GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 163 



functionaries, the secular head or Deb Raja, and the religious head 

 or Dharma Raja, but the real power lies with several chieftains, who 

 are always plotting against each other to set some relative of their 

 own. on the throne. Hence R. N. and his companion P. A., who 

 had entered "Western Bhutan from Sikkim and the Chumbi valley, 

 were unable to continue their journey eastward across the country 

 as Pemberton had done in 1838, and were compelled to travel 

 southward to Buxa Duar, re-entering Bhutan at its eastern extremity 

 at Dewangiri. From this point they travelled to the north-west, 

 ascending the Pumthang river, one of the principal feeders of the 

 Manas, up to the Tibetan frontier, and thence travelling eastward 

 returned by way of Tawang. The route closes on to that of 

 Captain Pemberton (1838) in Bhutan, and of Lama U. Gr. in Tibet, 

 and the results have helped greatly to supply a sketch map of 

 Bhutan, which has been embodied by Mr. W. Gr. E. Atkinson in 

 sheet No. 7 of the N.E. Transfrontier Series. One result of the 

 journey was to prove that the Kuru or Lhobrak Chu is the largest 

 river of Bhutan, and drains the country between the Yamdok, 

 Pho-mo-chang-thang, and Tigu lakes, and the glaciers of the 

 Kulha, Gangri, and other great ranges.* R.N. also discovered a 

 new tribe called Chingmis in the eastern part of Bhutan. Though 

 resembling the Bhutanese in dress, they differ in wearing pigtails, 

 are of a more amiable disposition, and live in better houses, but do 

 not, like the Bhutanese, form part of the official class. 



An account of the lower Sanpo was written by the Mongolian 

 Lama Serap Gyatsho between 1856-68. His narrative,! however, 

 is mainly confined to a list of names of monasteries, sacred places, 

 and villages, with an occasional digression into history, description 

 of wild beasts, &c. It contains but little geography, and being 

 based, moreover, on data collected nearly 30 years since, must be 

 altogether accepted with caution. Nevertheless, the information, 



such as it is, combined with the account of K p (a more recent 



explorer) enabled Colonel Tanner to compile a sketch map of that 

 part of the Sanpo which had been previously a complete blank on 

 the maps. 



* Geographers appear to have been in some uncertainty regarding the lower course 

 of the Lhobrak. In my article on the " Himalaya Mountains," in the "Imperial 

 Gazetteer" of India, I suggested that the Manas was in reality the lower course of the 

 Lhobrak; but in Mr. Markham's work "Tibet: Bogle and Manning," the Lhobrak- 

 chu and the Subansiri are supposed to be identical. 



\ See footnote on previous page. 



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