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CHARLES WILLIAM WASON

COLLECTION
CHINA AND THE CHINESE
THE GIFT OF
CHARLES WILLIAM WASON

CLASS OF 1876
1918
Cornell University Library
DS 785.R68d
Diary of a
ourney through IMongoiia and
3 1924 023 224 656
Cornell University Library
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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023224656
DIARY OF A JOURNEY
THROUGH
MONGOLIA
1
AND Tibet
89
AND 1892
BY
WILLIAM WOODVILLE ROCKHILL

Gold Medalist of the Royal Geographical Society
CITY OF
WASHINGTON
1894
I,
PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
(iJUAm '
^3A-1!
PRINTED FOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
BY W.
F.
ROBERTS, WASHINGTON
1894
ADVERTISEMENT.
The journey described
in
tinis
volume was undertaken by
Mr. Rockhill partly under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution,
and the work

with
is
issued as a
special
publication
of
the
Institution,
the general
in
object of
little
"increasing and
diffusing
knowledge" by the
regard to the
known
countries
traversed
explorer.
S. P.
LANGLEY,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
List of Illustrations
vi
vii
Illustrations
in
the Text
Introductory Notice
ix
Part
From Peking through Mongolia to Kumbum

Part
Salar pa-kun.
Kuei-te.
II.
Koko
nor.
Ts'aidam
73
Part III.
From the Naichi gol to Namru
de,
near the Tengri nor.. i8i
Part IV.
From Namru to Ch'amdo

Part V.
Draya.
Mar-K'ams.
Bat'ang.
Lit'ang.
233
Chala
319
Appendixes.
Appendix
Appendix
Salar Vocabulary
San-Ch'uan T'u-jen Vocabulary
Plants of Tibet
373 377
1 1
Appendix III.
Appendix Appendix
I
380
._
Table of Latitudes, Altitudes, etc.
386 396
397
V.
Mean Monthly Temperature
General Index
ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES.
Boots
to face p.
14
hsi-kung miap
Pai-ma Ssu
kumbum
~
-
26
64
Salar
Woman
-
So
96
108
Cooking Utensils
Pack-saddles
Su-CHiA Panaka
Camp
112
- 132
BoNBO Lamas
Panaka
Mongols of Shang
Ts' aidam
148
1 64
Mongols
-
Spear
Matchlock
170
182
-
Accoutrements
Saddle
Hobbles, etc Butter-boxes Pail Hats Caps

~
Drupa Tibetans
192
204
216
232
Tea Churns
jYADfi
256 266 272

.".
Woman's Headdress
Crossing Su ch'u
Tea-pots
Bowl
Belt,
280
Riwoch'e
300
Mountains near Neda

Bullet-pouch
Sung-lo
etc etc
zamba
304
312
Draya
Temple
near Bat'ang
324 344
_
..
Belt, Knife, Tinder-pouch,
Lamaya
Lit'ang
Golo
352
Tower at Bagolo
Route Map of Explorations
.'
364
372
ILLUSTRATIONS
IN
THE TEXT.
Spindle of
Ordos Mongols
page
22
Lama's Water-bottle
30
104
123
132
Sheath-knife of Panaka
Plan of Panaka Cooking-stove and Tent

Spindle of
Panaka
Ear-ring
236
242
Snuff-box
Sling
264
281
Padlock
Tea-strainer
292
Tea-dasher
306 338
362
Jew's-Harp and Case
Hoe
vn
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE.
As
far as
my knowledge
was
goes, the
first
European
traveler
who
entered Tibet
Friar Odoric,
who, coming from Northwestern
China, traversed Central Tibet on his

1325, and sojourned some time
way
to India in or about
in its capital, Lh'asa.
The
infor-
mation he has
left
us of this country in his " Eastern Parts of the

is,
World Described,"*
graphical value.
however, very meager and of no geo-
Three centuries elapsed before another Western traveler visited

this country.
In 1624 the Jesuit
Antonio Andrada went from

Sutlej,
Agra
to the sources of the
Ganges and
and thence through
Western
Tibet, to Kiria probably,
whence he journeyed along the
northern base of the Kun-lun to the
Koko nor
country, or
Tangut, ultimately reaching China.f
The next journey through Tibet was performed by Fathers

Grueber and Dorville
in 1661.
They
left
Hsi-ning Fu in Kan-su
and followed the highroad to Lh'asa by Nya-ch'uk'a and Reting.
gomba.
After staying
two months
la.
in Lh'asa,
they pushed on to
Nepaul by
way
of the Kuti
Grueber's narrative contains

its
much
and
valuable information on Tibet,
people, their customs
religion.!
In 1716 the Jesuit Fathers Desideri
and Freyre reached Lh'asa,

there until 1729.
In 1719
coming from Sikkim, and remained

* Published
in Col.
H. Yule's Cathay
and
the
Way
du
Thither,
1,
pp. 1-162.
f See Peron et Billecocq, Recueil de Voyages X Published in Thevenot's Relations,
Tibet.
II, part iv. See also Clem. R. Markham, of the Mission of George Bo^le and of the foumey of Thomas Manning, 295 et seq. This latter work has been constantly before me in writing
'^Narrative
these notes.
the Capuchin Francisco della Penna and twelve other members of his order also reached the capital of Tibet, and established a
mission there which flourished until about 1760.

the information collected by Desideri the letters of Orazio della Penna
still
While most of
remains in manuscript,
have been published several
times and are of great value.*
Dutchman Samuel van de Putte, He went to Lh'asa from in or about 1730, we know but little. the Hsi-ning road to Peking, returnIndia, and then traveled by
Of
the journey to Tibet of the
ing again to Lh'asa and to India, and dying in Batavia in i745-t

In
1774 George Bogle was sent
by Warren
in
Hastings
to
Shigatse to try and open commercial relations with Tibet.
The
account of his journey has been published

ents R.
1879 by Mr. Clem-
Markham.
Samuel Turner
also visited Shigatse,
In 1783 Captain
and on
his return published a valuable account of his journey. J I pass over the work of Brian H. Hodgson, Dr. Campbell, Dr.
Hooker, Alexander Cunningham, Wilson, Ashley Eden and others

in
Sikkim, Bhutan and the adjacent countries, as the
field
of their
labors
was
in
those parts of Tibet which are under British rule or
influence.
The next foreigner to visit Tibet and Lh'asa was the Englishman Thomas Manning, who traveled there vi& Pari djong and Gyants6 djong in 181 1 returning to India by the same road in the early
part of the following year.
His fragmentary journal, published

little
by Mr. Markham|| adds but
to our
knowledge
of the country
*See Clem. R. Markham, op. sup. cit., pp. Iviii, 302 et seq., and for Orazio della Penna's Breve Notizia del Regno del Tibet, the same work, p. 309 et seq. Much
valuable information derived from notes and letters written
by the
Jesuit
and
Capuchin fathers
published at
in Tibet
in
may be found
in Georgi's
Alphabetum Tibetanum,
Rome
1762, i vol., 4.
in
Also the letter of Pere Gaubil f See Clem. R. Markham, op. cit., p. Ixii et seq. Lettres idifianies et curieuses (Pantheon litteraire edit.), IV, 60.
XAn Account of an Embassy to

1800.
II
the Court
of the Teshoo Lama,
i vol., 4,
Op. sup.
cit,,
213-294.
he traversed, but
it is
XI
nevertheless of considerable value.
In
1844
the Lazarist fathers

the
Hue and Gabet

the Ts'aidam,
traversed the Ordos, Alashan,
Koko nor and
and following the highroad

in 1846.
which passes by Nya-ch'uk'a, reached Lh'asa

stayed a few months
Here they
when
they were expelled by the Chinese

in
Amban and
conducted to Ta-chien-lu
SsQ-ch'uan by the high-
road which goes through Ch'amdo, Draya, Bat'ang, and Ho-k'ou.*
On
their
way
to Lh'asa they followed the road
which
in 1661
had
been gone over by Father Grueber, and which more recently

has been explored by the Russian traveler Nicholas Prjevalsky, as
far at least as
the frontier post of Nya-ch'uk'a.

that of
Between the time of Hue's adventuresome journey and

Col. Prjevalsky in i87o-'7i,
no
foreigners, as far as
am
aware,
entered Tibet.
After exploring the Tibetan country around the
Koko
nor, Prjevalsky
pushed on along the highroad
to Lh'asa as
far as the
Dre
ch'u, a point
which may be considered

it is
as in Tibet
proper, though politically speaking
in a
no-man's-land.
a
In 1879 the indefatigable Prjevalsky
undertook
second expedi-
tion into Tibet with the
avowed
object of reaching Lh'asa.
Coming
from the Ts'aidam he followed the highroad to Lh'asa, and got as

near the capital as Nya-ch'uk'a.
to retrace his steps.
Here he was stopped and forced
In this expedition he also explored consider-
able country south of the
by the predatory Tibetan
Koko nor, an unknown region inhabited Kamb'a and Golok. % During Prjevalsky's
fourth and last expedition into Central Asia he visited in 1887 a
small section of Tibetan country between southern Ts'aidam and
the Dre ch'u and inhabited by

I
K'amba
pastoral tribes.
||
In 1889
little
followed this route myself, and coming to the Dre ch'u a

river,
I
below where Prjevalsky reached that
crossed
it
and
after-
*See Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartarie

t See Mongolia, the
et le Thibet, 2 vol. 12.
Tangut Country,
2 vols., 8, 1876.
4, 1883.
JSee
II
his
Tretye puteshestvie v Centralnoi Asii,
See his
Ot Kiachtii na
istoki joltoi reki, etc., 4, 1888.
xii
a considerable section of Eastern Tibet, ultimately
wards traversed
re-entering China at Ta-chien-lu in the
Ta-chien-lu in Ssu-ch'uan
is
the
summer of the same year.* frontier town on the highroad

it
connecting Western China with Central Tibet, and through

nearly
all
pass
the caravans going to or
coming from Lh'asa.f

from
Explorers
have repeatedly endeavored
to enter Tibet
this point,
and
it
has been the basis of the operation of the Catholic missionaries in

Tibet ever since about 1858.
In 1868 the
Englishman T. T. Cooper entered
Tibet from
Ta-chien-lu in an attempt to reach India, and pushed on as far as
Bat'ang where he
his steps,
was stopped and obliged ultimately to retrace after traveling some distance southward. J In 1877 Capt.
R. E., also reached Bat'ang from Ta-chien-lu, but he
at that point,
fate
Wm.
also
Gill,
was turned southward The same

to
and so went to Yun-nan
and Burmah.l
overtook in 1880 the Hungarian
Count
Bela Szechenyi and his well-organized expedition, with
which he wanted
go
to Lh'asa.
The French
have been
missionaries operating in the Tibetan borderland

since they
fairly successful
opened
their mission at
Bonga
in 1854.
On
one occasion they reached Ch'amdo, and at
Gart'ok they were allowed by the Lh'asan authorities to open

a station for a short time, while in Bat'ang and the country south of
it,
they have maintained themselves with varying fortunes

to the present day.1"
in 1826,
down
The attempts made by Wilcox

by I'Abbe Krick
* See
f
by Dr.
Griffiths in 1836,
in
1852,
by T. T. Cooper
in 1870,
and by Mr.
Land 0/ the Lamas,

older
8, 1891.
road between China and Lh'asa is the Hsi-ning Ts'aidam one, but since the breaking out of the Dzungan rebellion in the sixties, the Chinese government have kept it closed as much as they could. Nearly every
easier
The much
and
year the Lh'asa or Trashilhunpo people ask to be allov^fed to send their tribute missions over it, but they are invariably refused.
X Travels
II
of a Pioneer of Commerce,
8, 1871.
See
The River of Golden Sands,

Lieut. Kreitner's
2 vols., 8, 1880.
See
If
Imfemen
Osten, 8, 1882.
See
Le
Thibet d'apris la correspondence des missionnaries, par C. H. Des-
godins, 8, 1885.
Needham
failure,
Xlll
in 1885,
to enter Tibet
from the south,
all
met with
and the
all
and the country between the Assam

is still
frontier
Lh'asa
Ta-chien-lu highroad
last
the least
known
of
Tibet,
though perhaps the most
interesting.
all
The
three explorations into Tibet,
of which have
met
with comparative success, have been undertaken from the north
and northwest.
a
trail
In 1889 the
French traveler Bonvalot, following
sometimes used by the Torgot Mongols, coming from the
Lob
nor,
managed
to
to reach the Tengri nor.
There he was stopped
and forced
go eastward by a route
parallel to the Lh'asa
Ta-
chien-lu highroad as far as Gart'ok, from

lu
which town
to Ta-chien-
he followed the highroad
itself.*
The country traversed by this

between the
explorer between the

lutely
Lob nor basin and the Tengri nor was abso-
unknown
to us, as
was
also that part, lying
Tengri nor and Gart'ok, and his journey has added very considerably to our knowledge concerning one
portions of Tibet.
In iSgo-'gi Capt.
of the
least
known
trav-
Henry Bower, of the 17th Bengal Cavalry,
ersed the whole of Tibet from west to east, his road, as far as north
of the Tengri nor lying over the nearly desert plateau
known
as
the "Northern plateau" or
Chang Vang, another
portion of which
had been explored the year before by Bonvalot. f

practically the
Bower
all
like
Bonvalot was stopped near the Tengri nor, and forced to follow
same
trail
that traveler
had taken
the
way
to
China.
The
diary published in the present
volume was kept during

It
my
second journey
in Tibet in the years i89i-'92.
will,
hope,
help to extend our knowledge of the country previously explored
by Bonvalot and Bower,

to theirs,
my route
also
in
many
places running parallel
and
for a considerable distance

It
being the same as the
one they followed.
contains
my
researches in other
sections of the country until then entirely unexplored.

*See
De Paris au
Tonkin & travers
le Tibet
inconnu,
i vol., 8, 1892.
fSee Diary of a Journey Across Tibet,
8, 1893.
Xiv
said
in
Summarizing what has been
the preceding remarks
we see that the highroad between Hsi-ning and Lh'asa has been followed, over a portion or the whole of its length, by Odoric
de Pordenone, by Fathers Grueber and Dorville, by Samuel van de Putte, by Hue and Gabet and by Prjevalsky.
The
Lh'asa
Ta-chien-lu road has
been gone over by Hue and
Gabet, and along a portion of its length by a

missionaries since 1861, also
number of the French

Szechenyi, Bonvalot,
by Cooper,
Gill,
Bower The
and myself.
various roads between Nepaul, or Sikkim
and Central
Odoric in
Tibet have been traveled over by the Franciscan
monk
the 14th century, by the Jesuit and Capuchin fathers in the 17th
and
i8th,
and
also
by Bogle, Turner and Manning.
The high
plateau
(Chang Vang) of Northern Tibet has

:
been:
traversed along four lines
by Prjevalsky and myself
at its eastern
extremity; by Prjevalsky and the other travelers
who
have gone
over the Hsi-ning Lh'asa road, at about four degrees of longitude
west of the preceding

est
line
by Bonvalot and myself

finally
in its great-
width from north to south; and
by Bower
in
its
greatest length from west to east.
The above embraces

In the preceding
practically
all
the explorations
made by
foreigners in Great Tibet
down
1
to the present day.
remarks
have made no mention of one of

I
our most valuable sources of information concerning Tibet,

refer
to the
work
of the native explorers sent to
Tibet and
other trans-Himalayan countries
by the Great Trigonometrical
Survey of
India.
The
plan
of training natives for scientific
geographical
to countries closed to
work and sending them beyond the Indian frontier Europeans was inaugurated by Col. T. G. Montgomerie some twenty-five or thirty years ago. By this
means those portions
of Tibet
which
lie
to the north of
Nepaul
and Sikkim, and to the east of Kashmir, and

Bhutan, have been carefully surveyed.
especially
also, to a less extent,
Some
),
of these explorers,"
Nain Singh (.Pundit
Kishen Singh or
XV
and Lama Ugyen
jyats'o,
have traversed the whole of

Lh'asa, Shigats6
Tibet from south to north and from west to east.
and most of the important towns and
all
the adjacent country of
Central and Western Tibet have been carefully surveyed, and of
Lh'asa especially,
we now know
through them the most minute
topographical detail.*
But while these native explorers are most
admirable surveyors, they are not well-trained observers, and

details of great value,
both ethnological and even geographical,
often escape their attention, while the
most
puerile
and unimport-
ant story or legend
is
often recorded
by them
in the
most
careful
and prolix way.
The roads leading from Lh'asa to Hsi-ning and to Ta-chien-lu have been gone over by Kishen Singh, Nain Singh has traversed
the Ch'ang t'ang from west to east along a line a
little
to the
south of Bower's, the road
followed in 1889 through Eastern
Tibet had been previously explored, in 188 1, by Kishen Singh,
and what
little
we know
and
reports.
of Southern Tibet
is
from native
the
explorers' travels
Notwithstanding
this,
work of
the European travelers
who
have explored these same routes has
not been
lost,
the information they have collected would have
escaped the attention of Asiatic explorers, no matter
how many
had gone over the road before them.
Another valuable source of information concerning Tibet which
must not be overlooked,
is
Chinese
literature.
Since the middle
of the seventeenth century,
when
Chinese intercourse with Tibet
took a sudden and wide expansion, travelers of that nation have
composed
* See
number
on
this
of guide-books, mostly concerned with the
work Report on the Explorations made in Sikkim, 1886. Report on the Explorations in Great in i8'jg-'82. Narrative of a Journey to Lh'asa in i88i-'83, by Sarat Chandra Das. Narrative of a Journey Round Lake Yamdo (Palti) in 1882, by the same; and also Memoir on the Indian Surveys, by Clements R. Markham, 148 et seq., and Memoir on the India Surveys, i8'^5-i8go, by Charles E. D. Black, 151-165. A K has made a map of the city of Lh'asa on a scale of four inches to the mile.
especially
Bhutan and Tibet from i8s6 to Tibet and Mongolia, made by
A A
XVI
some of them give valuable inNot a few of these trails.
and other resources of the
Besides these works, each
highroads through Tibet, though
formation relating to little-known
books contain much valuable information bearing on the trade,

climate, history, products, industries
various districts to
which they
refer.*
of the various Chinese dynastic histories contains chapters on

the history, geography and ethnography of Tibet during the different periods to
which each
relates.
large portion of the information contained in these

1
two
classes
of Chinese works
have translated or condensed and published in
the "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society."

plied
The data they sup-
me were
found of the greatest value during
my
several
journeys in Tibet, even when, as in the case of the road between
Ch'amdo and Nya-ch'uk'a followed by Bonvalot, Bower and myself,
and which
is
given in these translations (p. 86), only a very

in the
few of the names were known

I
country at the present day.
The journey which undertook in 1888-89, some of the results of which have published in "The Land of the Lamas," enI
couraged me' to believe that
could,
if
undertook a second
journey into Tibet, add considerably to our knowledge of that
remote region
first
and
so,
when I had worked up

latter
the results of
my
journey,
determined upon once more visiting Mongolia and
Tibet,
and endeavoring to traverse the
country from north-
east to southwest, or in other
words
to try
and reach Nepaul or
Sikkim from the Chinese province of Kan-su.

1
had learned during

is
my
first
journey that in that portion of
Tibet which
under the rule of Lh'asa, opposition to foreigners

violent than elsewhere, so
I
was much more
endeavored
in this
journey to steer clear of Lh'asa, but various circumstances, which will be found related in my Diary, and over which I had no
control, turned
me from
the path
had intended to follow, and
so,
when
*For
not over thirty or forty miles from the Tengri nor, and less
a
list
Royal Asiatic Society, new series,
of the most important of this class of works on Tibet, sti Journal XXIII, pp. 3 and 4.
than a month's travel from British India, and
the
XVil
when
at
very nearly
same spot
at M'hich
Bonvalot and Bower had been stopped,
my
I
further progress southward was arrested by the Tibetans, and was forced to turn my face eastward. The remainder of my journey was not through country absolutely unknown, for my route frequently crossed and some-
times coincided with those of Bonvalot and Bower, and from
Ch'amdo
to Ta-chien-lu
followed the route taken in 1861 by
Monseigneur Thomine Desmazures, and more recently by Captain

Bower, but notwithstanding
this,
I
believe that
have been able
to collect, even during this portion of
my
journey, thanks to
my
knowledge of the Tibetan and Chinese languages, not a few data which will prove of interest and of possible value to future
explorers.
Of Southern Mongolia and Western Kan-su, through which

the
first
part of
my
journey took me,
we
on
really
know
less
than of
Tibet, for our sources of information
this section of
Mongolia
are confined to the letters
and other writings of the
Jesuits
who
first
resided in Peking in the 17th and i8th centuries, to Hue's charm-
ing but rather romantic "Souvenirs," and to Prjevalsky's

journey, and, as
regards the
Kan-su, to Prjevalsky's
Koko-nor country and Western works and to what little has been so far
followed
this
in
published of Potanin's papers.
Regarding the method

route-map accompanying
preparing
the
sketch
volume, the original was
made
on a
scale of four statute miles to the inch,
and the instruments
used were a prismatic compass, an aneroid and a six-inch sextant.
In the first part of the survey,

I
between Kalgan and Kueilocalities
te in Kan-su,
passed through several
whose
positions
had been determined, with more or less exactitude, by the Jesuits in the 17th century, and more recently by Prjevalsky, and my observations agree fairly well with theirs.
half of
In the
second and
it
less
known
my journey my
traverse,
wherever
crosses that
made by
Bower, shows a close agreement with
his in latitude for points
xviii
it,
situated along
and a
fairly
good one
for longitude.
On
the
whole
than
consider the results of this long and hasty survey of over

fairly accurate,
3,400 miles as satisfactory and
but
it is
nothing more
a nearly
latitude,
a rough preliminary sketch of its name implies unknown region. Numerous observations for time and
and
for altitude,
by the
boiling point of water
and from aneroid
readings,
were taken during the whole length of the journey.

latter
The instruments with which these

were corrected before and
after the
observations were
made
journey at the United States

altitudes
Weather Bureau
also,
at
Washington, and the
deduced have
through the kindness of Professor Mark
W.
Harrington, Chief
of the Bureau,
been calculated
there.
They show, wherever

appendix
comparisons are possible, a
fairly close
agreement with those taken
by
my predecessors,
as an examination of the table in the
will demonstrate.
Meteorological observations for temperature; pressure, cloudiness,
wind,
p.
etc., etc.,
;
were taken three

in
tim.es daily, at 7 a.m., 2 p.m.
and 7
M.
have given
an appendix a table showing the

hours from January
ist,
mean monthly temperature

1892, to October ist of the
at these three
same
year, the date at
which
reached
Ta-chien-lu in Ssu-ch'uan.
The
illustrations
accompanying
this
volume
are either reproduc-
tions of photographs taken during the journey, or
drawings of
objects brought back
by me, most of which
now
I
belong to the
United States National Museum.
As
to the transcription of Chinese words,

Sir
have followed the

are given
system of
Thomas Wade,
in
which the sounds
according to the Peking pronunciation.

1
In transcribing Tibetan
have, as in
my
previous work, applied as nearly as possible

to the native spelling
Wade's system, while adhering
and the
Lh'asa pronunciation, as far as phonetic spelling
The only sound

is if
to
the French eu,
would admit. which I need call attention is that of ^, which as in " peu," thus Ponbo is to be pronounced as
BQnbo
as
if it
written Peunbo,
were Beunbo,
etc.
in the writ-
"
ten language of Tibet
all
XIX
these
words
is
are written with an. o,
Dpon-po, Bon-po.
the suggestion
to
The
acute accent
used, in accordance with

'
'
made in that invaluable book,

it
Hints to Travellers,
show
the emphasized syllable, not to change the sound of the

is
vowel over which
placed.
In transcribing
Mongol,
have
followed a purely phonetic system, giving, as a general thing,

the sound of the words according to the western or
Kalmuk
pronunciation with which alone
am
at all familiar.
The
cies in
reader's indulgence
is
asked for some apparent inconsisten-
my
transcription of foreign
words; they
result either
from
negligehce on
my part
which
after
or from over-anxiousness to
make
the cor-
rect pronunciation perfectly clear
without lengthy explanations.
The form
in
now
publish the results of

I
my journey
might prove
was only adopted

happily there
still
much
hesitation, as
feared
it
tedious to even the enthusiastic reader of books of travel

be.
if
such
But a journal, kept from day to day, and
often under great difficulties
shows
better,
think, than
his
any other
his
form of record the true impressions of the writer,

hopes, his anxieties, even
moods,
when
In
they concern nothing more im1
portant than his next meal, of which

public likes to be informed.
am, however, assured the

is
such a Diary as
nothing worse
fail
here given
detail
numerous
glaring errors in style
if
tedious
in
and monotonous
reader,
repetition cannot
to confront the too critical

cold,
but
let
him be
lives
charitable
dirt,
starvation
and a
thousand minor discomforts which beset the explorer
Mongolia
and Tibet
who
and
travels like the barbarous inhabitants of
those wild regions, are not conducive to sustained or successful

literary
It
work, as he
may
find out for himself
if
he will but
try
it.
gives
me
great pleasure to acknowledge here
my
high
appreciation of the deep interest which
my friend
General James
H. Wilson has always taken in

the days
when we
first
talked over
my explorations in Tibet since my plans in China, and of the

me in connection with
E.
many services which he has
rendered
them.
My
acknowledgments
are also
due to Mr. Charles
Dana, Mr.
XX
E. R. Bacon, Mr.
J.
B.
Houston and Mr.
J.
H.
Schiff,
all
of
New
York,
who
assisted
and encouraged me
in
my
undertaking.
To
Mr. S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,
without whose generous interest in

probably never have been
in the
my work this volume would published, and to my numerous friends

I
Smithsonian and the United States National Museum,

I
am
under lasting obligations which
can never forget nor adequately
acknowledge.
William Woodville Rockhill.

Department of State, Washington, December 14, 1894.
JOURNEY
THROUGH MONGOLIA AND
TIBET
MONGOLIA AND TIBET

DIARY
OF A JOURNEY
1891-92.
By WILLIAM
WOODVILLE ROCKHILL.
PART
I.
From Peking Through Mongolia to Kumbum.
PEKING.
at
November
30, 1891.
received to-day
It is
my
passcall
port from the Tsung-li
Yamen.
what we would
home a " special passport," authorizing me as former Sec-
retary of the United States Legation to visit Kan-su, Ssu-ch'uan,
Yiin-nan, Hsin-chiang (the
New Dominion),
and the Ching-hai, or
the
Mongol and Tibetan country under the administrative control of the Hsi-ning Amban. This opens the road to Lh'asa for me as
far as
Drech'u rabden and consequently Nagch'uk'a, for there
are no inhabitants, only an occasional
band of roaming K'amba

at
before reaching the latter point.

I
have two drafts on a Shan-hsi bank

I
103.31 taels, and
carry 172.56 taels in sycee.
Kuei-hua Ch'eng for I will draw an

Kan-su.
This and
additional 700 taels on reaching Lan-chou
Fu
in
the goods or more.
carry with
me
will
have to do for the journey

rebels
a year
We hear many rumors about the

Peking.
up Jehol way.
It is
said
here that they have crossed the Great Wall and are marching on
There
is
no doubt that
five
hundred desperate men,
JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND
TIBET.
willing to sacrifice their lives, could capture Peking by a coup de main, for there is only the Peking field force {Shen-ch'i ying) to
which, as a Chinese general remarked a few years ago to the Seventh Prince, who is the chief of this body, is more expert with the opium pipe {yen chiang) than with the musket {yang Chiang^. This little rebellion is a specimen of what frequently occurs on the northern and southwestern frontiers of China. One day a chief of a band of highwaymen {ma-tset) gave in his submission
defend
it,
to the
government and made himself so agreeable that he was

official
after
awhile given
road.
Li,
I
preferment.
probably, retained his
name
His band, for the sake of economy on their banners and kept to the
the ex-chief, the profession,
This caused the Jehol

tried,
officials to believe that
think he
was named, was still connected with

and beheaded.
so he was arrested,
sire,
His son, to avenge his
joined the band, dubbed himself Ping Ch'ing
Wang ("The
his
Prince leveler of the Ch'ing dynasty"), and
announced on
banners that his platform was "First, right (It), then reason {tao), to put an end to the Catholic (Jien chu) faith, to bring down the
reigning dynasty, and to destroy the hairy foreigners."
pretentious
less
pretty
or
scheme
for
a few hundred men.
They
are
more
connected with a secret society called the Tsai huei, a kind of northern Ko-lao huei, and some people here tell me they are called Hung mao-tzu ("red haired") because they put on false beards of red hair in their secret conclaves. At all events they are very probably well armed, with Winchester rifles, 1 believe, supplied them by an enterprising foreign firm at Newchwang. Li Hungchang is said to be sending troops from around Tientsin to the disturbed district, and soon the rebel band will disperse and the
imperial forces will announce a glorious victory
and the condign
punishment of the guilty ones.*
December
i.
hired
two
carts to" take
me and my boy
to
Kuei-hua Ch'eng, via Kalgan and the Ts'ao-ti, they were to be at the house by daylight to-day, but it was eight o'clock before we
are to believe the
* This revolt was naturally crushed with enormous loss of life to the rebels, if we memorial of the military commissioner for Manchuria, Ting An,
According to
this
published in the Peking Gazette of December ii, 1891.
document
the rebels must have numbered from four to five thousand.
See Imperial decrees,
12, 1891, in For. Rel. of the United States, 1892, pp. 77 and 80. Kuo Wan-chang appears to be the name of the rebel leader and Chi Yao-shih that of the person made Prince by the rebel bands.
December 6 and

got
TIBET.
off, and ten before we left the inn outside the Te-shih men where the cart office {cKehang) is located. The carts are drawn by played-out ponies and bare-boned mules, three, in one, two in
the other. 1 expostulated on the miserable condition of the teams, but the chang-kuei-ti insisted that they were wonderfully strong animals though perhaps a bit rough looking. The drivers are good natured Shan-hsi men from Ta-t'ung and do not know what hurry means, and it is for this reason that Shan-hsi teams are not
with the Pekinese public. jogged along very leisurely to Ching ho (i8 li from the Te-shih men), and towards nightfall reached Chang-ping Chou, where I witnessed a magistrate coming to a man's domicile (the inn in which was stopping) to administer justice (in the form of a volley of smacks on the face) to a tradesman who had tried And we want to teach the Chinese our to cheat the inn-keeper. methods of procedure Can anything be more expeditious and
in favor
We
inexpensive than this
December 2. We left in the middle of the night and made Nan-k'ou by 9 a. m., passing endless strings of camels, the'big bells around their necks sounding very dismally in the stillness of the night. They were coming down by thousands from the pasturages north of Kalgan to be used in the Peking coal trade and the Kalgan Tung-chou tea-carrying business; some also were loaded with wool, hides, camel's hair, and led by Mongols now on their annual visit to the Capital. The road up the pass has, since last saw it in 1888, been wonderfully improved, and is now in really excellent order for have to pay at cart travel and I don't begrudge the little toll Chil-yung kuan. At this latter place noticed that the inscriptions in the famous gateway are no longer as distinct as when last I Proclamations and advertisements have been examined them. pasted over them for such a long time and in such quantities that the' surface of the stone on the inscribed portions has at last become considerably defaced. Why have so few studied these curious inscriptions? The Kitan and Niu-chih versions are heard Dr. Bushell* say once that he had devoted priceless. 1
*Dr. Bushell has been for the

Legation at Peking.
last
twenty-seven years physician to H. B. M.'s
His thorough knowledge of things Chinese is too well

it
known
to necessitate any further reference to
here.
TIBET.
considerable study to them. It's a thousand pities he does not give us the results of his researches, they would certainly be The basvery valuable all he has ever done is so very good.
reliefs
on the
faces of the gateviây also merit careful study.

p.
We
Ever
reached Ch'a-tao by 5
m. in a violent
northwesterly gale.
since leaving Peking the sky has been getting redder, a sure
forerunner of the present storm which will probably

days.
last three
left Ch'a-tao in a fearful northwest gale; it and so dusty that we several times strayed from the road. The gravel was blown with such violence that it cut our faces like the lash of a whip, and the cold made the tears course down our cheeks. We stopped for lunch at Huai-lai Hsien, and reached by dark Tu-mu where we found a good inn and a well
December 3.
We
was
bitterly cold,
heated k'ang.
The night was
beautifully clear but the

I
wind con-
tinued blowing with such fury that
could not take any sextant
observations. The inn-keeper told me that about thirty thousand camel loads of tea are taken up every year over this road to Kalgan from Tung-chou. A camel load is paid 17 taels from Tung-chou to Ta-kuren (Urga).
journey in our party.
had the first casualty of the is dead The kicker and most disorderly member of the party is no more. Before he had
4.
December
Got
off late as
we
The black mule
last, his carcass was sold for $2, his tail cut off to owner on the carter's arrival at home, and his body carried off by the natives who were licking their chops over the anticipated feast. Our loss did not effect our rate of speed, except perhaps that it was slightly better, for we made twenty miles to Ch'i-ming-i. The day was pleasant but the road horribly stony,
breathed his
show
the
limestone pebbles, and such jolting as I never experienced. If ever I go over this road again I will take mule litters, they are much more convenient, and one travels just as rapidly as in a cart.
December j. We jogged on leisurely to Hsuan-hua Fu, passing around the base of the famous Ch'i-ming shan on the top of which is a large temple said to have been transported there in the days of old by Liu-pan from Ch'u-yung kuan where it had originally been built. A good deal of rather poor coal is dug out of this mountain, which appears to be mostly of friable sandstone and

porphyritic rocks.
to Kalgan runs,
is
TIBET.
The Hun
ho, along
whose
right
it
bank the road
frozen so deep that
we
At HsOan-hua Fu
we
noticed the
Little
first
with the carts. signs of our proximity to

crossed
the Jehol rebel bands.
banners were stuck out of numerous
houses to indicate the places of refuge for the inhabitants of the neighboring houses; and this is all that is done to protect a town
of probably
fifty
thousand inhabitants against the brigands
Kalgan the road is of Hsuan-hua are half buried in it. Farmers with their carts are seen everywhere, even in the streets of the towns shovelling up the drifted dirt and carting it back to where it belongs on their fields. Just outside the west gate of the city of HsOan-hua we passed through a grove of gnarled poplars. Here in the fifth moon is celebrated the
6.
December
From HsQan-hua Fu to near
covered with drifted sand and
loess, the walls
Liang-chuo-huei,
criticise or
"airing-the-feet-festival,"
in
when
the
women
walk up and down dressed
their best
condemn
the shape and size
and the men admire, of each one's feet. I have
never heard of this feast being celebrated elsewhere in China. The Shan-hsi women (and Hsuan-hua is populated mostly by people from that province) are not over modest they wear in
;
garment or waistcoat (Jkan-chien) which leaves the breasts exposed to the view, another custom I have not met with elsewhere in China. We passed a great many camels carrying soda (chien) to Peking, in large blocks, about two and a half feet long. They probably came from the Ta-t'ung plain, as a great deal of soda is obtained by a very simple process there, some ten or fifteen miles south of the city, which 1 visited in i888. The weather remains hazy A clear day is a rarity in these parts in the dry season. The mountains at a few miles distance are lost in the haze. The first part of the night is hazy and the atmosphere is only really clear just before and after dawn, the dust which constitutes the haze being precipitated by the moisture in the air, for there is a good deal of moisture in suspension even
.
summer
a single upper
at this season of the year.
December y. We reached Kalgan towards three o'clock and put up in an inn on the market street and facing the shrine of the god of wine, the pet deity of the place. I have numerous purchases

to
TIBET.
socks, Halha
make here, among others a supply of mongol Russian leather boots, rugs in which to wrap up
;
felt
my
boxes, buck-
skin breeches, etc., etc.
as to
my
tents
will purchase
them
at
found ponies dearer here than at the Te-shih men of Peking, for Mongols can easily take those they bring here back to their pasture lands, if they cannot get good prices, while The people who came at Peking they have to sell at any price. in. the inn yard and saw me busy observing first the sun then the
Kuei-hua Ch'eng.
boy in subdued tones if any calamity was impending, if the rebels were about to attack the town. Ma Chih-pao reassured them and told them I was a worshiper of the pei-fou (Ursa Major) and busy making out what my luck would be on my journey.
stars,
inquired of the
December 8. My boy says he is not afraid to accompany me anywhere, but I see that he has invested in an enormous sword marked with the ominous pei-t'ou, a dragon and several soulstirring mottoes, in lieu of the big cudgel he started out with.
December p. On the 20th of the eighth moon at the miao huei or "temple fair" held here, several hundred ponies run, not races but to show their gait and speed. A Mongol refused this year 180 taels for a pony. Mongol ponies are branded as are ours in America. Lama miao is unquestionably the best place at which to buy ponies; west of that section of Mongolia they lose in size and
speed, but possibly gain in staying powers.
The name Kalgan is but a poor transcription of the Mongol word halha;* it means a " frontier mart." The people hereabout call Kuei-hua Ch'eng the Ch'eng, HsQan-hua Fu they call Fu, just as those of Ta-chien-lu in Ssii-ch'uan call it Lu or Lu Ch'eng.
This at
all
events has the merit, a considerable one in our estima-
tion, of brevity.
The people say no day is perfect here unless it blows hard during a part of it. The climate, they add, is equable, which means, I fancy, that it blows every day in the year. Mr. Roberts, one of the
American missionaries
the
here, tells
me he has seen
number of
(especially
albinos.
among
Persons
Manchus
living here) quite a
with supplementary thumbs are also frequently met with here as

*
I
transcribe this
and
all
Mongol words phonetically and according to the Kalmuk

I
pronunciation, the only one with which
am
at
all
familiar.

in Peking.
TIBET.
are three
Tliere These are tiie most common abnormalities. Mohammedan theological schools in Kalgan and they have a high standing in northern China, young men being sent here from remote quarters to study. The Mohammedans here do not seem
the usual observances prescribed to western Kan-su. Thus some smoke opium, and it is commonly said that they are not averse to eating pork if sold them under the name of mutton. The population of Kalgan is roughly estimated at between 75,000 and 100,000.
strict, in
all
however, to be as
believers, as those in
December 10.
We
left for
Kuei-hua Ch'eng
in
at
seven o'clock, and
followed up the river bed, which serves
the dry season as the
principal street of the city, passing, just before leaving
town, two
small cages tied to the ends of poles and containing the heads of
two
lately executed highwaymen. The road was without interest, rocky and deep in loess dust. It is curious that loess even when, as here, it is not a subaerial deposit but has been brought down
by the
rains
from higher
levels,
retains its characteristic vertical
cleavage.
hills west of the city, we passed by Wan-chflan Hsien the prefectural city in whose district is Kalgan, and shortly after entered the valley of the Yang ho or Hsi ("West") yang ho (the stream flowing by Wan-chilan Hsien being the Tung or "Eastern" Yang ho). Every mile or so we passed through villages around which were groves of willows, their long, crooked stems with only a tuft of small branches at the tops, adding little to the beauty of the surroundings. Basket making is one of the chief industries of this district and the river is probably called Yang ho or "Willow River," from these numerous
Crossing a low range of
little
groves.
carters
December and
11.
We
lost
our way; this
is
usual with Chinese
especially those of the Shan-hsi breed,
who
are pro-
and so we had to put up for the night at a village called Su-chia tsui a good deal to the north of the road. There was no inn, but we found lodgings in a farm house; the rooms were of the arched loess-cave-dwelling style common in north China, and are called hereabout jAure-^jiVw t'ungox "fairy caves," for these, like their prototypes, are warm in winter and cool in summer. The road followed up the river course in a due westerly direction. A violent west wind began to blow at 1 1 a. m. and
verbially stupid,
TIBET.
was the dust during the rest of the day's travel that, as the way was long and we only reached an inn far in the night, we had to guide ourselves by the stars, for we could not make out
SO dense
the road under our
feet.
We
tried to reach
Hsin-ping k'ou (or
Hsi-feng k'ou as
it is
called at Peking), a gate in the Great Wall,
but had to stop a couple of miles east of it in a wayside inn, which class of houses are, by the way, usually larger and cleaner than
those in towns or villages.
December i2. All the way up the Yang ho noticed on the slopes on either side of the valley, truncated cone-shaped towers about thirty feet high with an encircling wall some ten The people call them pao-tai or "gun towers" feet in height. and say they were once used by, the inhabitants to defend They are too themselves against Mongol and Tartar raiders. regularly separated and built with too little regard to neighboring villages, to have been solely for the purpose now claimed for them they are on the other hand too near each other to have been watch towers, unless signals other than fire signals were used by the sentries. The explanation given me of their use is possible, though I have not seen any mention of such a system in China."* The Great Wall at Hsin-ping K'ou is entirely of earth, without any trace of brick or stone facing. The village at the gate is tolerably large, but much the worse for wear and sadly in lack of
I
hill
some
repairs.
Continuing up the valley to where it takes a southerly bend, we crossed a range of hills, and then by a very gradual descent, reached Ch'ang-k'ou, a big village of over six hundred families of Shan-hsi people and with a large number of inns. Coal is brought here from near Ta-t'ung Fu by way of Fu-ming Fu (or Feng Ch'eng as it is also called). The coal used at Kalgan comes also from the same locality by this apparently round-about way probably to escape likin at some point or other along the road. At Ch'ang-k'ou the Lung wang ("the rain god") had been prayed to in vain; first by the men, then the women, then the
children
.
Even the Lao-yeh, the
local official,
had kotowed and
* Conf. the remarks on these watch towers in the History of the Embassy of Shahrokh to the Emperor of China in 1419. (Thevenot, Relations II, Part xviii, 3.) These towers, it says, are of two kinds, the larger called Kidifous, the smaller
Cargous.
TIBET.
burnt incense with much firing of crackers and beating of gong, but to no avail. The people told me they knew long ago the
year would be disastrous for the sand grouse * had been more
numerous of
mailao-po,
late
than for years, and the saying goes, Sha-chH kuo,
the sand grouse fly by, wives will be for sale." Ch'ang-k'ou is a place of considerable importance, as two roads from Kuei-hua meet here (or rather two miles west of here). One is called the "inner road," and passes by Lung-sheng chuang,
"when
Hou-tao-sha,
Ge-ho-wa (pronounced in Pekinese Ai-ho-wa), Yung-shan chuang, Feng Ch'eng (orFu-ming Fu), Ma-chao ling, Ma- Wang miao, Tien-ch'eng ts'un, Han-ching ling, Ma-ka-tu,
Sa-tei-go,
Hsaio
pa-tzii,
Eu-ling-trin (in Pekinese 0-ling tan),
Ta-yu-shu, Shui-mo, Ku-lueh, Shih-rung-wa, Me-tar, Tieh-mung, To-ko-lang (in Mongol Taklang) and thence to Kuei-hua. The road 1 will follow crosses
(or
bolan,
this
Chahar
Tsahan?)
one
is
at
Chahar polang, and

li
li.
falls
into
it
at To-ko-lang.
1
The
first is
100
(thirty-three miles) longer than that
have chosen,
which
I
780
find that
all
the people hereabout, and even those of Kalgan,

in
use the term MantsH. to designate the Chinese,

to the Mongols.
I
contradistinction
had thought its use in this acceptation was confined to west Ssu-ch'uan and the Tibetan language, but 1 now find it has a much wider range.
December
anxious to
at a village
13.
We
only
made
a half day's
march
as
was
make some
solar observations for time.
We
stopped
on the border of the Chahar Mongol's pasture lands Tsahan (or Chahan) obo, "the white obo," thus called from a large pile of stones {obo) on a hill near the village. Since leaving the Yang ho valley, tufa is the principal rock seen along
called
the road.
Around every village in this region willows are planted the Shan-hsi people are harder workers than the Chih-li Chinese, and they are much more agreeable to be thrown with, gay, polite,
;
and not by any means

they are very
as hot-headed as the latter.
Physically
with rounder faces and approaching more closely the southern Chinese type.
different, shorter of stature,
* Hue, Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartarie, I, 245, says these birds are Lung chuo "Dragon's feet," for my part have never heard any other name than sha-ch'i "sand fowl," given them. This name is used however, for a
called
I
variety of birds,
among
others the partridge.
lO

The year now ending has been
a very
TIBET.
this
bad one
;
for
all
border
region, one small rainfall in the sixth

their troubles
moon
but these people bear
with perfect composure. he carries a large supply of medicine one a sovereign remedy for eye diseases, cataract disappearing rapidly by its use, and he has also a wonderful balm, curing not only wounds but every pain and ill to which poor humanity is myself to-day watching him doctoring subject. I have amused the people in the inn. It is lucky we are leaving early to-morrow, for should the medicine not have the desired effect, he and might have the whole village down on us, though I must do the boy the justice to say he asks nothing for his drugs, he only wants " to do
My boy
is
a great doctor,
good"
(Jso haoshih).
December 14.. A few miles west of Tsahan obo we crossed a low pass marked by eight o5(7 (three large and five small ones) and descended into the plain occupied by the yellow banner of the Chahar Mongols.* It is a circular depression of some thirty miles in diameter encircled by hills a few hundred feet high, and has been at no remote period a lake with an outlet to the northeast. A remnant of the lake remains in a pool called " Black Lake " iHirinor) near the village of the No. 2 Ta-jen or Erh Ta-jen ying-tzu. The soil is partly alkaline, but good water is abundant in wells
only a few feet deep.
These Mongols live more like Chinese than any tribe I have though believe that around Jehol, and to the east of it, they are nearly indistinguishable from them. Many of the Chahar have small houses of Chinese style, and all the men wear the Chinese dress, as do many of the women, with the exception of the mode of dressing the hair which is of the national type a long tress hanging down on either side of the face. They have also taken to smoking opium and have retained their national fondness
visited,
I
for drink.
stopped for the night at a Mongol hamlet, near which was the residence of a chief and also a small lamasery, and put up in an inn with one small room in which were two big k'angs. My
party had one of them as the other was already occupied by the inn-keeper, a tailoring lama, his face eaten up by some cancerous
We
*On
the Chahar (or Chakhar) Mongols, see H. H. Howorth,

I,
History of the
Mongols,
384
et seq.

disease,
TIBET.
II
and a couple of
little
paid for the use of the whole
Mongol chiefs smoking opium. room and finally after a great deal of
I
persuasion got the unpleasant neighbors out of

the night
vile
it.
Fortunately
was very
cold and the house but poorly heated so the
odors which would have offended our nostrils in warmer
weather were frozen up.
December 15. To-day has been bitterly cold, with a violent west The road ascended wind blowing the dust down our throats. and we passed now and then a solitary tree probably gently Crossing a low, stony pass Chinese enterprise had planted it. we descended to Hu-lu-shih-tai,* consisting of a couple of inns kept by very Chinesified Mongols. Thence we went to Shih-paerh-tai, another post station with four or five inns and as many dwelling houses. The rooms in the former consist mainly of two huge k'angs on each of which fifteen or twenty people can find accommodation, and between these k'angs, and on the level of the ground, is a big cooking stove on which two or three very large cast iron pans fit one for water, the other for cooking food in. The fire is fed with dried manure and straw, and a big box-bellows keeps up the flame. The stench in such a room, well filled with travelmostly carters all eating, drinking, smoking opium, covered ers with the dirt of years and raising with each movement the dust of ages and the microbes of cycles, is beyond description. The Mongols, I hear, begin shaving the heads of their male
children at the age of three, f
December 16. The country we are now in is a tableland cut by low ranges of hills a few hundred feet high, but we see no
running water anywhere. Tufa is the chief rocky formation visible. We stop for lunch at Kuei-yueh-t'u, consisting of two small, bleak mns kept by Mongols, who, like most of these Chahar, speak Chinese fluently. Some twelve miles west of this place we crossed higher hills, and after a sharp descent reached a broad valley dotted over with Chinese villages. Between us and the
villages a
low
earth wall cut the valley
it
marks the boundary
of the lands ceded by the Chahar to the Chinese for agricultural
purposes.
* Probably the place
called Houstai
by
Father Gerbillon, Duhalde, Description de
rEmpire de
of
la Chine, IV, 347.
t See also on other Mongol usages concerning mode of hair dressing, under date
April
25, i8g2.
12

("5
1
TIBET.
Just before reaching Wu-li-pa
li
hill")
got a shot at a
At Wu-li-pa we found a very neat, large roomed inn where was most hospitably treated. The Shan-hsi people are very kindly disposed, though not over bright, very inquisitive, with no manners, and confirmed opium
big wolf standing quietly near a cottage.
smokers. The Shan-hsi women of all classes are remarkable among northern Chinese for the smallness and perfect forms (according to native standards) of their feet.
came
December ly. Crossing a low col a mile west of Wu-li-pa we to Tsahan bolan ("White Stick"), the first large Chinese
we have seen since leaving Ch'ang-k'ou, but it looked unkempt, like all these places, with houses half dug in the loess cliffs and entirely made of mud and adobe bricks.
village
The people
is
all
say that the land outside the border Qi'ou wat)
much
richer than
rapidity with
any inside the Wall (k'ou nei), hence the which these pasture lands are being taken up by
farmers.
Freight
is
the Fu-ming Fu road joining the one we

bolan
like,
;
scarce, although
we
are
few loads of goat
skins,
on a high road Tsahan hides, camel's wool, and the

traveling
are following at
now
is
all
carts
for
have seen going eastward. Kalgan coming from Kuei-hua.
we
We
passed several
flying
They were
I
the hang flags of Wilson
& Co.,
of Tien-tsin, of Butterfield
& Swire
and a Russian firm of Kalgan, the name of which
could not
either side of the broad valley in which we traveled to-day were slightly steeper than those to the east; and were of
make out. The hills on
igneous rock covered with loess.
Before reaching Shih-jen-wan,
where
we
stopped for the night,
we
passed through several miles
From Tsahan bolan to Shih-jen-wan we followed the course of a good sized stream, the headwaters of the Heiho or Hsiao Hei ho which flows by Kuei-hua Ch'eng,
of deep cuts in the loess.
and empties
into the
Yellow River
at
Ho-k'ou.
after a
December 18. The valley broadened beyond Shih-jen-wan, and few miles we saw the Ch'ing shan, a high and rugged range of mountains running nearly due west as far as the eye could reach. Between this range and the southern side of the
valley
in places
some
three or four miles

little
the country was dotted
over with villages, each in a
willow grove, and by each a

rivulet
TIBET.
13
flowed sluggishly along towards the Heiho, or a canal meagre supply of water from the river to remote sections of the plain. We saw large flocks of sheep and droves of camels pasturing about, all destined to supply the Peking and southern markets. We lunched at Taklang ("a crook, or bend in a river"), a small hamlet some ten miles from Kuei-hua, which
which
carried a
latter place, or rather the

it,
New
or
Manchu town some
5 li east of
came here
in
view.
At three o'clock we made our entry into Kuei-hua, where we were led by inn-runners to a house said by them to be the best in the city, but which proved to be little better than a tumble down pig
sty.
Abbe Hue *
which
the
befell
relates in his delightful style a similar
adven-
ture
In
him on arriving
at this
famous
live
place.
five thousand monthly stipend
New Town
(Hsin Ch'eng)
some
Manchu bannermen who
from the government the foot soldiers (J>u-ping) 3.0 taels a month, the mounted men {ma ping) 9 taels. They do nothing but smoke opium, gamble, hawk, and raise a few greyhounds, and are of no conceivable use.
After driving about the
are in receipt of a small
town
for quite a
decent, quiet quarters,

events,
I
chose
at last a small inn

it
while in search of where, at all
will get clean food, for
is
kept by a
for
Mohammedan
who, however,
in other
has
bad
words, making large

his guests.
"eating" people, commissions on all the purchases

reputation
made by
I
on Dr. Stewart of the China Inland Mission. The work has been of incalculable value to China generally. The Chinese admire this philanthropic work, though it is quite beyond them to believe it disinterested; they think the missionaries have some personal motive impelling them to do this work, and in a certain sense they are right, for is it not said of those who go forth to preach the Word that surely they shall have their reward ? It matters little if it is in this world or another.
called
Mission's medical
December
He was
{ching
said that
20. A Mohammedan from Ta-t'ung Fu called on me. man of some literary pretentions among his people, and all Mohammedans in China are taught to read Arabic
tzii),
words of it.
*Huc, op,
but that he himself could only understand a few He spoke of the country in which is Mekka and
I,
cit.,
166
et seq.
14

as
TIBET.
Farsiox Rum, and stated that the capital of that Empire These Huei-huei hold (/. e., Stamboul). themselves to be quite a distinct race from the ordinary Chinese. Their ancestors, this man said, had first come to China in the This foreign T'ang period and had married Chinese women. remarked, their well known he proudly origin explained, courage and characteristic pugnaciousness. They keep up some intercourse with the rest of Islam, though they have hardly any with the great Mohammedan section of the Empire (Turke-
Medina
was Ta-erh-ko-erh
stan).
Thus
last
year
here from Kashgar arid

of the faith in China.
some Indian Mohammedans came went on to Kalgan and Peking.* They
had been sent by the Church of India, to report on the state There is hardly any direct trade between Every year two or three traders this place and Hami or Kashgar. from that country (Ch'an-t'ou, the Chinese call them) come here with raisins, dried melons and a few other products of no great What trade Turkestan has with China reaches Hsi-an Fu value. via Hsia-yQ kuan and Hsi-ning or else by Pao-tu and across the Ordos country south of the Yellow River, but it is insignificant. Dr. Stewart, who called on me to-day, said syphylis is terribly The population he said is a floating one, and prevalent here.
belongs to the dregs of society.
quite as inveterate
The Chinese women

as the
is
here are
opium smokers
it is
men, and the whole

lot
population (some 100,000 to 120,000)

as can be found in China;
about as depraved a
entirely Chinese, the
ground being,
however, rented from the
sums varying from
ten to
fifty
Tumed Mongols who are paid annually cash a mou (% acre).
There is a Tao-t'ai here, also a Chiang-chtln or General, and a Tu-t'ung who rules the Yo-mu or Herdmen tribes of Mongols, comprising all the Chahar, Bargu and Tumed tribes of the adjacent
regions, t
* In 1688 when Pere Gerbillon was at Kuei-hua in the suite of the Emperor K'ang-hsi he saw there " cinq vagabonds Indiens . . ils se disoient de I'Indoustan et Gentils: ils etoient habillez a peu pres comme des Hermites, avec un grand manteau de toile
.
de couleur
tete."
isabelle dfija vieille, et

cit.,
un capuchon qui
105.
s'^levoit
un peu au dessusde
leur
Duhalde, op.
IV,
Later on, in 1697,
when he
visited
Ning-
hia with the
also different colored serges,
same Emperor he records that dried currants and raisins are brought there, brought there by "les Marchands Mores que viennent
trafiquer a la Chine."
Ibid, p.
du c6te des Yusbeks, pour

t See on this subject
372.
The
raisins
and
currants came, of course, from Hami.
W.
F.
Mayers,
The Chinese Government (2d
edit.), 86.
1.
Tibetan boot. Bed and black leather. (U. S. N. M. 167303.)
2. 4.
6.
Tibetan boot. Cotton vamp, pulo (U. S. N. M. 131045.)
leg.
3.
Haiha Mongol
leather.
(U. S.
boot.
Black, russian
KoKO nor leathee

131072.)
boot.
(U. S. N.
M.
N. M. 167178.)
(U. S.
5.
Lama BOOT. Ked russian leather, stitching

in colourpd silks.
N. M. 167179.)
Ch'amdo boot. Black buckskin. N. M. 167177.)
(U. S.
TIBET.
15
December 21. went out with Dr. Stewart to buy two tents and some camping utensils. Most of tiie day was spent haggling over prices, and I finally bought two blue cotton tents for 7.5 taels a piece. also visited the big lama temple or Ta chao, a fine specimen of Sinico-tibetan work, and which has just been
I I
restored.*
I did not have time to visit it. used on the Chinese frontier for "temple," though it is only the Tibetan word jo meaning "Lord," and refers to the images of the Buddha said to have been made during the life time of the Buddha by sculptors who had seen his divine
There
is
a Hsiao-chao here but

is
The word chao
person. t
There are three
in existence,
but wherever there are
copies of the orighials, as here, they are also called /<? or chao.
Camels are quite cheap here ranging from i6 to 40 taels a head. curious custom obtains here in buying these animals, which consists in counting 8.5 as 10 taels; thus a camel sold for 20 taels only costs in reality 17 taels. J This custom is called at Kuei-hua erh-pa-yin and at Peking /ao ch'iao. The trade of this place consists in camels, sheep, sheepskin goods, goatskins and tallow. The quantity of the last article shipped to Peking for making
candles
tallow.
is
very great.
was
told that
I
are killed here daily (in winter
some 3,000 or 4,000 sheep suppose) principally for their
There is no direct trade between here and Ning-hsia, and I can no carters willing to take me there, for, they say, they will have to return with empty carts. They hardly ever go westward beyond Pao-tu. Lan-chou tobacco and other Kan-su products used here come from Hsi-an Fu via T'ai-yUan and Ta-t'ung or even
find
via Peking.
The name given on most of our maps to

north of this place. In shan, is
transcription of the
the range of mountains

here,
unknown
I
everyone
is
calls it
Ch'ing (or Ta-ch'ing) shan, and
fancy that In
sound Ch'ing.
This
name
but a poor of Ch'ing shan

it
applies to the range as far west as Pao-tu,

is
beyond which place
known
* Gerbillon
185. f See
as
in
Wu-la shan
1688 and Hue
in
for fifty miles or so,
then as Lang-shan,
1844
refer to
the lamaries of Kuei-hua as the only

cit., IV,
remarkable edifices in the town.

I,
See Duhalde, op.
103 and Hue, op.
cit.,
my Land of the Lamas,

February
10, iSgz,
104-105.
X See also
and April 28, iSgz.
l6
TIBET.
and finally as Ala shan.* The coal used here at Kuei-hua comes from Pao-tu or the neighborhood it is very impure but burns freely and is used in every house.
;
December
22.
After a great
me
deal of trouble
two
carts to take
to Ning-hsia
engaged to-day I Fu via the route south of the
Yellow River which passes through T'eng-kou and Shih-tsui-tzu ;t I have paid 55 taels for them, the drivers to provide themselves with It is probably a good deal provisions and feed for their mules. should have paid, but I had no choice, no one else more than
I
would
go.
the climate of Kuei-hua
(he has been living here four years) that The mountains naturally is good. protect it from the prevailing northwest wind; the snow fall is The rainy season very slight, in fact many winters there is none. is from June to September. Grapes, apples, apricots and peaches
Dr. Stewart told are raised here, the grapes being specially fine.
me
The
peculiar haze seen throughout these regions has, during

I
the few days
have been here, resolved
itself
every morning,
when
was about two hours high, into thin, ragged clouds, which ascending have become a veil-like film, finally vanishing.
the sun
Hence dust
is
not always the cause of this haze, though

is.
it
unques-
tionably frequently
The cause
of the haze
is
a question
I
requiring time and lon^ series of observations,
which
can never
it
hope to make
up.
some of the European
residents here should take
have decided that we will have had to engage another servant to take the place of the one who had come with me from Peking and who has now worked himself ill through his anxiety to get out of the job of accompanying me. 1 have taken the cook of the inn, a bright young Mohammedan, a good cook but possibly a rascal. He is to receive as wages 7 taels a month. He is the only Arabic scholar I have seen in China, quotes whole surats of the Koran, though his accent, I am fain to admit, is peculiar; he is willing apparently to discuss every subject con-
December
23.
The
carters (not 1)
leave here the day after to-morrow.
* Timkowski, Voyage
or
Onghin
oola,
d. Peking, II, 265, 267, calls this range Khadjar Khosho and Prjevalsky calls the Wula shan the Munni ula.
t The route followed
for
most of the way by Hue and Gabet
in 1844.

nected with his religion
entertaining
et in
TIBET.
17
quihusdam
small doses.
aliis,
and
is
decidedly
when taken
seems to
The work
that matter,
of the missionaries here and elsewhere in China, for
unknown
virtue
me hopeless. Gratitude is, believe, an among most Chinese, and the other Christian
I
virtues have small
room
in their
compositions.
Dr. Stewart told
me
that frequently while administering medicine (gratuitously of
course) to them, they have stolen bottles, books, and anything they could lay their hands on in his dispensary. The Chinese may admire the disinterestedness of the missionaries, but that does not convince them of the beauty of the faith which inspires
such deeds.
December
are
24..
Chinese
business methods at Kuei-hua Ch'eng
by what the inn-keeper has to-day undertaken to do. I engaged his cook to go with me on my wanderings and promised him fairly good wages. The Changkuei-ti saw at once a good chance to squeeze the man, so he announced that the said cook was short in his accounts with him,
beautifully illustrated
and that he would not allow him to leave, and would have him arrested if he tried to. This meant the payment of a sum of money
to the magistrate to clear himself, a probable delay of three or four
job.
days and, as I am going to leave to-morrow, he would lose a good As a matter of fact the inn-keeper owes Kao his wages for nearly a year, this he refused to pay him,' and not satisfied with this, forced the cook to pay him 10 taels to escape the criminal prosecution with which he had threatened him, all of which, and a great deal more, my new compagnon de voyage will make
out of
me
before
25.
we
reach the journey's end.

the guests at the inn and the friends
I
December
All
have
made while stopping here escorted me to the west end of the town and there wished me I lu ping-an "a prosperous journey." The road we followed took a west-southwesterly direction, receding considerably from the northern mountain range. The soil was but slightly cultivated, most of it being used as pasture
lands for the innumerable flocks and herds waiting here to be
As we advanced the soil became more and more alkaline, but villages, as dirty as usual, were still numerous, with willow passed a few primitive carts, in groves, around each one.
sold.
We
which not a
bit of iron is used,
drawn by miserable
little
cows,
I8

" big beans
TIBET.
willow
carrying soda to Kuei-hua, or
" {ta fou), or
twigs
for
making
baskets.
reached Shih-erh-t'eng by 6.30 p. m. and made ourselves pretty comfortable in the inn, thanks to the presence in my party of an old cart driver called Li who had driven me in '88 from
We
Peking to Hsi-an Fu, and whom I had met at Kuei-hua where he was buying tallow to send to Peking. He had insisted on escorting me as far as Ho-k'ou and knew how to " hustle about" and get all he wanted from the apparently meagre supplies in the inns, every one dreading his tongue, irrefutable logic, and endless
profanity.
a little more to the south than whiter with alkaline efflorescence, and yesterday, the soil was Away to the south the hamlets smaller and not so numerous.
December 2d.The road bent
to eighteen miles we saw low hills, of loess The sand grouse flew here and there in vast flocks, and boys and men were trapping them, using for that purpose a hair noose tied to a lump of clay or a little stick, a number of The birds little clay decoys being placed around each trap.
some
fifteen
apparently.
get their clumsy parrot-like feet firmly entangled in the noose and
fall
the inn yards; the meat
an easy prey to the trappers, who hawked them about boiled in is very dry and flavorless, but if roasted
quite palatable.
would probably be
We passed through
on the Yellow River.*
ruins of a large
Tou Ch'eng,
the Togto of the Mongols and

li
possibly Marco Polo's Tenduc, and 5
south of
it
reached Ho-k'ou
On
the loess
hill
all
behind this place are the

likelihood the site of the
camp
or ch'eng, in
old town. The Yellow River is on this side embanked, with fine willows growing along the dykes. Ho-k'ou, called Dugus or Dugei by the Mongols, carries on an important trade in soda; it is made into large blocks about a foot square and three feet long, and
voyage in Tartary (Duhalde, op. cit., Toto as follows: "Cette Ville est quarree commecelles de la Chine; ses murailles ne sont que de terre, mais d'une terre ni bien battue, qu' elle ne s'est eboulee nuUe part depuis trois ou quartre cens ans et plus, qu' elle est
IV, 345) speaks of the city of
Col. Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo (2d edit.) 1, 277, thinks that Kuei-hua Ch'eng was Tenduc, the capital of Prester John, but I cannot but think that he overlooked the existence of Togto when he made the identification. Hue
* Pere
Gerbillon, in the account of his sixth
batie."
{pp^ cit., I, 215) calls Ho-k'ou by presume, " the white camp."
its
Mongol name of Tchagan Kouren, meaning,

in this siiape sent to
TIBET.
19
Peking and other
cities of
northern China.
There
is
also a
good
deal of business done here with the
Ordos
Mongols who
live across the river.
December 2j. The people hereabout make clumsy flat boats in which they descend the river in summer to T'ung-kuan* in three
or four days
;
there the boats are usually sold for lumber, as

I
it is
work to get them up to Ho-k'ou again. noticed moored to the bank a number of these typical mud-scows made of willow planks. They are some forty feet long with about fifteen feet beam; they are the only craft made along this part of the
too hard
and do little credit to the ship-building skill of the people. from Kan-su (Lan-chou and Ning-hsia) do not come this far, but stop at Pao-tu, as do the ox-hide rafts from Hsi-ning which bring down oil. Having to stop over here to-day to make some purchases, I went across the river to some Mongol houses to buy butter. These Mongols are of the Djungar branch of the Ordos tribe, and are very Chinesefied, though the women have retained the Mongol fashion of braiding the hair and their peculiar ornaments, especially the big earrings the men, however, dress in purely Chinese style. These Djungars are very thrifty and much less demoralized than the Chahar. At the house in which I called, milk-tea was served and parched millet, instead of the tsamba eaten by the western They eat, however, cheese and sour tribes, eaten soaked in it. Unlike the western Mongols who milk as do the western tribes. do not object to being called Ta-tzQ, these Djungar and all eastern Mongols resent the use of the term, and always speak of themselves as Meng-gu. These Djungars have entirely given up the use of tents and live in Chinese style, observing only a few of the customs of their people the most carefully adhered to is that of exchanging snuffbottles for a whiff with each guest as he arrives, though neither the host nor the guest takes any snuff, but only partially withdraws the stopper and raising the bottle to the nose, then returns it, holding it in both hands and making a profound bow to the owner.
river,
The
rafts
December
* T'ung-kuan
28.
at present the
is
The Djungar Mongols enjoy the honor of having supremacy among the tribes forming the Ike chao
an important
etc.
barrier
on
tile
highroads between Pelting, Hsi-an,
Ssu-ch'uan, Han-k'ou,
See
Land of the Lamas,
17 et seq.
20

known
TIBET.
Chungwas formerly borne by the Prince of Wushun, but on his demise the Djungars managed by a liberal distribution of presents to the Mongol superintendency
league, their chief being
t'a
as the Djungar (in Chinese
kou-erh)
or "Generalissimo."
This
title
at
Peking (Li-fan yuan), with
whom
the appointment
rests, to
secure the honor to their
Wang.
Hsiao Hei ho, I left Ho-k'ou at lo a. m., and after crossing the which flows through the town and empties into the Yellow River two and a half miles south of it, we traversed the latter river (here some four hundred yards wide) on the ice, and ascended the Shenhsi plateau which is about one hundred yards higher than the river. The Yellow River, at this point of its course, does not appear to spread much beyond its present bed, for villages are built on the river bottom, though the embankment at Ho-k'ou shows that it occasionally threatens the town.* Leaving the river behind, we found ourselves on an undulating plateau of sand and loess with little farms of Chinese and Mongols scattered here and there in sheltered nooks. Wherever possible (. e., where protected from the winds) the soil is cultivated, but water is scarce, though wells of very inconsiderable depth are numerous and might be used to irrigate the fields from. A few willow trees around each mud house relieve, in a measure, the
monotony
of the view.
We
traveled
some
only.f
fifteen miles
and stopped
I
for the night at
Lien-pi yao-tzu, a hamlet of Shan-hsi farmers
where
in
we
found
sleeping
room
Fortunately
had
laid
a supply of
enough to last me until we reach Ning-hsia. had prepared about ten catties of mutton chiao-tzu or pates, which had been frozen so as to stand the roughest handling, ten catties of chao-mien, or parched meal, in which a little greese and hashed mutton is added, and which mixed with boiling water, forms an excellent and filling mush. I had also
provisions at Ho-k'ou,
Among
other articles
fifteen catties of vermicelli
{kua-mien), a boiled sheep cut in pieces
* am not aware that

I
severe inundations occur along this portion of the Yellow

it.
River valley or higher up
Below T'ung-kuan, near which point the
river receives
three large affluents, terrible inundations are of frequent occurrence.
that
t The owner and his son got very mad with me because whistled, and insisted should not do so in the house, as it would bring them bad luck. The same superstition is found in parts of Turkestan, Eugene Schuyler, Turkestan, II, 29 (3rd Amer. edit.).
I 1

of about a
TIBET.
21
pound
each, a brick of tea, plenty of
good butter packed
in a sheep's
1
paunch, and a bag of small loaves of wheaten bread. had also bought at Kuei-hua a kettle, a copper tea-pot, a grate
in
which to burn argols and

life,
few other indispensable

left
articles for
camp
I
so
felt
absolutely independent and fared sumptuously.
notice hereabout, as also on the
bank of the
river, that
the
potash-impregnated soil away to Ho-k'ou, where
on
it.
hollows has been carried it is put on a reed seive and water poured The water that drains off is evaporated and the soda (or
in all the little
made into the large cakes previously referred to, shipped to Peking by way of Kuei-hua Ch'eng. Sand grouse fly about in vast flocks, especially at dawn and late at night, during the day we see but few except when they have been disturbed, they move about but little.
potash, chien)
;
from that traversed now and then we pass one riding along on a miserable little rough and lank pony. The road for part of the way to-day led along the base of a range of low hillocks of sand, with no habitations or cultivation to be seen anywhere. Towards three o'clock we stopped to drink a cup of tea at a little Chinese hamlet, near a temple called by the Chinese Hato Lohe jo,* on a hillock near by. We lost our road repeatedly to-day in the drifting sands, but kept in the right direction and finally pulled up for the night at a little village called Chang-kai Ying-tzu, about 7 li from Hsin chao (the "New Temple," Kolinjo the Mongols call it) where the Djungar Wang resides. The village is on the Husetan River, a good sized stream (for this region) flowing southwest by west and emptying into the Yellow River below Ho-k'ou. The man to whom the house in which we have stopped belongs told me it had not snowed for two years, and that the people were in dire distress. Weeds are the only fuel the country affords they are even carried to Ho-k'ou there is very little cattle in this
29.
differ
December
The country does not

live
yesterday.
No Mongols
along our road, but
district,
the Mongols living quite a distance to the south, so the

fuel,
usual Mongol
dry dung or argal,

last
is
totally
wanting, and
now the soil

grown on
one.
it.
has been so baked for the
year that no weeds have
* Hato Lohe jo
represents a
Mongol name, or possibly a
half Mongol, half Chinese
22

left
TIBET.
with a strong west wind blowing. Our road led west, northwest, first through sand hillocks, then oyer which firmer soil strongly impregnated with alkali. The low range,
December 30. yN&
have seen yesterday and to-day to the south, is evidently the former bank of the Yellow River. One may notice here and there appear to all the way from Ho-k'ou to where we now are what
we
be old channels of the
river.
SPINDLE OF ORDOS MONGOLS.
Hsiao nor, a station of the Belgian found the father in the school room lecturing He could not at first make out who 1 was, whether to his flock. Chinese or foreigner, nor could he speak, the words would not come. Finally he broke forth in French, addressing both me and his Chinese in that language. After a while he got his speech under control, and we passed a most agreeable evening smoking and talking over our experiences in China and Mongolia. This station was founded five years ago, the ground having been leased from the Talat Princess. The Mission has erected
Catholic Mission.
1
We reached towards dusk
and small cottages in which dwell about one hundred families of Chinese converts. The station farms several hundred acres and is practically self-supporting. The Father acts as a spiritual and temporal ruler, the people having no intercourse with the Chinese officials beyond paying their taxes to them. It is doubtful whether this system of keeping the converts in tutelage
substantial buildings

is
TIBET.
23
good one, though

if
it is
a sure
is
means of getting
(as
is
proselytes
when
required, especially
a famine
now the case)

that
raging in the
"
country.
Father
Lehmanns
told
me
"the pagans
are far
more
for
and belongings than the Christians, they have no one but themselves on whom to count. As to
careful of their clothing
latter,
all
the
they trust blindly to the Mission for clothing, shelter,

life.
and
the necessaries and comforts of
While talking on the
subject to the Father a

villages
man came
in
who told him there were two
of some forty families each which wanted to become neophytes to escape starving to death. Should the Mission be able, which is not probable, to accept them, nine-tenths will, in
all
probability, revert to their so-called

is
"paganism"
1
as soon as
the famine
1
at
an end.
have had to change
my
plans here as
find
it
impossible to
get a guide to take the river.

are
hire
Teng-k'ou by the route south of The Chinese hereabout do not go that way and there
directly to
me
no Mongols
;
living here.
It
would
require, furthermore, to
camels to carry fodder for the mules, as none is to be had west of here all this would require more time than I want to give it,
so
1
will cross to the right
San-tao ho-tzii,
Belgian Mission.
the residence of
bank of the river and travel by way of Monseigneur Hamer of the
From this point the Wula shan, some of whose peaks are sprinkled with snow, appears quite close to us, though the Yellow River, which separates us from it, is eight miles away,
at its base is thirteen. The portion of the Ordos country along the banks of the Yellow River has only been settled by Chinese within the last thirty years. When Hue
and Pao-tu
traversed this region there were no Chinese in

later
it,
but twenty years
when
the
in Shen-hsi,
Mohammedan rebellion broke out at Hua Hsien many of the more peacefully inclined Chinese found
a refuge here, just as others have found it in the ts'ao-ti outside the Great Wall to the north of the province of Chih-li and Shan-hsi.
December 31. Father Lehmanns escorted me three or four miles on my way. We managed to keep in the right direction to-day, though there is hardly any trail visible and my head driver deserves his name of " Mule Colt" (Lo chu-tzu) for he will never listen to any suggestion from me about the road, or anything else, but follows the even tenor of his way, which is nine times out of ten
24
TIBET.
wrong one. Ch'iang-pan, where we have stopped for the night, one of the usually-met-with tumble-down hamlets, no better, no worse than any other we have seen west of Kuei-hua. Among the Djungars (and probably the other Mongols of the Ordos) grain is not ground on a quern but crushed in a large stone mortar with a stone armed trip-hammer similar to that which the Chinese use for husking rice. It consists of a trunk of a tree about ten feet long, with a stone some eight inches in diameter fixed in a hole at one end. This trunk is pivoted near one end on a wooden axle, and on the short end a woman presses with her foot, letting the hammer fall a height of about eighteen inches on the grain. It is a very clumsy contrivance, but answers its purpose well. I noticed to-day the first scythe I have seen in China. It was used to cut the long grass which supplies the fuel (and at present part of the food of the people), and consisted of a short, broad knife with a concave surface and a socket handle the blade about ten inches long and four broad, fixed in a six-foot handle. The
the
is
near the back. The Chinese which is nearly at right angle with the handle, but scythes I had thought unknown to them, and really I do not know whether the instrument seen to-day
curve
in the surface
of the blade
was
generally use a sickle, the blade of
ought not rather be termed a long-handled
sickle.
this country me, for about three dollars. It consists usually of two small rooms, in one of which is a k'ang or stove-bed and a cooking-stove with one large hole for a castiron saucepan. Then there is a cup board, a few bed clothes and a heterogeneous mass of dirty rags and odds and ends which
January
i,
1892.
The ordinary Chinese house of

tell
can be
built,
the people
would
but China.
disgrace the dust heap of any other country in the world When a person wants to move, he takes what little
there
is
wood-work
about his house,
rafters,
doors, etc., packs
them on a roughly made cart, in which not a piece of iron enters, and hitching to it his cow or donkey goes his way. The road to-day led us along the base of low hills, probably marking the former south bank of the Yellow River, and also for
several miles along the dry
bed of one of its present branches. mao-to which boasts of being quite a place, with five or six inns and some thirty houses. In my room in the inn, among many mottoes written on slips of red paper
We stopped at Tan-kai
TIBET.
25
and pasted around the domestic shrine, I noticed one "Fu, shui" ("happiness and water""), a truly pathetic and, I fear, unheard
appeal.
factory.
maps of this section of country are far from satisThus on many, some seventeen miles west of Pao-tu, there appears a town called Pilchetai on the left bank of the Yellow River near the mouth of what would appear to be an important stream. The stream exists, it is called Kundulung, but of the city no one living knoweth. Then again Ho lai liu is given as the name of another locality, but it only means " River Willow," the ground near the river being everywhere hereabout covered with
existing
The
scrubby willows. The mountains to the north of the river are now called Pao (t'u) shan, and two days farther west they take the name of Wula shan
from the Orat
(in
Chinese Wula) Mongols

is
who
live
near by.
January
but, taken
2.
all
There
little
irrigation carried
on hereabout,
together, the irrigated lands {ch'iu ti) are of small
why the people do not irrigate from wells, for water, and good at that, is found nearly everywhere a few feet below the surface of the ground. At Sumutu, where we stopped to eat our lunch oi chiao-tzu and tea, the people were threshing the seed out of the briars and grass they had cut to feed their cattle with. This they boiled, then dried, finally grinding it and making bread in which they mixed a very little wheat flour which they had to go to Pao-t'u to buy. The distress among the people is so great that they have taken to pillaging each other to get the wherewithal to eke out their
extent.
I
do not understand
their
fields
miserable existence.
We stopped for the

Ta
Ho-k'ou.
night at quite a respectable village called
have seen since leaving on the ice. It is at this point about one-third of a mile wide and apparently very shallow the ice was, however, so thickly covered with dust it was difficult to make out where the river began and ended. All the country west of Pao-t'u as far as this place belongs to the Hsi Kung or Western Duke of the Orat Mongols. The Orat Mongols are divided into three branches under the rule of a Western {Hsi), Eastern (Tung), and Middle {Tumta) Duke (Kung). The Chinese living in the Ordos country are, I believe, under the jurisdiction
hua-erh, the best looking place
Before reaching
it
we
we had
to cross the river
26

Fu
in Shen-hsi,
TIBET.
of YQ-lin
for the land they occupy.
but they pay rent to the Mongol princes The Chinese here tell me that the
is is
Yellow River flows under ground at Pao-t'u, by which 1 suppose to be understood that a second stream flows under that which
seen passing at that locality.
in
It
is
curious in this connection

its
to recall that Chinese authors say that the
source
the
Yellow River has Lob nor and thence flows under the mountains
that
its
to
the north and south of the Ts'aidam to reappear in the Odontala,
where
we know
s-
true sources are located.

led us
January
Our route
along the base of the
Wula
shan
and past the residence of the Hsi Kung of the Orats, a Chineselooking place, quite recently built and with a very substantial appearance. A couple of miles to the west of it is a handsome
lamasery of the Tibetan style of architecture, also recently built or It is called Barongomba ("Eastern lamasery") by Mongols, and Kung miao or " the Duke's monastery " by the Chinese. A stream, a real one and the only one worthy the name we have seen since leaving Ho-k'ou, flows by the Kung's residence; it is probably the Ho lai liu river of our maps, for it is about from this
restored.
point that the river willow {ho lai liu) grows thick all over the river bottom, and affords an inexhaustible supply of fuel to the inhabitants. It seems to me to be the same as the sha liu (" sand willow.") of the Ts'aidam. 1 am informed, however, that such is not the case, for the sha liu is called horgaso'm Eastern Mongol and in the Ts'aidam balro, while the ho liu (or ho lai liu) is the ulan borgaso or "red willow," I am also told that there is a third variety called hung
liu
("red willow") known to Eastern Mongols as ulan moto ("red wood") and in the Ts'aidam called ulasun moto* We passed now and then one or two small Mongol tents surrounded with brushwood fences to protect them from the wind and wolves. The people who inhabit them have neither flocks
nor herds, probably they are farther south for there is absolutely no grazing along our line of march. saw to-day a few loads of wool and hides being carried eastward on camels and, in Chinese
We
carts; this
is the first freight we have met since leaving Kuei-hua. Since crossing the Huang ho yesterday I have seen quite a number of pheasants, a few partridges, some geese, but no more
*On
I,
the flora of this section of the Yellow River valley, see Pijevalsky,
189
et seq.
Mongolia,
>
Hsi
KuNG MiAO. Lamasery
in
the Ordos Country.
T'a-Erh Ssu or Kumbum Lamasery.

sand grouse.
Antelope (Huang
TIBET.
27
yang
or Aniilope gutturosa of
sides of the river.
Prjevalsky) are very
numerous on both
The Wula shan range* is certainly not more than from twelve hundred to eighteen hundred feet high, but the country is so flat that even when miles away it does not lose a foot of its height, and appears quite imposing. There is a very little snow on the ground to-day, it fell last night. A little fell on leaving Tsahan obo (December 14), and that is all we have had so far on the journey. We stopped for the night at a little inn at a point where the mountains take a northwest bend; it is called Hsiao miao-tzii ("the little temple "). The water is abominably brackish and as a The and it has to be bad for that result our tea is undrinkable mountain slopes hereabout are covered with a stunted juniper
{paisku the Chinese

and
granite.
call it)
the predominating rocks are gneiss
Since passing the Hsi Kung's residence

villages or farms
we have seen
man
no Chinese
and
learn that that potentate only allows a very
few farmers
to cultivate land.
He
is
a wise
in his generation,
but the Chinese will some day
own
his
domains
for
all
that.
or three miles beyond Hsiao miao-tzu the sudden bend north-northeast, and connects Wula by a line of low hills with another range to the west which in turn trends west-southwest, some ten or twelve miles from our route. We can now and then see the Yellow River a few miles on our left, its course nearly parallel to our route which passes through interminable thickets of liu shu (willow) and spear grass. Occasionally we see a few head of cattle and ponies and conclude that there are inhabitants to be found somewhere, but we see none. grouse, a few pheasants, 1 notice once more large flocks of sand some antelopes and a wolf We stopped for lunch at a miserable cabin inhabited by some Chinese near it are a few Mongol tents, The water is terribly brackish, and that is this is Hamar hosho. all there is to be said of this desolate spot.
January
4..
Two
shan takes a
* Prjevalsky
calls this
range Munni
ula.
All the country
between the meridian of

calls
Pao-t'u and that of San-tao ho-tzu, on the south side of the Yellow River, he
the Kuzupchi sands.
appropriate
Kuzupchi, he says, means "collar "

fringe
"*
in
Mongol and
is
a very
along the valley."
name "on account of the distinct Mongolia, \<iy.
which they (these sands) form
28
TIBET.
passed quite a number of camels going eastward and carrying goat-skins, camel's hair and wool, but the traffic is on the whole very small, and judging by the accommodations in
We
by their small number, it is probably never any season of the year. We put up for the night at Shelakang (Ta-pu ho of the Chinese), a solitary inn where I took up my abode in a miserable out-house so dirty that it would not have been used with us for a pig sty, and so low I could not stand upright in it; but I escaped the opium smokers in the huofang; and was left in quiet to do my evening's work. It snowed otf and on during the day, about two and one-half inches fell, but hardly any wind blew the while, and the
inns along the road, and
large at
cold
was
not severe.
still
January j.
wood
visible, but Mongol boys herding sheep and an occasional passing horseman showed that
The route to-day hardly any habitations were

was
inhabited.
led us through dense brush-
the country
The few Chinese dens we saw were
occupied by miserable wretches, opium fiends of the purest type, thin and of the color of clay.
It is seventeen miles from Shelakang to Ashan, where we stopped for the night, and from which place the people count 300 li to San-tao ho-tzii. The soil along the route to-day was alkaline and devoid of vegetation, where irrigated, brush grows; the size and length of the irrigation ditches is astonishing, especially when
one considers the sparse agricultural population of this region, and

that the ever drifting sands oblige the farmers to be forever clean-
ing the canals which would otherwise be rapidly choked.
Ashan has
few dismal inns and
a theater, that
is
to say the
usual covered stage seen in most villages in North China in front of the local temple, where strolling actors perform, or amateurs
give a play once a year.
It is the first one we have seen since passing Tan-kai mao-to, and so Ashan must rank with that place in importance.
to the country
The mountain range to our north round-about Ashan

in
is
it
now
called
Lang shan,
as
belongs to the Hangkin

ti.
Mongols, and
Chinese
it is
called
Hang-kai
West
of Ashan
we
will reenter the Oral
Mongols'
district.
January (5.Of the country between Ashan and Ho-k'ou-ti, at which place or farm we arrived late this evening after losing our-

selves, as usual, a
TIBET.
29
dozen times on the way,
little
can be said.
The
road led
all
the
way through brush and

from the road, bane of a
sand.
Now
field,
and then
we
crossed a big irrigation ditch or a ploughed
somewhere,
often to
far
showing that were Chinese settlers. These

traveler's existence as
irrigation canals are the
we
have
make enormous
detours to get around or even across
them.
We
Lake
told,
").
stopped for lunch at Tsahan (or Chahan) nor ("White but saw no sign of a lake. Some Mongols live, we are
near here, but
we
only
saw two Chinese
hovels.
Ho-k'ou-ti consists of a very small and dirty hovel (unless the
name
applies to the cluster of four or five hovels scattered over a
a large and dirty
it). The owner let us have the use of empty room the roof over it only covered a portion of the room, enough to let in the piercing wind but not to let out the smoke of our fire of brush which nearly suffocated
radius of a mile or so near
us, as
we
had to build
it
blown about by the wind, which swept

house, bringing
roof.
down
keep it from being eddying gusts into the clouds of dust and soot from the mud
in a sheltered corner to
in
:
The Ordos Mongols comprise seven clans the Djungar (Chungkor in Chinese), Talat, Wang, Ottok, Djassak, Wushun and Hangkin.* At present the head of the league is the Djungar
Wang
or Djungar Ta.
His predecessor
was
the
Wushun Wang.
This prince receives j patent from the Colonial Office of Peking (Li-Fan Yuan), which is, it is rumored, greatly influenced in its
selection
by the value of the presents

of
the rival
candidates
make it. The Orat Mongols,
whom
:
hear, divided into three clans
Hsi kung,
have spoken previously, are, I Tung kung and Tomta
by Ssanang Setzen that the Ordos Mongols had the special duty of camp {Ordu) of Jingis Khan and the other great Mongol Khans, and it is conjectured, very reasonably, that it was from this office that the tribe received its name. See H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, I, 401 also 1. J. Schmidt, Geschichte der ost Mongolen von Ssanang Setzen, 191 and 408. Timliowski,
are told
* We
protecting the
op.
cit.,
II,
a68, gives also
some
details
concerning this
tribe.
Prjevalsky calls the
Talat Taldi, and has
by so doing
iritroduced considerable confusion in not only the
study of this section of country but also into that of a corner of northwest Kan-su where he makes mention of a tribe which he likewise calls Taldy or Daldy, but which are, in all likelihood, of Turkish descent;
30
TIBET.
fines
kung.* Hangkin is the westernmost of the Ordos clans. It conon the territory of the Prince of Alashan, who is colloquially designated by Chinese as the Hsi Wang or " Western Prince."
January
7.
Twenty
miles
through willow brush, spear grass and sand hillocks. We
few Mongol habitaand houses, and a small lamasery, called by the Chinese Ch'ang chi miao, probably meaning " Long good luck lamasery," and built in halfTibetan half-Chinese style. The whole face of the country was cut up by irrigation canals, the length and size of which astona
tions, tents
saw
ished
me.
at
lunch
tial
We stopped for Wei-yang-chi ti, a
hamlet of four or five substanhouses. That in which we lunched was especially fine, and the old Shen-hsi man who
owned
it
was
the
most
pros-
perous looking being

seen for a long time.
we
had
A goodly
his
bunch of sheep of
were
drinking from troughs in the

WATER BOTTLE AND CLOTH COVER.
Used by lamas to moisten their lips from during the forenoon (Kumbum).
yard around which were huge

piles of
brushwood
neatly ar-
ranged, and carts and farming
implements nearly
filled
the remaining space.
We
cit.,
left
this place These Orat

1
Meaning "West Duke," "East Duke" and "Middle Duke."

Mongols
are probably
Kalmucks.
See H. H. Howorth, op.
I,
497, et seq.
unable, however, to account for their presence possibly they came there at the time when the Eleuts
am
among
first
the Ordos
Mongols;
occupied Alashan, in 1686,
(II, 265), quoting probably Chinese geographical works of the i8th century, says, however, that three Orat banners were living in the valley of Khadamal, which begins about a mile to the west of Kuei-hua Ch'eng and extends westward about seventy miles, in other words,
II,
according to Timkowski, op.
cit.,
279.
This same author
they lived
in
the lower Hsi-ho valley.
TIBET.
31
towards two o'clock and wandered about till after dark trying to find Wu-ta-ku, where we had been told we would find lodgings and fodder. It was dark when we reached this place, but we were refused admittance a party of travelers had the only room in the inn so we went on further, and the mules led us of themselves to a farm house. Again we were turned away, but pushing my way into the huofang, 1 found that the chang-kuei-ti was an asthmatic old woman of rather kindly and decidedly inquisitive nature who, on the promise of a little medicine and the hope of making something out of the party, persuaded the most ragged of her motley and disreputable band of retainers, a blind and opium smoking beggar, to cede me his hovel for the night. He, his wife and two bairns and a few lambs turned out of their twelve-feet square cabin, and I tried to make myself comfortable for the night, for it was bitter cold outside and I had rather stifle than freeze. It was warm
but it was also the vilest, dirtiest hole it had ever been bad fortune to put up in. Later on in the evening the beggar asked permission to sing a song for me, he being, it appeared, a noted minstrel among his people. In an evil hour consented. He strummed on an antiquated san-hsien, and then with much wheezing, snorting and horrible grimacing he sang, or rather yelled, an interminable ditty about an honest official and the great rewards the Emperor conferred on him for his astonishing virtues. It was long, very long, and painful for us who understood but a word here and there of his jargon, but 1 thanked him, and then he wanted to sing again. bribed him to desist, and he went and charmed our neighbors far into the night.
in the hut,
my
We
saw
few pheasants to-day, some partridges and sand

are
still in Hangkin, but Alashan begins a little to the west of this place before one reaches San-tao ho-tzu, which is now but a stage off.
grouse.
We
January
to
8.
The day's
we
the detours to get over irrigating canals, long
march was through dense brush, and and numerous, and,
add to our trouble,
did not reach San-tao ho-tzti, but only
it. To add to our misery and the discomfort of cart travel never agreeable under the most favorable circumstances the soil had been turned up by licorice diggers, making pitfalls two and three feet deep and as many across
Ta-chung-t'an,
some six miles away from
32

over the face of the country.
;
TIBET.
in
all
Licorice
is
exported from here
large quantities to Tien-tsin
it is
natural product of the
soil.
the most valuable, in fact the only The Chinese call it kan ts'ao, the
Mongols shiker ebuso, both meaning " sweet grass or plant."* A few miles before reaching Ta-chung-t'an we crossed the Wula This stream marks the boundary of ho flowing southeast. Ta-chung-t'an is a fortified village and resembles an Alashan.
big farm house with a large number of out houses, the whole surrounded by a fifteen-foot wall in which The people had to resort to fortifying there is but one heavy gate. themselves in this way during the Mohammedan rebellion in the
Arab
borj, or rather it is a
sixties.
The
rebels devastated the
whole country, and
it
has not
even yet recovered from their ravages. The carts we see here at Ta-chung-t'an are of a new type, well The wheels are five feet six inches in suited to sandy soil.
diameter and about four inches broad. f The body of the cart is quite light, and it is drawn by one bullock yoked between the shafts; the yoke is attached to the shafts and "consists of a bent
piece of
its
wood
is
resting
neck, and
held firmly in place
on the animal's back, or rather against by a rope passing around the
oxen's neck.
large quantity of hemp I hear that when the crops are good, a seed oil {ma yu) is exported from here, but at present there is nothing to export, nothing to sell, and hardly anything to eat. They speak of nothing It is pitiable to hear the poor people talk. price of flour, and their only question is whether in my but the
country
it
ever happens that for
two
years no rain
falls.
Although we were only a few miles from San-tao p. took us until three o'clock to reach that place, and we traveled about sixteen miles, so stupid and obstinate were the cart drivers. It was with no little pleasure that I at last saw a cross on top of a foreign-looking building, rising amidst a number of smaller ones looking too neat to be Chinese houses, and a few
January
it
ho-tzu
In
Tibetan of the
Koko now
it is
called
ska-nyar.
It
is
also very
is
abundant
for
in
it.
western Kan-su, near Lusar, and

Prjevalsky calls
it
in
western Ts'aidam, but there
no market
soho.
Mongolia,
cit.,
II,
Glycyrrhiza Uralensis, and says the Chinese name for it is so So and soho probably represent the sound ts'ao. 1, 191.
5, referring to these
or
t Hue, op.
high wheeled carts of northeast Kan-su says
that even in ancient times this portion of Kan-su
was
inhabited
by
Tartars called
by
the Chinese Kao-che or " High carts."

minutes
Mission.
after
I
TIBET.
33
was shaking hands with my good
friend Bishop
Hamer and
and the
I
the jolly, kind-hearted fathers of the Belgian Catholic My boy, the carters, the mules, were all provided for,
fathers and 1 sat down in the refectory over a glass of schnapps and a pipe and talked till late in the evening. As expressed some doubt as to the possibility of converting Mongols, the Bishop told me that at Boro balgasun ("Grey Town"), eight days southwest of here in the Ottok Mongol Becountry, he had some thirty families of Christian Mongols.
tween here and Shih-tsui-tzu, at Kang-tzii-tien or Fu-erh-tien there live a few families of Mohammedan Mongols. of I heard that in the Ordos and in Alashan there grows a kind currant, used by the Chinese as a medicine, or to make a medicine of: it is known to them as hung kuo-tzu ("red fruit ") and to Mongols as kiri innuto. The fruit-^bearing thorn {pei-tsU in Its Chinese, bota or kSrS innudun in Mongol) is also found here. same word as the Ts'aidam fruit is called hamorok, probably the Mongol's harmak, the Chinese hara-ma-ku*
January lo. 1 had not intended stopping at San-tao ho-tzu, sheng-kung ("the Trinity's palace") as the fathers call it, but the Bishop insisted that, as it was Sunday, I must pass it
or San
with him.
a
little
consented with pleasure.

