SOME JOURNEYS IN BHUTAN 



369 



It is impossible to find words to ex- 

 press adequately the wonderful beauty 

 and variety of scenery I met with during 

 my journeys, the grandeur of the mag- 

 nificent snow peaks, and the picturesque- 

 ness and charm of the many wonderful 

 jongs, or forts, and other buildings I 

 came across ; but I hope my photographs 

 may give my readers some idea of what 

 I saw. 



A SPLENDID RACE 



The Bhutanese are fine, tall, well-de- 

 veloped men, with an open, honest cast 

 of face, and the women are comely, clean, 

 and well dressed and excellent house- 

 keepers and managers. Their religion is 

 Buddhism and their language a dialect of 

 Tibetan. The population of Bhutan is 

 about 400,000. 



My experience of the people is that 

 they are universally polite, civil, and 

 clean, and during the whole time I spent 

 in the country I only saw one drunken 

 man. I had every opportunity of judg- 

 ing, as I entered numerous houses and 

 temples in all parts of the country, and 

 invariably found them clean and tidy. In 

 many of the houses the floors were 

 washed and polished, and the refresh- 

 ments they hospitably pressed on me 

 were served in spotlessly clean dishes. 



The clothes of the higher officials were 

 always immaculate, their brocades and 

 silks fresh and unstained in any way, and 

 even the coolies were a great contrast to 

 the usual Tibetan or Darjeeling coolie. 



The amount of labor expended on their 

 irrigation channels shows that they are 

 an industrious and ingenious people (see 

 pages 401 and 428). Their houses are 

 all large and substantially built. 



In the courtyards we found retainers 

 busily occupied in various trades, while 

 the women of the household spin and 

 weave and make clothes for the men-folk 

 in addition to their ordinary duties. A 

 great part of the country is under culti- 

 vation, and they raise sufficient crops to 

 support the whole population, including 

 the lamas, who are a great burden to the 

 State (see also page 394). 



The men were cheery and jovial, al- 

 ways ready, at the end of a day's march, 

 when we had settled into camp, for a 



game at quoits, shooting at a target with 

 arrows, jumping, etc. They are fond of 

 their beer, but there is no great harm in 

 that, and small wonder they are thirsty 

 after toiling up the hills with their loads. 

 I have drunk many a choonga (bamboo 

 mug ) full of the mild ale myself and been 

 none the worse for it. 



WHAT BHUTAN IS LIKE 



Bhutan lies between 26 0 30' and 28 0 

 30' north latitude and 88° 45' and 92 0 15' 

 east longitude, and is bounded by British 

 India on the south, the native state of 

 Tawang, subject to Tibet, on the east, 

 Tibet on the north, and Sikkim and the 

 British district of Darjeeling on the west. 



The mountain system may be most 

 easily described as a series of parallel 

 ranges running approximately in a south- 

 erly direction from the main ridge of the 

 Himalayan range, where the peaks attain 

 altitudes up to 24,000 and 25,000 feet. 

 The principal rivers are the Am-mo- 

 chu, Wang-chu, Mo-chu, and Kuru, or 

 Lobrak-chu. 



In climate it varies enormously from 

 the ice and snow of the higher altitudes 

 to the damp, overpowering heat in the 

 deep valleys, and in vegetation from the 

 magnificent grazing grounds in the higher 

 regions, covered with alpine flowers, sur- 

 rounded by snow peaks, high pine for- 

 ests, rhododendrons, magnolias, chest- 

 nuts, and oaks, to luxuriant tropical 

 palms, ferns, and bamboos. 



On my second journey I came across 

 quantities of Cypripedium fairianum 

 growing in masses on the magnesium 

 limestone hills. This is the orchid of 

 which one specimen reached England 

 about i860 in a consignment sent from 

 Sikkim by Sir Joseph Hooker, but had 

 since become extinct, and for which 

 $5,000 was offered by orchid-growers. I 

 had been on the lookout for it for several 

 years, and now, when I did find it, I was 

 just too late, as it had been discovered 

 during the survey of the Am-mo-chu 

 Valley a few months before. 



There are magnificent forests of Pinus 

 cxcclsa, Abies brunoniana, and silver fir, 

 many of the trees exceeding in size any- 

 thing I have ever seen. If these forests, 

 with the water power at hand on all sides, 



