Nov. 1849. KAJAH'S RESIDENCE. 191 



wheat, green fields of young wheat, yellow millet, broad 

 green plantains, and orange groves. 



We crossed spur after spur, often under or over 

 precipices about fifteen hundred feet above the river, 

 proceeding eastwards to the village of Rangang, whence 

 we caught sight of the Rajah's house. It was an irre- 

 gular low stone building of Tibetan architecture, with 

 slanting walls and small windows high up under the 

 broad thatched roof, above which, in the middle, was a 

 Chinese -looking square copper-gilt canopy, with projecting 

 eaves and bells at the corners, surmounted by a ball 

 and square spire. On either gable of the roof was a 

 round-topped cylinder of gilded copper, something like a 

 closed umbrella ; this is a very frequent and charac- 

 teristic Boodhist ornament, and is represented in Turner's 

 plate of the mausoleum of Teshoo Larna ("Tibet" 

 plate xi.) ; indeed the Rajah's canopy at Tumloong is 

 probably a copy of the upper part of the building there 

 represented, having been built by architects from Teshoo 

 Loombo. It was surrounded by chaits, mendongs, poles 

 with banners, and other religious erections ; and though 

 beautifully situated on a flat terrace overlooking the 

 valley, we were much disappointed with its size and 

 appearance. 



On the brow of the hill behind was the large red 

 goompa of the Tupgain Lama, the late heir-apparent to 

 the temporal and spiritual authority in Sikkim ; and near 

 it a nunnery called Lagong, the lady abbess of which 

 is a daughter of the Rajah, who, with the assistance of 

 sisters, keeps an enormous Mani, or praying-cylinder, 

 revolving perpetually to the prayer of " Om Mani 

 Padmi horn." On this side was a similar spur, on 

 which the gilded pinnacles and copper canopy of the 



