A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



upon the British Joint Commissioner, who resides in Leh 

 during the trading season of each year, returning to India 

 for the winter shortly before the passes are closed by snow. 

 The pressure of foreign competition upon British commerce 

 is felt even in these remote parts. Every market, however 

 small, which is capable of development in British interests, 

 is now a matter of concern. I shall therefore give a brief 

 description of how the trans-Himalayan commerce of 

 India is conducted in Leh, and attempt to show how far 

 the Thibetan trade might, in expert opinion, be expanded 

 and attracted to British markets. 



The trade of Western Thibet and Chinese Turkistan is 

 at present conducted in the following manner. Caravans, 

 consisting chiefly of ponies and mules, make their annual 

 start for Ladakh from the plains of the Punjab and the 

 railway at Rawal Pindi in the summer. These carriers 

 take up to Leh, by the Kullu and Kashmir routes, cotton 

 goods, tea, and other merchandise, so timed that the 

 convoy shall be delivered in Leh by the early autumn. 

 Meanwhile the Central Asian traders will have set out 

 from Lhassa, Khutan, Kashgar and Yarkand, to meet the 

 Indian caravans at Leh, where both arrive in the autumn. 

 Long-booted merchants of Russian Turkistan and the 

 Chinese New Dominions exchange in the Leh markets, 

 by barter and sale, their gold, silver and " charas," for the 

 coral, cotton goods, and tea of the Indian traders. The 

 Leh bazaar, thronged with men in the costume of many 

 countries, and the native Ladakhi women, wearing their 

 turquoise-studded peyraks, forms a picturesque scene, whose 

 bizarre effect is heightened by the Buddhist forms of 

 architecture and ornamentation in the Rajah's palace, 

 which overhangs the town. After a brief sojourn the 

 strangers depart, east and west and south and north, 

 before the great Himalayan passes are closed to traffic by 

 the snow. The town then resumes the normal quiescence 

 from which it has been temporarily aroused by the 



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