THE CHIARUNG TRIBES 163 



towers, either square, hexagonal, or octagonal in shape, 60 to 80 

 feet high, and resembling from a distance the stack of some 

 large factory in Western lands. The exact significance of these 

 towers it is difficult to fathom, but it is evident that they can 

 serve as storehouses, watch-towers, and harbours of refuge in 

 times of stress and war. They have also some obscure con- 

 nexion with religious matters, possibly in this they have some 

 remote affinity with the pagodas of China and Burmah. The 

 houses are more or less square, fiat roofed, solidly built of 

 shale-rock and mud. Those belonging to the chiefs and men 

 of property are three or four stories high. The walls are thick, 

 pierced with loopholes and several narrow latticed windows. 

 At all four corners of the roof turrets 3 to 4 feet high are built, 

 sometimes there are more in different patterns. From these 

 prayer-flags are displayed, often with the green branches of 

 Juniper. On the roof also is fixed an incinerator for the sacri- 

 ficial burning of fragrant juniper branches as incense. Part 

 of the roof is frequently occupied by a hurdle-like framework 

 called " Kai-kos," 10 to 15 feet high, which is employed for 

 drying grain upon. The rest of the roof is used for religious 

 exercise, eating, sleeping, and recreation ; in harvest-time it 

 serves as a threshing-floor. The ground story is made up of 

 a courtyard surrounded by sheep and cattle-pens, the kitchen, 

 and usually a guest-room. 



The turrets, upper rim of the walls, edges of the window- 

 spaces, base and base angles of the walls, are washed white, 

 commonly white lines stretch diagonally up the walls, and the 

 swastika cross, with other devices and symbols, are displayed 

 in white on these walls. Crowning the edges of the roof, or 

 arranged on separate structures, symbols denoting a globe, 

 upturned crescent, and the swastika are commonly displayed. 

 The lamaseries are similarly constructed, only larger, and 

 usually with more stories. The houses of the peasants also are 

 on the same plan, but of one or two stories only. All these 

 structures are closely packed together with one to several 

 towers reared above the whole assemblage. The different 

 emblems and symbols of Nature worship may occur in the 

 structure of Thibetan houses and lamaseries, but the tall 

 tower is peculiar to the Chiarung. 



