SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 25 



two Jong pons in charge of the Tibetan forts under the Lhassa 

 Government one Jong pon is a Lama, the other is a layman. They 

 collect all the taxes of that district, are responsible for the levy of 

 troops and the good behaviour of the district, and under them are 

 the village headmen or Tsopon, who are directly responsible for 

 each individual village. From Phari one passes over the frightful 

 wind-swept icy plain to Tuna. As there is no wood here, our fires 

 were all of yak dung collected from the plain. From Tuna we pass 

 through a loopholed Tibetan wall to Guru. Here the plain was very 

 boggy and saline, as the lake had receded during the last ten 

 years. From Guru one passes along the Bam Tso lake to Kala Tso, 

 another large lake, ten miles from the former gradually descending to 

 Kangma, where one comes once again into the tree line about ninety 

 miles from Chumbi. From Kangma we pass through the Red Idol 

 Gorge by a very bad road over boulders and across streams. Many 

 of the rocks here have large images of Buddha carved on them and 

 painted red. Passing through Niani village and monastery into the 

 Gyantse valley, which is very pretty and fertile, we cross the Nyang 

 Cliu, on which Gyantse is situated, by an old Tibetan bridge into 

 Gyantse. Here there is a large fort dominating the town. It is like 

 Phari Jong, the only difference being that it is built on a rock and is 

 much larger. It maintains 50 Chinese and 200 Tibetans, and is governed 

 by one Dapon or Tibetan general. Gyantse is the mart for Bhutan. 

 It is a fine town with houses built of stone and wood and flat roofed. 

 The streets are narrow, dirty, rough and unpavecl. In the centre of 

 the town is the Golden Monastery, one of the finest monasteries in 

 Tibet, with a nine-storeyed pagoda attached to it. The town is famous 

 for its carpets and cloths, there being some large carpet factories in 

 the town and neighbouring villages. From Gyantse the road is at first 

 good and along a fine open valley, then it leads through various gorges 

 and streams ascending steadily to the Karo La, 1(5,000 feet high, forty- 

 five miles from Gyantse. Here the Tibetans had built a strong loop- 

 holed wall half a mile long across the road. The elevation here was 



very trying, and though we were here from the 17th to 19th July 



4 



