Vol. iN ay 7.) Elective Government in the Chumbi Valley. 303 
Noe 
40. An Old Form of Elective Government in the Ohumbi Valley.— 
By E. H. Watsa. 
which is the Tibetan name for the country known to Euro eans 
as the Chumbi Valley, has been merely nominal and has consisted 
in the payment of an annual tribute by the Tromowas to the 
Tibetan officials at Phari, and the obligation to provide wla or 
transport for Tibetan officials visiting the valley, whose visits. 
—_—o 
were, however, of very rare oce The Tromowas (ay 4 ) 
are in fact a distinct people from the Tibetans. They never speak 
of themselves as “Tibetans,” Po’pa (AA’A") and no Tibetan 
ever speaks of them as Tibetans. Their language, though a 
dialect of Tibetan, contains many distinctive words and forms, 
which alone ary to a separate origin, and their customs differ 
in many respec 
Even in rine itself there are two distinct races, the 
Upper Tromowas, who inhabit the upper portion of the Chumbi 
Valley, and a Lower Tromowas, who inhabit the lower or: 
southern port 
The aalett: spoken by these two races differs, and their cus- 
toms also shew marked and characteristic differences, shewin 
their distinct origin. To make this clear I give the following 
extract from the introduction to my vocabulary of the Tromowas 
dialect : ' “To shew how these two peoples, living in intercourse 
with one another, have maintained their distinction in other 
“respects than in dialect, it is only necessary to mention one or two 
“points of difference. Many of the U er Tromowas are of the 
“old Bon-pa religion, which was the religion of Tibet before the 
“ introduction of Buddhism, batt none of the Lower Tromowas 
‘are. The Upper Tromowa men wear the pigtail, Mote th 
‘** Lower Tromowa men cut the hair ae + like the Bhutan Th 
e 
€ 
“making the hair in two plaits, 
“head and do not let them han 
“the men’s dress, too, there was a difference until recent years, 
a 
A Vocabulary of the Tromowa Dialect of Tibetan by E. H.C. Walsh, 
Bengal Secretariat Book Depdt (page ii). 
