LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 733 



class in form of flour, or crushed for horses, mules, and asses. The 

 fleld work is done principally by "dzo'" (a cross breed of 3'ak and 

 ordinary cattle), yaks, and asses. The principal beasts of burden are 

 the small, hardy asses, and to some extent the ordinary horned cattle. 

 Inhabitants of the highland regions are eng-aged in cattle raising, 

 breeding yaks, sheep, and some horses. They use yaks for burden, 

 and sheep in some places. The horse and mule are, to a certain 

 extent, a luxury to the Tibetan, and are therefore kept only by the 

 well to do. The native horses and mules are ver}^ small and homely, 

 so that the rich people use only those imported from western China. 

 In the stables of the Dalai Lama and Panchen there are blooded horses 

 from India. 



Commerce consists in supplying the cities and monasteries with 

 agricultural products in exchange for articles of insignificant local 

 manufacture and foreign import. The excess of domestic products is 

 exported. The Tibetan has very few wants, chiefly limited to neces- 

 sities, although some inclination toward objects of luxury, expensive 

 ornaments, objects of cult and home adornment may be observed. 

 The standard money is a silver coin valued at about 1(> cents. 



The unequal distribution of wealth and the subservience of poverty 

 to wealth are conspicuous. There is such little commerce that labor is 

 very cheap, the most expert weaver of native cloth receiving about 8 

 cents and board per da}\ while an unskilled woman or man laborer 

 earns only 2 or 3 cents. The highest salary is paid to the Lamas, the 

 prayer readers, who receive 10 cents a da}' for incessant reading. A 

 house servant almost never receives pay bej^ond food and meager 

 clothes. * * * 



I will now describe the more or less prominent cities and monasteries 

 visited in Central Tibet. Chief of all, of course, is the capital, 

 Lhasa, sometimes called ''Kadan" in literature, but both names have 

 almost the same meaning — " the land of gods," or ''full of gods." Its 

 origin dates from the time of Khan Srongzang-Gaml)o, who lived in the 

 seventh century, a. d. It is said that this khan had among his wives 

 one Nepalese and one Chinese queen, each of whom brought along a 

 statue of the Buddha Sakyamuni, to whose worship temples were 

 erected in Lhasa, and he settled on Mount Marbo-ri, where the palace 

 of the Dalai Lama now stands. Lhasa is situated on a broad plain, 

 bordered on one side by the river U-chu and on the other by high 

 hills. If we disregard the Potala, or palace of the Dalai Lama, the 

 city is nearly round, with a diameter of about a mile. But the 

 numerous orchards in the southern and western parts, the proximity 

 of the Potala wnth the adjacent medical college, the court of Datsag- 

 hutuktu, and the summer residence of the Dalai Lama led to the 

 belief that it was about 25 miles in circumference. As a matter of 

 fact, the circular road along which the pious make their marches on 