I
have cut out for myself
more work than
very great tax on

very enjoyable.
my
can manage single-handed without a strength, and an occasional day of rest is
The Bishop has built this last year over fifty new houses for famine converts, and altogether he has here, or in the villages in
the immediate neighborhood
families.
some
three hundred
odd Christian
;
dependent on him he gives a peck {tou') of flour to each family every month, enough for one meal of mien a day sufficient to support life, and the lazy beggars ask nothing else, and do not a hand's turn to help themselves or assist the fathers in any way. In the church 1 saw the tomb of Monseigneur de Voos, the first Catholic bishop of the Ordos; he died about two years ago and was succeeded by Monseigneur Hamer, who was then Bishop of western Kan-su, living at Liang-chou. One of the peculiar
of
are absolutely
Many
them
*The Nitraria schoberii of Prjevalsky, who Karmyk. See also under May 4th, 1892.
transcribes
the
Mongol name
"
34

effects in
TIBET.
changes which Christianity everywhere

is
Chinese
'
'
women
them of the silly bashfulness of the so-called heathens. This results, it would appear, from the fact that they receive the same religious instruction as the men and attend church with them. It is no easy matter to get them to the church for the first
curing
time, but, this ordeal over, they feel raised in the social scale and
are
decidedly improved by the change (at least in Europeans'
eyes).
Often native Christian

in
women
have paid
down
my room
and talking as
freely as did the
me visits, sitting men. On the
whole, the salutary effects of Christianity are more visible in the than in the men, in this country as in others. San-tao ho-tzQ is about two miles from the Yellow River, which is visible from the church steeple. There is a range of hills along the right (south) bank of the river, which gradually in-
women
creases in height to the southwest

a flat topped
till
it
appears to culminate
in
mountain
called Orondeshi.
January ii. We left at about 1 130 p. M., after having photographed the Bishop, the fathers and the mission houses. The latter are wonderfully well built, when one considers the difficulties of every sort with which the builders have had to contend. The broad, well-irrigated fields, the rows of willows lining the roads and surrounding the various hamlets, are all their work, the result of their energy during the last sixteen years. Between San-tao ho-tzii and Kang-tzu tien, where we stopped for the night, we saw nothing but sand hillocks, willow brush and sand flats, and everywhere were innumerable big holes, dug by licorice hunters, over which we had to bump our way. Just before reaching Kang-tzu tien we came to the bank of the Yellow River, here some three hundred to four hundred yards wide. To our southwest we saw the northern extremity of the Chua-tzu shan, the Orondeshi or "Anvil peak" of the Mongols.* This name is of common use among Mongols
who
frequently apply
call
it
to
mountains with
flat
tops,
which we
would
small misas.
is
We
its
passed several Mongol shepherds

in this short
is
* Orondeshi
properly
tlie
name
of a peak
shaped top of rock, but by extension

ing to Col. Prjevalsky {Mongolia,
name
range, with a flat, mesagiven to the whole of it. Accord-
" AccordI, 221), it is called Arbus-ula. ing to a Mongol tradition, he also says, one of the rocky peaks of the Arbus-ula, which has the shape of a table, served as a forge for Chinghiz Khan's smithy."
There
is
another Orondeshi near the source of the Yellow River.
TIBET.
35
carrying about on the end of a stick a smouldering bit of dry dung, now and then when their hands and feet were numbed with the
cold they used
it
to light a
bunch of
grass,
and
warm
themselves
by the
blaze.
after
January 7^.Shortly
starting this
morning our route
turned due south and followed the bank of the Yellow River, here between four hundred and eight hundred yards wide. The bottom
lands were covered everywhere with different varieties of the liu
willow, bunch grass and a few shrubs and briars on which sheep were feeding, faute de mieux. The sand dunes were larger
and more numerous, to our west they stretched for miles in parallel lines till they reached the base of the Alashan Mountains, here some ten to fifteen miles from the river. Of Mongol life one sees nothing along this road, and of Chinese
more good-for-nothing, and yet, when look at the irrigation ditches these people have dug and keep clean, I must fain admit that they can not be quite what they look. Winter is a bad time to see them in, they must bloom out in summer. One of the Fathers at San-tao ho-tzu told me that he had
only the very lowest form.
I
filthier,
shiftless lot
never
saw anywhere
in China,
frequently seen letter carriers traveling for
some
private post-office,
and having to reach
their destination in a
given time, which only
permitted them to take a little sleep now and then, tie, about to take a nap, a bit of joss-stick to their thumb, light
sleep
when
it
and thumb, when the pain of the burn awakened them and they resumed their journey.
on
till
the stick had burned
down
to the
The people of Shen-hsi

day
rest of the
also use a joss-stick

in
to time the
noonwhile a
workmen
it
the
fields,
letting
them
rest
given length of
burns.
about from the bank of the river. The two big k'ang-, which nearly filled the only room, were occupied by some twenty travelers, but we squeezed into a corner and made ourselves tolerhalf a mile
We stopped
for the night in a solitary inn called Kuan-ti,
ably comfortable.
Fortunately
it
bad smells stifled me.
were
otherwise, the odor of this house
have long ago ceased to mind would have
January Tj.We traveled on through more sand and brush, passing before T'eng-k'ou (Tungor in Mongol), the only place we have seen on the right bank of the river since passing Tan-kai-
36

in the
is
TIBET.
mao-to
Ordos.
It
dictu, there
a vegetable garden outside

It
it
consists of a dozen houses and, mirabile it where potatoes and
cabbages are said to thrive. rebellion, much larger, and
used to be, before the
Mohammedan
existed even, so report says, in the

a place of great importance
YOan
period,
when
it
was
possibly considerable size.*
It is
and of supposed by some writers to have

I
been Prester John's
capital,
but
am
inclined, for reasons given
previously, to place that at Ho-k'ou.
The sand dunes on

to the size of hills
let called
;
the
left
bank
is
attain, in front of
T'eng-kou,
little
especially
this the case
around a
hamI
Sabokto.
This
name
has a Mongol look to
it,
but
am
inclined to think it is Chinese and should be read Sha-po to, " Many sand hills "; at all events, that would be a good way to
transcribe the
name in Chinese. Just beyond this place we cut across a big bend of the river, thus shortening our road several miles. When here it suddenly began blowing such clouds of dust
The the sky at moments was totally obscured. narrow currents; at one moment we were lost in dust and a few minutes later we reached a spot where no wind was blowing, to again be wrapped in dust a few hundred yards
that
we
got
lost;
wind blew
in
farther on.
We stopped for the night

travelers feasting
fit
at
Ho-kuai-tzu where
my
rest
was
disturbed by part of the family passing the night helping a ewe in a difficult case of parturition, and by my carters and a couple of
on dead horse cooked with

is
lots of garlic, a dish
for a king, they said.
Coal of a poor quality

tzii
and made into

I
mined some twenty It west of Ho-kuaicoke, which sells, so the chang-kuei-ti said,
but
believe he lied so as to squeeze
me
little,
for three cash a

ho-tzii
while coal brings two. comes from this mine.

catty,
The coal used at San-tao
We
*
are
now
abreast of the Yin shan,

its
which borders here the

like its continuation, the
Yellow River along
right bank.
It,
Col. Prjevalsky, in 1871,
came from Pao-t'u
across the
Ordos country, and reached

its
the Yellow River at this point, but he makes no mention of any place on
right
bank but speaks of the town of Ding-hu on the western (left bank). "This small town had been entirely destroyed by the Dungans. * * * The only inhabitants of Ding-hu are the garrison, numbering at one time a thousand men." See Prjevalsky's Mongolia, I, 221. Though the name Ding-hu looks very much like T'eng-kou, it
is
the present Sabokto.
TIBET.
37
Chu-tzu shan to the north, is formed of stratified reddish brown sandstone dipping eastward. The mountains on the west side of The gravel the river are of similar formation with a westerly dip. covering the country in spots is of gneiss and disintegrated conglomerate, and in the drifted sand much hornblende is to be seen.
,
January
14..
At Ho-kuai-tzii the willow brush and bunch grass

becomes stony (sandstone), and the road
is
cease, the soil
over
rising ground, the foothills of the
which are found on all on to the Great Wall, are noticeable on either side of the river, and are excellent points for compass bearings, as are also the obo or
stone heaps.
Alashan range. Watch towers, roads leading to China when one is close
The
valley of the
Yellow River
is
here not over three miles in

retain as far as
;
width, the fnountains to the west are called by the Chinese Hsi
shan (" Western

Hsien,
Hills "), a
name they
Chung-wei
where
we
lose
sight of
them
they are the Alashan
mountains of our maps. We stopped for lunch at Erh-tzu tien on the bank of the river. This is the only hovel between Ho-kuai-tzu and Shih-tsui. My men, who are always hungry, no matter how much they eat," thought to improve their porridge by the addition of some of my butter. They took, by mistake, a big piece of Marseille soap and seasoned their food with it. The boy soon discovered their theft and told them of it. They came to me in a body with long and
their lives were in danger. I said they even an external application of soap to a Chinese frontiersman was very dangerous, an unheard of thing in fact, what then must become of them who had taken such a large quantity internally. Useless to add that their stomachs did not feel the least worse for the unusual condiment.
if
anxious faces asking
would probably
die, as
we went for a short distance along the where it rises about fifty feet above the low water mark. The cliff showed some twenty-five feet of coarse gravel of sandstone, gneiss and granite, on top of which was the same thickness of honey-combed loess. The same strata were visible on the right bank. This loess had not been washed down
leaving Erh-tzia tien
river
On
bank of the
from higher
camels.
levels but
was,
judged, a true sub-aerial deposit.
As we entered
Shih-tsui
we met two
a
drunken Mongols riding
One
tried to
make
row and swore he would shoot one
38

Man-tzu" d&\\tzz}\tdiW%. He took
his
TIBET.
off his back,
of the "sao
gun
tried his best to strike a light
with his flint and steel to ignite the slow-match, but was so drunk he could not succeed, and we laughed at him so much that he finally lashed his camel in a fury
and galloped off. At Shih-tsui the mountain range on the right bank of the river comes abruptly to an end in a ledge of rocks, and that on the left bank deflects to south south-west. The name Shih-tsui, or Point of Rocks," is hence a most appropriate one for this locality. Officially it is known as Shih-tsui shan and in Mongol it is called Hotun jeli.* It is nominally the southernmost point in this direction on Alashan soil, but it is governed by Chinese officials and
' '
is
an integral portion of the Ning-hsia Department,

off'
The road to
the
from the road we had just come over between Kang-tzu tien and Kuan-ti. This palace of the Alashan Wang is called by Prjevalsky Din-yuan-ing or Wei-ching P'u, but no one whom questioned about it knew of any other name for it than Alashan Ya-m^n or Wang-yeh Fu
residence of the prince of Alashan branches
1
("The
Prince's Palace").
There are
now some
fifty
or sixty Chinese families, mostly Shen-
hsi people, living at Shih-tsui-tzu,
but before the
Mohammedan
were several hundred, and the ruins of the old town cover the ground for half a mile around. Moored to the bank of the river I noticed a number of large pontoons or mud scows made of willow planks, like those seen at Ho-k'ou. It is a wonder that such miserably build things can carry any cargo, and above all that they can reach Pao-t'u,
rebellion there
January 15. Coal at Shih-tsui is brought from the Hsi shan, about twenty miles away it costs half a cash a catty, or five hundred cash for a cart load.f
;
* On the map of the River Hoang ho, accompanying Mr. St. George R. Littledale's paper on his recent journey across Asia, Geographical Journal, III, 445, et seq., this place is called Sudwisashan! On the same map San-tao ho-tzu is placed on the
bank of the Yellow River, whereas it is several miles away from it. It is true that this name applies to all the Christian hamlets located thereabout, and there may be a little one on the river bank, though I did not hear of one.
t Hue appears to have crossed the Yellow River in front of Shih-tsui (his Che Tsui Dze). He says that the coal mines and the potteries of this place are its sources of
wealth.
II,
The town was much
larger in his time
than at present.
See Hue, op.
cit.,
2, et seq.
TIBET.
39
The inn people tell me that the road to Ho-k'ou vid. Teng-k'ou and the Ho-tung {i. e., the south side of the Yellow River) is very good, and that it only takes ten days to reach Pao-t'u by it. This is the road wanted to travel over and was obliged to give up the idea of following on reaching Hsiao nor. But it is just as well did not try it; my carters have proved themselves, times without number, unable to keep on the high road; what would it have been had we taken a cross road! Shih-tsui is of special interest to foreigners, for here lives one
I
1
of the pioneers of western civilization in Eastern Asia, the
German
for his
trader Graessel, an energetic
man who
as
for
is
equally
known
wool
(camel's)
gathering,
his
Shopenhauer-reading,
camel-riding proclivities.
at Hsia-yil kuan,
He, the Belgian Splingaerd,

late
who
lives
and the
Dalgleish of Kashgar, have done
more than any other three men living to introduce foreign ideas and a respect for European methods of trade in these remote regions. But, ye gods! what a life they all have had to lead! Once a year Graessel goes to Peking, sees a few Europeans, gets, for a week or so, in touch with the outside world, and then returns to Shih-tsui or the Alashan Mongols for yet another year of dirt and discomfort.
left Shih-tsui by nine o'clock and pushed on rapidly to Ping-lo Hsien, traversing a country covered with detached farms and little hamlets. For miles we followed a huge irrigation canal from which ran innumerable ditches leading the water all over the
We
broad valley.* This stupendous work has converted an alkaline, wind-swept, sandy plain into a fertile district, where rice, wheat,
millet
and
fruits
of various kinds are raised in great abundance.
About nine miles from Shih-tsui we saw, about a mile on our right, a branch (or rather a remnant of a branch) of the Great Wall
terminating at the steep base of the Hsi shan. passed through Hsia ying-tzu a Christian village, Shang ying-tzii, Huang-ch'i
We
chiao, a bustling
market town where
we
took lunch, and
finally
pulled
up
at Ping-lo Hsien, a miserable, dilapidated
place, lost in
the sands which, on the north side of the town, have drifted to the height of the top of the walls. An alkaline plain, in a great measure unsuitable for agriculture, surrounds the town, and the
raison d'Hre of such a place

*
Cf.
is
hard to find.
Hue, op.
cit,, II, 4-5.
40
TIBET.
January i6. We made an early start as we had to reach NingThe Hsi shan by dusk, before the city gates were closed. grew higher and more rugged as we advanced, and th% right bank of the Yellow River, some three or four miles to our left, rose
hsia
above the stream a hundred

sloping very gradually upward.
feet or so, the
country behind
it
On
is
few peaks of the Hsi shan
we
could see a
little
snow.
Ping-lo
The country south of
very poor, alkaline deposits
cover large areas with a thick white coating. Farms are few, the people congregating in the villages, of which
we passed quite a number.

momo* and
We stopped for half

but not
fast
an hour at Li-k'ang P'u to eat a
drink a cup of tea, and then pushed on as rapidly as
we
could,
enough,
it
turned out, for
it
was night when we reached
Ning-hsia, and the city gates were closed

before them.
when we
pulled
up
There are no suburbs on the north side of the city a measure of precaution adopted since the Mohammedan rebellion, so we had to pound on the gates and shout wildly till we aroused the warders, and my boy explained to them that I was a foreign envoy en mission extraordinaire. Off they rushed to the Ch'entai's Ya-men for the keys of the gate, and, having opened it, escorted me with lanterns to a fairly good inn on the high street. The first impression 1 gained of this famous city was very disappointing; nothing but low, newly built mud houses, with a row of willow trees on either side of the street. We passed many vacant lots scattered about, and not a few ruins; in fact Ning-hsia is just rising for the fifth or sixth time in its history from its ruins. The inn was clean but of course there were no comforts; if you want luxuries of any kind in northern China you must carry them along with you for none are to be found, even in the best of inns. There is only one Mohammedan inn in the city, and this one is only tolerated, for Mohammedans are not allowed to pass the night inside the city they may only come in during the day to transact their business and must go back to the suburbs by dark where they have their homes.
;
*
f
roll or
small loaf of bread of wheat flour.
The
to
late
Mohammedan
rebellion
is
not apparently the cause of this measure, for
we
when Benedict Goes China (1603-1607), the Mohammedans of the Su-chou in northwestern Kan-su (and probably elsewhere) were shut up every night within the walls of their own city, which was distinct from that inhabited by the Chinese. H. Yule,
went
learn that as early as the beginning of the 17th century,
Cathay and the
Way
Thither, 582.

The Mohammedans here and
themselves
ch'uan,
li ch'ican,
TIBET.
41
in
northern China frequently

the
is
call
"esoterists," other Chinese they call
wai
"^xoterists."
They
also say their faith

all
is
"little
religion" {hsiao chiao), while that of
other Chinese
the ta
chiao or "great religion."

or use unclean
vessels;
They
are the Chinese with prejudices,
abstaining from pork, tobacco, and
who
do not eat unclean food
the Chinese of the other persuasions
form the unprejudiced part of the population, to whom ail kinds of food and every kind of enjoyment are good these are practically the only distinguishing features between the two faiths.
;
January
this place
ly.
To-day
examined the carpet
factories for
is
has been famous for centuries.
The wool
from the Mongols and each manufacturer dyes his self. I found it difficult to obtain very accurate information about, Brazil wood supplies a the origin and nature of the dyes used. red dye, huai-tzu (seed of the Styphonolobium japonicum, according to Williams), a yellow dye, safflower
is
which bought worsteds for him-
also used, as
is
a red
dye said
Tibetans.
to
come from
Tibet,
and which
is
possibly the ts'o of the
Another plant called here i'zu hua-tzu (Jzu meaning "purple") supplies a light drab, and indigo furnishes them their blues. Aniline dyes, I was sorry to find, have found their way into the Ning-hsia market, but are not much used in dyeing wools for carpets, except for supplying purple. The green colors used come, I was told, from the East (probably Shanghai), and are therefore, presume, of foreign origin. The manufacturers only dye their wools in summer. In company with Mr. Horoben, of the China Inland Mission, visited a number of the factories (there are sixteen in the city)', in most of which we found between six to ten looms at which both men and women worked. The looms, of the most primitive description, are vertical and the warp is passed over two rollers. The woof is passed in between two threads of the warp without the aid of any instrument, the wool being simply rolled in a ball, and is cut off roughly with a rather blunt knife. When a whole line has thus been put in, it is trimmed with a pair of shears. There is no pattern before the weaver, but he evolves the most intricate and tasteful designs without their assistance or a moment's hesitation. I found that many manufacturers were copying very common patterns of European ingrain carpets. These were to fill orders
I 1
42

oificials
TIBET.
bits of car-
given them by various

pet bought at
who had
brought here
some
of the treaty ports.
The usual
size of the
rugs
is
that
necessary to cover a k'ang, say ten feet by six.
Prayer rugs, cushions, saddle blankets, etc., are made in larger numbers than any other styles of rugs, as nearly all of them are Besides rugs, Ning-hsia mansold to Mongols or go to Tibet. ufactures a good quality of paper, and here the industries of the
place cease.*
The town of Ning-hsia The main street (ta chieh)
is still
to a great extent a pile of ruins.
at least
is
are shops of any pretension,
the portion of it on which there not over five hundred yards long.
These have in them very few articles beyond the necessities of life and the usual Chinese "notions." The rest of the town looks very deserted, and the large number of soldiers one sees is evi-dence of the distrust still felt by the government towards the Kan-su people, and especially the Mohammedans. There is but little of the Kan-su element in the present population, the inhabitants are largely from Shan-hsi, Shan-tung, with a sprinkling from
probably
all
the other provinces of the empire.

of the China Inland Mission
tell
The members
me the climate is
sky nearly all the year, but little wind and no snow. The water is strongly alkaline, and no flowers can be raised here; what few one sees are brought from Lan-chou.
delightful, a clear
January i8. The coal used at Ning-hsia is mined in the Hsi shan some three or four days from here, and costs, delivered in the city, three cash a catty. The crops, 1 hear, are good on irrigated
land {chiu
ti),
but absence of any
facilities for
getting the grain to
outside markets and their remoteness, deter farmers from raising
more
grain than the local
consumption
calls for.
* Father Gerbillon, when at Ning-hsia in 1697 with the Emperor K'ang-hsi, makes mention of the rugs and paper made with hemp "beaten and mixed with lime
water."
(See
Du
Halde, op. cit. IV, 372.)
mules
in
China came from Ning-hsia.
He also says (p. 373) that the best He furthermore remarks (p. 370) that it was
cities
one of the largest and most densely populated

yards.
along the whole length of the
Great Wall, the houses built so closely together that there was no room even for courtBefore the late IVlohammedan rebellion
it
had already greatly
fallen
from
its
high state, for
Hue {op] cit.,
II,
13 et seq.) speaks of the poverty of the city and of the
absence of any commerce.
Several quarters of the
town were ruined and
deserted
" save
for a
few hogs wandering amidst the ruins." and looked lank and
pale, etc.
Most of the people were dressed
in dirty rags

I
TIBET.
43
inn-yard quite a number of sacks of dry rhubarb It comes, I am told, from Hsi-ning and root en route for Pao-t'u. Some is is used by veterinaries, especially in treating camels.
saw
in the
found
in the Hsi
shan (Alashan range), but

for
is
of
an inferior
quality.*
Lan-chou in carts hired here for 14 taels a reach our destination in twelve or thirteen piece, and we are to days. These Ning-hsia carts are roomier than those used farther 1 leave Ning-hsia as I have done east, but no more comfortable.
I
leave
to-morrow
every other
town
in
China, with no desire to go back to
it.
Like
c'est
the plaster bust of
which La Fontaine speaks,
"De
loin
quelque chose, de pres ce n'est rien."
January
ip.
Outside
where
the south gate of Ning-hsia there

live
is
miserable suburb
alkaline flats
the Huei-huei, and beyond this extend

tall
and marshes on which grow
reeds that supply
the city with fuel for heatmg the k'angs.
We
passed a few hovels
belonging, presumably, to reed cutters, for no other profession
would appear possible hereabout. The road led us nearly due south through numerous little hamlets and across two enormous irrigation canals, which, by the way, one would certainly take as depicted on all our maps, for branches of the Yellow River. These canals are about twenty feet broad between the banks and are in many places bordered by rows of willows. It is said, but I know not on what authority, that the
irrigation of the plain of Ning-hsia
was executed
reign
by imperial order.f
These
canals,
in the K'ang-hsi both large and small, are
called ho ch'u.
As we advanced the soil appeared slightly less barren; the Yellow River was soon lost to view, but the long low hills which
*That
evidenced
its
medicinal qualities have long been

it.
known among
the Mongols
is
by Rubruk's mention of
Land of the Lamas,
284 and Rubruk's
Itinerarium, 323 and 342.

t Father Gerbillon speaks of the Ning-hsia irrigation canals as follows:
ans on employe plus de deux mille
hommes pendant un mois

comblez par
cit. IV,
entier a
"Tous les racommoder

que cette
district,
ces canaux, qui sans ce soin seroient bientdt

riviere entraine
le sable at la terre
avec
elle."
Du
Hatde, op.
373.
Irrigation canals of great
extent must have existed as early as the beginning of the 13th century, in this
for
we know
that
when
Ning-hsia was besieged by the Mongols under Jingis Khan,
in 1209, the inhabitants flooded the
Mongol camp
See
"by
opening the dykes of the

op.
cit.,
I,
river" (by which the canals must be meant).
H.H. Howorth,
66.
44
are

beyond
it
TIBET.
certainly not over five miles auây, as I could The Hsi shan took a houses at their base. decidedly v^'estern turn and appeared lower than even at Ping-lo Hsien, though it retained the same rugged appearance. passed on the road a cart with Jardine and Matheson's flag,
were
distinguish
little
We
coming probably from Chung-wei Hsien, where camel's wool

sold in considerable quantities to foreigners.
is
This trade has
fallen
off very much in the last three or four years on account of the Chinese middlemen rolling the wool in the dirt so as to add to
its
weight, and practicing other tricks on buyers. Everywhere traces of the rebellion of twenty-five years ago are The rebellion visible ruined villages and weed-grown fields.
was
especially destructive to dwellings, but Chinese houses are so

built,
cheaply
and contain so
little
of any value, that
it is
hard to
conceive that they should not have sprung up at once again, were
not other obstacles, created, perhaps, by the authorities to perpetuate the

in the
memory of the punishments inflicted on the way of their reconstruction. It was in a village
and on the
P'u,
rebels,
put
few miles
off our road
river
bank near here
that the rebellion in
these parts originated.*
stopped for the night, must have once houses and yamens cover for half a mile around the poor hovels which compose the present village. A very large irrigation canal passes through the village, and there are a number of locks through which the water can be drawn off into lesser ditches so as to supply the whole country. This abundant supply of water in the Ning-hsia plain makes it possible to grow rice, which is one of the staple products of this region. It is, however, of poor quality and reddish color, and not to be compared with that grown at Kan-chou in northwestern Kan-su.
Wang-hu
where
we
been a fine the ground
place, for ruins of well-built
*ln Gerbillon's time the Ning-hsia plain must have been one vast garden, "On ne voit point de villages dans cette campagne, mais on la peut appeller un village continuel; car les maisons des Paysans y sont repandues de tous cotez environ a cent pas I'une de I'autre plus ou moins * * * Enfin ce pays est un des plus beaux et des
meilleurs que j'aye jamais vue."
Du
is
the road to the south of Ning-hsia

trees
II,
Halde, o^. /., IV, 374. Even in Hue's time described as magnificent, with willow andjujube
growing along the
side nearly the
whole way to Wang-hu
P'u, Hue, op. ciL,
15.

January
20.
TIBET.
45
Very
litttle
can be said of the country

to live in.
we
have
is
traversed to-day, save to express astonishment that any one, even

a Chinese, should
alkaline
have chosen
it
Nearly
all
the soil
and reeds
are apparently the only product of the land.
The
few farms
imposing from a distance; they looked like castles, with high crenelated and loop-holed stone walls (probably they were thus built to enable the owners to resist bands of marauders), but when one looked inside them they
proved but
filthy,
we saw were
tumbled-down
dens.
The The smaller ones

as
is
irrigation canals
grow
larger as
we
are led across the big ones
advance southward. by plank sluices, just

very small place
P'u,
done with
us.
Ta-p'a,
where
we
stopped
for the night, is a
beside the ruins of a walled

half a
town {Ch'eng).
Yeh-sheng
and
it,
dozen other places

it
are like
hamlets
we
passed through before reaching
built
on the ruins of former towns.
We
have
seen no
traffic
on the road since leaving Ning-hsia, only ox-carts
loaded with reeds and straw.
At Ta-p'a coal can be bought; it is brought from the Hsi shan twenty miles away, The inn-keeper said it sold for ten cash a catty, and it undoubtedly does when he or his like have the sale of it. The same high authority said it took three days to reach Chung- wei Hsien and six from there to Lan-chou Fu. The weather remains wonderfully pleasant, just such weather as one usually has at Peking at this time of the year. The nights very cold but clear, the days warm enough to make walking agreeable, and no wind. The barometric variations are wonderfully
small during the twenty-four hours.

is
as it is the first and principal water brought from the Yellow River south of here to fertilize the Ning-hsia plain. At this point three or four branch canals leave the main one, carrying water to the various levels of the plain. This main canal {ho ch'u) we crossed for the first time at Wang-hu P'u; it passes east of Ning-hsia and terminates a couple of miles east of Shih-tsui.
Ta-p'a
of
some importance
distributing point of the
January 21. Crossing a low range of limestone hills which, branching out from the Hsi shan, abut on the Yellow River a few miles to our left and there form a gorge through which the river flows, we came on its western side to Kuang-wei, the country up
46

that
TIBET.
point uninhabited and untillable; it is too high to be and there are no permanent streams in these hills. Beyond Kuang-wei farms and villages were surprisingly numerous. One wonders where the people find arable soil in sufficiency to supply their wants, for much of the plain on this side of the Yellow River is covered with ochre-colored sand, which is forever drifting in long and parallel ridges, gaining rapidly on the tilled land and often overturning the houses against whose walls it accumulates. I had noticed this yellow sand in a few spots in the Ordos, and could see no place there from which it could have come, now it would seem that it must have been blown " there from west of Chung- wei, from the great " drifting sand desert which there abuts on the Yellow River. I killed two antelope just as we came to Kuang-wei and wounded a third, but did not have time to follow it up. These antelope (Jiuang yang) are the only game we see, there have been no sand grouse since leaving San-tao ho-tzu, no hares, or pheasants, or ducks, though the river is free from ice in many
to
irrigated
places.
We still have the Hsi shan a few miles on our right. These mountains are here at least, of igneous formation, not over eight hundred feet high, and stretch as far west as the eye can reach. We stopped for the night in a tumble-down place called Ts'aoyuan P'u which we reached long after dark. In the inn-yard
were a number of the big-wheeled carts used throughout the Ordos and in some parts of Kan-su, and of which I have spoken
previously.
fifteen
I
learnt that they only cost

dollars.
20 Haos to build, or about
Mexican
22.
January
River.
I
The
to
road ran along the bank of the Yellow
failed
observe
any gravel,
nothing but
loess,
washed down here from higher levels. The river is very shoal, with numerous sand banks rising above its surface; it has a rapid
current in places, and
fifty
is,
on an average, about two hundred and
yards in breadth.
is
There
now
shows how
little
going on a curious process of agriculture which the Chinese understand saving of labor. The
farmers dig up a large patch of the surface of each field, cart it back to their farm-yards and their let the clods of earth dry, when
they take a mallet (or a stone
hammer with
an eye drilled through

it
TIBET.
47
this
long liandie), and reduce it all to powder; with mixed what manure they have been able to collect on then the road, and this top dressing is laboriously carted back and spread over the field from which nine-tenths of its component parts were a few days before quite as laboriously taken away.* At Shih-kung-shih P'u, where we stopped for lunch, 1 heard that
in wliich to fix a
is
there
was
a cave temple with a colossal stone figure in
it
not over
There are some ho-shang living in the temple, which is known by various names, Ta Fo ssu "Big Buddha Temple;" Shih Fo ssu, "Stone Buddha Temple," or Shih-kung (P'u) TassQ "thegreat temple of Shih-kung (P'u)." 1 suppose this is another specimen of the Toba dynasty cave temples, of which there are so many in northwestern China. I had been prompted to ask if there were cave temples near Shih-kung-shih P'u on seeing a long ledge of sandstone disposed in horizontal strata a short distance from our road, and on noticing a number of little niches in it like those I had seen in 1887 at Yung-k'an near Ta-t'ung Fu in north Shan-hsi.f Such cave temples are here called Fo-t'ung, "Buddha Caves," and I heard that they were very numerous. Just as we passed Sheng-chin-kuan tien, "the inn of the Shenga mile or so to the north of the village.
1 shot a big antelope buck, so we decided to stop over night in this lonely inn and have a good meal of antelope
chin barrier,"
barrier (kuan) is about half a mile west of the good landmark as there is a tower (J'un) on a point of rocks just behind it. The steak proved delicious, for I still had plenty of good butter bought at Ho-k'uo to cook it with, and the cook made some wheat cakes and with this, together with plenty of vermicelli {kua mien) and good tea, I made quite a feast, while the wolves howled at a great rate outside the gate of the inn, attracted by the odor of the fresh meat.
steak.
inn,
The
is
and
January
but
23.
The
Hsi shan
started,
now bend
little
north of west,
we saw
little
of them, for a strong northwest
blow
*
shortly after
we
wind began to and though there was no dust

is
A similar method Land of the Lamas,
of fertilizing the field

<i^.
practiced in western Kan-su.
See
whom
Du
t Gerbillon mentions this latter famous temple. The Emperor K'ang-hsi, with he was traveling " mesura avec un de nos demi-cercles la plus grande des
idoles qui
occupe toute une grotte, et
il
la
trouva haute de 57
Tcheon
pieds Chinois."
Halde, op. cit., IV, 352.
48
TIBET,
where we were, the mountains were hidden in dense clouds of it. The mountains on the right bank of the Yellow River still run southwest by west and increase in height as we go west. The plain over which we traveled to-day was so flat that we never got a glimpse of the river, though it was not over a mile or two at the
utmost from the road.
two o'clock and stopped in the east faubourg in a fairly good inn, The faubourg is not large, noticed some factories (in rooms twelve feet but quite busy.
reached Chung-wei Hsien by
I
We
square
this, I learnt, is one of the and grain shops, dry goods, blacksmith shops and the usual variety of trades met with in this part of the world, take up the business quarter of this town.*
!)
of water-pipe tobacco
chief industries of the place
and
flour
{k'ou-kuei), and
The Mohammedan bakers of Chung-wei make delicious rolls bought good potatoes and eggs, so will speak
I I
Coal is brought here from a nothing but praise of such a place. distance of four or five days to the south, and it costs (at least 1
had to pay
I
for it) 12 cash a catty.
laid in a
supply of food sufficient to
last
me
to Lan-chou, for
until
we
reach that city, eight or nine days hence, nothing can
be bought on the road, and when a Chinese says there is nothing to be bought in the way of food, one must understand it
literally.
January
rather too
24.
late,
It
was
8.30 before
we
its
got off from Chung-wei,

a long one,
as the day's
march proved
reached
and
it
was
nearly midnight
when we
end.
couple of miles
beyond the city we came to a big irrigation canal on the farther side of which are the ruins of a branch of the Great Wall, which
now
only imperfectly opposes the inroads of the vast sea of yellow

its
sand on
outer side stretching as far as one can see in endless
hillocks perpendicular to the direction of the prevailing
northwest
wind.f
* Hue gives us to understand that he only took three days to go from Ning-hsia to This is certainly wrong as the distance between these two cities is nearly one hundred and twenty miles. He says {op. cit., II, 21) of Chung-wei " sa propChung-wei.
rete, sa
bonne tenue, son
air d'aisance,
tout contraste singulierementaveclamisereet

les
la laideur
de Ning-Hia ; a en juger seulement par
innombrables boutiques, toutes
tres-bien achalandees, et par la grande population qui
incessamment encombre les rues,

straight across the sand hills to
Tchong-Wel est une villetres-commeryante." \ Hue apparently did not follow the river but took
Chang-liu-shui.
Hue, op.
cit.,
II,
21-23.

In this sea of
TIBET.
49
sand ridge follows ridge, and of such uniform color is the whole scene that all idea of distance is lost, and one cannot tell if a hillock is a hundred yards or two miles away. The wall appears to have been made of successive layers of well beaten loess, and never to have had a facing of brick or stone. Outside It is about six feet broad at the top and fifteen feet high.
the wall,
some hundred
is
yards, are stone
watch towers against
heaped up at least thirty feet high. After about a mile through these " liquid sands," as the Chinese call them, we came to the bank of the Yellow River, here at least one hundred and fifty feet below the surrounding country. No ice was to be seen on it for several miles in either direction, as it sweeps out in a swift eddying current of a gorge in a range of
which the sand
Little log rafts were coming down the stream loaded with coal for the Chung-wei market, or carrying travelers from Chung-wei across to a little village on the right bank at the base of the steep, rugged mountains, which here rise some fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred
red sandstone mountains to the west.
feet
above the
plain.
till
We followed the river bank

at the
we
reached Sha-pa (or Sha-po)*
mouth of a gorge which bears the same name. Here begin the big irrigation canals which supply the Chung-wei plain with water, and here also travelers journeying westward usually get taken up beyond the gorge, they, their carts and animals, in a big, flat boat kept there for the purpose at government expense. We found only three boatmen at Sha-pa and were told that it would take half a day to get the others here, as travel along this side of the river being unusual in winter, they had gone to
Chung-wei. We consequently decided to try and get the carts through the gorge, the boatmen agreeing to carry on their backs my instruments and more valuable belongings, for it was more than probable that the carts would get upset a few times on the
The sands have flowed over the hills in the gorge and reach where rocks and ice are piled up, so that cart travel seemed next to impossible. It took us over two hours to make the two miles around the loop which the river here
way.
to the river banks,
describes, lifting the carts over the rocks, unloading
them
repeatedly,
the soft sands in

sand.
and doubling up the teams to which they sunk to the axles.

The hamlet
is
pull
and reloading them out of
*Sha po apparently means "Sandhill."
at the foot of high hills of
50

I
TIBET.
noticed in this gorge

its
tiiat
the water does not rise in flood
than ten feet above
present low water level.
more The rocks com-
posing the hills on either side are of red sandstone and gneiss. Near the upper end of the gorge on the south side of the river,
are several coal mines, before the
mouths of which were
piles of
coke, burnt at the mouth of the mines and carried down the river on little rafts, similar to those we had seen earlier in the day. Leaving the river here, we traveled due west up a valley in which we passed but one small village, and then going over some hills, where the soft sand gave us much trouble (it took us four and a half hours to travel the last three miles), we reached ChangIt was liu-shui, where we found accommodations for the night. one o'clock before I ate my bowl of rice and mutton and laid down for the night, thoroughly worn out.
January
tion,
first
25.
We continued
loess
in
a slightly west-by-north direc-
up a
gorge,
then over red sandstone gravel
and finally over a brush-covered plain, till we came to a series of sand dunes running west-northwest. Over these we slowly plodded till we reached a miserable hamlet called I wan ch'uan, or " Myriad Springs," a grim joke of doubtful taste, as water has to be hauled here from four miles away, and the surrounding sand hills produce nothing but a little briish. The road improved a little for the next twelve miles to the west of this place, leading through deep cuts in the loess, but not a drop of water was there anywhere, and only occasionally a little brush relieved the awful barrenness of the land. We stopped for the night at another miserable post-station which had the appropriate name of Kan t'ang-tzQ, "the dry
station,"* for water
is brought here from a distance of ten miles, probably from the Yellow River. did not see a single cart to-day, though old cart tracks
We
were occasionally crossed. The road is not suitable for them, the sands are too heavy and fodder is too scarce it is, however,
;
an ideal camel road, nothing to eat but brush, nothing to drink and plenty of soft sand for the feet. passed a few small caravans of camels and mules going to Chung-wei, carrying water-
We
village repoussant et hideux au dela de toute expression Les habitants de Kao-Tan-Dze sent obliges d'aller chercher I'eau a une distance de soixante lis (six lieues). Hue, op. cit., II, 24.
* Hue's Kao-Tan-Dze "
TIBET.
51
In places red pipe tobacco {shui yen), beans, hides and wool. the ochre-colored kind, so that it looked sand has been blown over
as
were great streaks of blood on the ground. Fortunately for us we have had no wind of late, for in such a country the gentlest breeze would raise such clouds of dust and sand that it would make travel impossible. The road from Ning-hsia to Lan-chou on the other side of the river, though much longer than that we are following (it takes eighteen to twenty days, hear, to go over it), is from all accounts very much better, and is usually taken by travelers; I am not aware that any foreigner has ever traveled over it.
If
there
January 26. To-day has been one of comparative rest, we have only gone seventeen miles to Ying-pan shui (or fei, as the The route all the way led last syllable is locally pronounced).* along the southeast side of a range of hills between five hundred and eight hundred feet high, which cut our route a little beyond
Ying-pan shui. A little brackish stream flowing southeast passes by this hamlet. There are here the ruins of quite a fine temple and of other substantial buildings, but only two or three very poor inns are now standing, in one of which we found a very imperfect The Yellow River is about 70 // southeast shelter for the night. of here, and the roads to Liang-chou and Ping-fan Hsien branch off from that we are following a few miles beyond here to the
southwest.
To-day there was a strong wind

it
for a while,
and shortly before
struck us
saw
a red mist (or dust) rise along the base of the
the strong currents of air observable in the winter
Throughout these barren regions the winds or months in the middle of the day, follow very narrow and well-defined tracks; they are especially strong along the base of hills, where the air is most heated and radiation greatest.
hills
on our
right.
January
27.
We trudged up and down over endless
little hills
of sandstone formation, the offshoots of the
main range which
runs a few miles to our right in a south-southwest direction.
west was covered with such a maze could not determine their general direction, which appeared, however, to be southwest and northeast.
The
of
face of the country to our
hills
that
On
the Chinese dialect of Kan-su, see Dr.
J.
Edl<ins in
China Review, XVII,
174, et seq.
Ying pan
is
a Small walled camp.
52

There
is
TIBET.
a total absence of water hereabout;
in
summer
there
but the people is probably a little water to be found in hollows, It is strange to find such an arid one. say the country is a dry be belt of land so near a section of Kan-su, which is reported to Liang-chou, Kanwettest on the face of the globe. one of the
chou and the adjacent districts have, from all accounts, quite as heavy a rainfall as parts of southern Japan, and Liang-chou is only six days travel from Ying-pan shui. Some twelve or fourteen miles southwest of Ying-pan shui we came to Ch'ing ngai-tzu where the ruins of temples, ya-mens,
etc.,
bore
proof of the
little
former
existence of a large village.
Now
there are only three or four families living there, keeping
inns and pasturing
bunches of sheep.
The owner of one of
the inns told me that all the country was well tilled until during the Mohammedan rebellion, about thirty years ago, the villages were
destroyed and the people driven from their homes. Eleven miles beyond this place we crossed the Great Wall and The Great five miles further on came to the village of I-tiao shan.
Wall at this point runs across the valley from the base of the hills on one side to the same point on the other. It is of loess mud, twenty feet high, with detached truncated-cone shaped towers along its inner side every few hundred yards and distant about a hundred yards from the wall. I cannot conceive of what use they can have been, certainly not as signal towers, nor can they have added to the strength of the wall or its powers of resisting attacks. The head of a criminal in a little cage tied to the end of a pole greeted us as we entered I-tiao shan. This hamlet is quite a fine place for these parts, with a couple of shops and several large inns. It is the largest place we have seen since leaving Chung-wei.
January 28. At I-tiao shan cultivation of the soil begins again, and with it sand grouse which seem, like our quail, to be never found in large numbers away from cultivated fields, reappear. The fields are irrigated and at Suan-huo P'u, a village of some pretension a few miles south of I-tiao shan,* we crossed a large ditch with a clear stream flowing down it, the first running water we have seen since leaving the Yellow River. Another criminal's head exposed in a cage grinned at us as we passed here.
* This must be the fame
village
village as
Hue's San-Yen-Tsin, although he says that that

cit., 11, 29.)
was only a few paces inside the wall. (pp. road here and went directly to Ping-fan Hsien.
Hue
left
the high-

Our road
hills,
TIBET.
53
led through a complicated system of low sandstone about one hundred and fifty feet high, with a dip of about
little beyond them rises a higher The range to our left is apparently
twenty degrees southwest, and a

range of the same formation.
more thickly covered with loess than that on our right, but it is so low got but a poor idea of it. None of these hills are over
1
five
hundred
feet in height.
We stopped for tea at Ta-la P'u.

preparing for the
The people were everywhere
New
Year, pasting up
new
mottoes, baking
cakes (mo-mo) and bread (man-t'ou) in great quantities, killing pigs and rigging up swings. The custom of swinging at New Year is
observed over all northern China. In Korea also, this custom obtains during certain feasts, but a little later in the year.* stopped for the night at Chung ch'ang-tzii; this place is, I am told, 170 li from Ping-fan Hsien and seven days from Hsi-ning
We
by the
and
direct road,
and Lan chou
is
distant
from
it
270
It,
or three
days' journey
by the route
we
are following.
Between Ta-la P'u
this place there
has been a great deal of prospecting for coal.

hills, is
The
water, even here in the
terribly brackish, in fact since in
leaving Kalgan
places.
we
have only found sweet water
two
or three
January 2p. A few miles above Chung ch'ang-tzii we crossed low col and entered a valley which has been at one time well cultivated, but where now ruins, fallow fields and half filled irrigaa
tion ditches are
all
that
tell
of
its
former prosperity.
Below Sha-ho
side
;
ching, the
first village
we
passed through, the
valley broadens rapidly,
and farms and villages were visible on every along the road the latter follow each other with hardly any
the soil
gravel;
interruption.
is
The particular feature of this section is that composed of alternate and very thin layers of loess and
and so the farmers cover the light loess with a thin layer of stones this is especially the custom where the poppy is raised. It keeps the moisture in the soil and prevents the light soil being blown away.f Water here is only found at considerable depths, the wells, from which the whole supply is procured, are from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet deep, and the water is
* In Nipal swinging,
(. e.,
as well as kite flying,
beginning of October).
this
is popular during the Dassera feast H. A. Oldfield, Sketches from Nipal, II, 351.
t See also on
custom under date of February 3.
54
TIBET.
a tedious
very brackish.
operation,
as
Drawing water from these wells
is
small wicker buckets* are used and the rope has
up by a large number of men. Bands of horses and mules were seen here feeding in the stubble fields, and heard that mule raising was an important
to be dragged
I
business hereabout.
At
Liu-t'un-tzii
where we stopped
his
for the night, the inn
keeper
was so busy with
New
Year's preparations that he practically
ignored us and let us understand that he was obliging us by admitting us to his hovel. Fortunately for us he was poor and could not indulge in a profusion of pyrotechnics, so the night passed quietly and there was little wine-drinking and riotous
living.
January 30.
The
hills
grew
slightly higher as
feet.
we
advanced
south, attaining possibly four
hundred
The whole country
was
of loess, and as the valley
we
followed (which attains no-
where more than four hundred yards in width) was not exposed to the full violence of the north and northwest winds, the people do not have to cover their fields with stones. Water is evidently scarce, for noticed reservoirs dug in the soil in which the water from the hills is stored and drawn from when needed as from a well. At Shui-pei ho water is nearer the surface than at Liu-t'un-tzu; the wells were not over twenty to thirty feet deep. Shortly before reaching Shui-pei ho the characteristic vertical rifts in the loess were again seen.
I
forts.
remarked to-day on detached monticules, the ruins of little They reminded me of those Franfois Gamier saw in Yunnan similarly situated. Probably they were built at the time of the Mohammedan rebellion. have seen others like them near Lusar and Hsi-ning.
I
1
It is curious that while the Chinese attach great importance to having their houses face the true south, very few really do. The compass is far from being in common use among them, and hardly any can find the polar star, though most of them can point out Ursa Minor {Peisheng). \ have been asked hundreds of times if a house were straight (cheng) or not, and the owner's disgust has always been great when I have shown him by my
compass
that
it
was
not.
all
* Wicker buckets are used
over northern China for this purpose.
TIBET.
55
January 31. From Shui-pei ho to the Yellow River in front of Lan-chou, the road led through an uninterrupted succession of loess hills, the highest those nearest the river, rising about six
hundred
The greater part of the way was down a deep cut in the loess, which here rests on river gravel. We crossed the river, which is here about three hundred yards broad, on the ice (the bridge of boats is withdrawn in winter),
feet.
call it, on an "ice bridge" (^ping ch'iao).* Entering the city by one of the " water gates," we passed through a labyrinth of foul, muddy streets, then out by the southern gate
or as the Chinese
and
finally drew up in front of the house of my old friend, the Cur6 of Lan-chou, Monsieur de Meester with whom I had stayed when on my first journey to Tibet.f The reception from the good father was the cordial, whole souled one \ have always felt sure of receiving from a Catholic missionary in China, and the rest of the day was passed telling each other what we had done since
last
we
had met two years ago.

i.
February
size to
Part of the day has been

may be
all
passed rearranging
my
boxes, so that they
of about equal weight and of proper
bought
very
be packed on mule-back. 1 find the Japanese baskets I Made of bamboo and in Yokohama most convenient.
light, the tops fit over the bottoms so that the contents can be added to or decreased without danger of their being shaken up have had them lined they are admirable for rough traveling. 1 with water-proof cloth and covered with leather. As they are pliable they can be tied securely to a pack-saddle and can stand lots of rough handling.
* Father Grueber visited Lan-chou Fu towards 1662. Though the city is not mentioned by name, there can be no doubt that it was of it he spoke when he said that, after crossing the Karamuren by a fine bridge of boats they entered a very large " II y avoit (ifi) des fiUes de joye d'une grande beaute. Quoiqueles filles du city.
KhataT soient belles communement, neanmoins
fa ville
elles
sent la plus belles qu'ailleurs,
pour ce
sujet s'appelle la ville
de beaute."
Thevenot, Relation de divers
The word Lan may effectively have the meaning of 11, IV' Partie, p. 5. "beauty." Zo-te'^ means "a beautiful appearance." And the Persians who visited Lan-chou two hundred years earlier also wrote that it was remarkable for the beauty of its women, inasmuch that it was known as the City of Beauty (Husnabad).
voyages,
Embassy oj Shah Rukh,

Soc);
1,
in Yule's
Cathay and the
Way
Thither" (Hakluyt
CCIV.
t Land oJ the
Lamas,
p.
33
et seq.
56

Mons. de Meester says that the misery
in
TIBET.
Kan-su
is
on the
This is not solely attributable to the drought, but to the increase. use of opium and general absence of enterprise and energy. At Lan-chou this winter the public soup kitchens {chou chang) have
fed over six thousand people, while last year there
that
were not
half
many applicants for Opium cultivation and opium smoking

relief.
are increasing at a rapid
At Liang-chou, for example, they count eight lamps {yen rate.* t'eng) for every ten persons; here at Lan-chou it is nearly as bad. {pen-H It would be wrong to imagine that the native Kan-suites jen) are responsible for the increased consumption of opium, it is a
and overwhelming influx of Ssti-ch'uanese into do not think 1 am exaggerating when I say that they form a fifth of the whole population of Kan-su in the southern portions they are much more numerous than elsewhere, around Hui Hsien, and the warmer and more fertile districts They take the trade, wholesale and retail, and have especially.
result of the rapid
the province.
energy, the one essential thing the Kan-suites are lacking in. There are three or four Chan-t'ou (Turkestanis)t here selling
raisins, rugs, etc.,
and
also seven or eight
Koreans with ginseng.

In '89
These
there
latter
people
visit
the remotest corners of China.
was one at Ta'-chien-lu, where he kept an inn. The New Year's festivities are progressing as gayly as if the The noisiest feature past year had been a most prosperous one. is the beating oii!^^ yang ko ku, "the country song drum," a long cylindrical drum which is slung in front of the player by a
band passing over
with a short
bit of
his shoulder,
and on which he beats furiously

it).
knotted cable (or something resembling

but. smaller, are
Drums
of like shape,
usually carried
by the
wandering stilt-wearing singers one often sees in northern China. To-day processions are marching about the town, some beating gongs and others banging with might and main on yang ko ku.
* Du Halde says that the trade of Lan-chou consisted in his time in hides from by way of Hsi-ning and To-pa, and in woolen stuffs (jung) of which he names five varieties. Du Halde, op. cit., 1, 213.
f Grijimailo, in iVoc. Roy. Geog. Soc. XIll, 210 and 226 speaking of these Chan-t'ou says " The descendants of those Uighurs (of Pichan, Lukchin and Turfan), a people
Tartary which came
known by
name of Chen-tu, allied to the Sarts of western Turkestan * * " I think he is wrong in imagining that Chan-t'ou is the name of a nation or tribe, it have shown elsewhere, to all Turkestanis or even Kashmiris. applies, ^
the
1

I
TIBET.
57
ku* familiar to residents of Peking, is have seen none. The Kan-su people are literally wild on the subject of official hats; for the most futile reason they don the kuan mao, they and all their male progeny down to children of eight or ten years of age. This and the big-sleeved jacket or kua-tzu are indispensable here, if one would look respectable when making a call, or performing any duty to the living or to the dead. To-day every one, down to the poorest coolie who has not perhaps much more than
told that the fai-p'ing
here, but
1
am
also
known
a breach clout to cover his nakedness, sports an
official hat.
and anti-foreign placards and pamphlets have been scattered broadcast over Kan-su, brought here, it is rumored, by the nephew of the Governor General Yang (who is a Ho-nan man, by the way). Liu's now famous book Kuei chiao kai sha, " The devil's doctrine must be destroyed, " has been brought here by the cart load. The pictures in which Jesus " is represented as a " wild hog " ( Vek-cAu) or a " heavenly hog (i'ien chu) f were torn down from off the high street by quiet little Mons. de Meester and taken by him to the Tsung-tu who was obliged to take action in the matter, and so an anti-Christian riot in Lan-chou was averted.
anti-Christian
The famous Ho-nan
February
Mission
2.
whom
I called on Graham Browne of the China Inland had met here before in '89. He, his wife, children
and two lady
assistants are very comfortably installed in the city.
me with a Chinese bank to have a telegraphic transfer of some funds made from a Chinese bank in Shanghai to its branch office here. Such an operation has never been done, but that is no reason why it should not be now. He told me that on the Ta-t'ung ho not far from Ping-fan Hsien, at the ferry about 20 li from the mouth of the river (which is at Hsiang-t'ang), there was a Lo-lo Ch'eng inhabited by a people of peculiar language and having a chief ( Wang) of their own. This locality would be well worth a visit; it would be interesting to ascertain whether these Lo-lo are a northern branch of the SsQ-ch'uanese race of the same name.
He
very kindly offered to arrange for
*
species of tambourine, in shape like a large fan.
On
the handle are a
number
of iron rings.
light flexible rod

it is
is
used as a drum-stick and the rings are rattled at
the same time that
beaten.
t Poor puns on the word "Jesus" (K?A-j)and " Lord of heaven " {Tien-chu),
58

I
TIBET.
hear that Polhill-Turner of the China Inland Mission, whom 1 knew at Lusar in '89, when he was studying Tibetan in hope of
being able to preach the Word to the Tibetans, has gone to Sungpan T'ing with his wife, thinking that he might more readily gain It is the worst point he could access to Tibet from that point. the Golok country is between him and his goal, have chosen, as and unless he makes friends with the Sharba and travels with them, he cannot hope to get very far.* He had tried to strike out previously from Kuei-te, but that place has the same disadvantage as Sung-pan, Panakasum and Golok bar the road to the west.
saw to-day on the street a criminal wearing the heavy cangue and tattooedf on his left temple with the crime for which he was He belonged to the chun liu chien fan suffering punishment. class of convicts or exiles to 6,000 li from their homes. There is a religious sect (some say Mohammedan) in Kan-su, especially numerous near Liang-chou, and called Chushih. These
I
people are vegetarians, but of their doctrines I can learn nothing, nor have 1 met with any members of the sect. the population of LanI have been making inquiries concerning
chou and the

puts
it
results are rather bewildering.
Graham Browne
hundred thousand at the lowest, de Meester at eighty thousand, and some Chinese merchants (bankers and tobacco factory owners) at between fifty and sixty thousand.
at four
Februarys. Coming back from the Hsieh-t'ung-ch'ing Bank where I had gone to get my money, I met the Ying-ch'un or " welcoming spring " procession returning from outside the east gate of the city and on its way to the temple of the local god. A man disguised as a woman led the procession and another in a
similar disguise followed riding a donkey.
This
latter,
was told
impersonated the imperial princess

* Since writing
Lh'asa as
far as
tlie
who first introduced into China
passed through the Golok
above a Miss Taylor, a member of the China Inland iWission, has country, reached Jyakundo and pushed on towards
the Naach'uk'a country, where she was stopped and forced to return
to Ta-chien-lu.
t This punishment
is
a recognized one throughout China, but unless one visits one
of the remote provinces of the empire, to which such criminals are exiled, one would
never -see persons thus marked.
Tattooing
is
not practiced to any extent

1
among the
have seen a few men with dots picked on their arms and hands, but they had lived with foreigners or traveled abroad. To tattoo is called chen hua, " to draw with a needle, to prick a pattern."
Chinese as a means qf decorating the person.

the custom of binding
TIBET.
a lot of
59
women's
feet.
Tiien
came
men
disguised as foreigners and red bearded ruffians.
Men
beating the
yang-ko ku and gongs followed these, and finally came a cow drawn by some fifty men pulling on two long ropes. The cow
was
of wicker work, covered with clay of a reddish brown color, about six feet high and eight or ten feet long and a red gown covered the body. Altogether it was a poor show, but a very noisy one.* I have decided to leave for Hsi-ning on the fifth, and have hired
six mules for fifteen taels,
will
I
one a saddle mule

in the
for myself.
They
go
as far as Lusar
hear that small
(Kumbum). hazel nuts grow
chou.
They
are called
mo {mao ?)
chen-tzu.
mountains south of LanWild hops (ma-ku
yen) grow in the warmer southwestern part of the province near Hui Hsien. The Belgian missionaries at Liang-chou make good beer with them. The western wind which blows so violently down the Yellow River valley and is called here Huang feng, or "Yellow (river) wind, " is felt from Su-chou, Kan-chou, Liang-chou to Lan-chou, but not to the south of the latter place. It follows the Nan shan. have noted previously the peculiar custom of covering the 1
fields in
which the poppy
is
raised with pebbles.
now learn
is
that
these pebbles are changed every year, and that this
necessary
because "they lose their moisture." There is some small trade carried on between this place and
India,
vid
Ilchi,
Kashgar and Sa-chou.
reached this place, and
Graham Browne
told
Hindoo traders have me one can buy
Indian goods in the shops.

*In some of its
festival."
features this festivity reminds
one of the Nipalese Gaijatra or " cow

II,
See H. A. Oldfield, Sketches from Nipal,
299-303.
Carter Stent,
Chin. Engl. Vocabulary, 714, says "At the 'welcoming spring,' all the local magistrates, with their escorts, go in procession carrying a gaudily painted image of
a
cow
each
color
is
symbolical,
if
yellow predominates, the crops will be plentiful;

white, floods; black, sickness;
if
red, conflagrations will take place;
and blue, war.
This
is
followed by the god T'ai-sui; who,

if
bareheaded,
is
symbolical of heat;
with the cap on, cold;
he wears shoes,
much
rain; barefooted,
dry weather.
The
procession marches to the eastward to receive the spring and returns to the local god's
temple to worship, each
official
afterwards going to his
own
office.
At the
magistrate's office a dinner has been prepared called

this, after
Ch'un yen 'the
spring banquet,'
the magistrate has dined,
is
taken
by
the people.
Theatricals and merry-
making
also take place.''
6o
TIBET.
February 4. and the cow

the streets
seed.
To-day
I
is It ch'un, "the beginning of spring," saw yesterday triumphantly hauled through
was knocked
to pieces
and farmers began sowing
The famous woolen

General Tso,
is
factory built
by the former Governor

under a Shanghai
now
a school of telegraphy
Chinese called Wang. I hope it will cost the government less to turn out an operator than it did to make a blanket, but I doubt it.
The
telegraph line
was brought
into this city from Hsi-an
Fu
last
year and reaches
now
to Liang-chou,
Chia-yu kuan, I believe. It is merchants do not believe in it, or rather in the honesty and trustworthiness of the government operators they do not wish them to know too much about their business relations for fear of exactions, and rightly enough, I fancy.
;
Su-chou, and as far as only used by the government;
am
told that
is
all
the Prefects (^Chih-hsien) of Lan-chou (which
by the way
filling
oificially
known
as Kao-lan Hsien) desire, after
the office for a short time, to be relieved, for the expenses they have to incur here are very great and the perquisites very
The Governor General gets all the squeezes for himself have no doubt. This afternoon the muleteers tied the loads on the frames which
small.
fit
over the pack-saddles, so to-morrow morning
we
will
be able
to get off without delay.
February 5. left at eleven o'clock for Hsi-ning. outside the west gate of the city there is over the torrent
We
is
Just
which
comes down from the southern

cantilever kind.
Tibet, but this
hills a fine log bridge of the This type of bridge is everywhere met with in the first one of the kind one sees in this direction
when coming from

The Great Wall
eight miles
China.
bank of the Yellow River west of the city and follows the valley on this side till near Ho Chou. It is known here, as in Chih-li, as the Pien ch'eng,
crosses to the right
or "frontier wall."
I got on the way a good photograph of one of the water-wheels used to raise the water from the river to the irrigation ditches. The one represented in this photograph is about seventy-five
feet
in
diameter,
and
is
not the largest one by any means.

They look clumsy but are very in making them.*
TIBET.
6i
serviceable ; hardly any iron
is
used
warm reception I reached Hsin-ch'eng at 7.30 p. m., and got a from Father van Belle and a Friday's meal cold tea, dry bread and lard, used in place of butter. This is the usual style of living
among
Catholic missionaries.
Among
the Protestants, Crossette
and James Gilmour tried it and consequently both were looked upon as "cranks" by their brethren, the former especially who lived for years an ideal Christian life, having no cares for the morrow, providing himself with neither raiment nor food and
giving
all
to the poor.
Gold is found in the hills near Hsin-ch'eng; a couple of years ago a nugget was picked up by a peasant which he sold for 70 taels of silver. The consequence was that half the population got the gold fever in a malignant form for a twelve month; now, fortunately, they have recovered. Hsin-ch'eng is inhabited by between four and five hundred When the families, over one hundred of which are Christian. Belgian mission was established in Kan-su a number of Christian families were discovered living here, and in the neighborhood refugees from Shen-hsi they were, so a father was sent to live with them and weed all heresies and irregularities from out their midst. This was probably filling a long felt want, for these Christians had been ordaining priests without a bishop and these had in turn been
baptising, administering the sacraments, etc., etc., probably in a
highly irregular way.
February
6.
Crossing the
Yellow River on the
ice near the
mouth
of the Hsi ho (or Hsi-ning Ho),
we
reached
Ho
tsui-tzu,
from Hsin-ch'eng at 6 p. m. There seems to be a good deal more ground under cultivation than when first I visited
thirty miles
Most of the soil is given up to poppy culture, covered with gravel, as around Lan-chou. This mode of protecting the soil is also used when melons are grown, but not
this valley in '89.
and
is
for grain crops.

I
noticed to-day a great
many
small caves
its
dug
in the cliffs
on
the north side of the Hsi ho valley near

said that they
mouth.
The muleteers
were made
in the
troubled times of the
Mohammedan
it
* St. G. R. Littledale also photographed this water-wheel and reproduced paper in the Geographical Journal, 111, 467.
in his
62

They appear
TIBET.
rebellion to serve as refuges.
inaccessible, but
not have been so twenty-five years ago, or they reached by ropes from above, or they may not have been refuges at all and only have resulted from the crumbling of strata of gravel
may may have been
between the
loess
and the lower red sandstone.
In the inn at
Ho tsui-tzii were a number of mules carrying beans
from Hsi-ning to Han-chung in Shen-hsi. The trip occupies a month, two months in fact the muleteers say, but then they rest repeatedly and for days at a time on the way.
February 7.We reached to-day Hsiang-t'ang, twenty-five miles from Ho tsui-tzQ, at the mouth of the Ta-t'ung river. Quite a crowd of people came into the inn to see me and among them
was
He gave me a number of words in his native a Salar. language and was very communicative and intelligent, though
He said the Salar number many tens of without education. the eight thousands and that the term Salar pa kun means thousand Salar families " or "the eight Thousands of the Salar." His people came in past centuries, he knows not when, from
'
'
some
origin
place in the west.

is
Hsiang-t'ang
largely inhabited
who came
here from Bayan rong.
distinctly Tibetan features,
by people of mixed T'u-jen These people have in the young people. more noticeable
They have no longer any language of their own but use a Chinese patois in which a few Mongol, Tibetan and possibly Salar words Most of them understand Salar and a little are to be found. Tibetan. There are some seventy Mohammedan families living
here and the place took sides with the rebels in the late rebellion.
Potanin says somewhere that Li K'o-yung was buried here.* I can hear nothing concerning him, nor are there any ruins of any great antiquity, certainly none of the eighth century in which
he
lived.
fancy however, that Potanin must have had
some
good
authority for his statement.
February 8. To-day we reached Kao miao-tzu (28.5 miles) and put up in an inn outside the west gate. I was struck while going through the " great gorges " ( Ta-hsia) with the correctness
of Hue's remarks about the danger of traveling through them.f
* Proc. Roy. Geo. Sac, IX, 234. Li-ko-yung was a famous commander in the He died in A. D. 908. See W. F. Mayers, Chinese the T'ang dynasty. Reader's Manual, 117. {Sub voce Li K'eh-yung.)
latter part of
t Hue, op.
cit., II, 53.
TIBET.
63
His memory served him badly however, for he speaks of the danger of the " little gorges," [Hsiao hsia) which are nearer Hsining, whereas he should have said the great gorges. The Ta-hsia
are really very dangerous, in
many
places along
some
ten miles of
between two hundred and three hundred feet above the river which roars over rocks at the bottom of the cliffs in the side of which the path is cut. Land and rock slides are of continual occurrence, and the rocky path is so slippery that one has to be very careful in traveling along it.
road, the bridle path
is
Kao
miao-tzti
is
quite a large walled village with a
number of
one of
shops and
the latter
inns, but, as every
where
in this country, not
is
even passably clean.
We
put up in a
inn outside the west gate.
were
the
is
loafing,
I
among them
a red
Around the yard a gowned, long haired Bonbo lama,
Mohammedan number of men
first
have seen
in these parts.
priest),
One
of the servants in the inn
an
in
and the Koran, had a match with him
Ahon (Mohammedan
my
boy,
who
is
well
up
in reciting verses of the

first
sacred book, each of the contestants giving in turn the
phrase
of a certain passage and asking the other to finish

nunciation of Arabic
a
little
here and there.
living in this place,
so bad that There are about twenty Mohammedans and probably one hundred and fifty families
I
was not
Their procould not understand

it.
belonging to the ta chiao.
February
p.
The
red, argillaceous
sandstone characteristic of
little
the Hsi ho basin as far west as the "
gorges " (^Hsiao
hsia'),
and which first crops up west of Hsin-ch'eng at the mouth of the Ping-fan ho valley, though possibly not identical in composition
with the red sandstone of western SsQ-ch'uan, appears to me to belong to the same formation. The gravel and d6bris in the Hsi ho valley rise one hundred to two hundred feet above the river
bed.
conditions west of Lan-chou are perceptibly from those farther east, cloudy days are in this season of frequent occurrence, and the weather throughout the year is milder (so said Father van Belle at Hsin-ch'eng). The evenings, ever since passing Hsin-ch'eng have been cloudy. I noticed these same peculiarities three years ago when first passed along
climatic
different
I
The
this route.
We stopped for the night at Chang-ch'i-ts'ai (twenty eight miles from Kao miao-tzu). Speaking to some muleteers here, I heard
64
TIBET.
and Mongols,
that in the San-ch'uan* there live Chinese, T'u-jen
the
heard from another source that these Mongols speak good Mongol, except when they count, when they have recourse to Chinese numerals.
two
latter races
predominating.
February
lo.
reached Hsi-ning Fu at 2 130
P.
M., after a
very
wind which kept us wrapped way in dense clouds of dust. A few miles before most of the reaching the Hsiao hsia ("little gorges") we passed by the temple of the White Horse (Pai ma ssu) and the village of the fancy the temple same name. Both are inhabited by T'u-jen. it is built in a sandstone rock which is is not long for this world nearly completely detached from the main ledge and seems to be
disagreeable ride in a strong east
I
;
toppling over.
At Hsi-ning f was warmly welcomed by my old acquaintances and took up my lodgings at the same inn where I had passed many days in '89. Every one complained of business being bad.
1
Though
the crops hereabout are invariably good, lack of capital
cripples the
most
enterprising, so that tradespeople can barely
make both ends meet. The bovine pest, which has carried off two years over two-thirds of the cattle of Chinese, Mongols and Tibetans, is still raging. Wool alone has more than
in the last
doubled in price since '89 (it is now selling for 6 taels a picul of 200 catties).! I cannot see where the profit comes in at this high rate, for it costs about 7 taels a picul to deliver it at Tientsin where I bought a pretty pony for it sells for not more than 10 taels. 18 taels from Ch'i-hsiang, the same man who abandoned, me in '89
*The
San-ch'uan
is
a district
some twenty milessouth of this point and of peculiar
interest to ethnologists.
f-Ysbrandt Ides (1692),
speaking of
Hsi-ning says that "great numbers of

in
Merchants come to the vast trading city oi Zunning,
the
Kingdom
of Xiensi:
and the Door of Commerce being for some time opened here, and liberty granted to them as well as Muscovites and Tartars to trade here, they have with their Wares and Trade, introduced the Mahometan Religion, which, as Weeds grow apace, is spread over all China, to that degree that there appears more of that accursed Seed
than of the true Doctrine of Jesus Christ."
E. Ysbrandt
Ides,
p.
126.
Further on he says that the people
The Three Years Land Travels of of Cambay
(Gujarat), Bengal
"and
other subordinate countries" are those
who
chiefly resort
Ibid., p.
to Zunning, bringing there diamonds, jewels, elephants' teeth,
wax,
etc.
196.
X
On
this curious
Chinese habit of counting
two pounds
as one, 10 taels as 7j^,
etc., see also
under
December 21,
i8gi,
and April z8,
i8gz.
Pai
ma Ssu, "White Horse Temple,"
in
Hsi-ning ho Valley.

at
TIBET.
65
Tankar to return home and get married.* Now he wants to go with me to the end of the world if I see fit. Marriage in his case has probably proved a failure. There must be some Scotch blood in the Hsi-ningites, for find they are very fond of oatmeal and of cracked wheat. The first is called yen-mei ch'en and is eaten boiled with the water in which mutton has been cooked, or with neat's-foot oil {yang-fiyu).
The cracked wheat

way, and
is
{mei-ts& fan)
is
eaten prepared in the
same
a very good dish.f
February 11. 1 rode to Lusar on my newly-purchased pony, most agreeable change from the headstrong and iron-mouthed mule 1 had ridden all the way from Lan-chou Fu. Ch'i-hsiang accompanied me, and we joined outside of the gate a party of Hsi-fan lamas from a lamasery near Serkok, who were on their
a
way
to
Kumbum
for the feast of lanterns to
be held the day
after
to-morrow (15th of first moon). The road was crowded with people all on the same errand, Hsi-fan, Mongols, Chinese and chiefly
T'u-jen.
1
listened to the latter talk.

all
Their language
is,
as
thought, a mixture of
the languages spoken in these parts.
Why this
though
explain,
hybrid people should have retained to the present day,
China proper, its tribal organization is difficult to and speaks well for Chinese administrative methods which can admit of such a thing with no fear of trouble and perfect
living in
is
obedience to their laws. At Lusar (which name, by the way,

nese)
1
written Lu-sha-erh in Chi-
received a very hearty welcome, for nearly every one in the
village
knew me and
hardly one failed to greet
me
as
passed
with a Ta-jen lai-liao ("His Excellency has come!"). This time 1 have taken lodgings in an inn in the lower part of the
*See
t
lake
all
Land of the Lamas,
117.
In winter fish are very cheap
sell in
the latter place for a parcel of vermicelli (worth 30 cash).

the Mongols
on the Hsi-ningand Tankar markets, two large ones They are caught in
holes in the ice for that purpose.
I
Koko nor by
who make
They
are
of one variety, yellow-skinned and
scaleless,
believe.
They
are called
chinyu
and dried, in which shape they are worth and are known as kan pan-pan. Prjevalsky says of the fish of the Koko nor lake " The only kind offish that we saw was the Schizopygopsis nov. sp., which we captured ourselves; we heard that though thei-e were many other species, owing to the badness of the nets they were rarely caught." Mongolia,
"goldfish."
These
fish are also sold split
the
same
price as fresh
II,
141.
66

as
TIBET.
village,
my
here for the
on
my
first
former quarters are occupied by traders come however, much more comfortable than I am, visit. have a large room of three chien* divided I
fair.
and dining compartments. Besides this I have on the other side of the court-yard a kitchen, with stabling for eighteen ponies, and rooms for my people on the second story, for which am to pay |2 a month. Presents from old acquaintances pour in, the inn keeper brought me a sheep and one of my former followers, Ssu-shih-wu, some butter, cakes, chuoma,\ etc., etc. He declared his intention of accompanying me on this journey, as did also yesterday at Hsining Miao san, the man whom had to leave behind me in '89 at Jyakundo and who was, with Liu san, so roughly treated by the Derge lamas. J The willingness of these men to go with me has relieved me of the anxiety and uncertainty in which I had to live for six weeks on my first journey while trying to engage men to travel with me. To my delight I found a party of Salar muleteers stopping in the inn, and we were soon on friendly terms, especially after 1 had read them the few Salar words I had taken down at Hsiang-t'ang. Three of these men had thin oval faces, fine eyes and beautifully regular teeth. They were dressed in Chinese garb, but had nothing else Chinese about them. They all spoke fluently Chinese, Mongol and Tibetan. This knowledge they said is indispensable, as nearly the whole male population is occupied driving mules from Salar pa kun to Lusar or Labrang gomba and the neighboring country, either carrying freight or pilgrims (chiefly Mongols) of
into sleeping, reception
1 I
whom
large
numbers
visit
yearly the
scattered through the mountains.
numerous lamaist sanctuaries They told me that it took four
days from here to reach the Salar settlements on the Yellow River, and two days from there to the great lamasery of Labrang. The word kun in pa-kun is, so they said, the Chinese fsun, "a
village."
I
* A chien
about ten
is
the space between
feet.
The
size of a
two consecutive pillars and rafters, and is usually room is counted in chien, a room of thirty feet is
called a "three chien
room."
The
root of the Potentilla anserina, used throughout northwestern Mongolia
and Tibet as a vegetable.

t See
I
Land of the Lamas,

I
223 and 297.
In another place
heard that the word
chien
hu "thousand
families,
kun is the equivalent of the Chinese a Thousand," and had the same meaning. See under
date of
February 2zd.
TIBET.
67
February 12. To-day I made a few purchases, mostly of the A number of people odds and ends required in camp life. dropped in to see me and to find out what I had come here for this time. Towards noon went over to Kumbum to see the fair, and try to pick up some curios. I found there quite a number of Lh'asa Tibetans (they call them Gopa here) selling pulo,* beads of various colors, saffron, medicines, peacock feathers, incense sticks, etc., etc. Among the medicines I saw pods of the Colocanthes indica (Blume) called in Tibetan tsampaka and in Chinese hsiteh
little
I
lien
("snow snow flakes.

