110 GEORGE D-S-DUNBAK ON 



different. The original home of the Memba I gather to be Darma in Bhotan, and 

 Dopo says it is due to the Tong Tsa Penlop of Darma for people to go across once in 

 their lives and pay their respects to him. 

 July 5th. The morning broke misty but promising and, except for an unlucky shower 



while I was trying to photograph Marpung monastery, we had a perfect day; sunny 

 with a strong cool breeze up the valley. 



It is a fair pull up the hill to Upper Pateng which is on a terrace higher up the 

 spur from which Yortong overlooks the Tsanpo. A cluster of half a dozen houses. 

 We found the Pateng villagers very busy with their mattocks in their neatly fenced 

 fields. Passed a herd of about 30 cattle, my guide pointing out a pair of very 

 fine bulls used for ploughing. These were all true cattle. I have seen no mithan 

 about here, though some of the cattle appear to have a strain of yak in them. 



A climb of half an hour or so from camp brought us on to the contour that we 

 practically never left till we ascended the hill to the monastery. The Tsanpo writhed 

 snake-like and grey in its gorge 3000 ft. below. High above it, on both sides of the 

 valley, lay the light-green downs of grass and the cultivation of the little groups of 

 houses that dotted the landscape. Pine trees clung to the high steep spurs that 

 towered over us into the clouds veiling the snows above. We could see Puchung, 

 Yarong and Mike on the left bank ; the Rinchenpung group was hidden by an inter- 

 vening spur. Our path, till near Shi-Yupe, ran first through brachen and brambles, 

 ripe with yellow, red and purple fruit and an excellent true red raspberry and then 

 through light tree jungle. The path was bright with butterflies, and a net would be 

 of great value, for I am sure that there must be something new in the clouds of blues 

 and swallow-tails ; and there is a very large skipper up here that I have seen nowhere 

 else. Poteng hillside is chiefly grass. It might be an exaggeration to call it under- 

 sheep, but I noticed some fine big sheep in excellent condition on the hillside. 



As we climbed the hill to the monastery our guide thoughtfully provided a happy 

 touch by cutting a stick and advising the rest of the party to do the same as the 

 monastery dogs, living up to their orthodox character, were very ferocious. I was dis- 

 appointed in not seeing them ; the only animals we did see were some calves 

 and a bluish-brown cat. The calves were feeding out of a brass-bound bucket 

 that I very much coveted. We reached the monastery by a dirty lane twisting 

 through the group of houses clustering below the gate, above which gleamed the 

 gilded pinnacle crowning the temple. The buildings lay round the courtyard in 

 the order and orientation already seen at Yortong, but instead of the small 

 shrine outside and to the right of the tsogan, here we had a long stone bal- 

 conied house, from the upper windows of which peeped one or two interested, and not 

 uninteresting, young women — nuns doubtless. The building which at Yortong is 

 marked " C " in the plan was of some size, but the abbot, not content with using the 

 long altar shelf for lumber such as an old and broken Lama's chair, had, Cromwell- 

 like, stabled his beasts in it. The banner covered with alternate black and red lines of 

 character, hung on its pole in the centre of the square grass plot, but the ground was 

 sludgy like a farmyard — and there were no flower-beds under the walls of the temple. 



