CHAPTER XVI 

 ADVENTURES IN TIBET 



THE traveller who ventures into Tibet very soon finds 

 out that the inhabitants have a strong objection to 

 his presence. For this reason very few explorers have 

 succeeded in getting very far into the country, and 

 seldom has one been successful in securing an interview 

 with the Dalai-Lama. Visconte D'Ollone had this ex- 

 perience, and he gives an interesting account of the 

 meeting in his book of travel in China and Tibet. 1 He 

 says: "The Dalai-Lama was seated upon a throne, 

 which stood upon a raised platform. Facing him an 

 arm-chair had been placed for me ; all about the 

 room his councillors stood erect. The god-man wore 

 a short tunic of yellow silk, orange trousers, .and boots 

 of a bright yellow, of the form peculiar to the Tibetans ; 

 about his neck was a red scarf. His head was bare ; 

 his hair clipped short, but not shaven ; he wore a 

 moustache, and his features were absolutely European 

 in type. One might well have taken him for some 

 French officer had it not been for his complexion, which 

 was neither brownish-black like that of the Tibetans and 

 Mongolians nor yellow like that of the Chinese, but 

 of a true orange colour, which gave a , striking and 

 1 See Bibliography, 48. 



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