I
lotus "), probably because the seeds look like great
whom I had met here and jolly. One of them had a swastika {yung-drung)\ tattooed on his hand, and I learnt from this man that this was not an uncommon mode of ornamentation in his country. He said that one often sees at Lh'asa devotees (Âtsara from India) with the three mystic syllables Om, A, Ham, tattooed on their persons the first on the crown of the head, the second on the forehead, the third on the sternum. He was very much surprised, however, when I showed him an image of Sachya t'uba tattooed years ago in Japan on my arm. He would not believe it was tattooed, but insisted it was rang chyung ("self produced," "come of itself"); I left him in this pleasant belief. K'amba were also quite numerous to-day, but on the whole the attendance was much smaller than in '89 on the same
had a
talk
with these traders, several of
before in '89.
They were very
friendly
occasion.
In the afternoon,
while writing
in
my
room,
who
rushed in but
my
faithful friend
on my first Chen-hai P'u of my arrival, and had not lost a minute in coming to greet me. He said that if I wanted him, he would go with me anywhere said, and that, at all events, he would only go home after I had finished the trip I proposed making to the Salar country.
I
Yeh Chi-cheng (Yeh Hsien-sheng) my headman journey. The good fellow had received news at
* Woven
in
pieces usually thirty feet long
and about nine
inclies broad.
The
China
best kinds of this cloth

purple, striped
come from
Ulterior Tibet.
The most popular

it.
colors are red,
and white with red and blue crosses stamped on
It is
used
in
to cover saddles with or trim seats of carts.
Pulo
is
the Chinese transcription of the

cit.,
1.
Tibetan
name
of this cloth, p'ruk.

cross.
It is
See
Du
Halde, op.
53.
t A hooked
a sacred symbol both
among the Buddhists and
the Bonbo.
68

I
TIBET.
for
Of course
told
him
the whole of
my
wanted him, not only for that trip but journey he is too good a man to let slip.
I
;
Ssu-shih-wu later in the day brought me a fine Tibetan mastiff which I bought for a peck of tsamba and some tea. He had also a live lynx ijhih-lt) which a Hsi-fan had caught in the mountains.
It
was
so fierce that
refused to take
it
as a present.
evening the managers of the Hsiao-sheng huei* came and invited me to the performance to be held on the square this were escorted to evening and on the two nights following. our seats by the managers carrying lanterns, and found sweets,
In the
We
water-melon seeds and samshu provided for us. The performance consisted of stilt-walking and masquerading, firing off of crackers, etc., etc., the usual tame and slip-shod performance seen all over
northern China, but which here, as elsewhere, seems to afford the
audience great pleasure.
At a table near us were the likin office officials, and we vied with each other in liberality to the performers, each time they presented them with a string of cash we gave them two, and so it went on for over an hour, till the play has cost both parties some fifteen to twenty tiao, much to the delight of the managers and the disgust of the likin people who had not anticipated any one
trying to outdo
them
in generosity. ist
February
at
13.
(15th of
their red
moon)
Half of to-day was passed

I
Kumbum
of hair
sauntering through the
fair.
was
surprised to see
by their huge from their being dirtier and that throughout this I heard than the ordinary run of people. Amdo country they have numerous small lamaseries and that their
quite a large
number of B6nbo
lamas, recognizable
also
mops
gowns, and
belief
is
very popular
'
among
'
the T'u-fan.
There appears to hang a certain mystery about the famous tsandan karpo, the white sandal wood tree " f sprung from Tsong-k'apa's hair. I now learn that the great and only original
* The lads
at this
in
every
town and
village of
time of the year.

theatrical
Hsiao sheng huei
China give these theatrical perfonnances may be freely translated by " young
men's amateur
company."
fin my Land of the Lamas, p. 67, following Lieut. Kreitner's suggestion, I remarked that this tree was probably the Philadelphus coronarius. I have now learnt from Mr. W. B. Hemsley that the tree is the Syringa villosa, Vahl. Sarat Chandra
Das,
at
Narr. Journey to Lhasa in i88i-'82, p. 91, makes mention of a juniper bush Tashilhunpo sprung from the hair of Gedundrub the founder of that lamasery.

one, on the leaves of
TIBET.
69
which images of the saint appear, is kept hidden away in the sanctum sanctorum of the Chin-wa ssQ ("golden tiled temple"), remote from the eyes of the vulgar herd. So it would seem that I have never seen it, though I have been shown four or five other white sandalwoods " in and around
' '
the lamasery.
etc.,
learn,
moreover, that the images on the leaves.bark,
only appear to those
who
have firm
belief,
and that the
faith-
This, if true, less can distinguish nothing extraordinary on them. is rough on Hue, who thought he detected the devil's hand in the miraculously produced images he perceived on the leaves of
this tree.
Some of the Gopa (Lh'asa traders) have their wives here with They were out to-day dressed in all their finery and them. looked remarkably well. Strapping big women they were, with ruddy cheeks and frank open faces, in green satin gowns, aprons
raw silk (puri), silver charm boxes {gawo) on their breasts, and crowns of coral beads and turquoises on the top of their long loosely hanging black locks. In the Gold tiled temple in the northeast corner near the door is an impress in a chunk of sandstone of a human foot about eighteen inches long and two inches deep and said to be that of Tsongof variegated pulo, shirts of
k'apa.
is
It is
placed in a vertical position.

;
On the top
of the stone
copper cash and then examine the footprint to ascertain their luck. If it is good, then bright spots will appear on the surface of the stone in the footmark. In the evening I again went to Kumbum, this time to " lang
a
little
wax on
this the people place a
i'eng," as
it
is
called here, anglici, to see the lanterns
and the
butter bas-reliefs.
The
In
latter
were very good

largest
little
better perhaps than

in
those
saw
in '89.
one of the
ones the central portion
of the design
was
a temple, and
figures of lamas
men about
eight to ten inches high
were moving
and layand out
of its portals.* Another new feature was musicians concealed behind curtains hanging around the bas-reliefs, who discoursed sweet (?) music on flutes, cymbals and hautboys. Four of the largest designs were in the style of the one just described, the others represented images of various gods inside of highly
*
dt.,
When Hue saw

II,
this festival there
were
similar butter manikins.
See Hue, op.
102.
70

;
TIBET.
ornamented borders
feet high.
in these the
main figures were about four
gone.
fete is over and most of the visitors have soon be ready to leave, for I have already bought at least half of my outfit, including four stout ponies, for 70 taels. Saddles (of the Hsi-fantype) are being got ready for them, leather bags for tsamba, flour, rice, etc., have also been bought and
February
I
14.
The
also will
filled,
and
if
the
money
a
am
expecting from Lan-chou arrives,

after receiving
it.
can start for Tibet three or four days

benefit
The inn-keeper and a Kuan-wu,
number
of other persons got
up
for
my
a fencing, wrestling,
single-stick,
double
The sword, spear performance, which was really very good. single stick and quarter-staff exercises were capital, and an old fellow of nearly sixty (an ex pao-piao-ti or " insurance-against brigand's-attack-agent ") went through some marvelously agile single stick and savate exercises, but his son was the hero of the
entertainment.
Things have nearly doubled

This
flour
is
in price since
my
first visit here.
attributed to the smallness of the crops, but hats, boots,
and cotton piece goods have increased proportionately as much as and rice. We have not had a perfectly cloudless day since leaving Lanchou in the mornings and early evenings there are always light Afternoon clouds covering the sky, which disappear later on. winds are also de rigueur. In these narrow valleys they appear cyclonic in their movement, but I have no doubt they are westerly to northwesterly, and are deflected to the northeast on striking the mountains a few miles to the south of here.* The population of Lusar is estimated at five hundred families (say two thousand souls), of which more than half is Mohammedan. There is a slight tendence to increase, but it is only due to the influx of Shen-hsi and Ssu-chu'an people, who here, as elsewhere, are ousting the native Kan-su people from most
;
branches of trade.
* Hail storms are very common here in the spring and summer. The Kaflfir Chinese (non-Mohammedan ones) make little manikins, put a bow in their hands and place them in the position of shooting an arrow. These figures they put in the
sixth
moon
(July to August) on the summits of the various beacon towers (/) on

hail.
the hilltops, where they are said to ward off the
TIBET.
71
All the people here insist that there is no difference in race or language between the T'u-jen and T'u-ssu, but the Chinese are not observant about these matters and 1 doubt the correctness of this statement, though I am fain to admit that physically all these people (T'u-jen and T'u-ssii) greatly resemble each other.
had to go through the ordeal of a It Chinese dinner given me by some merchants and traders. not absolutely lost I got an lasted three hours but the time was indigestion and a few details concerning the trade of these parts. The musk trade here is increasing, Cantonese and Ssu-ch'uanese traders now come here to buy it, paying for good musk four times The best test of its its weight in silver {ssu huan, as they say). The Tibetans adulterate it purity is an examination of the color. by mixing tsamba and blood with it. The best time to buy it is from the seventh to the ninth moon (latter part of August to
February
15.
To-day
middle of November).* A trail leads from Hsi-ning to Kan-chou vid, the Kokonor steppe The {ts'ao-ti) in ten days it is frequently followed by traders. Lo-lo town, of which I heard at Lan-chou from the China
;
Inland Mission people,
is,
from Hsiang-t'ang and

families in
it.
is
these traders told me to-day, 70 It very small, there being hardly a hundred
The
inhabitants are said to be T'u-jen.
six
have to-day finished buying ponies, securing stock, for which paid an average have now got to purchase pack-mules price of twenty dollars. and to complete my stock of provisions, and all this will do as soon as receive letters and the money 1 am expecting daily from Lan-chou. In the meanwhile I have decided to go on a little trip
February 16.
more strong ones of Tibetan

1
to the Salar country

tribes of
and to see Kuei-t6 and the adjacent Tibetan

This will occupy about a fortnight, and on
will surely
call
it
Rongwa.
my
return here the
money
have arrived.
latsi.
* Mongols call musk owo ; Tibetans "white musk" tsahan owo in Mongol,
whether white
refers to the color of the
The
or
best
musk they
1
say
is
in
Tibetan latsi karpo.

itself
musk
do not know to that of the hair on the
skin covering the
musk pouch.
TIBET.
73
PART
Salar pa-kun.
Kuei-te.
II.
Koko-nor.
Ts'aidam.
morning with three men and a packwhich I have packed in a padded box divided into compartments. In this I can put my sextant, artificial horizon, bull's eye lantern, boiling point apparatus and thermometers. The box serves me moreover for a table. Well wrapped in a sheet of felt made double over the corners, it can My camera, bedding, stand a good deal of very rough handling. a pot and a kettle complete the load. The road on leaving Lusar led nearly east-southeast over the The loess even on the loess-covered foothills of the Nan-shan. higher foothills, seems to have been washed down there, as In many places we rolled stones are everywhere found in it.
February
ly.
I
left this
horse carrying
my
instruments,
saw
and
I
holes
dug down through the

little
loess to auriferous gravel beds,
in the valley
noticed a
bottoms the gold bearing gravel is also worked. white quartz in the loess and also in the gravel
beds of most of the streams. We passed through a number of little villages of T'u-jen, several of probably a hundred families each. A considerable number of the houses are cave-dwellings, or partly of that order, with a front in
in the
the ordinary adobe-brick style built against the

In
mouth of the
cave.
western Kan-su these T'u-jen alone use cave-dwellings (^yao t'ung). Such dwellings are found among all these people, and also, I have heard said, among the Tibetan tribes living west of
Sung-pan T'ing.
tribes did not teach the Chinese to
The question suggests itself whether these make such dwellings, and
furthermore whether these people, these T'u-jen, are not of the same stock as the now extinct Man-tzii cave makers of western The only cave makers I know of in northwestern Ssu-ch'uan.
74
TIBET.
China in the olden days were the Tobas who were not of Chinese, but probably of Tibetan, (or T'u-jen) stock. The question is an interesting one, but it will require much more investigation before we can pronounce upon it. The T'u-jen women have adopted the Chinese fashion of binding the feet, but only to the extent of deforming them in width, not This is the more fortunate for them as they lead hard in length. They lives, doing all the hoiisehold and most of the field work. are an ugly lot, short, thick set and very broad-faced, not to be compared physically with the Fan-tzii of this same region. reached Sha-erh-wan (a strangely Turkish or Persian name,
We
by the way)
families, the
The village has in it several hundred me, and all are Mohammedans. At the inn where we stopped we were shortly followed by a party of Baron Sunit Mongols on a trip to Labrang gomba. They were in charge of some Salars who had hired to them mules
at 3 p.
M.
people
tell
for the trip (seven days) for 1.8 taels a head.

In the
evening
held a reception in
my room,
and the conversa-
tion turned mostly
on Islam.
learnt that the late
Mohammedan
where we will arrive the day after to-morrow, and that the people were incited to it by their priests or Ahons. Fortunately for the government dissensions soon broke out among the Mohammedans who came to blows over the question of smoking tobacco, one Ahon from Ho-chou conrebellion broke out at Bayon-rong,
tending that
sion
it
was permitted them,
the others denying this lax
At Tankar the dissenbecame so violent that the Hsieh-t'ai* conceived a plan of He had the males of both ridding the town of the whole lot. factions invited to meet him in the mosque, and as soon as they had assembled they were called out one by one under some futile pretext and their heads cut off, and so thirty-five hundred troublesome Huei-huei were got rid of in a day, and Tankar, with a remaining population of a few hundred, knew peace once more. Since the suppression of the rebellion the Ahons have not been idle. Some have come from Mecca, some from Medina, some from Turkestan, and they have by their preaching incited the Kansu Mohammedans to rebellion by urging them to follow customs contrary to the recognized usages and habits of China. Thus,
interpretation of the
words of the Prophet.
* The Colonel
in
command of
that frontier post.

they tried to induce
tlie
TIBET.
75
young men
to let their beards

feet,
not to compress their female children's
grow, parents and even encouraged
them not to wear queues. In Hsi-ning when the Chen-t'ai* heard that some Mohammedans under forty were wearing beards, he had them called to his Ya-men and gave them their choice, prison or shaving off their beards, and off went the half dozen long hairs which probably adorned their manly faces. As to not compressing girls' feet, the Ahons have been a little more successful some of the native priests have in the case of
;
their daughters let nature follow
its course, but nine-tenths of the Huei-huei are as fond of seeing small feeted women as other Chinese are.
Until about ten
years ago no
Mohammedan was
stamped on
allowed to
enter the city of Hgi-ning (none, of course, could then as

reside there) without having an official seal
now
his wrist at
the city gate, and for the first few years after the rebellion the stamp was put on the face, near the corner of the mouth. It began snowing about 4 p. M. (the first heavy snow I have seen since December 14th last), and when 1 went to bed (8.30)
the
snow was
still
falling fast.
February 18. The snow fell during the night to a depth of between two and three inches. When we left this morning the sun was shining brightly and the glare was terrible. Fortunately
we
snow made
provided ourselves with horse-hair eyeshades. The the narrow trail running along the very steep mountain side extremely slippery. This trail is usually only followed in winter when free from snow in summer it is impassable. It led first over loess-covered hills, then over disinteall
;
had
grated red sandstone and finally over the porphyritic masses of the main range (Nan shan) by two passes, the first one called Niu-hsin
yahu or "ox-heart pass," from a huge mass of bare rock beside it which may possibly have some likeness to an ox's heart. The main pass is the Ch'ing-t'u yahu or "black clay pass," a most
appropriate
name
as the soil
on the eastern slope of the pass
is
of a coal black color.
From
the Niu-hsin yahu
we
the valleys, ravines and anfractuosities

Brigadier General.
designation.
looked back towards Lusar, and all we had crossed coming

Tsung-ping, Chen-t'ai
is
His correct
title is
his colloquial
76

;
TIBET.
here were invisible

line of hills
the whole country seemed a gently sloping
The valleys and ravines running north and south. we had painfully climbed up or slid down into, seemed but as It was a beautiful wrinkles on the broad expanse of reddish earth. example of loess formation, the subaerial and the marine deposits
side by side. The loess is being continually redistributed in China by the action of water and the subaerial deposits do not cover,
1
fancy, a fifth of the loess-covered country of northern China.
eastern China (plain of eastern Chih-li and Shan-tung), I imagine that most of the loess is not a subaerial deposit, while in Shan-hsi the greater part of it is. On the south side of the range we reached, after a short but very steep descent, the village of Ts'a-pa, a place of several hundred families with a walled camp, a mosque, a lieutenant (Ch'ien-tsung) and a small garrison. Half the population is Mohammedan, hence the necessity for the garrison.
In
February rp. In the hills around Ts'a-pa are numerous T'u-jen and T'u-fan (Rongwa)* villages, the latter people, of mixed Tibetan descent, have retained some of their ancestral customs,
but in their
Ts'a-pa
T'ing, and
mode
is
is
of living, they are purely Chinese.
Wai-kunf administered from Bayan-rong some importance as being on the route followed by salt smugglers on their way to and from Han-chung in Shenhsi. These salt traders buy at Lusar, salt brought there by the
a Salar
of
Panaka or Mongols,
to the Chinese
who pay no import authorities, and who can
duties {likin or shut)
consequently undersell
the
government monopolists. The Chinese traders take this salt by this mountain route to Han-chung and thus evade all internal revenue taxes, as there are no likin stations on this road. On leaving Ts'a-pa our road led east by south up a well cultivated valley and then over a low col into the broad (for these parts) Bayan-rong valley, down which flows a small stream fed from springs in the Nan Shan. The southern slope of this range
* The terms T'u-jen and T'u-ssQ apply to non-Chinese peoples of mixed Mongol,
Tibetan, Turki and Chinese descent, while T'u-fan, Fan-tzQ, Hsi-fan apply only to
tribes of
Tibetan blood, occasionally with a slight admixture of Chinese.
t Besides the Eight
Kun
by
into
which the Salar
district is divided, there are five outer
Wai) Kun (
See
p. 77.
inhabited
a few Salar and a mixed population of Chinese and T'u-ssCi.

shows,
in the little valleys at its base, loess
TIBET.
77
mixed with
;
disinte-
grated red sandstone and gravel of gneiss and dolerite (?) a little higher up appear beds of red sandstone, above this and falling
over it, like beds of drifted sand, is the true loess, and finally rising through the latter the black, jagged peaks of the main range. About
six miles before reaching Bayan-rong
we
passed the ruins of quite
a considerable village destroyed three

hill-side falling do
months ago by
a loess
wn
on
it.
Such events
are of frequent occurrence
in a loess country.
Bayan-rong is a small village with a walled enclosure of the dimensions prescribed for a sub-prefecture or T'ing,* on a bluff above the Bayan-rong ho. The western suburbs contain all the
inns and most of the shops, and the space within the walls
half
is
shops must be very badly supplied, for we could buy nothing in them that we wanted, neither bread, millet, coal-bricks {mei chuan), nor meat. The name of this place is apparently a hybrid one (such names are innumerable in this country), Bayan is Mongol for "rich" and rong Tibetan for " arable valley. " The crops hereabout must
empty.
All the
be abundant,
mills
is justified.
if one may judge from the number of small grist one sees along the river, and so the name given this valley
The Hsieh-t'ai (colonel) who governs this sub-prefecture has Wai-kun or "outside" Kun under him. They are Ts'a-pa, Nang-ssu-to, Hei-ch'eng, Kan-tu and Kargan. The word Kun (of
five
questionable origin) designates a

cally, a
commune
containing, theoreti-
thousand
larger
families,
but some of them (as Ka-tzu kun) have
habitations. The term Wai-wu Kun used to distinguish them from the "eight Kun" inhabited by the Salars. These Wai-wu Kun are not exclusively inhabited by Salars, but have many T'u-jen, Chinese, T'u-fan, etc., living in them. Each Wai-Kun has, theoretically,
much
number of
or " five outside
Kun "
is
fifteen villages in
it.
February
20.
The road on leaving Bayan-rong

till
led in a south-
east direction for about five miles,
by an easy ascent
we reached
the top of the La-cha shan (a Chinese transcription of the Tibetan word Ra-jo -"fork"). From there we looked down on an
endless
maze
of
rounded
all
hilltops of loess,
cities
and higher and more

by
regulations.
*The
dimensions of
Chinese
and towns
are fixed
78
TIBET.
Our road led along the crest anguler ones of red sandstone. of the mountains for awhile, then by a precipitous zigzag down the side of sheer precipices hundreds of feet in depth, to the base of the mountain at the hamlet of La-mo shan-ken (another hybrid
name, la-mo or md and shan ken both meaning "foot of the pass," first being the Tibetan, the latter Ihe Chinese expression). most of the This village has only some twenty houses in it found the inhabitants are Kargan Fan-tzu and Mohammedans. had stopped for lunch so clean and quiet, and the inn where we cooking so good that, though we had only traveled eighteen miles, determined to stop here for the night. The Bayan-rong rivulet flows by here, and empties into the Yellow River some eleven miles to the south, near the Wai-Kun of Kan-tu. We will follow this brook to-morrow. All the people here as well as at Ts'a-pa and Bayan-rong thought was here to buy wool. They heard a year or" so ago that foreigners at T'ien-tsin Wei and Shanghai were wild to get their wool, and so they think I have come here for the sole purpose of securing this year's clip. To say one is a wool-buyer is now a
the
;
sure
way
of securing a friendly reception anywhere in this region.
When
they
the fldneurs about "the inn in the evening
observations with
my sextant
saw me taking (" looking at the stars," kuan hsing,

1
call it), they were persuaded it was to see how the wool market would be by the time got the supply I was now buying
down
It is
to Tien-tsin.
about 45
li (fifteen
miles) from here to Hsiin-hua T'ing on

the
in-
the Yellow River.
The Tibetans (here and elsewhere around

place Ya-dza k'uar, and the Yellow River
is
Kokonor)
call this
by them Ch'u-k'a " The river." When the Tibetans living north of the Yellow River speak of it they say Ma {c'Au) harka or hari "the Ma ch'u there;" when those living south of the river refer to it, they say Ma {ch'u) isurka or "the Ma ch'u here."
variably called
February 21.
the narrow valley
After about miles over a stony road down which must be converted into a broad torrent
six
a large
in the rainy season,
which possesses
valley,
by numerous little villages, nearly each one of mosque, we came out in the Yellow River about a mile or two to the east of Kan-tu.* Turning
Shaw,
*R.
B.
On
the Hill Canton ofSalar,

titles
injoum. Roy. As. Soc,

of the
n. ser.
chiefs
X, p. 308, gives Khantus and Mahtus as the who rule Salar under the Hsi-ning Amban.
two
native
Musulman
JOURNkY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND

eastward,
TIBET.
79
we
crossed the river on the ice a few miles
down
just
it
opposite the large Salar village of Ka-tzti kun) and followed
down
The
"
for
about four miles

is
till
we came
to
I-ma-mu chuang
or the " village of the

village
" {hsiao, here
Imam,"* belonging
to the Chang-chia kun.
"big" {to) and the pronounced ka) I-ma-mu chuang. I stopped in the latter one. Here, after some difficulty, we found accommodations in the house of one of the muleteers we had met at Sha-erh wan, and who had advised us to come to his home where he assured us we would be kindly received by his mother. It was fortunate we were able to get lodgings here, for as there are no inns in these Salar villages, if we had been refused admittance at this first village, it is doubtful if we would have been admitted
divided into
two
portions, the
little
in the next, as
fear
we
looked
like rather suspicious characters.
On
cliffs
either side of the
Yellow River valley and

it,
at
the base of the

a
mountains which border

sandstone,
there
are
hereabout
number of
of horizontally stratified loess, gravel and disintegrated red
some
feet
three hundred to four hundred feet thick; these

river.
probably marked the former banks of the
The
river,
about
two hundred
top of which
flows at a considerably lower level between rather high steep banks composed of red sand, on wide,
now
about twelve feet of sandstone and granitic gravel, bed of loess stretching over to the foothills or the cliffs above mentioned. The Salar men are of short, light build with regular features and oval faces, frequently with not a trace of the Chinese about them, and were it not for the queues they all wear, one would never dream of associating them with that people. The women, though they have a distinctly foreign look about them, have more of the Chinese in their features, especially the eyes which have drawn
is
and
finally a
lids like
the Chinese.
Their head-dress
is
peculiar;
it
;
resembles
the Salar
somewhat
wear
it
the tiara so often seen in Assyrian bas-reliefs
black, and, in that following the Chinese fashion, of white
when
first
in
mourning;
feet.
women and girls wear it alike.

is
It is
probably
put on
when puberty
reached.
The
Salar
compress their
any animal
kills
is
The jacket and
trousers they
do not wear are of blue

when
Ramazan everyone
women
* The Imams among the western Kan-su moslems receive as

butchered, the saddle, or the brisket.
to celebrate the event
their perquisite,
When
after
some animal
by a feast, some
killing
an ox, others a camel
or a sheep, the hides belong to the
Imam.
8o
'TIBET.
cotton and wadded, and are of the ordinary Chinese pattern, but The men's dress is the sleeves of the jackets are red or black. excepted, which is rather of the purely Chinese, the hat, perhaps
pointed Kokonor Tibetan pattern but with a wider rim, faced with lamb's skin. The Ahons* wear a white turban and most of them
have clean shaven heads, but when abroad they put on a false queue, so as not to get in trouble with the Chinese authorities. All of them go about with a rosary of ninety-nine beads in their hands, and attend the mosque three times a day where they sit on antelope skm rugs or else on woven rugs brought from llchi
(Ho-tien).
These Salar bury

all
their
dead with
their
heads to the north
(as
do
Chinese Mohammedans), the body is washed and wrapped in a The graves they cover with black sheet, but no coffm is used. and white pebbles arranged in patterns, and a stone is placed at
the foot of the
Several
mound which is about two feet high. Ahons passed part of the evening with me and were very communicative. They told me they had no written traditions concerning their people, that it had come down to them that the first Salar who came to China, arrived in this valley in the third year of Hung-wu of the Ming (A. D. 1370). They came from Samarkand, driven thence by internal discords, and were only two in number, leading an ox laden with all their worldly goods. They They settled where the large village of Ka-tzu kun now stands. were soon followed by others, and the villages became more and more numerous, so that now there are more than a hundred
live
Salar villages (divided into eight
which
Kun, as previously stated) in between eight thousand and nine thousand families, t
is
* The word Ahon

t " They (?. Turkey. The
e.,
the Turkish
Akhund,
in
common
use throughout Turkestan.
the Salaris) have a tradition that their ancestors came from

is
Rum
or
story
as follows.
Their spiritual guide or religious teacher, some
seven hundred years ago, sent them forth on a pilgrimage, giving them a sample of
earth with instructions to
wander
until they should reach
some country whose
soil
should weigh the same, measure for measure, as the sample which they bore with
them.
to
From land
to land they roamed, weighing the earth from place to place,
till
they came, by
way
of Tibet, to S&l&r mSs (Lower Salar).
Here the earth was found
nearer in weight to their sample than it had been anywhere else. Still it somewhat. They were preparing to march further when it was discovered that some of their camels, laden with religious books, had strayed. In search of them they penetrated into the hill country which lay at the side of their road. Here their
differed
come
task received
its
accomplishment.
They weighed
the
soil
and found
it
exactly
TIBET.
8l
All the men are taught to read and write Arabic (and some say the Turkish forms of these letters are also occasionally used) which they use in writing their own language, which is Turkish with a
slight
admixture of Chinese, Tibetan and Mongol

I
and possibly
(u hua.
obtained here a considerable vocabulary; I have, of course, transcribed the words phonetically and where the sounds approximate Chinese, I have followed Sir Thomas Wade's system
of transcription.*
at least so
I
They have no written books save the Koran, have been told wherever I have inquired, at Lusar, Sha-erh-wan and elsewhere.
February 22. The head Ahon of the Salar is at present HanPao (it is pronounced Hambo, but I presume it represents HanPao) Ahon, he is a Hsi-ning man, and has a residence in the Ta
I-ma-mu chuang.
also a
All
men among
;
the Chinese
Mohammedans,
Salar as well as others, have a Chinese
name
of the usual type, and
house
world he is Ma Ch'eng-hsi.f The eight KunJ constituting the Salar pa-kun are Ka-tzu, Changis
Mohammedan one called Osman but
thus the son of the

for the
woman
of this
balanced an equal measure of that which had been given them by their spiritual
teacher.
Here, therefore, they rested from their travel,
and finding the
hills
inhabited
they formed a settlement, to which they gave the

Salar,
<^t-t
though to what language the

1
affix
belongs
name of Sdl&r-gh, or Upper do not know." R. B. Shaw, op.

original
have a vague recollection that this tradition is not Salars, and 1 think that I have heard of it among the Mongols. * See this Salar vocabulary in the appendix.
3S-
with the
t Col. Yule in speaking of the Mohammedans in Burmah says " Every indigenous Mussulman has two names. * * * As a son of Islam, he is probably Abdul Kureem but as a native of Burma, and for all practical purposes he is Moung-yo or Shwepo." Narr. of the Mission to the Court of Ava in 1855, p. 152. tShaw, op. cit., 309, says that the Salars number " about forty thousand, and they live in villages consisting of scattered farmhouses, each on its own land. Groups
by local chiefs called Itndk,' who two governors above mentioned." He further adds that the Salars know themselves as Muntin, or the Faithful, an Arabic word. Salar is, however, found as the name of one of the great Turkoman tribes now under
of four or five villages each are administered
'
'
again are subordinate to the

'
'
'
'
'
Russian rule and residing around old Sarakhs, and numbering about five thousand
families.
Karawan.
The three nations of the Salars are named Yalawach, They have an evil reputation even among Turkomans, and
Lieut. A. C. Yate,
Githara,
are said to
and be
generally hated.
Travels with the
Afghan Boundary Com-
mission, 301. M. P. M. Lessar calls them Salyrs, estimates them at five thousand seven hundred kebitkas (in 1882), and says they are the weakest of the Turkoman
tribes.
Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., V, 11.

et seq.
See also
W. W.
Rockhill,
The Land of
the
Lamas, 39
82

N6men,
is
TIBET.
chia,
Ka-tzu kun
Ch'ing-shui, Munta, Tsuchi, Antasu and Ch'a-chia. the oldest and largest it is said to have over thirteen
;
hundred
families living in
it.
We left Ka I-ma-mu chuang by the same road we had come by. While getting up the steep river bank my instruments came very near being ruined by the pack saddle turning and the horse carrying it thrown into a deep rift in the loess fortunately he fell on his back and as the whole load was, in his struggles, shifted around to his belly, nothing was materially damaged, but we had a hard time getting the load and the pony out of the hole. It was necessary in passing at Kan-tu to ask the officer commanding the post (a Ch'ien-tsung) to supply a guide to take us over the mountains and find us a resting place in whatever Kargan village we might have to put up in. This he at once did and we pushed on without any loss of time. By an easy ascent we reached the top of a short valley, the Radzu-p'o, near which is a large Kargan hamlet, one of the thirty-eight inhabited by this tribe of Tibetans, and then, following the crest of the hills we finally descended to the village of Rdo lung ("Stony Valley") and got good accommodations in the house of the chief, who has, by the way, the Chinese rank of Po-chang or " Head of Hundred." The Kargan have for the most part been converted to Islamism by the Salar, though a small portion of the tribe has remained
;
Buddhist.
dress with a
The Kargan women have adopted, in a measure, the Salar They wear a long gown little more color about it,
is
the back of the head, with a
done up in a knot at bound around it the hair through the middle, and a big silver needle and showing is stuck diagonally through the hair on the crown of the head. The men wear the pointed Tibetan cap, short woollen jackets with red collars, and a kind of Tibetan boot with red, blue and white
of dark blue, broad trousers and their hair
crown
of red cloth
cotton tops.
Their language is a mixture of Tibetan and Chinese. Thus they say ta lu ri, "This is the highroad;" chi-gi ri, "How many
are there ? " etc.
,
etc.
The men among

boring
villages,
the Kargan and other Fan-tzii tribes of this
region occupy themselves
making or repelling attacks on neighkeeping watch over their homes and property, and so have been obliged unquestionably to their great regret.

to
TIBET.
83
abandon
In
all
women.
It
the work, both at home and in the fields, to the doing so they have also copied the example of their
to get
religious teachers, the Salars.

is difficult
any idea of the number of these
Moham-
medan
Tibetans, for Chinese
Mohammedans
the Huei-huei, and only call
them among Fan-tzu those among them who

include
have not come into the fold of Islam. The Kargan have but a very few sheep. They are tillers of the soil (rongwa), and raise wheat, barley, peas and a few vegetables.
Their houses are of the half Tibetan half Chinese style usual in
this country,
and they (the Mohammedan part of the
tribe) are
certainly
more advanced in civilization than most of their compatriots of the same race who have adhered to the old faith. We got some excellent bread from the Po-ch'ang. Breadmaking is a blessing the Kargan owe to the Mohammedans, for
Tibetans are not bread-eaters, or rather bread-makers,
miserable cake they eat
is
as the
The Kargan and

of making
it
all
not worthy of the name. Rongwa eat tsamba, but usually dry instead
It is
into dough.
served heaped up in a bowl with

it.
some
little
brass spoons stuck in
The proper way
to eat
it is
and throw it into the mouth without letting the spoon touch the lips, and afterwards to take a draught of tea to
to take a spoonful
wash
the dry flour
down.
It is
doubtless a cleaner
I
way of eating
I
tsamba than the one usually followed, but dirtier method, it is more palatable.
must say
prefer the
February
23.
Last
night
was
the coldest
we
have had since
leaving Lusar, the therrnometer this morning at seven o'clock
marked
village
t6.2 F.
After passing over the
hills
to the
west of the
I
we
re-entered the Yellow River Valley; for awhile our
way
loess
led along the
see that at
crest of some hills from whence could some comparatively recent geological period the must have filled the valley, raising it some five or six
feet
hundred
still
above
its
present
level.
Diluvian rains
loess, created
(such as
occur in summer) perforated the
subterranean
streams into which the superincumbent loess finally dropped and was then carried to lower levels; the adjacent loess at
the
same time subsiding without

and
covering
the
losing
its
characteristic strati-
fication
itself
on them.
These
new
lower rock formations, moulding loess beds were in turn perforated in
84
TIBET.
the
same manner, and so on till the present level was reached. This process is continually going on I have remarked it at every The presence of erratic blocks of gneiss and stage of its progress. granite at twelve or fifteen hundred feet above the river bed are puzzling, if loess is a subaerial deposit, and such blocks are of
;
frequent occurrence in this part of the Yellow River Valley.
We
around
villages.
passed through a number of Hsi-fan (Buddhist Kargan) The men of two of these were posted on the hills
their
houses and
in
every coigne of vantage, armed with
long matchlocks, swords and spears. They were at war with each other over a question of pasturage ; a man or two of one or the other party had been killed each day for the past week.
To-day the party whose score was lowest was expected

the other to square the reckoning.
to attack
Just before crossing the Yellow River to reach Fei-tzu-ch'uan,*
where we proposed spending the night, we passed through the ruins of what must have been a prefectural city {Hsieri). The walls, all that now remains of this place, which is called K'ang
Ch'eng, are divided
in their greatest length at
about a third from

bluflf
the southern side by a transversal wall.
This Ch'eng occupies a

said to have been built
commanding
in the
position of great natural strength, the river
in front, a steep
gorge to the west.

in the
It is
T'ang period, sometime
seventh or eighth century
probably.
We crossed the river in front of Fei-tzQ ch'uan

stream
is
on the
ice.
The
here about
fifty
yards wide and has a swift current.
This point marks approximately the boundary between the Bayanrong and the Kuei-te sub-prefectures {T'ing). A direct trail leads
from Fei-tzu ch'uan over the mountains viA Ts'a-pa to Hsi-ning in two days. In coming this way from Ts'a-pa over this route one must follow the Ts'a-pa stream down to its mouth, instead of going eastward up the valley we followed on leaving that place. In the house where we have put up lives a most intelligent Ahon, he has been to Mecca by way of Russia and the Suez Canal, he told me, but he did not describe his route clearly
enough
for
me
to identify
many
go
to
places along
pilgrims from these parts
it. He said most Mecca by way of Shanghai or
* Fei-tzii-ch'uan is the Kan-su pronunciation of Shui-ti ch'uan in Pekinese, meaning " water and earth stream " or " valley."
TIBET.
85
Canton, and the route through Tibet and India does not appear to
be ever taken by them. Chinese Hadji wear green,

Hie told
On
returning to their country, these
blaclt or
white turbans.
me
that in the forty-sixth year of Ch'ien-lung (A. D.
shih,
Ahon called Ma Ming-ching of the village of Su-afomented a rebellion which was quickly quelled by the Chinese troops. Ma is said to have disappeared, but this, if I remember rightly, does not agree with the account of his end as contained in Wei Yuan's Sheng wu-chi* The Chinese patois spoken here is nearly unintelligible to us. It contains such expressions as kinder, "this one," kunder," that one," she li ka la, " come in," etc., etc.
1781) a Salar
February
24..
About
two
miles
west of
Fei-tzii
ch'uan
we
passed through Kao-chia chuang, a good sized village, where are

stationed a lieutenant
and
fifty soldiers.
This village
all
is
the last
Chinese one
hamlets
we
will see until
we
through are Kao-chia chuang the valley is thickly studded with them, t The largest village we saw to-day was that of Li chia. The males of this place were in arms and stationed on every hillock round about. They had killed yesterday two men of a neighborwill pass
six miles beyond
we
numerous T'u-fan or Rongwa ones, and for

reach Kuei-te,
the
ing village, with which they have a long-standing feud, and were
expecting to be attacked to-day by the dead men's clansmen. After passing this village we entered the Li chia gorges (Asia),
about a mile and a half long, formed by a ridge of schist and coarse red granite, which here cuts the valley from north to south. The trail is at this point very bad and extremely narrow, in some
wide enough to admit of a loaded horse pushing with that it is several hundred feet above the river which tumbles along over huge boulders at the base of the rocks; when snow is on the ground it must be a very disagreeable path to travel
places barely
along
it;
over.
beyond the gorge we turned to the south, up a lateral mouth marked by coarse red sandstone bluffs and boulders of weird shapes resembling those of the Garden of the
little
valley,
its
* Cf.
Land of
the
Lamas,
40,
and Sheng
wu shi,
VII, p.
35
et.
seq.
f Kao-chia chuang means "the village of the Kao clan," Li chia chuang, "the Tibetans, with the exception of these tribes, have no village of the Li clan."
family or clan names.
86
TIBET.
Gods at Manitou (Colorado). This valley is thickly wooded with shrubs in the lower part, and with pines, spruce and birch trees
was surprised to find many of the in the upper portions.* I shrubs and birch trees budding though it is true that these little valleys, all trending north and south, are admirably protected from followed it up for several miles the prevailing westerly winds.
;
We
and then, passing by a low

reached the
little
col into
an adjacent one to the west,
Rongwa
I
village of Ssu-k6 (or Se-ke).
We
experienced
as the inmates feared that they
some difficulty in gaining admittance to a house was one of the Hsi-ning T'ung-shih.f and
to supply
would consequently be squeezed and have

Finally
me
with ula.
bill in
we
got into one, by offering to pay
my
board
advance, and in a few minutes I was on the best of terms with the woman who owned it. The people here are all Bonbo and there are several lamas of that sect living in adjacent houses. J In one end of the house (it is of logs and is not divided oflF into rooms one end is a stable, the other a dwelling) was a big Tibetan stove that heats, by means of flues, a Chinese sleeping k'ang placed .behind it. I noticed a little altar in a corner with a wooden bowl on it filled with grain, wool and yak hair, first fruit offerings probably, and beside it lay a damaru \ and a couple of grimy volumes of Bonbo sacred literature. One of these I examined it was a funeral service and was in the usual BSnbo jargon, threefourths Buddhistic in its nomenclature and phraseology. The altar and books belonged to a lama who came in later on to have a talk. He asked for some rice to offer on the altar, in exchange for which he gave me some butter and ma-hua-erh, wheat cakes made in long strips plaited together, and cooked crisp in hemp oil; a favorite dish all over China, Mongolia and Tibet. Over the stove hung a small prayer-wheel which turned in the heated air as it ascended toward the big smoke hole in the roof.
;
* On the
flora of this section of country, see Pijevalsky,
Reise
am
See
oberen
Lauf
des Gelben Flusses, 216
et seq.
t Interpreter attached to the Ya-mSn of the Hsi-ning Amban.
Land of the
Lamas, 52
powers
I
et passim.
t Prjevalsky, op.
sup.
cii., 198,
makes mention of these "Shamans," and of their
as medicine
men.
Small hand drum used by both Buddhist and Bonbo lamas. Its title was Zab-ch'os dji k'rod gngos-pa rang-grol-las sngon turgro-vai ch'os spyod bag-ch'ags rang grol. The colophan read Rdo-rje kro-po lod-kyis mat sgrib spung-du par-du bsgrubs.
TIBET.
87
There were also on the bank of the brook which tumbled down hill beside the hamlet, wheels (or rather barrels) turning by water; and similar ones are to be seen in or near all these Rongwa villages. They occupy little log hutches, and turn by a horizontal overshot water-wheel, the axis of the wheel and the prayer barrel being the same. In front of each house is an incense burner where spines of juniper (jhukd) are burnt morning and evening in honor of the tutelary and household gods. These Rongwa show considerable ingenuity in carrying water to their little fields along the hillsides; they use troughs dug out of long logs or poles supported where necessary on high props, to carry the water on to the fields and also from one side of the
the
.
valley to the other.*
to the best singers, or rather to those
had singing, and I awarded prizes who sang the longest. The singing was very poor, the best performer was one of my men he improvised his songs as he went along, but none of them had anything in the world to commed them, not the smallest poetic idea or even originality, but every one was delighted with the
finish
To
up the evening
we
performance.
I
should not omit mentioning that a few miles after leaving Fei-
tzu ch'uan
we
passed in front of a large lamasery perched on the
summit of a very steep hill, some eight hundred feet high, towering above the left bank of the Yellow River. It was the Sachung (or Shachung) gomba of the orthodox Gelupa sect and has some
fifteen
hundred lamas.
sect in
It
Amdo,
the
first
has a small
gilt-tiled
It ranks third among the lamaseries of this being Kumbum and the second Labrang.f roof temple {cAin wa ssu), but though its
*R. B. Shaw, op. cit., p. 311, speaks on the authority of some Salars whom he met at Yarkand, of the following tribes living near the Salar, " the Daza, Si-fan or Ch'uan Rung, Khun-mo, Kopa and Turun." The first are the Mongols, Ta-tzu or
Si-fan
Meng-ku, Ta-tzii being the usual name given that people by the Chinese. Of the I need say nothing here, having discussed the term in other works. The
is
term Chuan Rung

ing, as
either
an opprobrious one given them by the Chinese and meanor else

it is
Shaw states, " Dog Rongwa,"

Tibetan, both meaning a
a hybrid term,
fit
Rang in
fertile
valley
for agriculture.
Ch'uan in Chinese and The Khun-mo are
in all likelihood the
K'amba, the Kopa are the central Tibetan people called in Amdo Gopa, and the Turun are the aboriginal tribes called by the Chinese T'u-jen. " the residence of an ecclesiastif Labrang (written in Tibetan bla-brang) means cal dignitary," the French term " palais episcopal " corresponds exactly to it. The
real
name of
this
famous lamasery
is,
believe, Trashi-chyil (Bkra-shis k'yil).
88
TIBET.
possession
it
is
is a source of pride to the inmates of the Gomba, not to be spoken of in the same breath with the great
prototype of such edifices at
Kumbum.
and on the north side of the river, is a Bonbo lamasery with some two hundred inmates; The most famous Bonbo lamasery it has a printing establishment. have been told, a day's ride south of Sungin this border-land is, I pan T'ing in northwest Ssu-ch'uan. It is called Jarang gomba and has some two hundred aka^ in it. The Kuei-t^ Rongwa carry on a considerable business with Lusar, Kuei-te and Hsi-ning in birch wood ladles, yokes, wheel
Some 30
or 40
li
west of
this lamasery,
tires, pestles, etc.
They themselves use
birch bark to
make
little
sewing it with woollen thread or else with These utensils are very roughly made. The strips of bark. birch tree is called hua shu in Chinese, and in the Tibetan of these parts, to-hua.\ The pine tree they call sumba (Chinese sung), and the poplar maha (in Chinese liuyang').
buckets and
ladles,
February 26. I got some good photographs of the villagers morning. I find the best way to get them to stand for their photographs is to tell them that the Kodak is a toy, a kind of telescope, in which one sees the object in the finder instead of having I have only to ask one of them to hold the apparatus to the eye. to come and see for himself, and telling the person whom I want to photograph to stand still so that his friend may see him, while This simple method the first looks in the finder I push the button.
this
never
fails.
One
of the inhabitants
logs.
showed me how he hollowed out mortars
from birch
He
placed a short section (about six inches in
diameter) of the trunk between his

iron sharpened
two
term
the
feet
feet, and with a bit of hoop on one edge and fixed in the end of a handle about long, he, little by little, scooped the wood out of the
is
* The term aka

is
used
in
Tibetan as a general term for
all
lamas.
This
latter
only used to designate the ordained

salute each other are
monks
is
or gelong.
Prjevalsky says that
"Tangutans"
by saying
"Aka
the
dSmo."
This
is
not quite
Kokonor Tibetan equivalent of the Central Tibetan Ku-su (sku g-zugs) meaning " body," " is your person well," just as the Chinese say "shen shang hao."
correct; the
words used
aku dimo, aku
in
XXlll.
See plate f In the Bat'ang country birch bark utensils are also in common use. At Lit'ang the birch tree is called drapo, but jaeschke gives ta-pa {stag-pa),
which we probably have the
correct form of to-hua.

center
are
TIBET.
89
till he had hollowed out a mortar. The ladles, yokes, etc., made with adzes and axes of Chinese manufacture. From SsQ-ke the trail (it is in reality the highroad between Hsun-
hua T'ing and Kuei-te) led over a col into a deep gorge, and then through birch woods to the top of the Ts'a-ma shan from where
we
this
could see Kuei-te,
pass to the valley
some fifteen miles away. was about four and
The descent from

a half miles long,
extremely rugged and precipitous, and

passable.
I should say that in wet weather or when snow covers the ground it would be im-
around Kuei-te the river debris is at least a hundred and consists of angular stones brought down from.the adjacent mountains, and rolled pebbles. The valley is, about the town, between two and three miles wide, and, wherever possible,
In the valley feet deep,
under cultivation, irrigation being, of course, used. Numerous Fan-tzii hamlets of eight or ten houses with a few knarled poplars and fruit trees growing around them, are passed before one reaches
the
little
town
I
itself
The
fields are
now
being irrigated, and the

is
road
is
turned into an irrigation ditch.
Kuei-te*
found smaller than Bayan-rong; inside the wall
the
Ya-men and
the garrison's quarters, in the faubourg to the east and
south of the ch'eng are a couple of hundred families of Ta-chiao
Chinese and one family of Mohammedans (La chia) of about forty members, which is a Hsieh-chia family (or brokers for Tibetans
who
resort to this place).
to live here since the rebellion,
Mohammedans have not been allowed when they killed the official com-
manding here and had
to flee.
We found lodgings in
a fine inn in the suburbs, but experienced
was no bread to be bought, as the people here only eat man-t'ou or "steamed bread," no rice, no millet, tsamba or even mien. have fortunately been
great difficulty in getting any food, there
We
faring well
all
along the road wherever

;
we
have stopped, for none
of
my men
can cook
but here no one will cook for us and so
we
thousand
tribe.
* Prjevalsky, op. sup. cit., 215, reckons the population of Kuei-te at about seven souls, one half Chinese the other Kara Tangutans of the Dunzsu {sic)
1880.
in
less
The women, he adds, were much more numerous than the men. This was The present population is, all the adjacent villages included, certainly than this. As to his Dunzsu am unable to explain this term, though it would
I
seem to be a Chinese one.

Prjevalsky does.
It
is,
think,
misleading to
call
Kuei-te an oasis as
90
JOURNEY THROtlGH MONGOLIA AND
TIBET.
tea
had to go to bed feeling rather grumpy, and after having supped on and bits of biscuit found in the bottom of my saddle-bags.
February
little
2-/.
The
principal trade of Kuei-tS
is in
lamb
skins; a
brought here, and wool is becoming an important staple of trade, but the Tibetans have suddenly got such wild ideas of the great price foreigners are willing to pay for it, that they are holding it back and refusing to sell any for three or four times the price they would gladly have accepted three
is
musk
also
years ago.
Pears, peaches, apples, jujubes, watermelons,* are
grown
here,
as
is
also a
little
cotton, but of a poor quality. are the principal
hemp, broad beans and peas

potatoes
sell
Wheat, millet, crops, and good

Cabbages, onions
I
for six or
seven cash a pound.
and a few other vegetables are

this,
also plentiful, at least
hear
all
but
regret to say that with the exception of a

1
few potatoes
and a couple of hard pears

of the truth of
have had no corroborative evidence Every thing else is very dear, more than the short distance from here to the place of production and purchase (Hsi-ning) would seem to justify.
my
informant's statements.
A
for
little
dried rhubarb root goes from here to Hsi-ning and
thence eastward.
There are several thousand pounds of it ready shipment in the inn in which we are stopping. Travel to Lan-chou and all points east of here is usually done by way of Lusar and Hsi-ning, as the trail down the Huang ho valley is too
bad.
hundred steps from my door in a little cage tied to the end is the head of a T'u-fan of this place, who three years ago tried to stir up a rebellion. His bleached and grimacing skull tells of the fate which overtook him and his plans of ambition and
of a pole,
reform.
Kuei-te T'ing
is officially
designated as a
the
Fan chun minfu, "a

There
military sub-prefecture for keeping the savages in order. "

are twenty-four lamaseries in
sub-prefecture, with several
thousand lamas and ever so many incarnate saints {kuo Fo). The Chinese spoken here is of the same description as that noted at Fei-tzQ ch'uan, though it differs considerably from it wonderfully
1
so,
considering that the
two
places are hardly thirty miles apart.
* Cf. Prjevalsky, ofi. sup. cit, 215 et seq. He says that not only watermelons but melons grow here, also apricots and a small variety of cherry.
TIBET.
Thus, they say here kushli, "that;" kuerh, "this;" ku-ak-shli, "who is this?" ma-la, "early morning," etc., etc.
West of Kuei-t6 on the Yellow River, distant a two days' ride, is Gomi Wahon called on our maps Balekun Gomi and inhabited
by
tent-living Tibetans (Hsi-fan).

vid,
There
is
a trail leading directly
from Kuei-te to Tankar,

"little")
Gomi
or
Gomi
Sharakuto and passing by Ka (or t'ang five miles north of the Yellow
River.*
while, and
lamas came to-day and sat in the inn-yard for a got a couple of shots at them with my kodak. They are very numerous around here and are very popular with the agricultural Tibetans, but not so much so with the pastoral tribes, who nearly all belong to the Gelupa sect of the orthodox
I
Two B6nbo
Buddhist Church.
Very
present,
little
snow
or rain
falls,
am
told,
at JCuei-te,
but at
though the soil is clear of snow (in fact the buds on the trees are beginning to swell), it is thick on the mountain sides all around. It is a fearfully windy place and the people all insisted,
when asked
1
the direction of the prevailing winds, that
it
prevailed
from every quarter.
met and asked him to come and take tea with me at the inn. He was a wizzened up old fellow of His name about fifty-five, with a very bright and cunning eye. is Lu-bum ku,t and he is the great chief of the Panaka south of the Yellow River, and a friend of my old acquaintance Nyam-ts'o Pur-dung, of whom he reminded me strongly in his manners. He offered to take me through his country and to make my stay there agreeable, and was sorry I had to decline his offer, as have always found these Panaka chiefs reliable when once they had given their word. In the evening to wind up a well employed day, I got together in my lodgings, all the muleteers in the inn, gave them a feed and lots to drink and got two Tibetan women from the hills to sing and dance for us. The singing was of the usual miserable style, and the dancing, or posturing and shuffling about, as poor as
In the afternoon
to-day while on a walk through the town,
a big Tibetan chief
on the
street,
* Ka gomi
is
Prjevalsky's Clia gomi.
He
says that Kuei-tS
is
69 Kilometers from
Balekun gomi.
See Prjevalsky, op. sup.
cit.,
pp. 214, 215.
flVleaning, probably, "
Body often thousand Nagas."
92

The women got very drunk and
In their
TIBET.
had to turn one woman
the singing.
them out
after awhile.
song, in which
first
sang a verse (which she improvised), and then the other, they spoi<e of mountains, living Buddhas, horses, saddles, temples, a hotchpot of everything they hold beautiful, with feeble attempts The dancing consisted chiefly in swingat descriptions of each. ing the arms and body slowly about, one dancer walking around None but the the other, a poor attempt at a darkey shuffle. Kuei-t6 Tibetans have this dance, which they have borrowed from the Chinese of this town.
February
28.
We
left
this
morning
for
home
(. e.
Lusar), after
being delayed some time getting an order {piao) for the ferry boat to take us across the Yellow River.* This boat is supposed to take every one across free of charge and whenever called upon, but the boatmen squeeze travelers terribly and delay taking them across until well paid for so doing. The piao got us taken across at
once, and
I
was
pleased to be able to carry a lot of poor pilgrims
and
travelers at the
We followed down
brush
(^sha-liu),
same time over with me. the left bank of the river, through willow
until nearly opposite the
shan, which
Ts'a-ma and then turning up a valley leading to the La-chih yahu or La-je la in the Nanshan, ascended as far as the village of Kajang (Szechenyi's Kaschan) where we stopped for the night. The road all the way from the Yellow River to Kajang was in a loess-covered valley, showing a good deal of clay and red conThe bottom of the valley was filled in places, and glomerate. a depth of several hundred feet, with angular bits of stone, to granite, gneiss, etc., brought down probably from the summits of the main range to the north by the summer rains, after being
sand and gravel,
we had crossed on the twenty-sixth,
detached by the action of the cold. passed quite a number of Fan-tzQ villages near which 1 noticed obos,-\ in the tops of which were stuck amidst the brush-
We
makes out the Huang ho at Kuei-te to be 108 same passage as the altitude of the town above sea level 7,183 feet. Elsewhere he makes it out to be 7,500 feet. My observations place the town at 7,634 feet above the sea. t Obos or stone piles erected on the top of passes or near temples or sacred strucThey are also known in Tibetan as lab-ts'e. Obo is the Mongol name for tures. hem. It is probably the Tibetan word do, meaning " a pile of stones."
cit.,
* Prjevalsky, op. sup.

feet)
215,
meters (354
broad.
He
gives in the

wood always put
there,
TIBET.
93
huge wooden arrows, some of them twenty feet long. On the brushwood were hanging thousands of little tufts of wool, taken probably by shepherds from their sheep as they passed the sacred spot,* and little pieces of cotton on which charms are printed (JLung-ta) hanging from long strings running from the obo to some adjacent tree or rock. I could not learn whether these oho with these peculiar arrows were built by Bonbo or Buddhists. Many prayer-wheels turned by water, and receptacles for tsa-tsa\ {tsa-tsa k'ang-ba) made of logs and looking like diminutive cabins were also very numerous all the
way
up.
Kajang (or Karang) comprises two villages or rather hamlets, Lower Kajang and Kajang Ch'ien-hu, a quarter of a mile higher up the valley. We stopped at the first named place, where live In six or eight families of Chinese and where there are two inns. the other village, which is on the west side of the valley, lives the native chief, who has the rank or title of Ch'ien-hu or
"Thousand
Families."
On the west side of the valley facing Lower Kajang are extensive ruins of what took to be an old Chinese fortified camp or Ch'eng,
1
but of which
(.
<?.,
could learn nothing save the name,

in
Ku Ch'eng
fang,
in
"Old Town,")
Chinese and
Ch'e-rgya
Tibetan.
February
told
29.
Last
profits
night
two men belonging

are
to the La-chia to Lusar,
Hsieh-chia of Kuei-te,
who
accompanying us over
they derived from their business at Kuei-te have been very much reduced on account of all the members of They have to keep open house their clan having a share in them.
for Tibetans,
me that the
supplying them during their sojourn
at
Kuei-te not
only with lodgings for

the
man and
its
beast, but also
with food.
Then
Ya-men
has to get
squeezes, and so do various other parties,

little left.
and the Hsieh-chia have

* On the habit of hanging
the custom
as
And
a
little
all
this
simply because
bits of rag or
known
in
Mohammedan
countries,
is
wool on sacred monuments confer and also Emil Schlagintweit,
Buddhism
Ireland,"
in Tibet,
p. 198.
The custom
not
unknown
in Christian countries. in
See a note by
W. Copeland Borlase on " Rag Offerings Athenaum, April i, 1893, 415-416.

made
See
in in ch'ortens.
and Primitive Pilgrimages
f Little clay cones usually
moulds and deposited

257.
either in these special
hutches or else
Land of the Lamas,
94

in a
TIBET.
being born
family occupied at a certain trade, every
member
had rather attach himself to this same business than himself this is Kan-su enterprise
;
strike out for
Hai Chi-hsiang is a Hsieh-chia, but his father deemed it up some other calling in life, so, he being a Bachelor of Arts {Hsiu-tsat), joined a profession where brains are requisite, and opened an "office for the protection of families " (J>ao-chia chu)
My man
advisable to take
alias a blackmailing agency.
When
he sees two
men
quarreling
on the street, he threatens to hand them over to the authorities If a couple of young men unless they pay him a certain amount. are seen gambling or violating any of the innumerable municipal ordinances, half of which have "fallen long ago into inocuous desuetude," he bobs up and threatens his victims with exposure and gets a few cash out of them. Strange as it may seem such
Pao-chia chil are
common
all
over northern China.
About four miles above Kajang the valley forks, and we see the La-j6 Pass (in Chinese La-chih yahu) about two miles to the northeast. At this point in the valley there is a fort commanded by a Ch'ien-tsung with some eighty to a hundred soldiers; it is called Ch'ien-hu Ch'eng, "The Camp of the Thousand Families,"
referring to the designation of this district, or rather to the title of
its
native chief. Such forts are innumerable all over western Kan-su, but the presence of these soldiers is only so far of use
it
that
prevents the population rebelling against the imperial
authority, otherwise acts of violence
the immediate vicinity of these forts
and the troops will not interfere tzii and unworthy of notice." The ascent of the La-chih shan was very steep but over a good trail; the descent was precipitous, and, as the gorge down which we had to go was filled with ice, on top of which was a little water, it was very bad going. At the mouth of this gorge we passed through the Nan-men ("South Gate ") in the Great Wall ( Wan-li ch'eng), which passes at Lusar and goes thence by Ch'enhai P'u to Ts'ama-lung at the eastern end of the defile leading to Tankar. We were now in the Nan-ch'uan valley, which has its
'
may occur daily, hourly, in among the Salars, or Tibetans, it is only a fight among Fan'
mouth
at Hsi-ning.
Passing through the village of Djaya,
went
up the valley a couple of miles to visit a place of great interest to me, Ch'u-k'or fang, where Hue passed several months waiting for the arrival on the Kokonor of the great caravan on its way to

Lh'asa.*
TIBET.
95
The
name
Ch'u-k'or
tang ("plain of the prayerlittle
wheel
" )
belongs
properly to a T'u-fan village near a
lamasery consisting of half a dozen white washed houses perched on some shelves of rock a hundred feet or so abpve the valley, and which is called Ch'ing fang meaning, probably, "Abode of
Purity."
I was told that in 1890 the Grijimailo brothers staid eight or ten days here collecting birds and plants. They were not mentioned by name, but from the description given me I cannot doubt that they were the " Olosu " referred to. I
arrived at Lusar at
dusk and was pleased

had asked
for at
to learn that a Mr.
Rijnhardt, of the China Inland Mission, had
come from Hsi-ningto

Not finding where I will
bring
me
the
money
Lan-chou.
me
at
Lusar, he returned yesterday to Hsi-ning
have to go and see him.

I found out this morning that my cook, Kao pa-erh, had brought from Kuei-hua Ch'eng and had left here while I was away to look after my things, has been looking into them besides, had promenaded about bedecked in all my finery, been out shooting the vultures around Kumbum, much to the dismay of the lamas, for they are quasi sacred, being the last, though temporary, resting place of most deceased lamas. To one man he had lent one of my ponies, to another he had given some of my clothes, and to all he had said that we were such devoted friends that what was mine was his. 1 called him up, gave him a good rating and told him that I would abandon him here to get back to Kuei-hua as best he could, with neither money nor clothing, for would not pay him any wages, and the clothes on his back were all mine, paid for with my money and only lent to him. [ have no intention of carrying out this threat, it would be biting my nose to spite my face with a vengeance. I have at best to eat bad food made with poor materials, and he knows how to prepare very tasty messes, such as no one I could get could
March
I
i.
whom
*Huc, op. cU.,

taillee
He calls it Tchogortan. His "grande montagne II, 145 et seq. a pic," in the flank of which are the dwellings of the lamas who live in this
is
place,
only a
cliff
some 200
feet high.
This
little
lamasery was destroyed

it
I
in part
during the late rebellion, but from Hue's description of

in his
doubt
if it
was any
larger
day or
different
from what
it
now
is,
a building in the
lived.
1
bottom of the
valley at
though he seems to imply that there was the foot of the cliffi in which the hermits
could find no trace of any such building.
96

I
TIBET.
ing him, but
cannot punish myself to the extent of dismisswait for all my men to come and beg me to keep him, which they will surely do, though to-day they all vow that dismissal is too light a punishment for him. During my recent trip we were four men with five horses, and
possibly make.
1
will
got all our food at the inns where we stopped and also feed for our horses, yet the expenses for all have only been a tael of silver This was because 1 managed the whole thing ($1.15) a day.
myself,
and no squeezing was

I
possible.
March 2. went to-day
to Hsi-ning to get
I
my money
at the
found Messrs. Hale and China Inland Mission house, where The latter had kindly ridden all the way from LanRijnhardt. chou here to bring me my money. I asked him to come and pay me a visit at Lusar, and we will ride up there together to-morrow. put up at the inn where I have always stopped, and was so fortunate as to secure a copy of the "New description of the Hsining Department " {Hsi-ning Fu hsin chiK) iox 18' taels.* It is very rare, as the blocks and nearly all existing copies were destroyed in the burning of the Ya-men during the Mohammedan
I
rebellion.
It
was
written by a Tao-t'ai called
Yang
in the Ch'ien-
lung reign, and contains

country,
its
much
valuable information on this frontier

etc.,
inhabitants,
monuments, ethnology,
besides
valuable itineraries to Tibet, etc.
my former friend, Fu T'ung-shih, came to see me gave him some presents for transmission to his father who has not come back from K'amdo since we went there 1 suppose the father together in 1889, and also some for himself.
The son
of
I
to-day, and
has
made
a pretty
service in a country
good thing out of his three years of where he can play the big man.
foreign
March 3.
got back at dusk to Lusar accompanied by Rijnhardt
who
cut a funny figure riding with very long stirrups a diminutive
pony of mine, and looking very foreign, notwithstanding his Chinese rig and surroundings. Yeh Hsien-sheng, who had accompanied me to Hsi-ning, did not come back with me, as he had difificulty in settling up our
* This book, together with a number of other things, were sent by me to Lanchou to be taken to Shanghai by Mr. Brown. The boat in which he descended the Yang-tzu kiang capsized, and this valuable work and a number of other things, 1 am sorry to say, were completely ruined.
:i
1,
3.
Red leather and leopard

BAG.
(U. 8.
BBA6S KETTiiE, used in Mongolia and Koko nor. (C. S N. M. 167221.) skin tsamba
N. M. 131201.)
5.
2.
Coppee pot (Eoko

131187.)
nor).
(U. S. (U. S.
N. M. N. M.
4.
Copper kettle
131188.)
(Shigats6).
Goatskin bellq-ws.
(U. S. N.
M.
131043.)

accounts with the inn-keeper
TIBET.
97
Ma
Shao-lin,
who was
short of
money, and did not want to pay me back 50 taels I had lent him in February to help him settle his accounts at the New Year. I have put all my money matters into the hands of the Hsiensheng who is the best and most reliable fellow have met with in China, and for whom 1 have a very soft spot in my heart.
1
March
ing
my
Most of my time to-day has been spent in repack4. boxes, weighing them so as to apportion the loads, and
All the things
I
fixing everything for the start.
don't require,
I
together with the things
have bought on the way,
am
sending
down
to Shang-hai.
Besides the
camp
in
here the following supplies
bags such as are
bought at Kuei-hua Ch'eng, I have got which I have had packed in leather universal use in Tibet and Western Mongolia.
outfit,
191 Catties* of tsamba {t'sao mien).
160
45 42 140
" "
"
flour.
" candles
(five to a catty).
50 80 20 20 20
5
5
25
4 4
" " " " " " " " " " " " "
" ch'i-tzu (kind of little biscuit). " rice. " vermicelli {kua-mien). " fu ch'a, brick tea (for barter). " " " " (for use of party). " brown sugar. " Hami raisins. " rock candy {,ping fang). " candied jujubes (i/jai). " candied apples, apricots, etc. " butter. " tobacco, (tsa-payen). " Chinese condiments, ginger, red pepper
paste,
kan fen (a kind of

etc., etc.,
vermicelli),
vinegar, onions,
and
few
other odds and ends.

5 pecks
5
chuoma
(^potentilla anserina).
"
dry jujubes.
catty {chin in Chinese) weighs about i>f lbs.
98

I
TIBET.
have six boxes containing goods for barter,* and for presents, my papers, change of foreign clothing, money, horse-shoes, shoeing outfit, etc., etc., weighing altogether three hundred and thirty-six catties or about four hundred and fifty
Besides these
pounds.
The two tents, each with thirteen iron pegs and a hammer, weigh together sixty-six catties, and the kettle, ladles, tongues, grate, teapots and batierie de cuisine in general about twenty-five
more.
There are six riding saddles of Tibetan pattern, which I have found much less apt to rub horses' backs than the Chinese or Mongol kinds, seven pack saddles, also of Tibetan type, five pair iron chain-hobbles with padlocks, the same number of yak-hair hobbles, and a supply of thick, soft felt for repairing packs, plenty of hair rope and pack thread. a suit of I have also provided summer clothing and two pairs of boots for each man. Our armament consists of two forty-four calibre Winchester carbines, a ten bore Scott shotgun and a forty-four calibre Colt's revolver; have also a Remington forty-four calibre rifle with one hundred cartridges to present to the Dzassak of Baron Ts'aidam, to whom I promised it in '89, and a small revolver for his steward Dow6, who guided me in '89 from the Ts'aidam to Jyakundo. have five hundred rounds of Winchester ammunition, twentyfive ten guage cartridges loaded with buck-shot and two hundred loaded with No. 4. Altogether I have reason to believe that my preparations are complete in every respect, save perhaps money, of which I have have been careful to take two of every only about 700 taels. essential article, so that I will be able to split up my party and make rapid trips away from the main route without putting the men left behind to any inconvenience.
I 1 1
March
5.
Yeh
Hsien-sheng brought
in
to-day a fine mule

left
which he bought
*A
elers
full list
for 25 taels at Hsi-ning.
He
I
little
later in
of these would take up too
much
flat
space, but
can recommend to trav-
going into Tibet the following
articles: Satin
ribbon 3 inches wide (red, blue,
yellow and green are the colors preferred) ;

thread, small Japanese lacquer rice bowls,
mother-of-pearl buttons, large needles,
gunpowder, razors (Chinese), copper wire,

for pipes,
pocket looking-glasses, snuff, Chinese mouthpieces

bottles, hatchets,
thumb-rings,
snuflf
hsiang-pien
tea,
broadcloth (red and purple), jack-knives.

the day for Chen-hai P'u and Toba,
TIBET.
99
buy
where he hopes to be able to moderate prices. I have been shown a copy of Tsong-k'apa's Sung-bum,* printed here, it is a cumbrous work in sixteen volumes printed on thin Chinese paper, the leaves of Tibetan size and shape, two feet long by four inches broad. It costs between 60 and 80 taels, so cana
few more mules
at
not, to
my
regret,
buy
it.
totype of
Kumbum (which may be taken as the proThe elders G61upa lamaseries) is as follows {Rgan pa) of the lamasery appoint, for terms of three years, four officers who manage the temporal affairs of the convent and who are respectively called Ta Lao-yeh, Erh Lao-yeh, San Lao-yeh and The first looks after the finances, the second after Ssii Lao-yeh.
The
organization of
all
large
all
such things as come under the cognizance of the Hsi-ning Amban's Ya-men, the third Lao-yeh attends to the convent's trading with the Mongols and Tibetans, and the fourth Lao-yeh is
steward of the University or La-lang and regulates the fare to be supplied the members on the rolls of the different colleges, to one of which all lamas must belong. Besides these four officials there are magistrates or lama oificers {Seng kuan), also chosen by the Rgan-pa for three years, and
called Gekor,
are observed
lin-ba,
whose duty it is to see that the rules and regulations by the akas, and who have, as assistants, the Ch'iicalled by the Chinese Hei ho-shang, or "Black lamas,"
who
are primarily water-carriers, f as their
name
and
implies, but are
chiefly
known
as the Gekor's executioners
assistants.
composing the university are each presided title oi Ji-wa, and the name Lar rgyad, or " Eight-Lar," is applied to the establishment and directors collectively. The great college or Ike La-lang is managed by an Ike Jiwa who is also Proctor of the University. The second is the medical school or Man-ba La-lang with a Man-ba Ji-wa at the head, the third is the Ch'u-ba La-lang or theological school and is under the rule of a Ch'u-ba Ji-wa, and the fourth Ji-wa manages
four colleges
The
over by a lama with the
* This is the most famous work by the great reformer Tsong-k'apa, who
14th century, and
lived in the
importance to his
was a native of Kumbum. Sung-bum.
His
Lam
rim ch'en-po ranks next in
f Carrying water to fill the big tea cauldrons from which the lamas employed in reading the sacred books are daily supplied.
lOO
TIBET.
the Teng-kor La-lang or college of contemplation (or asceticism).* These positions, which are of profit as well as honor, are reserved
Chinese akas of the Hsi-ning circuit, such people being known 2&\\\tLit'su ("inner tribes"), while all Panaka and Mongols, called generically Wai tsu or "outside tribes," are excluded
for
from them, and even the San-ch'uanese and other T'u-jen are comprised in this latter class. In the fourth moon of every year each college sends out its agents among the Panaka and Mongols to collect donations for the
support of the institution. They assess each tent or home according to its means, and to one they present a piece of cotton cloth {lao pu), which obliges the receiver to give as a return present a horse; to another family they present a pair of boots which is
acknowledged by handing them an ox, and so on. Returning to Kumbum in the eighth moon, with the horses, cattle, sheep, butter, wool, etc., they have thus obtained, the live stock is sold at a good price to Chinese who, when known to the San Lao-yeh, are given easy terms for payment. All lamas whose names are on the rolls {Vo) of the lamasery receive daily allowances of tea and a yearly allowance of meal, the tea is brought to them daily in the buildings where they prosecute their studies, and they on their side bring there with them their tsamba and butter. There are three thousand seven hundred lamas at Kumbum.
*Conf. as to the organization of
Sarat Chandra
this
famous lamasery, Hue, op.
cit.,
II,
iigetseq.
of
Das, speaking of the theological studies pursued
by the lamas
Tashil'unpo, says:
regarded as
" For a period of three years from the date of entrance they are Rig-ch'ung or monks of the primary stage, after which they are called
i.
<?.,
Monks of five years' standing are called They are permitted to pass an examThe most intelligent ination in the sacred books to obtain the rank of P'al-chenpa. among the P'al-chenpa go up for the degree of Kah-chan (called Rab-champa
Rig-ding,
those of middle stage.
Rig-ch'en,
i. e.,
monks
of the higher stage.
at Lh'asa),
which
is
something
like the degree of
D. D.
Those
who
fail
in this
examination go to the Buddhist college of Gyantse, where there are eighteen 7a-
tshangs or
Lh'asa, the
classes, to
graduate themselves as
Tung-rampa
or Bachelor of Divinity."
Indian Pundits in the

of
Land of Snow,
8.
Speaking of the degrees conferred at
same writer says: " The Ge-tshul (novice monk) goes up forthe degrees or Rab-champa, which may be likened to the B. D. and D. D. degrees of the European universities. * * The successful candidate applies for the highest initiation into the Lamaic order of Ngag-pa (esoteric initiation) when he becomes eligible for the posts of Khan-po (professor) and Head Lama
Tung-rampa, Kah-chan
of a monastery."
Ibid. 5,

The various high
dignitaries of the
TIBET.
loi
Gelupa sect, most of whom alma mater, keep up (at their own expense or at that of the tribe among whom they have taken up their abodes) an establishment here known as a K'arwa {mk'arwa),* where they reside perhaps a portion of the year, and where These the people of their district find free board and lodgings. K'arwa are recognizable by their red painted outside walls and by
recognize
Kumbum
as their
the front doors opening in the middle,
all
other buildings having
white walls and small doors. There are eighty-three K'arwa at Kumbum, the oldest and first one in importance is the Tsong-k'a k'arwa, dating from the foundation of the lamasery. f The highest dignitary residing in any one of these Kumbum K'arwa is the A-chia Gegen (or Hutuketu), J then comes the Pe-chia Fo-yeh and some forty other " Living Buddhas," of high degree. The lamas who own houses may not receive rent of any kind from those who stop with them, the latter present them with a few presents (/? wte), and the host makes up for his liberality by the squeezes he is able to make on all the purchases of his guests. Among the customs peculiar to this great lamasery is the following: when a lama has committed a crime entailing his expulsion from the lamasery, an arrow is run through his ear,|| the paper wrapper of a brick of tea is put on his head, and he is driven across the bridge on the road to Hsi-ning, which marks the limit of the convent's property in that direction. Cases of murder
are disposed of
by the Amban
at Hsi-ning.
is
Kao-pa-erh,
prepare.
my cook, condemned recently to dismissal,

me by
giving
trying
to ingratiate himself with
me
the best dishes he can
By
the
same
in
irresistible
means he has won the men
over to his cause, and they have hinted to
me
I
that
will find
it
most uncomfortable
*The
camp without him.

Land of the Lamas
K'arwa
will await a formal
foot-note on p. 88 of my
should be corrected so as to
conform with the explanation of the term
given above.
t Tsong-I<'apa derived this name from Tsong-l<'a, a village which possibly occupied the spot on which Kumbum now stands. At the Tsong-k'a K'arwa are l<ept the
two big " black snake " whips used by the Hei ho shang. one in the gomba allowed by law to have them.
X
II
This K'arwa
is
the only
The
village of A-chia or A-chia
chuang
is
only a few miles south of
Kumbum.
similar
April 4,
punishment is in vogue in China. The Shen Pao of Shanghai, of 1886, mentions certain criminals at Port Arthur who had arrows run through
their ears.
102
TIBET.
appeal for mercy from the culprit and the other men, so that they may not fully realize my weakness.
March 6. Yeh Hsien-sheng brought back three more good mules bought at an average price of 27 taels. This is more than I had wanted to give for them, but it is money well invested, if 1
only get them as far as the Ts'aidam, for even there they are worth twice this amount. I have told him to buy two more, and then my preparations will be complete. I am waiting for a party of Chamri Fan-tzu to arrive here to hire yaks from them to carry my goods and guide me as far as the
the southwest corner of the Kokoheard yesterday that they would probably reach Lusar in a day or so. This tribe is the largest one among the Panakasum, and they make themselves everywhere respectedor feared, so
nor.
I
Muri-Wahon country towards
to travel in their
company
will be an additional safeguard in tra-
versing the Koko-nor steppes.
in a
March 7. Last night as was going to sleep all my men came body and, having kotowed,* besought me not to leave the
I
cook behind, but to pardon him "just

along.
I
this
once," and take him

could not lightly
said
would give the matter
careful consideration, that

I
my word was engaged to

break
it.
dismiss him, and that
This morning the cook came in, made his kotow, admitted that he had behaved very badly, but begged to be forgiven. I gave him a second edition of the sermon I had delivered to him when first found sporting in my clothes, and told him 1 would take him
ter
on probation, adding that should he behave badly again, no matwhere we might be, in the wildest part of the wilderness of
north Tibet or
among
the savage Tibetans,

fo od or
would abandon him

shift for himself.
say,
to his fate, without
money,
pony, to
* Among themselves Chinese Mohammedans do not kotow, but bow and ''Salam aleikum," to which the reply is, " Aleikum salam."
I
may
that
among
note here
the Hsi-ning
Mohammedans
or
ing to each other, their
ming-izH
will
have a son, the mother
the husband and wife do not use in speakname, but simply the expletive hai> If they speak of her husband as the father of so-and-so, and the
and she will speak of him as Erh-lUi fa-Pa or tei-tei. Old people who have grandchildren speak of each other as ani, "the old woman," and <yV "the old man." These latter expressions are Tibetan.
father will speak of his wife as so-and-so's mother. namedErh-h, the father speaking of his wife will call
For example,
her Erh-li-ti
if
the boy
is
ma-ma

Shortly after this
TIBET.
103
my dinner was served, and it was the best I have had since leaving Peking. To-day gave each of the men 20 taels on account of wages (they get 5 taels a month), and leave of absence to go say goodbye to their families and settle their affairs. Rijnhardt left for Hsining, so have seen the last of foreigners for many a long month to come, but am so accustomed now to being all the time with Asiatics that it is more of a strain to converse with Europeans than with them, more irksome to comply with the foreign customs of the missionaries than with those of Chinese and Tibetans.
1 1 I
March
8.
photographs of
ing
went out walking to-day and got some fairly good Kumbum. The gold-tiled temple had its roof
and looks very gorgeous.
regilded last year

1
While photograph-
was
surprised to see a large wolf trotting along not five
The lamas do not allow any animals (sheep excepted) to be killed on their property, and so pheasants and wild pigeons wander about its precincts like barn-yard fowls.
To-day was a market-day at the temple and I bought a few odds and ends for my ethnological collection, among other things some and Fan-tzQ women wear bands hanging down their backs and fastened to their hair. They come from the Tung-lu (Liao-tung, probably), and are called in the trade Han ma-nao (Chinese cornelian ?). Amber in rough pieces is also procurable here. The Fan-tzfi call it su-ru, and when I objected that this was the Tibetan name for " coral,"
large agate beads such as the T'u-fan
hundred yards from the lamasery.
on the
cloth
they said that the

su-ru
is
latter
was
hsu-ru.
This
may
be true here, but
the usual
name
of coral in Tibet.*
at night has been so cloudy since 1 have been here have had to give up taking observations by stars east and west and confine myself to the sun, which is much more certain, as the days are nearly invariably clear, though often windy.
The weather
1
that
have invested inanotherfine mule which, in Tibet, price gave for it if it lives to get there. All caravans going this way to Tibet take as many mules as they can with them, also horses they consider it the best way
9.
1
March
will be
worth four times the
to invest their *
I
money.
name
for
know
of no
"amber "
in Tibetan.
Jaeschke and several other writers

crystal."
give j/0f ihel, which means,
literally,
"perfumed
I04

heard this morning that
TIBET.
some thirty or forty Na-chia Panaka Muri-Wahon) have arrived here, and are now camped in the ravine above the village, with some two hundred yaks loaded with salt, hides, etc. I intend trying to hire some of their yaks to carry my luggage to their country, as the Chamri 1 was
I
(living near
expecting have not turned up. managed to get 105 rupees from a Tankar trader; I wanted I some six or seven hundred, as sycee is of little use in Tibet, but
they are very scarce this year,
much more
so than in
'89.
March
10.
Ssu-shih-wu, who had gone to Shang wu-chuang*

the pack saddles and crupper-sticks
{ch'iu-
to say good-bye to his wife and family got back to-day bringing
kun)
required.
Shang-wu chuang makes
which are made of birch wood, also sheath knives and The swords for the Tibetans and Mongols.
specialty of manufacturing these saddles,
for mules and Tibet, and is also somethroughout China times used on pack horses and yaks; it is a
crupper-stick
is
universally used
great deal better than
the ordinary crupper.
Broad breast-bands of wool are always used, no matter what the pack animal may be. Between the two the saddle is kept immovable,
and if the pads under the saddle are well aired and scraped, there is little danger of the animal's back ever being galled. Should this, however,
occur, the universal practice in these parts
to put
parts.
is
warm
urine or else tea on the chaffed
swelling.
KNIFE OF PANAKA TIBETANS.
(Shang-wu chuang.)
will rapidly reduce any Throughout China and the adjacent countries mules receive much more care at the hands of their owners than horses, in fact the horse is looked upon as an inferior animal to
The former
the mule, and
think deservedly so.

of the party of
March
give
iz.
The headman
Na-chia Panaka
had
been expecting, came to see
me no
assurance as to
five
me early this morning, but he could when he would be ready to go home,
* A group of
hamlets about fifteen miles north of Chen-hai P'u.

