A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



head, and, of course, the right arm bare, through the 

 courtyards, with high masts, paintings on the walls, 

 and innumerable cylindrical prayer-wheels, which 

 were let into the walls in horizontal rows, so that a 

 hand run along them (much as a boy will run a stick 

 along area-railings in London) sets them all in motion 

 and brings the devout Buddhist nearer to Nirvana. 



We entered some of the temples which were filled 

 with silk banners, and innumerable figures of the 

 Buddha and other deities, some of the latter being 

 of large size and profusely ornamented, much gilding 

 and even precious stones being employed. Before 

 many of these figures, offerings of food, flowers, and 

 lighted lamps were placed, and some of the shrines 

 were decorated with vases of valuable metals and por- 

 celain, which, I conclude, came from China. We also 

 saw the library, with its shelves covered with books, 

 each one of which consists of roughly printed strips of 

 parchment or paper enclosed between two flat boards. 



Here also were many weird musical instruments, 

 consisting, for the most part, of different kinds of 

 trumpets and drums upon which the Lamas, I should 

 say from experience, practise at odd hours during 

 the day and night. It is a curious and rather 

 impressive place, and, though there is nothing grand 

 about it, yet there is a sort of quaint air of mystery 

 which is very fascinating, and which is usually to 

 be found in a Buddhist monastery, though perhaps 

 the rock-temples of Buddha in Ceylon are more 

 impressive and weird than these Gonpas of the red 

 Lama. Of course the neighbourhood of this sacrecl 



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