Jan. 1849. SEPARATE FROM DR. CAMPBELL. 331 



of colour and form, and the walls are completely covered 

 with allegorical paintings of Lamas and saints expounding 

 or in contemplation, with glories round their heads, mitred, 

 and holding the dorje and jewel. 



The principal image is a large and hideous figure of 

 Sakya-thoba, in a recess under a blue silk canopy, con- 

 trasting with a calm figure of the late Rajah, wearing a 

 cap and coronet. 



Pemiongchi was once the capital of Sikkim, and called the 

 Sikkim Durbar : the Rajah's residence was on a curious flat 

 to the south of the temple, and a few hundred feet below it, 

 where are the remains of (for this country) extensive walls 

 and buildings. During the Nepal war, the Rajah was 

 driven west across the Teesta, whilst the Ghorkas plundered 

 Tassiding, Pemiongchi, Changachelling, and all the temples 

 and convents to the east of that river. It was then that 

 the famous history of Sikkim,* compiled by the Lamas of 

 Pemiongchi, and kept at this temple, was destroyed, with 

 the exception of a few sheets, with one of which Dr. Campbell 

 and myself were each presented. We were told that the 

 monks of Changachelling and those of this establishment 

 had copied what remained, and were busy compiling from 

 oral information, &c. : whatever value the original may have 

 possessed, however, is irretrievably lost. A magnificent 

 copy of the Boodhist Scriptures was destroyed at the same 

 time ; it consisted of 400 volumes, each containing several 

 hundred sheets of Daphne paper. 



The ground about the temple was snowed ; and we 

 descended a few hundred feet, to encamp in a most 

 picturesque grove, among chaits and inscribed stones, with 



* This remarkable and beautiful manuscript was written on thick oblong sheets 

 of Tibet paper, painted black to resist decay, and the letters were yellow and gold. 

 The Nepalese soldiers wantonly employed the sheets to l'oof the theds they erected, 

 as a protection from the weather. 



