TIBETAN SUNSETS 113 



view — no trees, nor houses, nor fences, nor obstacles 

 of any kind — I could look out far over these open 

 plains to distant hills ; beyond them, again, to 

 Mount Everest a hundred miles away ; beyond it, 

 again, to still more distant mountains ; and, finally, 

 behind them into the setting sun. And these far 

 hills and snowy mountains, seen as they were across 

 an absolutely open plain, seemed not to impede the 

 view but only to heighten the impression of great 

 distance. The eye would be led on from feature 

 to feature, each receding farther into the distance 

 till it seemed only a step from the farthest snowy 

 mountain into the glowing sun itself. 



Every evening, whenever I could, I used to walk 

 out alone into the open plain to feast my soul on 

 the splendid scene. In the stern glacier region 

 round K 2 I had had to brace myself up and to sum- 

 mon up all that was toughest within me in order to 

 cope with the terribly exacting conditions in which 

 I found myself. In the presence of these calm but 

 fervent sunsets there was a different feeling. I had 

 a sense of expansion, a longing to let myself go. 

 And I would feel myself craving to let myself go 

 out all I could into these glowing depths of light 

 and colour, and trying to open myself out to their 

 beauty, that as much as possible of it should flow 

 into me and glorify my whole being. I had the 

 feeling that in those sunsets there was any 

 length for my soul to go out to — that there was 

 infinite room there for the soul's expansion. There 

 was inexhaustible glory for the soul to absorb, and 

 the soul was thirsting for it and could never have 

 enough. 



