NEPAL: A UTTLE-KNOWN KINGDOM 



247 



fills the carriage with her voluminous 

 skirt of brilliant hue. Above the skirt a 

 vivid little tight-fitting jacket, usually of 

 velvet, is worn ; the hair is dressed in a 

 peculiar knot in front, above the fore- 

 head, and fastened to one side by an 

 enormous gold plaque with a jeweled 

 center. A heavy gold necklace and gold 

 bangles complete her jewelry. Every 

 imaginable shade is used — purple, pale 

 blue, green, carmine, orange, white, yel- 

 low, turquoise, and deep red — and the 

 effect is wonderful. 



At the time of state ceremonies the 

 streets are filled with processions of ele- 

 phants in gorgeous trappings, horses and 

 ponies, brilliant military uniforms, and 

 the usual crowd of good-natured, pleas- 

 ure-loving people, the whole against the 

 background of the old temples and nat- 

 ural surroundings making a wonderful 

 spectacle. 



A YEAR SPENT IN NEPAL 



I spent a year in Nepal, where I was 

 sent officially, and have seen the lovely 

 valley in its many changing aspects at 

 different seasons — pale green with grow- 

 ing rice, golden at harvest time, white 

 with blossom in the spring, and brown 

 and bare in the short winter months, but 

 always beautiful. My stay also enabled 

 me to become acquainted to some extent 

 with the manners and customs of the 

 people. 



The journey into Nepal is not an easy 

 one, and at the time of my visit the rail- 

 way only ran as far as Segowlie, whence 

 the journey of sixteen miles to Raxoul 

 was continued in a carriage lent by a 

 hospitable planter at whose house the 

 night was spent. 



Here the difficulties began, and the 

 journey as far as Hetowrah, through the 

 Terai and outer hills, was accomplished 

 on horseback or in a palanquin carried 

 by bearers. 



At first there is a track through the 

 forest, but as soon as the outer hills are 

 reached the road loses itself in the bed 

 of a stream, up which the bearers pick 

 their way with difficulty over and among 

 great boulders. 



At Hetowrah the Rapti River is 

 reached, a pretty mountain stream, and 

 we changed from horses and palanquins 

 to sturdy little hill ponies and dandis, a 



sort of chair carried by hillmen. From 

 there onward the road or, rather, track 

 passes through lovely scenery and 

 through the villages of Bichiakoh, Nim- 

 buatar to Bimphidi, where there are some 

 magnificent cotton trees, covered in the 

 spring with large, brilliant red flowers, 

 and on over the Sisagarhi Pass to Alarku 

 and Chitlong, prosperous little villages, 

 whose inhabitants take their produce to 

 Khatmandu on market days, thinking 

 nothing of the long tramp there and back 

 of over forty miles. 



WHERE "BAD ROADS" IS A NATIONAL 

 DOCTRINE 



The official road then goes over the 

 very rough track across the Chandragiri 

 Pass and down the almost impassable 

 road on the other side into the Nepal 

 Valley. The last portion of the descent 

 is down a long staircase of roughly 

 placed blocks of stone, and it is marvel- 

 ous how the laden men and ponies keep 

 their footing on it. 



From Chandragiri Pass there is a 

 beautiful view down into the valley, 

 studded with numerous towns and vil- 

 lages and surrounded on all sides by 

 mountains, while to the north tower the 

 everlasting snowy peaks of Gosainthan 

 and Dayabung. 



From the foot of the pass an excellent 

 carriage road into the town of Khat- 

 mandu runs through the valley teeming 

 with people, towns, palaces, temples, and 

 innumerable shrines. There are miles of 

 such good carriage roads within the val- 

 ley, mostly constructed in Jung Baha- 

 dur's time, and carriages and pairs and 

 occasionally a four-in-hand are constantly 

 used by the palace people. 



In this valley, where the shrines alone 

 are said to number more than 2,700, the 

 buildings present an amazing diversity 

 of form, derived from many sources — 

 Egyptian, as shown in the typical form 

 of the windows and doorways finely 

 adapted to local traditions ; Persian, 

 Babylonian, Indo-Aryan, and even Nes- 

 torian in some of the designs. 



It is necessary, before describing any 

 of these, however, to give some account 

 of the religion of this people in order to 

 show its intimate connection with the 

 artistic treatment of the temples, shrines, 

 and even private buildings. 



