habent: imo quoddam ferrum iu manibus por- 

 tant, sicut vidimus, cum quo semper barbam depilant, si forte aliquis crinis crescit 

 in ipsa." 



t These Tibetans are black-tent dwellers and originally came from northeast Tibet. 