"perhaps
TIBET.
105
we
will be ready in ten days, perhaps in a
month, the
blue sky above only

Shortly after he
knows ;"
a
left
Kuei-tS
came and
offered
come to no agreement. Chamri Panaka from somewhere near to hire me yaks for two pieces of cotton
so
we
could
ilaopu)
to
a head, this would be equivalent to 1.2 taels in silver, to go Muri-Wahon, and I gave him two pieces to clinch the bargain. In the afternoon he came again and returned me the cotton, he could not go, news had just been brought him that his village had got into a fight with a neighboring one, and he had to hurry
home
to take his part in the scrimmage.

1
Time being of value, and as have set my heart on leaving here on the 14th, sent two of my men to a village not far away called
I
Chung-t'ai, to try and hire yaks from a party of Su-chia Panaka

there. They came back towards dark and Panaka being quite as uncertain as to their future movements as those camped here, they had hired donkeys from some of the villagers, for which I am to pay i tael a head as far as Muri-Wahon, which district they agree to reach within ten days. This pleases me well, donkeys carry the same loads as yaks (one hundred and sixty pounds) and travel faster and behave on the road in a much more dignified way. Yaks, even the tamest ones, are savage beasts, like their owners.
reported to be
camped
said that these
March 12. I took all the horses and mules to-day to Toba (Hsin-tseng P'u) to have them shod by a smith of local fame. I was entertained while there by the relatives of Yeh Hsien-sheng,
who gave me a good dinner and took me to visit the famous mosque
which occupies the center of the little town. It was built, I was by order of the Emperor K'ang-hsi in the sixth year of his reign (A. D. 1666), and he also had built the large mosque in the
told,
large
Chen-hai P'u* near by. It is faced all over with fine with flowers and arabesque designs in various colors on them, and the roof is covered with turquoise blue tiles. All
village of
tiles,
the
it
tile
work was made at
Ning-hsia.
has no minaret, but a
little
Like all Chinese mosques, detached pavilion in its stead, with
one story reached by a flight of a few steps. The interior of the mosque was, of course, empty, but a tablet with the Emperor's (K'ang-hsi) name or style on it occupied the center. The build Tchin-hai Pou of d'Anville's map.
(Carte Genl'
du Thibet, IV'
Feuille.)
io6
TIBET.
last twenty odd years, become rather dilapidated, and only recently permission has been granted the Ahons to repair it. A handsome subscription book was shown me, and 1 contributed my mite towards the much needed work.
ing has, in the
The village of Ta-nei-k'ai, about two-thirds of a mile south of Toba on the road to Lusar, is built in the half cave, half house
style peculiar to the T'u-jen of this region, but
is
inhabited by
Chinese, or at least by people claiming to belong to that race, in
which case
in this region.
the only village of this kind inhabited by them Toba, if my memory serves me right, was a place of some importance in the seventeenth century when the Jesuits make mention of Armenians residing there.*
it is
March
him
I
13.
A San-ch'uan
T'u-jen
came
to see
me and
from
got a short vocabulary of his language, which is, as 1 thought, about eight-tenths Mongol, the residue being Tibetan,
Chinese and, to the best of my knowledge, a heretofore unknown lingo, probably the original language of the T'u-jen of this part of the Empire, t My informant said the T'u-jen were called in his language nutan-ni kun, 1 fancy that this half Mongol word is but a translation of the Chinese t'u-jen or "people of the soil." Curiously enough the word he used for " Tibetan " TSbi, is nearer our name
* " Les Armeniens qui
est le maitre."
etoient a
Topa
1,
paroissoient fort contents
du Lama
qui en
Du
Halde, op.
cii.,
41.
He apparently quotes
Pere Regis.
On
the
map
prepared by the Roy. Geog. Soc. to illustrate Mr. St. G. R. Littledale's

is
journey, previously referred to, this place
erroneously called Dabachen.

River,
t Potanin says that on the

with Chinese
iind
left
bank of the Yellow
and
also in the valley of
the Ta-t'ung ho, live a people called Chiringols,
who
speak Mongol strongly mixed
another element which must be their ancient language.
These
quote
people say that the Ordos country is their original home.
Potanin thinks they belong
to the same race as the Daldy of Prjevalsky, and Mr. Deniker, from
whom
the above, says that this conclusion appears highly probable, as the northwest section
of the Ordos
is
at the present
day
called Daldi.
He
(Mr. Deniker) inclines to believe
that the Chiringols and the Daldy are of Turkish stock.
Deniker,
Les populations
turques en Chine,
Bull. Soc. d' Anthropologie de Paris, 3' Skrie, X, 206 et Potanin's Chiringols are unquestionably the San-ch'uan T'u-jen. seq. As to Prjevalsky's Daldy, 1 am unable to form an opinion; see, however, my Land of the
in
Lamas,
Chiringol is certainly not a tribal name, but that of some 44, note. stream (,gol) flowing through the country inhabited by this people, possibly the Mongol equivalent of the Chinese San-ch'uan or "Three streams." The people
inhabiting this district are undoubtedly of mixed descent, certainly not pure Turks
like their neighbors the Salar.
The
Daldi of the Ordos are the Talat Ordos Mongols,
See p. 29.

for this people than
it
TIBET.
107
any I have heard elsewhere. The Mongols, be remembered, say Tangut, so the t'u-hua word is not directly derived from that language. Of the unexplicable words in the vocabulary, will only note \\tXQiniengo, "silver;" ara,
will
1
"%\mf
s&ra,
" moon-"
buli,
"hoy;" akur, " g\r\;"
rjigS,
"ass;"
and Miori, "cat."
The San-ch'uan people

families,
their
which
lies to
number several thousand spoken in the Cho-mu ch'uan, the east of Bayan-rong and is probably contiguous
are said to also
language
is
gens taking
The San-ch'uanese are divided into a number of names from the families of their chieftains, thus there is the Li T'u-ssu, Ch'i T'u-ssii, Cho T'u-ssO, etc. They are quite as devout Buddhists as the rest of the Mongol race, and count a living Buddha among them, the P6-chia Fo-yeh, who resides, however, at Kumbum, though he has a K'arwa in the
to San-ch'uan.
their
San-ch'uan.
This evening all the loads were made up, bills were settled and everything got ready for the start to-morrow. The donkeys will only come over here to-morrow from Chung-t'ai and it is probable
that we will only get a few miles on our way but starting is always a most difficult thing in these parts, and the nearly univer;
sal practice is
to
camp
few miles out
of
town and
there collect
the caravan.
March
straggled out
camp
at
left Lusar this morning, though we by twos and threes, and the donkeys only reached A-chia chuang, some four and a half miles southwest of
14..
We actually
Lusar, at midnight.
we have camped is famous as the one of the most saintly of the Kumbum Buddhas, the A-chia Fo-yeh. It is one of the ten villages which give this broad valley the name of Shih ta t'an, and it is recognizable by
This T'u-fan village near which
birth place of
two high
It
poplars which
grow
near
it.
began snowing heavily towards 4 p. m., and by 11 p. m., when it cleared, about four inches of snow had fallen. I put up my tent, but the men preferred the open, as all these frontiersmen do when the weather is not too execrable. The dogs went and lay down far from the camp and kept up a fierce barking all night, as is their custom. We hobbled the
io8

two by two with padlocked
I
TIBET.
this
horses and mules

is
chain hobbles
the best precaution

it
know
fire
of in these countries of horse thieves
as
is
impossible to drive
sat
away animals
until near
so locked together,
then
dawn, talking over our adventures of three years ago and all agreed that there was no life so agreeable, so free from care as that we were now entering on.
we
around the
How
long will these sentiments
last ?
March 13. Before we left this morning a HsQn-i, sent by the Ch'ien-tsung of Ch'ing-shih pao, the warden of the Sharakuto
Hung-mao pan-tao pass which we have to cross came and asked to see my passport. As a sign that he was detailed by the Ch'ien-tsung (lieutenant) he bore that officer's
road and of the
to-day,
official hat,
but notwithstanding these credentials

if
refused to
show
my
to idea
papers to him, but sent the Ch'ien-tsung
my card and told him

I
go to Hsi-ning,
he chose, and there find out

as
it
was to get a squeeze out of me,
who I was. The was believed was a foreign
trader going to the
This Ch'ientsung is, I learnt, in the habit of exacting squeezes from all Tibetans coming this way with salt or other produce to sell at Lusar, though they are by right exempted from the payment of any duty
to the Chinese.
Panaka country to buy wool.
The ascent of the Hung-mao pan-tao pass, called in Tibetan Ta-mo ri, and which leads into a valley at the mouth of which is
little frontier post of Sharakuto, proved most trying, for neither nor our horses or mules were yet broken into climbing, and the mountain side of shaley rocks, with here and there porphyry up which the trail led, was exceedingly steep. From the summit we could see to the east the La-chih shan, over which we had passed when coming from Kuei-te, and before us to the south, some two miles away, was the dark massif of the Yeh-niu shan, or "wild ox mountain," stretching westward to
the
we
Sharakuto, and which

place
it
is
also visible
from Kuei-t^, from which
bears about north-northwest.
We
where
ling,
camped on the south
side of the pass, at the first spot

fei
found water and grass, at a place called Feng about fourteen miles east of Sharakuto.
7-(5. The trail led
we
(shui)
March
down
to Sharakuto through a stony,

little
uninhabited valley in which flows a
stream.
We passed
on
1.
3.
Pack saddle for taK8 (Lh'asa). (U. S. N. M. 187234.) Pack saddle (Koko nor). (U. S. N. M. 167235.)

the
TIBET.
109
a large drove of salt-laden yaks coming from the Dabesu and belonging to a party of Chamri Panaka, who passed us by without a word of greeting or recognition. A mile or two before coming in sight of Sharakuto we saw at the foot of the mountains, on the right side of the valley, a few
way
gobi,
tents,
ited
some of Mongol type, others of Tibetan,, but all inhabby Kung Dzassak and Tolmok Mongols. Some thirty or forty (others say seventy or eighty) families out of the two hundred composing this latter tribe are Mohammedans and live at Fei hsia, 40 li from Shang-wu chuang, which is north of Toba about
eighteen miles.
The chief of the tribe has the rank of Kung ("Duke"), given him by the Emperor of China, who bestows on him annually 12 yuan pao of silver (600 taels) and six pieces He lives at of satin, the usual allowance made a Mongol Kung.
Morjia,
near
Gomba
soba,
in the
Hsi-ning ho valley.*
These
Mohammedans
versy with the
forbid
had, eight or nine years ago, a protracted contro-
Mongol Wangs of the Koko-nor, who wanted to them professing Islam, lest they might rebel. The Mohammedans finally made a compromise by which they were allowed
own faith, but agreed to keep some lamas among them to read Buddhist prayers. I camped about one-and-one-half miles south of Sharakutof where good grass and fuel were abundant, and sent my head man
to follow their
my arrival. Shortly after, an ya-men, a Pa-tsung (Sergeant), and an escort of five soldiers, all armed with spears and matchlocks, and carrying a tent, made their appearance, and said that they were detailed to escort me to the Wayen nor and inform the chief of the Chamri tribe of Panaka living near there that due courtesy must be shown me. The interpreter, who is a Hsieh-chia, said that the Shou-pei had received advice of my coming from the He had also been advised authorities at Hsi-ning some time ago. that six or seven foreign women had been authorized to visit the Koko-nor to " preach religion " {cKuan chiad) which, by the way, my informant thought a most unwomanly thing to do, as it He asked me if 1 had seen certainly is in the eyes of all Asiatics.
to inform the Shou-pei or Captain of
interpreter
from
his
camped
at
is
Gomba
called
soba (or sarba) in 1889.
See
Land of the Lamas,
118.
f This place la hu-to ying.
Shene hoto by the Panaka. The Chinese name of it is HaThe name is IVlongol and means " Yellow town " (Shara hotun).
no JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND

these
TIBET.
such an
I
women, knew anything about them, and

were not of
if
extraordinary thing would be allowed in

to admit that such proceedings that these ani
my country, and was fain

rare occurrence, but
if
were harmless
if
treated kindly, but
harshly,
then the troubles of that country were about to begin, to last until it had been " civilized " and the original owners had become
unrecognizable for ever more or had been wiped off the face of
the earth.
three miles north of the
From where we had camped we could see on a hillside about town the Tungor gomba, a lamasery of some celebrity, where live about five hundred akas. From Sharakuto a trail runs south to Gomi-t'ang, a day north-
west of Kuei-te and about five miles north of the Yellow River. Another trail leads hence southwest to Gomi-wargan (or Wahon, on some maps called Balekun gomi) which is two days west of Kuei-te. A road leads from Sharakuto to Tankar which is distant twenty odd miles; and finally a trail (though it is really the highroad to Tibet) leads along the south shore of the lake* to Dulan-kuo and thence to Baron Ts'aidam.
March 17. We were unable to start to-day on account of the sudden illness of old Miao san. He is fifty-six years of age and has been leading a rough-and-tumble life, so the climbing over
the
Hung-mao pan-tao has worn him out. I fancy also that he is not over anxious to go on this journey and wants an excuse to
back home and pocket the twenty taels I gave him the other day and get all the good clothing, etc., I have supplied him with. He groaned and tossed about all day in great pain but when finally I said I would send him back to Hsi-ning as I could not wait his recovery and had no medicine, to give him, and told the Hsien-sheng to ride over to Sharakuto and take him behind him on his pony and make arrangements for his getting home, he braced up. very fast and was soon off. It will be one man less to feed, always an important consideration in the country we
slip
are about to visit.
The T'ung-shih says

Mongol
tents
that
some
years ago a foreign Hsieh-t'ai

soldiers
(Colonel) with twelve or thirteen
came here by
the
Hung-mao pan-tao
and
I
and provided with route. While

believe that Potanin has
* Prjevalsky has explored

also followed
it.
this route
along the lake,
TIBET,
ill
camping at Feng-shui ling he was trying to put a cartridge in liis shot gun when the shell exploded and the load lodged in one of his men. When they had got beyond Sharakuto the man died and was buried beside the road. He added that he would point out the grave to me to-morrow. 1 repeat this story for what it is
worth, but Asiatics are such wasteful liars (the exceptions only confirm the rule) that there ^may not be a word of Iruth in what
he said.*
Prjevalsky.
The only Colonel
know
of
who
has been here
is
March i8. We got off in good time this morning,and about one and one-half miles from camp crossed thejih Yueh shan ("Sun and moon mountain ") which marks the boundary between China and the Koko-nor. This hill, called by the Tibetans Do-rnirta, is but a spur of the Yeh-niu shan, and of inconsiderable height and very easy ascent. It connects to the north with the range running along the south side of lake Koko-nor, and on its western flank is the basin of the. little Tao-t'ang ho (Rhirmo yong or djong in Tibetan) the only river I know of which flows into the Koko-nor
from the southeast, f
Beyond the Jih yueh shanj stretches a rolling plateau well covered with grass but very badly watered, we saw on it but very few tents, though many may have been hidden in protected nooks
where the
*
fierce
winds cannot reach them.
John Bowring says should be borne in mind by all travelers in Asia. China, and many other parts of the East, predisposes me to receive with doubt and distrust any statement of a native, when even the smallest
Sir
What
"My
experience in
interest
is
would be
possibly secured
its
by
falsehood.
Nay,
have often observed there
a fear of truth, as truth, lest
discovery should lead to consequences of which
the inquirer never dreams, but which are present to the

interrogation.
Little
mind of the person under moral disgrace attaches to insincerity and untruthfulness, their
detection leads to a loss of reputation for sagacity

Sir
John Bowring, The

is
Kingdom and
lie
and cunning, but goes no People of Siam, I, 105-106.
further."
My own
commit
experience
that Asiatics often
for fear of displeasing, or so as not to
themselves, or from suspicion of the motives of the interrogator, but rarely from maliciousness.
t According to Prjevalsky it is the Ara gol which empties into the shore of the lake at its southeast corner.
some ponds along
t Timkowski, op. sup. cit., II, 275, calls this the Je choui chan, signifying " hot " La source chaude, coule vers le lac Koukou noor; une autre spring mountain."
d'eau froide, au nord, donne naissance a la riviere de Si-ning."

write the
Most Chinese authors
have done, meaning "mountain of the sun and moon." See Jour. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIII, 97, where it is also (p. 105), however, called
as
I
name
Jlh-ya la shan.
112

eight miles from Sharakuto
TIBET.
we passed an abandoned fort Tsahan Ch'eng and by Tibetans or Ying-pan, called by the Chinese Kar fang, both terms meaning "White fort;" then crossing the Tao-t'ang ho and a range of hills some four hundred feet high which divides the basin of this little stream from that of the Wayen nor, we entered the latter plain and camped in another abandoned Ying-pan which stands one-quarter of a mile north of
Some
the
little
lakelet of
Wayen
nor.
At no very remote period (geologically speaking) this lake may have been of considerable size (four miles from east to west and possibly two to three from north to south), but now it is not over one-quarter of a mile in its greatest width and exceedingly shallow. In the eighteenth century this, and in fact all the country around the Koko-nor, belonged to the Mongols,* while the present Kokonor Tibetans occupied the country to the southwest, extending through most of the mountainous region south of the Ts'aidam, including the valley of the Alang and Tosu-nor, which latter region was then occupied by the Arik or Arki Tibetans now living north of the Koko-nor. The name of this latter tribe was, by the way, in all likelihood the same as that of the lake now called Alang
by the Mongols, who probably made the alteration so as to make a poor pun on the name of their much feared neighbors.! All the clans of Koko-nor Tibetans belonged to eight tribes with the cognomen Na (or Nag), so they became known by the hybrid term of Pa-na ka, or Pa-na-ka sum "the eight Na families " or "the three (divisions) of the eight Na families." The latter designation appears to be of more recent date than the
former and
refers,
which they
* Khoshotes
est
are
am told, to now spread, i.

1
the three sections of country over

e.,
the tribes north of the Koko-
the Eighteenth century
Timkowski's Chinese authorities of Koukou noor (ou Khoukhou noor), habite par des Oeloet, des Torgaut, des Khalkha et des Kho it * * * En 1509
or Eleut Mongols, according to
" Le pays
qui entoure
le
cette contree fut conquise par les
Mongols.
Au commencement de
la dynastie
mandfit la
choue, actuellement regnante, Gouchi
Khan
des Oeloet, venant du nord-ouest,
conquete de ce pays,
firme dans sa
envoya un ambassadeur a la cour de Peking, dignite." Timkowski, op. sup. cit., 11, 270-280. See
il
et fut con-
also H. H.
Howorth, op. sup.

t
cit.,
1,
497, et seq.
When
the
Hsi-nin^
Fu
lived along the Tieh-li nor
(.i?.,
hsin chih was written (A. D. 1759), the Arik Fan-tzQ Tongri ts'o-nak, the Tibetan name of the Tosu nor).
n.
s.
See/oum. Roy. Asiat.Soc,
XXllI, 98.
For the various meanings of the words

158.
Alang or Alak, Areki or Arik, see
Land of the Lamas,
Su-CHiA Panaka at Muri-Wahon.

nor, those
TIBET.
113
south of
it,
and those
living south
of the Yellow
Ma* h'are Panaka. This name of Panaka or Panaka-sum they have now adopted as their ethnic appellation, and they speak of themselves, as "we Panakasum" (^Na-ts'ang Panakasum)
River or
The country
difficult access,
these Tibetans
first
occupied was mountainous, of
and the Golok were too near neighbors for comfort. So they began moving northward taking possession of first one slip of Eleut Mongol land, then of another, till now they have driven the Ch'ing-hai Wang's Mongols to Dulan-kuo and the Muring Wang's to around Tankar and the immediate neighborhood of
Chinese. Thus they obtained not only finer pasture lands than they originally had, but an easy access to the Chinese markets and consequent higher prices for their goods, and whenever they have seen lands which have seemed to them desirable, they have taken possession of them, and held them against all comers. To these sources of profit they have added others derived from razzias on their Mongol neighbors, and even on Chinese travelers. The Chinese saw with unconcealed displeasure this migration, and probably they at first prevented it taking too great proportions
the
and
lent their aid to the
to their mountains.
rebellion in
Mongols in their efforts to keep the Tibetans But with the outbreak of the Mohammedan Kan-su, in fact even earlier, probably as soon as the
all
T'ai-ping rebellion broke out,

liked,
China's forces were employed

left
to do and move about as they and thus they have come to occupy the country they now The movement of these tribes northward is still going control. on, small bands or single families are constantly coming from south of the Yellow River to live in the pasture lands south of the Ts'o non-bo (Koko-nor). The Panakasum have never paid tribute to the Emperor, but within the last few years the Hsi-ning Amban, as a means of
elsewhere, and the Panaka were
conciliating
them has given

official
yearly to each of the principal chiefs
among them
of the chiefs
three piculs of barley.
He
has also conferred on
all
buttons, but they care, very rightly,
more
for
the barley.
As
far as
can learn the Panaka are divided into the following
bands:
* The Yellow River
says this
this
is
called
Ma ch'u
in Tibetan.
Hsi-yu tung wen

dictionaries
chih, XXII,
word
(written
rma) means "yellow," but
do not thus explain
word.
114

Bands living north of the Koko-nor.
Arik
TIBET.
i.
ho.
TIBET.
115
to learn their names, nor have
There are probably a few more bands, but I have been unable I been able to obtain more than
rough guesses as to the number of families in each.* The Chamri, who form by far the largest band of the South Koko-nor Panaka, do not certainly exceed five thousand families, and most of the other bands, such as the Na-chia, Su-chia, are under a hundred. So it will appear that the Panaka living south
of the lake are numerically inferior to those living north of
it,
even if, as in fact appears proper, we discount heavily the figures I have given above. I have left out of count the Ma h'are Panaka, those living south of the Yellow River, who, I have been told, are more numerous than those to the north of it. Old Lu-bum-g6, whom I met at Kuei-te was one of the most influential chiefs of these southern
tribes.
Supposing the above estimates correct, we have families N. Koko-nor Panaka 19,500 " Koko-nor Panaka S. 8,500 " Mahari Panaka 9,000 or, estimating four persons to a family, about 158,000 souls. The estimate given above of the numerical strength of each band does not appear excessive, except for the four first bands of the North Koko-nor Panaka, in which case it would perhaps be wise to strike off ten per cent., and then I would be inchned
to accept the result as roughly correct.
The Wayen-nor Ying-pan, where we

three years ago
(in
are stopping,
was
built
1888)
when
there
was
a great rush to the

lie
newly discovered gold

here four days travel.
fields of
Gork, which
about south of
(Kurban
tara in
One has to cross the " Three days' desert," Mongol, Do fang, "Stony Plain" in Tibetan),
then Ta hoba of the Chinese (Ch'u-rnang of the Panaka) is reached, and near here, in the mountains inhabited by the Su-chia Panaka,
the gold diggings are found.
First discovered
in
1888,
the
hundred and eighty ounces of gold (three thousand two hundred and forty
leased
Hsi-ning
Amban
them
to a Chinese for one
now ruling these tribes are Chamri Solo, Konsa Lama Arabtan, Konsa Pei-ho, Remung Sherab, Ta-tsa Guru, Bumtru Seku, Mogalo, and others with like harmonious names. It must be noted that these names are firequently the same as that of the tribe to which the chief belongs.
of the principal chiefs
Ch'ii-gyal Da-la-rgya, Na-chia Ta-I(o,
*The names
ii6
TIBET.
ounces of silver) a year, which sum he had to collect as best he could from the people who came to work in the diggings. Villages of log houses soon sprang up, and in less than two years about three thousand ounces of gold had been taken out of Then the rude appliances in use were no longer the diggings.
serviceable and the placers
were abandoned.
that the Hsieh-t'ai of
Tankar will meet the Hsieh-t'ai (Colonel) from Ta-chien-lu, with whom he is to confer on the important question of whose "sphere of influence" D6rgeis to be placed in, will the Viceroy of Ssu-Ch'uan or the Hsi-ning Amban's
The T'ung-shih tells me proceed in two months time
to Derg6 to there
delegates squeeze
it.
SsQ-Ch'uan,
I
fancy, will be given authority

it
over
it,
but from what
know
of Derge,
will not
make very
much
out of it.
March t-j?.The T'ung-shih and the escort left us at Wayen nor, but the headman of the Panaka living near by was informed by the former officer that was not to be molested in any way, but
I
So to be allowed to proceed peacefully whichever way I chose. much kung shuo (" empty talk "), for no one cares a cash if I am molested or not, on the contrary, every one would like to see me
forced to give
up the journey. About three miles west of the Ying-pan we came to a short but steep descent of about one hundred feet through gravel and loess lying in horizontal strata, 'each stratum from eight to twenty feet thick.* Then we crossed a succession of low hills, and ravines, and passed by the little walled Rongwa village of Tumba, where the agricultural Tibetans come yearly to sow and reap their crops of barley, going during the winter farther south to the Yellow River. A mile farther on at Ch'abche (one of the numerous little valleys we had to cross) we saw a number of black tents and many sheep and yaks. Leaving this behind us we entered another
lacustrine plain, similar to that of the
Wayen
nor but stretching
north and south and with a small stream flowing through it and emptying, I was told, into the Huang ho, or possibly into the Huy-
huyung, a large
river
which has
how
its
source to thewest of here.f

an agent erosion can be
rivers
*This whole country shows
active
in altering
the topography of an extensive region.
Lakes and
which we know
existed a
century or less ago have been completely obliterated, chains of mountains have
crumbled away and are
now
little
more than
hillocks.
t In or near the bank of the Dabesu nor (Ts'aka nor).

On
this stream,
TIBET.
117
little
to the north of our route

is
and where
it
issues from the mountains,
the village of
Kaba
(or Gaba) talen
live some twenty to thirty families of Chinese Mohammedans, Hsi-fan and also, if report be true, a number of Chinese fugitives from justice, who have committed crimes in the Nei-ti (China proper) and have found refuge in this secluded spot. The place bears a bad reputation among Tibetans and Mongols. A little farming is done around the village and a small crop of barley
where
is
raised.
We camped near the river nearly two miles from the village, with which we thought prudent not to hold any intercourse. The country so far belongs to the Chamri Panaka tribe, but to-morrow we will enter the country of the Shaner Panaka.
The trail led over the foot hills of the range which Koko-nor from us and whose southern base we have been following since leaving Sharakuto. This range has no name that I can hear of, at one place it is called by my Chinese Erhte-shan at another Lao-hu shan, and so on. To the south the country
20.
March
hides the
stretches out for miles
an undulating plateau, the little ridges having a general southwesterly direction. Some forty miles to the south 1 can distinguish a chain of mountains trending apparently southwest by west, but of no great height. They are probably on the farther side of the Yellow River. Black tents were quite numerous all along the route, and we passed a few whose denizens told us they had but recently come from near Labrang gomba, to the south of the Yellow River. This
traversing
it
country is the Tibetan's land of promise, plenty of grass, water, wind, and pusillanimous Mongol neighbors, whom they can bully
and
rob.
We camped in
good
for a brick of tea
a stony valley called Erhte,
sized stream, the Erhte ch'uk'a, and
of tents of Shaner Panaka, at
down which flows a where there are a number one of which we bought a sheep
and some red handkerchiefs. Some Sharba* from Sung-pan were camped near us, but, as is their custom, they would have nothing to do with us fearing lest I were a T'ung-shih anxious to squeeze them. These enterprising traders are found in every nook and corner of the Koko-nor and have got all the trade with
*The Sharba are Chinese traders from Sung-pan of the Lamas, 54 and 112.
T'ing
in
SsQ-ch'uan.
See
Land
Ii8

which should by
TIBET.
Kan-su more push and energy. We made camp at about noon, just as the west wind began its daily violent performance, and to-day, as usual, it kept it up to sunset. I noticed very few yaks hereabout, all the cattle are halfbreed yaks (^pien niu in Chinese) and domestic cattle (huang niu). that the cattle plague, which has been I am told everywhere raging now for over a year, has destroyed most of the cattle, and has been especially fatal to yaks. What would become of the
the people,
if
rights have belonged to the
traders
they had only a
little
Tibetans without yaks

fuel,
is difficult
to imagine, dwellings, food

useful,
and
they
owe
21.
all
this
and much more, to these
ugly beasts.
March
trail
little
Some
six or eight miles to the

hills,
took us higher up the foot

basin, that of the Hato,
and
we
west of Erhte the passed into another

I
which empties,
I
was
assured, into
the
Kaba
talen stream (but of this
have
my doubts,
it
and
it
would
appear to
nor).
little
me much more
is
The country
flows into the Gunga covered everywhere with grass, but it is of

probable that
is
use as pasture land, as water
miles away, except during a
brief period of the year
The small herds

miles to water.
when the rain water collects in the hollows. we saw have all to be driven daily four or five
I
When
of the
about eight miles from Erhte ch'uk'a,
caught a glimpse
Gunga nor or " Egg lake." It bore about south-southwest from us and was probably four miles away. It appeared to be a very small sheet of water, hardly deserving the name of lake. It receives a number of streams, the principal being the Huyuyung, which, as have said, comes from the west. It may have an outI
let into
the Yellow River, or one of
its
affluents,
but
my men
assured
me
it
had none.
is
mountains, trending in but becoming parallel to the chain to our right at its western extremity. This range appeared to be slightly higher than that to the north of our route useless to say that my men assured me that it had no name, though each peak in it is provided with a high sounding one. The whole country hereabout shows signs of rapid erosion, every depression I see has been cut out of the loess and gravel by
its
To
the south of this lake

portion in
a chain of
eastern
a southeasterly
direction,
the action of water.
All the elevations are of the

flat tops.
misa type, of
uniform height, with steep sides and
TIBET.
119
About five miles before making camp we passed a few tents of Tashio Tibetans, near whicii small herds of camels were grazing, an unusual sight, for Tibetans do not often own these useful but
patience-trying animals.
At Hato, where we camped, we found an abundance of pebbles and sandstone boulders (hence the Mongol name of hato, " stony"), but very little grass. The stream which flows by this place is of quite a respectable size, and in the rainy season must be a formidable torrent. Some fifty tents of Narta Hsi-fan are scattered about here, and we availed ourselves of their proximity to buy a sheep, for which I paid a small brick of tea (/ ch'a) and a piece of red cotton cloth {Asiao mo-hun), the whole of the
value of six
mace
of silver.
sheep
it
lasts
the party eight days

full a
when we have
only rice to eat
takes
two cups
day, or
if
we
only have vermicelli {kua mien), one and a half catties.
A
is
brick of tea (five catties) lasts us from five to six weeks.
Rice
decidedly the most economical food

travelers.
we
can use and the best for
The west wind blew to-day with its accustomed violence, it has been blowing nearly incessantly since we have left Sharakuto.
March 22. Shortly after starting this morning caravan of several hundred yaks laden with salt.
we
passed a
The owners
were Chu-chia Tibetans and the salt was brought from the great salt lake, the Ts'ak'a or Dabesu nor ("Salt lake"), about three days west of here. The Tibetans buy the salt from the Mongols (of the Wanka tribe), who obtain it by evaporation. The price paid for it by the Tibetans is about a sheng (a little over a quart) of tsamba for a bushel (t'ou).
we entered a sandy waste in which the few thorny bushes projecting out of the tops of sand hillocks the sand had drifted around them till but a little portion of them showed above ground. The trail led
Three miles from camp
only vegetation
was
over a succession of undulations trending southward.

ravines or nullahs
fifty feet in
Some
we
crossed,
showed
in their sides
(thirty to
depth) alternate layers of gravel and loess. about eight miles from Hato, we came in sight of the Huyuyung, a good sized stream (for these parts) some twenty-five yards wide and about four feet deep. This stream, I am told, has its source on the very edge of the Ts'ak'a nor. We followed up
When
I20
TIBET.
bank to Ts'o kadri where we camped, the river bottom, everywhere thickly covered with alkaline efflorescence, and hardly a blade of grass to be seen anywhere. Shortly before reaching the river we passed through a sand bank where I saw quantities of the little univalve fossil shells which characterize the loess. A covey of partridges rose at our a pproach, and a few antelopes {huang yang) scampered away on sighting us except these we saw no living creature.
its left
We are now
which,
I
am
told,
within five or six miles of the southern range, bears here the name of Ch'ermar (or Ch'emar).
The
hills
to the north of the road are considerably higher here
than farther
much
I
east, and a few peaks have snow on them, but not so on the mountains to the south. Again to-day the west wind has blown with great violence. have noted that the temperature is higher when it blows than
as
when
it is
calm.
March 2j. We crossed the Huyuyung River on the ice, and I was assured that this was the only time of the year when this
stream could be traversed, as the quicksands, with which its bed is full, render it impassable, except when frozen over. Travelers
going to Muri-Wahon have, except
at this season, to follow the
Huyuyung up
to
its
source, a day's journey to the west.
On
account of the impossibility of fording this stream, all Tibetans living in winter along the base of the mountains to the south of the Huyuyung, and who are desirous of using the fine pasturage to the north of it, cross to the north side before the ice breaks up. Leaving the river we took a southwesterly course across the
Ch'emar fang, which
has, within a very recent period, formed one of the largest of the lakelets or sinks with which this region is covered. In fact it must even now, in very rainy years, be con-
verted into a
swamp, and
it
a little stream,
whose dry bed we
with Near the southwestern viewed from this point, I are said to be those of a
IVIar-k'uar or
crossed, connects
the
Huyuyung.
extremity of the Ch'emar mountains, as had pointed out to me some ruins which
Chinese
fort
{Ying).
They
are called
"Red
fort."
While traversing the depression just mentioned I saw large numbers of antelopes {huang yang) and wild asses, also some sheldrakes and a small, light brown colored bird, with a black

patch on
rare gift
its
TIBET.
I2I
breast.
This
little
fellow
is
an agreeable twitterer, a
yesterday
among birds of these regions. Some seven miles from our camp of
we came
to a
stream flowing north, and called the Tsatsa ch'uk'a (or gol), and
finding the banks of the rivulet covered with fine green grass, we decided upon passing a day here to let the animals feed, as they
have had hardly anything to
eat,
except a quart or
two
of barley
daily, since leaving Sharakuto.
The spot on which we camped was one any Mongol or Tibetan would have held to be an ideal one; it was sheltered from the west winds by a low range of hills, which here intersect the Tsatsa ch'uk'a; there was good water, grass, dry dung for fuel,
and. stones to build a hearth with; no one could ask for more.
1 found a number of the little though I noticed no loess. The wind blew furiously from noon well into the night, but the temperature in the middle of the day was quite warm the thermometer rises daily now in the sun to about 60 F. In looking over my notes on Tibet from Chinese sources,* I find (p. 98) that in the eighteenth century a road leading from Hsi-ning to Lh'asa passed by the Wayen nor, and after following up the left bank of the Huyuyung for some distance, struck south across the mountains to the Tosu nor. It passed along the north bank of this lake and then, by the road I followed in 1889, led to Karmat'ang and the source of the Yellow River. This itinerary shows, furthermore,
In the hills
behind our camp
shells characteristic of the loess,
that at that time (say 1750) there
was another
small lake (Sini
(Bayan) nor and the Gunga nor, about We also learn thirty miles west or west-southwest of the former. from this work that at the time it was written the whole country between Sharakuto and the Ts'aidam was inhabited by Mongols, and that Tibetans (Arik Fan-tzu) were then occupying the fertile pasture lands around the Tosu nor and Alang nor.
nor) between the
Wayen
March
78 F.
24..
To-day has been a most enjoyable one, no wind
in
the morning and the thermometer in the sun at noon going up to
A
to
words
Sharba trader rode by but, though he spoke a few one of my men, who was a little way from camp, he
series,
*Joum. Roy Asiat. Soc, new down on d' Anville's map (Carte L'Asie Centrale, 355 et seq.
XXIII, 97, et seq.
This road
is
also laid
Genl' du Thibet).
See also Dutreuil de Rhins,
122

;
TIBET.
T'ung-shih
I
could not be induced to approach us he feared there was some in the party who might attempt to squeeze him.
went
fifty to
and shoot an antelope, but only saw a band of seventy-five wild asses on the Ch'emar fang, and it was
to try
impossible to stalk them, as there was neither cover nor a gully on it. A number of little streams flow across the plain from south to north they come from the mountains along its southern
;
edge and disappear

plain.
in the
ground near the northern border of the
SsQ-shih-wu, who has passed much of his life among the Tibetan tribes of this neighborhood, tells me the chiefs or Ponbo receive in the eighth month of the year from their clansmen
presents of
cattle, horses,
sheep, pulo, butter,
etc.,
which
consti-
however, not onerous; they command their people in case of war, and with them watch over the pasture lands of the band, trying always to gain more acres and to resist the encroachments of stronger trib'es.
tute the only salary they get.
Their duties
are,
March 25. We left early, as it was a long way to the Muri ch'u, where we had to camp, and where the donkeys hired at Lusar were to leave us. We passed around a spur projecting from the
mountains to the south, but apparently not belonging geologically
to the
same formation,
for
it
is
of igneous, while the range
itself
appears to be of metamorphic rocks (fine grained bluish limestone and granite).
considerable portion of this spur has been
covered up by
loess, leaving here
and there a peak a hundred
feet
or so high sticking up out of the surrounding grassy plain.
From
the main range a huge

pebbles) has been
amount of dibris (limestone and granite down, forming enormous cones of dejection, stretching into the plain a mile or more beyond the base of the mountains at the mouth of every gorge. The Muri-ch'u (or ch'uk'a) we found to be a good-sized but
carried
very shallow stream, flowing north-northeast over a bed of rolled

stones,
its
banks rising
is
vertically
about twenty feet and showing
that the plain
bed of gravel.
in
but a very thin layer of loess and sand over a thick Erosion has changed the whole face of this country
is still
very recent times, and this change
going on rapidly.
The Na-chia and Chu-chia Panaka live here, some hundred tents of them in all. It is a fine pasture land, but water is scarce.
TIBET.
123
We camped on
the
Mud ch'u
about a mile from where
it
leaves
the mountains and near the ruins of an old Tibetan
camp marked
by numerous cooking stoves and altars of stone plastered with dung. These stoves differ slightly from those used to the north of The annexed cut and elevation of one will enable the Koko-nor.
me
to dispense with further description of this ingenious contriv-
So'
V
3'
ELEVATION AND PLAN OF TIBETAN TENT,

T, T, T, Tent.
W, W, Low interior walls.

A, Place for
fuel.
C, Ash hole. D, Opening to receive V, Door.
kettle.
Bf Fireplace.
This cut also enables one to understand the interior arrangement of Tibetan tents. On the altar, which is built some little distance from the tent, juniper spines (shukd) are burnt morning and evening. The low wall inside the tent keeps out the wind. I can see from here stretching to the northwest, some twelve miles away, the Huyuyung, and I am told that still about eight or ten miles farther on is the Ts'ak'a nor, from which point Dulankuo is reached in a day. The mountains, at the base of which we have camped, rise rapidly to the west of us, and we can see in that direction a number of snow-covered peaks. I can hear of no general name for this range, though the people speak of the Muri
ance.
la,
the
Wahon la,
after
the Sayi
all,
it
la,
etc.,
each peak having
its
own name
but though,
will
come along some

right to
well provided with names, a foreigner day and give it another; I, however, waive
is
my
do
so.
124
TIBET.
Between the Tsatsa ch'uk'a and this place we saw some three hundred wild asses, also quite a number of wild pigeons and These latter neither Mongols nor Tibetans will kill, sheldrakes. because their plumage is partly yellow, and they look upon them as " lama birds " in fact, they call them by that name.
;
March 2<5.Yeh Hsien-sheng and Ssu-shih-wu went early this morning to the sub-chief of the Na-chia, whose tent is on the slope
about a mile and a half from ours, to hire yaks to carry our luggage to Shang in the Ts'aidam. In a few hours they returned, Ssu-shih-wu bearing the chiefs sword, by which I at once knew that a bargain had been made
of the Muri
la,
and that
bargain
have to
The his sword was the guaranty that bound him to it. was not a very good one; for eight yaks and two men I pay ten small bricks of tea worth 4.0 taels, two bricks of
same value as the
first,
fine tea, of the
and eighteen pieces of red
calico {hsiao mo-huri)*

taels,
I
worth 46
tael cents a piece; total, 13.08
but these goods are valued here at 25 taels. endeavored to induce the sub-chief, Wang-ma-bum by name, to take me to Shang vi& the Tosu nor (the trail I have previously referred to as known to the Chinese in the last century), but he said it was impassable at this season of the year on account of the ice and the enormous quantities of snow on the mountains. This
Amnye Malchin (the most mountain of the Panaka and K'amba), and is only practicsacred able in the seventh and eighth months, when some of the Na-chia, Chu-chia and Su-chia Panaka take it to hunt yaks and dig rhubarb near the Tosu nor. It takes about fifteen days to reach Shang by
trail,
he explained to me, led over the
this road.
I
had been led to believe that the Golok confined
their raids to
the
Mongol country, but

grass has
all
now
hear that a party of them
made
razzia in this valley last year.
The
been eaten up around here by the flocks and
herds of the Tibetans, and so my ponies and mules are not profiting much by the rest, especially as from our proximity to the black
tents and the irresistible inclination of this people for horse steal-
we have to dark to dawn.

ing,
tie
the mules and horses close to the tents from

will leave here
We
in
to-morrow and probably
find
* Called
Rds rlung
Panaka Tibetan.
TIBET.
125
good grazing up the Wahon valley where Tibetans have not been since last summer. The donkey men go back to-morrow to Lusar, and I have given them my home letters and telegrams, which they will deliver to the Inland Mission people at Hsi-ning, by whom they will be forwarded to Lan-chou where there is a post and telegraph
office.
March
27.
Passing
over the foothills of the Muri
la,
in the
depressions of which were

chia and Na-chia tribes,
some
thirty to forty tents of the
Su-
we saw from
the highest of
them a corner
of the Ts'ak'a nor glistening in the distance.
Turning southward,
we
entered the mountains and followed up the course of the

ch'u (or ch'uk'a), a clear mountain torrent of considerable
is
Wahon
volume which
probably the principal feeder of the Huyuyung.
The mountains
of the valley
rose precipitately on either side with hardly any
vegetation or even soil on their flanks of granite, and the bottom
was
so thickly strewn with dibris that one might
well have thought that dynamite had been used to blow the
rocks to pieces, so finely were they shattered.
A few miles
tical
up the
valley
we
found, at the base of a nearly verfine, long,
wall of red and rose-colored granite,
green grass,
and here we camped, and the animals had soon filled themselves with the succulent food and were able to enjoy a long and wellearned rest. This place is called Wahon omsa (" lower Wahon") Old Wang-ma-bum, our guide, is a queer specimen of the Panaka Tibetan a little, wizzened-up fellow of about fifty, with shaven head and no beard,* a piercing eye and spare but well-muscled
;
body, only imperfectly wrapped in a big sheepskin ch'uba. His pet exclamation is Om mani, or yim din-ba, "it is true," either one
or the other of
which he appends
to every ten
The Tibetans
to
of Central Tibet he calls Gopa,
words he speaks. which word I take
be a corrupt pronunciation of Bo-pa (Bod-pa). f
He has
traveled not only to Lh'asa, but also into the
Golok country. Of these latter people he says that they have at the most five chiefs, and that their country is so poor that they cannot buy
* The Panaka pluck out
every
their beards
his
man
carries
suspended around
with tweezers {chyam ts'er), one of which neck or hanging from his belt. The Lh'asa
people frequently wear moustaches.
t Pronounced Beu (or Peu) ba
in Central Tibet.
126

flour,
TIBET.
twelve bowls full of vwhich are counted as the Sheep are rare among them, but they have large numbers of cattle. They live in black tents like the Panaka, and They eat he has never heard, as I had, that any inhabited caves. chura and butter like other Tibetans, and, of course, drink quan-
tsamba or
price of a sheep.
tities
of tea (froni Chiung-chou).

28.
March
The dSbris
in
the bottom of the valley increased in

it is
quantity as
we
advanced, and to-day
in
many
places over a
hundred feet deep on either side of the stream. Numerous skulls of mountain sheep {Ovis poll, pan yang in Chinese, Rnyen in Tibetan) lay scattered about, and the guide told me that this splendid animal is very common all through these mountains we saw none, however, only a few wild asses and half a dozen
;
yaks.
above where we camped last under the mass of dibris which fills the valley, so we had to ascend to the snow line and there let our animals slack their thirst with snow; they had, however, to go without food, not a blade of grass was to be seen, only a little moss growing here and there on the stones around the place where we camped. We gave our ponies and mules a little barley and they huddled together under a ledge of rock near our camp to get away from the piercing wind.
ch'u, less than a mile
The Wahon
night, disappears
The
it
place
where we camped
the pass
we
wall of
difficult
snow
is known as Wahon jamkar, from have to cross is visible, and it looks appalling, a from the base to the very summit, it will prove a
it.
task to scale
In the afternoon
about an inch of
fell
snow
fell,
and during the

placidly and
night the thermometer

I
to
+14
fire,
Fahrenheit.
tried in the
evening
after dinner,
when
all
were
contentedly seated around the
to get
some
information from
Wang-ma-bum concerning the number of persons in the different bands of Panaka. He was very communicative until I said that I wished he would repeat what he had just said, that I would like
to write
down
the figures he had given me.

if
I
rather excitedly, that
wanted
to talk he
proposed writing down what he said word. He imagined, probably, that I wanted to use the information gained in estimating the resources of each band, so as to be
He refused and said, was willing, but if he would not say another
I

able to raid their country
TIBET.
127
some day with
a party of
my own
Chamri
people.
I
ascertained, however, from the old fellow, that the
were the most numerous (five thousand families) of the Panaka between the Yellow River and the lake (Koko nor), the other
bands ranging from fifty or sixty tents to one hundred and fifty and two hundred, also that the Panaka south of the Yellow River were much more numerous than those north of it. During the Mohammedan rebellion some of the Panaka bands, among others the Su-Na-chia, that of my informant, moved from their present location to Shang-chia in the Ts'aidam, and only came back to their present location when troubles were over.
March
2g.
This has
proved a
terribly
hard day.
The rocks
which covered the bottom of the gorge were entirely hidden by snow, over these we plunged and slid for nearly two miles, when
By this time stopped to reconnoitre the pass and readjust the loads of the jnules and yaks. The guide and Yeh Hsien-sheng returning reported the pass nearly closed, and Wang-ma-bum suggested that we should turn back and take the Ts'ak'a nor and Dulan-kuo route to Shang. 1 refused, and insisted
ourselves at the foot of the principal ascent.
it
we found
was
past noon, but
we
that
we could cross we went about it in
the pass
if no time was lost in talking and the usual ka-lS, ka-li, " slow, slow," way.
After trying the pass itself and finding it absolutely impracticable from the great depth of soft snow, we attacked it by the mountain on its eastern side, and up its steep side's we struggled, where the sharp stones cut the feet of horses and men, and after innumerable falls we finally made our way to the summit. It took us four hours to reach it, though the distance was not over a mile and a half
by the zigzag
the top
to the south and and to the west the broad reddish plain of the Ts'aidam was dimly discernible. The prevailing color of the mountains was brick red, and very little snow was visible anywhere on them, even on the great range to the south of the Ts'aidamthe Kunlun of our maps.
east,
From
trail we followed. we saw a maze of mountains
was steeper than the one we had just snow covered it so deeply that we made the descent without danger by simply sliding down through it. Reaching the
side of the pass
The south
ascended, but
128

snow
till
TIBET.
and the with the
valley bottom, we found the yaks could not get through it
ovel" four feet deep,
we
had opened a
trail
mules,
place
who were
than
the
of infinitely
more
service to us in this trying
had, however, expected wonders. To add to our trouble it began snowing heavily before we got below the snow line, and darkness overtook us, so we scraped away the snow from a large flat rock and put up our tents, but
yaks
of
whom we
were too worn out
to either eat or sleep.
When
had
lit
a candle as
we
all
burst out laughing as
we looked at
each other;
we were
black as negroes, and our eyes were so swollen and blood-shot that the tears ran down our ebony cheeks even in this dim light.
Had the sun shown during the day our sufferings would have been terrible, notwithstanding the horse-hair eye-shades we all wore.
it should being at the source of the Wahon ch'u. It is approximately 16,500 feet above sea level, and from its western flank issues the Tsatsa gol, which flows through the northeastern corner of the Ts'aidam, while on its southern side the Tsahan ossu or "White River" has its source. The road we propose following will take us down the course of this latter river whose very existence has not heretofore been suspected,
The pass we had crossed bears no name, though
properly be called
Wahon
la,
where it enters the Ts'aidam plain. where we camped is called Kukus6, a Tibetan mispronunciation, I fancy, of Koko ossu, "Blue River," the name of a rivulet which empties into the main branch of the Tsahan ossu, a mile or so lower down than this camp.
until near
The
place
March JO.'Wt
place
left
by
daylight, as
we wanted
to reach
food.
some
After
where
we
could procure fuel and cook a
little
few miles through deep snow we reached the main Tsahan ossu and left the snow behind. The snow
a
side of the
valley of the
line
is
on
this
Wahon
la,
as
shall call this
mountain,
at least a
thousand
formation
feet
lower than on the northern slope.

granite.
The predominant
is still
noticed in the distance several large herds of wild yaks, hares, very large crows, a variety of bird that I took for a flicker,
We
and a small greyish brown bird were

quite a
number
also quite numerous. of skulls of big-horns {Ovis Poli).
saw
TIBET.
129
The general direction of tiie range before us is west-northwest and south-southeast, and its summits rise 2,000 to 3, 000 feet above the valley, which in places is, perhaps counting its width from the summits to the north to the crest of the southern range, two to three miles wide. Many patches of loess are visible on the mountain sides, and along the river bank there is a great deal of gravel and broken, angular pieces of stone. Reddish clay is abundant, should have noted, on the southern slopes of the range we have just crossed. We sighted two or three hundred yaks drinking in the river, and wounded three. It was a glorious sight to see the whole herd dashing across ravines and through snow drifts up a lateral valley. I followed them for several miles, and though two of the wounded animals were losing quantities of blood, I failed to get again within range, for the melting snow and the slippery clayey soil were too much for my pony. I did not want to take any Ts'aidam ponies with me into Tibet, experience had proven them to be worthless for the kind of work I had before me, and so had to give up the chase, as 1 could not afford to overwork the good little Konsa pony I was riding. We camped on the bank of the river in a miserably bleak spot where the wind and the driving snow made it most uncomfortable for us all night, and where our cattle got very little grass or rest. A couple of bears came wandering about among the rocks near us, but we were all too tired to think of shooting. From what old Wang-ma-bum tells me the Tsahan ossu is the same stream which crossed in '89, in the Ts'aidam, when on my way to Baron kure, and which is there called Shara gol. It is like all the rivers of this region, much shallower and of smaller volume in its lower course than at its head, much of the water being lost in the sands and swampy grounds when it leaves the hills.
March 31.
and came
We moved down the Tsahan ossu about ten miles

We
where grass and fuel were abundant, and where decided to rest for a day, as much for the sake of the yaks and mules as for our own. are all suffering terribly from snow blindness, even the Panaka have not been spared. passed a
to a spot
we
We
hot spring {hotun ossu), but the weather was so bad, the snow driving in our eyes made us so anxious to reach camp as fast as possible, that 1 omitted taking the temperature of the water. I
doubt
if it
was much over
70 Fahrenheit.
13

the mountain side near
I
TIBET.
On
I
wild yaks, and

don't care for
where we camped we saw some young heifer; the meat is, though yak meat, most acceptable, as we have exhausted
shot a fine
our supply of mutton, and
we
have
still
three days traveling before
we
reach Shang.
when the two Tibetans who accompany me and from us under the shelter of our luggage piled up in a semi-circle around them, have got their frugal meal of meat and tea ready, one of them arranges in two rows twentysix bits of burning dung, and on these he puts a little shuka in which tsamba, butter and salt have been mixed (the two latter ingredients to make it burn the better); then they both stand facing the south and, bare headed with joined palms, shout in a wild and apparently angry tone, a long prayer to the gods,
Every evening,
who camp away
among which
herds.
the
Amnye
("forefathers")* are especially
menand
tioned, asking their protection for themselves, their flocks
Then they make

fire
three prostrations, and finally circumit
ambulate the
keeping
on
their right side
and never ceasing

in
their furious praying.
My
some
sextant work,
surveying and drawing,
the
terribly
I
inflamed condition of
relief in
my eyes, has become most painful. holding my face over the boiling kettle, the
This
is
find
soothes the pain considerably.

the natives, t
steam the usual remedy used by
fifty, vaults on to his horse's hand on the pummel of his saddle and grasping in his right his long lance, its butt end resting on the ground. This is the usual way for an armed Tibetan to get into the saddle, and is a very graceful one.
Wang-ma-bum, though passed

his left
back by resting
* For a
(the
list
of the
Amnye see Land of the Lamas,

is
94.
Each
Amnye is supposed
to reside on a certain high peali, usually
Chinese Kuan-ti)
some great snow-covered mountain. Gesar one of the most powerful Amnye. There are many
in
mountains besides those mentioned

prefixed.
the
list
referred to
above to which
this
word
is
t Father Acosta, in his History of the Indies, (Hakluyt Soc. edit), I, 288, tells us that when once crossing the Andes he was greatly troubled with snow blindness,
and, " being troubled with this paine, and out of patience, there came an Indian woman which said to me, ' Father, lay this to thine eies, and thou shalt be cured.' It was a piece of the flesh of vicunas, newly killed and all bloody. I used this
medicine and presently the pain ceased, and soon
after
went
quite
away."

April
but not
I.
TIBET.
131
The whole day was

my
doctoring
the cold
taken up by
work
in
my
tent,
writing up
notes, woricing out
my
route sketches, and, last
least,
my
was
eyes.
fell
was no wind,
10' Fahrenheit, but as there To-day at 2 p. m., it stood (in the sun) at +54' and at 7 p. m. it had fallen again to +8^ The two or three inches of snow which fell yesterday, have
Last night the thermometer
to
quite bearable.
already disappeared in exposed places

it
throughout
all
this region
melts with wonderful rapidity.
April 2.
The
trail
continued
down
dibris (loess
and gravel)
at the
the Tsahan ossu valley, the mouths of the lateral valleys
was in many places over one hundred feet thick. Some miles below camp a good-sized stream, coming from the southeast, empties into the river. From this point onward for over six miles the valley is considerably broader than higher up, and must'have been quite a "park" before the dibris from the mountains on either side had filled it with rows of low hillocks, cut through here and there by torrents. We see no signs of anyone ever inhabiting this splendid pasture land, only a few old hearth stones and some manure show that man ever passes this way. In summer, I am told, the Rerin gongma "Upper Rerin " (to distinguish them from the " Lower" or chuong-ma branch of the
Muri ch'u), travel this road when on their way from Shang to Lusar. To-day has been the second since we left Lusar in which there has been absolutely no wind. Last night
tribe living near the
again
was very cold,

on the
the thermometer falling to
-|-o
before 8
p.
m.
The
ice
river is in places
two
feet thick.
We
saw
few
wild yaks, some hares and magpies.
A few miles beyond where we have camped to-day, the river takes a west-northwest bend, and though it has in this part of its course several considerable affluents, the volume of its water is less than higher up its course.
April 3.l\\xtt miles below our camp of last night we left the Tsahan ossu, and passing over some gravelly hills and across some alkaline flats entered the basin of a little affluent coming from the Koko k'utul (" Blue pass "). The ascent was very easy, although we had to flounder for half a mile before reaching the summit
132
TIBET.
through very deep snow which filled every hollow. The hillsides were .covered With fine grass, and we saw many Hsi-fan fire-places
the Rerin
From
only a
camp here in summer. summit of the pass we could distinguish, apparently few miles away the Bayan gol (lower course of the Yogore)
the
and the reddish yellow plain of the Ts'aidam, behind which rose the South Ts'aidam mountains (our Kun-lun).
The descent was very

thousand
feet,
steep
for
the
-first all
as
is
the
case with
nearly
southern slopes of passes throughout this region,
over a mass oidibris (mostly limestone), then
we
came
to a gently sloping
valley,
covered with
fine grass
and juniper
trees scattered
about on
This
the hillsides, and in sheltered nooks

valley leads
were numer-
ous black tents belonging to the Rerin.
down
to the
Mongol town of Shang,
and gun
the
is
inhabited in the upper portion, called Keter
("come twice") by Rerin Panaka, and in lower, known as Derben chin (or Jya-ma bji,
catties"),
" Four
by Shang Mongols.*
than that
SPINDLE OF PANAKA TIBETANS.
this evening is much warmer have heretofore experienced since leaving Lusar at the same hour. At 7 p. m. the thermometer stood at -1-23 Fahrenheit, while yesterday at the same hour it was -I- 4. 8. My Panaka guides were much worried because they could not make their burnt offerings this evening, they had no argols on which to burn the incense, and insisted that cedar wood, with which we had built a roaring fire, was not suitable, though I called their
The temperature
we
attention to
its
fragrance.
April 4.. Some Rerin Tibetans stopped us about a mile below camp, but seeing that we were well armed let us proceed. No
Mongol
or Chinese traders ever venture to
come
this
way as
these
Panaka would levy such blackmail from them that they would be ruined. As we advanced, the hills on our rightthe last southwestern slopes of the range through which we have been traveling
*
1
could obtain no satisfactory explanation of these names.
BONBO LAMAS
IN
InN-YaRD AT KUEI-TE.
Camp of Rerin gongma Panaka near Shang.

since
TIBET.
133
Muri-Wahon, dwindled away to insignificant southwestern extremity a rocky spur some four hundred to five hundred feet high, abutting on the Y6gore gol. The hills on our left (the southeastern side of the valley) were
leaving
hillocks,
their
two distinct peaks, that farther down the valley called Noyen hung, probably fifteen hundred feet high. We stopped at some Rerin tents to buy a sheep, and availed
higher, with
I
myself of the opportunity to photograph the camp. While so doing a small boy came running towards me but a woman seized him and shouted out " don't go near him, he can make a hundred soldiers come out of that box " * The Chinese are often quite While traveling to Kuei-te two soldiers passed me as foolish. while I was using my prismatic compass. One said to the other " He is looking for gold deposits in the river, he can see them by looking through that little box he has in his hand.''
!
About ten miles down the

tents, the farthest
valley
camp
the
we came to some fifteen Mongol Shang Mongols have in this direction.
They
latter
live in
appear to be
dread of their thieving neighbors, the Rerin, but the in nearly as great dread of them, for while we
I
were trying to buy the sheep, asked one of the Tibetans to guide to Shang as I wanted to ride ahead of my party and feared to lose myself, but he refused for fear of the Mongols in the lower
me
part of the valley.
The
distance to
Shang proved greater than we had

soil.
anticipated,
over twenty-four miles over sandy
When
near the Y6gore
we
passed some land under cultivation, irrigation ditches being
cut from here to the river.

river in front of
We had
it
some
difficulty in fording the
Shang, as
was
nearly three-fourths of a mile
still
wide and quite swift, though fortunately shallow. There was a good deal of ice on it, in places eight or nine inches thick. The new Tibetan governor of Shang (he had arrived a week or
after
two
and
my
first visit
to this place in 1889)! took
me
for a trader
before allowing me to enter the town. squeeze number of envoys to confer with me, the first a poor devil He sent a of a Jack of all trades, called Shara-wSnza, who had been my
tried to *Moorcroft when
been
fortress
in
me
telling strange stories of us to the Mir;
Kunduzsays, " Baba Beg apprised me that some persons had amongst other things, that we had a
artillery
concealed in our packages, with
which went
off of its
own
accord,
and
had the power of discriminating friends from Himalayan Provinces of India, II, 419.
f See
foes."
W.
Moorcroft, Travels in the
Land of
the
Lamas, 144
et seq.
134
TIBET.
factotum during my first visit iiere, ttien a Chinese trader, then a Each one told dirty Tibetan from Tsang, and finally his steward. me that the K'anpo insisted on my leaving Shang, as it was Tibetan governed territory, and the Tashil'unpo lamas would be much
I finally if they learned that he had allowed me to visit it. sent the Hsien-sheng to him with my passport, visiting card and a k'atag, and told him that 1 was astonished at his incivility, that
vexed
had treated me with great politeness, given me a fine tent, entertained me, and that we had parted the best of He apologized, said he was not conversant with ofiFicial friends. customs, and begged me to make myself at home, regretting that Later in the day I learned that ever he had no tent to lend me. visit the crops had failed, and that most of the cattle since my first
his predecessor
had died from the murrain which has swept over all the Koko-nor and adjacent country, and that I had been considered the cause of
all
the trouble.*
v4/>ri7 5. Although I staid at Shang nearly a fortnight in 1889, and knew nearly every living soul in the town, only a very few have vouchsafed to recognize me this time. The Chinese here assure me that this is a Mongol custom, a strange one to say the least, and confined to this place, as far as my experience goes. Everything is fearfully dear here this year, two pounds of butter
are
exchanged
I
for a sheep, barley sells for a tael of silver a
bushel
(Jou).
sent the K'anpo a small present to-day and he promised
to send return presents
to-morrow. Panaka guides left this morning with their yaks, as there is Before leaving they begged for no grass around this place. got mad with them then another, until first one thing and and turned them out of my tent. These people are insatiable, and one should be very careful when dealing with them, never to give them anything until they have completely fulfilled the bargain made, whether it be to guide or do something else for you. If
My
pao
* Shang pays a yearly tribute to the Panch'en rinpoch'e of Tashil'unpo of 3 yuan(150 taels). The lama who governs the district for him receives annually from
[i. e., all
by members of a same family, married He on his side gives yearly to each family a little k'atag, and in return he receives from each a certain number of lambThe second lama (colloquially called the skins, nominally "to line his clothes." K'anpo) gets whatever he can squeeze from the people. All the property which a person had in actual personal use at the time of his death, such as clothes, boots,
each ta chia
the tents occupied
ones included,) twelve sheep, one each month.
saddles, horses, gun, etc., goes to the
lama on
his demise.
TIBET.
135
them
one begins from the start to make them small presents to keep This remark in good humor, they will pester one's life out. applies to Mongols also, though in a less degree. To-day has been very hot, the thermometer in my tent at 1.30 p. M. stood at 78 Fahrenheit, and in the sun at 87 Fahrenheit. It is positively oppressive, the change has been so sudden.
I
heard that the Djassak of Baron,
my
former acquaintance of
Oim, a little valley opening on to the Ik6 The Hsien-sheng will go there gol and a day's ride from here. to-morrow to see Dowe, my former guide to Jyakundo, and learn
'89, is
now
living at
if
he will
assist
me
this time.
April
6.
Most of my time
barley, hair hobbles, ropes,
to-day has been taken up buying and various other necessary odds and
Flat pearl buttons, small
ends, and also ethnological specimens.
jack-knives and needles were in great demand, five buttons or
For a fine matchlock I gave an Alashan saddle-rug, a brick of tea and a jack-knife. was very sorry to hear to-day from a Chinese trader just I arrived from Oim that Dowe had lost the sight of one eye, and that the other was in a very inflamed condition and of little use to him, I fear he will not be able to accompany me. There are here four Mongol lamas from Manchuria, one a Solon. The latter is waiting to join the yearly caravan from Tankar to Lh'asa, which is due in the Ts'aidam in May. He is a fine looking fellow as white as I am, and has quite a European cast of features. Eastern Mongol lamas like living here, as the usage of the country admits of their having wives, whereas in Tibet or their own country such a thing would not be tolerated.
needles buying a pair of hobbles.
The meteorological record to-day

7
p.
in the shade,
from 6
a. m., to
M.
is
as follows
TEMP.
HOUR.
ATMOSPHERE.
6 a.m.
7
+35 F. Calm.
39i
Cirro-stratus-
10
12
2
p.
44-3
68
67.5 6i.2
Light N.
breeze
M.
4
6
7
..
53-2 Very lights, breeze Ciro-cumul.Strato. cirrus 51

all
These figures are
much
higher than on the
same date
in 1889.
136

I
TIBET.
April 7. heard that the present K'anpo on arriving here was he imposed heavy fines on learn he has not yet been able to all offenders, but from what produce from among the people a candidate for the Prix Montyon There will never be a rostire in this or any other prize for virtue.
horrified at the morals of his subjects,
I
country.
Last night the Solon lama told
me
a curious
yarn which
learnt
five
was widespread among
the Mongols.
He
said that
some
hundred years ago the Emperor of Russia (or a foreign Emperor, for Olosu has either meaning), desirous of knowing what was in the sun, had taken fifty Mongol men and as many women and, shutting them up in a crystal casket which had the power of flying, had started them off on a voyage of discovery to the sun. Since then nothing has been heard of the explorers, and the Mongols bear a grudge against this Emperor, whoever he may be, who practiced such cruelty on their people. We are now in the month of Ramazan, and all the Chinese here fast very strictly, only drinking tea between sunrise and sunset, but my men, being travelers, are free to eat when they will or,
rather, can.
A very fine quality of rhubarb grows in the mountains south of Shang. The Chinese dig the root in the fifth and sixth moons, when the shrub is as high as a man. Rhubarb is called shara butuk by the Mongols, they use a good deal of it as a dye, but its
medicinal properties are
unknown
it
to
most of them.
KokoAround
In Taichinar a great deal of excellent licorice Qsha-nyar in
nor Tibetan)
a
little
is
found, but
has no marketable value.

it is
Kuei-te and on the

of
it
Huyuyung
also abundant,
and
have seen
for sale at
Kumbum.
In the evening the Hsien-sheng and Dowe arrived from Oim, and the latter showed great pleasure at seeing me again. He brought a message from his chief asking me to come and camp near him, where grass and water were abundant. Should I wish to visit the Tosu nor, he added, as he had learned from my Hsiensheng that I wanted to do, Dowe was to guide me and bring me back to Oim by an easy road through the mountains. Dowe told me that in 1889, after he had left me at Jyakundo, he returned to Nyamts'o Purdung's camp and stayed there several The old chief told him to tell me that should I return to days. the Ts'aidam in two years, as I had said I would, 1 was not to

come back
to Nyam-ts'o, as his people
TIBET.
137
had been greatly displeased

I
at the friendliness of the reception
given me, they contending that
had only come to take treasures out of their mountains and streams. Should show myself again there, the old chief went on to say, he feared his people might revolt and kill both him and me. The old Tibetan who had guided me fromjyakundo to Kanze, Dowe also told me, had been seized by the people there shortly after my departure and some said that they had killed him, while other reports had it that the Ch'ien-tsung, Lu Ming-yang, had been able to deliver him from the mob and get him safely, though after much trouble, out of town.* Dow6 has only recently returned from Lh'asa where he went with his Dzassak, leaving here in the fourth moon and getting
I
* The following
letter
from Fu T'ung-shih and two other petty

1
officers
accomleft
panying him, and of
was forwarded to me at Jyakundo in 1889, when

country to reach Ta-chien-lu.
whom have spoken in Land of the Lamas, me at Shanghai and tells of what befell my two
I
133, et passim,
servants
by
had to make a rush through Derge and the Horba From other sources of information opened to me on
is
my
second
visit
to Ta-chien-lu, the story in this letter
corroborated.
It
runs as
follows, after the usual flowery preamble
"After Your Excellency had left this district the local lama and the tribesmen heard of you, so they armed themselves and went several li in pursuit ' to kill the foreigner,' but they could not overtake you and returned. They then seized your servant Liu, and Miao Ting-hsin, near the T'ung-tien River (Yang-tzu kiang), bound and beat them and commanded them to tell where the foreigner was and deliver him up, or be decapitated as traitors for intriguing with a foreigner to make trouble in Tibet. " Twelve days later we heard of this, and hurrying to the place we settled the matter by paying official fees, 10 and 11 rupees, and giving a bond that no foreigner should ever come to disturb Tibet. "At the Erh Tao Ho (probably at the ferry over the Dre ch' u) the two men were again arrested, and we went there, arranged the matter, and paid i rupee for fees. Liu Ch'un-shan and his comrade Adiao, when they reach you will themselves relate all
their fears
we and the local headmen gave is of the you. Sir, should not exercise magnanimous forbearance, but should in your anger send troops against Tibet, we who have pledged ourselves would be entirely ruined and charged with treason and bribery. " Hence we now write to beg of you to bounteously forgive what was done and thus receive public gratitude as well as our heartfelt thanks for the personal favors
greatest importance.
If
and sufferings. " The above-mentioned bond which
which you will have shown to us. " Thanking you for all your kindnesses to us and with best wishes for your welfare. "Your stupid brothers,
"HSIEH WEN-CH'ANG,
("Civil
officer.)
"CHANG
"FU
" Knock
their
CH'ENG-CHIH,
(" Military
officer.)
PING-CHING,
(" Interpreter.)
heads and submit this
letter,
5th moon, 14th day (1889)."
138

in
TIBET.
back
the ninth.
He
says that
if
I
when
they passed Nagch'uk'a

his story,
they were warned that
ever they led foreigners into Tibet they
would be put
though
I
to death.
it
do not believe the whole of
think
probable that, in view of Bonvalot's recent

against guiding foreigners.
journey, they
may have been warned
guide on
K'anpo has forbidden anyone serving me as proposed trip to the Tosu nor. Neither Mongols nor Chinese may go, nor must anyone hire me pack animals. If I want to go 1 can go by myself. Dowe reported this to me, and I at once went to see the K'anpo and have it out with him. He received me very courteously in a little room arranged in true Tibetan style, and conversed with him through a Chinese
April
8.
The
my
interpreter
who
translated
what
said into
Mongol and
this
was
all
again translated into Tibetan by a Shigatse

suite.
I
man
I
of the K'anpo's
preferred this roundabout
way
as
could then hear
the side talk of the K'anpo with his people without his suspecting
that
I
understood him.
emphatically that he had issued orders forbidding Chinese to accompany me to the Tosu nor, the prohibition only extended to his Shang-chia Mongols, for he feared if the news came to the ears of the Tashil'unpo authorities they would be displeased
at his
He denied
guidance.
I
allowing a foreigner to travel about in Shang under their of course, he went on to say, might "go to the 1,
devil,
1
sky" if saw fit (he meant the to do with my movements.

saying that the drought of the
suppose), he had nothing
told
him
that the people
were
last
two
years had been caused by

1
my first visit here (he himself had started the report), and begged him to state now in the presence of the crowd which surrounded
This he did, with poor grace I Mongols were very ignorant and superstitious, and that he himself was new to official life, and if he had appeared discourteous to me he had not intended to, and begged would accept his excuses. presented him a few odds and ends as a present, together with the obligatory k'atag, and after swallowing a few cups of tea took
nonsensical.
that the
us, that this
was
must admit, saying
my
A
leave.
reported that
Chinese trader from Shang-wu chuang arrived to-day and when at Dulan-kuo he had heard from some Korluk
that
Mongols
twenty-two foreign
women were
on
their
way
to

the Taichinar and Tibet.*
TIBET.
139
The air is
and everyone April

the
g.
fears their advent,
full of reports about foreigners, though no one can say why.
Three camels
a. m.
hired yesterday to carry
my luggage to
valley,
camp
of the Dzassak of Baron Ts'aidam, in the
Oim
got
here at about 10
to-day, and
it
was
1
11 before the loads
Were
on them and we were all ready to start, with Dowe, Ssu-shih-wu and Chi-hsiang for the Tosu nor, and the Hsien-sheng and Kao pa-erh, with the camels and mules, for Oim.
Just as
I
was about
to
mount
my
pony,
it,
it
was taken danger-
blowing a decoction of saffron water and salt up its nostrils, it was too ill to be of any use, so had to take another and leave my own behind. It had
ously sick, and though
Dow6
doctored
probably eaten poison-weed, which
is
quite
common
hereabout.
pony was a very bad omen for the success of the journey, and many, Dowe among others, shook their heads ominously. We followed up the course of the Y6gore, taking a rough trail over the steep foothills along the left bank, the ground composed in great part of disintegrated granite and a mixture of clay and
Everyone held that the sudden
illness
of the
sand.
places,
four
There was a great deal of water in the river which, in was one hundred and fifty feet wide, though nowhere over or five feet deep. Mosquitoes swarmed along the river
in the
banks
willow brush,
fine big
ones they were, worthy of

fire
New Jersey. We camped

the heat from which
in the
brush near the river about fifteen

of dead
miles from Shang, and sat around a blazing
wood,
was very
pleasant, for in these
mountains the
sun has hardly

it
set,
no matter
how
hot the day has been, before
grows
bitterly cold.
had finished drinking a big kettle of tea, my men, in on the hearth stones on which the kettle rested this practice is held to be equivalent to burning incense or making an oblation to the gods, and is usually observed by Chinese frontiersmen, even though they profess Islam. In case a hearth stone cracks they are always careful to smear it with a little butter "for good luck" they say. These are the only two customs observed by Mongols in connection with the fire-place, and they are, I believe, of Tibetan origin.
true
When we
Mongol
fashion, put the leaves

;
* This may
'92,
refer to a
(or Kuei-hua ch'eng)
number of Swedish women who arrived in Eastern Mongolia sometime during the winter of iSgi-'ga, or in the spring of
"to
proselytize the heathen."
HO JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND

Dowe says it takes six
TIBET.
days to travel around the Tosu nor, which would make its circumference about eighty miles, and this agrees fairly well with what old Wang-ma-bum. my Tibetan guide from Muri-Wahon told me, when he said it was about one-quarter the Dowe also said that the Amnye malchin is size of the Koko-nor. so far from the Tosu nor that it is barely visible from the west end
of the lake on a clear day.
this
April lo. It began to snow about midnight, and by 5 o'clock morning there was four inches of snow on the ground, so we had to wait in camp until 8.30, by which time the sun had melted most of the snow on the level ground and we could travel com-
fortably.
We stopped at a small camp where Dowe's brother-in-law lives and bought a sheep from him, as found that we had started out with only a shoulder and neck of mutton. The sheep we bought had four horns, and we saw in the little flock from which it was taken a large number with the same deformity. Six horns are not uncommon, I was told, but the Mongols try to kill off such animals. We crossed the Y6gore near the mouth of the Kado gol. When first visited this valley in '89 I wrote down the name of this little stream Katu gol, but Dowe, a good authority on all such subjects, says its name is Kado, a Tibetan expression, meaning mouth of
I I
' '
two
(or
(valleys)."*
We
camp
is
camped near
all
the
1
mouth of
the valley leading to the Dilring

in 1889.
Durun)
ula, a trail
had followed
Before
we reached
the
snow
fallen
during the night had disappeared and the
The soil in the bottom of the valley and granitic gravel, the loess has evidently been washed down and rests on top of the gravel, which is 01 angular bits of stone detached from the adjacent range by the
as before.
ground was as dry
a mixture of loess
""
disintegrating action of the frost.
Dowe
says that while at Lh'asa last year he heard that in the
between the British and the Lh'asa people, the P'yling (" foreigners ") had killed three thousand (!) Tibetans,
while the
*See
latter
recent Sikkim trouble
had only
killed
one
British officer,
who
had been
I
the
Land of the Lamas, 153. In the same work name of that river Yohure the Dzassak of Baron Yogore was the correct pronunciation.
;
instead of Yogore,
wrote
assured me, however, that

Stabbed by a
assist.*
TIBET.
141
wounded man whom he had got
off his horse to
April II. blew very hard in the night and feared the wind would be followed by snow, but in the morning the sun shone We followed the whole day the brightly and we got off by 7. 15. bank of the Y6gor6, over a mass of dibris of sandstone and basaltic
Xx.
I
rocks of gravel, loess and rolled pebbles.
We
found fine grass
growing around the

about
in
springs,
which
also
are very
numerous heresmall coveys of
the valley bottom.
We
saw two
crows and hawks. The only gorges of any length we saw opening on to the valley of the Y6gore are the one leading to the D\lring ula and one on the west side of the valley and a few miles farther south, and called K6kose. As far as we could see up this latter gorge it was one deep mass of broken rocks, over which tumbled a brook. The dibris, which in places filled the gorges of the Y6gore, is in many places from a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet thick. The river is very swift and about three and
partridges,
hares, magpies, eagles,
some
one-half feet deep.
We stopped
to drink tea,
about half a mile north of the mouth of the K6kose

at this point, or a little
and
beyond
it,
we came
in
sight of the
two
principal peaks in this portion of the range
and
the only ones on which there appeared to be
much snow, the Turgen ula and the Tsahan h6rga, one on either side of the valley. A few miles farther up, on reaching the edge of a little lateral gorge, saw a large herd of wild asses, and killed three, but lost two in the river and the third dropped dead after swimming the river, and we had not time to dress it. also wounded one of
1 1 1
a large herd of
wild goats, but the smallness of the bullet of

lose
my
hit
carbine
it
made me
my
game, as
it
usually does unless
in a vital spot.
The Yogore valley narrowed considerably above the Kokose gorge and the path was very bad, most of the way a mere goat trail and in places very dangerous and slippery. We made about twenty-six miles and camped at the junction of the Alang gol with the Y6gore, a place marked by three fine springs and also by a large obo. It is known as Kawa obo.f
* I believe
in this officer
was
a major, of
whose death
remember reading
at the
time
the Indian papers.

f Meaning, probably,
"the white obo."
142
TIBET.
The Caroline mountains were visible from liere stretching east and west to the Aiang and Tosu lakes. The valley along the northern flank of this range, which I have called after my wife, is known as the Ts'o-do lung, "the valley of the two lakes," and is a broad one for this country, averaging a half mile in width. At Kawa obo, where the two rivers meet, the Y6gore is perfectly clear, while the water coming from the Alang nor is of a reddish brown color, derived, as found out in '89, from the stream flowing through beds of clay brought down from the mountains along the south side of the valley.
1
April 12. We reached the western extremity of the Tosu nor by 5 p. M., after riding along the foothills on the south side of the valley. On the way up 1 killed a large female wild ass. It is the
last one I shall ever shoot, it is butchery, too domestic animal, and 1 see no sport in it.
much
like killing a
lake which forms at its western bay separated from the body of the lake by a strip of land projecting from the south side. This part of the lake is called " Head of the lake " (Ts'o-go). The bank of the "head "
We
camped on the edge of the

little
extremity a
covered with a mass of water grass which looks like short fur in its present dried state. There was only a very little water free from ice on the Ts'o-go, and this was covered with wild fowl, geese, sheldrakes and several varieties of ducks and
is
brown
teal.
of yaks
The banks of the To'o-go were literally covered with bones which Dowe said had met their death by getting mired.
its
The
lake rises in the rainy season ten to fifteen feet higher than
level.
present
The lake, on which the ice was piled up, is apparently no where two miles wide and runs nearly due east and west a distance of about forty miles. On either side rise low mountains of reddish sandstone (?), and beyond its eastern extremity can be seen two
over
pyramidal-shaped
The
lake's Tibetan
snow peaks, probably the Amnye malchin ula. name of Tong-ri ts'o-nag, or "lake of a
it
thousand hills," is a highly appropriate one, surrounded, as by mountains on every side.
is,
When the moon rose over the lake and shed its rays on the waters of the Ts'o-go, the ice of the lake and the snow peaks around it, leaving the neighboring gorges in deep darkness and magnifying the height of the hills, the sight was a most beautiful

one.
TIBET.
143
This lake
is
the largest
1
have seen
in this region,
second
only to the Koko-nor.

the overflow from
is
it is
fancy
it is
of very inconsiderable depth,
very small, most of the water in the Y6gore

its
supplied from springs along
course and from four or five
affluents, the
Seldum
lake,
gol,
all
Alang
gol,
Kokuse
gol,
Kado
gol, etc.,
nor does this
in
probability, drain a very large extent

all
of country to the east, receiving in
likelihood only the drainage
from
1
off the
mountains along
its
shores.
The Tosu nor is considerably lower than the Alang nor, which made out in 1889 to be a little under 14,000 feet above sea level. A series of boiling point observations made on the bank of the Tosu nor gives it a mean altitude of 13,180 feet above the sea. The valley of the Ts'o-do lung from the Alang to east of the Tosu nor was less than a century ago inhabited by the Arik tribe
of Tibetans,
that the
now
living north of the
name
of Alang,
now
Koko-nor. It is possible given to the lake, is a Mongol per-
version of the
name
of this tribe.
1
The Mongol word Alang has

imagine, given the lake in later
an offensive meaning and was, days by the Ts'aidam Mongols time of

it
who must have had a very hard with these truculent Panaka for neighbors.
April 13. 1 passed the day in camp taking sextant observations and surveying the surrounding country. I secured a lot of little univalve shells* from the lake and noticed two or three varieties of small fishes, one about five inches long and of a light brown color, the others with catfish-like mustachios and a flat, sheep-like head, but we had no means of catching any. I tried to shoot some wild fowl, but could not bag one. Dowe begged me not to fire off my gun, as it would surely cause snow to fall. I promised him 10 taels if it did, and then he was most anxious for me to blaze away at anything and everything for the
rest of the day.
Dowe
make
also
told
their
me that near Sa-chou there are wild men. They beds on reeds and feed on wild grapes, which they
to dry.
know how
They
are of the size of ordinary
men
and speak
a language of their
some Mohammedan Hsi-fan, He, Dowe, places escaped.
were captured by but one soon died and the other the home of these Girhun kun
species.
own.
Two
*Planorbisal6us{Muller) ini Limcea peregra (MuUer), both European
144

nor.
TIBET.
between Sa-chou and the Lob

stories of wild
The
persistency of these
men
in this region is strange
and highly
interest-
ing.*
work on Tibet {Land of the Lamas, ii6, 150 and 256), had men and to some cases where bears appeared to have been A heard of these wild K taken for human beings by terrified travelers. men in the same region. " Wild people exist in some of the valleys of the northern range (of the Saithang). They have thick and dark skins, are well built and apparently well fed. They wear no clothes except skins; nor do they dwell in either tents or huts, but live in caves and glens and under the shelter of overhanging rocks. They are ignorant even of the use of arms in the chase, and lie in wait for their prey near springs of water or where salt incrustates. They are said to feed even upon rats, lizards, aud other small animals. They are remarkable for their swiftness of foot, and when pursued even a horseman cannot easily catch them. Whenever they see a civilized man they run away in great terror. They are said to know how to kindle a fire with the aid of flint. They flay the animals they kill with sharp edged stones. Sometimes, but very seldom, they steal goats and sheep grazing in the valleys." Report of Explorations * * * madeiniSjg-'Sz, by 50. In the same report he mentions meeting with a wild man, when I think he saw a bear. An old Mongol woman living north of Saithang " advised us to return to our tent before evening, because a demo (brown bear) had lately committed great ravages in the neighborhood. We met no bear, but the old woman's son, who accompanied us for some distance, pointed out to us a wild man, on an opposite spur about two miles off, coming towards us, but who on perceiving us turned back."
In
my
previous
occasion to refer to wild
Ibid., p. 52.
Douglas ôx^yMn, Journal Roy Geo. Soc, XLVll,

.
bers of
p. 6, says: "There are numencampments and settlements on the banks of the marshy lakes and their
connecting channels; perhaps there are as
many
as a thousand houses or camps.
These are inhabited by families

years ago.
who
emigrated there about one hundred and sixty
They are looked upon with contempt by true believers as only half The aborigines are described as very wild people black men with long, matted hair, who shun the society of mankind and wear clothes made of the bark of a tree. The stuff is called " lufif," and is the fiber of a plant called " toka
Musselmans.
chigha," which grows plentifully
all
over the sandy wastes bordering on the marshes
The Mongol Pedam) the Lh'opa " kill the mother of the bride in performing their marriage ceremony when they do not find any wild men, and eat her flesh." See Report on the Explorations in Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet, from 1856 to 1886, p. 7. Du Plan Carpin, Historia Mongalorum, 648 (Edit. Soc. Geog., Paris) refers to
live
of Lop.''
Wild men are said to
on the lower Tsangpo,
in Tibet.
Lama Sherab jyats'o
says that in Pemakoichhen (north of Mira
wild
men
living to the south of
"Sylvestres homines qui nullo

si
Omyl (or Cunimyl, modo loquuntur, nee
i. e.,
Urumtsi) in a great
desert.
et
in cruribus
habent juncturas;
quando cadunt, per
se surgere sine aliorum adjutorio mininie possunt; sed
tantam
discretionem habent quod faciunt filtra de lana camelorum, quibus vestiuntur, et ponunt etiam contra ventum et si aliqui Tartari vadunt ad eos et vulnerant eos sagittis, ponunt gramina in vulneribus et fortiter fugiunt ante eos."
;
TIBET.
145
Dowe told me also of a mission (?) of Yingili Menggu {sic) now on its way to Peking with presents from the Yingili Emperor,
but
I
can
make nothing
of this story.
the valley.
Shang and made good time down a big bunch of wild goats, but as couple of miles ahead of my men and had 1 was riding alone a only a revolver, I failed to get one, though I got several good
April
14..
We
On
started for
the
way
saw
shots at them.
Game
is
very scarce in the Ts'o-do lung.
When
first
visited
1889 it was teeming with yaks, antelopes, asses and bears. A disease has destroyed nearly every antelope in the country, and the yaks have also disappeared, probably driven farther
this valley in
south by the Mongols of Shang and Baron

deal, their flesh
who
hunt them a great
being the only meat a great part of these people
use during the winter.
We
crossed the Y6gore about

in single file
two
miles east of
Kawa
obo.
The men
accident,
though
it
rode their ponies across the ice without cracked ominously. As 1 started to cross
Dowe shouted out, "SSms chung,
out, look out, Sir!") but too late; the ice
simschung, Ponbo-la!" ("Look gave way under my
horse and we both disappeared in the water, which was very deep and swift and about a foot or so below the lower surface of the ice. My baggy ch'uba and trousers held me up and I caught on to the ice, where was able to cling, though the current threw my legs against the ice with such violence that I could not draw myself out, but the pony was swept under. I shouted to the men to throw themselves flat on the ice and creep out to me, which they did, and after much trouble got me out, none the worse for
I
the ducking.
For several hours
to get the pony and especially
instruments, which were in

finally
decided to try
it
the
we tried to break away the ice my saddle, also my note books and my saddle-bag, but to no use; we next day, for the stream was now
I
swollen by the water coming
We again
day trying
in the
camped
at
in vain to dry
down from the snow hills. Kawa obo, and passed the rest of the my sheepskin gown and leather breeches
as
sun and over the fire, after wrapping myself in my blankets, had no other clothes with me. I am glad it was not the mule with my sextant and camera which was lost; on the whole I
I
146

I
TIBET.
think
am
in luck,
though
my men
look very gloomy over
my
misfortune.
April 15. We were able to find the pony which had been swept some distance down the river. The saddle and bridle were still on him and nothing was much damaged. I regret the loss of the pony, which was one of the best ones I had, though
very undersized;
country.
left Kawa obo by 9 a. m. and camped a little below the entrance to the valley leading to the Durun ula, where we found
I
will not
be able to get such another
in this
We
very good grass and dry brushwood. Though this point is only twenty miles from our camp of last night we halted here, as the horses have had little or nothing to eat for the last five days. Partridges are quite plentiful hereabout, and we saw a large herd of wild goats and some geese a little higher up the valley. It snowed and hailed slightly towards 2 p. m., but it was clear again in a short while, though violent gusts of wind blew all through the day and night. While writing in my tent after supper my two Chinese, who had been holding a secret consultation for some time a little away from the camp fire, came to me and said that, as I had Yeh Hsiensheng to look after my affairs and a cook to prepare my food, I did not require their services, and that they proposed leaving me replied that was delighted as soon as we got back to Shang. to have them go, that 1 was tired of them and of the continual wrangling and bickering they had kept up ever since leaving Lusar.
1 1
The
fact
is
these
two men
are disgusted at not being able to

1
squeeze
more, and are jealous of the confidence Hsien-sheng.

