368 



NA TURE 



[January 27, 1910 



tricts of Tibet, two years before Dr. Hedin visited 

 them ; and several other Europeans have visited the 

 Tashi Lama's palace and the western capital. In 

 particular, Lord Minto, the Viceroy of India, to whom 

 the author gratefully dedicates his book, "used his 

 inffuence with the Tashi Lama so that many doors in 

 the forbidden land formerly tightly closed were 

 opened to me." 



The start, under such favourable conditions, was 

 made in August, 1906, from Ladak, by way of 

 Kashmir, as the recent treaty with China absolutely 

 l>rohibited Europeans entering Tibet across the Indian 

 frontier, and could not be relaxed by the Indian 

 Government even in favour of Dr. Hedin, much to 

 his freely expressed vexation. He gave out that he 

 was proceeding to Turkestan, but in the solitudes, a 

 few marches out of Leh, he crossed the lofty 

 Karakorum range and turned southwards into the 

 great elevated Tibetan desert, the Chang-tang. 



free to us as the uninhabited Chang-tung had been. 

 We should pass black tents daily, be able to buy all 

 we want. We enjoyed unlimited freedom, and had 

 not a single man with us as escort or watchman." 

 .'\rrived at the capital, Shigatse, he says, " the priests 

 welcome us with kindly good-tempered smiles," and 

 he was installed as the favoured guest of the Tashi 

 Lama, the second of the " Living Buddhas," who re- 

 ceived him cordially several times. This high honour 

 which he procured through Lord Minto, proved so 

 invaluable to Dr. Hedin, that, as he writes, '"eighteen 

 months later it came about that chiefs and monks 

 said Bonpo Chimho [great lord!] we know that you 

 arc a friend of the Tashi Lama, and we are at your 

 service ! " His Holiness, it is interesting to learn, 

 has been a keen photographer since his visit to India, 

 when he was initiated into the mysteries of the art by 

 British officers. In his palace he has had a dark room 

 fitted up, where the developing is done by one of the 



■^^ _.'.A«Ata 



Flu. 2.-The Su 



of Luiipo-Gangri from three Camp-. 



' Trans-Himalaya.' 



Here he pushed on through the stark solitudes, day 

 after day for two months, surveying the country, with- 

 out- meeting a soul until he crossed the Trans- 

 Himalaya near the capital of Western Tibet. The 

 first nomadic herdsmen he encountered were friendly 

 and acted as guides and supplied provisions and 

 baggage animals. They, as well as their chief, in- 

 formed him of the friendly passage that way of the 

 British officers saying" that "now Europeans seem to 

 be privileged to pass through the country." In a few 

 days more, Tibetan couriers arrived with his European 

 letters, which had been sent on by the British agent 

 through the Tashi Lama, at the request of Lord 

 Minto; and accompanying these letters, were welcome 

 stores of European provisions, newspapers, books, 

 &c., as presents from the British agent at Gyantse; 

 and, most important of all, an official to guide and 

 assist Dr. Hedin through that inhabitated portion of 

 Tibet to the Tashi Lama's capital. 



Thereafter, writes our author, " the route was as 

 NO. 2100, VOL. 82] 



young priests who accompanied him to India. Whilst 

 halting at the Tashi Lama's capital, our traveller 

 lightened his baggage by sending back to Europe, 

 through the British officer at Gyantse, his survey 

 records, note-books, photographic plates, rock- 

 specimens, &c. Here, also, he witnessed the new- 

 year's carnival and festivities, and was allowed to 

 roam freely over the famous palace of the monastery 

 of the Tashi Lama, a busy hive of four thousand 

 ascetics ; but, unfortunately, our author, through 

 want of special knowledge, has not added anything 

 to our information on these interesting subjects. 



His stay at Tashilhunpo was brought suddenly to 

 an end by the Chinese officials at Lhasa, who insisted 

 on the Tibetans enforcing the treaty, so that Dr. 

 Hedin was compelled to return forthwith to Ladak 

 under a guard. On the w-ay, he succeeded in eluding 

 his guard and made a detour across the Trans- 

 Himalaya by two fresh passes; he also discovered a 

 new western source of the Brahmaputra, and took a 



