NOTES ON THE ETHNOLOGY OF TIBET. 701 



There are fairly good specimens of Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongol felts in 

 the Museum's collection. A specimen of tine Chinese felt formed into 

 a pair of socks by the Eastern Mongols is also in the Museum. It was 

 made at Chang-chia k'ou (Kalgan). 



All the cotton stuffs used in Tibet are broughtthere either from China 

 or India, as are also the silks, satins, broadcloths, etc., there made 

 use of. 



Dyeing. — Desgodins says : 



Th« profession iu which Tibetans excel is that of dyeing; not that there are artists 

 specially given to this work, for every family can dye the stuffs woven iu the house. 

 Vegetable dyes are nearly exclusively used, and they know how to fix the colors so 

 wtiU that they are practically permanent. * * * To dye red they use a kind of 

 garance ten and ka, which imparts to the former a deeper but very tine color. I am 

 unable to say what this latter substance is. With the refuse of Art they make sealing 

 wax lagiiia. * For dyeing yellow a very bitter root is used, which is also used iu med- 

 icine for inflammatory diseases; they call it chiruj-tsa and the Chinese linaii(i-lien. 

 ludigo, which they call ram, comes to them from India, but they can also get it from 

 certain of the warm valleys of their country. * » * Sometimes they paint on the 

 stuffs flowers and princi])ally crosses. These colored stuffs are then called Laoua- 

 chra-cha or diru-clui according as the stufl' is laoua or chrit. (Desgodins, Le Thibet, 

 pp. 391, 392.) 



The dye called ten by Desgodins is possibly the tztl-ts'ao of the 

 Chinese [Anclmsa tinctoria:^), and huang-Uen is the Picrorhiza kurroa 

 (Eoyle). Dr. Hooker (Himalayan Journals, p. 41) says that the leaves 

 of a shrub {symplocos) are dried in Sikkim to be sent to Tibet, where 

 they are used as a yellow dye. I have seen in parts of Tibet (west of 

 Ch'amdo) people gathering a yellow gooseberry which, 1 was told, su])- 

 plied a yeUow dye, and the root of the rhubarb i)lant is also used to 

 supply that color in parts of Tibet and in the Ts'aidam. I have been 

 unable to learn where the Tibetans get their brown or green colors. 

 The latter are especially line. In northwest China a fine brown is 

 obtained from the acorns of the holly-leafed oak {ching Wayig in Chinese). 

 Possibly this is used by Tibetans, for the tree is very abundant in 

 many places of eastern and southern Tibet. 



According to Abbe Hue (Souvenirs, ii, p. 208), the Xepalese at 

 Lh'asa do most of the dyeing, but, he adds, they are only allowed to 

 dye native cloths, and all imported stuffs must be used as received 

 there, this being done to encourage the consumption of native jjroducts. 



V. 



HABITATIONS — HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS — FOOD — TOBACCO. * 



The i)astoral Tibetans throughout the country inhabit tents made of 

 yak hair. The Tibetan tents are rectangular, with a tlat roof. Some of 

 them are not more than 10 or 12 feet long, but I have seen many 50 feet 

 long by 30 feet broad. A space about 2 feet wide is left open along the 

 center of the top to admit light and let smoke escape. Under it is a 



It is the lac produced by the Coccus lacca. 