I
me
show
the
only fear that
Dow6
will take this desertion as another proof
bad luck, and will either refuse to accompany me or use it as an argument to prevent others from doing so, all his professions
of of friendship notwithstanding.
my
April 16.
drink
tea.
We got back
We
we
to
Shang
this
evening
after a
hard ride
of thirty-three miles, only stopping at Dow6's brother-in-law's to
came down the

had followed
right side of the river, a far better

in going,
and one which should be followed when the river is not too high, though even by taking it one has to ford the river twice between the Kado gol and Shang,
road than that
TIBET.
147
and four times between the former place and the Tosu nor, and any of these fords may be very dangerous when the current is as swift as it is now. The people at Shang, from whom had borrowed a tent when first arrived here, kindly gave up their tent to me and prepared me some food, as had told my Chinese that would not allow them to approach me or do anything more for me. The Mongols all begged me to reconsider my determination to have nothing more to do with my two Chinese, but I refused most emphatically. Dow6 then declared that he could not accompany me as my luck was too bad and he might have some mishap befall him. Since his first journey with me he had lost the sight of one eye, and the other is now very weak. It might well be that I was the cause of his misfortune. All this and a great deal more occurred to him now, and he decided to cut loose from me. ordered my Chinese to return to me all the things had bought for them before leaving Lusar, clothing, blankets, etc., and turned them out of the compound. Before going to sleep I sent for old Ma Shuang-hsi, an old Chinese trader from Shang wu chuang, near Hsi-ning, whom first met here in 1889 and who is anxious to join his fortunes to mine as he has lost all the money he came here with, or rather he can collect no money or goods from his Mongol debtors. He agreed promptly to accompany me to Oim, where my other men are camped and where 1 will make final arrangements about his permanent employment.
1 I I I I 1 1
April
ij.
My
final
departure from Shang
one, nearly every one shunned me, only
was not a triumphal two or three Mongols

his absence) escorted
(among whom Dowe was conspicuous by
me
out of the village, which
left
by eight
o'clock,
accompanied
only by
Ma
Shuang-hsi.
We traveled
very slowly for the ponies and the pack mule were
very tired and hungry, as 1 had not been able to buy forage or grain at Shang, and they had had no grass to eat since the day
before yesterday.
We followed a general
westerly direction up a
hills,
narrow
plain,
valley called Hultu, in the
mountains skirting the Ts'aidam
then crossing a couple of low but steep
we
entered
which marks the boundary between Shang and Baron Ts'aidam. The lower course of the Ara belongs We followed up the to the latter district, the upper to Shang.
the valley of the Ara ossu
148
TIBET.
bare and rugged Tsahan hada, or " White Stones," where the valley branches and where we found good grass and water. Here we camped for the night and, to my surprise, while we were eating our supper, Dowe joined us, looking rather shamefaced and in a very pleasant humor. He explained his absence by saying that he had been too tired and foot-sore to follow me, that he had had to walk most of the way as his pony was played out, etc., etc. I turned the conversation to other subjects and we talked of foreign religions, monks, nuns, propagation of religion and the comparative merits of the different faiths. Dowe, like most Buddhists, is very liberal. A Mongol or a Tibetan will always meet you on the common ground of las or "good work," just as a Chinaman will on that oili or tao. The night was so pleasant that we did not put up the tent, but piling up the luggage and saddles to windward, lay down on our saddle blankets and felt comfortably warm with nothing but our
hills
Stream, which flows between tolerably high,

to a point called
sheepskin ch'ubas over
us.
April i8. A few miles above our camp of last night we climbed a steep but not very high hill on which a few junipers were growing, and reached the summit of the Koko k'utul or "Blue pass," thus called from the bluish color of the mica-schist
on the
hillsides.
here we descended into a narrow valley leading northwest and called Arachedo, down which flows a good-sized brook, emptying probably into an affluent of the Ike gol a few miles to
From
we crossed another low pass and on its western slope 1 saw my-blue tent and a quarter of a mile below it six or eight Mongol tents, forming the camp of the Dzassak of Baron and his immediate retainers. 1 felt as if I had reached home again and looked forward with great pleasure to a few days of rest, for was weary of wrangling with Mongols and Chinese and wanted a little solitude. On the whole I was pleased with the success of my trip to the Tosu nor, where, by the way, the Mongols said I had gone this time, as well
the north.
Cutting across the valley
(Oim
k'utul),
as in 1889, to angle for the fish of gold
which lives The K'anpo of Shang asked Dow6 (whose name

learn,
I
in its water.
is
written,
now
Rdo-pi)
when we got back

fish of
there from the
Tosu
nor,
whether
had caught the
gold in the lake, because he sup-
JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA Ajyo

posed
1
TIBET.
149
had only gone there

it
this
time for that purpose, having
failed to catch
in 1889.
Dowe
so
told
much
? "
night
had caught nothing, that I had not taken the lake. " But what did he do at " He went to sleep in his tent at an insisted the K'anpo.
that
1
him
as a stone
away from
early hour," replied the other.
"Aya!"
that
is
said the lama,
" what
in
is
the world did he go there
for, if
all
he did
But where
" He is going to the Lob nor," said Dowe. " That's it, I thought as much," petulantly exclaimed the K'anpo, " he has caught the fish and horse of gold of the Tosu nor, and now he thinks he can catch the golden frog which lives in Lake Lob; but he cannot, no one can catch it but my master, the Panhe going to
now ? "
ch'en rinpoch'e of Tashil'unpo."
me without the two men who Shang, but when I had told them of their desertion, they evidenced no astonishment and declared themselves ready to follow me anywhere. 1 now first learnt from that that Ssu-shih-wu and Chi-hsiang had tried to debauch the Hsien-sheng and Kao-pa-erh when we were camped at Mi^ri-Wahon. It was their intention to run away from me
were surprised
to see
My men
had
started out with
me from
there,
when
1
they could have got back to their homes
in
few
days, and
would have been unable then

taels
1
as
now
to get back
from them the 20

leaving Lusar.
1
had advanced to each of them before
sent the Hsien-sheng to the Dzassak's with a few presents, the

a
Remington carbine and sugar, dried fruit and a

health.
hundred
cartridges, a jack-knife,
some
k'atag, to
make
inquiries concerning his
an invitation to dine with him to-morrow, if Dowe will come with me as guide; fear, however, that he will not. The Hsien-sheng heard him telling the Dzassak of my recent bad luck, one pony knocked up, another drowned, my men abandoning me, etc., and then he had said that he would not go with me farther than the Taichinar. The private chaplain of the chief is a lama from Tashil'unpo, and he is
sent
He
me
when
will ascertain
opposing tooth and
nail
my
project of visiting Lh'asa territory.
Time and
lots of patience will possibly
enable
me
to
make some
kind of a compromise with the chief and his counsellors, but 1 am terribly wearied with these vascillating, unreliable Mongols, one never knows exactly how one stands with them, one minute they appear to be your devoted friends, the next they will not even recognize you. Then their cowardice is so great that they will
I50

it is
TIBET.
so hopelessly
to you,
hardly ever stand by you in a tight place, unless

tight that they can only get out of
it
by trusting
when
they become a dead weight upon your hands.
April ig. The Dzassak sent a white pony for me to ride on to was told that this where was to dine with him, and was quite the correct thing, to send a pony of any other color would not have been so exquisitely polite. found him much fatter than three years ago, especially about the head, but he still wore the identical little black satin Chinese cap {mao-f ou-erh) he then had, but which now rests very unsteadily on his crown. Two lamas were seated in the tent, the one reading from the Kandjur, the other mumbling prayers, but both of them listened, notwithstanding, to all we said. The one reading the Kandjur was the Tibetan from Tashii'unpo; he has a bad face, and did not disguise his displeasure at seeing me here. The Dzassak has brought back from his recent journey to Lh'asa a lot of brass lamps, prayer-wheels and various religious implements which now give a certain furnished look to his tent, but it is still a pretty poor looking place, though he may possibly have lots of pretty things locked up in the big boxes ranged along the
his tent
1 I 1
side of the tent.
His wife, this year no longer fearing me,
came
in shortly after
my arrival with her daughter,

these twisted, greasy cakes
a pretty
little girl
of eleven or twelve,
and made a bad kind of doughnut ma-hua-erh, the Chinese call on the top of a box, rolling out the dough with a not too clean crupper-stick. We drank a great deal of tea and ate ma-hua-erh, chuoma, chura, tarak and mutton, finishing off with a cup of Chinese samshu. The conversation was for the most part very foolish and bored me intensely, still I had to reply to all the stupid questions put to me, as for example, which is the best country had ever visited ? Had ever visited the country of people with a hole through their bodies and that of the Cyclops } (The Shan haichings legends are apparently current in Mongolia.)
Were
there
many
treasures in the Ts'aidam?

is
dry or wet?
Finally after
Who
the Pusa of
my
I
Will next year be country? etc., etc.

1
to the Ts'aidam for

let
two hours of this, told the chief that had come two purposes, to see him and to ask him to
there
me
He
have a guide to the Tengri nor.

replied that
was no such
it,
lake, that
no one
in his
country had ever heard of
but the Tibetan lama whispered

to
TIBET.
151
him "yd" ("there

1
is"),
will talk about this at our leisure
and then the Dzassak said: "We some other time, " and dismissed
the matter,
when took my
had
I
leave.
In the afternoon the

in everything,
Dzassak came to
my
tent,
poked
his
nose
me
explain the sextant, the kodak, the guns,
the
artificial
horizon, the thermometers to him, ate a
huge quantity
of Chinese
chow had
got ready for him, smoked

all
my water-pipe,
and
with
finally told
escorting
me
me he would certainly do through the Taichinar himself.

authorities
he could for me,
He would even go
had not a letter recently reached had closed the chang lam this year to all comers, for fear some foreigner might worm his way into the country. He was perfectly well aware that I knew he was lying, but I thanked him effusively, begged he would not take so much trouble on my account, and finally got him to leave, and I went to bed utterly played out.
to Lh'asa, he added,
me
him saying the Tibetan
April 20.
as
The Hsien-sheng and
Ma
Hsuang-hsi (or Lao-han,
we
call
him,) started for Shang to-day to get the black pony,
which had been taken ill when I was starting for the Tosu nor, and secure the services of a Taichinar Mongol who had offered to guide me into Tibet, or wherever I chose to go. The morning was lost for either rest or work, first one Mongol came in, then another, and finally the Dzassak, who wanted to look through the telescope of my sextant. He was accompanied by Dowe, who told me that everyone at Shang thought was angling for the sun vi'hen they saw me looking at its image in the artificial horizon, and that they feared they would be plunged in
1
darkness if I caught it. The Dzassak prolonged his Mongol speaking Chinese had
visit
left,
I
till
near evening, and as

to help
my
had no one
me and
had to
talk Tibetan to
Dowe, who
told
acted as interpreter for me.
Some men with the Dzassak
thatkuldza {Ovis Poli) were very numerous in the mountains around this place, and they promised to bring me one or more.*
me
The Dzassak brought the Remington carbine I had given him and took some lessons in firing it, he will soon have exhausted the supply of cartridges I gave him and the gun will be useless.
*
I
also heard that leopards

killed three a
Dzassak had
were very numerous few months previously.
in the adjacent
mountains.
The
152

him
this,
TIBET.
but he said that the moral effect produced by his weapon was incalculable. The Goloks, he told me, would never attack him when they heard that he had it,
I
told
possession of such a
and he intended
to let
them know
of
it
at once.
April 21. This has been a day of rest, no one bothered me with foolish questions at least for any length of time. A young Halha lama, awaiting here an opportunity to go to Lh'asa, came into my tent for awhile, but he left me to myself and amused himself cutting out paper figures with a pair of scissors, showing wonderful expertness, making the most intricate designs, some of them very pretty, and all with Buddhist symbols {vajras
especially) in them.
The day was oppressively hot towards noon

in the
fall it
(the
thermometer
shade at 11.30
a. m.
stood at 87 Fahrenheit), but by nightlived
with the Eastern Mongols he had frequently witnessed burials. The body is put on a frame and dragged away horse; if it falls off, it is left to be devoured by wolves and tures, or else it is burnt and the ashes are moulded into a
was nearly freezing. Kao pa-erh, who has
near
their
Kuei-hua Ch'eng, has told
me
by a
vullittle
human
figure,
which
is
stored
away
in
the house of the family in
a small white cotton bag.
Mongolia all corpses are exposed on the hillsides be devoured, but strangely enough have never seen any skeletons. The Chinese and Mongols say that vultures are able to
In this part of
to
which they first break by carrying them to a great them fall. I passed part of the day in taking an inventory of my belongings and repacking my boxes, in each of which I hid some of my money, so that all should not be stolen if one box were broken open. I find that the two men who left me at Shang have stolen a number of things from me, brick tea, sugar, snuff, buttons, knives, etc. Hai Chi-hsiang had suspected of crookedness for some time, he is a worthy son of his father, the blackmailer. Dowe came to camp in the evening while I was making
eat the bones,
height and then letting
some
star observations. He told me his people call Ursa Major Doldn Burhdn "The seven Buddhas," and Ursa Minor Altdn kdtas^n, or "the golden nail," the latter a better name, I think, than the one we use. He asked me for a few sheets of paper on
TIBET.
153
which to have written the Dorje cho-pa do ( Vajrachidika sîra), which he wanted to put in one of the charm boxes (g-awo) he wears around his neck. He says this worlc is one of the favorite ones among Mongols for this purpose, for it is a most potent
charm.
Dowe
told
me
also that the Tibetans test the quality of tea
by
burning some leaves on a coal and smelling the smoke. This camp is most inconvenient, there is absolutely no water in All the water we this gorge, only a few little patches of snow.
use has to be brought from near the Ike gol nearly two miles away; the grass, however, is good, and it is well sheltered.
all very anxious to get money not goods for they say they want to buy yaks {djomo) in the K'amba country to replace those which have died during the the Dzassak has lost two hundred last year or so from disease
The people here
are
everything they
sell,
head, but none died in
K'amdo
to the south of here.
five
April 22. and ten
About two inches of snow

o'clock, but
it
52 Fahrenheit,
fell this morning between by noon, when the thermometer stood at had nearly all melted. At 2 p. m. it began to
snow
again and continued until
five,
when
the sky cleared.
The Shang Mongols, and to a less extent all the Ts'aidam people, write charms on the jaw bones and shoulder blades of sheep and suspend them in long strings over their houses and tents in lieu of the more commonly seen lung-ta ("wind horses") used
throughout Tibet and other parts of Mongolia. The living Buddha I met in this country in 1889 has "made He came his pile " here and left the country for Serkok gomba.* here in 1887 or 1888 from near Jyakundo, a very poor man, but left here with several thousand sheep and other valuables, the gifts of the faithful it is astounding how these Mongols, will let themselves be fleeced by a pack of ignorant rapscallions such as
most of these lamas

*
I
are.
visited this
famous lamasery
authors give the
name of
Its
this
in 1889. See Land of the Lamas, 98. Tibetan lamasery as Ser-k'ang gomba, " the lamasery with the
is
golden house.''
ofificial
name
known
as
Amdo Gomang gomba.

Amdo,"
This latter
lamasery of
implying that
Gadan dam ch'os ling, and it was anciently name probably means "the Imperial it had been built with funds supplied by the
Emperor of China.
154
TIBET.
back to-day
April 23. from Shang.
Yeh Hsien-sheng and the Lao-han got
They had much difficulty in getting my black pony back, as the man in whose charge I had left it first swore it was dead, then that he would only deliver it to me, finally that had promised him 8 or 9 taels if it got well. My men had to appeal to the K'anpo, give him an ounce of silver (in lieu of a k'atag, the rascally lama had the impudence to say), pay 3 taels for medicine, and even then they had to threaten that if the pony were not forthcoming I would write to the Amban at Hsi-ning about it. The pony is to be here the day after to-morrow in charge of the Taichinar Mongol Panti who has agreed to accompany me to Tibet. He is to be given a horse, saddle, etc., and 6 taels a month as wages. heard that my two deserters are in hard straits at Shang; they
I I
have had to sell all their belongings, down to their knives, to get food and see no prospect of getting back to Hsi-ning. They sent me word that they would come back to me with great pleasure, but I would not have them again on any account. The Dzassak left on a tournie to-day to allot to his people land to till this year, as no one holds land in severalty, it is all the property of the chief, nor may the same soil be cultivated two
years in succession
;
it
is
usually
left
fallow three or four years.
Those of the people who till the soil pay to the Dzassak annually one bushel (tou) of barley per family, while those who are only herdsmen pay him about the equivalent in butter or sheep. All the fields are irrigated, and are in the mountains where alone the, soil is not alkaline and the water is pure. They yield from forty to fifty times the seed sown. The crop last year was' a complete failure, so it happens that the women are abstaining from washing themselves the whole year, a time honored method of averting the wrath of Heaven.*
April
day, and
24..
I
Tsul-k'rims
Panti the Taichinar guide, arrived to-
energetic, and to his other virtues he adds that of not being loquacious, but answering all questions in a straightforward way and then remaining silent till again spoken
like his face,
it is
* Mongols and Tibetans hardly ever wash their clothes. Speaking of the former Rubruk, says: "Vestes nunquam lavant, quiS dicunt quod Deus tunc irascitur, et quod fiant tonitrua si suspendantur ad siccanduum. Immo lavantes verberant, et
eis
auferunt."
Itinerarium, 234.

to.
last
TIBET.
155
He
has been several times to Lh'asa;

at
when going
there the
Muktsi Soloma a couple of foreigners with Chan-t'ou servants and donkeys (evidently Carey and Dalgleish). After a little persuasion, having had a good feed and a long
time he passed
smoke, Panti told ys his story. Until a few years ago he had
on the Naichi gol, where his brother is a headman (^Jalang), but one day his wife deserted There are no marriage him for another man of the tribe. ceremonies among this people,* and the woman is at perfect liberty, if she does not like her husband, to leave him and take another. Panti, however, felt aggrieved, he gave out that he was going to Lh'asa, sold his few belongings and started off, but only went as far as the mountains. From there he stole back in the night to the Naichi gol, drove off his happy rival's ponies and set out with them for the Alang nor, whence he proposed traveling to the Golok country. It was his intention to try and get a band of these robbers to come back with him to his native country and lay the whole land waste. When he had got to the Alang nor he met a party of yak hunters from Shang, and to them he told his tale of woe. They persuaded him to give up his project of revenge and to go with them to Shang. There he gave in his allegiance to the K'anpo by presenting him as tribute one of his ponies, then taking
lived
a half interest in a wife (such practices are
common
in
these parts)
and
in
a hovel, he settled
down
to the exercise of the various
proficient, blacksmith, tailor and carpenter, found him, anxious to return once more to his native Taichinar and once more try his luck at marriage. The Dzassak has promised me a letter of introduction to the Dzassak of Taichinar, and Dowe is to give me the names of all the stages where water and grass can be found between the Ts'aidam and the Tengri nor;t 1 don't know that either of these documents will prove of any use, but I can get nothing else from them.
trades in
which he was
and here
my men
Dowe, however, is excusable, his eyesight is so bad that he could be of no possible use to me, he is in constant pain and sits most of the time with his face in his hands.
* See note under date of April 25. t The
It
list
of names he gave
me was
I
a mixture of names of places along the highnor.
road to Nagch'uk'a, with one or
two of
was of no
value whatever, so
places he had heard of near the Tengri do not reproduce it here.
156

hear that there are a
TIBET.
number of boys among the Ts'aidam Mongols with such strongly marked European features that some of them were recently refused permission to pass Nagch'uk'a
I
when on
that they
a pilgrimage to Lh'asa, the authorities there insisting
were Russians in disguise. The youngest of these half-breeds (?) is between six and seven years old. The Ts'aidam Mongols only live in the mountains during the winter and early spring, going down to the foot of the hills in the month of June or thereabouts and remaining there, mosquitoes notwithstanding, drinking, singing and making merry (so said my
informant)
till
late in
the autumn.
April 25-. As regards marriage among these people, when a man and woman, after cohabiting for awhile, have decided to be man and wife, the parents of the girl, if pleased with the marriage,
give her a
afford.
dowry
far as
I
of
cattle,
sheep, a tent or whatever they can
As
allowable.*
said
is
endogamy and exogamy are both The Dzassak of Baron, whose name I should have
can learn
is
man, he married the daughter of a wealthy man of Shang called Lama Wangbo, who gave his daughter as a dowry several hundred yaks, sheep, horses, jewelry, clothes, etc., and she never loses an opportunity of reminding her husband She makes all the that the wealth of the family is all hers. purchases or sales herself, and is rapidly adding to her belongings, an easy thing by the way as a chief has prior rights to anyone else in the country as regards trading, and most of his tribesmen are not only in debt to him but he alone can always sell them such things as they stand in need of or have a wild and irresistible longing for and of which he usually has a stock on hand. Most of the men I see here who have been to Lh'asa have brass army buttons on their gowns, and Panti tells me that they are
Targya,
a poor * That marriage by purchase still exists to a certain extent among the Mongols, I " De nuptiis eorum noveritis, Rubruk says of Mongol marriages quod nemo habet ibi uxorem nisi emat eam, unde aliquando sunt puelle multum adulte antequam nubant * * * Servant gradus consanguinitatis primum et secundum, nullum servant affinitatis. Habent enim simul vel successive duas sorores.
have no doubt.
:
Nulla vidua nubit inter eos, hac ratione, quia credunt quod omnes qui serviunt
eis in
hac vita servient
in futura,
unde de vidua credunt quod semper

accidit turpis
revertetur post
mortem ad primum maritum. Unde scilicet ducit aliquando omnes uxores

matris semper accidit minori filio."
consuetude
inter eos,
quod
filius
patris sui, excepta matre.
Curia enim patris et
Itinerarium, 235.

sold there seven for a tanka (about twelve cents;).
traveler in these regions will
TIBET.
157
The
future
be surprised to find
among
the
women's ornaments a number of Hong-kong ten cent pieces, and some small Japanese silver coins I, however, am responsible for
;
their
brought over a hundred with bought various curios and barley with them, they were
appearance here,
I
me and
in great
demand.
It is
customary among the Ts'aidam Mongols
for the
males from
the age of thirteen to thirty-three to wear their hair in a

of short plaits about six inches long hanging from the
around the head. At the age of thirty-three long queue in Chinese fashion. This custom is not universal, at all events many of them wear the viril queue long before their
thirty-third year.
number crown all they may wear one
The women
until
they reach a marriageable

their hair in Tibetan style
age, or until
/.
married, usually
wear
e., innumerable small plaits falling around them like a cloak and held together at the bottom by a ribbon covered with shells and pieces of turquoise or coral beads. When married they wear their hair in two big plaits falling on either side of the face and covered with a broad black satin ribbon passed under the belt. learn from Dowe that the Dam Sok Mongols living along the I Lh'asa highroad north of Nag-ch'uk'a are of the same stock as the Ts'aidam Mongols (z. e., Eleuts"). They were located in their present haunts by the Mongol Emperors to keep the Tibetans back. At that time the Ts'aidam was inhabited by Tibetan tribes and the present Alashan Eleuts lived in the upper Hsi-ning ho valley where they built a fort the ruins of which saw in '89, a stage to the west of Gomba soba. The ruins at Nomorun hutun in Dsun Ts'aidam were also built at this time, and hkewise to keep back the Tibetans.*
1
* think that
I
remarks on the
my informant has got things pretty Dam Sok given below and Mongol
badly mixed up.
Prjevalsky's
history enable us to straighten
out his story and assign an approximately correct date to not only the emigration of
these Mongols to Tibet but also to the building of the
tion of the Ts'aidam
by the
Eleuts.
The second
story given in the text
Nomorun hutun and occupamay be
partly
" After the subjection of is also Prjevalsky's, which runs as follows: some of the Oluith troops returned to the north, but others settled in Koko-nor; their descendants are the Mongol inhabitants of the present day. Some hundreds of them emigrated to Tibet, where their posterity has multiplied and now numbers eight hundred Yurtas divided into eight koshungs (banners). They live six days' journey to the southwest [sid) of the village of Napchu, where they cultivate
true, as
the Yegurs,
158
TIBET.
Another Mongol told me a more credible story. He said that in 1779 the Panch'en rinpoch'e Paldan Yeshe passed through the country south of the Koko-nor on his way to Peking, a number of Mongols asked him to protect them from the Panaka He told them to go to the Tibetans then pushing northward. country just south of the Dang la, which forms the northern border of Tibet. Here they went and took up their abodes in the country they still occupy and in which they are under the jurisdiction of Tashil'unpo, not of Lh'asa as might be supposed from their living in a region ruled over by that country, but the sovereignty over the Dam Sok was ceded by the Lh'asa government to that of the Panch'en rinpoch'e. The Dam Sok have eight Debas or chiefs, and the Mongol language is still spoken by the old men of the tribe; in dress and manners they are now thoroughly Tibetan. It snowed to-day from 7.30 a. m. to 2 p. m. and between four and five inches of snow fell. There was a light east breeze blowing, which usually accompanies snow, though on one or two occasions a snowfall has been preceded by a rather strong westerly wind.
when
April 26.
to-day.
The
Dzassak paid
me
another terribly long
visit
He
said he could not write to the chief of the Taishinar,
is to accompany me as far as him that I was a very good man, a friend of his and that he would be doing him a personal favor if he gave me guides, supplies, and such pack animals as 1 required. Of course all this means nothing at all, the message will never be delivered, and Dowe at the last moment will back out of accompanying me. The Dzassak, who was in an amiable frame of mind, brought about by the gifts I had presented him in fulfillment of a promise
but he commissioned Dowe,

the latter chiefs home, to
who
tell
the
soil
and bear the name of Damsuk Mongols,

Prjevalsky,
after
the
little
river
on whose banks
they are settled."
Mongolia,
i,
152.
may account for the presence of the Dam Sok Mongols in the occupy, either they are a remnant of Latsan ban's forces with which he invaded Tibet in 1705, or else they belonged to Dalai Kungtaichi's Koko-nor Eleuts,
explanations
locality
Two
they
now
and
I
drifted to
it
Nagch'u to escape the attacks of the Sungars.

built in 1723,
As to Nomorun hutun,
fancy
was
when
the Chinese defeated the Koko-nor Mongols
who
had revolted under Lobzang tandjin.

gols,
1,
See H. H. Howorth, History
of the Mon-
522, et seq.
On
the Yagara, see also the present journal, under date of
Jime znd,
iSgz.

made him
in '89, said all the
TIBET.
159
Mongols liked me for I dressed and whereas the Russians who had been here had frightened the people with their foreign dress and arms and scorned their food and drink. The Dzassak gave me the following information concerning the
lived as they did,
Mongol chiefs in the jurisdiction of the Hsi-ning Amban (Hsi-hai Meng-ku, the Chinese call them).* There are three Wang and
two
Beile:
Ching hai Wang, Muring Wang,

Ch'ing
Wang
(Mahari
Wang
in Tibetan),
Koko
Erk6
Beile,
Beile.
Each of these
pieces of satin.
five chiefs receives a yearly imperial gift,
him by the Amban, of 24 yuan-pao (1,200
taels)
handed and eight
Then
there are
two
Beis6
Korluk Beise, Harge Beise,
who
receive an annual present of 16 yuan-pao
and eight pieces of
satin.
The Tolmok Kung-wang,

Boha Kung, Dundura Kung, Bitcheren Kung.f yuan-pao and six pieces of satin. Lastly there are thirty-two Dzassak, each of whom receives yearly 2 yuan-pao and
receive 12
four pieces of satin.
Some of these chiefs only rule very small bands, the Bitcheren Kung for example, who lives on the Ta-t'ung River north of Hsining Fu, has only four or
five families
chief holding his position under a
under him. Under each commission from the Emperor,
* The Koko-nor Tibetans call the eastern Mongols Harchimba or Mar Sok, " Low country Mongols;" the western Mongols they call Yar Sok or " Upper country Mongols." According to my informant there are forty-three chiefs among the Kokonor Mongols.
Timkowski, op.
cit.,
Ill,
272, says there are twenty-nine, three
Wangs,
(iun vang),
two
Beile,
two
Beise, four
Kung and eighteen
Taichi.
t Bitcheren means
"little."
i6o

Tosalakji
TIBET.
his from the Hsi-ning Amban. Hosho-dzangi, Mirin, Jdlang and Under this latter officer are Sumen-dzangi appointed by the head of the tribe {hosho), who
is
who
receives
also gives
them
official
buttons of rank.*
April
27.
There
is
quite a difference in the
Mongol spoken
here in Baron and that of Shang, not only in the pronunciation,
but also in the vocabulary. Thus in Baron Ts'aidam, salt

the latter
Then
is
there are tabooed words.
called hsiu, not ddbesu, because
word
entered into the
name
of the grandfather of the
present chief.
to
A number
of similar cases have been mentioned
me.f
I
paid
my
last visit to
the Dzassak to-day; he has proved him-
bore and a terrible beggar, and, considering that I have got absolutely nothing out of him, he has made a pretty The lama who is reading for his good thing out of my visit.
self a great
benefit the one
which
and
it
takes
he got for
hundred and eight big volumes of the Kandjur, him about a year to drone through, told me that the job, besides board and lodging, ten ounces of silver
told
about 5 taels value. that he had heard that some robbers had sometime ago stolen a horse from my K'amba friend Nyam-ts'o Purdung. The old chief took the revolver I had given him in '89 and, accompanied by two of his sons, followed them up, wounded Since then his thieving two of them and got his pony back. neighbors, the Golok, had been so filled with dread of him that they had left him in perfect peace, for, they said, the foreign gun he had got from Xhep'yling can kill a hundred men at a shot.
a piece of pulo of
The Dzassak
me
*The
title
sons of chiefs
{i. e.,
Wang, Kung,
Beile,
Dzassak, etc.) bear the courtesy
of Taichi in the Ts'aidam.

:
t Tibetan words are of frequent occurrence in Ts'aidam Mongol, for example ma lung, "ear ring;" shugu, " paper;" rgya-ma, "scales;" naisa, "m\i;" suru,
" coxA;" chyutso-k'orlo, "watch;" kaiyii, "porcelain cup;" largya, "sealing wax;" karma, "star;" titsi, "seal." Tabooed words are common in Chinese. Besides the tabooing of characters occurring in the names of emperors, the people refrain from using many words because certain others with the same sound have unlucky meanings. Thus in western Ssd-ch'uan soldiers and boatmen do not use Boatmen will not use the word the word kai, "to boil," but say instead chang. tao, " to arrive," but lung, for another word pronounced lao, means "to upset." Instead of saying lao ch'a, " pour out tea," they say yao ch'a or chun ch'a, etc.
"

The
Pariaka Tibetans
;"
TIBET.
i6l
call
Shang,
Gongma
Ts'aidam Baron and Dsun they call and Taichinar is Shuoma (or Lower) Ts'aidam. Formerly the country to the west of the Taichinar, and called Karsa,* was inhabited, but now it is a desert only visited occasionally by gold diggers from the Chan-t'ou country (Ilchi probably). In conversation to-day with the Hsien-sheng he told me that the Hsieh-chia used formerly to give the Mongol or Tibetan chiefs
presents to secure the privilege of transacting their business at
Ts'aidam or " Upper " Middle (Barma) Ts'aidam,
Tankar, Hsi-ning or elsewhere.

to get a license from the
At the present time they have

of course are
still
Amban and
with
obliged to
buy the good

Their profits
will of the people

are, as
I
whom
they wish to trade.
was
told at Kuei-te, greatly curtailed
and
they barely
make
a living, f
April 28. The Dzassak has promised to have camels here early to-morrow to take my things as far as Tengelik. He says he will not accept any pay for the use of them, that he puts them at my disposal. I am heartily tired of Oim and the Dzassak, and delighted to get away, even if it is to go down to the swamp of
the Ts'aidam.
have noted somewhere J that Chinese traders make use of terms only known to themselves to express numerals. These terms (called jc^w-few in western China and fiao ka-erh at Peking) vary in each locality and even in each branch of trade,
1
certain
horse traders, inn keepers, flour dealers, each trade has its own. Curiously enough Hsi-ning Fu and Ta-chien-lu (Ssii-ch'uan) have the %zxat yen-tzii in general use; they are as follows:
1.
Ch'ien-tzii-erh.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Ch'ou tzti-erh. Ts'ang tzQ-erh. Su tzu-erh. Nien tzti-erh.
6.
7. 8.
Nao
tzG-erh.
Tiao tzu-erh.
K'ou
tzQ-erh.
which the
t Conf.
*Prjevalsky, Carey, and apparently Bonvalot, visited this section of the Taichinar, first named traveler calls Cast or Gass.
p. 93.
% See p. IS and 64.
62

9-
TIBET.

I
TIBET.
163
found the village a
little
larger than in '89,
but quite as miserable
soft, spongy soil, and huge pools of reddish iridescent water now marked the spots where they had stood. The houses, however, are of little use to the Mongols, who only use them as store-houses, living themselves in tents in the courtyards. Some twenty families are living here now, many of them were comparatively well off when I first visited this country and then lived in the mountains, since then they have lost all their cattle and sheep and have had to come
looking,
many
of the hovels had caved in on the
to this miserable place.
The
it
grass
I
is
sooner
would have come here

of trouble and
long and fine around here this year, had I known directly from Shang and. saved
all the things I have given away to the promised to be here to-morrow with my luggage, but doubt if he is. On Prjevalsky's map, this village is called Khyrma Baron Dzassak. take the word Khyrma to be a poor transcription of the word kirim "village." It is more usually called Baron* kure (^wr/also meaning village), or Baron Baishing, the latter word meaning house. " The Tibetans call such villages Kangsar, Baron k'angsar, Dsun k'angsar, etc.
myself a
lot
chief.
Dow6
'
'
good silversmith here and I availed myself him do a little work for me, solely that I might see how he proceeded. He told me that when he was a boy a Tibetan silversmith had come to the Ts'aidam for awhile and that he blew his bellows and watched him work, this was all the teaching he had ever had. The style of his work is purely Tibetan, and very good considering the clumsiness of his tools. He uses a goat skin bellows, the top with two flat sticks sewed to it with rings in which to pass the thumb and fore-finger. With the right hand he opens and shuts the bag, and by pressing it down expels the air through an iron nozzle, covered with clay, its mouth
is
April 30.
^There
of his presence to have
in a little fireplace
about four inches broad.
This fireplace
is
also
surrounded, excppt on the side nearest the smith, by a little clay The fuel is charcoal made from the wall about three inches high.
small anvil
dead willow stumps found near the village. The smith uses a made in the shape of a cube and resting on a piece of wood, and he has a very small crucible in which to melt the sil* Baron
in eastern
Mongol
is
pronounced baragon
it
means " south,"
literally,
"right side."
i64
TIBET.
The silver having been melted into a button (whatever object making the process is the same), is beaten out into a thin plate, cut into pieces of the desired shape which are then soldered together, borax and a blowpipe being used in this last operation. The ornamentation consists in pearlwork and in twisted or pearled
ver.
he
is
wire ;* to make the latter the silver is cut into thin strips, then passed through a bit of iron pierced with holes of various sizes
has the desired dimension, after which a little iron instrument used to cut it slightly and to shape it like a string of very small silver beads. These wires are afterwards soldered on the plain silver work. I saw this man make a ring and I bought from him
till it
is
several other articles,

finished
and was shown

all
number of handsomely
charm boxes,
made
in this primitive fashion.
1 heard that in Baron Ts'aidam, there are about one hundred Akas (gelong, getsul and g6nyen,t but mostly of the last category, which does not here preclude marriage). This shows the very large proportion of those who embrace a religious life, for the whole population of Baron is only estimated at three hundred
families.
As
fancy
expected, the camels did not arrive to-day from Oim.
snowed heavily in the mountains yesterday, for very dense masses of clouds have hung over them the whole day down here in the plain, for the first time in several months the sky has been
it
;
perfectly clear the
sights both in the forenoon
whole day, and have been able and afternoon.

I
to get time
May J. The Dzassak, his wife, the Tibetan lama his chaplain, Dowe, and the luggage arrived this afternoon and I will get off to-morrow. I bought some butter, tsamba, flour, etc., from the Dzassak who, with his wife, tried their best to cheat me in the quality of the goods and by using short weights and measures. told him some pretty disagreeable truths, which he did not, however, mind in the least, he only cared "to take the cash and let the credit go." He asked me what could be done to prevent the village tumbling down and stop water oozing up from the soil;
1
-
* Occasionally the Tibetan " barley grain " {nas
dm)
pattern
is
used by Mongol
silversmiths.
in
Borax, called ts'a-bla in Tibetan and
peng-sha
in Chinese, is
found
Korluk Ts'aidam and exported thence to China,
Âka
is
the generic
and GSnyen,
brothers, or
name for all lamas. Gilong is an ordained monk, Gets'ul monks who have only taken the minor vows.

I
TIBET.
165
do was to have a on higher and drier ground at the foot of the mountains. This he declared was impossible, it would be in too close proximity to the Panaka and the Golok who could get within reach of his people before they would be aware of it, futhermore there was no water to be had at the foot of the mountains. I suggested digging wells, but he would not believe that water could be had by that means. Here the village has been since it was first built, forty-six years ago, and here it will remain. To-day again the atmosphere has been perfectly clear and I could see due north of here, some fifteen miles away, the end of a low range (possibly six hundred feet high) which runs along the right bank of the Bayan gol; this is the Sarlik ula or "Yak mountains" and near to its extremity the Shara gol (or lower Tsahan ossu) is said to empty into the Bayan gol. To the northwest we can see, probably thirty miles away, some low peaks, forming the eastern extremity of the Emnik ula which range forms the southern boundary of Korluk and separates it from Taichinar
told him, nothing, the only thing he could
village built
new
in that direction.
The great southern range stands out grandly to-day, covered with snow down to 13,000 or 13,500 feet above sea level. The Burhan bota, over which runs the highroad to Lh'asa, is plainly
discernible.
I
hear another explanation here of the
name
of this
famous pass. The Mongols say bota is a corruption of bodi, "wheat." "The Buddha's wheat" is therefore the meaning of the name; but fancy that " Buddha's cauldron " is, as have elsewhere noted,* the correct interpretation. There are, by the way in the mountains of Baron, a number of peculiarly shaped rocks to which the natives have given names. One is Cesar's hat, " another Cesar's saddle, " yet another his boot, and so on. A small ruin in heavy cut stone on the road to Dulan kuo a little above Dorung charu, and about which no one knows anything, is said to be Kuan gyur {bsgyur) "built by Kuan-ti " (Cesar). Everything odd or of unknown origin is attributed to him in these parts. also learnt that the present poverty of Baron is not alone I attributable to the drought and cattle plague, but also to the rapacity of the Dzassak himself. Thus when he went last year to Lh'asa he exacted from his people one hundred head of sheep, to
1 I
'
'
'
'
*See
Land of the Lamas,
139, note
2.
l66

!
TIBET.
way Sixty pack horses and six men had to accompany him at their own expense, so that the trip only cost the chief between three and four hundred taels of his own money.
eat on the
four camels which luggage to Tengelik should only go as far as the frontier of Dsun, one day's march from this place, and he forbade the driver supplying ropes to tie the loads on their backs. A rather violent scene ensued. 1 abused him and Dowe roundly, and told them that they ought to be ashamed of
2.
May
The Dzassait gave orders that the

first
he had at
said
were
to carry
my
I had shown the greatest generosity in all my dealings with them and they repaid me by acting in a contemptibly mean way. The result was that the driver was ordered to go with me to Tengelik and ropes were supplied to tie the loads on, but 1 left the chief and Dow6 in high dudgeon and told them that I would tell everyone I saw of their stinginess and bad faith. The trail led west-northwest by west through brush, sand and
themselves,
swamp
little
across the Ulasutai gol
(" Pine
tree river"), a miserable
rivulet,
and thence over firmer and drier ground
to the
Burusutai gol
gol,
("Tent frame
(?) river"), Prjevalsky's Burgasutai
which marks the boundary between Baron and Dsun. Here found grass and pools of water in the bed of the river, which, like most streams in these parts, flows underground at the base of the mountains, and we camped near the tent of a headman (Mirin) of Dsun. This Merin was an intelligent man of about fifty, with
we
good knowledge of local affairs and quite communicative. He took me for a Turkestani from Ilchi, and said that some of my people visited the Ts'aidam every year in the eighth moon to trade and that there are some Mongols inhabiting my supposed
a
country.
He
1
talked a
good
deal of a
Mohammedan town
(Huei-
huei hutun) to the west of the
Lob
nor, but he himself
had not
been there;
fancy he referred to Ho-tien.

that the population of the Ts'aidam (exclusive of
He
told
me
Shang, where there are five hundred families) three thousand families, divided as follows:
Baron,
was
little
over
300
200
families.
Korluk,
1,000 families.
families.
Dsun,
Erk6
Beile,
100 families. 150 families.
Koko,

Wangk'a (Dulan
Taichinar,
TIBET.
167
kuo), 150 families.
1,000 families.
Other divisions
Total,
3,
200 families.
100 families.
This agrees
in 1889.*
fairly
well with the information given

his master, the
me by Dowe
He told me furthermore that was now reduced to poverty.

taken
ill
Dzassak of Dsun,
is
About a year ago he had been
(from what he said
fancy the disease of the Dzassak
dropsy), and that he had had to fee so recovery that

satisfy their
many lamas
to pray for his
all his cattle, horses and sheep had been sold to demands. The worst of it was that he was no better, and he could no longer get prayers said for his recovery no money, no lama.
through bog and sands northwest by west for a couple of miles, when we found ourselves due south of, and about a mile away from, the village of Dsun kure, where live did not visit the about as many families as in Baron kure. After crossvillage but pushed on, turning a little south of west. ing the dry bed of the Sangen gol we rode about seventeen miles,
3.
trail
May
The
led
We
and then stopped
at a spot called
Shudenge, where there
is
little
brackish water and
some
coarse grass.
Southeast of this spot a
ridge of reddish rocks project from the
main chain and marks the
entrance to the Burhan bota k'utul.
This very conspicuous land-
mark
is
known
it
as
Sang Amnye.
Were
not for the strong winds of this region, which pile the
sand up around the willow trees growing over a large belt of country at the base of the mountains along the southern edge of the Ts'aidam, these trees would appear of quite respectable size
as
it is
only their smaller upper branches project above ground.
The natives dig the trunks out to use as fire wood and for lumber. The Dzassak of Baron has sent as camel driver a man called Damba, the same who guided me from Baron kure to Shang in He is quite a wag and has a somewhat remarkable history. 1889. The son of a Tibetan from Ulterior Tibet (Tsang) who had come to Shang with aTashil'unpo lama sent to govern that country, and of a Mongol mother, he was left here with the latter when his father returned with the lama to Tibet. By the time he was * See Land of the Lamas, 136-137.
I68
TIBET.
cattle, some sheep and ponies. Once while camped in one of the valleys in the south of Baron two Goloks came and carried off all his worldly belongings. A few hours after their departure he came back to his tent and found
twenty-five he had a few head of
himself a ruined man without the loss of a minute he followed on the Goloks' trail, overtook them in the night while they were asleep, crept up to them, cut their throats and regained possession
;
of his lost property.
For this act of courage he was much praised by his people, but was turned by his own audacity, for shortly after he himself turned brigand and, in company with another Baron man, pillaged all the adjacent Mongol and Panaka country.
apparently his head
Unfortunately his tribe (Jtosho) was, as

to the other
is
the custom, responsible
Mongol
tribes for his rapines,
and so
it
had to pay so
decided
many
to
fines for his evil
doings that
finally his chief (^Ndyen)
have him shot.
Two men
levelled his
held his arms apart while another, a few feet away,
at him and slowly applied the match, but the powder only flashed in the pan. Again the matchlock was primed and again it hung fire. Three times this occurred and then the chief saw that Damba was not to die; he pardoned him and having admonished him to lead an honest life sent him home. This
gun
happened ten years ago, and since then,
for various acts of bravery,
among which he mentioned with

in a
pride the killing of a large bear

first
hand
to
hand
fight,
he has been rewarded
with a white
oi Baturka
button then with a blue one, and finally with the

or
to
title
"The
Brave."
He
has never, since his reformation, been able
do more than earn enough to keep body and soul together, but his poverty weighs lightly on him, he looks on it as a just The Buddhist punishment for his having killed the two Golok. theory of rewards and punishments has its good side. Last night Damba amused us by singing songs in Chinese, Lh'asan, Panaka and Mongol styles. He took off the Chinese admirably and I laughed until the tears ran down my cheeks have not had such a one rare treat (not the tears but the laugh) The Mongol song told of a journey to for the last six months. Lh'asa, of the difficulties of the road and the beauties of the sacred city. The Panaka one had endless couplets, something in the style of the songs in Milarapa's Lubum and his Namt'ar. "If you see a young man coming, riding a fine grey horse, if his

dark blue
is If
TIBET.
169
gown
is
a blue button of rank,
trimmed with leopard skin and on his fur hat you may know him to be a young chief.
riding a milk white horse,
is if
you
see a
is
young man coming,
his
gown
of yellow and he looks like a Buddha, he
young
lama, " and so forth usque ad nauseam.
The
in
last
and most popular

are
couplet
was too bad
for translation, a
common
thing with Tibetan
and Chinese songs, but very unusual

usually quite sentimental.
Mongol ones which
few miles through sand dunes, to beyond ShUdenge, we again took a west-northwest by west direction over a bare, gravelly stretch, covered to our right with willows {suhai) and
4..
May
After a detour of a
bog and
till
take us clear of the
lakelets just
white thorns,
we
reached, after about twenty-three miles, a
Here we found a little water and grass and pitched our tents. The name given this place is derived from a small, bare, yellow hillock near by. Yesterday and to-day we have had in view to the north a low range of mountains, running east and west and apparently about
spot called Shara tolha or "Yellow head."
forty miles off.
bounds Dsun and Taichinar
to, which and K6rluk to the south. The climate of this Ts'aidam must have undergone wonderful changes within a very recent period, such huge masses of dibris from the mountains to the south as we have traveled over to-day and on several other occasions suggest torrential rains such as, I am told, have never occurred within the memory of man. The Mongols of the Ts'aidam have a saying to the effect that a
It is
the
Emnik
ula,
previously referred
to the north
Chinese eats with his food three pecks of
dirt a year,
Mongol
Never was The wool from our clothing, the dust blown by a saying truer. the winds, the hairs in the milk and butter, the grit in the meal, the filth in the kettles, the ashes from the fire, the dry dung our only fuel, all contribute to make the vile messes we have to swallow daily nasty beyond description, and still, the day may come when we will long even for them, a pleasant thought in
truth
three pounds of wool, a Hsi-fan three pounds of gravel.
The only edible products of the Ts'aidam are two kinds of berwhich grow on species of thorns and called harmak (Chinese halavtaku), and mori harmak, "horse harmak" (Chinese k'ou
ries
I70

;*
TIBET.
chieK)
turnip,
also a root called Sodzum in Mongol, in shape like a and which, when roasted in the ashes, has d whitish pulp with yellowish fibres running through it. Its taste is insipidly sweet, something like a frozen potato.
with
May 5. Continuing over a gravelly soil, here and there mixed loess, we came after a few miles to an old walled Chinese
{_ying-pan), called by the Mongols
hutun, and marks the boundary between Dsun and Taichinar. This camp was probably built by
camp
Nomorun
about a mile east of the
Nomorun
gol; this point
the Chinese in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, during one
of their great expeditions into Tibet, f
It is square, three hundred and thirteen yards to the side, the crenelated walls about sixteen feet high and made of sun-dried bricks, and it has gates on the east and west sides, and small bastions at the angles and two on each face. Willows and brush grow now inside the walls and a Tibetan recluse is the only inhabitant. The brush extends for many miles round about it, but the Dsun Mongols have cleared patches of it and till the soil, irrigation ditches bringing the water from the river a mile away. There were a number of Mongols ploughing when we passed, the plough closely resembled in shape the Chinese, and was drawn by a camel. Some eight miles west of these ruins we came to a tomb of some Mohammedan saint now long forgotten. Chinese Mohammedans call such buildings ma-tsa {i. e., mizar), but this one is known to Mongols as the ungerhS bdishing or "domed house." It is made of sun-dried bricks and in the usual style of such buildings throughout the Mohammedan world. The western side of the dome has fallen in, but the rest of the building is in a good state of preservation. found no inscription which could help to throw light on its history. The Mongols told me it was built by Tur1
kestan! people
safe guess at
all
events.
all
Eight miles west of the ma-tsa, nearly
the
way through
willow brush,
we came
to the T6ngelik
:
swamps,
scattered around
* There are three varieties of thorns the "white briar" {paitz'u in Chinese), on which the harmal< grows; the " black briar " (hei-tg'u in Chinese, chibeki in Mongol), and the '' yellow briar " (huang-tz'u in Chinese), on which the mori harniak grows, I believe. Prjevalsky {Mongolia, II, 167,) gives the name of the
"white thorn"
pimpinellifolia.
as
See also p. 33, where
Nitraria schoheri; the yellow briar is probably his Rosa its Eastern Mongol name is given.
t See
p. 158, note.

which
in the
TIBET.
17
are ten or fifteen tents.
We found
very
little
grass, except
where our ponies could not go, but swarms of fine big mosquitoes were everywhere. The day was very hot, the thermometer at 2 p. m. stood at 72.4 Fahrenheit in
parts,
most swampy
the shade; after dark, however,
my
sheepskin
gown was
not too
warm. The camels from Baron
leave me here, but Damba went before dark to one of the tents and brought two men back with him, who agreed to carry my luggage to Golmot or the Naichi gol for
eight
mace of
silver for
each pack animal.
We
we
will rest here to-
morrow and then
travel
westward
as fast as
can, reaching the
Naichi gol in five days.

learnt from Panti, who, as have previously said, is Mongol, that west of the Taichinar proper are the two districts of Kangsa and Kas (Prjevalsky's Gast or Gass) belonging to it, but now uninhabited.* Until about fifteen years ago it was occupied by Mongols, but Huei-huei from the north raided them and so it was abandoned. The Kas nor (probably Prjevalsky's
6.
I
I
May
a Taichinar
Chong
Kum
kul)
is
as large as the
Tosu
nor, but
its
when
saying this
all all
Panti naturally included in his estimate of
superficies
the the
swamps
near the Kas nor; in like manner he divided
central moras.s of the Ts'aidam into
two
large lakes, the
Golmot
nor or western lake and the Tengelik nor or eastern lake. My men have been trading to-day with the Tengelik people, and I saw Panti sell one man a string of dried rhubarb root. The Mongols use this root as a dye to color yellow the hats,
They do not know of its medicinal though the Chinese do. The Taichinar Mongols have quite a reputation in these parts as witches. When they want to bewitch a person, they first ascertain very exactly his name, age, etc., and having procured a hair from his head or a nail paring, or such like thing, they make a i;..tle image of a man or woman, as the case may be, and in it Then when certain magic formulas and other they put the hair. hocus pocus have been recited, it suffices to prick the image in a
boots, coats, etc., of lamas.
properties,
certain part to occasion violent pains in the
same
part of the
body
of the chosen victim, or even to

*See
calls
make
He
it
die.
Taichinar Taiji.
Prjevalsky,
Mongolia,
II,
168).
calls the
Baron he
Burun.
172
TIBET.
Crimes among the Ts'aidam Mongols are punished with fines

paid to the
also the
Noyen
or Chief, the injured person or his family.
This
is
custom of Tibet. Murder is punished by the imposition of a fine which the whole hosho of the criminal has to pay to the Chief of the victim and his family. To kill a lama is a much greater crime
than to
kill a
layman.
In the case of the victim

is
being a lama, as
of the
much
as one horse for each family

for the
frequently
demanded
hosho of the murderer
gomba
of the murdered lama.
May 7. We left at seven o'clock with four pack horses, three oxen and a camel carrying our luggage, so that my own mules travel with empty pack saddles. It is very hard on them any way wading through this awful bog, with hardly any grass to eat and only a few handfuls of barley daily. We traveled a little over thirteen miles in a west-northwest by west direction till we came to B61ang on the edge of the great central morass, where we found a little brackish water and grass. Mongols do not camp usually at this spot for fear of wolves, which are very numerous and fierce hereabout. I bought at Tengelik some ox-hide water jars, each holds about ten gallons. The Taichinar Mongols make them as follows Cutting two pieces
:
of hide into the desired shape, they the jar has a short neck and small
sew them together so that mouth. Then they fill the soft
wet clay and let it dry thoroughly, after which the clay broken up and taken out and the jar retains the shape given it, so long as the outside of the skin is kept dry. 1 bought also six pecks of harmak berries, they taste like poor
hide with
is
and they help eke out our
bad when cooked with rice, supply of food. Things are very expensive in this part of the Ts'aidam, a brick of tea {ta ch'a), costing 40 tael cents at Lusar, is exchangeable here for 4 ewes a pair of boots, worth 300 to 400 cash, is the price of a fat wether. One of the two men driving the pack animals is called Rna (a Tibetan name, by the way), he is a great talker and singer. He told me this evening that last year the Chamri Panaka of Chamri Solo raided Korluk Beis6, but were defeated by the Beis6, who
wortleberries, but are not so very
little
;
them and took two prisoners. The Beise took the heads of the slain and his prisoners to Hsi-ning and requested the Amban to punish the latter. One was put to death and the other
killed four of
was ransomed by
the Chamri, and so the affair
was
apparently

settled.
TIBET.
173
victory, the
The poor Mongols, however, were not to enjoy their Chamri closed the road to Hsi-ning on them, and, so
as not to have to travel there
by the roundabout way of Sa-chou, Kan-chou and Liang-chou, they had to pay them 2 yuan-pao of silver, one hundred head of horses and one hundred pieces of
pulo.
Rna
in
told
me
also that
he met Carey
when
he came to Tengelik
had ten Turki men, thirteen He (Carey) gave him a yuan-pao Hi horses and sixty donkeys. to purchase barley for him, and, though he could only make himself understood by signs (one of his Turki men spoke Mongol, however), he was very kind and considerate and much liked by
1886 to buy barley.
said he
He
everyone, but the other foreigner (Dalgleish
?)
was very
cross.
The trail to-day led most of the way through scrub embedded in loess and sand, and occasionally over gravelly soil absolutely devoid of vegetation. At Tagur (sixteen miles from Bolang) we crossed some fields in process of irrigation,
8.
May
willows"
and
on.
filled
our jars with water, fearing
Panti said the water at
we might not find any farther Tagur comes from the Uneren gol
I
which flows from the Kuo-shili range to the south, but did not notice a river bed broader than a gutter, and it is probable that this river flows under ground except when tapped. At Toll eken (Jken means "upper"), where we camped, there was a little coarse dry grass and the usual scrub willows, but hardly any water. As far as my experience goes Shang is the garden spot of this region and Baron next to it in fertility.
May
way
p.
We traveled about
We
twelve miles to-day, most of the
along the north side of a line of sand dunes and amidst willow brush. When about half way we passed some three miles to the
springs (?)."
"Big sea camped at Tsahan kol or "White leg," where we found fairly good water and grass. There were a few tents near Tsahan kol, and the inhabitants warned us to look out for
south of a pool, or lakelet, called Ike tale ndmeha,
wolves which are very numerous.
May 10. The trail led through mud and over shaking bog where willows and thorn bushes grow and where mosquitoes are enormous and ferocious. The muddy ground was covered With a white crust of salt, a quarter of an inch thick, under it was
174
TIBET.
liquid
this
still,
mud in which the horses sank to their bellies. We saw in swamp a few orange legged snipe and pheasants, and stranger
a
miles
few tents, the beyond Ts^han

;
latter at a
place called Tugeta, a couple of
kol.
What
can ever have induced
human
is
beings to have chosen such a place to even stop in for a day,
beyond conception
such surroundings.
it
makes one believe that they actually like A few eastern Mongols bound for Lh'asa
were also camped here, waiting for the passage through the Ts'aidam of the big caravan from Tankar to Tibet. The Tilgeta gol, which we crossed some eight miles from Tsahan kol, is a good sized stream, about six inches deep and ten feet broad beyond it we replunged into the swamp till we reached a little bit of raised ground, comparatively dry, and where we found a spring of pure water. This spot is called Tola, and here we camped.
;
on the Naichi gol about a which I have no desire to see, especially as it is said to be only about a fourth of the size of Baron kure; this would give it about five houses. From Tola the village of Golmot (this name means something like "many
guide's plan
is
The
to
go
to a point
day's ride south of the village of Golmot,
rivers " ) bears northwest.
We
one as
saw
a
specimen,
few sheldrakes, but, though I would my Mongols begged me not
like to
to.
have shot
II. Through the same swamps and then over a sandy with thorns and a few bunches of coarse grass growing here and there on it, we traveled for over nineteen miles, till we
plain,
May
came to the banks two little streams,
of the Naichi gol.*

the
On
the
way we
crossed
Tumta Tola
gol and the Huito Tola gol, the
former quite a stream with a good current, the latter a mere ditch. The Naichi (Naichiyin or Kurban Naichi) gol is a large stream
flowing between banks about twenty
feet high and divided into numerous channels, good-sized willows and dense brush growing on the islets. The river bottom is about three hundred yards wide. I learnt that there is another and more important branch
*A K bare region which extends from near , coming from the absolutely Lh'asa to the Ts'aidam, was so struck by the brush growing around Golmo that he
spoke of
it
as
"a
miles long.
The
forest trees,
are about six or
wooded forest, six miles broad and about one hundred named by the Mongolians humbu, harmo andcAha/i, seven feet high." Report on Explorations of A
densely
made
in iSjg-'Ss, 44.
TIBET.
175
of the river about six miles west of here, so at least Panti says, but it may well be that it is quite another river, Mongols are not
very particular about such matters.
There are a few tents near the place at which we have camped, but they look very miserable, and 1 hear that the people hereabout are very poor. Last year in the eighth moon eighteen Goloks suddenly made their appearance here, having come from the upper Naichi valley, and in a few hours they rounded up between fifty and sixty horses, one hundred head of cattle and some five thousand or six thousand sheep, which they drove back to the mountains. The Mongols followed them for a few miles in a half-hearted way and then came back, very glad that they had not seen anything of them. These Taichinar Mongols are greater cowards than even those of Eastern Ts'aidam, these latter are held to be very " big livered men " by the former.
The
plain of the Naichi gol

it,
is
bare,
and sheep and
cattle nearly
starve on
while to the south in the mountains are rich and
abundant pasturages, good water and plenty of fuel, but the fear of a Golok raid keeps the Mongols from venturing there, though they
could stay there in perfect security for eight months of the year,
for the
Ts'aidam but from June to October. seriously that the Naichi gol flows to Sa chou and probably empties into the Lob nor. The Yellow river, Chinese geographers say, issues out of the Lob nor to reappear at Karma fang, passing apparently under the whole Ts'aidam.*
raid the
tell
Golok never
The people hereabout
me
To-morrow I will send Panti and Yeh Hsien-sheng to see Samtan Jalang, Panti's elder brother, who, besides being one of the headmen (^Jalang') of this district, is a professional guide for
going to Tibet. Panti thinks that if can secure his 1 will be able to go wherever I want in Tibet. He lives on the west branch of the Naichi gol, where there are a great many more tents than here.
parties
1
services
May
was
after
12.
Yeh Hsien-sheng went to Samtan Jalang's but found

sow
his barley patch in the
it
he had gone to
mountains.
A man
sent after him, and

in
my camp
two
days.
was said that the Jalang would be at The Hsien-sheng got back to camp a little
him, stayed behind to see
noon, but Panti,
who had gone with
his people.
* Conf. remark about Yellow River
at Pao-t'u, p. 26.
176

was very warm
TIBET.
It
to-day, at 11 a. m. the thermometer in

In the afternoon
I
my
tent stood at 101 Fahrenheit. a bath in the river, and to
was
able to get
two of my Chinese were so imprudent as do the same thing. I won't say when got my last one, but it was considerably more than two months ago. Shortly after one of the Chinese was taken with chills and cramps, this, of course,
i
will confirm the fellow in the belief that a
man
is
a fool
who
washes
never do such a thing again. The people living round about here have been offering to sell me barley, butter (of sheep's milk), chura* and such odds and ends
himself,
and
he, for one, will
as they think
at
may please me. I found barley cheaper here than Baron and Shang, fourteen pecks selling for an ounce of silver. the Dzassak I hear that at present Taichinar is badly governed
;
died a while ago and
left
a son, a minor, to rule in his stead.
There is no Tosalakji and the Hosho-dzange is at Hsi-ning where he is attached to the Amban's Ya-men, consequently the various headmen have it pretty much their own way. Physically the Taichinar Mongols differ considerably from those one might suspect a certain admixture of the eastern Ts'aidam They are more of foreign blood in them, Turki in all probability. heavily built, and taller than the other Eleuts of the Ts'aidam, and many of them have quite heavy beards. Their features, however, are purely Mongol, though perhaps their noses are more prominent
;
and more inclined to be aquiline than

people.
is
usually seen
among
this
The women are fatter than those farther east, but of It is commonly stated that there are in about the same height. Shang two men over six feet, two in Dsun and three in Baron.
These are the recognized giants of this country. A man between thirty and forty, came to my tent to-day whose thought I appearance made me for a minute hold my breath had found a European in disguise, a fellow "crank," so foreign were his features. He had blue eyes, reddish black hair and a very freckled face, he was however, a native of the Taichinar.
;
duum
* Chura was already used by the Mongols when we first hear of them. " Resilac quod remanet post butirum, permittunt acescere quantum acrius fieri potest,
buUiendo, et coagulum illud siccant ad solem, et efficitur
et bulliunt illud, et coagulatur
durum sicut scoria ferri, quod recondunt in saccis contra hyemen. Tempore hyemali, quando deficit eis (Moal) lac, ponunt illud acre coagulum, quod ipsi vocant grice (griut aut griut), in utre, et super infundunt aquam calidam, et concutiunt fortiter donee illud resolvatur in aqua, que exillo efficitur tota acetosa, et illam aquam bibunt Rubruk, Itinerarium, 229. loco lactis."
TIBET.
177
The Mongols call Lh'asa Tsu, but I am not quite clear in mind whether this refers to the Kingdom of Lh'asa or to the
of that name, though the latter
is
my
city
usually called Baron tola in
Mongol.
May
a day's
13.
Panti came back
this
morning and
all
his
braggadocio
about guiding
me anywhere and fearing nothing has vanished, after yarning with his relatives, who have told him a lot of
nonsense about the danger to which he will expose himself by going to Tibet with me. To-day he is undecided whether to go
to-morrow and then and he (Panti) will see whether he shall go with me. He told me that he had met at his brother's tent a man who had been to the Tengri nor, and who said that the only road from that lake led to Lh'asa and Shigats6, so he (Panti) believes, though 1 have persistently told every one who has questioned rrie that I did not want to go to Lh'asa, that want to reach that city by this roundabout road. Panti told me that while in Shang, Baron and Dsun, it was common, if not usual, for two men, not relatives, to have one wife in common, all three living in the same dwelling, this practice did not obtain in Taichinar and Korluk."'
or not, his brother, the Jalang, will be here
we
can
all
talk the matter over together
stories have heard of late concerning the and number of the wolves in the Ts'aidam are certainly true. Last night they killed and nearly devoured a horse tied to a tent about half a mile from here, and a few days ago they ate three cows belonging to an old man who has a tent less than a quarter of a mile from my camp. The Mongols do nothing to destroy these pests, in fact they appear very much afraid of them. Although deer and other game abound in the mountains south of here, it has been forbidden to kill them for the last thirty years. The then Dzassak heard in a dream the deer begging him to protect them as these mountains were their last refuge, so he issued an
1
May z/.The
ferocity
order forbidding his people killing them.
and I could distinguish from here but he is probably wrong) a short range of mountains with one snow covered peak bearing 185 (magnetic) from my camp. Panti says it is covered
clear
The atmosphere to-day was very
to the north (Panti says five days ride
* Conf. what
is
said under date of
May zgth.
178

is
TIBET.
with snow all the year, and or " Hotwater snow peak."
Prjevalsky's Ritter range.
known
If it is
as the
Halang ossu mengku

it
as far as Panti says,
is
in
The mountains to the west of the mouth of the valley of the Naichi gol are called Tore (" Birch tree") Kuo-shili, those to the
east of
it
Talen-tak
ula.
trail
leading to the Alang nor crosses
the latter range by the Hashken k'utui and passes by the Dinsin
obo (Prjevalsky's Dynsy-obo). West of the Tore Kuo-shili the mountains prolonging the range bordering the Ts'aidam to the south are called Sosanang, and a direct trail from Hajir to the upper Naichi gol valley crosses this range by the Sosanang daban. While on the subject of local names in Taichinar, may note that the river called by Prjevalsky Batygantu, and by Carey Pataganto gol, and which empties into the great central morass near Hajir, is the Baternoto gol or " Mosquito nest river," a most
I
The Horghway gol of is the Horgon gol, and the Khorgoin ula, the Horgon ula. Horgon means "a point of rocks." In the Korluk country the Kurlyk nor of the maps is the Korluk nor; the Toso nor, the Tosu nor; the Chakangnamaga, the Tsahan nameha or "White Springs;" the Khatsapchi
excellent
for a river in this country.
name
the maps, in the
same
section of country,
springs the Hatsapji nameha, and Chonju

Panti's brother did
is
Tsonju.
I had hoped and expected he would. I am most anxious to see him, for not only is it important for me to secure him, but on his favorable reply to
not turn up to-day, as
my
request depends the decision of Panti,
who
I
is
most valuable
man.
for a
And
month
then the suspense in which

is
most
I
trying.
I
region south of here,

desert me, until
been living can once get into the uninhabited will make it impossible for anyone to
If
1
have
now
but
all
get to the inhabited parts of Tibet at all events, these people are hke children when it comes to taking a
decision about anything,
money
will not
always decide them.
made his appearance this morning. man of fifty-one, with an intelligent fkce, perfectly self-possessed and of good address. He is as poor as his brother and as anxious to make money. He speaks Tibetan
15.
May
is
Samtan
Jalang
He
a very serious looking
fairly well,
translated for
what
but preferred talking Mongol, which the Hsien-sheng me into Chinese. He said that he was aware of desired of him, but he could only agree to go with me

I
TIBET.
179
into Tibet if first went to Hajir, showed my passport to tiis Noyen and got his consent to his accompanying me. This I, of course, knew was all twaddle, but replied quite seriously, saying that this long journey to Hajir was quite unnecessary, that the Noyen would not be able to read my Chinese passport, and that
I
the Hsi-ning
Amban had
I
informed him and
all
the other chiefs
of the Ts'aidam that
was
to visit this country,
have absolutely nothing to say about

I
my
and so he could movements. My object,
by the shortest possible route; that is to say, through Tibet. had official business to transact in India and must reach that country promptly. After a good deal
on,
to reach India
I
went
was
of
"empty talking"
the Jalang said that there
was
a road to India
it
viA the Tengri nor
and Shigatse, that not only was
short (six
weeks) and easy, but was well known to him. He said that the only danger for a foreigner traveling in Tibet was the more than likely refusal on the part of the Lh'asan authorities to let him travel in their country, but by taking the route he suggested this would be avoided, as it lay entirely without the territory under
Since the Lh'asa Amban had arranged matwith the Yingili of India, trade was open between Shigatse and Darjeeling, and foreigners (he did not say of what nationality) were freely visiting and trading at the former place. He thought he could take me by this route.
the rule of Lh'asa.
ters
I agreed to give him 50 taels of silver if he took me to the Tengri nor and twenty-five more if we should reach Shigatse, also
would furthermore provide them home with and a gun for their defense. Should they not be able to come back by the road by which we were about to follow, further agreed to take them with me to India or China and send them back to the Ts'aidam by
a like to his brother.
I
amount
with ponies and supplies to come
Kuei-hua Ch'eng and Hsi-ning Fu. Everything having been settled satisfactorily, I gave the Jalang a few presents and twenty-five taels of the promised amouat, and he
started
gol,
in
home
to settle his affairs
and
rejoin
me
on the upper Naichi
where we will stop for a few days to get the ponies and mules good condition, as hear the grazing is excellent there.
1
in
May 16. The day has been oppressively hot, the thermometer my tent reaching 94 Fahrenheit. Though it has been calm,
whirlwinds have
at frequent intervals
little all
swept across the
plain,
coming from the west.
i8o

will
TIBET.
have to leave our baggage behind us to be brought to by the Jalang, as the camels on which we had counted are in too poor condition to do the work, and ponies will have to be got. The Jalang will come by the Sosanang daban, a shorter but rougher road than the one will follow.
the Naichi valley
1
We
am more and more
struck by the
marked
difference in the
and these Taichinar people. One would hardly imagine they belonged to the same race. While the Halhas are comparatively of small stature, light complexioned, and frequently with fine, regular features and no
features
of the eastern Mongols (Halhas)
beard, the Taichinar people are
tall, coarse in build, dark skinned, deep voiced, with heavy features and bearded, and frequently with hair on the body and limbs, a nearly unknown peculiarity farther
east.
There is a young Halha lama now stopping with the Jalang waiting for an opportunity to go to Lh'asa. He came here to-day with him and asked me if I could not assist him. I told him that
if he chose, he could come with me and that I would give him food on the way and hire a pony for him to ride, the Mongols hereabout being in the habit of hiring ponies for the journey to Lh'asa for 5 taels a head. He accepted with great glee. He will join me on the upper Naichi gol at the same time as the Jalang. His name is Zangpo, "The good one," pronounced here Sambo.
TIBET.
i8i
PART
III.
From the Naichi gol to Namru de near the

Tengri nor.
May 17. broke up camp on the Naichi gol this morning, leaving behind three loads of barley, flour and tsamba, to be
brought on in a few days by the Jalang. After following up the river over soft sand we came, after a few miles, to the foot of the Talen-tak (or tagh) mountains, which have their western extremity on the eastern side of the Naichi gol. The sand blown from the Ts'aidam by the prevailing winds is piled up on the foothills to a depth of several hundred feet. The mouth of the Naichi
about six miles wide and covered with granitic gravel The river flows at the mouth of the valley along the base of the Tore ula, so we were unable to make out correctly its course, only catching occasional glimpses of it from the top of some sand dune. The mountains to the west of the river are, as 1 have already noted, the Tor6 kuo-shili or Tore ula.
valley
is
We
and sand.
Turning around the end of the Talen-tak mountains we crossed stream coming from the southeast and called the Kara-sai, and then rode up a side valley leading to the Kano pass.* Kano,
a
little
am told, means about the same thing as When half way up the valley we found a
I
k'utul,
little
i.
e.,
"pass."
grass and
some
terribly brackish water, and, as
it
was
nearly dark,
we camped
here.
A propos of
ticularly
The mountains visible from this camp are mostly composed some shining black stone (basalt, probably), covered here and there with loess, with numerous patches of alkaline efflorescence.
of
alkali,
it is
perhaps worth noting that on
all
moun-
tains south of the
Koko-nor
abundant would have supposed,

* Prjevalsky crossed
lake alkaline efflorescences are parin the highest parts of the ranges, not, as 1
in the
bottom of the gorges or

journey of iSjg-'So.
valleys.
it
this pass in his
He
calls
Gono.
I82
TIBET.
To the east of where we have camped I can see a high but short series of bare, jagged needles (probably of basalt) trending
south-southeast.
May i8. Crossing the Kano pass about two miles above where we camped, we rode in a southwesterly direction for some three or four miles, when we reached the Naichi gol, the country everywhere
sand.
absolutely devoid of vegetation, only a
The
river
(some
in
three feet
deep
mass of dibris and wide and about the middle) flowed between high vertical
sixty to seventy-five feet
banks, disclosing alternate horizontal layers (each about a foot

thick) of loess
and
gravel.
The
all
black, jagged peaks, noticed yesterday
appear from the Naichi valley to be about six miles

the
little
gorges which seam their flanks,
from our camp, away from enormous masses of

;
dSbris have been
main valley. bank of the Naichi gol we crossed the Shugu gol, a stream nearly as large and deep as the Naichi itself and coming from the east-southeast where it rises in the Shugan mountains, and three and one-half miles farther up we found a convenient point for crossing the Naichi gol, and a good camping ground on the river bottom along the right bank with plenty of green grass and willow brush. This spot is called Tsahan tohe (or toha), and Panti said that from this point on grass was abundant throughout the Naichi valley. There is a trail leading up the Shugu gol and to the Alang nor, and about two and one-half miles lower down the Naichi gol is another lateral valley also on the east side of the river, up which runs another trail leading into the basin of the Alang nor. It is by this latter trail that the Golok invariably come when they raid
into the
swept down
After about eleven miles along the right
Taichinar.
Prjevalsky calls the mountains to the south of the Shugu (his Shuga) gol and the bend of the Naichi gol by the unpronounceable
name of Gurbu-gunznga mountains. The first part of this name may be Mongol, Kurban, "Three," the second has a Tibetan
look about it, but no one have questioned on the subject, and have asked dozens, knew of any name, let alone this horrible one,
1 I
for this range.
The
subject of the exaction of the Chinese T'ung-shih
is
one on
Panti
which Mongols and Tibetans
are always willing to talk.

told
TIBET.
183
me
that
whenever
a T'ung-shih visited Taichinar he exacted
a sheep a
day for his food and a present from each hosho of six ponies and six pieces of pulo. Of course any delay in complying with this requisition, the first part of which is made on the authority of an ula order, enabled the T'ung-shih to exact double
the quantity.
May
the
ig.
About two and one-half miles west of our camp

crossed a
of
yesterday
we
low
summit of which we ward some forty miles. To the south were

Panti said they are
from could see the Naichi gol stretching westcol, called
the
Koko-tom
visible
k'utul,
some snow
peaks rising behind the chain bordering the river
in that direction.
known
as the Naichi
mengku
or " Naichi
snow
peaks," and that they are " the elder brother" of the Halangossu mengku in Korluk. They correspond in position with the western portion of Prjevalsky's Gurbu-gunznga Mountains, though they
may
possibly be his Mt. Subeh.
The rock on the Koko-tom pass is sandstone, through which run numerous thin veins of white quartz, with nearly a vertical dip, so that traveling over them was extremely disagreeable, the
quartz projecting six or eight inches above the adjacent layers of
softer stone.
banks, most of the
The Naichi above the Koko-tom flows between broad, low way covered with grass, with numerous patches of " black thorn " (in Mongol called ch'ibekS) and scrub
willows.
Having crossed again to the right bank, we camped in a clump and would have enjoyed the spot thoroughly had it not been for the heat and the mosquitoes. We had finished taking our tea when we saw three thin, ragged and bare footed' men limping down the road towards us. They were young lamas from eastern Mongolia on their way home from They had left that city a pilgrimage to Lh'asa and Trashil'unpo. over two months ago, each one with a little tsamba, tea and butter, a bellows and one small earthen pot, together with a few prayer books purchased at Lh'asa with the money they had begged,
of ch'ibeke,
on the k'ur-sking strapped across their shoulders. They had expected falling in with some well provided party on the way, from whom they would certainly have got additional supplies Then the snow was to help them on, but they had met no one.
carried
84

lost their
TIBET.
deep and they had
way and
so,
long before they reached
the Ts'aidam country, they had exhausted their provisions.
Then
they had picked up the old bones they found along the route and breaking them, had boiled them and drank the greasy water.
They had chewed up the leather soles of their boots, had eaten and by so doing they had been able to cross the AngirtakFarther up the valley they shia pass and enter the Naichi valley.
grass,
had found a dead colt and had feasted on that as long as it lasted, and then slowly, and by very short stages, they had come down this far. Yesterday they met an old Mongol herding horses a few miles above this place, they had asked him for food and he had said he had only a few handfuls of tsamba to live on till more was sent him from Taichinar Ts'aidam, and "the blue sky above
only
knew "
{kdko tingri mdtichi bini)

kill
when
that
would
be.
But
he did not give them something, and so he had handed over to them his little bag of tsamba, and they had got another meal.
they had threatened to
him
if
They squatted around my fire, and in no time had swallowed two kettles of tea, four or five pounds of mutton, a couple of
pounds of butter and a bag of tsamba, enough to have
three
killed
any
men
with ordinary capacities, but a Mongol's

to
is
not of that
We gave them some old boots and enough food to Golmot their expressions of gratitude were quite toiy:hing. They told us that when at Trashil'unpo it was reported that two foreigners were on their way there from India to settle details of trade with Sikkim. The people of Shigats6 had not expressed any displeasure at the news, on the contrary they were glad that trade was to be developed. They further said that it was impossible for anyone to pass Nagchuk'a on the Hsi-ningLh'asa road without the K'anpo examining him and questioning him as to his antecedents, starting place, destination, occupation,
description.
take
them
etc., etc.
When
way
months
they had traveled to Lh'asa
last
year they had gone by

It
of Labrang and the

to
Horba country.
took them three
walk
to Lh'asa from Labrang.
traveled up the valley about seventeen over the river bottom, which is about a quarter of a mile broad and covered with willows, ch'ibeke and
20. miles,
May
To-day we
all
going
the
way
good grass
Saline efflorescences are
abundant
in the river
bottom

;
TIBET.
185
and on the mountain sides at a distance, when high up on the mountains the salt makes them look as if covered with deep snow, so thick are these deposits. Again crossing the river near the mouth of the Kara k'utul gol or " Black pass creek," where the disintegrated rock swept down from the range to the north rises over one hundred and fifty feet above the bed of the stream, we camped on a pretty little meadow at the foot of the Buhutu ula, a prominent peak close to the left side of the river and along whose eastern base flows the Kara k'utul gol. The peak on the eastern side of the mouth of the Kara k'utul gol gorge is called Takelgen ula. The ISlaichi gol from Tsahan toh'a to Buhutu is very swift, with drop of about thirty feet to the mile. Along the bank on either a It may be, however, that the river side are many large springs. water (which is of a grayish color) percolates through the loose
gravelly soil
pools, thence
to
reappear beautifully clear flowing back into the river.
in these
spring-like
way up we saw the old horse-herder from whom the Mongols had taken all his food I filled his tsamba bag and gave him a few bundles of kua-mien. The only game have so far seen in the valley has been a few partridges, met with this evening, and a small bunch of wild asses
On
the
starving
;
seen lower
I
down
the valley.
dirt
passed an hour this evening trying to wash the butter made of sheep's milk, and bought at our
out of the
the
camp on
compared to it. I washed and salted it, but it is still horrible, bad luck to it, for it is must get all I have and all I will get for months to come, and so accustomed to it. Perhaps some day will like it!!
lower Naichi
is
Camembert cheese
fragrant
moved up the valley about twelve miles to west of Amtun ula and at the mouth of a lateral This valley in the mountains on the south side of the river. The lateral valley is called Atak Naichi or "the lower Naichi." next lateral valley above this is called Tumta (or "Middle") Naichi, and another yet above it, also in the southern range, is The road to the Naichi daban called Eken (or " Upper") Naichi. It is on account of these ("pass") leads up the last named. three valleys that the upper Naichi valley has been called Kurban
21.
May
We
Tator, to the
Naichi, or
"the three Naichis."
i86
TIBET.
Tator,
map
as
where we camped, is the same place marked on Carey's Amthun. The valley above Buhutu is broad, in some
and the grass
is
places not less than a mile in width,

luxuriant.
positively
We
saw on the
wild asses, with a great
way a bunch of at least a hundred many colts, all six or eight months old.
little
The
it*
trail
leading to the Sosanang daban starts a
to the west
of Tator.
Panti says Hajir can be reached in five days
by taking
is
To
the east of the
mouth of
the Atak Naichi valley
a high
teton called Nyul-chan t'onbo, or "Silver peak,"

a similar
to
,the
west
is
one called Ser-chan t'onbo, or the "Golden peak." These tetons mark the Atak Naichi very plainly. The river bottom at Tator is covered with a little creeping plant, now in bloom. The flower looks like a diminutive apple blossom, and it is the first flower I have seen on the whole journey; Mongols call it aura kashim.\ A little snow fell on the surrounding hillsides, but only a few The mountains to the west of the flakes came into the valley. Amtun ula are not so bare as those lower down the valley; a little grass grows on their flanks, and the rocks are less exposed to view but, taking them all together, they make up about as Even the barren and inhospitable a picture as one can find. loftiest peak in these mountains has nothing grand or imposing about it; it is simply bleak and barren, and looks much the worse
;
for
wear and
tear after long centuries in this vile climate.
moved up the valley to near the mouth of the where we found splendid grazing and plenty of ch'ibeke, which, when dry, makes excellent fuel. We will remain here until we make the final start for Tibet. This spot is called Kure bori, or "Village site," from the ruins of a former camp. The Mongols used to keep their flocks here and till patches of
22.
May
We
Eken
Naichi,
ground, but for the a very few of them
last
who
seven or eight years there has only been have ventured to come here for fear of
Golok
raids.
* Ci.Joumey of Carey
III,
and Dalgleish, Roy. Geo. Soc, Supplemental Papers,

it is
42.
It is
there said that
eighty miles to
Golmo vid
the Sosanang (Sosani)
daban.
^Myricaria
iirostrata, Hook.,
f.
et
Thorns.
"

I
TIBET.
187
saw, on the
way up
was
the valley,
1
of eight head, the other of five.
range of them, but

they ran
asses
off,
so excited
two bunches of kuldza, one was able to get within good that missed them twice, and
I
crossing a high, precipitous
hill,
over which
could
not follow them.

