TIMUR BEG. 
105 
Boutan, which, though not invaded by Timur, is in 
the same range of mountains more than once pene- 
trated by his armies. “The palace of Tacissudjon,” 
says Mr. Davis in his manuscript description of Bou- 
tan, “ really surprised me by the regularity and 
grandeur of its appearance, though I had previously 
conceived a favourable idea of it from similar build- 
ings on the way. It is an oblong, two hundred 
yards in front and a hundred in depth, divided 
within into two squares by a separate building raised 
in the centre, more lofty and more ornamented than 
the rest. In the latter the rajah and some of his 
principal people reside ; and upon the top appears a 
square gilded turret, said to be the habitation of one 
of the lamas.* One of the squares comprehends the 
chapel and apartments of the priests, and the other is 
allotted to the officers and servants of government. 
There are three stories of apartments, which commu- 
nicate by handsome verandas continued round the in- * 
side of the whole building, and from the middle story 
communicating by a passage to the rajah’s apartments 
in the centre. From the windows of the upper cham- 
bers balconies project of a size to hold fifteen or twenty 
persons ; but there are no windows below, as they 
would not contribute to the strength of the place. The 
walls are of stone and clay, built thick, and with a 
greater slope inwards than is given to European build- 
ings. The roof has little slope, and is covered with 
shingles, kept down by large stones placed upon them 
in the manner the Portuguese fasten the tiles of their 
houses in Madeira: — it projects considerably beyond 
* The lamas are high priests. 
