GUIDES. TEMPLE OF KUMBUM. 155 



would now have placed within our grasp ? A sum 

 of 1,000 lans (275/.) would have sufficed to take us 

 from Koko-nor to Lhassa and thence to Lob-nor, or 

 whither we would. 



Although thus obliged to give up all hopes of 

 extending our travels to the capital of Tibet, we de- 

 termined nevertheless to advance as far as possible, 

 well aware how important to science is every ad- 

 ditional footstep in these unknown regions of Asia. 



We obtained two guides as before from the 

 Mongol and Tangutan military officials, partly in 

 return for presents, and partly in consequence of the 

 letter of the treasurer of Chobsen to Mur-zasak and 

 of our Peking passport, which specified that two 

 subjects of the Celestial Empire were constantly to 

 be in our service. This paragragh indeed was 

 inserted to provide for the event of our hiring Mon- 

 gols or Chinese servants, but we were advised to 

 take advantage of it to obtain guides, as we succeeded 

 in doing, to Koko-nor and Tsaidam. 



One of the guides whom we hired at Koko-nor 

 had formerly been an officiating lama at the temple of 

 Kumbum,twenty miles south of Si-ning,famed through- 

 out Lamadom as the birthplace of the Buddhist 

 reformer Tsong-kaba, whose sanctity, the Buddhists 

 say, was proved by different miracles. Thus a tree 

 grew up from the place where his swaddling clothes 

 were buried, ^ bearing leaves marked with the Tibe- 

 tan alphabet ; this may still be seen at Kumbum, 

 where it stands in a separate court, the most sacred 



' His hair according to Hue (II. 1 13). — Y. 