1
We
saw,
also,
;
the largest single herd of wild
have ever come across there were between three hundred and four hundred head in it. On the other, side of the river, just opposite our camp, I noticed a large bunch of orongo antelope, the first have seen on this journey. The valley around Kure bori is over two miles broad to our west we have the Umeke ula (Prjevalsky's Ymykeh), and farther west the Dzuha ula (Prjevalsky's Dzukha IVIountains). A trail leads along the west side of the Dzuha to the Tsahan daban, and
I
;
thence to Hajir; this route
is followed by the Hajir people when going to Lh'asa by the Angirtakshia road. Due south of our camp we can distinguish, beyond the mountains at the head of the
Tumta
Naichi, the peaks to the east of the Angirtakshia daban;
they are covered with
snow which fell on the 20th. The Atak, Tumta and Eken Naichi valleys are not over seven miles long. Beyond the range at the head of these valleys comes the
fifteen
Angirtakshia range (Prjevalsky's Marco Polo range), distant about

miles south of
it.
The other peaks visible from our camp, such as the Umeke, Dzuha (which the Mongols divide into " Big " (Jki^ and "Little (Baga) Dzuha), hardly merit the name of " snowpeak " {mengku), at least this year, for there is hardly any snow visible upon them. The mountains to the west of the Sosanang daban are called The Kubche ula Kubche ula, as far as Kansa-Kas country. therefore, includes Prjevalsky's Columbus range and the western portion of his Marco Polo range. There stands out on the north side of the valley, about three and one-half miles away, and bearing nearly due west from our On this side camp, a detached rocky hillock, called Soyu lung. of the valley, due south of it, is the mouth of the Eken Naichi, up which runs the road to the Naichi daban, the pass over which Carey and Dalgleish came in July, 1886. The Soyu lung is a
valuable landmark.
May
are also
23.
heard that
is
in
the mountains to the northeast of this
camp copper
found, and the natives insist that gold and silver
abundant there.
Samtan Jalang camped at Kure bori during
i88

last
TIBET.
the greater part of
year with his
little
flock of sheep and his
few ponies
here.
he
was then
the only living being in this gorgeous
pasture land, everyone feared the Goloks too
much
to venture
To-day
if
1
went down
the valley as far as the Atak Naichi to see
could not get a shot at the big horns {kuldza) we had seen sighted eleven of them, but when coming up the valley.
We
they got sight of us also when we were a mile off, and though we followed them for hours over the hills, we failed to come up with them or even see them again. While high up on the hillsides,
1
saw
the mountains in the Angirtakshia * range beyond
the Atak Naichi, they appeared
much
with snow than those seen

the
in the
higher and more covered same range beyond the head of

rises
Tumta
Naichi.
While the thermometer in the valley above 70 Fahrenheit, it falls in the night
during the day to
to -1-14 or 15.
May
24..
The
morning was cloudy and towards noon we
heard the rumbling of thunder, and shortly afterwards snow began to fall, but only heavily high up on the mountain sides.
At about four
o'clock,
leading two camels loaded with the Naichi gol, made their appearance.
before reaching the Naichi valley.
Samtan Jalang, Zangpo, and a man things I had left on the lower
They had been
five
days on
the road (crossing the Sosanang daban), but had found no grass
When we had finished tea the Jalang put on a portentously solemn expression and said that it was reported that a dispatch had reached Taichinar Dzassak vi& Korluk from the Hsi-ning Amban, by which all the chiefs of the Ts'aidam were forbidden to supply guides, ponies, provisions or camels to a certain foreigner with a Pekinese cook and several Hsi-ning followers, who was desirous of going to Tibet. The Jalang had not seen the dispatch, neither had anyone he knew of, but he entertained little doubt as to its existence, and he thought it referred to me. I
*A
in
says this range

here,
is
so called " on account of a grass which grows
abundance
which
is
used
in
medicine and
is
also burnt as an incense before
idols."
Report on the Explorations of
made
in 1879-^82,
42.
This explorer, coming from Lh'asa, entered the Naichi valley by the Naichi k'utul. He makes the average breadth of the valley to be three miles and its length fifty.
The
valley
must have been well peopled

43.
at the time he visited
it
(November, 1879).
Op. sup.
cit.,

replied
TIBET.
189
that
it
could not refer to me, for the
Amban
"a
at
Hsi-
ning
knew my name and
rank and
all
about me, and so he

foreigner."
could only refer to

I
me by name
and not as
it
pulled out
in
my
passport and explained that
to travel
the Koko-nor and Ssu-ch'uan;

to the second country except
?
from the
India
first
me how could get by way of Tibet,

authorized
1
and the sea

deal
This seemed to satisfy the Jalang and the
camel driver
who had
vague notions of geography, and
after a
good
I
to
was dropped. have an idea that the whole thing was got up by the Jalang impress the camel man with his desire to comply with the
more
talking and explanations the subject
well-known rule of the Mongols of this country, of refusing to assist any foreign travelers wishing to enter Tibet, and that he (the Jalang) was going with one duly authorized to visit that Furthermore, he was careful country by the Chinese authorities.
say in the hearing of the camel driver who will repeat every word he has heard to everyone he sees in the Ts'aidam that I was to give him (the Jalang) only 25 taels for the whole Journey. He told me that his neighbors were very
to have
me
jealous of his
taels to
good
luck, that they said
guide
me
I had given him 600 or 700 the Tengri nor, and that this would dispel to
their suspicions.
May
the
25.
Again the Jalang started the subject of the Amban's

his
orders to the chiefs of the Ts'aidam, and again
whole subject with him and
had to talk over I and once more everybrother,

all
thing
was
settled to the satisfaction of
concerned, myself only

I
excepted, for
my
patience
is
worn
I
threadbare.
south of the Koko-shili mountains,
wish we were would not mind these Mongols
grumbling then so much, for they could not get away from me. The Jalang says that between the Naichi daban and the Angirtakshia daban there is no grass, and that both these passes are, He suggests going a little farther moreover, steep and difficult. up the valley and crossing the Sharakuiyi daban, the one over
which the Hajir pilgrims usually travel. From the top of this pass, which is of very easy ascent, it is all down hill to the top of the
if one follows the highroad, but if one takes west of the highroad, and this is the one he suggests following, one enters the valley of the Ch'umar (Namchutu ulan muren) directly after crossing it.
Angirtakshia pass,
the
trail
to the
190

on the 27th
first
TIBET.
a peculiarly
We have fixed
One
try
of
for
our departure,
it
is
lucky day, being the
moon. the Mongols went up the Eken Naichi

of the
fifth
valley to-day to
back a wild ass. He reported that there were thousands of yaks visible on the mounWe will have tain sides, a little above where he shot the hulan. soon as we have been without meat for the to try and shoot one
and
kill
a kuldza, but only brought
last
two
days.
May 26. We had quite an excitement to-day. Towards noon we saw three horsemen driving a good-sized flock of sheep and some ponies before them down the valley. We took them for Goloks, and, quickly arming, we left two of our number to watch the camp, and sallied forth to meet the foe, my Mongols very
much excited. The foe turned out to be two Mongol men and a woman, Taichinar people, a little braver than their fellows, and who have been in the valley for the last three months. They said they would stay here for another month and then go down to the
Ts'aidam.
It hailed a little in the afternoon and some snow fell on the mountain sides. We all talked over the question of the route to follow on leaving here. Samtan Jalang, who is henceforth to be
our guide, has suggested a route nearly parallel to the highroad

vi& the Angirtakshia to Nagch'uk'a, but considerably to the west
of it.
It will take us west of the Amdo ts'o-nak and the Tengri nor (Drolma nam-ts'o) to Sachya djong, from which place Shig-
atse or
K'amba djong can

is
easily
be reached.
It
will keep us to for-
entirely off Lh'asa-governed territory,
where opposition
eigners
is
to be feared.
The only
serious difficulty the guide fears
getting across the Tsang-gi tsangpo (Yaru tsangpo),
where we
will
have to take the ferry or traverse a bridge, in both of which cases we may have to submit to embarrassing interrogatories from
the people in charge.
The Jalang says

taking their
that
it
is
unquestionably the fear the lamas
entertain of foreigners propagating their religion in Tibet
and thus
power and wealth away from them,
the ruling arid
wealthy class, which has caused such strenuous measures to be adopted to exclude foreigners from the country.
May 27. To-day was the first day of the lucky day on which to start on a journey.
fifth
We broke
moon, a very up camp

and moved up the valley about eight miles to
obo, or
TIBET.
191
a spot called
"The
five stone heaps," near the base

its
of the
Tabu Umeke.
The
valley here reaches

is
maximum
width, nearly four miles,
one mile of which

as lower
river bed.
little
above
grass
this spot the river

is
flows in great part underground.
The
not as good here

still
down, and
it
is
considerably colder, there
being a
good deal of rotten ice on the river. Above this point there is no more willow or ch'ibeke. The Jalang says have too much luggage for such a journey, but I do not think can cut it down every pound have is either food, some indispensable camping article or an object collected. The food will go only too quickly, and, moreover, suspect the Jalang of wanting to add to his own worldly goods all the things
1 1
;
might leave behind.
The Jalang
fifty
said that
is
two
days' ride due west of here, say about
("Black Lake"), some and about as long as from Tabu obo to the Atak Naichi. It is surrounded by mountains, around it grows no grass and its water is slightly brackish. No foreigner has visited it, and had very reluctantly to he suggested that we should go there. refuse, as feared tiring the horses and mules. Towards six o'clock snow began to fall on the hillsides, accompanied by an east to southeast breeze, which here, as in Kan-su, am told that in usually precedes or comes with rain or snow. (September-October) it blows so the eighth and ninth moons hard in the Naichi valley that it is uninhabitable, but by the tenth moon the winds are at an end (or have shifted). On the whole, very little snow falls in the valley, and it is one of the best 1 have
miles, there
a lake called Hara nor
three miles broad
seen in this region,

valleys
much better certainly than the transversal running north and south, which are colder and more
denuded. The mountains along both sides of the Naichi gol are of sandstone and granitic rock.
May 28. About eight miles above Tabu obo we left the Naichi valley and rapidly ascended over the hills along the Sharakui (or kuiyi) gol for about three and one-half miles, when we camped, it not being possible to cross the range and reach
water the same day.
The Naichi valley, to the west same westerly direction as far as
of
where we
left it,
;
retains the
for the first
the eye can reach
192

mouth
of the Sharakuiyi gol
TIBET.
between seems to
three miles above the
it
is
it
two and two and
one-half miles wide, after which
contract considerably.
From our camp
the
Dzuha
ula bears north-
west and the Umeke east-northeast, while the Sharakuiyi daban Prjevalsky, on his map, has misplaced these bears due south. mountains, putting the Umeke to the west of the Sharakui ula (his Sharagui), whereas the latter is in reality contiguous to the former on the west. The Sharakuiyi gol ("River of the yellow thigh bone") is a clear mountain rivulet tumbling down over granite boulders from The road up to the latter looks very the snow covered pass. The grass around our camp is just beginning to turn green easy. and the ground is covered with yellow and violet tulips (called ma-lien hua by the Chinese andjV-^V ser-bo and ji-jt nonbo by the Mongols),* and a very little edelweis, called in Mongol kechigena.\
The
It
grass
is
of the
same kind
Mexico,
m.
at 2 p.
fallen,
as that
growing
in the higher parts
of Colorado and
New
a short,
very fine bunch grass.

it
began to snow
over four inches had

the horses to graze.
just
and by seven, when enough to make it
stopped,
difficult for
The Jalang states that people from Hsin-chiang (Chinese I suppose) built last year three walled camps {mk'ar) in the Lob nor country, nominally to protect the farmers (?) who had gone there. This year they are building another camp in the KansaKas country. The jalang believes Chinese troops will be stationed in these camps and that they will soon be in the Taichinar country, squeezing the Mongols and behaving generally like real Goloks.
May
a
2g.
six inches of
day
to let
snowed all last night and this morning there were snow on the ground. We decided to wait here for the snow melt a little.
It
The jalang says that fourteen years ago he went to Lh'asa over the road by which he is now taking me. He guided a party of Halha Mongols in which were a number of women and children. They were afraid to follow the highroad lest they should fall in
with the Goloks. This trail is only known to a very few people and is used by very small parties, when they are afraid to follow
the main road.
* Tulipa
(.
.
Orithyia)
by
their Tibetan names..
sp. aff. T. eduli, Baker. The Mongols call these plants Ser-bo means "yellow," non-bo " blue."
t Iris Thoroldi, Baker.
1.
Saddle (D6rg6); saddle pads of red leather, with gold leather ornamentation N. M. 131049.) (U. S. N. M. 167237.) 2. Chain hobbles, wrapped with worsted. (U. S. N. M. 131029.) 3. Tibetan whip (Namru d6).
(Po-yul).
(U. S.

I
TIBET.
193
several
assured that in the Taichinar a woman may not have husbands, but it is permissible for a man to have two wives.* In Tibet, the Jalang says, children are usually spoken of
am
as belonging to
such and such a family, not as the offspring of
such and such a father.
My Mongols say that precious metals and also iron and copper have been found in the Naichi valley but they fear to even speak of their presence lest there be an invasion of Chinese and Chant'ou. The latter come occasionally to this valley to hunt; last year a party of over a hundred of them came here for that purpose. In hunting yaks one must never shoot at a solitary animal for, if it be wounded, it will surely charge the hunter. If a yak is
wounded when he
bunch of five or six head, he will A yak bull, whose horns have a sweep backwards, is always dangerous. A curious custom observed alike by Mongols and Tibetans is to smear on the fork of their gun a little of the blood of any animal they may kill.
is in
little
run with the rest from the hunter.
May 30. got off by 7 a. m., and by a very easy ascent of about eight miles reached the top of the pass. The last four miles before reaching the summit were over blocks of granite and loose slate hidden in nearly a foot of soft snow it was -very
;
We
we and our bad fall. The hills on either side of the pass are entirely covered with broken up granite and slate, like all high peaks in this region, and are bare of any vegetation. To the south we saw from the pass a broad undulating plain, running east and west with a pond here and there and bordered to the south by a low range of dark hills, the Koko-shili. We only descended about five hundred or six hundred feet over low hills of gravel and clay on which not a blade of grass grew but with here and there little moss-covered hummocks. After getting clear of the foothills surrounding the pass, we took a more westerly course over absolutely nude ground, cut occasionally by the dry bed of some torrent, till we reached a grassy slope on the first line of foothills leading up to a splendid snow-covered peak called by the Jalang Kuan-shong k'utur and which appears to me to be Prjevalsky's
tiresome to pick our
way
over these sharp stones and
animals had
many
*Ts'aidam Mongols, when questioned on

that polyandry existed in their
in all
this
subject,
have usually denied

it
own
district,
but have admitted that
was common
the other districts of the country.
194

This spot
far.
TIBET.
Mt. Kharza.
only place so
was no
water,
as Ch'u-wu doksai and is the was any grass; unfortunately there but we found enough snow in a hollow to supply
is
known
where
there
us with a couple of
On
this,
jars of water, enough for our own wants. south side of the range, no snow, or very little at all the
few days, as none is now visible however, it thaws very rapidly. Fortunately we brought with us several bags full of argols, for In this there were none to be found anywhere about camp. country it is always well to carry a small supply of dry dung, it weighs but little and may often prove invaluable and save one's boxes or pack saddles from being used as fuel.
events, can have fallen these last
at this altitude,
On
the
way
to-day
we saw
few
solitary hulan stallions,
some
orongo antelope and pronged horned antelope (Jiuang-yang), but not more than twenty head in all. The whole broad valley of the Ch'umar is dreadfully desolate looking, it might quite appropriately
be called Mar lung or

is
"Red
valley," for the
whole
face of
the country
of a light brick red color.

traveled to-day about eleven miles in a southsoft,
May J J. We
west direction over
gravelly
soil,
crossing six
little
streams
of brackish water, the overflow of four pools a of our line of march.
little
to the right
These streamlets flow into the Ch'u-mar. Although the country over which we traveled to-day seemed level, we descended about six hundred feet. We camped by a streamlet, near which we found a little grass. We could not possibly get to the south side of the valley in one day without tiring the animals overmuch. From this camp, which my Mongols call Ch'u-marin dsun kuba, or "North branch of the Ch'umar," we can see due south of us about three miles the Ch'umar River, where it forms a good-sized lakelet. Now and then during the day it hailed and thundered,. then the clouds swept swiftly by and we saw all the mountains around us. The Kuan-shong k'utur peak now see marks the junction of the
I
range bordering the Naichi gol on the south, and the Angirtakshia range, although the two ranges are already in reality united at the Sharakuiyi daban, as is shown by our now being south of the Angirtakshia, after having only crossed one range between it and the Naichi gol. Nearly due east of our camp and apparently at
the
eastern
extremity of the Angirtakshia
range
rises a
high

pyramidal
TIBET.
195
snow peak
(probably Prjevalsky's Subeh Mountain
and the
it
"Snowy Peak" of Carey's itinerary); my Mongols call Amnye malchin mengku, a most unsatisfactory appellation, as
to the
there are several others bearing this
name in the Panaka country. west (or rather northwest by west) terminates at a huge snow-covered "massif," connected with the Kuanshong k'utur by comparatively low hills. This great snow peak, for which I can learn no name, must be Prjevalsky's Shapka Monamakh or his Mt. Jingri; this latter name I take to be his
Our view
mode
miles.
of transcribing
Gangri or "snow peak."
have camped this
snow peak
appears to be distant
From where we some forty

which the high
little
To
the south the Koko-shili daban, over

as well as
road to Lh'asa passes, trends east-southeast, and the western

extremity of this range
of west,
is,
I
can make out, a
north
where
it
seems to sink
to the level of the surrounding
country.
have suffered yesterday and to-day very much with inflamed and have been glad to pass part of the day in my darkened tent. At night I took a few observations for time and latitude,
I
eyes,
but the strain on

the sun
state,
my
eyes
the vernier very well.
was very painful, and could not read The wind, the alkaline dust, the glare of
1
on the snow, have not only got our eyes into a fearful Fortunis cracked and bleeding. ately 1 have a good supply of vaseline; it is much better than butter or mutton fat, though it softens the skin a little too much. This camp is on very nearly the same ground as Carey and
but the skin on our faces
Dalgleish's of the i6th July, 1886.*
June z.June was ushered in with the thermometer at 13 above zero and half an inch of snow on the ground. About three miles southwest of our camp of last night we came to the north branch of the Ch'u-mar, a miserable little streamlet, about six It flows inches deep and ten feet wide, of dark red water. here in a general east-southeast direction along the edge of a The salt on salt lake about a mile wide and two miles long. this lake forms a crust about half an inch thick and through it we had to break our way with considerable difficulty, as the mules sank repeatedly up to their bellies in the mud under it. There is here an inexhaustible and as yet unworked supply of fine white
* See
Journey of Carey and Dalgleish,
41.
196

when
the salt lakes farther south and
that is in the far future
;
TIBET.
salt
now
being used are
exhausted, but
salt is
the one thing the
Ts'aidam and Northern Tibet are immensely rich in. A stream coming from a short range of hills southwest of the salt lake flows into it. It is larger than the Ch'u-mar itself (at this time of the The Ch'u-mar comes from the west-northyear at all events). west and has its source " a great way off," the Jalang says, probably thirty or forty miles.
finally got out of the salt lake we continued over water-soaked gravel, nearly as bad as mud. and quite as devoid of vegetation, in a general southerly direction, till we reached the dry bed of a stream (there was a little water flowing a foot or so under the surface) where we camped, the mules being
When we
soft
from the hard day's work. We saw on the way a few orongo and some gray geese, and at the spot where we camped there was quite a pile of orongo horns, left by Mongol hunters, for had they been Tibetans they would have carried the horns off, as they are much prized among them as tips to matchterribly tired
lock forks.
It hailed frequently and very heavily during the day, with thunder and a strong west breeze. 1 learnt that all the country south of the Kuon-shong k'utur range and west of the Angirtakshia belongs nominally to the Karsa Tibetans now occupying the district called Yagara, south of the Dang la range and along the highroad to Nagch'uk'a. When they occupied this country the Golok did not venture to pass through it when raiding the Ts'aidam, and it is said that at the present day they pay the Karsa an annual sum to have the right of way through it. The present head chief of the Yagara Karsa is Karsa Ado, the second is Karsa Pesung-gunlo, the third is Karsa Tsedur.
About five miles in a southwest direction, over gravelly brought us to the southern and most important branch of the Ch'u-mar (Ch'umarin baron sala, or Namchutu ulan muren, "the
soil,
June 2.
red river of the
meadow," my Mongols
call it),* a
rather rapid
stream about thirty feet broad, and a foot and a half deep, flowing in several channels over a bed of soft sand at least a quarter of a mile wide. experienced a great deal of difficulty getting
We
across as the bed of the stream

* Prjevalsky's Naptschitai-ulan-muren.
was
full
of quicksands, and
we
TIBET.
197
had to unload the mules and carry the loads across on our backs.
The river has a general east-northeast direction, its water is of the Beyond the same dark red color as that of the north branch. river the ground rises slightly but remains of the same gravelly nature as to the north of it. After about six miles we came to the top of a sharp but short descent at the foot of which were two lakeand a few patches of grass. This is the Elesu nor or " Sand which has an outlet into another stream emptying into the Ch'u-mar, probably some ten or twelve miles to the northeast. The water of these lakelets is quite sweet and the sand hillocks which surround them to the south are covered with what in this A few geese and some region is considered excellent grass. sheldrakes were swimming on the water, on which there was, to my surprise, no ice, and over two hundred orongo were grazing near by, and better than all, we found wild onions growing in So pleased were we at having great abundance in the sand. something green to put in our miserable food (we had had nothing of the kind for over two months), that we decided to camp here killed for a day, and our joy was complete when in the evening were able to gorge themselves with three orongo and all hands
lets
lake,"
meat.
row in the evening, the former was making a fool of himself by trying to take me by a road of which he knew nothing, instead of traveling by the highroad. The Jalang replied that he knew what he was
Panti and his brother had a
saying that his brother
it,
would reach Shigatse by this " upper road," as he calls had to interpose and "bust" (or words to that effect). tell Panti that it was my desire to travel by this route, that the highroad, which had been explored by the Russians, had no charms would not take it even if the Jalang wanted to for me and that
about, and
or
I 1
go that way.
morning was covered with ominously Panti went from one little sand hill to another reciting mantras and waving his rosary towards the four cardinal points, blowing lustily the while This ceremony the Chinese call fang to drive the storm away. yu. At 2 p. M. it began to snow, with accompanying thunder and light west-southwest breeze. It ceased at 4.30 p. m., some-
June
3.
The sky
this
black clouds and a
snow storm was impending.
thing over three inches of
snow having
fallen.
Just as the storm
98

to break, the
little
TIBET.
and
some shuka and mules should not stray. He was delighted when the storm was over to find our stock all huddled together in a nook in the hills. Panti, on the contrary, looked very downcast, he said that if the Jalang had done the proper thing by me he would have dispelled the storm, for he was Zangbo modestly remarked that while an expert at t'ang-yuing. he could charm horses {fang ma in Chinese), he knew nothing about charming storms it was a separate branch of the science, and little known in his country; the Ts'aidam Mongols have learnt how to fangyu from the K'amba.
was about
lama, Zangbo, burnt
recited mantras, so that the horses
;
overhauled
all
my loads to-day to see if

we
could cut them down,

I
as the mules
show unmistakable
signs of fatigue, and
fear
they
the
may
last
not reach the journey's end, especially as
we
fed
them
had to-day. Henceforth they will have to hustle for a living. I hope they will do it as successfully as the dogs, who have thrived on nothing ever since we left Lusar. The result of my examination of the loads has been to throw away about one hundred and fifty pounds of stuff, all of which, under less trying circumstances, would have been of great value to me. All the discarded objects were carefully packed by Panti and his brother, and cached in a hole dug in the sand. They said they would take them on their way back to the Ts'aidam. When looking over one of the boxes I found four sheep's shoulder blades; the Jalang at once appropriated them and had a good time telling our fortune by the lines on them after they had been charred. This mode of divination is called dala Meje in Mongol, sokwa ar in Tibetan and shao-chien in Chinese.* Besides
grain of barley
this
method of divining the Mongols have also, divination by sheep's droppings, by twelve copper cash, by drawing (the Chinese shen chien system), by counting the threads in the fringe of
the girdle (odd and even), and by palmistry.
June 4.. Last night was one of the coldest have experienced on this journey, the thermometer falling to -|-3 Fahrenheit. The wolves gave us a conc ert and the dogs responded lustily the
I
34, at seq. The ancient Peruvians had wizards called by maize and the dung of sheep, giving replies to those who consulted them according as the things came out in odd or even numbers. See Rites and Laws of the Yncas, by Clem. R. Markham (Hakluyt Sac), Also 14. on Tibetan modes of divination. Joum. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s., XXlll, 234, et seq.
* See
Land of the Lamas,

who
told fortunes
Achicoc,
TIBET.
199
whole night long, so we got but little sleep. We waited in camp until the sun had thawed our tents and they could be folded up, and got off by nine o'clock. At seven o'clock the thermometer, in the shade, stood at +18, and at 7.30 it marked, in the sun, +66.
A very gentle ascent of seven miles, the latter half over grasscovered hummocks, brought us to the foot of the Koko-shili eken k'utul, or "Upper Koko-shili pass." A good-sized brook flows down from the pass, the hills rising not over eight hundred or
nine hundred feet above the level of the Elesu nor. This stream empties into the latter lake, but when near it, it flows under the
sand.
shili
The means
Koko-shili, or
"Blue
hills," (or,
is,
rather,
"alps," for
a "grass-covered hill")
hills,
as the
name
implies, a
low
range of dark-colored
without a single prominent peak.* The point at which we are crossing them appears to be very near the western extremity of the range, and hence this part of it, so says
the Jalang,
is
known
hills
also as the tolha, or
To our west
these
seem
to be lost in a
"head" of the range. maze of low hillocks,
forming the southwestern limit of the Ch'u-mar basin. camped about two miles up the pass, as the guide feared there would not be good grass near the summit on the other side,
We
antelopes {lingyang &nd
cannot make forced marches. saw a great many huang yang) near the foot of the pass, and on the way up I noticed six yaks feeding on the side-hills. The
and
we
We
ground was everywhere covered with

are quite
their
dung, so
fancy they
numerous
in thesfe hills.
June 5. Two miles above our camp of last night we reached summit of the pass, the ascent all the way being absolutely without difficulty. The descent was even easier than the ascent; the hills to their summits were covered with grass, and from the
the
great quantity of
yak droppings on
this, as
on the north side of
the range,
fancy that this must be a fine place for a sportsman

little
the innumerable
the
depressions between the hillocks composing

facilities
is
range give exceptional
for
stalking.
The whole
range, from north to south,

* Conf. Prjevalsky, Reisen
t Prjevalsky,
not over ten miles wide, and the

Gelben Flusses,
p. 123.
am oberen Lauf des

On
Op. sup.
cit., 129, refers to
herds of one thousand head of yak seen
by him
in this region in i872-'73.
the flora and fauna of this country, see
Prjevalsky,
Op. sup.
cit.,
108-113, 123-124.
200

line
TIBET.
slate
south side, along our
of march,
is
chiefly
composed of
and
siliceous limestone.
After crossing the range
we
took a due westerly course along
the foothills over a yielding reddish gravel, with an occasional had snow-covered hummock and a few grassy hollows. now the great Dungbure range in view, about thirty miles to the
We
southward, trending, as well as 1 could see, east-southeast and north-northwest. This range is an imposing one, with numerous high peaks, not a few covered with snow far down their dark, steep flanks. One of these peaks, from its supposed resemblance to a conch shell, has given the hybrid name of Dungbure to the range.* In Tibetan dung is a "conch shell," and in Mongol buri
has the same meaning.
This, at least,
is
the explanation of the

I
term given me by a number of Mongols, but don't think that they, any more than the Tibetans, are very trustworthy etymologists, especially as none of my informants could write, and had
to trust implicitly to apparent similarity of sound, a dangerous
guide
any.
in the
languages of this part of the world, and, in
fact, in
Between the Koko-shili and the Dungbure are several short spurs of no great height, of red sandstone apparently, and all para number of little streams flow on either allel to the main ranges side of these, all emptying beyond our range of vision into the
;
Nam-ch'utola muren.
passed near a solitary yak bull, and when the dogs ran at him, he turned and charged not only them, but the whole party of
us, his long
We
shaggy coat
bristling
ail
it
over,
and
his
huge bushy
tail
standing straight out behind him;
was
a magnificent sight.
He
looked very vicious, and I did not dare to try and kill him with a ball from my light carbine, and 1 feared that if only wounded he might damage the mules with his long horns. So when he had
snorted and
pawed around us
for awhile,
off.
we
saw
let
him peaceably
turn around and leisurely trot

*This range
t'u chih
is
We
a couple of wild
In the
possibly the Tung-p'u-lo-t'u of the Chinese.
Wei-tsang
we
find mention of a Tung-p'u-lo-t'u ta-pa-na (daban).
S&sjoum. Roy.
Asiat. Soc,
n. s. XXIII, 92. Explorer A says of its name, "Dung K means a shell and bura blowing. This place is so called as it is said that when one of the Grand Lamas went to see the Emperor of China the gods came down to welcome him here and blew the shell." Report on the Explorations of made in i8yg-82, 40.

asses,
TIBET.
201
two
or three antelope, a great
many
hares,
surveying keeps shooting while on the march.
birds, but
my
me
too busy to give
and a few small much time to
We camped well up on the foothills at a spot where we found good water and plenty of grass, and which we called Hara daban, "Black pass," from a low col just north of the camp. The Koko-shili are not here over three hundred feet high, but a few miles to our west they rise to perhaps six hundred feet.
June
6.
level) that
out at 5 A. could get something to
so heavily in the night (six inches on the unable to move from camp. all turned M. and scraped the snow off the grass so that the stock
It
snowed
we were
We
it
eat.
Towards
eight o'clock the Jalang
came
to
my tent and after
telling
me that
he thought
prudent for
us to henceforth ration ourselves very closely, and that
we must
keep an eye on everyone to see that no food was purloined, he remarked that the continual bad weather (which was exceptionally bad for even this region) was keeping us back very much and that some means must be taken, and without any delay, to
put a stop to
it,
for otherwise
we
should have exhausted our
supplies long before
we
could get to the inhabited parts of Tibet.
He had learned from the K'amba the way to charm storms and he wished to put his knowledge at my disposal. told him that I trusted he would do everything in his power to assist us and that begged him to set to work at once. He asked for some tsamba, butter, stigar, and raisins, and then kneaded the tsamba into a number of miniature sea monsters imiUkf), snakes and bears, and manufactured a good supply of little tsamba pellets in which he mixed the sugar and raisins. He then burnt on a bit of dung some shuka, butter and tsamba to attract the attention of the gods by the perfumed fumes, and assisted by Zangbo, chanted certain prayers. Still chanting, the Jalang poured tea over some of the tsamba pellets and then went outside of the tent and first facing the west, then the east, then the north and
I I
little of the oblation in each direction, Then he once more turned to on the gods to accept it. calling south and then to the west and recited some mantras. the After this he came back to the tent, and for the rest of the day and far into the night kept up mumbling charms, going occasion-
finally
the south, scattered a
ally outside to
wave
his prayer beads,
blow
lustily to dispel the
202

little
TIBET.
shuka on an improvised altar of a any black cloud came too near us or a little hail fell, the Jalang's face grew sterner than usual, and he burnt a few of the little mMiki, snakes and bears. While resting during the day the Jalang told me that in this ceremony all the gods of the thirty-three regions of space were invoked, and after offerings had been made to them, they were told that we were on a long journey, that the snow was keeping us back, its whiteness blinding our eyes, and that if we were detained beyond measure our food supplies would give out before we could reach men's dwelling places. "You are all powerful, oh gods, be pleased to accept these offerings, the best we have to give, and stop the snow falling, save us from the tempest and from starvation! If you do so we will always give you of our best, but if you are deaf to our prayer, will burn these images of m&liki and bamburshi (bears), the like of which you show
Storm clouds and burn a big piece of dry dung.
When
yourselves to be,
there
fell,
vile,
loathsome, cruel beasts!"

lightning,
In the
evening
was some heavy thunder and
but the storm passed to the east of us,
and a little rain also and the Jalang was
happy.
June
y.
The Jalang
had to burn up
all
his
little
snakes and
bears and talk pretty roughly to the gods, but he finally got them
under control, for no snow and very little hail fell during the night. The medicine man was consequently very proud, and insisted that, had it not been for him, we would have been snow-
bound
this
for at least a
week.
He blew very vigorously

while said
at the clouds
morning, and
after a
we
could
start,
that
it
was
all right.
in which our horses sank bad as quicksand; the incessant snowing and raining has turned these hillsides into shaking bogs. We crossed three little rivulets, meeting at the foot of the hills and flowing southeast around one of the short red sandstone ridges in the main valley and parallel to its axis. We then came, after about
We
continued over very soft gravel,

it
to their knees;
was
as
nine miles, to a rather dry spot, covered with fine grass and abundant water, where we camped. The Jalang, who, fear, is cursed with a lively imagination, said this spot was called Olon horgo, but whether this is true or not, it does just as well as any other name, and is better than such names as "Camp Washing1

ton," "
to revel.
TIBET.
travelers
203
Camp
Despair," or the
like, in
whicii
some
seem
We
are here very near the
head of what
suppose
is
the valley
of theNamchutola, whose southern feeders must be vastly more important than any we haveyetseen. Though we have apparently
traveled over level ground,
1
find that
we
have ascended since the
day before yesterday (camp at Hara daban) over four hundred feet, and our present camp is at the respectable altitude of 15,700 feet above sea level. We knew there must be a difference before had taken any boiling point observation, for at these great altitudes one's
I
breathing accurately indicates the slightest changes of elevation;

as soon as
got settled here my men remarked that there was yen chang, their mode of expressing the difficulty of breathing experienced at high altitudes. found hares wonderfully plentiful around camp and killed a I The Jalang and Zangbo, who are dozen in less than an hour. lama kun, would not eat them, but we, who are hara kun ("black
we
a great deal of
men
"), feasted
my
future delectation while

8.
on them, and I filled a bag with cooked pieces on the march.
for
June
After a
An inch of snow
was
softer
the ground
fell during the night and this morning and more trying on the animals than ever.
few miles
in a westerly direction,
we
turned southwest,
hills
and
after
crossing
some
steep red sandstone
and wading
through heavy red sand for several miles we came to the north branch of the Namchutola muren (or ulan muren), here about A heavy hailstorm with a fifteen feet broad and a foot deep. good deal of sharp thunder here overtook us, but was rapidly swept eastward, and again the sun shown brightly, but in less than an hour it was hailing again, and sunshine and hail alternated
during the whole day with accompanying variations of the thermometer, now at 70 and a few minutes later at 45. From the summit of the red sandstone range we crossed in the
early part of the day,
hills
I
distinguished to the north the Koko-shili

eight or ten miles, but so
stretching
westward
hardly deserved the
name
of hillock; this
low that they marks apparently the
end of that range. A pony went dead lame and two mules gave out and fell under their loads, so we had to camp near where they lay down, only the weight of I reduced ten miles from our camp of yesterday.
204

luggage a
TIBET.
-every extra
little by throwing away all my shot cartridges; pound tells on the poor mules, and we are still weeks, possibly months away from our journey's end. saw no living creature to-day save two yak bulls; even sheldrakes have abandoned this region of mud and storms.
the
June
chutola,
g.
^We continued
in a
little
in a
southwest direction along the foot
of a sandstone misa, which here bounds the basin of the
Nam-
and camped
hollow
at its foot at a point
where the
valley takes a westerly bend.
Before us to the east, in the valley
bottom, were five
Tabu
which we called "the five heads "; these mark accurately the position of our camp. This little valley trends southwest, its lower end a few miles south of here near the left bank of the middle
red sandstone pitons,
tolh'a or
branch of the Namchutola. Hail, wind and mud have greatly impeded our progress; for the last two or three days we have been obliged to lead our ponies, as it is impossible to ride through the deep, soft mud. To-day two broken-down mules and a lame pony have added materially to our troubles. At the great elevation at which we have now been for ten days, the animals shrivel up and lose their strength with wonderful rapidity. No feed, no shelter, muddy, alkaline water and hard work is rather trying on the best of horseflesh, and on such as we have, and with four months of hard work to their credit, it is no wonder they are utterly done up.
The
hue of
rivulets that trickle
down from
a
are strongly saline

this region.
and dyed of
the hills behind our camp dark red color, the prevailing
are in a grumpy frame of mind their daily ration is a cup of tsamba and a spoonful of butter. A brick of tea (about eight pounds) is calculated to last the party four weeks. We have had no meat since eating the hares at Olon horgo. Once a day we eat a mess of mien and wild onions, or a little rice with harmak berries, dry jujubes or chuoma. We drink, however, oceans of tea and smoke incessantly. I have still a little chura (dried
;
The men
cheese)
left, it
is,
when
well soaked, a great addition to plain
tsamba.
Kao
pa-erh, the cook, does

it
wonders
in the
is
way
of pre-
paring our food, he makes

the Lao-han; the other
rations.
quite appetizing and

is
making our
is
supplies last very well, though he
a great eater himself, as
also
men
say the former steals from their
1.
BnTTEE BOX (Koto

167314.)
nor).
(D. S. N.
M.
2.
3. 6.
Butter box
131061.) 167226.)
(Lh'asa).
d6).
(U.
(TJ.
S.
N.
M.
4. 6.
BUTTEK BOX OP BAMBOO (Kong-pO). (U. S. N. M. 167213.) Birch bakk cup (Bat'ang). (U. S. N. M.
167228.)
Milk pail (Namra
S.
N. M.
Birch bare pail (KoDg-wa of Kuei-te). (U. S. N. M. 167226.)

June
10.
TIBET.
205
for a iiigh
We took a southwest by west direction and made snow-covered peak, apparently the culminating point of the mountains to our right and left, and therefore christened by us Namchutola tolh'a or "The Head of the Namchutola." We followed the left bank of the middle branch of the Namchutola, crossing two good-sized affluents which, though now nearly dry,
flow in rock-strewn beds over a quarter of a mile in width. These feeders come from the adjacent hills and cannot be over six or eight miles long, hence one may conclude that at certain seasons of the year the rainfall here must be extraordinarily heavy. To the south appear low ranges of red sandstone running east and
west, and
this part
beyond these again
rise the
peaks of the Dungbure, in
apparently of no great height.
As we neared the base of the Namchutola tolh'a, the ground became hummocky and the grass fairly good, though short. We passed by several lakelets and finally made camp beside four small pools of sweet water fed by the melting snow on the summit of the mountain. Bunches of yaks were on every hill, and that
readily accounted for the shortness of the grass in the neighbor-
hood.
eat, a
It is
herd of a hundred would,

rich
wonderful what huge quantities of grass these animals believe, find barely enough on
I
a good,
meadow
three
miles
square.
Fortunately their
droppings supplied us with an abundance of much needed fuel, and we were able to keep a big fire burning continually, a thing we had not done for many a day. In the afternoon, seeing a bunch of yaks less than a mile from
and by taking a circuitous route hundred yards of them. I broke a fore leg of one with my first shot, and wounded three others badly Then they before they realized that they were being shot at. broke for the higher hills and, though the wounded ones lagged behind and were never out of sight, was unable to come up with them, so distressing was the effort to walk even slowly and
camp,
started out after them,
was
able to get within a
with very frequent halts

blue and congested and
at
such a high
if
altitude.
My
face
was
my
heart beat so violently that

I
my gun
1
shook when
at
my
shoulder as
pool near
were
palsied,
and so
had to
or
give up the chase with chagrin, for
We
called the
little
we were all very hungry. which we camped Shire nor
"the green sod lake," and the animals enjoyed the grass so that we decided to rest here a few days.
much
2o6

II.
TIBET.
in
June
The Jalang says we ought to reach the Tengri nor

most devoutly
to be
twenty days, eight days from here to the Murus, and twelve from
that river to the lake.
eight to ten days march.
From the Tengri nor to Shigatse he counts Twelve days march from here, he says,
hoped
if
will surely bring us to Tibetan tents, a
for event as our provisions are decreasing so rapidly that
we
are
much
longer on the
way and
we
will surely have to kill There are a great many larks* {pai-ling in Chinese) here; their singing is a most agreeable relief from the deep silence of the desert, which is only broken by the rumble of thunder or by the moaning of the wind. These birds are only now laying their eggs, I have found a number of their nests in the grass, each with three or four little mud brown eggs in them. This place used to be inhabited (temporarily I presume) by the Golok. 1 found to-day near our camp a lot of mani-stones and several hearth stones. We all turned out to try and shoot something but saw nothing, not even a hare. Kao pa-erh fortunately found a quantity of onions and brought back a small bag full.
have no better luck shooting, one of our mules or horses for food.
1
June
I
12.
Again we went out to try and shoot

and everyone
is in
something and
killed a fine fat ass,
better spirits (the Jalang

eat it) than for the
and Zangbo, of course excepted,

last four
1
who won't
or five days.
got a sight of the
Amnye malchin mengku,

31st
the high pyramidal

valley.
snow peak noted May

It
upon crossing the Ch'u-mar
bears from here 81 east (mag. 261).
the storm, as usual,
June zj.About two inches of snow fell early this morning, coming from the west-southwest and preceded by an easterly breeze. I fancy there is a regular warm and
moisture-laden current from the east, which, on meeting the cold, dry westerly currents prevailing in these regions, results in a hail storm or a sharp fall of snow, as in the present case.
going out to look at the animals we found one of the mules I had to put a bullet in its head, for big crows had already plucked its eyes out. It was a fine mule, but had been accustomed to work in towns and to being stabled, and the life I have led it has been too much for it.
dying, and
* Prjevalsky, Mongolia,
ii.,
On
145 and 212,
calls this species
of lark
Melanocorypha
maxima.

I
TIBET.
207
few pounds
I
have again overhauled the luggage and reduced the weight a now we have not six hundred pounds all told, and
;
greatly fear the provisions will not last us

1
till
we
reach
some
inhabited place.
again
talked
over the probable length of
the journey with the men, and the Jalang insisted that
we would
Measured on the map we are not over two hundred and fifty miles from the lake, so if the mules hold out, we ought to be there by the loth of July, and at Shigatse or some other point on the Yaru tsangpo by the 20th of the same month but one has to count to so great an extent on will be the unforeseen on a journey like this that I dare not think have been wonderfully fortunate so far. so lucky, though
reach the Tengri nor in twenty days.
;
June
14..
Over an
we
inch of
snow
fell
last night.
The
nights
*
have been so cold on the Shire nor, and the country so bleak, that
the animals have not picked
on.
To-day
traveled
up much, and so we decided to move some six miles in a southwest direction
and sandstone range, trending east and west, and camped in a little gorge just as a violent hailstorm (stones half an inch in diameter), accompanied by very sharp
to the foot of a short red clay
thunder,
feet
swept down upon

level
us.
This
new camp
and
is
about 15,900
still, let
above sea
and
we find it oppressive to
men
are sick
stand
alone
to
move about;
several of the
aches and have completely lost

the
have headour appetites (not a bad thing by

all
we
way when one's supplies are as low as ours). The Jalang thinks we will probably find tents on the Murus where we can buy sheep, but do not care much whether we do
I
or not, the
men have
plenty of ass flesh and so
am
not worried
about them.
awakened
eating
Last night they ate such quantities of meat several times in the night by the noise they
in a stupefied
was made
that to-day they are

filth
and gorged condition.
The amount of
who
hair,
they (the good Hsien-sheng alone excepted, is very gentlemanly in his ways) can eat is simply surprising, dung, blood, all goes, the scum on the boiling pot they hold
I I
am not particular, far from it, but cannot eat be a delicacy; the vile messes they revel in. The night set in with rain and snow, a sure sign of a superior The Ts'aidam is a quality of mud and slush for to-morrow.
to
paradise
compared with
this vile country.
2o8
TIBET.
An inch and a half of wet snow covered the ground 15. morning, enough to prevent the mules and ponies from A little after daylight a violent squall of getting anything to eat. hail struck us, but by 9 a. m. the sun had nearly melted it all and trudged up the bed of the stream which flows we got off. from west to east along the base of the Ulan ula, " Red Hills," as
June
this
We
them, emptying somewhere into the Namchutola or one plunging all the way knee deep in mud and water, till we reached its source and the west end of the Ulan ula. From here we enjoyed a gorgeous view of a perfect maze of mountains, short ranges and little massifs, all trending in a general east and west direction. Some eight or ten miles to the west was a beautiful snow peak, seemingly the point where the mountains to our north and the Ulan ula culminate. At its southern base was a lake, its greatest length being apparently from northwest to southeast. The lake we christened Trashi ts'o-nak, " Lake Good Luck," the snow peak 1 left for some other fellow to name.
called
we
of
its
feeders
rapid descent of about three miles brought us into a broad
valley with a
little stream flowing in an easterly direction in a very broad bed to meet beyond the east end of the Ulan ula the
Namchutola. South of this broad (and dry, for a wonder,) valley rises the main range of the Dungbure, or rather the western
extremity of the range, or Dungbure eken, as the Jalang calls it, a mountain of dark color and easily recognizable by that peculiarity,
as
all
the other
hills
hereabout are of reddish hue.
though sandy, is tolerably well covered with grass and, to add to its natural attractions the day has been very pleasant, clear and calm. walked all the
valley in
The
which
we have camped,
We
and managed to get them over the ten miles of bad road without any additional signs of
fatigue.
I was surprised to-day to see on the top of the Ulan ula (approx. 16,500 feet above sea level) great numbers of light yellow butterflies with small spots of black on their wings. I saw none any
way
here, so as to spare our horses,
where
else
unfortunately
was unable
to capture any.
June X6.A very heavy dew

beautifully clear
and
all
and calm rose this morning
we
fell last night, but the sky was enjoyed the peaceful night greatly
feeling
much
refreshed.
TIBET.
209
We
has
continued our journey
in a
southwest direction by a very
easy road up the course of a torrent

its
(now
nearly dry),
which
source on the west flank of the Dungbure eken, and
then crossed a low

Trashi ts'o-nak.
col, from which we had a fine view of the Lake Trashi ts'o-nak, as seen from the pass, appeared some six or eight miles from east to west and perhaps two miles broad. To the west of it some thirty miles or more away, 1 saw a fine snow peak. We then descended by a short and narrow gorge leading into another broad valley down which flows a small stream, a feeder of the Toktomai. We had entered the basin of the Murus, the Dre ch'u, the Yang-tzu kiang of the
Chinese.*
we have and many of which were over 16,500 feet above sea level, crossed, did we find old snow, so the snow line in this region cannot be lower than 17,000 feet above the sea. The red sandstone formation disappears on the north side of Dungbure eken and a bluish sandstone takes its place. Just as we were making camp a heavy squall of rain and snow with a Southsouthwest wind struck us and drenched us to the skin. erly winds are a novelty, we have only had them two or three times, and that within the last few days. From a little above our camp 1 had pointed out to me, due Between this dark, truncated, south of us, Mt. Buha mangna. pyramid-shaped peak and ourselves is a perfect sea of hills, all Nowhere can 1 see a snow trending more or less east and west. peak; they are extremely rare in this region; we have not seen a
I
may
here remark that on none of the passes which
dozen so far on the journey.

* Cf. Prjevalsky, Mongolia, ii, 128. In the light of more recent investigations The river in are able to correct a number of errors in which this traveler fell. From question is known as Murus to the Mongols and as Dre ch'u to Tibetans. Bat'ang to where it enters China it is called by the Chinese Chin chiang ho or " Gold
we
River;
" from the
latter
" Golden sand

ulan muren.
river,"
point to Sui Fu in Ssu-ch'uan, as Chin sha chiang or and from Sui Fu eastward, asTa chiang or "the Great river."
it
Prjevalsky says that Tibetans call
Link-arab at
is
its
confluence with the
Namchutu
on the high road between Hsi-ning and Lh'asa, is called Dre ch'u rabs, " the ford of the Dre ch'u." Probably He further says (p. 132) that on the Dang la the snow line he refers to this place. on the north side is approximately at 5,100 meters (15,728 feet) and on the south
The point where the Dre ch'u
forded,
side at 5,250 meters (17,220 feet

is
above sea
I
level).
am
inclined to believe that
it
really
even considerably higher than
estimated
it.
2IO

a grand
;
TIBET.
this evening,
kill
Yeh Hsien-sheng and Kao pa-erh had

each other and
I
row
the former accusing the latter of stealing
they wanted to
had a good deal of trouble in quieting them, but the Hsien-sheng will always listen to reason and hushed up the matter as it won't do for the time being; I told him that when we get to the journey's end will give him a chance to have it out with the cook. The hard work and poor fare has made everyone cross and snappish know that am terribly disagreeable myself, daily vent my spleen on the cook and the Lao-han. We saw one yak and a jackass, but signs of yak are very abundant and the grass has all been eaten very short by them. The grass is just beginning to turn green, a few yellow and white tulips {ma-lien, hua) and some iris are the only flowers can see.
1
June
and
ly.
Several
in
of the horses and mules, though hobbled
side-lined, followed
some wild
us three or four hours this morning to find
back.
wild jackass will
and it took them and bring them round up and drive off a bunch of
asses in the night,
clever
tame ponies
a wonderfully quick and
way.
These
animals are most troublesome; more than once I have had to shoot at them to drive them away from around camp.
descended to the foot of the hills to a little stream which in a south-southwest direction, between low hills of fine bluish sandstone, and followed it for some twelve miles to where it took an easterly bend, to empty into some other feeder of the Toktomai. To the south of where we have camped to-day is another plain running east and west, in which the red sandstone again crops out, forming a short range of hills, and from the top of a hill behind our camp saw that this sandstone formation extends as far to the west as the eye could reach.* Small ponds and lakelets dot the plain to the south of us, and others appear here and there to the westward. The country seems badly drained, here the waters empty into small sinks,
We
flowed
there they flow off to feed the Toktomai.
We
I
saw
a great
failed to kill
we
the
had " a
many orongo antelope and hares, but though one of the former bagged seven of the latter, and good square meal " for a change.
I
* Capt. Bower found this red sandstone nearly 400 miles west of this point same latitude. See H. Bower, Diary of a Journey Across Tibet, 17.
in
TIBET.
211
A few miles above our camping ground we passed an old Tibetan camp, marked by rude stone altars and fire-places such
as
the Panaka build. Probably the people from south of the Murus come here occasionally to kill yaks, or else it is a rendez-vous
eling
for the
Golok, from whence they can easily reach caravans travon the highroad to Lh'asa, some fifty miles east of here. A southerly wind has been blowing again to-day and we have had several little showers the temperature is milder and the air has more life in it. It is lower (15,200 feet) here than any place we have traversed for the last nine days, and every foot tells, as far as
;
the facility of breathing
is
concerned.
June 18. We crossed a plain about three miles broad, in which were several lakelets and also a small stream flowing in a southwest direction through a broad opening in a line of low, red
this, we continued in a south-southwest open plateau, bordered to the south by a range of hills running nearly east and west, but so confused and cut up that it was difficult either to lay them down on the map or indicate their trend with any accuracy. At their northern base, some eight miles away, several rivulets which drain this broad plain meet to form the northernmost fork of the Toktomai ulan muren, "The gently flowing red river."* Some thirty to forty miles to the west of our route and in the line of the axis of the little plain in which were the two lakelets
sandstone
hills.
Passing
direction over an
noticed previously,
fourteen miles and
covered
all
the
We made about saw a fine snow peak. camped by the river bank, where fine grass The soil along the Toktomai is a country round.
I
il
Nagchuk'a road cuts (i. e., du Kol<o-nor),

sterile, qu'il
* Father Grueber, when travelingto Lh'asa, crossed this river, where the Hsi-ning" Le Pere s'eloignant ensuite peu a peu de son rivage it.
antra dans
le
Toktokai, pais presque desert et d'ailleurs
si
n'a point a craindre I'ambition de ses voisins..

lui
La
riviere
de Toktokai
large
arose ce pais, et
donne son nom

a
si
c'est
une
fort belle riviere, aussi
que
le
Danube; mais
partout.
elle
peu de fond, qu'un
homme
a cheval la peut passer a
guay
le pais de Tangut il arriva a Relink, province fort du royaume de Barantola; it vint en suite au royaume mesme de Barantola. La ville capitale de ce royaume s'appelle Lassa; * * *" TheveThe district of Reting (his Retink) and Reting not. Relations, 11, IV* Partie, p. c. gomba are nearly due east of the Tengri nor and on the road to Lh'asa. Reting gomba is about twenty-eight miles from Lh'asa, and has some two hundred lamas in Report oj Explorations made by residing in it at present.
De
la
ayant traverse
peuplee, dependante
iSjg-'SB, p. 36.
212
TIBET.
rather soft red sandstone gravel.
We
saw
several small herds of
orongo and an occasional

over the
hills.
solitary jackass
wandering
listlessly
To-day has been the first since we left the Naichi valley, twentywhich we have had neither rain, snow, hail nor wind; but it hailed not a mile away from camp this evening, and we have heard the low sound of thunder, and, as I write (9 p. m.), it is blowing hard from the east. The Toktomai is at this spot about twenty feet broad and two
three days ago, in
feet
I greatly enjoyed me, but the Chinese and Mongols think am crazy to jump into such icy water. noticed numbers of little brown lizards, in shape something like a chamewish I could have taken a few along with leon, though flatter. me, but my flask of brandy is too precious to waste it on such have no alcohol, it has all leaked out of the copper things, and can in which had it. The weather since we crossed the Dungbure has greatly improved, and is warmer and clearer than farther north. The prevailing winds have become southerly, a quarter from which they never seem to blow in or near the Ts'aidam.
deep
in
the middle, with a strong current.

it
a bath in the river;

1
has put
new
life in
June
ig.
For the
first
time since
we
left
the Ts'aidam,
we
left
off our sheepskin ch'ubas.
The day was most
delightful until
about an hour before sunset when a violent west wind sprang up which died down, however, at 10 p. m. followed the river to-day for fifteen miles, crossing it twice
We
on the way, the valley broadening out a little below camp to nearly five miles in width, the bottom land of fine reddish gravel, boggy in many places, the higher ground covered with good grass. The river has a swift current with a fall of about twenty feet to the mile. The mountains on the west side of the valley are considerably higher than those on the east, which are not over two hundred feet high. Nearly due south of us is the Buha mangna, along whose western flank our route lies, while the
highroad to Nagch'uk'a runs
base.
some
little
distance from
its
eastern
few yaks, some wild asses and antelopes; numerous old hearths along the river bank testified to the occasional
a
We
saw
presence of
man
(probably Goloks) in this quarter.

The sandstone formation
TIBET.
213
ing,
is still visible at our camp this evenbut red sandstone is not so abundant as it was yesterday. have ail noticed that on rainy or fbggy days we feel the effect of the high altitude more than on clear, dry ones.
We
June 20. Eight miles below camp the north branch of the Toktomai is deflected due east, around a small hill with a rocky crest, and at its eastern extremity it empties into the southern or main branch of the Toktomai, which flows down a broad valley running due east and west, and some forty miles in length.
Leaving the north branch
for six miles,
till
at the
bend,
we
continued due south
we came
to the south branch, a good-sized river
flowing in a number of channels over a soft sandstone gravel bed a half mile in width. had not a little difficulty in getting across, as the channels were deep and the sand very soft. There is certainly five times as much water in this branch as in the
We
northern.
We
camped near the
right
bank of the
river,
and
saw
far to
probably forty or fifty miles, a large, snow-covered mountain, in or near which, I take it, the south branch of the Toktomai has its source, but the mountains which border the valley on either side take a sharp bend about twelve miles west of our camp, and hide from me the trend of the valley beyond that
point. Nothing but a small plain now separates us from the Buha mangna,* which rises dark and imposing some ten miles to the southeast of us. To the south, in which direction our route leads, I can only see a slight rise in the ground, and the Jalang says this is all that separates in that direction the valley of the Toktomai
the west,
from that of the Murus. The grazing is excellent on every side of us, and the weather continues fair. This looks as if Three days of fine weather!
the worst of the journey
was
over,
mean
as far as climate
I
is
concerned.
It
blew again
in the evening, a result
suppose of
the rapid cooling off of the soil at this high altitude.
From what
have been able to learn so

all
far,
leading into Tibet from the north, and

* Called by Explorer A K in 1879-82, 40.
there are three roads probably parallel to the
Bukhmangne.
See Report on Explorations
by
214

we are
West
following.*
of the
ist.
TIBET.
trail
2nd.
one
we
are following,
By the highroad wz^ the Angirtakshia; and followed by the
Taichinar Mongols of Hajir, leading over country similar to that
we have traversed, crossing no high passes, but along it water and grazing are poor; 3rd. Considerably farther west than No. 2 and leading directly from the Lob nor. This last is followed by the Torgot Mongols and is, I imagine, the one taken by Bonvalot. It is said to be very bad. caught a glimpse of the famous Dang la chain this evening; it is the first really imposing range 1 have seen. Its name is written Grangs la (pronounced in the Lh'asan dialect Dang la) meaning " cold, icy." A good name for it, as along most of its
I
length
it
rises far
above the snowline.
A few miles south of our camp of yesterday, we some very low hills which prolong the foothills of the Buha mangna to the west, and entered the basin of the Murus. From this point we got our first view, in a southeast direction, of an immense snowpeak, probably Prjevalsky's Mt. Dorsi, but called by my guide, Atak Habsere mengku or "Lower Habsere snowpeak, "f To the east of it we saw another great snow-covered mountain which took for Prjevalsky's Mt. Djoma. The Jalang, who ought to know, says its name is Satokto san-koban, meaning something like "enfant terrible." Crossing a rivulet, which probably empties into the Murus about twelve miles east of our route, we ascended another range of low hills and the Murus
June
21.
crossed
trusted (though
river),
(" The River"), or the north branch of it, if the Jalang is to be have never heard tell of two branches of this
I
was
before us. J
it;
Crossing the col
we camped
about a
mile below
the river about a mile farther south.
* Chinese works, referring to roads to Lh'asa from the north, make mention of (l) a road from Yarkand around the Ts'ung-ling and through Ngari to Lh'asa; (2) a
road from Yashar
a road
llchi
in
Ku-che, "
is
It is
through marshes and mire and

;
is difficult;
"
(3)
by
the Murus (this
the Hsi-ning high road)
(4) a road
from Koliya near
(Khoten).
way
" It goes due east through the Gobi to Kartsang-guja, thence by of Pang-t'ang across a lakelet to the Tengri nor, then to the Sang-to lake,
is
which
200
li
from Lh'asa.
Hsi-yu kao ku
lu, vi., 8.
t None of the Mongols with
me
could suggest any interpretation of the word
HabserS, though
it
would appear to be Mongol.
fAs will be seen further on the Jalang was wrong, as there does not appear to be more than one branch to the head waters of this great river in this direction.

1
TIBET.
215
Climbing a steep iiill directly east of our camp had a splendid view of the great Dang la range, certainly the most imposing chain of mountains have seen in Asia. While its eastern extension was far beyond our line of vision, its western end did not appear to be over forty miles away, and from this point it bore 250 west (Mag. 70). The Atak Habsere' bore nearly southeast (E. 155), the Tumta (or "Middle'*) Habsere bore southwest by south (W. 210), and the Eken (or "Upper") Habsere was to the southwest (W. 222). The Atak Habsere is the most important of the " Three Habsere " (Kurban Habsere).* The Jalang says that the main branch of the Murus flows some six or eight miles south of the one before us, behind a low range of hills on the south side of the river and near the base of the
I
Dang la. The hills around our camp
are of limestone, a rock
we
have
not seen since passing the Kuan-shong k'utur.
swept over us just as we were making evening a strong east breeze blew and there was a good deal of lightning to the south. Grass is getting green hereabout and I picked a number of flowers {Carex, Kobresia, Fesviolent hailstorm
in the
camp, and
tuces,
Lagotis, etc.).
While on the march we saw a number of yaks, wild asses, orongo and huang-yang, but they were all so wild that it was impossible to get a shot at them. Since crossing the Dungbure, huang-yang {Antilope gutturosd) have become much more numerous than to the north of those mountains. We have had no meat for a number of days now, and are reduced to eating onion duff, as I suppose should call flour and chopped onions cooked in grease; and a pretty poor mess it is!
1
June
22.
We followed up the
the south
is
course of the Murus for about
nine miles over sandy soil tolerably well covered with grass. The river bottom where we came on to it is about six miles
hills it is bordered by a range of very low another low range running parallel to the main In this latter valley is said to flow the southern or Dang la chain. branch of the upper Murus, or rather the principal feeder of the
wide.
To
beyond which
headwaters of
*A
this river.
calls
the Atak Habsere, Atag-hapchiga, and the Eken Habsere,
Yakenhapchiga.
2l6

noticed in the river bed
I
TIBET.
just before
(.1
also
saw one yesterday

which
making camp), what

and
soft stone,
all
took for
mud
springs, an upheaval of
trickled
mud
little
of a reddish color, from
streamlets.
Having found
spot where the river appeared fordable,
it
being
there divided into a
number
of channels,
we
rearranged the loads
The water and sent the Hsien-sheng ahead to try the ford. reached to his horse's back and the current proved very strong, but the river bottom was hard, so we took the mules over one by one, and after an hour's hard work everything was landed on the right bank without accident. The water was very muddy and the river much swollen from the melting snows and by the daily rains, but there was no evidence that it ever overflows its bed to any considerable extent. We camped not far from the river near some pools of water around which there was fine grazing. A violent thunderstorm swept down both sides of the valley from 2 to 5 p. M., with very heavy hail, but we escaped its violence. The Jalang is turning out to be a vile tempered old savage. He had to-day a quarrel with all the men about his food allowance and his tea. He threatens continually to leave us if I do not comply with all his demands. So far have been able to restrain myself, but some day will have to have it out with him. His brother Panti says the Jalang knows nothing of the country through which he is now taking us, that he has never been here before, and that we will never get to the Tengri nor by this route. To
1 1
Jalang does not deign to reply. He passes much of time while we are camped seated on some commanding hilltop surveying the country, and when he comes back he invariably says
all
this the
his
that he has found the landmarks he

are in the right
way.
trust
was looking for and that we more to the compass and maps,
I
poor as they
are,
than to him, but
say nothing.
followed up the river in a southwest direction for about ten miles, then crossing it where it flows due south and north, we continued in a westerly direction about two miles and camped near some pools of water at the foot of a line
it
June 23. W. rained was very cloudy.
heavily during the night and this
morning
We
of
low
hills.
^'-S-
1.
3.
Felt summer hat {Ts'aidam). U. S. N. M. 167191.> FuB CAP, lined with fell (Namru di). (U. S. N. M. 167193.)
2. 4.
Summer hat (Namru

167192.)
d6}.
(U. S. N.
M.
Cap of Tibetans and Mongols of Koko nor. (U. S. N. M. 131186.)
TIBET.
217
The Mums, where we left it, could be traced up as far as the fiken Habser6 massif in which it certainly has its source. Where we crossed it to-day it was about two feet deep and probably seventyfive feet wide. This does not necessarily imply that we are far from the sources of this great river, as in this region a stream grows with wonderful rapidity. traced up with my eye the
I
course of the river for about ten miles, and could see numerous
it, quite enough to account for its volume where we crossed it. The Murus' ultimate source is certainly in the snows and ice on the Eken Habsere, which is very nearly southwest by south from our camp of this evening. A curious feature of the valleys of the Murus and of the Toktomai is the presence there of innumerable little pools or sinks, in which is collected all the water that falls in the valley bottoms and over a large area of the contiguous hills. These pools have no visible
brooks emptying into
outlets into the rivers. To-day, for example, we certainly passed twenty-five such lakelets, some of them on the very bank of the stream.
Another heavy thunderstorm at 2 p. m., at which time they always occur, but as usual it kept to the mountains. The Jalang's plan is to go around the Dang la, as we have done in the case of the Koko-shili, Dungbure, etc.; it is a good one and will prove
interesting, for I am thus able to define the limits of the basins of all these important rivers, the Ch'u-mar, Namchutola and Toktomai.
He thinks that by the day after to-morrow we should reach the head of the Murus valley or, as he calls it, the Dang la tolh'a, the beginning (or "head") of the Dang la. On the south side of
this big
range he thinks
we
shall find tents
and be able to buy
sheep.
The south
side of such a range must, however, be a long
way
off,
the Jalang's assurances notwithstanding, and
we
are
all
getting very hungry.
We
cannot,
think, be
much more than
two hundred and but will we make

a guide
fifty
it
miles from Shigatse, a month's journey,
who
is
month with mules and ponies weakening, not to be trusted, and the possibility of being
in a
stopped by the
been so
far a
first
chief
we
fall
in
with, in case
we
have not
still,
steered clear of Lh'asan territory
The road we
one big
are following has
good and
direct one, but
river, or
worse
the impossibility of renewing our supplies, and the consequent

necessity of seeking
some
chief
and getting assistance from him,
will cause the best laid plans to
come
to naught.
2l8

24..
TIBET.
June
We
made
fourteen miles in
little
a west-southwest by
west direction up the valley of the

entered yesterday after crossing that
feeder of the
Murus we
a steady
river.
There was
though hardly perceptible rise been traveling on what seems

Murus,
in the
level
Though we have ground since coming to the

ground.
fifty feet
we are this evening six hundred and when we struck the river three days ago.
Limestone
1
higher than
is
the principal rock in the
hills to
the south, and,
if
may judge by
hills,
I
the gravel and dibris
washed down from
the
northern
sandstone, mostly reddish, predominates there.
in the Jalang's statement that we have been along the north branch of the Murus. There is no south branch, we have had ocular proof of this. Now to explain away the lie,
no longer believe
for
far
it
was nothing
else
(and
believe that he has never been this
west
before, but probably
came along
tofore followed as far as the
the trail we have hereToktomai, and then cut east and
joined the highroad), he says that the Mongols believe that the Murus divides into two branches southwest of here to reunite
again to the east of the Buha-mangna.
thunderstorm visited us again to-day, and as the west. Since leaving the Ts'aidam we have never had a storm from another quarter. From this camp Eken Habsere bears southeast by south (E. 175).
usual 2
it
The
p.
m.
usual also
came from
camping to-night at the head of the Murus and at an altitude of 16,850 feet above sea level. We have also reached the west end of the Dang la range. The country all the way here was of gravel, and for a few miles before making camp the ground was covered with grassgrown huinmocks. The hills on either side of us are three hundred or four hundred feet high, but the main range to the north, which bends now in a slightly northerly direction, and is some five or six miles away, rises over two thousand feet above
are
June 2S.'Wt
valley in this direction,
the surrounding country.
and by 3.30 it was snowing which in these high altitudes, by the way, always sounds like the rattle of musketry. By 5 o'clock the snow stopped falling (three inches on a level), but shortly after a heavy fog enveloped us, and at 7 p. m. the ther2.30
p.
We
reached
camp by
m.,
hard, with a great deal of thunder,
TIBET.
219
mometer stood at 25 Fahrenheit. From here the western end of the Dang la seems to be a line of low black hills, over which our route must lay. Along our road to-day limestone and sandstone
appeared in about equal proportions, but, I fancy, judging from its rugged outlines, the Dang la is of eruptive formation. Again to-day we saw quite a large herd of yaks, but they fled when we were a mile away, and we were only able to kill one
hare, just
enough
to give
our mess of mien a
little
flavor.
June
26.
We
we
crossed the foothills of the

direction.
Dang
la,
taking a
west-southwest by west
In the first place,
we
passed
six or eight miles south of a small lake, possibly three miles long,
and which
black,
called
Dzurken ula
nor,
from
its
proximity to a
commanding peak which we thought looked like a heart {^dzurken in Mongol), and was consequently named by us Dzurken ula. To our west, some twenty miles away, rose a short range of
its
I
mountains with
central portion covered
with snow.
This, the
Jalang thinks, and
seen from our camp on the south branch of the Toktomai and which I then thought must be at the source of that river.* We have left the valley of the Murus behind the water from all the surrounding hills south and west of us empties into the Dzurken ula nor. are at last on the central plateau of North Tibet, f From its flanks flow the Murus, the Salwen and half a dozen other great rivers, and here is also the eastern extremity of the great Central Asian
;
agree with him, must be the
snow peak
We
Plateau.
Away to the southwest there is a low ridge running westward and connecting the Dang la with another range of hills, but we have, as we hoped, turned the great mountains. The snow peaks
whose base we are now camped are truly the "Head of the Dang la " (Dang la tolh'a). They rise apparently 2,000 feet above the snow line and, as at least for 1,000 above where we are camped
at
(17,000 feet above sea

* See 20th June.
level)
they are without snow,
we must
t Politically speaking Tibet begins at the Dang la. AH the country between the Ts'aidam and that range is in reality a no-man's land, called usually Chang t'ang or
"Northern plain."
Capt.
Bower
uses the
word Chang
alone, but that only
means
"the North."
220

line of perpetual
TIBET.
very
conclude that the
snow
in this region is at
nearly 18,000 feet above the level of the sea.*
We had our usual hailstorm at 3 p. m., with accompanying The Jalang thinks that we will see thunder and westerly wind. the Dang la behind us in two days, that three days later we shall make the Amdo ts'o-nak and that within eight or ten days, going tabar, tabar ("Slowly, slowly"), we shall have reached the
Tengri nor.
see
if
If
my
in
charts are
how
this
can be, but the Jalang
anywhere near correct, I do not is a pretty good guesser; even

trail
he has not been

his
these parts before, he has the true instinct of
a guide, he divines
where the
should be, and so
far
he has
done
work
very well.
in the
June
a
27.
We continued to-day
same west-southwest
direction as yesterday, along the foothills of the
Dang
la,
crossing
forty
number
of torrents, one about
two
feet
deep and thirty to
feet
wide, but flowing in a bed at least one-third of a mile in The soil is everywhere fine gravel and very little grass width.
it.
Dang la and its snow cannot decide whether there are any glaciers 1 am inclined to think there are none. The rocks have camped on the see are all limestone and granite. I north slope of some low hills, and I fancy that to-morrow we will enter the basin of some river flowing southward. The whole country, as far as I can see, is covered with hills, between which are pools and lakelets receiving all the drainage. It snowed heavily for about an hour this morning and again in the afternoon, when there blew a strong north wind, but the day
grows anywhere on
;
Our view
of the
I
fields is absolutely unobstructed.
We
would not be complete now without

June
28.
a storm.
A couple of miles from camp we crossed a

a
of the
low
col,
and then took
southwest course over a perfectly bare plain of

Himalaya, the limit of perpetual snow
is
*"0n
the southern declivity
12,978 feet above the level of the sea; on the northern declivity, or rather on the
peaks which
rise above the Tibet or Tartarian plateau, the limit is 16,625 feet, from 30>^ to 32 of latitude, while at the equator, in the Andes of Quito, it is 15,590. * * * The greater elevation to which the limit of perpetual snow recedes on the
Tartarian declivity
is
owing to the
radiation of heat from the neighboring elevated
snow in an both cold and very dry."' Alex, von Humboldt, Asie Centrale, 111., 281-326, and Cosmos (Harper's edit., 1850), I., 30-32, 331-332. The camp of
plains, to the purity of the
air
atmosphere, and the infrequent formation of
which
is
June 26th was
in latitude
north 33 42'.
See also note p. 20$.

gravel, cut here
TIBET.
221
and there by
torrents,
mile wide, which
empty
into a stream flowing
some with beds over half a westward and
which
surface,
We
called, on account of the great quantity of ice on its Keten gol or " Cold River." are now well to the west of the Dang la, which stretches
far as
we
out in a southeast by south direction, as
we
can see.
Some
twenty miles south of us we can distinguish a short range of black hills, and nearer to us in the same quarter another short range, running southeast and northwest, from which issue several streams emptying a mile below our camp into the Keten gol. No mountain range of any importance beside the Dang la can be seen,
but innumerable
direction.
is
little
blocks of
hills intersect
the country in every
have camped there but elsewhere there is only sand and gravel. The soft wet gravel, through which we have of late traveled so much, has been very trying on the feet of our ponies and mules every one of them is lame. We will rest here for a day and then push on as rapidly as possible to the Tengri nor.
soil is
The
very barren; where
we
little
grass,
To-day has been the

the Naichi gol.
It is
third fine
day
we
have had since leaving
very enjoyable.
Towards dark we saw a bull yak feeding on the hills west of camp and we all turned out to get a shot at him. He started off at a great pace when we were half a mile off, and though we followed him till dark up and down the hills we never got near enough to shoot. When one has been very hungry for over a
our
to
month, stalking is exciting work. There is not even a sheldrake be seen, not a lark nor a marmot the silence of this vast wild;
erness
is
positively oppressive.
June
29.
Another
beautiful,
warm
day, though quite a thick
night and the minimum thermometer registered +i33, but during the day it went up to 97. The Jalang passed, the morning seated on the top of the highest hill he could find near camp, and when he came back he reported that he had seen Bumza shili (north of Nagchuk'a), also a large lake to the west of us into which the K6ten gol empties. He thinks that by keeping a southwest course we shall pass well to the west of the Amdo ts'o-nak and the Tengri nor, and thus not have to travel on Lh'asan territory but on that of Ulterior Tibet (or Tsang) and that we shall thus not meet any town, gomba or
last
coating of ice formed on the river
222

we
TIBET.
agree as
thickly peopled district until
are close to Shigatse.
to the advisability of keeping a southwest course, but don't believe he saw Mt. Bumza, that is quite impossible, it is a long, long
way
off.
our finding Drupa the day after view of the consequent feast of mutton in to-morrow, and store for them, have laid in a large stock of onions with which
The men,
in expectation of
in
they propose to stuff the delicious sausages {ch' ang-tzU) they will then make with the intestines, lights, heart, etc. have absolutely nothing left to eat but a little flour and tea.
We
my last dish of rice and currants. Henceforth we one meal a day and for the rest of the time content ourKao has greatly horrified the other two Chinese selves with tea. by smoking tobacco, and they have talked to him so seriously They will not about the matter that he has finally given it up. eat the wild ass meat; they say their religion (Islam) forbids eating the flesh of any animal with an uncloven hoof. It is curious that Panti, who is asthmatic and suffered greatly from shortness of breath in the Ts'aidam, does not experience any additional inconvenience at the high altitudes at which we have since then lived. In fact, none of the men, save Yeh Hsien-sheng and myself, are in the least inconvenienced by the rarified atmosTo-day
I
ate
shall take
phere.
Kao
full
pa-erh,
who
is
at his first experience of high altitudes,
can sleep without even so

that on a
much
as a stone
under
his head,
and
feel
stomach (or
the
least.
as near
one
as he can get),
and not
oppressed
It is
in
two
is the pace of our animals; measure their step, and I invariably find that to keep beside a given one in the line I must take from ninety-eight to one hundred paces of thirty inches in a minute on level ground, and from eighty-four to eighty-eight when on a steep path, either ascending or descending.
astonishing
how
very regular
or three times every
day
June JO. We got off by 8.15 a. m. The hills to the westsouthwest of our camp and over the southern extremity of which we had to pass, are composed largely of flints.* From their summit we caught our first glimpse of a large expanse of dark blue water about twelve miles to the southwest, and on whose western shore rises a steep and bare red sandstone hill. We crossed the
*We called these
hills
Huo-shih shan, "Fire stone
hills."
TIBET.
223
K6ten gol at its mouth on the shore of the lake, and camped on a green hillslope one hundred feet above the water. The lake is about fifteen miles in its greatest length (northeast to southwest)
and
in places seven or eight miles wide. The mountains on its western side looked very beautiful as we came down to the lake, with their many shades of red and yellow limestone, with here and there a broad vein of white, the colors brightening or becom-
ing obscure as the sunlight shone upon them or a cloud swept
between them and the sun. moment wrapped in darkness,

rattled,
An end
hail
of the lake
was
at
one
poured
down and
the thunder
but soon
all
its
blue surface glittered in the sunlight, and
was no sound but that of the wavelets breaking on the sandy beach in a gentle murmur. Around where we have camped can see many old wellblackened hearth stones; suppose Tibetans come here to get salt. The water of the lake is nearly undrinkable, and possibly there are deposits of pure salt near here. The grazing is splendid,
there
I I
and the mosquitoes enormous and ferocious.*

July
I.
Our route
we
lay parallel to the shore of the lake over a
slightly undulating country.
About three miles south of our camp
crossed a good sized though shallow river, which comes from out the hills to the southeast, some ten to fifteen miles away.
Farther on
we
crossed the dry beds of several torrents
they were
nearly a mile in width in
teen miles southwest of
many places. We camped about nineour camp of yesterday, on the bank of
another small stream flowing into the lake from the hills which surround it on the south. The water of this stream, like that of all those emptying into this lake, is very brackish, nearly unfit for
use. was unable to detect any outlet for the waters of the lake, though it seems hardly credible that evaporation can dispose of the enormous quantity which must flow into it, and I have seen no
I
signs of
its
level ever
being much higher than

is
at present.
My
I
Mongols
are persuaded that this lake
the Tengri nor, and
cannot disabuse them of this conceit. While on the top of a small hill about six miles from where we are now camped, I got sight of some snow peaks to the west, and at no great distance from the lake; and from this point I took
* Later on
called
it
I
learnt that this lake
is
called
Chib-chang
ts'o (or
T'eb-chang
ts'o).
temporarily Lake Glenelg.
224

I
TIBET.
also
what fancy will be my last view of the western extremity Dang la. To judge from the vast amount of yak's and sheep's droppings and hearth stones which cover the ground where we have camped We also to-day, numerous caravans must travel over this road. saddle bags, such as are used by found a number of worn out The ,two bags Tibetans to carry salt in on the backs of sheep. about twenty pounds. The Jalang says the Amdo hold a load of
of the
Tibetans (from the
Amdo
ts'o-nak country) travel this
way when
mines in the Dang la. This lake must be one of the numerous Ts'aka with which, according to Chinese authorIt corresponds very roughly in position ities, this region abounds. with the Liarchagan lake of previous maps, and is approximately 15,800 feet above sea level."" The Jalang has never been here, he
going to the
salt
has finally admitted
it
to me.
All
we
can do
now
is
to follow our
noses, and trust to luck.
The grazing
well.
If
!
only
1
is now good everywhere and our animals are doing we could do like King Nebuchadnezzar and eat
have nothing but a couple of biscuits (momo'), some tea and tobacco, and of even the latter only enough for a couple of We had a days, but we all hope to see black tents to-morrow. with rain to-day, the second time it has rained since thunderstorm
grass
we
left
the Naichi gol.

