Vol. II, No. 7.] Elective Government in the Ohumbi Valley. 307 
[N.S.] 
and local transport were obtained through the Kongdus of the 
upper and lower valley, and I was struck by the manner in which 
the villagers carried out their orders and supplied the portion of 
any requisition which they allotted to a particular village without 
disputing the allotment. 
Each Kongdu has under him four officers known as La- 
yoks, who perform the duties of orderlies and messengers and 
a yearly sum of 9 srangs (Rs, 22-8) as salary. 
e land rent is levied on the amount of land held, which is 
estimated from the amount of seed sown on it, and comes to 
about As. 15 per acre. For the purpose of the house tax there are 
eight classes which are each assessed at a different rate, varying 
from Rs. 5 for the highest to As. 2 for the lowest class. The class 
in which each household is placed is decided by the new Kongdus 
at the first meeting of the Tsho-pas, who assist them in making the 
assessment, and also report whether any land has changed hands 
rom one family to another; for no one is allowed to part with his 
lands to an outsider. Thus a man of Upper Tromo may not even 
sell or mortgage land to a man of Lower Tromo. Nor is anyone 
allowed to part with the whole of his land, lest he should leave 
the country and so be lost to the house tax and to the liability to 
personal servi 
In t 
into which the various ranges of hills in the different vil- 
lages are divided. These are allotted by the Kongdus between 
the different villages of the four Tshos groups, and the amount of 
rent paid by each group therefore depends on the number of 
grazing grounds allotted to it. This and the distribution of the 
grazing rent to each village is decided by the Kongdus at the 
meeting of the T'sho-pas. f 
Another of the duties of the Kongdus is to regulate the cutting 
of the grass on the Lingma thang plain, which is the chief grass 
supply for the winter's hay. The plain 1s closed to grazing 
on a fixed day, the 5th day of the 5th month (June), 
and one of the La-yoks is stationed there to see that no 
ter. 
As has been already mentioned, the Tibetan Government, when 
it wanted to create an organised administration in Lower Tromo, 
