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Till-; NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



BIRD S-EYE VIEW OP BATAXG SURROUNDED BY TERRACED FlEEDS 



The white buildings on the hill are the hospital and residence of the American mission. 

 Xote the head of the horse in the foreground; the photograph was taken from the vantage 

 point of its back. 



the lay officials of the government. The 

 next lower step in social gradation leads 

 to the headmen of the villages, usually 

 the wealthiest residents of the localities. 

 Next in order are the wealthy villagers 

 not headmen, and below these come the 

 ordinary folk. At the bottom of the 

 social ladder are the servants and slaves 

 of the well-to-do. 



PRAYER-WHEELS OPERATED BY WATER 



In education the Tibetans are very 

 backward, there being nothing in the 



country in the nature of public instruc- 

 tion. A few of the more wealthy fami- 

 lies hire a priest to come into their homes 

 to teach their sons. The "education" 

 which these favored ones obtain, how- 

 ever, is usually of very little value to 

 them, for a great many of the priests are 

 not able to read or write, but have simply 

 learned to say from memory long strings 

 of prayers or the inevitable "Om-mani- 

 padme-hum," the repetition of which is 

 supposed to insure the laying up of great 

 merit. 