2.
July
We took a south-southwest course
parallel to a short
range of mountains of no great height on our right. The sandy plain over which we traveled is traversed by a number of small
streams flowing,
saw
into
yesterday
little
some westward, into a lake which the Jalang some distance to the west, the others emptying pools at the foot of the hills, these possibly communi-
cating by underground channels with the former sheet of water.
red sandstone hill on which we have camped this can see that the hills to the south of the Ts'aka (Chib chang ts'o) run west as far as the eye can reach. I have to-day distributed to the men the last cupful of tsamba we have if they could be persuaded to only eat a mouthful a day
From the low

I
evening,
it
might
last for ten

will,
well.
They
days, but it won't, I know these people too with the exception of the Hsien-sheng, who
is
*Its name, Chib chang ts'o,

(ts'aka) of our
evidently represented
by the Chang chong chaka
maps.

will
TIBET.
225
do exactly what I tell him, make one or two " square meals," and then live on tea until such time as something better turns up. I distributed among them my own supply of tsamba and chura and have now absolutely nothing but a small flask of brandy which I have treasured up so far in case of an emergency, satisfying my desire for it with an occasional smell of the liquor. We saw no sign of people having been in this region for months past, probably not since last year; we may meet some any time, but then they may have nothing to sell us, or refuse positively to sell what they have, and so it may go on for days. shot a wild ass to-day just before making camp; it fell at the first shot; we all ran up excitedly but the famished dogs were there before us, and up jumped the ass and made off. Do what would could not put my pony into even a trot; he was like his master, too played out for sport. The men took our misfortune with true Mohammedan stoicism; Tien ming, "it is Heaven's decree," was all they said, and mounting their ponies rode on.
I I I
traveled to-day about twenty miles, for the greater July J. part of the time in a nearly due southerly direction crossing two
;
We
hills
;
ranges of
east
hills
projecting from those to our east, and running due
and west the stream between them flowed westward. These appeared to be composed mostly of shale of a yellowish color. The ground under our feet was of fine gravel, and very little grass was anywhere to be seen. Two miles before making camp we crossed a col, the ascent to which was quite long; made it out to be 16,500 feet above sea level. From where we have stopped, a couple of hundred feet below the summit on the south side of the pass, we command an extensive view, but I can see nothing before us but mountains and jagged walls of rocks projecting from their summits. The Jalang says that he followed this circuitous trail, of which he had once heard tell, so that we might not fall in with too many black tents, the people of which might have impeded our
I
progress.
This plan has turned out wonderfully successful
it
has
been entirely too much of a success. Again to-day we have sought in vain for signs of human life; though we are on a well beaten highroad now, no one has passed this way for months past, and no one is such a fool as to live here, I feel convinced. There is a little bird, 1 have heard its sweet little twitter ever since we have crossed the Dang la but have never seen it, for it
226
TIBET.
sings at or even before the break of day and just after dark when the rest of creation is still. Its note is plaintive but very sweet;
I
would
like
to
see the
little
fellow, he helps so to
make
life
bearable.
During the night it rained hard from ten to eleven and then for three hours it sleeted. The storm, which was accompanied by thunder and lightning, came as usual from the west. After crossing a little stream flowing westward, we entered to-day a broad valley. At its southern end the stream flowing through it bends abruptly westward and enters a narrow gorge. The upper part of this valley is marked by a curious ridge of rocks, probably limestone, running east and west, and which, from a distance, might be taken for a line of old gnarled and dead trees, so sharp are their outlines. In this valley we came again on the highroad followed by those going to the northern salt mines, and we had to make up our minds to follow felt, however, it, for no other route led out of the valley. reluctant to do so for where it left the stream at the southern end July
4..
o'clock,
of the valley,
it
bent southeastward, a direction
was very
I
loath
it
to take for even a short distance, so apprehensive did
feel lest
should bring
me
too near to or perhaps on Lh'asan territory, of

all
which
must
try at
hazards to steer clear.*
had to camp near a lakelet on the top of the pass at the south end of the valley we had followed all day, for two of the horses having given out, they could not be made to go a step farther. The ground was soaked, the argols too wet to burn, the only water we could get was muddy and brackish. It was a poor place for a camp, bleak beyond description, the only thing which commended it was the grass. We broke up one of our packing boxes to start a fire and dry some argols for fuel, and with the thermometer at 40, at an altitude of 16,000 feet and with a cold wind blowing the smoke into our inflamed eyes, we tried to celebrate "the glorious fourth" with a wee bit of dry bread and tea, but it was a failure no one felt any enthusiasm.
We
think Capt. Bower crossed

as
I
my
route on his
this valley
way
east at the foot of this
hill.
by the gorge down which the stream flows. If he did not cross my route here, he must have done so some twenty miles farther north, but strangely enough his sketch map does not show in this part any stream of any length flowing west, although all those I crossed flowed in that direction.
As well
can make out, he entered
TIBET.
227
miles
July 5. The summit of the pass turned out to be about three beyond our camp of last night, but only a few hundred feet
it.
higher than
We
rode to-day in a south-southeasterly direction
over
and across dales all trending nearly due east and west, all the water flowing westward and emptying into a large lake some six or eight miles to the west of our route. We also saw from, one of the cols we crossed, and some fifteen miles east of it, a large sheet of water which the Jalang thought might be the Amdo ts'o-nak, but, as for four days the weather has been so cloudy that have not been able to take an observation, 1 cannot form an opinion. As laid down (conjecturally) on existing maps, the Amdo ts'o-nak is somewhat farther south than the point we have
hills
I
reached.*
After about
to the
twenty-two miles over a fairly easy trail we came mouth of a little valley whence we could see some twentyrange of dark
hills
five miles to the south a
running east and west,

All
but nowhere any signs of

ing
It
human
habitations.
the
hills
traversed to-day appeared to be of limestone formation, and graz-
was
fairly
good, the grass just beginning to sprout.
turned out on inquiry to-day that the cook has not only
been stealing from my little supply of food but that he has repeatedly robbed the others during the night of some of their
All our supplies are now exhausted, we ate the last mouthful to-night, now we will have to get along as best we can on tea, and then, if we do not meet Drupa, we shall kill a horse; fortunately we have two which are no longer able to carry loads. With the meat we shall be able to get along for quite a while, fifteen or twenty days anyhow, long enough to reach Shigatse. The Jalang is more and more disagreeable he will do nothing to assist us in camp, but sits warming himself over the fire, drinking
provisions.
tea
and mumbling
6.
his prayers.
July
We had a hard
we
day's
work
of
it
to get over
twenty
miles, the distance *I
try to cover daily.
It
began to
rain shortly
doubt wliethier this was the Amdo ts'o-nak or not. From what 1 on this lake would appear to be to the south of the Tsacha tsang-bo ch'u. It may well be that my informants (Namru Tibetans who escorted me) intentionally misled me, as they were always very much afraid to give me any information about the country, and had to get my information in the most roundabout way.
am
still in
was
told later
According to Captain Bower (op. dt., 49) the Amdo ts'o-nak is considerably to the east-southeast of the one here referred to. See p. 229 and also under date oijuly 20.
228
TIBET.
after leaving
Our
camp, and the rain kept pouring down till 3 p. m. route lay south-southeast over a gently undulating plain, the
it
streams which crossed

into the big lake
running southwest by west to empty

yesterday.*
we saw
we came to a river flowing westward in a broad flat and sand.f We had great trouble in getting across. The water flowed rapidly in a number of channels, and it took us two hours to lead the horses across, a man walking on either side of each pack-animal holding up the load. Several fell in the stream, or sunk in the quicksands and had to be unloaded in the river; fortunately my papers and instruments were got over dry.
At 2 bed of
p.
M.
mud
* This lake
is'o).
Its
is
called,
is
learnt later on, the Yirna ts'o,
and
is
a soda lake {bul-tog
shape
surprisingly like that of the Garing
Chho Lake
large.
It is
of Capt. Bower,
impossible that
though the Yirna

Capt. Bower's
ts'o did
not appear to
me
to
be so
Naksung Satu Lake and Garing Chho Lake, which in reality form but one, can be fed by the one small stream which he shows flowing into it from the The position Capt. west. It must receive a large supply of water from the east. Bower gives the Garing Chho is exactly that which the Namru assigned to the Tengri nor (Dolma Nam-ts'o), and a Tibetan told him (see his Diary of a Journey Across Tibet, p. 30) that that was its name, but he suspected that "the villain
lied."
t The
looks as
name
if it
of this river
is
Tsacha tsang-bo ch'u.
On some
European maps
it is
figured (but too far north) as the Zacha
Sangpo
or Yargui tsumbu.
The latter name
the Yirna (ts'o)."
might be intended as a transcription of Yirna tsang-po, "the river of There is no doubt in my mind that this river is the Hota Sangpo
of Nain Singh, although he makes this river to issue Irom the Chargut
eastward.
Cho and flow
Speaking of
this region
(which the Pundit did not traverse), Captain
Trotter, in his
Account of the Pundit's Journey from Leh to Lh'asa ijourn. Roy. Geo. Soc, XLVII., no), says: " It appears that the drainage from nearly all these
lakes finds
size of
its way either into the Chargut Cho, a large lake said to be twice the any with which we are as yet acquainted in these parts, or into the Nak-chukha, or Hota Sangpo, a large river which issues fi-om the Chargut Cho and flows
The southern banks of this river are said to be inhabited at certain times The by shepherds from the De Namru district (nortlfof De Cherik). country to the north of the Nak-chu-kha is believed to be uninhabited. "The largest river crossed by the Pundit in this section of his travels was the Dumphu or Hota Sangpo, which receives the drainage of the southern slopes of the Targot-Gyakharma range of mountains, and flows into the Kyaring Cho, forming one of the numerous sources of the Nak-chu-kha." The Pundit imagined that the Kyaring Cho was connected with the Chargut Cho, but we now know by Capt. Bower's report that such is not the case. Col. Prjevalsky, Reisen atn oberen Lauf des Gelben Flusses, 131, mentions a large river, of which he had heard tell, called
eastward.
of the year
the Satscha-Zampo, flowing into a lake called Mityk-dschan-su, which, he thinks,

is
identical
with Nain Singh's Chargut
ts'o.
The other
is
information given Prjevalsky,
and
referred to
by him
in
the same paragraph,
certainly erroneous.

Just as
TIBET.
229
we made
camp, about a mile south of the
last
channel
of the river, a violent storm of hail and rain swept
down and
drenched every article of clothing which we had so far kept dry, but shortly after the sun shown brightly, and we were able to dry our clothes and bedding before it set. found a have stopped, walls such as are built throughout northern Tibet inside of tents to keep off the wind; it cannot have been abandoned more than a few months ago. Drupa are certainly not far off, I should not be surprised if we fell in with some to-morrow.
half a mile
About
from where
we
deserted
camp marked by low dung
July 7. We got off late; it had rained again in the night and had to dry the tents before loading them on the mules. We rode in a southerly direction towards a col we could see in the range of hills before us, but we had not gone many miles before we saw a small flock of sheep and some yaks on the hillsides, and a little farther on we sighted some black tents half hidden in a sheltered nook. We kept on towards the hills and camped near some pools of water at the mouth of a valley* and about a mile away from some small black tents around which flocks of sheep were grazing. While we unloaded the mules, the Jalang and the Hsien-sheng rode over to one of the tents to ascertain where we were and see
we
they could not buy some food. After a while they returned and reported that they had met a man and two women, who in
if
dress resembled the
considerably from that which they were able to speak.
K'amba Tibetans, but whose language differed They had
any information about the country women, to whom they gave a little mirror, some buttons and a thumb ring, had told them that we were three days' ride (on yak back) from the Tengri nor {i. e., about thirty miles), and only two days' ride west of the Amdo ts'o-nak. They were very much frightened at our advent from the north, and only half believed the Jalang's story that we were Mar Sok (Eastern Mongol) pilgrims on our way to Tashil'unpo, who had lost our way, after the death of our guide some eighteen days north of here, while on the highroad to Nagch'uk'a, and that we had wandered this way in search of pasture for our animals and food
had great
difficulty in eliciting
or the road, but finally one of the
* This valley
is
called
by the Namru, Edjong.
230
TIBET.
for ourselves.
itant price of five rupees,
These people sold the men a sheep for the exorband agreed to give them later on a rupee's worth of chura and butter, but would not part with any tsamba, They gave the men as they had barely enough for themselves. tea and delicious sour milk {sho') to drink. The Jalang also learned that the big lake we had reached on the 30th of June, was called the Teb-ts'ang ts'o,* and that the river we had crossed yesterday was the Tsacha tsangbo ch'u. At first he had been unable to elicit this information, the man had said that we could have no good motive for wanting to know the names of the rivers and mountains of the country. These people begged my men not to mention to anyone they might hereafter meet, that they had sold them anything or had even spoken to them, as there were very strict orders forbidding their having anything to do with strangers. They repeatedly asked the men if there were any foreigners in their party, and seemed much relieved when told that there were none. They said that Lh'asa and Tashil'unpo were both twenty days' ride from here, traveling on yak They back, and that they did all their trading at the former city. belonged to the Namru tribe, and the Amdo tribe lived to the east The most disagreeable bit of information my men of them. brought back was that these people were under the rule of Lh'asa.f The sheep was soon butchered, and in less than an hour the men were all feasting on the boudins {chang-tzu) they love so to make with the liver, heart, lights, intestines, etc., well seasoned with
* Or Chib chang ts'o, as the name was pronounced and the Nagch'u Ponbo.
later
on by the Namru Deba
t The
ited
earliest
mention
have found of this tribe of Namru is in Capt. Trotter's Report
of Nain Singh's journey, referred to above.
The Pundit says that the country inhabsubdivided into the following
districts,
by
the
Chang pa (" Northerners
")
is
"designated successively from west to east: Nakchang Gomnak, Nakchang Doha,
De Tabaraba and De Taklung, which latter Namcho Lake." (Op. cit., p. 108.) All the local chiefs; he goes on to say, " are subordinate to the two Jongpons of Senja Jong, a place of considerable importance lying to the east of the Nakchang Doha district, and containing from eighty to a hundred houses." {Ibid., p. 109.) The
Cherik,
lies
Yakpa Ngocho, Yakpa Jagro, De
immediately to the north of the
Pundit ilso makes mention of a Nakchang Ombo or Pembo, to the west of the Nakchang Gomnak, where the religion is different from that professed by other tribes {Ibid., p. 107.) of this region. The word Pembo is Bonbo, and the religion referred to is that called Bon or Bonboism. See Land of the Lamas, 217-218. I had supposed that all the Bonbo tribes of Northern Tibet lived in the Jya de, which
province
I
traversed later on.
TIBET.
231
onions. I had no appetite for food, tiie starving I had gone through for the last month had taken all desire for it out of me, but expect I will be able to coax it back in a day or so.
I
July 8. The Hsien-sheng and the Jalang went again this morning, and a little ahead of the rest of us, to get the chura and butter the Namru had promised to sell them, and which they
would not give them yesterday
as
it
was
the 15th of the
moon,
day on which they neither buy nor sell. They also wanted to trade one of our worn out ponies for a fresh one. followed slowly after with the pack mules, and, stopping near the tent, got off my pony to talk with the people and see if my men had finished their trading. They had found the Namru's suspicions fully aroused, he had refused* to let them have anything, either chura, butter or even civil words, saying he thought \ve were foreigners, and, if we were, he and his tribe would kill us all, for that was what the Lh'asa government * had ordered them to do. When I spoke to him he only answered "Go away, I will have nothing to do with you," and turning around he entered his tent and called
1
the
women
in.
pushed on up the valley and soon reached the top of the range. On its southern side was another broad valley ten or twelve miles in length and three from north to south, and beyond
We
was
yet another range of
hills.
To our
left,
some
six
miles
away, appeared a lake probably two or three miles from north to south and eight miles from east to west; this I was told later in the day was the Namru ts'o.
were six or eight tents, each with a little and some yaks grazing round it. We stopped near one about two miles below the summit to ask the road, and found that there were Lh'asa traders in it who had tsamba, butter, flour, etc., for sale; so camped about a mile away in the hope of buying at once a good supply of food and striking out again in a southwesterly direction before any measure could be taken to stop me. All my men, with the exception of the Hsien-sheng are very much excited and frightened, the Jalang and had a big row, and I ordered him out of the camp. For the last fortnight his insolence
flock of sheep
1 I
In the valley before us
*The
Tibetan term
is
Deva Zliung's
territory," as this
Deba djong. Capt. Bower word is not the title of

under Lh'asa
rule.
is
wrong
in calling
it
"The
a man, but
means the gov-
ernment of Lh'asa, the
territory
232
JOURNEY THROUGH MONQOLIA AND

I
TIBET.
and laziness have steadily increased.

the Hsien-sheng,
have had to rely solely on
devotion to me.
who fortunately never wavers in his loyalty and When the Hsien-sheng went later in the after-
noon to get the flour, tsamba, etc., the traders had agreed to sell, they put off giving it to him until to-morrow, and only let him have about a bushel of tsamba, enough for perhaps a week.
to my camp has been a poor ragged tent about a quarter of He volunteered to guide me to Shigats6 for a mile from us. twenty rupees and a pony. He said that on leaving this place we would travel for four days through an uninhabited country, after which we should find Drupa, more and more numerous as we advanced, all the way to Shigatse.* He said that in ten days we ought to make the trip. He denied the story that there were foreigners at Shigats6, but relieved my men's anxiety about their
The only person who has come
man who
lives in a miserable little
personal safety by telling
them
that there
was
a Chinese garrison
and Chinese
It
officials there.
if
now
it
looks as
we
so near ever
that the Tibetans will have to send us

I I
things are sure,
will
shall
way
go
might reach Shigatse, or at all events get on to India. Two not go back the way I have come, and whichbe able to do some useful work.
* Capt. Bower heard, when to the west of Namru de, that " From Namru a road to- Lh'asa, by which it would be possible to go straight into the sacred city without meeting a soul." Op. cit., 32.
runs
TIBET.
233
PART
IV.
From Namru to Ch'amdo.
July
9.
The
fate of
everyone
who
has tried to get into Tibet
has overtai<en me.
This morning by daylight a number of well-
armed Tibetans came to camp and said that they feared some of my party wtrt pyiing (foreigners), and that they begged us to remain camped where we were until their Deba could come, examine us and see whether we could proceed on our journey or not. So stringent were the orders from Deba-djong (Lh'asa) that if they were to let a foreigner pass through their country, they would all be beheaded. The speaker of the party, who was the headman of the district, asked to see me, and we talked for awhile very pleasantly. He asked me where was from, where I was going, etc., etc., and said that he did not know whether I was a
1
p'yling or a Mongol, that he had never seen any of the former,,
but he did not believe that they were

1
like
me.
comply with the request to remain here; if I refused and pushed on at once, it would but confirm their suspicions and they could easily stop me. As it is, the guide who offered his services yesterday, now refuses to go with ine unless told the headman would remain I the Deba says he may. camped here until the day after to-morrow (nth), but that if his Ponbo were not here by that time, I would proceed southward and that he could overtake me if he saw fit so to do. The Mongols are terribly frightened, they firmly believe that their last day has come. The Jalang complains of violent pains in his stomach and will not eat, Panti has passed the day listlessly blowing the bellows, and the little lama Zangbo has been reading his prayers with wild energy, a thing he had quite forgotten to do during the journey. The Chinese with their usual stolidity and
thought
it
advisable to
234

fatalism
TIBET.
Moslem
have been eating the whole day, occasionally
saying the one to the other that no one can escape his fate. The headman sent me a sheep, milk, chura and butter, enough
and said he would keep me supplied until the Deba's but he would not accept pay for anything, as that was against the orders he had received. In the afternoon a tent was put up two hundred yards from mine
for the day,
arrival,
and about twenty men

the whole day
settled
themselves
in
it
as a guard.
During
men came
riding in from every direction, but
more
and southeast. They were all very polite and jolly and each one whispered to me, when he thought he was not being observed, that they were only carrying out the orders
especially from the east
of Lh'asa.
It is
an anxious
fear the
moment
for a
will fight hard not to
go to Nagch'uk'a,
I
but
will
whole matter
will
be referred to Lh'asa and that
be delayed here
long while.
is
The
dress of the people
exactly like that of the
K'amba
of
northeast Tibet, but the
gowns
(ch'ubas) are mostly of fine purple
wearing sheepskin ones. The no ornaments on their hair, which is plaited in innumerable little braids hanging over the shoulders and down to the waist where they are held together by a black ribbon. Many of the men have a half Tibetan, half Chinese coiffure, a big queue, usually of false hair and ornamented with coral and glass beads, finger rings, etc., and which hangs down their back or is twisted around the head the rest of their hair hangs in a tangled mass about their heads, cut over the eyes in a fringe. None wear any head covering, except when riding, when they have great Korean shaped hats covered with white cotton and lined with red cloth. Physically they are of light build, men and women of about the
pulo, only the very poor people
women wear
same
height, five feet four inches, to five feet eight inches I saw of this latter height with oval faces, sharp pointed chins, rather straight eyes, hair not very abundant and generally
one man
wavy. Their noses and frequently with

thin ones.
are
large ends,
more prominent than with the Mongols though some have aquiline and
Their feet are small as are, also the calves of their legs. Their skins are smooth, hairless and dry, the teeth strong but very
uneven and none have beards; they pluck out with pincers {chyam-ts'er), which all carry hanging to their belts, the few hairs which grow on their faces. The complexion of the people is not

much
darker than that of the Mongols, but
I
TIBET.
235
all
are very
much
burnt
by constant exposure. noticed a great many among them pitted with smallpox marks. The flour and tsamba the Lh'asa traders had promised to sell us are not forthcoming; they told the Hsien-sheng this evening that they were afraid to deliver them till the Deba arrived. The consequence is that we are absolutely at the mercy of these people; without food for more than a couple of days, with no guide, worn out ponies and lame mules, no possibility of buying anything or exchanging our animals for fresh ones; we can do nothing but
the best possible terms with the chief when he comes. picked up from the people to-day in conversation that the Namru belong to the Nyima sect,* and that, besides their own
1
make
chief or Deba, they have residing

Lh'asa.
among them
;
ofificers
sent from
They say
that
it
takes five days riding to reach Lh'asa
they do all their trading at Tea is very expensive here; a brick of the gongma chupa kind.f worth one rupee at Ta-chien-lu, is worth 2
to reach Shigats6
and ten or twelve
the former place.
taels here;
but very
little
of
it
is
to be found, only the coarsest
quality of "
wood
both cold and hot,
They drink a great deal of milk, sweet and sour, in which they mix their tsamba.
is
tea "
used.
When tea is drunk, they put a pinch of tsamba in the pot to flavor heard that the Wang of the Torgot Mongols was stopped here
it.
I
his way to Lh'asa, and only allowed had been sent there and found to be en rtgle.X believe that orders have been issued to every person living near the Tibetan frontier, under the severest penalties for disobedience (though don't believe a word about cutting off the
the year before last
when on
to proceed after his passport

1
* Old lamaist or red capped sect. Us principal strongholds are Sikkim, Bhutan and parts of Ulterior Tibet. See Emil Schlagintweit, Buddhism in Tibet, Ti.
t On the different varieties of brick tea, see
:]:
Land of the Lamas,
278.
Bonvalot's advance south appears to have also been arrested in the Namru country. See H. Bower op. cit., 49. Bonvalot himself makes no mention of this tribe or country in the published narrative of his journey, De Paris au Tonkin &
whom I heard speak be those 154 and 240) ? It appears probable. The description Bonvalot gives of the Tengri nor (or whatever lake his Namtso may turn out to be, for he had it only on native authority that it was the Namtso, and both
Can the Torgots of
{p.
travers le Tibet inconnu.
mentioned
in this latter's
work
Bower and
at
all
were assured that a Namtso was

latter
in quite
a different position) does not

et seq.
agree with Nain Singh's
mjourn. Roy. Geog. Soc, XLIV, 322

meaning " lake,"
The
words Namtso and Jyamts'o, the
are easily confounded.
236

who
TIBET.
heads of those
disregard the orders, probably a heavy fine
would be the
penalty), to report at once to the nearest chief the
passage of any suspicious looking traveler.
July
10.
Men have been coming

Among them
in
in
all
day; they are camped
in four large tents.
are three officials from Lh'asa,
semi-Chinese dress, long brown broadgowns and turned up brown felt hats with gold lace edging; they wear a very pretty long gold pendant in the left ear, in which is set a big pearl and some turquoises. These officials, Nyerpa (stewards) of the Tale lama, and now in Namru de collecting the tithes, came to my camp and
cloth
begged me to go back by the way had come, saying that they would all be beheaded if I did not. I told them that I had no desire to travel on Lh'asan territory, that I had only come here because 1 had no more food. In a few days I would go westward and leave
1
their territory.
deferred discussing the
question of
till "the Big Chief" {Pbnbo cKenpo) arrived on the morI
my movements
I
added that as were kind hearted, I

row.
not purposely put
delay or lengthen
knew
the Tibetans
felt
sure they
would
me
my
any inconvenience, journey by forcing me

to
to take a roundabout road to Jyagar (India),
where
They
EARRING WORN BY TIBETAN OFFICERS.
(Full Size.)
my presence was impatiently awaited. said they would supply me with

I
everything
mules,
desired, food, fresh horses

I
and
etc., etc., if
would only
leave their
at once. I said that under no circumstances would go back by the way had come. They then suggested that I should go to Nagch'uk'a and take the highroad to China and thence to India.
I 1
country
told them that, as 1 was traveling with a passport from the Chinese government, no one could control my movements but the Chinese Amban, that I would go to Lh'asa to discuss the matter
I
with him.
This threat frightened them very much.
They
said

Lh'asa
TIBET.
237
was more than
a month's journey from here, that brigands
Amban had gone to Ch'i-ling to discuss with the p'ylings the Sikkim business. They appeared very anxious that this business should not get into the hands of the
infested the road, that the
Chinese,
whom
events
in
they
all
seemed
to fear
and
dislike
very much.
At
all
we
are revelling in the fleshpots of Tibet; sour
wheaten cakes {^pali) have been abundance, and we can eat, drink, sleep and bask in the sun to our heart's content. The weather is lovely though it
given us
milk, cream, butter, mutton,
seems rather warm. The rest is doing us good and things take a brighter aspect on a full stomach. I will insist on going southwest on leaving here, although the Nyerpa swore to-day that there was no trail leading in that direction. fancy it will take
1
some time
to settle matters satisfactorily; Tibetans
do everything
"slowly, slowly" {Kali, kaW).

the Ponbo ch'enpo numerous escort. He is a good-natured looking man of the pure Drupa type, and perhaps the least well dressed of any of the chiefs I have seen, save that his purple pulo gown is of beautifully fine texture. He called on me, accompanied by the Lh'asa Nyerpa, and we discussed my plans. Seeing that I would not go back to the desert to the north, they suggested that I go to Nagch'uk'a to discuss the subject of my future movements
II.
;
July
To-day has been a most trying one
arrived with a
with the high
officer in
must
first
get permission for
command there, me to go to
but they said that they
Nagch'uk'a.
They
had,
going that way, sent a courier there yesterday and expected him back in three days. Then 1 proposed sending the Hsien-sheng to Lh'asa to see the Amban,* but they stoutly refused to allow him to go. As to going to Shigatse, they refused point blank to allow me to undertake the journey, or rather, they said that, unless went to Nagch'uk'a or awaited
in anticipation of
1
my
* Bonvalot speaks of
Niamtso.
his conferences
with the
Amban
near the shores of the
him as a blue buttoned Mandarin of pure Tibetan race, not even speaking Chinese, and who treated the travelers apparently as his superiors in rank. Bonvalot' s interlocutor was most certainly not the Amban, who is always a high Chinese official, wearing a coral button and of Manchu origin, and who quite as certainly would not have come that far in the dead of winter to question three unknown foreigners. The official was probably an officer from one of the stations The " ta amban " and "ta lama " who came between Nagch'uk'a and Lh'asa. to his camp later on (Ue Paris au Tonkin, p. 238 et seq.) probably came from Lh'asa, but even this ta lama, whoever he was, was only a Tibetan civil official.
describes
He
See Bonvalot, op.
cit.,
268 et seq.
238
TIBET.
here further orders, they
animals and that

after
would give me no supplies or fresh pacic would have to get on the best way could,
I
going back to the north side of the Tsacha tsangbo ch'u, which marks the boundary of Lh'asa territory to the north. Perhaps were to go to Nagch'uk'a I could get permission to go back to if China by the highroad vi& Larego, Shobando, Ch'amdo, etc., and
I
not have to follow the "tea road " taken by Bonvalot.
The Deba asked me
to
come
to his tent in the afternoon,

latter
and
found there all around the outside. Seeing my impatience to proceed, the Chief offered to have me guided to Nagch'uk'a by a little used trail, not on Lh'asa territory but running along the right bank of the Tsacha tsangbo ch'u and the foothills of the Dang la. It would take, he said, six or seven days to reach the chang lam at a point about a 1 agreed finally to this; it will day's ride north of Nagch'uk'a. take me through unexplored country. It does not make much difference after all which way I go, though it is very disappointing not to be able to carry out my original plan but who ever does
the chiefs and people assembled, the
squatting
in life?
am
not twenty miles from the Tengri nor;

hills
1
am
told
it
can be seen from the top of the but 1 will never see the lake.*
to the south of this valley,
am
ten days from Shigatse
and
not more than twenty-five from British India and six or seven
there
it will be four or five months before I reach by the long route I shall have to travel. Tien ming, "it is Heaven's decree." Panti and the Jalang have refused to go any farther with me; they will go back to the Ts'aidam by the road by which we came. The lao-han goes back with the Mongols. have given the old man twenty-five taels and some odds and ends in the way of
weeks from home, but
now
* See note p. 228.

mts'o p'yag-mo, or
Some Tibetan works
give the
Gnam
mts'o p'yug-mo.
The
latter
name of this lake as Gnam name means " Wealthy
woman, heavenly lake." The name Dolma Nam-ts'o signifies " the heavenly lake of Dolma." Dolma is the Indian goddess Arya T3ra; in Tibet this name is quite as common among women as Mary is with Christians. Nain Singh says that the lake is called Jang Namcho chidmo, that it is 15,190 feet above sea level, that it took him fifteen days to travel around it, that there are a number of gombas on its shore, and that a stream called the Nai ch'u flows into it from the east. He also adds that junipers grow on its banks at Langdang, at the northeast corner of the lake. Joum.
Roy. Geo. Sac, XLIV, 319-322. On the fossil shells of this lake, see the same work, 327. iVlr. Oldham, Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India, who examined them, thought them not older than cretaceous and probably nummilitic. The name given the lake by Nain Singh is probably, according to my system of transcription, Chang Nam-ts'o chyug-mo (p'yug-mo).

outfit,
TIBET.
239
and he is filled witii fear lest his compagnons de route should him for his wealth. am truly delighted to get rid of these Mongols, but I feel sorry for the poor little lama, Zangbo, who had hoped to get to Lh'asa, and who now sees all his hopes blighted and who will probably have to go with me to Ta-chien-lu.
kill
I
July 12.
The day has been well occupied amusing the Namru,

that the question of
who, now
my movements my
and
has been satisfac-
torily settled, are as friendly as
can be, though they will sell me nothing, refusing the most tempting offers for various ornaments,
I
and odds and ends
want
for
collections.
wax.
We
talked
" Of shoes, and
ships,
sealing
Of cabbages, and l<ings. And why the sea was boiling hot, And whether pigs have wings."
astonishment at finding a p'yling so they say the lamas have always described them as being. They have shown me the greatest kindness and politeness, not a rough or disagreeable remark has passed their lips. They have given me every description of food they have, and all the little delicacies they delight in. Time and again they have apologized for having to stop me, "but, they said, we are not our own masters, but Diba-djong-gi miser " " the serfs of Lh'asa "). They said openly that, as to themselves, (
their
friendly,
They expressed
and not the
terrible creature
they would be delighted to see foreigners visit their country, bringing curious and pretty things for them to buy, but Lh'asa would not allow it. The people of that place loved foreign money
and foreign goods, but would not admit p'ylings among them. Lh'asa people were bad and cruel, they added should they (the Namru) disobey them, theywouldcutofftheirheadsinatrice. The Deba presented me with a nice pony, but it was with great difficulty that persuaded him to accept a k'atag* in acknowledg-
The
*The
use of ceremonial scarfs dates from remote antiquity in Asia;
we find mention
of them in old Buddhist works and persons in the act of presenting them are often figured
in ancient
Buddhist bas-reliefs
in India;
awhile, to China, thus
we
read in
in
The custom appears even to have spread, for Mendoza that when he was at Fu chou in 1575,
put about the necks of the
silke,
friars, in
the Viceroy "
commanded
his presence to
manner of a
scarfe, to
eyther of them sixe pieces of
and unto the
souldiers, their
Omoncou and Suisay, each of them foure pieces, and to everye one of their servants two a piece * * * so with the silke about their neckes, and with the branches in their hands, they returned out of the hall and downe the staires the way they came, and so through the court into the streetes." Mendoza, History
companions, and unto
of China,
II,
83.
(Hakluyt Soc.
edit.)
240

of his
I
TIBET.
ment
scarfs
gift,
and
tlie
three Lh'asa
Nyerpa stoutly refused the
offered them.
The people
are very fond of foreign curios
and goods.
buttons on
I
a flannel border to his

theirs.
One man had a red flowered chintz waistcoat; another gown, and not a few British navy and army
gave the two Mongols one of my tents, three ponies, sufficient tea and tsamba to last them six weeks, a kettle, etc., etc., enough The to enable them to travel comfortably back to the Ts'aidam. lao-han begged to be allowed to accompany me; he said he was afraid to go back with the Mongols who might rob him and kill him, and agreed to take him to Ta-chien-lu whence he can reach Hsi-ning easily and at little expense. We are to leave here tomorrow three men will escort me, and two others will see the two Mongols across the Tsacha tsangbo ch'u. We shall all part the best of friends; the three Lh'asa officials are the only ones who have been sullen and made no friendly advances.
1
;
July
IS.
We
broke up camp
steps as far as the Tsacha tsangbo ch'u,
bank of
on some little was joined by the escort of Namru men who are to accompany me as far as the Nagch'uk'a road. There are ten men instead of three in the escort under the orders of the same headthat river
1
morning and retraced our camping near the right sand dunes, and here at about
this
nightfall
man who
the
requested
me
to stop in the
Namru
valley to there await
coming of the Deba. It was with a heavy heart
that
retraced
my
steps;
1
it
was
the
relinquishing of a
a
1
much
cherished project which
had
until
within
few days hoped would have been able to accomplish. It would, however, have been sheer folly to have tried to push on to Shigatse in the face of the opposition of the Namru, with but three Chinese to accompany me and only provisions enough for a day or two.
Deba sent me another pony as a hand of the owner of a big tent near which we had camped in the Namru valley, and who had to supply, by order of the Deba, all the mutton, tea, tsamba, etc., which had been given to me as "presents "the value of his goods. He was of course immensely pleased, lolled out his tongue as far as he could and wished me many times "dimo fibs, dimo
Before leaving this morning the
I
present; and
was
able to slip into the
p'Sbs"
("go
in
peace").
TIBET.
241
The lower classes here, when saluting superiors, are in the habit of bending the knee very low, putting the right hand beside the
right
at the
1
cheek and the left hand under the elbow of the right arm, same time sticking out the tongue.
all
know
the
men
in
the escort, and,

all
now
that they are
no
longer under their chiefs eyes, they are
eager to trade, and to
show me any
courtesy in their power. Each man has brought with him a huge pair of saddle-bags filled with cakes of sweet cream cheese {pima)* chura, flour, butter, dried mutton {sha kam), sour cream {tarak), wheaten cakes {pali), etc., etc.,
which he wants to exchange for buttons, thumb-rings, Japanese lacquer bowls, and such like treasures. They told me again that their lamas had always made out foreigners to be bad men, that if they should ever meet any, they were to give them what they required, take nothing from them, and make them go away; but had talked courteously to them, paid for all had got, and they hoped that foreigners would come this way again, if they were only all like me and their lamas did not oppose their coming. now learn that the big lake into which the Tsacha tsangbo ch'u empties is called Zirna ts'o and that it is a "soda lake" {butok ts'o). We had quite a violent hail storm to-day at 2 p. m. and at 4.30 p. m., a heavy downpour of rain.
I I 1
July I/}.. We crossed the river this morning during a violent thunder storm, at the ford used by the Namru the Tsacha flows here in two branches, and the water is about four feet deep. turned our faces northward and struck out over an undulating plain
;
We
on which was here and there

a short ride
a pool of brackish water,

hills,
and
after
camped where the river, which comes from the east-northeast, takes a bend southward as far as where we crossed it earlier in the day.
at the foot of the
by the
river bank, at a
point
IVly escort looks very picturesque, the prettily shaped, though very undersized ponies nearly disappearing under the big saddles and bright saddle cloths, the riders in purple gowns and cloth-
topped boots reaching to the knee, which sticks out bare above them. Their long hair falls around their faces, and their high white hats {shara) are cocked on one side to shade them from the Long matchlocks swing across their backs, the sun or wind.
*
In
p'i-tzti.
Koko-nor Tibetan called d&ma, and in Mongol eurna. Chinese call it nai It is brought to Peking every winter by the Mongols and sold in the Nei
kuan.
242

wrapped
in pieces
TIBET.
Stocks and locks
of brigiit pulo or perhaps a
At tlieir waists hang red leather bullet bags, pouches for powder and priming-horns, needle cases and short knives, and each one has a long, straight sword passed through his belt, the right hand resting constantly on its hilt. They
skin {chyi pags}.
marmot
have already proved themselves good-hearted, obliging fellows, down and putting up my tent, bringing me fuel, saddling and unloading the ponies, and have, to their own inconvenience, given little Zangbo one of their own ponies to ride, and made a collection among themselves for him, supplying him, from their own small stores, with enough food for a month.
taking
These Namru eat wonlittle this morning before starting they drank two cups of tea, which they made in little earthenware pots, each man having his own, and ate a little mush of chura, tsamba and butter.
derfully
;
In preparing their tea
they
put a
little
soda
boil
in the pot,
and
first
let
it
for quite a
while.
This evening the thing they did, while

or three
two
the
fire
were making and the tea was
cooking,
WOODEN SNUFF-BOX WITH INTERrOR
(Lh'asa.)
was
to drink a
few
SIEVE
cups of sour cream {tarak), and this they tell me is their

invariable preliminary to a
This tarak they carry in little goat skin bags on which the hair has been left and which contain about half a gallon. They squeeze the bag and make the contents come out through the skin of the leg, which makes an excellent neck to this
meal, their sakuska.
primitive bottle.
they eat very

so
little
Their dried mutton they soften in their tea, but of it. a few mouthfuls at a meal suffice them.
The only thing in which these men, as well as all those we have far met, show great suspicion is in invariably refusing to
partake of any food or drink prepared by me, nor will they use any other but their own puru (little wooden bowl). They are

afraid of
is
TIBET.
243
This mode of getting rid of a person known weakness of the Lh'asa people. The Namru snuff enormous quantities of tobacco and, like the
being poisoned.
a well
K'amba, they are not neat

faces in the operation.
in
taking
is
it,
smearing
their noses
and
Smoking
very rarely indulged in by

interior
them.
Lh'asa.
Their snuff-horns are like those of the P'anaka, though a

sieve
few own the peculiar snuff box with

Nearly every male
fact
all
I
made
in
have seen
in this
I
country has curly

take the
hair,
while the Lh'asa people have straight.

purer,
if
the Drupa, or tent dwelling Tibetans, to
Namru and in represent a much
not the pure, Tibetan race; their language, which has
retained
many
archaic forms,
in
now
lost in the
Lh'asan dialect, or
only to be found
the written language in the shape of mute or

to corroborate this opinion.
superposed
this is
letters,
would seem
"But
another story."
July i^.
little
We
rode
all
day up the right bank of the Tsacha

hills.
ch'u in an east-northeasterly direction, crossing occasiona'lly

affluent
coming down from the
some Though we passed

left
many
old camps,
we
only
saw one
tent
and that on the
bank
of the river and in the

escort men.
gravelly, the hills
Amdo
ts'o-nak district, according to the

grass, the soil
The country was well covered with

on
either side of the river of limestone
and
slate.
We
we
rode along very rapidly, stopping only after about eighteen
little valley opening on to the river where found abundance of sweet spring water. While here the inevitable hail and rain storm swept over us, and we had to wait an hour or so before we could dry our things and load the
miles for lunch in a
mules.
We
camped
for the night
on a muddy and marshy
plain near a
good-sized river which, coming from the west, empties into the
Tsacha tsangbo ch'u a few miles to the east of us. We were compelled to come this way, which is not the trail usually followed but a roundabout one, on account of the muddy state The constant heavy rains at of the ground along the river side.
this
season of the year
make
traveling
in
these parts slow,
wearisome and difficult, for, to add to the fatigues of the journey, fuel (dung of course) is very scarce, as nearly all is soaked by The soil is everywhere gravel and clay, and one sinks the rain.
244

it
TIBET.
into
knee deep.
Riding
is
out of
tiie
question, the horses have
as
much
as they can
do
to pull themselves
though they carry only

Before
a fevi'
through the mud, pounds of the loads of the pack

out than they.
mules, that are even more
worn
we could get camped another violent rain storm overtook us, and we had to go to bed without our tea and with only a little pima; but we are better off than the Tibetans, we four have a tent in which we can keep pretty dry though it is now full of holes and cannot keep out the cold but the Namru have none, they wrap themselves in their saddle blankets and lie down shivering
in
the wet and mud.
July
i6.
Crossing the stream near which we had
camped,
we
followed up the course of the Tsacha tsangbo through a broad grass-covered valley. It would be more correct to say that we
followed up the course of the northern branch of the Tsacha, for a few miles east-southeast of our camp of last night, a stream
quite as large as the Tsacha
itself,
and which comes from the
east,
empties into
it.
mile or so beyond our camp we passed some hot springs near bank of the stream, but I could not get to them to take the temperature of the water, as the ground was too boggy. Six miles before making camp we crossed a large clear stream flowing into the Tsacha from out the mountains on our left (north).
the
I
learned that
my
guards have orders to take
me to
the Hsi-ning
where we now are. Here we will be on the border of the Jya-d6 {Rgya sdS) i. e., "Chinese province." They will then point out the road to Nagch'uk'a and the direction
road, seven days from
the Jyade, with

1
of the nearest Drupa, but they will not venture near the tents of they are not on friendly terms.*
whom
offered the
a
headman some money
me by
more
direct route to Nagch'uk'a, but
none, and even the one hardly ever followed.
we
he would consent to take he said he knew of are following is badly known, and
if
* Nain Singh speaking of the people living near the western shore of the Tengri nor says they are attacked by robbers said to come from a district called Jamaata De, which lies to the north. Jamaata De is said not to be under l.h'asa, and the inhabitants consequently plunder the Lh'asa districts whenever they are in want, as they
Joum. Roy. Geo. Sac XLIV, 320. His Jamaata De " The Chinese Atag district " on the highroad to Nagch'uk'a; by Capt. Bower (see Op. sup. cit., 51).
often are.
,
is
it
Sde,
Rgya-mi Atag was traversed
TIBET.
245
From where we have camped we can see to the north a showcovered range, the Dang la, I suppose. The nearer one gets to this
worse the weather becomes. These mountains coming from the southeast, hence the deluge of rain and the boggy state of this whole region during half the year. The Dang la and its continuation to the east, mark the farthest point north to which the monsoons reach. This evening, for the first time since we left the Namru valley, the sky was unclouded for a half hour, and I was able to take a few sextant
great chain the
arrest the moisture laden clouds
observations.
branch of the Tsacha* was forded a few after crossing a low range of soft, gravelly hills, we entered the basin of the Chang fang ch'u, which, coming from out the mountains to the north at a point far to the east of us, flows south as far as we could make out its course. Two
July
ly.
The
last
miles
beyond camp, and
and a number of streamlets empty into it a little south of our line of march. The soil was everywhere boggy, the horses sunk into the soft gravel at every step, and we
large streams
to the
had to lead them most of the way.

large feeder of the
lutely bare,
After crossing the second
Chang fang
ch'u,
we
found the ground abso-
and had to push on

I
till
dark before
a
little
where our animals could pick up
grass.
we could find a spot Just as we made
camp and before could get the tent up, a terrific thunder storm came down from the mountains to the north, and again the poor Tibetans had to wrap themselves in their blankets and go supperless to sleep.
We
us,
of the
saw to-day a herd of yaks, the first we have noticed south Dang la. They started on a dead run as soon as they saw and it was a fine sight to see them dash into the wide river
it,
and tear across
the spray nearly hiding
them from our view.
map we learn that this important river has its source in about 45 Long. E. 90, at an altitude of about 16,000 feet. Where I left this river, not over thirty-five miles from its source, its altitude was approximately 15,400 It certainly does not flow as far southeast as Capt. Bower's feet above sea level.
Lat. 32
* From Capt. Bower's
map
flow,
shows, and the snow peak, around the east side of which
is
it
is
there
made
to
Bower calls this river Chang Saki Sang po. Chang means "north, northern;" the word is written byang. His Sang chu is, take it, my Chang fang ch'u in its upper course. See H. Bower, Op.
quite a distance south of the river.
Capt.
at., 47-48.
246
TIBET.
The whole country through which we have

but a succession of pools and streams.
I
traveled to-day
is
never
saw such
a soaked
and reeking region

July
18.
in
my
life.
soil into
night has turned the already muddy took us all day to make about eight miles over a range of low hills and to ford the Chang fang river. At every step we took we sunk in the mud (a mixture of gravel
last
The storm of
to our knees,
a quagmire, and
it
and clay) up
tumbling
of the mire.
and
it
was
pitiable to see the
poor mules
in this
down
every few steps, unable to pull their tired legs out

it
Strange as
may
appear the muddiest spots

all
region are always to be found on the hillsides,

gravel.
for
of
which are of
About eight inches below the surface is water, which, some reason have not as yet worked out, but probably on account of a hard substratum of clay, does not drain off. Along
I
the river bottoms there

there
is
is
comparatively
little
mud
the ground
sandy and
firm.
After resting for a couple of hours in the river bottom,
where
we found good
grazing and plenty of sweet, clear water,
we forded
Chang fang ch'u), which was up to the horses' bellies, and camped on the hills beyond, on that most uncomfortable of all camping grounds, tussocks of grass and holes full of water, such a place as only a duck could enjoy. The air to-day has been redolent with the odor of onions {allium senescens f) the Tibetans eat them raw without even the addition of a little salt. During the day we had no rain, though very heavy clouds hung over the mountains to the north, but at 8 p. m., the heavens opened and the downpour began. Fortunately the grass is good and the horses and mules are, at least, enjoying themselves.
the river (the east branch of the
;
/uly ig. Another miserable, rainy day passed picking our way over tussocks of grass and holes of water a foot or two deep and as many wide. Water an inch deep is flowing in a sheet off the ground into innumerable lakelets and pools. So bad did traveling
become, that
in
it
finally took to the bed of a stream and marched with water to the horses' bellies here we found solid ground on which to walk. An imperceptible ascent brought
we
for miles
us to near the divide between the basin of the Chang fang ch'u and some other river to the east, where we camped on a tolerably
level
and dry
bit of
ground.

Near where
it is
TIBET.
247
we
have camped
noticed old fireplaces and other
signs that people inhabit this country at
some season of
the year;
altitude
the highest inhabited spot
we
have yet met with,
its
not less than 16,200 feet above sea level. A bear, the third seen on the journey, came near the camp but not close enough to shoot.
is
Animals of every description appear
to
be very rare south of the
Dang
1
la.
be more than five days' ride from have discovered says it is ten. that none of the escort have ever been over this trail before; they have heard tell that it was possible to reach the Nagch'uk'a road by this way, and are trying the experiment with me. The only object their chief had in view in sending me this way was to keep me off Lh'asa territory, which does not extend north of the Tsacha tsangbo ch'u.
think
we
cannot
now
Nagch'uk'a, though the
Namru
No dry argols are to be had to-night, and we have had to burn one of our pack saddles fortunately we have not two hundred pounds of luggage all told and six mules to carry it, so we do not
;
feel
the loss.
July 20.
try to get
was
glad to see to-day that our route continued in

I
a southerly direction, for
have been fearing
lest
my
escort should
where
me on to a road leading to the north side of the Dang la, know they, would like to see me.* We crossed the divide
last night,
about two miles beyond our camp of
and continued in a general east-southeasterly direction for about eighteen miles over tussocks of grass and water holes, and where these were not, there was mud a foot or more deep. To add to our misery
it
rained from 9 a. m. to 2 p. m. East of the divide all the streams

are innumerable;
we
They
we
crossed
two
have crossed flow south. large ones within a few

little
miles of each other, each one
fifty to
seventy-five feet
from two to three
feet
deep;
down
every
valley,
wide and though
possibly not over three or four miles long, flows a big brook.
We
has
*
made about twenty
miles to-day, but
it
was very hard, work
to get the
mules and ponies along. From being constantly in the water and mud, their hoofs have become very soft, and the gravel
worn them away

My
so that they are
all
footsore.
route must have crossed Bower's here, very near his camp, 82
(November
I2th, 1891).
248
TIBET.
passed by quite a number of old camps* and pulled down some of the dung walls to get dry fuel. Yak dung is the principal substance used in domestic architecture among the Drupa
We
Tibetans.
as
is
Besides being used to make low walls around the lents, customary in K'amdo, the people here build little domeshaped structures about five feet high and six feet in diameter with a small opening in the south side. In these they keep dry sheep's droppings and yak dung for fuel; they also put away in similar storehouses, of which there are a number around each tent, such of their belongings as they do not care to keep inside their
also
dwelling.
The Namru with me frequently whistle tunes, an unknown accomphshment among Mongols and an unusual one also in China.
Their only occupation when in camp is twisting yarn or twirling their prayer wheels, but they assure me that when at home they (the men) weave the variegated stuff used for making boot tops,
gun cases and such
like things;
they also weave their pretty garters.

not a drudgery
to the
Weaving
people,
is,
consequently
it
infer,
left
among
this
if it
were,
would be
women.
more southerly
direc-
July
21.
Our route to-day took a

It
slightly
I
tion than heretofore.
led along
what
suppose are the
foothills
(of sandstone chiefly) of the Dang la range, whose snowpeaks we have caught occasional glimpses of for the last four or five days. Two miles from camp we crossed a river flowing south-southeast.f Leaving its basin, we traveled along the flank of some hills trending southeast till we came to a pond about fifteen miles from our
* When Capt. Bower passed through this district, which he was told was part of Amdo, he found nomads' tents scattered about the valleys. He speaks of a little lake cannot believe that this is the Amdo ts'o-nak. here called the Chonak Chho; My
I
route here
must have been considerably north of his; our routes were parallel all the way to the ch'u (reached by Bower December 2d, '91, and by me on the nth
I
August, '92), his being a
little
south of mine.
" large river," crossed by Capt. Bower lower down its course. t This river is the According to information furnished him this river marks the western boundary of Jyade (his Giate). This is not absolutely inconsistent with what I was told, as this
country
and
all
Tibet
is in
the same case for that

district
confusing manner, one small
matter is di\îded up in the most belonging to Lh'asa and the next to Jyade or
some other country. Near this river Capt. Bower refers to a camp called Atak Thomar. His Atak is my Ara and Nain Singh's Jamaata (see p. 244, note). The latter's statement that the Atag are under Chinese rule is therefore corroborated by Capt. Bower.
See also on the Yagara, p. 196 (June ist).

camp
of yesterday, and here
TIBET.
249
we
1
camped.
From
a little hillock
near our
camp
of this evening,
saw
a good-sized river
coming
out of the mountains to the north and flowing due south, and my guides told me that the Hsi-ning-Lh'asa road runs along its bank.
The
grass,
was covered with tussocks of with frequent patches of mud, and old camping places were very numerous. We stopped toward noon to-day to take tea and dry our clothes
face of the country to-day
in the sun,
which has
at last
made
its
appearance.
The Namru,
convenience of cooking are divided into two messes (this is a universal custom among Tibetans) of five men each, asked me to lunch with them, first with one party, then with the other. They showed themselves most excellent hosts, and were more communicative than 1 had heretofore found them. They told me that yesterday we had passed through the Ara district (the deserted
for
who
camp we had seen belonged

to-day
to people of that tribe), and that

district,
we were
south of the Yagara
of
which people
at
have previously spoken as inhabiting

ains to the south of the Naichi gol.*
in
times gone by, the mount-
To-morrow
an early hour
we
will reach a
camp
of the Jyade people on the highroad to
Nagch'u.
They
will not venture that far, but will point out the
road from the
hill
top and give us our bearings.

I
I
They begged me
when got to Nagch'uk'a, that had been escorted all the way from Namru by them, for it would certainly get them in trouble. They asked me many questions about my country,
not to mention,
* Can
this tribe
be a fraction of the Yegur
Sa-chou (northwestern Kan-su) by Potanin

partie (les
" En
la
tribe
found between Lan-chou and

suivant la grande route de Lan-
tcheou a Sa-tcheou, M. Potanin a decouvert
peuplade appele Vigours, dent une

le
Chara Vigours)
sent Turcs par la langue at par

et
type physique.
Ces
Chara Yegours habitent entre Kan-tcheou
Sa-tcheou."
Denil<er,
Bull. Sac.
An-
Serie, X, 207. However this may be, Potanin's Yegours thropologie de Paris, are the Huang Fan or " Yellow Fan-tzii " of the Chinese. From the following note by
would appear that the Yegurs lived in the 17th century near the Kokowest or southwest of it, and it is possible that, after the defeat referred He says that " a people of Tangutan to by him, a portion sought refuge in Tibet. race lived on the shores of Koko-nor called Yegurs, who professed Buddhism and
Prjevalsky
it
nor, probably
belonged to the red-capped caravans of pilgrims on their
sect.
These Yegurs were continually plundering the

to Tibet, until the Oliuth prince
way from Mongolia
Gushi-Khan,
who
ruled in northwestern IWongolia,
to subdue them.
The Yegurs were
partly exterminated, but
marched an army to Koko-nor some of them escaped
to northwestern Kan-su,
I,
where they mixed with the other inhabitants."
Mongolia,
151.
This also corroborates Potanin's statement.
250

long
it
TIBET.
how
had taken
religion,
me
and
to get to
1
ships and our
managed
Namru, about the sea and to answer all their queries,

satisfactorily.
save,
of course, the last one
Towards dusk all the men of the escort came to my tent and each one made me a little present, some butter, chura, pima, dried
mutton, or the
like, all
quite
apologizing for the smallness of their
gifts.
Then the headman repeated what he had told me early in the day, they would take us to where we could see the Nagch'uk'a road and there leave us and start at once for home. I thanked them for their kindness, and then gave the headman four rupees and to They only accepted the money each of the other men I gave two. when we had all given a solemn promise that we would mention
no one. These men have been as kind and considerate as and will always remember with pleasure the friendly spirit they showed to me and my party. They have been most attentive, and have invariably done whatever they could to lighten
it
to
possible,
the discomforts of the journey.

Little
Zangbo has decided,
after
much
persuasion on
my
part, to
give us the slip as soon as the

first
we
reach the highroad, and try and join

this
party he sees going Lh'asaward.

filled his
ten rupees and
I gave him bag with tsamba and tea.
evening
evening while scanning the country to the some miles to the southeast, but not having field glasses we could not be sure of it. The Namru, by the way, have thought all along that my prismatic compass was a djansi, as they call a telescope, and were greatly astonished this evening when I explained the use of the compass
this
east, that
We
thought
we
discerned tents of Drupa
{ch'yog-ta k'orlo) in surveying.
to my tent and asked go with them a little way that they might show him the highroad, as they were in a great hurry to start for home and get far away from the Jyade country, where they did
July 22.
At day-light the Namru came
the Hsien-sheng to
not
we
feel in safety. After doing a little trading with my guides, got on our horses and turned south, while they started westward, after a very liberal exchange of good wishes for a safe
journey.
We
Little
had not gone a mile before
mules, and
traveling south along the right
Zangbo bade us a
horsemen leading bank of the river. hasty good-bye and, taking his bag of food.
three
we saw

hid himself in the
hills,
TIBET.
251
face to face again in Tibet, a
if we ever came most unlikely contingency. Riding on we joined the horseman, and I found to my horror that they were Tibetans coming from Kumbum, and that they belonged to the great caravan which leaves Tankar for Lh'asa every year in the fourth moon. Though we recognized each other we had met at the fair at Kumbum we all cut each other in the most approved
so as to prove an alibi
fashion.
begged them to sell us a few horseshoe nails, as three of our mules were so sore footed they could hardly put one foot before the other, and we were glad to pay them at the exorbitant rate of a tanka for four nails.
We
We
learned from these
men
that
we were on
the
Dang
ch'u*
(probably Prjevalsky's Yagra ch'u) and about a day and a half s ride north of Nagch'uk'a. The river bottom, which is covered
with fine grass, is about a mile and a half broad, and beyond it rise on either side hills a hundred feet or so high of gravel, red clay and pudding stone. We rode by several sections of the caravan, some camped in nooks in the hills, others on the river bottom, but all occupying huge white cotton tents, each large enough to accommodate thirty or forty men. No one paid any attention to us, and after going about fourteen miles we camped in
a sheltered spot near the river
fine.
where grazing was exceptionally

soldiers
We
the
had not got our
tent
up before two Tibetan
and
man who had
sold us the nails rode up, and asked us
where
we
were going and from what place we had come. We said we had come from the Chang t'ang and were on our way to Ch'amdo. As they spoke a dialect different from any with which we were familiar, conversation proved so difficult (the man we had previously met would not act as interpreter for fear it be imagined we were acquainted) that they jumped on their horses and rode off, returning in a very short time, however, with another man who understood the Lh'asa dialect, and could thus act as a spy on the one who could, but would not, talk with us.
*A
's
Yagra Chu; the stream which flows into

1
it
from the west a
couple of miles south of where
was camped he
on Explorations made by
this explorer
is
Saung Chu. See Report in iS^g-'Sz, 38. The Khamlung La of

calls
the
probably the western shoulder of
Bumza
shili.
252

explained
TIBET.
my
project to them, told
them
that
to Larego or
Ch'amdo,
also provisions, an escort

I
wanted a guide and fresh pack
animals and saddle ponies.

this
showed them my
passport, although
document, written entirely in Chinese, was of no earthly value, save that the big red seal on it had an imposing aspect. I said I proposed going to Nagch'uk'a, the K'anpo at that place having been advised of my arrival by the Namru Deba. As I was " a big
official "
1
could not, furthermore, discuss

I
my movements or
I
plans
with them, and so

I
told
them
that,
not wanting to do anything

so that their
contrary to orders they might have received,
was now camped
until
the 25th,
would wait where Deba or the
Nagch'u Ponbo might have time to come and see me, I can afford to be accommodating, for could not possibly get away from this place in less time, even if asked to continue my journey towards Lh'asa, so fatigued are the ponies and so lame are the mules. Several of the latter will probably die within a few days, or will have to be abandoned. Two Jyade men who came across the Dang ch'u (this river divides Lh'asa territory from Jyade, or Chinese governed territory), They said said that they would bring me a sheep in the morning. they were willing to sell me anything wanted. The soldiers on
I I
this side,
who
are of the Sang-yi clan, refused to sell
me anything,
saying that they would beheaded if they did. These Jyade say there is a direct trail going from here to Ch'amdo and another to
Jyakor (Jyakundo), where 1 was in 1889. From what 1 can gather the boundary of Lh'asa in this direction follows the highroad from the Dang la to Nagch'u, all the country to the east of this line being under Chinese jurisdiction.*
We
1
had a violent hailstorm from
to 1.30
P. m.,
but the rest of
From where we are camped we can see a dome-shaped mountain some twelve or fifteen miles south of us, it seems to close the Dang and learned that it is Mt. Bumza
the day
was very
fine.
ch'u valley in that direction, the river flowing eastward along the
base of the Bumza block. The Sang-yi soldiers accepted my proposition to remain where I am till the 25th with evident pleasure, and said that they would
be back from Nagch'uk'a with the Ponbo by that time.

*This does not substantially disagree with what Capt. Bower learnt; according him Jyade extends some twenty miles farther west, but he was a little farther
1
to
south than
(about twelve miles).
See p, 248, note f.
TIBET.
253
July 23. The whole Tankar caravan was stopped this morning by the guard until its chiefs could prove satisfactorily that had not arrived in their company. Several of the head-traders {tsong-pbri) came in great distress to my camp with the chief of the post, and I had to go over the whole story of my wanderings again to satisfy They the soldiers that they had not assisted me in getting here. were finally allowed to go to Nagch'uk'a to there wait until the K'anpo had seen me and heard me tell once more my story. The Tsong-pon apologized before leaving for having had me stopped, but said that had they not done so, and had we arrived together at Nagch'uk'a, their caravan would certainly have been detained there for months, or they would have had to pay a big
1
squeeze.
Unlike the Namru,
all
the people of this section of the country
whereas the former disliked extremely The tribe living on the east side of the the odor of the smoke. Dang ch'u, just opposite where we are camped, are the Jyade Pere.
are great tobacco smokers,
them came over to my camp to-day. The hats {shara) them were low crowned, exactly the shape of our straw hats, but covered with white cotton and made of grass wrapped with woolen threads. In dress the people of this part of the country resemble the Namru, but they wear more ornaments, and most of them have more clothing, nearly all having shirts of buri and rather tight fitting waistcoats* of Chinese shape, and made of On their queues pulo, which they wear under their gowns. they wear sewn on a piece of red cloth, a great many ornaments, coins, small charm boxes, coral and turquoise beads, and one or more large rings of ivory. This latter ornament is nearly univer-
Some
of
of several of
sally
worn.
The Hsien-sheng and Kao pa-erh went to the Jyade side of the river this morning to get the sheep we bargained for yesterday. They met over a hundred people assembled there for pony racing. The ponies were ridden bare back and singly over a course about a li (yi mile) long. The chief inquired if had any Chinese silver or rupees to exchange for Lh'asa tankas, and said he would come over to-morrow to see me and bring me some tankas. He and
1
*Of the style called in Chinese kan-chien. The pulo usually used is of the multi-colored (zfM ts'ai or hua) kind, the colors running across the piece, just as in
a
Roman
scarf.
Buri
is
a coarse,
raw
silk fabric
made
in India,
and
is
in great
demand
in Tibet
and the adjacent
countries.
254

his people
TIBET.
broken
all
were very desirous

sell
to trade for
my
down
did
ponies and mules, or to
me
fresh ones.
They said that they
not care what the Lh'asa people said about not holding intercourse with foreigners, that they were enemies of Lh'asa and not ruled by
it.
I
The Amban
at
suppose, that their country
Lh'asa ruled them, they said, and it is for this, is called Jyade or "the Chinese
profusely to-day for
district."*
The
soldiers
camped beside me apologized
having stopped me, saying as excuse that the Lh'asa authorities were very severe, and that they had no discretion in the matter. They thanked me very much for having consented to stop and
thus prevented their getting
in trouble.
July 2^.. The Hsien-sheng went across the river again to trade one of my mules to the Pere Ponbo, but found him disinclined to do so until had settled matters with the Lama Ponbo of Nagch'u. He said the Ch'amdo territory could be reached in twenty days by going through Jyade, but that there was another road going from Nagch'uk'a to the same place, though it was a little more roundabout than the first.f Following the first mentioned road, villages were first met with ten days east of here; there were no He added that he great mountains to cross anywhere along it. supposed that since we were camped on Lh'asa territory, the Nagch'u K'anpo would supply us with guides and pack animals, as he believed he had done three years ago to some foreigners who had come to Nagch'u from Naktsang.]:
I
* It
is
not the
Amban who
rules, or rather,
who
has a general supervisory power
over the most important acts of the chiefs of Jyade, but the Third
colloquially called
the savages."
by the Chinese, but whose He resides at Lh'asa and has

all.
1
official title is
Chin-ch'ai,
Amban, as he " Envoy
is
to
authority over Poyul, Ts'arong
and a
number
of other districts, thirty-five in

1
See under date of October 5th.

See under date of
cit.,
\ This road
joined later on in the
ch'u valley.
August nth.
p.
XWs. referred, of course, to Bonvalot.
See
Bonvalot, op.
283.
The
Nagch'u K'anpo was probably his ta amban. It would appear from Bonvalot's narrative that he was stopped at the northeast corner of the Nyamts'o, near the west
side of Mt.
Samden Khama of
X-
explorer
A
here,
(Bonvalot's
(p. 293), in
Samda
Kansain).
Conf., however, p. 235, note

tribe
He was
he says
the country of a
under Chinese
This
rule,
which he
calls variously
Djachas, Djachong, Tatchong and
Tjachong.
trict."
name must be Jya Shung
or " Chinese from the
Shang shung
dis-
This
Bonvalot (p. 293) says that the stream which (A K-; 's Damgyastryok). flows into the Nyamts'o from the east, and on the banks of which he camped for
quite a while,
is
district is
immediately south of the Nagch'uk'a one and north of
Dam
called
Samda
ch'u.
Nain Singh gives the name of the only eastern
feeder of the lake as the Nai ch'u.
TIBET.
255
The flocks of sheep hereabout are very small, and the herds of yaks comparatively large; ponies are very updersized and dear, learnt but more gracefully shaped than the Koko-nor ones. from my guards, who are more communicative than the Namru about things in general, that trade with China is divided between the Tale lama and the Pan-ch'en rinpoch'e of Tashil'unpo, all the caravans of the former go to Tankar, those of the latter to Ta-chien-lu, and one potentate may not send caravans to the market of the other. Of course this only refers to the great governmental caravans, and cannot possibly apply to the small private ones, of which a large number goes out every year,
I
especially to Ta-chien-lu.
The language
of the Jyade and that of the people on this side of
the river differ considerably, that of the latter being
more
readily
understood by both the Hsien-sheng and myself.

nunciation
notable differences between them.
Both the pro-
and the vocabularies of these two peoples show
July
25.
The
Pere Ponbo
came over
to see
get the better of me, not only in trading for

in selling
my
me, and let him lame mules, but

I 1
me some
trinkets he wore,
and which
was
surprised
what he had said yesterday to the Hsien-sheng about the journey to Ch'amdo through Jyade. The road is stony but not bad {sic)\ and there understand no very high are no passes to cross, by which
to see
were of Derge make*.
He
repeated
mountain ranges. There is also, he said, a much traveled road going to jyakundo, and it takes about as long to reach that place He said, furthermore, that if I as it does to travel to Ch'amdo. settled matters amicably with the Nagch'u people and then came over to his side of the river, he would find me a guide to go to Ch'amdo, and supply me with all the provisions I might require. Towards evening the Sang-yi Deba (who lives near Nagch'uk'a) rode up accompanied by five or six men and came at once to my tent. A long wrangle, such as I had had in Namru, began at The Deba insisted on my going back the way I had come, once. to the north of the Dang la, where I would be free to do as I
* On Derge jewelry and iron work, see Land of the t When a Tibetan says that a road is bad he means it
ever, a very
Lamas,
literally.
p. 228.
He is not, howgood judge of such matters as there is not a good road within the confines
of Tibet.
256
TIBET.
He knew of no country outside of his own, could give me therefore no guide, nor was he willing to let me have provisions. replied that if they did not agree by to-morrow to conduct me
pleased.
1
into Chinese
to have
if
governed territory and there arrange with some Ponbo would go to Nagch'uk'a and, necessary, to Lh'asa, to see the Amban, whose Emperor's
me
1
escorted to Ch'amdo,
passport
that
it
had. The Deba said that could not go to Nagch'uk'a, was on Deba djong territory and that they would not allow
1
me
to travel on
it.
told
him
that he
would
find out
if
could
not go there, that

his party)
two years ago three foreigners (Bonvalot and had come to Nagch'uk'a without passports, and that
notwithstanding this they had been escorted with all due politeness to Bat'ang. 1, who had a passport, could not admit that they should
show me
ought
Since
to
less courtesy.
In short,
it
was
a proof of great conde-
scension on
my
part to argue the question with them,

to
what
do was
go
to Lh'asa to settle the question with the
Amban who
1
alone had authority to regulate

this
my
movements.
waived
appreciation of
my
unquestionable right, they should show their kindness by endeavoring to comply with all
my
wishes.
this the
1
Deba left and said he would return early to-morrow. want is for these people to escort me across the river and arrange with the Per'e Ponbo about guides and show to him that am a person of some importance. feel awfully weary of arguing with these people who, though perfectly polite, are terribly stubborn and meet all my arguments with "if you don't do so and so, off will go our heads, for this is Deba djong
All that
1 1
On
territory."
July 26. Early this morning the Nyerpa of the Nagch'u K'anpo, man of thirty, of a strongly marked Kashmiri type and very handsomely dressed in the half Tibetan, half Chinese style usual at Lh'asa, with a turban rolled around his gilt edged gray felt hat, rode up with a numerous escort of Drupa and four or five other Lh'asa men, among them two lads of between sixteen and
a fine looking
Two large white tents were soon pitched near mine and the Nyerpa at once called on me. He spoke the pure Lh'asa dialect, and we were soon on the best of terms, and he readily agreed to see the Pere Ponbo, tell him who 1 was and ask him to supply me with a guide, pack animals and all I required to travel to Ch'amdo.
eighteen.
m-.
2.
(TJ. S. N. M. 131040.) 1. Wooden tea ohuen (Kanzfe). Bamboo tea churn, wrapped with yak-hair cord, and churning-stick (Jyad6).
(U. S.
S. M.
16721.5.)

In course of conversation
I
TIBET.
257
had cut
oflf
my
he said that he recognized me, though beard since last he saw me, and that I was one
of the three foreigners who had come here three years ago, the one who spoice Chinese. He evidently took me for Mens. Dedecken who accompanied Bonvalot on his journey. He also insisted that had been to Lh'asa and Shigatse, for knew all about He the temples, buildings and places of interest in those cities. himself has been to Ladak, where he had seen foreigners, and a headman who accompanied him had been to Darjeeling. Most of the day was passed amusing him and his party, and getting such information as I could from them without plying them with questions, which is a poor way to get reliable information from Asiatics. They said that the Lh'asa people are and have been for many years on bad terms (^jamdrS jyab), with the Jyade people, and that they havenothing to do with them, and never go into
I I
their country.
(one a Tibetanized Chinese from Tankar) when they came back was told by them that there were three routes leading hence to Ta-chienlu, the first by Ch'amdo, the second* south of it and called the ja-lam or "tea road," and the third by way of Jyakundo and the Horba country. f This latter is evidently the road I followed in It was decided among us that to-morrow the Hsien-sheng 1889.
sent
He
two
old
men
over to see the Pere Ponbo, and
and
us
should accompany the Nyerpa and four of his headmen to
the other side of the
Dang
ch'u where the Pere Ponbo will meet

all
and we movements.
shall
then settle
questions about
my
further
Altogether it has been a very fatiguing day for me, but my time has not been entirely lost for I do not believe that the route I am going to follow was gone over by Bonvalot; even if he did, any
inhabited part of Tibet
* This second route
is
worth
careful study,
and
this Jyade, of
falls
into the first
on reaching the
ch'u.
See under date of
August nth.
Miss Taylor Miss Annie R. Taylor in 1892. \ This route has been followed by was probably stopped at or near the point on the Hsi-ning-Lh'asa road reached by It may be, however, that she struck Capt. Bower and called by him Atak Memar. the highroad a little north of where did (and the very vague description she has
1
published of her travels admit of both these suppositions), in which case she must have been stopped by the same party which met me here.
258

I
TIBET.
which
have never heard mention
in
Chinese works, must prove
exceptionally interesting.*
July
2y.
Another
very trying and anxious day
daylight the Nyerpa sent
tsamba, and asked
me
is over. At sheep and a bag of to come drink tea with him. Taking with
me
a present of a
me some odds and

to his tent,
ends, to give
him
as a return present,
went
and having drunk a few bowls of very bad tea, we got on our horses, rode across the river and stopped on a little bluff near the bank. There were in our party the Hsien-sheng and
myself, the Nyerpa, the Sang-yi D6ba, a Sera lama,
whose
official
do not exactly understand, and two or three of the oldest men. We lit a fire, and putting the kettle on had tea, but we had scarcely drunk a bowl before the Pere Ponbo and a few men rode up and lit a fire a little way off from ours and put their kettle on. Then the Nyerpa went forward towards the Ponbo, who also advanced to meet him. The two squatted down and had a long, confidential talk, which ended by each one putting a k'atag around the neck of the other, when the Nyerpa came back to our fire in company with the Jyade chief, and I was asked to tell the latter my story, after which more tea was drunk, and the Pere PSnbo said he would await me and my party to escort me to his camp, a couple of miles away. I quickly rode back and struck camp, but before leaving the Nagch'u Nyerpa had the impudence to come and say that he hoped that when I returned to my country I would tell how kindly had been treated by the Nagch'u officials and what good people they were. The Tibetanized Tankar Chinaman (who, by the way, would not speak a word of Chinese to us for fear of compromising himself, so horribly suspicious are these people) came also and begged for some tsa-pa tobacco,t and was given
position
I
1
'
not only
services he
a jack knife and a pipe for the little had indirectly rendered us. The Pere Ponbo's tent was in the plain about two and one-half miles east-southeast of the river, and I camped near it and on the
some tobacco but
* I have, since writing the above, made diligent search for any mention of this Chinese province or Jyade in Chinese official works at my disposal, but can find none. t A very bad smelling but very popular mixture which, like all smoking mixtures, varies according to the brand, except in smell which never departs from its high
standard.
Bonvalot found a Kansu

See Bonvalot, Op.
cit.,
man
(he calls the province Kensi) living at So
gomba.
340.

bank of
take.
a pool.
TIBET.
259
The Ponbo brought me some tankas

a
in
exchange
I
for sycee,
and had
said
long talk with

I
me
about the road
should
He
at first insisted that
must go
telling
to Jyakor (Jyakundo),*
1
which he
refused to
was
only ten or twelve days away, but this

I
him that had been there or knew anything of the country. Then he asked me to remain encamped where was till he could go and see the Horgo Deba,
I
do without, however,
a big chief
who
if
rules the country east of here
and
who
is
now
day's ride hence.

I
This
again refused to do.

