396 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. (AsiA.) 



tered by a tributary which drains the " Starry 

 Plains," or "Plains of Heaven" a great ex- 

 tent of rich pasture-land, covered with cattle, 

 horses, and beasts of the chase. Villages and 

 monasteries nestle around the shores at the foot 

 of the mountains, and one of the most beau- 

 tiful views of the lake takes in a small island 

 with a monastery near the southern shore. 



A map of the lake has been made by the 

 Lama, a native explorer connected with the 

 survey. He describes the climate of Thibet 

 as delightful in summer. The land is cov- 

 ered either with crops or with luxuriant, wav- 

 ing grass, or velvety turf. Streams flow in 

 every valley. In winter the cold is intense, 

 and biting winds sweep over the land inces- 

 santly, filling the air with dust, and whistling 

 through the ill-made doors and windows. The 

 natives are averse to taking animal life, and 

 consequently game is very abundant. 



Still further particulars regarding Thibet 



have been gathered from the Pundit A 



K , who made a four years' journey through 



eastern Thibet, having been instructed and 

 sent out by the English. He carried through 

 his work with great care and faithfulness. 

 Though more than two years have passed since 

 his journey was finished, his reports have been 

 kept from publication by the Indian Govern- 

 ment, for political reasons. A report has, how- 

 ever, been prepared by the deputy surveyor- 

 general in charge of the surveys of India from 



the answers made by A K to questions 



put to him in person. He thus describes Lhasa, 

 the capital of Thibet, on the Ki Chu river : 



Even here the dwelling-houses are interspersed 

 with religious edifices ; of the latter the most promi- 

 nent, on the right, is the handsome temple of Jhio, 

 glittering with four Gebis, while to the jeft is Giang 

 Bunmoche, surmounted by its gilded spire, crescent, 

 and globe, and still farther nortn Kamoshe, a temple 

 capped by a single glistening Gebi. Between these 

 objects and almost in contact with them lies the 

 lay city of Lhasa, composed of houses two or three 

 stories high, touching one another, and crowded ev- 

 erywhere by Thibetans (Bodpas and Khampas far in 

 the majority), Chinese, Nepaulese, Kashmiris (includ- 

 ing a few Mohammedans from Hindostan, chiefly from 

 Patna), and Mongolians. Of all these nationalities 

 the Thibetans, or natives of the country, alone have 

 their women with them, excepting a few instances of 

 traveling Mongolians who may t>e accompanied by 

 their wives between the arrivals and departures of 

 "kafilas." This part of Lhasa, or the city proper, 

 covers an area of less than half a square mile. The 

 houses are two or three stories high, and mostly in 

 blocks, around a quadrangle that is open above and is 

 entered by a side doorway ; as said, they touch one 

 another, and are crowded with occupants, who live 

 peaceably in contiguous dwellings, differences of race 

 and customs notwithstanding. The roofs are all cov- 

 ered in with earth, and this is a sufficient protection 

 against the small rainfall, which comes down mostly 

 in July and August. The city at all times contains a 

 large number of traders with goods from various di- 

 rections, including Hindostan. The article most large- 

 ly imported is tea, which is brought almost exclusive- 

 ly from China, and is always made up in the form of 

 bricks. Manufactures in Ltiasa itself are few and only 

 small in amount, the curing of skins being about the 

 most important. There is also a fragrant slow-match, 

 called " poi, " made here solely by the " dabas," or 



priests ; it emits a perfume in burning, and is in com- 

 mon use by rich and poor alike. The water for the 

 city is brought down from the north in two canals, 

 which, however, in their progress through the city are 

 subdivided into many streamlets ; these rills feed sev- 

 eral shallow wells for the use of the people, and event- 

 ually discharge their surplus to the south at Yutsk 



Jampa, where, A K adds with emphasis, the 



water is no longer nice. 



Poto La is west of Lhdsa, and " presents an 

 enormous pile of lofty buildings, covering a 

 rectangle of about four hundred yards in length 

 by some two hundred yards in width, sur- 

 mounted at intervals by five gilded Gebis (like 

 a square tent with a single pole) which, spark- 

 ling in the sunlight, present a dazzling and 

 gorgeous spectacle, visible for miles around. 

 This celebrated monastery is not only the resi- 

 dence of the great Lamas (Dalai Lamas), or 

 chief priests of the Buddhists spread over Great 

 Thibet and Mongolia, but it contains the re- 

 mains of all the Dalai Lamas deceased for cent- 

 uries past. The buildings form one solid 

 block, rising to various heights, at different 

 places representing sometimes as many as seven 

 stories or floors. They contain various images. 

 The monster image to the god Jamba is repre- 

 sented as of prodigious dimensions. The figure 

 is internally of clay, and is well gilded exter- 

 nally. It is seated on a platform on the ground- 

 floor, and its body, passing successively through 

 the second and third floors, terminates in a 

 jeweled and capped monster head above the 

 latter floor. In all, the figure and platform 

 are said to be seventy or eighty feet high. The 

 Dalai Lama is thus described : 



As to the Dalai Lama, never dying yet being suc- 

 cessively buried and born anew, he is installed in Poto 

 La, so veritable an infant that his mother necessarily 

 accompanies him in order to suckle him, but, being 

 debarred from the sacred premises of the Poto La on 

 account of ^her sex, she is lodged in the vicinity at 

 Shyo, and is permitted to visit her son only between 

 the hours of 9 A. M. and 4 p. M. Whatever accom- 

 plishments he may acquire, the Dalai Lama need never 

 exhibit them, for ne is taught to be chary of speech, 

 and, indeed, necessity compels this course, since his 

 worshipers are in thousands, and it is only to those 

 who are wealthy or of high degree that lie can afford 

 to address even a brief sentence or two. This is al- 

 ways done in a deep, hoarse voice, acquired by train- 

 ing, in order to convey the idea that it emanates from 

 maturity and wisdom. Seated cross-legged on a plat- 

 form soine six feet high, he is dressed to be worshiped 

 in the usual colors of the priesthood (i. e., red and yel- 

 low), and with bare arms, as required of all Buddhist 

 priests, and holds a rod, from the end of which hang 

 strips of silk, white, red, yellow, green, and blue*. 

 The pilgrim coming in at the entrance-door advances 

 with folded hands as if in prayer, and, resting his head 

 against the edge of the platform above him, mentally 

 and hastily repeats the petitions he would have grant- 

 ed. These 'unuttered prayers the Dalai Lama is un- 

 derstood to comprehend intuitively. He touches the 

 pilgrim's head with the bunch of silk in token of his 

 blessing, and the worshiper is hurried out at the 

 exit-door by attendants, only too happy if he has 

 passed, say, half a minute in the vicinity of the great 

 priest. This is the common procedure. Persons of 

 rank or substance are permitted to mount the plat- 

 form and to perform obeisance, there receiving the 

 required blessing by actual touch of the Dalai Lama's 

 hands ; subsequently such worshiper may be allowed 

 a seat below tne platform, where a few hoarse utter- 



