TACHIENLU, THE GATE OF THIBET 207 



cleanliness is neither appreciated nor practised. Meat, milk, 

 butter, barley-meal, and tea constitute the favourite food of 

 these people ; they are also fond of Chinese wine. Everybody 

 carries on his or her person a private eating-bowl, and the 

 average Thibetan disseminates an odour strongly suggestive 

 of a keg of rancid butter ! The everyday dress of these people 

 is a loose, shapeless garment of dull red or grey woollen serge, 

 sometimes sheep-skins are substituted in part. Top-boots 

 of soft hide with the hair inside usually encase the feet and 

 lower legs of both sexes. The men wear their hair in a queue 

 wound round the head and ornamented with beads and rings 

 of silver, coral, and glass. A large silver ear-ring with a long 

 silver and coral pendant usually decorates the left ear. The 

 women wear their hair parted down the middle and made up 

 into a number of small plaits, which are gathered into a queue, 

 bound at the end by a bright red cord, and wound around the 

 head. Silver and coral are lavishly used in their coiffure and 

 about their persons generally. When in holiday attire these 

 people are more gaily dressed, red-coloured trimmings to their 

 garments being then much in evidence, whilst the wealthy 

 affect silk and fur robes. Ornaments of silver and gold, inset 

 with coral and turquoise, are most profusely worn. The lamas 

 shave their heads and wear a raiment of coarse serge of a dull 

 red or brownish colour. This has no shape, being simply a 

 large piece of cloth thrown over the right shoulder, leaving the 

 left bare. A similar piece of cloth is wound two or three times 

 round the waist and reaches down to the ankle, forming a kind 

 of pleated skirt. They are usually bareheaded and bare- 

 footed, and each lama carries in his hand a rosary and a small 

 praying-cylinder. They swagger through the streets with an 

 insolent mien, and lack the good manners so delightful in 

 the ordinary unsophisticated Thibetan. The lamaseries are 

 usually very richly endowed with land, and most charmingly 

 situated midst groves of Poplar and other trees. Nearly all 

 Thibetan families of affluence maintain a lama on the premises 

 to perform by proxy their religious duties. Many other 

 lamas find employment as temporary chaplains to less wealthy 

 families on occasion of marriage, illness, or death. 



Commercially, Tachienlu is a most important centre. 