1
he would supply me with a guide at once, would an ounce of silver for each day's march. This very tempting offer decided him, and he said he would send a man with me to-morrow so that 1 might move on a little, and
said that
pay him
at the rate of
that he, in the meantime,
would go
see the
Horgo Deba and meet
me
later in
the day.
Several of the Pere men who came to my tent were covered with rings and other ornaments of Derge make, and I bought a handsome silver-mounted belt with attached knife, needle case, etc., from one, and also several earrings of Lh'asa make, which
have the additional interest of showing that the form of that ornament as usually worn by Mongol women is derived from the
is, in fact, most of their dress. heard that the number of caravans coming from the Horba country and passing through here on their way to Lh'asa is very
Tibetans, as
I
Golok kafilas also take this route. The former carry tea and return loaded with barley and pulo. The Jyade are therefore enabled to do most of their trading at their tent doors. The money in general use is the Lh'asa currency, of which there
great.
to Lh'asa
are three kinds,
all
of the value of a tanka.

is
The only
there
is
variety used
here
(when new)
called
Gaddn tanka;
also the kind
tanka"), which has four numerals
Bb-gi gyalpo-gi tanka ("the King of Tibet's in the center,f and then there There are many counterfeit coins, very poor is the Nepalese tanka. The rupee imitations they are, and known as p'ugu-tsuti.
colloquially called
*Capt. Bower {Op.
cit.,
important locality
its
right
33 and 51) name. A
is
the only Tibetan traveler
who
gives this
and others
call
it
Keg6, Kegudo or
Kegedo, but Capt. Bower writes the name Gya Kundo and Gya Kudo.
t These numbers give the year in which the coin was struck, counted from the death of the Buddha. See on the coinage of Tibet, Terrien de Lacouperie, Numis-
matic Chronicle, 1882, which does
not, however, treat the subject exhaustively.
26o
TIBET.
exchanges for three tankas, although it is only worth from thirtyone to thirty-two tael cents, while three tankas are supposed to be worth forty-five. Ten rupees are given for an ounce of sycee.
July 28.
foot of
We made about six miles across a

hills
rough plain with
grass-covered tussocks and pools of water, and
camped
at the
some low
of granite about a mile east of the tent
where there are two hundred Bonbo akas. whole Jyade country belongs to this persuasion, hence in all probability the enmity shown it by Lh'asa. The Pere Ponbo left before we did, and rode to the Trashiling gomba, where the Horgo Deba is stopping, to arrange with him about my journey to Ch'amdo. About an hour after we had made camp, he and the Horgo Deba arrived, the latter a typical Drupa chief, of massive build, corpulent, with a rather thin, aquiline nose and high cheek bones, resembling on the whole very much a Sioux Indian. His hair hung down around his face in a tangled mass, and he was rather bald on the crown of his head. His
of Trashiling,
I
gomba
find out that the
already large person looked
immense
;
in his
which was
his right
a purple pulo
gown
a broad cloth
left
;
sheepskin ch'uba, over band passed over
it were fastened huge bunch of many colored ribbons hung also from his shoulder, and a long straight sword was passed in his belt. He wore one of the customary high crowned straw hats but covered with yellow stuff, an official badge as it were, and he rode a diminutive pony which literally disappeared under him. Behind him rode one of his men, a dirty, wild looking
shoulder and under his
arm, and on
dozen
silver
charm boxes {gawo)
but smiling fellow, carrying a red cotton umbrella tied behind his much prized article belonging to the big chief. Nor gyal-tsan ("The standard of wealth") is the chief's name; he is one of the thirty-six Debas appointed by the Lh'asa
back, evidently a
and who have the right to wear a coral These Debas receive a yearly allowance of ont yuan-pao* from the Chinese government. He proved to be a very jolly, sociable fellow, a great laugher and very amenable to reason.f
to rule Jyade,
Amban
button.
piece of bullion weighing 50 taels of silver.
It
is
usually called a
yambu
(corrupt pronunciation
oiyuan poo),
[rta-nnig-ma,
of weight.
' '
horse hoof ' ')
[rdo-tsad) or even do. Ta-mi-ma is also used to designate an ingot of silver, irrespective
or do-tsa
t Bonvalot appears to have met him in Nar Pei-hu.
He says of him "C'est un

Bonvalot, Op.
cil.,
enorme
gaillard, a I'oeil gris, qui a le
tchang aimable."
367.
TIBET.
261
He agreed to have me escorted to Mer djong, the first place on Ch'amdo territory beyond Jyade, but refused to go to the town of Ch'amdo, as he said he and his people were not on terms with that country, which professed the orthodox faith of the Gelug sect while the Jyade were Bonbo. He said he would vouch for my safety while traveling with him, or the guides he would furnish
me,
or, as
he put
it,
"if the sky
falls, it
shall strike
me
alone."
Then came the question of compensation, and it was finally agreed that I should give him a yuan-pao. made I thereupon him a few presents and gave him some earnest money, and also some to the Pere Ponbo, who had shown himself a good gobetween.
The Horgo Deba said it would probably take from fifteen to twenty days to reach Mer djong; from what learn the road is good and provisions abundant, so we shall at last travel in comfort and our troubles are at an end. This chief reminds me of my former friend, Nyam-ts'o Purdung, the same frank, hearty manner, and very much the same physique. He stayed the greater part of the day with me, laughing and bought a joking all the time, and was not over inquisitive. I number of things from different men who came to my camp, and the Deba settled the price was to pay for each object in a most Quantities of silver and gold ornaments were satisfactory way.
I
offered me, but
unfortunately could not afford to

to have secured.
buy many
that
should
much hked
The Deba said he would be ready to start to-morrow morning, and that he would join me here at an early hour.
July 29.
joined
The Deba, with

this
his
me
morning,
and we
steward {NySrpa) and a servant, started off in high spirits.
We
took a general easterly course over low hills of granitic boulders covered with a thin layer of soil, with here and there patches covered with the tussocks of grass and little water holes we have
got to hate so in traveling in Tibet. About twelve miles south of us was a range of hills with rounded summits and of no great height it is called Shar-yong, and much farther away to the southeast and south-southeast rose a line of snow peaks (probably those marked
on our maps as north of Larego) called Om-yong. We made about twelve miles, and camped at a place called Chingo (or Tsinkor), where there are a few tents, and where the
262

to
TIBET.
Deba has
at 2 p. M.,
change his ula* A violent hailstorm swept over us with much thunder and lightning, and about one and
fell.
one-half inches of hailstones of the size of cherries
white cotton tent, of the pavilion shape in general use in this country among travelers. He asked me to tea, and regaled me with dainties, such as we have not tasted for many a day, dried apricots and melons, chuoma (he pronounced the word droma), sweet biscuits, dried mutton, chura and milk-tea. He is a very kind man, and 1 touched his heart by telling him that I had not heard from my home for a year and was very anxious to get to some place where I might receive news of my people. He said he would hurry along as much as he could, that traveling with ula animals was a slow method at best, but he, being a poor man and having only one horse of his own with him, had to use
a fine
The Deba has
ula ponies exclusively.

less
I hardly believe than twenty-five days.
we
can reach Ch'amdo in
I learnt from the Deba that the Jyakundo road is infested by Chakba (.brigands)and that the Jyad6 do not often go there them-
selves, but travel to Lh'asa or Po-yul.
which keeps him from going

excessive heat of those places.
in this
to
He says one of the reasons Ch'amdo or Ta-chien-lu is the The fact is that anyone who lives
marks
country may well fear the heat, for the thermometer 5 or 6 of cold every night in the hottest part of summer.
traversed since crossing the Dang ch'u is, grazing country, very thickly populated, f To-day we passed between thirty and forty tents, and the previous days we saw about as many. In every tent there are from four to eight persons. The Deba's steward, Anyang by name, is also his private chapfor a
The country we have
evening he read prayers in the most approved fashion, is a Bonbo, 1 could not notice any difference in the method of conducting the ceremony from that observed by orthodox lamas on similar occasions; he rang the bell, clapped his hands, burnt incense, etc., in exactly the same manner as they do.
lain
;
this
and, though he
* On the term ula and on the abuses to which
it
gives
rise,
see
Lamas,
t'^
Land of the
52, 53, 139, etc.
speaking of this region, says there are 500 tents in the Shang3,000 in the Nagch'uk'a one, 500 in Ata, 1,000 in Yagra etc My experience tends to prove that A K made sometimes rather wild guesses The country to which he thus gives a population of not less than 20,000 persons exclusive of Akas, could barely support 5,000.
'
shung
district,
'

July 30.
Deba's ula
TIBET.
263
As was to be expected
still
in a
country where the people
are so fortunate as
to be able to put no value on time, the
was not forthcoming this morning, so we have had to wait here a day. The ula supplied here will go two stages, and then we shall have to change it again, and probably make another
halt of a
fashion to the
I
day or so waiting for it end of the journey.
to turn up,
and so on
in like
hear the Deba lives about five days east of here, and that he
me when we reach his home and send us on to Mer djong with other guides, and that we shall, in the latter part of the journey, be able to make up much of the time we are now losing. heard to-day from two men living here that towards the I beginning of this year two foreigners with red beards, close fitting
will leave clothes, turbans, foreign boots
big knives, and
and armed with rifles, revolvers and had come from Naktsang, had passed south of here and had gone to Ch'amdo and Ta-chien-lu. The way
who
they followed was along the farther side of the range

the south of this place,
we
see to
and the road on which they traveled was called the Ja lam (" Tea road"). They had a Chinese interpreter (Jotsa), a. Kach6, and a number of servants, some twenty mules and horses, and their boxes were so big and heavy that it required two men to lift one. They gave the ula people a small gold coin and presented the Ponbo with two. They had a passport. The
men who
told
me
all
this did
not see these p'y'ing, only heard
tell,
They had also heard of the passage over this same road (. e., Ja lam) some three years ago of three other foreigners who also came from Naktsang and went towards Ta-chien-lu. This evidently refers
of their passage and of their strange appearance.
to Bonvalot's expedition.*
The foreigners who went through this year did not reach Nagch'uk'a but were stopped some distance north of it. I canI have not heard of not conceive to whom the people here refer. any expedition having left for Tibet since my last journey, but the details given me about these men's dress are so circumstantial that my informants cannot be lying about it. It must be a party from Kashmir or Turkestan. The gold coin they used points to
India.
* Capt. Bower and Dr. Thorold passed through
See Bower, Op.
cit., 51, et seq.
this
country in November, 1891.
264

I
TIBET.
The Deba, was told, is a native of Nar Pai-iiu (or Pei-hu as he pronounces these Chinese words).* There is also a district contiguous to his called Kar Pai-hu. All the people hereabout carry and slings, called orta made of plaited yarn one string has a leash
;
SLING
(Jyade).
is
used as a whip, in driving sheep or yak. The sling is used to "round up " the herds or flocks; the herders throw bits of dry dung or small pebbles with wonderful accuracy, driving in any have also seen them throw animal which has strayed away. have not heard the word large pebbles several hundred yards. yak used by any Tibetans; in this section of the country all domestic yaks are called nor, this word meaning also "riches,
I 1
wealth."
* Pai-hu or " Hundred
an Hundred
is
families,"
is
a Chinese administrative division used
among
chief of
the aboriginal tribes of China, and in Chinese dependencies generally.

usually called Po-ch'ang.
The

July 31.
TIBET.
by
265
The
all
ula arrived at daylight
and
we
started
7 a. m.,
but the yaks were very fresh and had hardly been loaded when they broke away and had soon scattered their loads in out of the
way nooks
over the country.

it
It
took several hours to collect
the Deba's property and to get
loaded again,
when
settled
the
same
thing occurred a second time.
Finally the
yaks
work, and we pushed on rapidly until 7 p. m., had made twenty-three miles and reached the banks of the Nashe ch'u. About four miles from Chingo we crossed the "upper" Jyadundo road (^gong-ma lam) to Nagch'uk'a, a well-beaten, wide trail which must be very much traveled over. A few miles farther on we passed the " middle road " or bar-ma lam, going also from Jyakundo to the same place.*
down to by which time we
by south direction over the footrange of mountains we have been skirting since crossing the Dang ch'u, but immediately after leaving Chingo we passed out of the basin of the Dang ch'u and entered one in which all the water (there were remarkably few streams in it by the
in a general east
hills
We traveled
of the
little
way)fl
ch'u.
owed eastward
The country
a great
to
empty,
in all probability, into the
Nashe
traversed to-day
showed mostly granitic rocks,

and four in every everywhere small, The herds of yaks
or three hundred.
the surface rock
We saw
little
much eroded. many tents in

The
clusters of three
sheltered corner.
flocks of sheep are
we
have not seen one of a thousand head.
vary from thirty or forty up to
two hundred
I
have noticed are of the Goats are scarce, and the only dogs have not seen any domestic fowls or Chinese cur species. We cats. There are very few birds, the Mongolian lark (?) and a few wild pigeons are the only ones have remarked. The people in the camp near which we stopped to-day to take lunch were most polite and good-natured the women's headdress was more ornate than any heretofore seen. I managed to photograph both men and women with little difficulty, all had to do
1
;
* Later on
we came
for several days, leaving
to the lower road [pg-ma lam) to Jyakundo and followed it See under date of August 2d. Capt. it only on the Su ch'u.
Bower passed the upper and middle roads near

in his Diary (p. 54) to
trail
one of these roads,
leading to Lh'asa, on which
we
He refers or at his camps 96 and 97. cannot make out which, as " a broad met numbers of Tibetans taking yaks laden with
I
butter to market."
'
266
TIBET.
was
showed to to ask some of them to stand quite still while I They took the others their image in the finder of the camera.
camera for a kind of telescope. We descended steadily all day and
at
our
camp
this
evening
we
are at the lowest altitude reached for months, about
14,200 feet
above sea level. The soil all along the route was well covered with grass, and we picked a quantity of a delicious kind of mushroom {shard)* with a yellow upper skin and white underneath, which we have enjoyed greatly. Fried with butter they tasted exactly like cipes & la Bordelaise, perhaps they are cSpes. The Jyade tell me that they only occupy the high region from
the lower valleys, such as the
have just come, during the summer, coming down to Nashe ch'u, in winter. This Nashe ch'u comes from behind the range we have been following, and which terminates here, to be succeeded by another of bare limestone crags some six hundred feet high coming from the west-
which
we
northwest, and continuing in a southeast by east direction as far This stream as we can see, the Nashe ch'u running along its base.
empties into a "big river days, so says the Deba.
"f which we
will
come
to in a
few
August I. We followed for a few miles the left bank of the Nashe ch'u till near where it takes a southeast direction and enters a narrow gorge, when we struck over the foothills of the rocky range on our left, and, crossing two streams flowing southwest, and which empty into the Nashe ch'u at the gorge previously
referred to,
we
entered the basin of another
little
feeder of the
same
river.
very heavy thunder storm overtook us at about 3 p. m., and one of the pack-horses bolted and dropped its load all over the
country.
We
camp some intended to. The

had
to
were so much delayed by this contre temps that we three or four miles west of where we had rain continued falling all the afternoon and
evening.
*Jaeschke, Tib.
Engl. Did.,
writes this
word sha-mo, and
says:
"The various
species of fungus receive their appellations from their color {dkar-ska,
smug-sha, ser-sha)
lud-sha, shing-sha).
or from the places
nag-sha, where they grow {klitns-sha, chu-sha,

'
wa and di-mo sha-mo,
etc. ,
The damp climate of Sikkim produces, moreover, so-ke, k'aCsoma has also sha-mang, a thick kind of mushroom.
is
" big river " {ck'u ch'en-po) f This
the
Su
ch'u.
J^'B^-oi.
Headdress of Jyade Woman.
TIBET.
267
The country to-day was covered with fine grass, and Drupa were numerous, the tents in groups of three or four. The Deba is most obliging, he sees to all my wants and sends me daily some presents, either dried meat or sweet cakes, but he will neither eat nor drink in my tent, though daily go to his and have tea with him. He heard me say that the tinder was using had been given me by the Nagch'u officials, and he insisted on my throwing it away, as he said it was probably poisoned. Nothing could induce him, he added, to take food or drink prepared by them, so dangerI
1
ous did he consider them.

for,
This
is
probably
all in
his imagination,
though
know
of
many
I
cases of persons having been got

if
rid of at
Lh'asa by poison,
doubt very much
poison
is
used
there in this wholesale manner.
our
August 2. camp of
We changed the Deba's

last
ula about five miles
from
night and, strange to say, experienced no delay.
After going about seven and a half miles in an easterly direction
we
struck the lower Jyakundo road
{Og-ma lam) and followed

range which
it
have been The road over skirting since we first came to the Nashe ch'u, the pass, which is called the Drajya lamo la, is very steep and runs between vertical cliffs and crags of limestone, but the pass
in a northeast direction, crossing the
is
we
fortunately not at
all
high.
We
camped about
four miles northeast of the pass in a
narrow
valley with mountains of limestone rocks rising vertically on either side. The ground on which we have camped is one big bed of
fragrant light blue flowers,*

a soft
and the grass
is
so long that
it
bed for us. mountain sides on patches of green sward, These people showed themselves very obliging, bringing us down dry dung (chongwa), milk and sho {djo), for which gave them a tanka. We are here There are so many Ponbos and in the district of Dzang ch'6re.
I
Several Drupa have their tents high
makes up the
such
multitude of districts that
it
is
quite impossible to note
them
the
all.
The Deba gave me

all
this section of the country,
a dozen or more in but he said that he could not remember
the
names of
names of
.?.
of
them,
only
August
We
made about
See Appendix.
nine miles to-day, being
obliged to change the ula again.

* Tretocarya sikkimensis.
Leaving the stream which comes
268
TIBET.
down from the Drajya lamo pass, we crossed another low pass and followed the valley on the northeast side till we came to a place called Song-chyang sumdo, where the brook we had been following received another stream, hence the name Sumdo or "three-valley-mouths"; the one through which the stream flows below this point being counted, as it would be in China, as Here was the first stone structure seen since leaving the the third. Ts'aidam. It was but a stone hut about ten feet square and five high, used as a storehouse by some people living in a black tent, of which there were three at this spot, but it was an agreeable
sight.
Song-chyang sumdo, the highest spot at which we have found permanent habitations, is about 13,600 feet above sea level, and is the lowest point we have come to since leaving the Naichi gol. One of the inhabitants brought me some musk for which he wanted five ounces of silver an ounce.* He said he went every year to Lh'asa where he got ten ounces of Lh'asa silver an ounce from the Chinese traders. He told me that musk deer were
plentiful in the adjacent
mountains.
Children here are very numerous,! a
number of them came and
had small bells hanging from their hair and belts I could not learn whether they were ornaments or to drive away evil spirits. All were very dirty. The women here and elsewhere are wonderfully energetic; they carry huge buckets of water or baskets of dung on their backs up the steep hills,| run about after the yaks, catch and milk the cows, look after the children, load the pack animals, gO' on the ula, spin, weave, make clothes, cook, and are nevertheless always ready to sing and joke. I am not astonished that Chinese should have told
tent.
little girls
;
played around
my
The
me
that they
made good wives.
On
the
whole the women
are
rate of three
*Capt. Bower says {op. cit., p. 65) that at Tashiling he was offered musk at the pods for seven rupees. The people must have been awfully hard up or
the
musk
of very poor quality.

cit.,
t Capt. Bower {op.
65) speaking of this section of the country says that the

is
number
fact.
of children seen in the villages

is
a striking feature, and
is
due to the
fact
that polyandry
In the
not practised.
think he assigns a
wrong
cause to this undoubted
lower countries the people are better protected from the weather and among infants, but polyandry is practised by them more than by the Drupa.
better fed, hence a smaller mortality
t
their
They rest the bottom of the long churn-shaped bucket on the thick gowns at the waist, and pass a strap around it and across their breasts.
folds of
TIBET.
269
not bad looking and not very dark skinned; soap and water would make them a light olive color and show that they have
rosy cheeks.
Anyang, the Deba's steward, wears his hair short (usually he has his head shaven, he tells me) it is as curly as a mulatto's. Nearly all the men have wavy hair; the women have probably taken the curl out of theirs by plaiting and greasing it. The people all put butter on their hair and frequently rub the scalp with have not seen any one among the male population whose it, but hair showed signs of ever having been combed. It is very difficult to get any one of these people to part with
;
any personal ornament or portion of

they fear spoiling their luck
if
anxious to
sell
any thing
his or her dress; they tell me they should*; though every one is desire which does not come within these
two
categories.
Yesterday and the day before

of the
we found along the road quantities
mushrooms first met with near the Nashe ch'u. We are now feasting upon them, and have also plenty of mutton, flour, butter and milk. We all feel ever so much stronger than when we left the Namru or the Dang ch'u, and besides that, the weather is so much better, the sun so bright, the grass so
same
delicious
green, and the people everywhere so obliging, that see every thing in a
we
naturally
more
cheerful light.
August 4.. We had to wait until 2 p. m. before the ula arrived, and consequently only made about ten miles, camping in the
About two miles after leaving camp we came Pon ch'u.f coming from the north-northwest and flowing, as far as I can see, a little north of east to empty into the "big river" of which we have been hearing so much of late.
valley of Ponta.
to a large river, the
* Or
it
Kan-su,
may be they think they will be bewitched. In some parts of China (in among IWohammedans even) when a man has been shaved, he takes the hair
it.
1
cut off his head and conceals 171, the use
fancy this custom has a similar origin.

in witchcraft.
all its
See p.
made
of hair, etc.,
by the Mongols
find
fit
is
difficult
to follow Capt. BoWer's route in

for
1
details,
but he appears to
flows,
have crossed the Pon ch'u,
marked on
it,
his
map
a place called Pongra, near

is
" a large river

the Su ch'u a
' '
flowing south.
The course he
in
assigns this river
conjectural ;
it
probably, south of where he crossed
an east-southeast direction, to empty into
He calls, little south of where Capt. Bower crossed the latter river. by the way, the Su ch'u Sak ch'u, but on his route map it is called by mistake Ircho The ch'u empties into the Su ch'u, and the new stream bears the latter (1 ch'u). name till it becomes, if my informants were correct in their statements, the Jyama
1
Ngul ch'u, "the Ngul ch'u of lower Jya(de)," which may be the Salwen.
270
TIBET.
we crossed a mountain on its left bank, " park" in which there were thirteen or fourand entered a little teen black tents, near one of which we camped. The limestone formation, which we first met with on reaching the Nashe ch'u continues along the right bank of the Pon ch'u as far east as we can see. At Song-chyang sumdo a good deal of This limestone red sandstone conglomerate was also visible. range, on the north side of which we now are, is not over three
After fording the river
or four miles in breadth.
I have been very much surprised to find throughout the Jyade country so few ponies, here at Ponta there are not a half dozen,
though vaks and sheep are plentiful. The language spoken in jyade presents numerous peculiarities I have not met with elsewhere. To note only one they use the particle li and ta (the latter probably the Lh'asan ti and stS) to indicate the present tense, Thus they say go-li r$, "I (or you) wzxiXxV" go-li ma ri, " I (or you) do not want it." Rig-ta, "I see it; " Rig mi ta, "I (or you) do not see it."
August
5.
The
thermometer
Fahrenheit, but this morning
when we left the
About two miles north of descended into a narrow valley with vertical cliffs of limestone and sandstone rising a thousand feet or more on either side of it, and a good-sized brook flowing through it in an easterly direction. A good deal of brush grows in this gorge, and noticed a few
1
+22 was quite warm. Ponta we crossed a low pass and

fell
during the night to

air
stalks of the rhubarb plant,* the first
have seen on the journey;
there
were
also eight or nine black tents.
few miles down this gorge, we turned up a side and after a short but stiff climb reached the top of the Pon la, and "the big river" at last came in view. It is the Su ch'u (the Sok chu of our maps).t In a short valley opening on
After riding a
ravine,
feet above sea level. So tchou of Bonvalot. Both these travelers crossed this river at the same place, v^hich the first calls Tsuk Sun Dong Gong (Bower, op. cit., 56), and Bonvalot, So goumba (Bonvalot, op. The latter says the river is between one hundred and fifty and two cit., 341). hundred meters wide at this point. According to Chinese authors the name of this have done. The Hsi-yu tung wen chih, Bk. 22, p. 10, river should be written as says it is called Su ch'u because it " leads off" {su in Tibetan) towards the south all
is
* The
altitude of the
is
upper part of this valley
about 13,500
f-This
the Souc of d'Anville, the Sac
Chu
of Bower, the
have never met with a word su with this meaning. in this country. The same work mentions, but apparently in another part of Tibet, a Sog ch'u, where the word sog means "the steppe " {fs'ao ti).
the water
1

to the river
TIBET.
271
village of stone
Here
the
is
and about two miles away from the Pon la was a small houses near which were several large ch'ortens. the home of the Deba Nor gyal-ts'an, and the village bears
of Ch'yi-chab.
name
Twenty
or thirty miles
away
to the,
south-southeast, and trending apparently south or southwest
we
at
saw
a high
I
range of snow-covered mountains, but the angle

at
which
was looking
them prevented me
settling very satis-
factorily their general trend.
very steep descent of half an hour brought us to the bank of
the river,
where we found a few
tents of
Drupa with stone
store;
houses adjoining them and low stone walls enclosing them
mortar or even
cable
mud
being used
in this
rough masonry.
no rawhide
was
stretched across the river
between two projecting walls
of rock and securely anchored at either end under large piles of
unloaded and unsaddled our pack animals and ponies and drove them into the river which, below the bridge,* yas about one hundred and fifty yards wide and very swift; they were soon safe on the other bank. and our luggage were
stones.
We
We
taken over later in the day
when we had drunk
our
fill
of tea
and the old Deba had finished flirting with a buxom woman who sat with him for a long time under the shade of his gorgeous red calico umbrella. The old man was very happy at getting home, he was jollier than usual and laughed and joked with all comers. Finally, as the sun was nearing the mountain tops and as we wanted to sleep on the other shore where our tents were already pitched, we got pulled across. A traveling thimble of horn was put on the cable, and thongs attached to it passed around our waist and between our legs and lashed us
and
djo,
securely to the thimble.
By means of
guy rope attached
to the
dragged across by men on the farther bank, and the thimble was drawn back by another guy rope to the nearer bank for the next passenger. The Deba put up his tent near mine, though he was only a mile or so from his own home, but, he said, he would not leave me till he had seen me safely oflf to Mer djong, and I, for my part, am loth to part a minute sooner than is necessary frorn the good old fellow. He is going to send Anyang as my guide, and a better
thimble
* Explorer K says that such bridges are called bring in Tibetan. P have never heard any other Report on Explor. in Sikkim, Bhutan, etc., 12. name used but zam or zatnba, the usual word for bridge.
I
we were
272
TIBET.
man he could
a
not possibly furnish, he is kind, polite and energetic, worthy servant of such a kind master. At this point, called Tsega, we leave the "Lower Jyakundo road " which we have been following all the way from the Drajyaiamo pass. It turns up the valley in which Ch'yi-chab is situated, while we, go naturally eastward. I hear we can certainly reach Ch'amdo within fifteen days, and everyone says the road is good.
I have inquired here about the two foreigners I heard of at Chingo, but no one had seen them though many had heard of their passage to the south of here. About two miles up the Su ch'u valley, but out of our line of vision, is a Bonbo lamasery with
hundred lamas or more. 1 noticed a large pile of logs by the and learnt that they are brought here on yak-back from quite a long distance down the Su ch'u and are used in house building. Those saw are for a new temple, or for repairing the Gomba above here. They are of pine wood and of about the size and length of railroad sleepers. Though the morning was quite cool, the thermometer in the shade rose at 2 p. m. to 77", but there was a pleasant breeze blowing all day, and we all enjoyed camping by this pretty river, chatting with the people, who are free and familiar without ever being obtrusive.* I have only to tell them that I want to be alone and everyone leaves my tent, and none venture near it till I call
a
river bank,
them.
August (5.^To-day has been devoted to eating, making and showing my various possessions to the many visitors who have called on me. My friend, Deba Nor gyal-ts'an, has overwhelmed me with presents of food for the
receiving presents and
journey, enough to carry
me
to
Ch'amdo.
The Chief of Miri.f his son and brother and a numerous escort came down the valley, and learning that there was a foreigner
I cannot agree with Capt. Bower who says {Op. cit., 53 and 62) " It is a long time before one thoroughly understands what a mistake it is ever to be polite, or assume any affectation of friendliness, with Tibetans or Chinese. * * While by taking a high tone, civility would be insured, and as much honesty as their natures are capable of. They can be managed by fear, but not by love." 1 am glad to say that have never had to regret the politeness have shown any of these people.
I I
thoroughly appreciate politeness and courtesy, though firmness and a certain amount of reserve should never be forgotten in all one's intercourse with them.
all
They, as well as
Asiatics,
He
lived,
he
said,
near Pemba, on the highroad to Lh'asa.

here, they
TIBET.
273
best dressed chieftains
They were the to see me. had seen, with gowns of black yu-ling, lined with lambsitin and trimmed with otter fur, well combed hair falling over their shoulders and cut in a fringe over their brows, and necklaces of big coral and agate beads; they looked like nobles of the time of Louis Vlll of France. Accompanying them was their chaplain, a very clever and well read Bonbo lama, who at once asked me about the foreign alphabet and numerals. Under each letter of the alphabet that gave him he wrote the sound in Tibetan, and seemed immensely pleased that some of the numerals used by us were identical with those of his country, and the others somewhat similar. The Miri Ponbo surprised me by asking me if was not in the
1 I I
camped near by and came
habit of noting the
1 was not looking out for Chinese must have told him foreigners had no other object in view when traveling than to find These chiefs expressed out the hidden treasures of a country.
and towns
deposits
names of all the passed by, and whether
rivers,
mountains, villages
of the precious metals.
very freely their hatred for Deba djong, which I now feel sure is founded on the fact that they have been persecuted by it on
account of their
faith.
The lama asked me very embarrassing questions about our ideas of future life, and when told him that most of us believed that
1
the soul (simpa nyid) lived eternally, he clapped his hands and turned the conversation to I said that we must then be Bonbo.
felt that we were getting on unsafe ground. lama pilgrims from. Labrang gomba (in Amdo) came into camp. They were on their way to Lh'asa, had left their gomba six months ago, and had come here by way of the Golok country and Jyakundo.* some of my visitors that five foreigners had I heard also from passed south of here on their way to China in January of this year. They had come from Naktsang and had tried to go to Lh'asa, but No foreigners, failing in that, had taken the Ja lam to Tarchendo. I was assured, have ever been here before me.f
another subject as
Two
* The road they traveled over

later
is,
in all probability, the identical
one followed a year
by Miss A.
R. Taylor, of the China Inland iWission.

Bovifer
f Bonvalot
1
and
ch'u, probably fifteen to
came on to the Su ch'u at or near its confluence with the twenty miles farther down the river than Tsega.
2.74
TIBET.
bought a few curios, swords, ornaments, a gun and some All the people let the Ponbo fix the very pretty Derge knives. price of their goods, and abided without a murmur by his decision, though it was usually very much less than what they asked. A beggar woman, the first have seen in Tibet, came to my tent, but the Ponbo would not let me give her anything and told her she ought to be ashamed of herself importuning his guest; he smacked her on the face, and then gave her a tanka himself. When the Miri Ponbo left my tent, heard him say to his brother 'Pyling Ponbo miyab-bo, yab-bo ri," {' 'The foreign official is a very good man,") and turning to the Hsien-sheng, he asked him if it were likely that would come back to Jyade, that in case 1 did, 1 must come and stop a while with him.
I
I I
'
August
and asked
over
1
7.
It
was him the 50 taels owed him and made him a present of, a handsome rug, some satin ribbons and a pair of Japanese lacquer bowls. also bought from him a very handsome flint and steel, ornamented with gold and silver and made in Poma, a pair of leather saddle-cloth covers from the same country, and his fine matchlock. The old man was very much pleased at my buying these things from him as he said he was more in want of
to
me
was hardly daylight when come breakfast with him.

1
the
Horgo Deba
sent
After our meal
paid
money than of finery. 1 asked the chief to give me rupees for a yuan-pao, as tankas are no longer current east of here, and each time want to pay a small sum do not like to show large ingots of silver, it encourages thieves. While we were talking the matter over, the Miri Pfinbo sent and invited me to come to his
1 I
tent to drink tea.
He was
seated on a pile of cushions reading out of a beautifully
illuminated missal and his brother, his son and four or five,servants
were already drinking
tea and preparing breakfast for me. The Ponbo's son cooked me a dish of hashed mutton, seasoning it with various condiments kept in little red leather bags; among
these
djo
noticed dried onions, and red pepper.

in a large iron
and cakes cooked
pan,
They also gave me which the Ponbo told me
exclusively for this purpose, a degree of refinement I had not been led to expect in this country. All these people are great and loud laughers; they express astonishment or admiration by exclaiming "Atsi" (meaning I
think, "fine, excellent"),
was kept
and drawing
in a
very long breath.

The
all
TIBET.
275
Miri
Ponbo
told
me
that the
name Chang-t'ang
applied to
the inhabited region of north Tibet including even Jyade, but
not to the desert region to the north of

that he
it. He informed me also had not long ago received a circular letter from the Lh'asa Amban advising him of the projected journey of four foreigners coming from Ssu-ch'uan, who viêre mapping the country.* He was directed not to molest or impede them in any way. He had also heard of the foreigners who passed south of here in January
of this year.
In the
necklaces these Miri

circles or
men wore
noticed, besides coral
and
agate beads, long cylindrical beads of a black' and white stone, the
white forming
bands, both longitudinal and circular.
They said these beads were offlf^'afand were found in their country, and were very valuable, a well marked one being worth thirty or forty ounces of silver. The Chinese make imitation ones but they
are easily detected, said
my
informants.
is
am
.
inclined to think,
I
however, that
this
substance
a composition, for
have never
of the Miri
heard of agate or onyx so regularly marked
The son
Ponbo had a whole necklace made of beads of this dza. The Miri Ponbo is to supply me with rupees in exchange for my Chinese silver. Nor jyal-ts'an not having enough of them. Only Victorian rupees or mo-go ("female head") are everywhere current; Georgian or p'o-go (" male head") ones are only
reluctantly taken.
was asked to-day if this country contained any product which would be of value in foreign countries; mentioned wool and rhubarb {djim-ts^ a) .% The people were very much astonished to learn that this weed had any value, or medicinal properties. They
I 1
said they
had never sold any and that the only use they ever made
I
* These travelers,
found out
latter
were Chinese scholars from the Peking Tungthe meaning of "jewel," though
wen
f
1
kuan.
know
1
of no
word but rdzas which has

in
more
usually used with that of "object, matter," etc.
These beads
may be
of onyx,
though
X Dr.
have never seen any marked
such a regular way.
Hooker speaks of the " gigantic rhubarb of the Zemu valley in Sikkin." "This is the handsomest herbaceous plant in Sikkim it is called 'Tchuka,' and the acid stems are eaten both raw and boiled. * * The dried leaves afford a substitute for
:
tobacco; a smaller kind of rhubarb

this
in
is,
however, more commonly used

11,77-78.
It is
in
Tibet for
purpose."
Himalayan Journals,
1
This tobacco
is
in great
demand
is
those parts of Tibet which
have
visited.
brought from Lh'asa, and
called
t'ob-ch'og.
276

was
to occasionally
TIBET.
chew the stem of the green leaves which Deer horns they sell to the Chinese traders who come to Mer (or Meru) djong and at Jyakundo. They also sell hides and musk and a little gold dust. The Miri Ponbo sent me in the evening a bag of beautifully white and fine wheat flour. Like all the other good things he had, it came from Poma, a country with which the Jyade appear to carry on a good deal of trade, traveling there by way of Shobando.
of
it
was
agreeably acid.
ing
left Tsega at 8 a. m., the Deba Nor jyal-ts'an leadon which he insisted that I should mount, for about a quarter of a mile, while the Miri Ponbo and all the people hereabout accompanied me; some leading the horses of the rest of my party. The poor servant boy of the Deba gave me his garters and an old tea churn as parting presents, saying that we were such good friends he could not let me leave without something, and he had nothmg else to offer me. A few miles below' Tsega the Su ch'u enters a narrow gorge along which travel is impossible, so we turned up a side valley less than a mile below the bridge. Here we saw the first cultivated land met with since entering Tibet; a little barley was growing near a village, or rather permanent camp, for the people were living in tents, with stone storehouses and out-buildings near by. Farther up this valley we passed a real village of eight or ten houses and a small gomba. We followed this valley to its head and after a short descent came on to the Len ch'u, a swift and clear river, about one hundred and fifty feet wide, coming from the north-northeast and flowing south. High limestone cliffs from 1500 to 2000 feet high overhang the river, those along the right bank rising nearly verti-
August 8.
We
my
horse,
cally.
About two and a half miles down the river we forded it at a where it was three feet deep, and then followed its left bank down to a point where, making a short but sharp bend westward, it empties into the Su ch'u, I think, in a gorge we saw a little way to the westward. There were numerous black tents in the Len ch'u gorges or high up on the mountain sides, but no signs of
point
cultivation.
Leaving the Len ch'u

valley called Traze lung
five miles
we turned eastward again up a short and camped on the mountain side about
from
its
head.

The country
piled
TIBET.
277
traversed to-day
little
was very wild looking;
occasional
patches of grass, a
scrub brush, bare rocks and torrent beds

characteristic features of the landfifty
up with
debris,
were the
scape.
We
only passed one caravan, about
yaks loaded with
logs and poles and
bound
for the
gomba above
Ch'yi-chab on the
Su
ch'u.
told me that the Pon ch'u, the Len ch'u and the 1 ch'u, which we will cross in a day or two, are the principal feeders of the Su ch'u, which lower down its course is called the Nu ch'u or Jyama Nu ch'u. The Su ch'u, he said, is held to be the main stream, though the Len ch'u and the Pon ch'u are nearly as large where we crossed them.
Anyang
August
of the day.
g.
It
rained heavily during the night, and again this
morning the
rain
began before
we
started
and kept
falling
most
went out of the Traze lung by the head of the valley (called and, after crossing a small stream coming out of a narrow gorge of limestone rocks, its mouth marked by a great bare crag seven or eight hundred feet high, we climbed the Maja la and then turned southward along another feeder of the Su ch'u, whose
Traze
la),
We
name
could not learn.
a short gorge on entering this valley where remarkable sandstone rock. It is a pillar some fifteen to twenty feet high and not over six or seven feet in diameter and
We
went through
a
there
is
stands alone in the middle of the gorge.
A
1
small stream of
surprised that
water
trickles
from the top of the rock.
was
Anyang
as well as the travelers
who
passed us at this point did
but passed
not look upon this rock as having something supernatural about it, it by without even throwing down a stone at its base.
A few miles down this stream we again turned eastward and camped at a place called Gentse, where there are two or three Drupa and where grazing is splendid. All day we have skirted
mountains of limestone formation.
Here
at
Gentse
only notice
red sandstone, but to the eastward, limestone reappears.
To-day
we
passed another drove of yaks carrying poles and
I suppose that very little but local traffic goes over this road, the tea caravans most likely all come from Jyakundo or pass south of here along the ja-lam.
planks westward.
Rhubarb is very plentiful in all these valleys, the people use the dry stalks as a roofing for their little storehouses, putting a layer of
278
TIBET.
earth on top of them.
a partridge or any I have not seen a hare, other description of game, a few wild asses excepted (but they are not game), since entering the inhabited portion of Tibet.
Birds are also very scarce, I have only noticed wild pigeons and they in small numbers.* The food of the people of Tibet met with on this journey consists of mutton, fresh or dried, tea, butter, tsamba, chura (not known,
however,
in
Jyade),
ti
(a mixture of butter, sugar and chura, also

djo or tarak (sour milk),
called
unknown or very little used in Jyade), pima or cream cheese, chuoma (also
dried
arrak.
mushrooms
Rice
is
{shara),
occasionally used
wheaten cakes by the rich

it is
(^pali'),
droma),\ fresh and na-chang and

Jyade,
in
who
eat
it
sweetened and with
butter, or else
boiled in milk.
August
and
trail
lo.
travel
It was raining fast when we started this morning was very difficult and in many places dangerous, as the
led along the steep flanks of the
mountains and
in
many
same
places on the brink of precipices three or four hundred feet deep.
We skirted
formation
the base of a limestone range (apparently the
have been seeing since coming to the Nashe ch'u), the little rivulets which flow down from its flanks emptying in all probability into the ch'u now far south of our route. The ascent of the Medo la was very gradual, but the descent on the eastern side very precipitous and slippery. It brought us to the Ch'am ch'u, another good-sized river which empties into the I ch'u. Beyond this river the hillsides facing east were everywhere covered with rhubarb plants in full bloom or going to seed. None of the plants were over five feet high including the flower, which was
1
we
frequently six or eight inches long.
From
finally
the
Ch'am
ch'u
we
over a very rough country where
took a general southeasterly direction we saw but few Drupa, until we
in sight of the I ch'u, a fine river flowing in a broad due east to west direction for about twelve miles, but taking a southerly or southwesterly bend at the point where we had come on to it.
came
valley in a
We camped in the ch'u valley on the bank of a little stream which issues out of the mountains to the north. A large party of Golok and Amdo pilgrims on their way home from Lh'asa met us
I
*0n
the fauna and the butterflies of Tibet, see H. Bower, op. cit., 115.
t Bonvalot [op. cit., 344) speaks of
chuoma, but
calls it
niouma.

here,
TIBET.
279
and
had to give
cries of
Sum, sum,
kutsi
tanka to each to silence their incessant ri, sum Fdnbo la ("Charity, Charity,
sir"), a call
which neither the Namru nor the Jyade people have
accustomed
me
to.
August II. We have now struck the ja-lam or "tea-route" which comes down the I ch'u valley, and parallel to which we
It is a have been traveling ever since leaving the Dang ch'u. much traveled and well beaten highway, and crosses the river in front of a little Bonbo lamasery about two miles above where
we camped
The
I
last night.
the incessant rains and so deep Anyang, who led the way, had to swim his horse and his little mule that always follows him about like a dog, got its load soaked. We stayed on the right bank of the river for a few miles more, and finally came to a better ford where the water
ch'u
was much swollen by
at the ford that
was about four feet deep. Little more than two miles beyond where we crossed the river we came to where its main branch issues out of the mountains to
in
its course as I could trace it, it flowed south-southwest direction. continued up the valley of the eastern branch of the river, the road running most of the way along the slippery, steep sides of the mountains, four hundred or five hundred feet above the stream on our left was a high range of bare, slate and red sandstone mountains, whose peaks rose 3,000 to 3,500 feet above the river. By a hardly perceptible ascent we reached the head of the valley, and passing into that of Ange lung (or nong), camped near some tents, high up on the side of the mountains at whose base flows a brook emptying, I learnt, into the Rama ch'u, a few miles to the
the north, and as far up

a
We
east of us.
Drupa
1
are very
I
numerous
in
the
.
four miles
counted about
forty.
Ange lung; within three or From where we have camped
can see to the east the dark black
Ramnong
gangri,
its
upper
covered with eternal snow.* It is a striking landmark. Facing us on the south is the eastern end of the range which we
part
* Gang
ri
ri
{gangs
ri)
means "
ice
mountains."
Though
speak of the
Ramnong
as a separate massif, divided

1
by the
it
valley of the
is
Rama
ch'u from the mountains

it,
south of Ange lung and the
ch'u,
really
but a continuation of
a section of
one long chain.
28o

I
TIBET.
skirted in tiie
ch'u valley;
a
it
here reaches to a greater height

east of our
than along that valley, and

mits are
few miles
camp
its
sumsince
covered with snow.

traveling constantly
Though we have been

entering Jyade,
peculiarities in
I
among Bonbos
have not been able to detect any very marked The names of their gods, their religious usages.
to
Ch'ujong and Yidam (guardian and patron divinities) are peculiar them they turn their prayer wheels and walk around sacred monuments from right to left. They make tsa-tsa, raise mani walls and incise prayers on stones like the lamaists, though in the case of viani stones they more frequently cut on them the formula Om, matrimuyi sali* hdu than Om manipadmi, hum. They make,
;
their priests
however, pilgrimages to Lh'asa and the sacred places of Tibet, shave their heads, and their gombas are architecturally like those of the orthodox church; the first, eighth, fifteenth and twenty-fourth of each moon are also their principal days of prayer. We passed to-day several large tea caravans coming from Ch'amdo and going to Lh'asa; most of the pack animals were
yaks, though there
were
like
quite a
number of small mules.

1
The
caravan people looked
Horba, but
did not speak to them.
August 12. Last night was clear and cold; the minimum thermometer fell to -|-2o. The sun shone brightly this morning and we spread all our belongings out to dry, and consequently started quite late. The Ramnong gangri looked most beautiful in the rays of the morning sun this mountain appears to be the culminating point of the limestone range which we have been
;
skirting for so
many
days.
left,
for a
a high Bonbo lama, who was stopping one of the tents near which we were camped, came to our camp. Anyang, who is a brother {gSts-ul or ginyen)
Shortly before
we
few days
in
of the
Bonbo
I
order, saluted
him
in a peculiar fashion,
the like of
have not heretofore seen. He kotowed three times, and then both of them crouched in front of each other and made their heads touch.
a
which
A few miles below camp we came to the timber line and found number of stunted juniper trees growing on the hillsides, most of them on slopes facing eastward. Rhubarb was also very
On
* Bonvalot {op. cit., 358) transcribes this formula " Ome ma te tsa-tsa and mani walls, see Land of the Lamas, 250, 257.
me
ie
sa le deu."
1.
Red earthenware teapot

S.
3.
(Lli*asa).
(U,
2.
Red earthenware teapot

8.
(Lh'asa).
tV.
N. M. 167231 a.) Black earthenware teapot, decorated with

(D. S. N.
N. M. 167231
b.)
bits of cbinaware, brass lid (Lit'ang).

(U.
S.
4.
Wooden bowl
167230.)
(Lit'ang).
(U.
S.
N. M.
M. 167231 c.) 6. Copper teapot (D6rgS).

131038.)
N. M.

abundant
in spots similarly
TIBET.
281
exposed.
mile or so farther on
we
came
to the
Rama
ch'u which, at the ford,
was
three to four feet
deep and one hundred and fifty feet wide. This river here enters a deep gorge for over a mile, and we skirted it high up on the mountain side, through what we all thought the most beautiful scenery we had ever seen, fresh as we were from nearly a year of desert travel. From the rocky sides of the snow-capped mountains, along the right bank of the river, the water came tumbling down in sheets of foam into the swift, clear river which dashed over the great rocks filling its bed there were green trees and birds singing
;
IRON PADLOCK
(Lh'asa).
in their branches, and wild flowers, and beyond the end of the gorge we saw a few patches of barley enclosed within rough hedges or low walls of stone. The valley beyond the gorge took a southeast direction around the base of the mountains and we followed it down to where Here the valley is called Yangthe river again enters a gorge. amdo* (the last syllable pronounced dai), and another stream,
* Capt. Bower calls the Rama ch'u the Lan chu. Yangamdo he calls Yangmando (camp 105). Leaving this point he followed a more roundabout way than till our routes met again in the Batasumdo valley.
I
282

nearly dry,
TIBET.
now
ch'u, empties into the
coming from the western slope of the Ramnong We camped at this spot where Rama.
the river offered
facilities for
I.
grazing
was splendid and

by such
bathing not
to be overlooked
a way-stained traveler as
About half a mile from where we have camped there is a little Bonbo gomba; this and two or three little houses higher up the
valley are the only
permanent dwellings
we
have seen
in
the
Rama
lung.
and mosquitoes have been quite troublesome to-day. of Jyade, when wishing to assert the truthfulness of a statement they have made, draw the thumb of the right hand down the middle of their faces and say "Kon-cKog sum," " In the
Flies
The people
name
of the Three Holies."
Rama ch'u a few miles below camp and rather high pass leading into the After going about twelve miles basin of the Ramnong ch'u. along a stream which has its source in the mountains we had just crossed, we came to the Ramnong ch'u itself, a large mountain torrent flowing in a general southerly direction with its sources in
August
ij.
left
We
the
and crossed
a very steep
the
Ramnong gangri. On the sides of the mountains overlooking the Rama ch'u, we passed a number of women picking ramba, the seeds of which, when dried and ground, are mixed with tsamba and eaten, and
adds one more to the very small list of native dishes. These told me that it ^zs jimbo, jimbo ri, "very, very good," but they are not hard to please.*
this
women
Not
far
below the summit of the pass

;
we came
to
little
culti-
vated patches of ground, each surrounded with a fence of brush or of poles a few of the latter were, by the way, spruce saplings,
yet
1
did not notice any of this

in
species
of tree
suppose they must be found

little
neighboring gorges.
growing, but Near each
field
was
a small stone house, usually of
two
stories, a
room
on each
this
suppose the people at season of the year are living higher up the valleys with their
floor;
most of them were
closed,
* Ramba
is
Polygonum viviparum,
s.
Linn.
See Appendix.
or
Jaeschke,
Tib.
vivi-
Engl. Did.,
v.
Ratn-bu
he says
says that
v.)
is
Ram-bu
na-ram
is
Polygonum
parum.
Rampa,
{s.
" quick- {quitch) grass."

flocks
TIBET.
283
and herds.
could not
I
We saw several small fields of turnips {yoma),'^

resist
and
1
we
the temptation of stealing a few

all,
and
this
evening
have eaten them, tops and

this year.
the
first
is
dish of vegetables
have tasted
Anyang
says there
a better variety of
in the valleys of
turnips, called la-pi (the Chinese lo-po),

lesser altitude, also
grown
cabbages {pi-tsS).
Just as
following
we came to the confluence of the stream we have been down from the pass with the Ramnong ch'u, we met a
It belonged to Ch'amdo men and they were bound for Lh'asa; there were between six hundred and eight hundred yaks in it. We camped on the banks of the Ramnong ch'u and received many visitors with whom did a little trading, buying a quantity of excellent musk for twelve rupees a pod. The district in which
very large tea caravan.
we now are is called Gela and, together with Angnong (or lung), where we camped on the eleventh, belongs to Lh'asa. The reason
for this is that the
people in these
to the
two
districts belong,
not to the
Gelug or orthodox lamaist sect of Lh'asa, and have therefore naturally sought and obtained Lh'asan
protection.
Bonbo persuasion, but
The mountain sides all along the route to-day were tolerably well covered with stunted juniper trees and the grazing was everywhere wonderfully good, considering the number of yaks and
other animals constantly feeding here.
Anyang
exists,
told
me
that throughout Jyade
and that
they
it is
quite
common
for brothers,
and Lh'asa polyandry no matter how
many
may
14..
be, to
have only one wife.f
August
of miles
*
we
is
After following up the Ramnong ch'u for a couple ascended a side valley which led up to a rather high
to the Chinese as chieh-tsai,
Yoma
known
which term
applies also to the
mustard plant.
so that
for
Jaeschke gives the names for turnips as

this
is
nyung-ma and
adds that
"in writing and speaking

^.
word
is
often confounded with j/aw^j, 'mustard,'
g.,
yungs-ma
said for turnips instead of
nyung-ma, nyung-dkar
white mustard instead of j/ww^j-rf/Jar."
The
confusion consequently exists in
both languages.
op. cit., 354 et seq. I think the latter assuming that several men, not brothers, have the same wife. The practice of having one concubine (chyimi) among several men is common
writer
is
j-Conf. Bower, op. cit., 65, Bonvalot,
wrong
in
enough, however,
among
traders both in Tibet
and
in
the Ts'aidam.
See also on
Tibetan polyandry,
Land of the Lamas,
211 et seq.
284

which
TIBET.
descended to the Batasumdo valley. This latter valley is a very wide one for this region, probably not Three goodless than half a mile in width where we crossed it. and empty into the Po ch'u which comes sized streams meet here from the east.* The river below the point where it receives these streams bears the name of Batasumdo ch'u, though Po ch'u
pass, crossing
we
would be a better one. the valley In the Batasumdo valley I saw several little hamlets to the north is closed by a huge mass of absolutely bare rocks,
;
and forming an eastern extension ascended the Po ch'u for a few miles, the river flowing in a deep gorge of slate, of which rock the country hereabout is principally formed the trail in places overhanging the river four hundred or five hundred feet high.
rising to of the
line,
above the snow

gangri.
Ramnong
We
We camped on a steep
hillside
near
some black
tents,
where we
bought a quantity of delicious djo, a delicacy we enough of. This part of the valley is called Po laga or Po latsa. All over the rocks around our camp clematis is in bloom, its large yellow flowers the finest we have seen on the journey. The women in the Po ch'u valley have a coiffure which differs Instead of the broad slightly from that worn anywhere else. band of red, green, and black stuff covered with beads and silver ornaments attached to the plaits of hair and hanging down the middle of the back, they run all the shorter plaits from a little below their shoulders, into one big Chinese queue, reaching to the ground, and this they cover with coral and turquoise beads. They also wear earrings, an ornament not seen by me on the women to the west of this place, though they may be worn there, for I never saw any women with their finest apparel on.
never can get
August
la,
15.
We
did nothing to-day but go

la,
crossing four high passes, the Po
Drohe
la,
up and down, Noshe la and Ma
steep and rough. which our route led were between mountains of red sandstone on our left, and of slate and schists on our right, the latter rising 2,000 or 3,000 feet above the bottom of the valleys.
and the descent from the

valleys,
Ma
la
was very
The
or rather gorges, along
* Bonvalot, op.
{op. cit., 60) calls
cit.,
it
346, gives this valley
its
right
is
name, Bata-Soumdo, but Bower
Pata
Samdo and
says "it
situated
on the banks of the
Mo
chu."

From
for
TIBET,
285
the
summits of the Po
la
and Droh6
la,
on what
I
took
an eastern continuation of the
Ramnong
gangri chain and to
the east of the peaks at the head of Batasumdo,

fields
saw
in
vast
snow
and several snow-covered peaks; the range

little
which they
were ran a
south of
east.
From
like
river,
the
summit of the Ma
in a
hamlets
la we saw green fields and fortressbroad valley running southward, a wide, swift
ings stand.
beating against the foot of the rocks on which these buildThis is the Seremdo ch'u valley,* and the river is,
according to Anyang, an affluent of the Su ch'u. camped near some black tents, at a placed called Churema, several miles before reaching the cultivated part of the valley. Speaking of black tents, it is interesting to note that the people use the word Drupa, which properly only applies to the persons
We
inhabiting such abodes and leading pastoral lives, to designate the dwelling, the black yak-hair tent itself, or even more correctly the word seems to have the sense of " home, dwelling." Thus
they say iVa drupa-la drogi-ri, " going home."
am
going to
my
tent,
am
Anyang
is
most
1
careful not to eat
himself, he will not even use his tea churn after us until
any but the food he prepares it has been
well washed. cannot believe he is afraid of our poisoning him, though he eats and drinks with other natives; it may possibly be on account of his being a Bonbo lama, yet do not see what that has got to do with it. For the last few days all the people from whom we have wished to buy anything have invariably asked for cotton wool in exchange
1
They use it for making matches for their guns and for wicks in their butter lamps, they prefer it to buttons or any of the other knickknacks we have. In the low valleys {i. e., below 13,000 feet above sea level) half breed yaks {dzo) and domestic cattle (ba-lang) are quite numerous, whereas in the country above that level I have seen none, and suppose the climate is too severe for them. Even at this lower
for their wares.
elevation the nights are very cold, the thermometer falling every night to 8 or 10 below the freezing point. 1 am surprised to
* Bonvalot's Sere-Soumdo, Bower's
the Seremdo ch'u the Sa ch'u.
Sari
Samdo
or
Samdu.
The
calls
latter writer calls
See Bower, op.
cit., 61.
He
the
little
stream
which flows from the IMa la Genfe du Thibet this river
into the
is
Seremdo ch'u the Lachu. called Seri Samtou.
On
d'Anville's
Carte
286
TIBET.
'
and turnips can stand such an amount of cold and have time to ripen at all. I have frequently spoken to Tibetans about the great river which flows eastward, passing by Shigatse and south of Lh'asa. They all call it the Tsang-gi tsangpo, "The river of Tsang" (i. e., No one knows of any other name for it, and it Ulterior Tibet). is quite as good a one as Yaru tsangpo, by which we usually speak of it, and which only means " The river from up-country."
find that barley
August
10.30
to the
p.
i6.
Last
M.
It
night thieves sneaked into camp at about was very dark and we have no dogs gave them
Namru
fearing their fierceness in thickly settled districts.
They
stole the Lao-han's saddle
from under
1
his head.
The
it
clatter
of the stirrup-irons on the ground as they
dragged
along
I
wakened me, and running out

distance from the tent.
fired off
my
revolver twice;
at
feared they had stolen the ponies,
which were picketed

;
some
finally found the horses they had not been touched, and one of the men stumbled over the saddle which the thieves had probably dropped when I fired the revolver.
We
We
but
all
slept
with only one eye closed for the rest of the night,
people grow more and more begging; the best dressed among them are not ashamed to ask for charity; "Sum kutsi-rS, Pbnbo RinpochS," ("Charity, please your Excellency,") is a cry we now incessantly The lamas and ani who beg are less objectionable, though hear.
we were not troubled again. As we advance eastward, the

in
importunate
equally persistent.
their prayers
at a respectful distance,
cannot drive
They come and squat down beside the fire, but ask for nothing, but stay there mumbling till they have received some food or money. You them away; they stay till they shame you into giving
are
them something, but they

others cannot be satisfied, the
content with
give, the
little,
while the
more you
Following the valley
down
a couple of miles
more they want. we came to the
which appeared to issue out of the flanks of a great massif of bare and snow-covered mountains to the north, which we saw indistinctly through the clouds and mist which hung over them, filling the upper part of the valley. The valley for a few miles below where we came on it was quite broad, the hillsides dotted with numerous hamlets and the soil everywhere cultivated, barley and wheat nearly ripe, some of it already on
Seremdo
ch'u,
TIBET.
287
the scaffolds on the tops of the houses where the sheaves of grain
are put to dry.
We
crossed the river by a rope, in the same
manner
as
we
had
the Su ch'u; the horses and mules reached the farther bank very
much worn
met here
out from
swimming
across the rapid stream.
We
Chinese traders from Lh'asa on their way back to that place; they said that they usually followed this route as it was much easier than the high road, and grazing was better along it. They said it would take me forty days to reach
a large party of
Ta-chien-lu.
Here again
heard that
two
foreigners had reached
Ta-chien-lu in the early part of the year after having crossed

Tibet; the traders volunteered the information that they
were
their
Americans, but
imaginations.
think that in this particular they
drew on
About
a mile
below the
led
ch'u, a good-sized stream
southeast.
The road
we came to the mouth of the Ru down a valley trending eastup this valley, which we found to be
ferry
flowing
well cultivated and thickly peopled, most of the houses standing
detached
river bed,
river, is
in the
midst of well-fenced
either side of this valley rise
and to the north,
fields. The mountains on some 2500 to 3000 feet above the beyond the range which borders the
so far
another parallel range, probably 4000 feet high. have not seen a range of mountains in this country trending in
We
any other direction than east and west. After traveling a few miles up the Ru ch'u we camped at a place called Sagotong where there was a good-sized farm house, the people of which let us put up our tent inside their fence at the base of a big boulder. Just opposite us, high up on a bluff on the left bank of the river, is a small gomba called Trashi-ling.* It belongs to the Gelug-pa sect, and is governed by a lama sent from Lh'asa, and who is changed every two years. Probably the
country south of
this river
belongs to Lh'asa, but
can hear noth-
Deba djong is in the habit of establishing its authority in a country by founding in the first place a lamasery or two in it, the abbots of which gradually gain the people over to the yellow church, and so finally the local Ponbo
ing definite on the subject.
* Bonvalot's Tachiline {op.
cii.,
366).
His road led along the south side of the
Ru
ch'u.
He
says that the
gomba
the south side of the river beside
two hundred akas. Bower also camped on the lamasery, which he calls {op. cii., 64) Tashiling.
has
288

head"
to Lh'asa,
TIBET.
civil as
"ties his
and the abbot becomes
well
as religious ruler.
The women on the Ru ch'u wear earrings similar to those worn Ts'aidam (z. e., a large hoop of silver with three stones set in heart shape on a small plate of silver and fixed on it) most of those have seen have earrings in both ears, but not of the same
in the
;
pattern.
August
ly.
A few
bend
miles east of where
we camped
last
night
ch'u
we came
to a
in
the valley and found out that the
Ru
comes from the north, probably from the same chain of mountains out of which the Seremdo ch'u issues. It is more than likely that
sent the
all the water courses of Tibet prehave their heads on the farther sides of the mountains from which they flow.
both these streams, and nearly
same
peculiarity,
We
crossed the river by a rickety
wooden
bridge of the Tibetan
and after passing a large Bonbo lamasery in which live some two hundred lamas, we crossed by a very easy ascent the Chung-nyi la,* and entered another valley trending
cantilever description,
Anyang told me that we were here in the valley of the Ze ch'u, or Zu ch'u, or Zom ch'u, for it has these three names. In the upper part of the valley down which we traveled this aftereast-southeast.
noon we onlv saw black tents, herds of yaks and flocks of sheep and goats, while the Ru ch'u valley, which we had just left, and which cannot be more than five hundred feet lower than it, is as
closely cultivated as a
Swiss valley. By the way, the flat roofs, very broad for such small inside accommodation as these houses offer, the rough stone walls and pig-sty condition of these houses
especially
remind one of the farm houses in some parts of Switzerland, around the Italian lakes, and in the Ticino.
We camped at the mouth of a little gorge opening onto the main valley, at a place called Biwakanag, a mile or so above where the Rongwa or cultivated country begins. We have had a hard day's work, yet, notwithstanding the lameness of the mules, we have ridden twenty-three miles.
Anyang
told
me
that the present political organization of the
Jvade dates back ever so long ago, from the time when the Great Emperor {Go?ig-ma ch'en-po) interfered in the affairs of
Tibet to
* Bower's Chuni
from Trashiling to
He calls the Ze Chebo tenchin.

la.
ch'u the
Kom
cho.
He made one march
TIBET.
289
make peace between Deba djong and the Bonbo-inhabited country. suppose he has in mind the Chinese expedition to Tibet in 1719. Ortliodox countries, Anyang and all Bonbo generally call Pen-de or
I
Ch'Q
is
de,
and Bonbo countries Bon de.*

incarnate lamas.
am
also told that the
Bonbo have
very
This sect interests

it,
me greatly,
but
it
difficult to learn
much about
as the Tibetan people, both
the Bonbo and the orthodox ones, are adverse to talking about
and they furthermore, the head lamas possibly about them. The great extension of the Bonbo faith, has not, I think, been fully realized heretofore; from what I have learned on this journey, it is found in all Tibetan countries, exclusive of some districts governed by Lh'asa, in which country it is, or was until recently, persecuted. Along the Chinese frontier from the Koko-nor to Ta-chien-lu, the Ts'arong and A-tunreligious questions,
excepted, know^
little
tzu
it is
flourishing.
When
Tibet.
on the Po ch'u
way back
to his country
was joined by a little Amdo lama on his from a two years' pilgrimage to Central
He asked me to put his little load, tied to his k'ur-shing, on one of the mules, and as he walked along beside us he made himself so pleasant that we quickly took a fancy to him, and asked him to go to Ta-chien-lu with me. He was delighted witlf the offer; he can now travel swiftly on without having to beg, and will have plenty to eat and drink. We have not seen a caravan in the country without a few such pilgrims attached to it; every one thinks it will insure good luck to help them on their way.
1
August
so
18.
It
rained
all
night,
muddy and
slippery that
we
and this morning the road was had to go most of the way on
our worn out ponies. The valley ran in a general an immense amount of dibris has been swept down into it from the mountains on the north side, in places reaching a depth of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet.
foot, leading
east-southeast direction
says " Buddhism
is
the religion of the country; there are
two
sects,
one named Nangba and the other Chiba or Baimbu." Explorations made by 34. Nangba means " Esoteric," Chiba {p'yi-ba), " Exoteric,"and
Baimbu
split
Capt. Bower (pp. cit., 62) has it that " Tibet is a good deal up amongst these rival sects of Panboo and Pindah. * * * There is a good deal of rivalry and bad feeling between these two sects." From the mode of circumambulating followed by his Panboo {toe. cit.), it appears that they are Bonbos. The word " Pindah " looks remarkably like Bon de, but Bower must use it to designate
is
Bonbo.
the orthodox sect or Ch'ii de, the meaning
was
told
it
had.
290
TIBET.
Even in the more favored spots of the Rongwa the huge piles of stones heaped up in every field corner testify to its stony nature, and show the immense amount of work that farming requires in
this country.
to a village
and a half below our camp of last night we came which marks the upper limit of cultivation in this valley, and from this point on fields of barley and turnips, farm houses and hamlets often or more houses were constantly passed.
About
a mile
We forded
the Ze ch'u a
little
above the big
village of
Ten-chin (or
Chyi-bo Ten chin), the chief village of Kar Pai-hu, and near which is a large Bonbo lamasery with some four hundred or five hundred akas. We were now in Nar Pai-hu,* the home of my good friend, the Deba Nor jyal-ts'an. After passing through a number of hamlets surrounded by fields of barley, we came to a little valley at the foot of a steep cliff on the top of which is perched the village of Lah'a,f the capital of Anyang the Nar district, but a great deal smaller than Ten-chin. had reached his home. Leaving us in the care of the headman of the village, he went off to his own house, a few miles up a He will side valley which opens onto the Ze ch'u at this point. be back to-morrow with a fresh pony for himself, and possibly one or two to exchange for some of mine, which are no longer
able to put one foot before the other.
The people are very friendly men, women and children do all power to be of service to me, bringing me fuel, water, sho, and milk.t They tell me that am camped on the very spot where One of these p'yling a few months before two foreigners camped. had a light beard and both were young men they had a great
;
in their
and were eight men all told. Towards evening a man from Kar Pai-hu' dressed up in all his finest apparel, wearing a splendid earring, lots of rings and a big
many
horses, an interpreter (lotsa),
* Bower places Nar

the south side.
(his
He
is
wrong.
Naru) on the north side of the river, and Kar (his Karu) on Bonvalot (pp. cit., 367) speaks of the rivalry existing
between Tchimbo-Tingi and Tchimbo-Nara.

f
Khemo
Tinchin of Bower.
X Capt. Bower's experience with these people does not appear to have been as See op. cit., 65. agreeable as mine. Bonvalot also had a row a little lower down the valley because the people, not being willing to sell him a sheep, he tried "de
nous procurer de
la
viande sans permission " {op.
cit.,
368).
cannot but think
the people were justified in what they did.
TIBET.
291
Chinese straw hat, rode up, and getting off his horse came into my tent. He tooI< out a k'atag, laid one end of it on my table
the other on the ground, placed a tanlca on
then, seeing that no one
it
as a present,
and
it.
was
looking, handed
to read
me
very soiled
piece of foolscap and asked

It
me
what was written on
English and said that the bearer had supplied transport, fodder and grain to Captain H. Bower, 17th Bengal Cavalry, and
in
was
was
dated at Tinring (Ten chin

is
?),
17th December, 1891.
whom I have suppose he came from Kashgaria to near the northwest corner of the Tengri nor, thence to north of Nagch'uk'a where he took the Ja lam as far as the Seremdo ch'u, from which point he must have followed the same road I have. I heard when at Sagot'ong that foreigners had stopped at the Thrashiling gomba, so they probably did not come up the Ru
This then
the leader of the party of foreigners
I
so frequently heard mentioned.
ch'u valley but crossed the Seremdo ch'u some eight or ten miles below where did. When I had told this man, whose name was Tamd-wang-den, the meaning of the note, he asked me to write something on the same page, and I satisfied him but I hope the next traveler who comes this way will not translate to him what I said. I then gave him a rupee as a return present, and seeing that I wanted neither horses nor any thing from him, he took his departure. I heard that there is a rough trail leading directly from Mer djong to Bat'ang without passing through Ch'amdo, and I will
I
;
endeavor to follow it, for if I keep to the highroad I will be wasting I suppose Captain Bower has already surveyed it. To-day a dwarf came to my camp; he is the first one I have seen in Tibet. He was about three feet four inches high, well shaped, with a good clear voice, not at all sharp. He would not tell his age, or rather he said he did not know it, but I took him to be between thirty and thirty-five years old. I also saw a woman near Ten-chin with a small goitre."" I have watched most carefully for evidences of this disease but have seen none
time, as
before to-day.
* In a well known Tibetan work by the famous Saskya Pandita, but originally title Subhashita ratna nidki, occurs the following:
written in Sanskrit with the
" They who misuse

Despise those
Is
their talents,
In certain countries to
use them aright; be without a goitre held to be a deformity."
who
{Lba-wa)
292
TIBET.
lance,
August ig.
bought a number of things from Poyul, a

have seen
in
is
red peppers, blankets and excellent flour.
workmanship
Poyul.
I
Tibet
is
that
The best style of of Po-ma or Lower
Nar Pai-hu and passing through Shobando.* It takes about fifteen days to get there, and from what I can gather it must be a well settled, prosperous place, considerably warmer than any part of Tibet I have seen. The iron work and silverware of Po-ma are famous,
learned that there
a road leading there from
as are also the horses of that country,
whose
hoofs,
am
told, are
so hard that months of constant work in the roughest country will not wear them outf Bamboo appears to be extensively
used in Po-ma; a long joint of it covered over with red and white wickerwork and used as a vessel for keeping na-ch'ang in, was
BAMBOO TEA-STRAINER.
(Ch'amdo.)
brought
me
is
for sale.
the Jayde country* are nicely

small pot
believe,
used to
call
The earthenware teapots used throughout made and of three or four patterns. A infuse tea in, "to make stock" as cooks,
I
would
little
it.
A
A
quantity of tea
is
put in
it,
together
with a
soda, and
extracted.
it is
of the tea
is
allowed to simmer until all the strength little of this concentrated tea is added
to each kettle of fresh tea
when
boiled.
Anyang came back early this morning, and brought me a sheep, some butter and tsamba as a present. With him came a man
who had
*0n
a couple of small ponies,
which
finally
took in exchange
Poyul and especially Po-ma, see under date October 5th. \ "The Embassy which had left Nipal in 1852 for Peking with the quinquennial tribute from the Nipalese to the Chinese government, arrived at Balaji. * * They brought back with them about one hundred China and Pumi ponies." H. A. Oldfield, Sketches from Nipal, 1, 411.

for
TIBET.
293
two
of mine, though the
new
ones will certainly not be able

that he heard last night Bower's party and eight
to go farther than Ch'amdo.
Anyang said
that there
jservants.
were four
foreigners in Capt.
One
at
of the servants spoke Tibetan, and there
was also
a JVIongol and a
Chinaman with him.

and one-half miles
till
We
left
about nine o'clock and followed the right bank of the
river for nearly five
we came
to a bridge,
about a mile west of the Bonbo gomba of Gunegon.* Crossing the river we took a trail along the flank of the mountains, here of red sandstone and sandstone conglomerate, and some 1500 to 2000 feet above the river. We have camped in a nook in the hills about one and one-half miles above Pene ringu. Below us and near the river bank we can see numerous villages near each of them is a
;
small gomba.
at
The country along the right bank of the Ze ch'u from the bridge Gunegon eastward is part of the Lh'o-rong district and under Deba djong rule. A trail runs along the Lh'o-rong djong side of
river,
the
but
is
very rough and being on Lh'asa
soil, is
not usually
followed by Jyade people. Along the bank of the Ze ch'u

berries.!
fruit.
noticed to-day
some men
gathering from a briar bush what looked like small yellow goose-
was told that a dye was extracted from below Lah'a I saw a field of peas in flower, the At Gunegon all the lamas were reading first we have met with. prayers and drinking tea on a hilltop, while the people were ploughing the surrounding fields. The women wore a peculiar form of ornament on their hair, a disk of silver set with turquoises on the forehead, and a cap of silver of the same style just covering It resembled somewhat the ornament worn by the the crown. women in the HorbaJ and Lit'ang countries, but I have seen
inquiry
I
On
the
little
nothing
* Bower
like
it
on
this journey.
lamasery Baru, and
(p. 65) calls this picturesque
He and
the one
Bonvalot followed the bottom of the valley
crossed the river

I
Baru on his map. Mer djong, when they by a bridge and took a road to Riwoche more direct, 1 think, than
until near
Khembo
followed.
tPrjevalsky Mongolia, II, 79, mentions a "gooseberry (Ribes sp.) in large bushes ten feet high, with big yellowish bitter berries," growing in the border land
of Western Kan-su.
X See
Land of the Lamas,
244.
294

this
little
TIBET.
so as to
Anyang says he has taken us by

keep out of the way are quarrelsome and great thieves,*
of the people
used
trail
who
are not to be relied upon,
August 20. We left at a very early hour, for we wanted to reach Mer djong gomba before night, and continued in an east-
Some eight southeast direction along the flank of the mountains. miles east of our camp of last night, the Ze ch'u turns south and vertienters a narrow gorge, the rocks on either side rising nearly south of the I noticed that in this range cally 2000 or 3000 feet.
Ze ch'u the strata were parallel to the axis of the range (westnorthwest and east-southeast) with a nearly vertical dip. They appeared to me to be of limestone formation. We descended very gradually as we advanced and finally came for in view of Mer djong, the great emporium of which we have much. It was a great disappointthe last month or so heard so ment; a few low, mud buildings around a central court in which
grew one good-sized poplar was

of trade,
all
there
was
of this great center
where we had been
told time after time that
we
could
buy everything we wanted. About fifty Akas of the Gelupa sect, an abbot, who is also governor of the district {Djong-pon), and a few miser composed the population of the place. camped about two hundred yards east of the gomba and
We
near a large pool of water. The riverf is at least six hundred feet lower than the Djong and is not visible from it I hear that there is a bridge over it at the foot of the slope on which Mer djong
;
Looking southwestward I can see a zigzag trail winding up the very steep and rugged mountain side; it leads to Lh'ostands.
rong and Shobando, while to the eastward

another
trail
leading over
some
I
hills,
t this
is,
we can distinguish am told, the main
road to Ch'amdo.
As the country south of here

I
Ch'amdo
I
territory,
suppose
will not
is Lh'asa, not be allowed to take the
latter road.
nearly omitted noting that .about seven miles

in a little side valley
west of Mer
djong
down which
flows a pretty brook,
we
this
* Probably he had in mind the rows of Bonvalot and Bower when passing along way. t Capt. Bower calls it the Tasichu and Bonvalot Ta-tchou. The former makes no reference of Mer djong, only mentions its name (Maru). Bonvalot {pp. cit., 372) appears to refer to it, but calls it Tchoungo. It crosses the Nam la. X It was followed by both Bonvalot and Bower.

crossed the direct
eastern end of this
TIBET.
hills at
295
Riwoche
little
road.
It
goes over the
the
by Mer djong. This valley, by the way, marks the boundary between Jyade and Ch'amdo, between Lamaism and Bonboism. The country all around Mer djong is well cultivated; barley, a
valley without passing
little
wheat, cabbages, onions, peas and turnips, are the principal

1
crops.
noticed very few cattle and no sheep.
gomba; we had to pay a tanka for a few sticks of cedar for fuel; there was no milk Since the 14th it to be had, and ch'ang was as dear as firewood. has rained every evening and usually during the night, and though I have been on the watch for a bit of clear sky to get a few observations, and have been up at all hours of the night, have failed to see a patch of blue sky as big as my hat. Since reaching the inhabited parts of the country 1 have given up drawing, writing or taking observations in the day time, it causes too much comment, and I do not want to create undue suspicion.
find everything extremely dear at the
1
We
August 21.
this
The Djong-pon
called
Anyang
to his
house early
it morning and told him that I might get in trouble if he passed on Deba djong territory and he allowed me to follow it. He said there were three or four other roads leading to Ch'amdo, and that could follow any one of them. I sent him word that so long as I did not take the one followed by He Capt. Bower I did not care, all I asked him for was a guide. promptly sent a man who will take me a day's journey on my way, and then find me guides to Riwoche, or Roche, as the name is
1
must not take the highroad,
pronounced. gave Anyang fifty rupees and as many presents as could spare, and we saw the good fellow get on his horse and leave us with deep regret, so much had he endeared himself to all of us. He and his master, Nor jyal-ts'an, will always be remembered by us as the best friends we ever had in Tibet, with the exception always of the good old K'amba chief Nyamts'o Purdung, who helped me
locally
1 1
on
my first
journey.
leaving Mer djong three men came out of the Djong wearing the heaviest kind of cangue {tsego) and loaded down with chains big enough to hold an elephant, and begged us I thought they must be criminals of the worst for a little tsamba. description, but learned that they had done nothing worse than
Just as
we were
296

game laws which
TIBET.
break the severe
prohibit throughout
many
These poor fellows had shot deer and were paying with three or four months of this The cangue has been degrading punishment for their crime. the Chinese, and has become a favorite introduced into Tibet by mode of punishment throughout the country, but it is a much heavier arrangement here than is usually seen in China. Crossing a good-sized stream coming down from the north we
districts of Tibet, the killing
of animals.
took a general northeast course over two high mountains, the second, called the Nanyi la, especially trying, as it was one mass of broken rock over which even the mules had a very hard time
made, however, about nineteen miles Pomundo, its head a couple of miles to our east. A small stream flows down it and, turning north at the point where we have camped, empties, I am told, into the K6 ch'u, a big river which we will reach to-morrow. We are here again in Jyade, and the chief of the district is known There are ten or twelve black tents as the Huchesha Ponbo.
picking their way.
We
and camped
in a valley called
near our camp, and
can see more farther up the valley. Two men came from one of the tents and volunteered to guide us to Riwoche in two days for a rupee apiece a day. They say that
we
the country between here and that
town
is
uninhabited, and that
Chakba (brigands)
tell
infest the
Ze ch'u
a very
valley.
From what they
bad one, but I expect we have seen as bad before I have still to see a good road in Tibet. It rained a little this morning, but a northerly breeze sprang up towards evening, and for the first time since the 14th, the sky
me
fear that the
road
is
to-night
is
perfectly clear.
labstioxi a
by a mountain top, theyusually hangabit of ragonone of the twigs stuck up in the pile of stones, throw a stone on the pile and shout at the top of their voices, "LKajya-lo, Ih'ajya-lo, ok, oh, ok!" I have been told that this means " A hundred years, Spirit (of the mountain), a hundred years. Spirit (of the mountain)," by which " grant me a hundred years " is meant.* Bonbo, of course walk by the labste keeping it on their left side.
Tibetans, whether they be lamaists or Bonbo, pass
When
August
up
*
22.
Though the Pomundo

this
valley,
which
we followed
I
to
It is
its
head
morning,
is
not over three miles long,

as
counted
also interpieted
by some persons
meaning " Victory to the gods " {Lh'a
rgyal
la).

twenty-two black
tents in
it.
TIBET.
297
Supposing four persons to
a tent
(usually there are six or eight), this gives a very respectable
population for a grazing country.

in this direction the
The head of this valley marks boundary between Jyadeand Lh'asa (Riwoche). We found a few tents on the east side of the pass, but lower down the valley was deserted, though it is one of the finest The people fear the brigands have seen. grazing countries {chakba) and thieves {komang), and abandon this rich valley to them and to the inmates of a little lamasery.
1
we came to the Ke ch'u,* a clear coming from the west and flowWe camped about five miles ing in an east-northeast direction. down the stream on a grassy flat near its bank. The mountain sides begin at this point to be covered with firs, pines and junipers, but the upper part of this forest growth is dead nothing but black trunks mark the altitude to which it extended but a short while ago, and as well as 1 could make out, fire has not destroyed these trees. Rhubarb again became plentiful and very luxuriant; I had not seen any since leaving the Po ch'u. It was early when we reached camp, so we were able to take a swim in the river, though the current was so rapid that we got banged against the rocks a good deal and bruised our feet on the This river, hear, flows into the one which pebbles in its bed. passes by Riwoche, which is frequently called Ro ch'u, though There are Chinese traders, it its name is the Tse or Ze ch'u. appears, at Riwoche, where we will arrive to-morrow; at last we will get something to eat besides tea, tsambaand mutton, on which we have been living for so long. Chinese are fond of good eating; and wherever they live they manage to raise some vegetables or
After riding about eight miles,
swift,
and
though shallow,
river
some delicacy from China. To-day has been without rain last night we had a very heavy frost; this evening the sky is beautifully clear. The guides and
to bring
;
men insist that brigands are lurking about; we saw men up a side canon as we came down the valley,
three or four
so
and the
* Bower's Kichi and Bonvalot's Setchou {op. cit., 375). The latter writer (p. 377) makes this river, or one of the same name, to flow by Riwoche. Bower, by the way, does not mention the Ro ch'u. The Wei Ts'ang t'u chih (Joum. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIII. 252) calls the Ro ch'u Tzii chu ho, and says that lower down it becomes the Ang chu, by which is to be understood that it empties into the Om ch'u of Ch'amdo.
298
TIBET.
fired off
Hsien-sheng have been out the night is very dark and have our guns a number of times at some distance from the camp. If the brigands are fools they may think we are keeping
guard.
lama told me that when at Lh'asa he had seen the Kurtamba of the Na-ch'ung gomba perform most wonderful The tricks, such as cutting off his fingers, eating fire, etc., etc. My had only one lama who could perform these feats. gomba lama also said that there was now only one elephant at Lh'asa, a present of the Sikkim Rajah, and kept in a stable at the foot of He had brought back with him some of its dung as a Potala. He also gave me a piece of painted cardboard valuable curio. from the torma which is burnt on the 29th day of the last month of the year outside the city as a sin-offering (Kurim).* This was
My
little
Amdo
also
one of
his
much-prized treasures.
night passed quietly; neither brigands nor
I
August
23.
Last
got up several times in the night It is true going to some distance from the camp fired three or four and shots of my revolver, but I do not believe that brigands would take much trouble to attack such a poverty-stricken looking party. A mile below camp the valley broadened for a few miles to the very respectable width for this country of a quarter of a mile. The mountains on the north side were covered with juniper trees and dense shrubbery, those on the other side of the valley with There are a few patches of cultivated land here, fine large firs.f and a solitary stone house, in front of the door of which, a lot of very rough and disreputable looking men were talking. My guides left me for a while to talk to them, but we rode rapidly
thieves visited us.
by, as
we
did not at
all like
their looks.
Leaving the
Ke
ch'u a
little
below
this
spot
it
enters here a
gorge with vertical walls of rock on either side, and flows in a southeasterly direction we rode up a narrow ravine and after a rather long and very stiff climb, reached the summit of the Dre la
*On
the
kurim
ceremony, see
Land of
the
Lamas,
113.
and Bower came on to the Ke ch'u at this point, and from here to Riwoche we all followed the same road. Conf. Bower, op. cit., 68, and Bonvalot,
\ Bonvalot
op. cit., 375.
The
feet).
latter calls
the Dre la the Djala and gives

1,
its
height as 4,500
often
meters (14,760
La.
Bower made it 14,720 and
14,735.
We have not
calls this
come
so close to each other as this in estimating altitudes.
Bower
pass Uojalala

where
TIBET.
299
we came
in
view of the Tse ch'u and Riwoche with
its
golden spired temple.
The
is
slope on the eastern side of the pass for
some
distance
down
covered with rhododendrons, called by the Chinese tung chi'ng or "winter green" (i. e., evergreen), also with a laurel-leafed shrub,
and
a great variety of other bushes,
whose names
do not know.
firs,
Lower down,
the mountain sides are thickly covered with fine

In the valley
pines and junipers.
bottom grow willows, which
we
had seen, for the first time on the journey, along the Ke ch'u, a little above the point where we left it. On both sides we found the Dre la composed of blackish slate and fine grained limestone, sharp loose bits of which played havoc with the horses' hoofs. We had to abandon one pony on the summit of the pass as he could not be made to take another step. Of course it was one of the best I had; the poor ones have a wonderful way of hanging on, they shirk their work, while the good ones go till they drop. On the mountain sides as we descended from the Dre la, we saw great numbers of crassoptilons, called saga in Tibetan, their
cry closely resembling that of our guinea fowl.
They
I
ran with
great rapidity uphill through the brush, and though

to
got very near
some of them, they never flew. Riwoche is built on the flat bottom of the Ts6 ch'u* valley on the left bank of the river. It consists primarily of a lamasery, in which the most conspicuous building is a square temple, its
exterior wall painted in vertical
color, so that at a distance
it
bands of black, red and white seems to have a row of columns

Several other temples
around
it.
It
has also a small gold spire.

rise precipitously
flat
its
of smaller dimensions stand against the foot of the pine clad
mountains which
behind the lamasery.
A village
of straggling one-storied,
the lamasery, or rather on
feet
roofed houses has

east side,
grown up around
wall about ten
and
mud
high and probably built by the Chinese in 1717, surrounds the lamasery and village. There is a Hutuketu ("living Buddha")
residing here, and three hundred lamas of
theNyimaor "red hat"

1
*The Hsi-yu tung wen

lacks confirmation.
chih, XXll, says that the Rtsi ch'u (which
take to be
the same as the Tse ch'u) becomes lower
down
its
course the Lan-tsan chiang. A-rtse ch'u, but

I
This
The same work makes mention of an

it.
have
been unable to locate
On
this
important
d'Anville's
locality,
Soc,
n.
s.
XXlll, 55 and 251.
On
Coni,,Journ. Roy. Asiat. Carte Geni'du Thibet Riwoche is
called Ritache.
30O

The
district
TIBET.
to the Chinese
sect.
belongs to Lh'asa and
is
Icnown
as Lei-wu-chi.
The Tse ch'u
valley at the
town
is
broad, but higher
up and
a little
lower
something over a mile down it narrows to a
quarter of a mile or even considerably
less.
bridge of logs, of
the Tibetan cantilever type and of

crossing the river at
all
two
spans, insures
means of
seasons.
We camped on the right bank of the river about half a mile above the town, as our road follows the right bank of the river, and we thought it prudent not to venture closer to the town and
its
lamas.
The Hsien-sheng went
into
it,
however,
in search of
the Chinese traders reported to be there, but

disappointed, having learned that the last of
came back much them had left for

bought in the way and the lamas
Ch'amdo
did not
few days ago.
Nothing was
to be
of clothing, of which
we
stood principally
in need,
Among
was
a
show themselves very friendly to him. the many visitors who came to our camp this afternoon man who said he had been with Captain Bower from iVIer
;
djong to Ch'amdo he spoke in the highest terms of his kindness and liberality. He said he went from Mer djong to Ch'amdo by the Waho la, so our routes have only been the same from the Seremdo
Mer djong.* A young boy, an itinerant singer and prayerwheel grinder, also called on me, and amused me with his songs and talk; though only eighteen, he had wandered over most of Tibet, and what he did not know about the country was not worth knowing. I had to hire yaks to carry the baggage to the confluence of the Tse ch'u and Ke ch'u, as the mules are too much worn out to be of any further use. If only we had shoes for them they might reach Bat'ang; as it is, fear they will not even get as far as Ch'amdo.
ch'u to
I
by which
August ^^. Last night my pony was

head, and drove
thieves
tied to
managed
to cut the hair rope
my
I
my
lean,
him away.
not five feet from heard a slight noise in the

tent,
night,
jumped up and ran out of my tent, but saw nothing but a yellow dog looking for bones near the dying embers of the
camp fire. Some men belonging to a caravan bound for Lh'asa came to my camp and said that ten of th eir mules had been stolen during
*This
IS
not true, as Capt. Bower came to Riwoche.
Temple and Town of Riwoche
Lei-wu-chh.

the night, so
I
TIBET.
301
had
on
at least the consolation of

1
knowing
that
was
not the only sufferer.

for they insisted
fancy
my
guides had a hand
in this job,
left
my
paying them yesterday evening, and
me
towards Dre la.
diisk,
saying that they would
camp
at the foot of the
We left at eight o'clock, all the luggage loaded on the seven yaks hired yesterday. The road, for about ten miles, led through a dense pine forest which covered the mountains to their summits; many of the trees were two feet in diameter at the butt. The mountain rose precipitously from the river, and the road was in many places three hundred or four hundred feet above it. a narrow trail winding among the trees, against which the yaks bumped and tore the loads as they tried to push by each other to get the lead. The country reminded me of the valley of the Nya ch'u above Kanze down which traveled in 1889. Descending to the valley bottom, which in places is quite a mile broad, we traveled in a southerly direction for about seven miles, and then camped on the bank of the river, at a place, or district, called Tartung.* Though the valley appears fertile, there is hardly any cultivation or inhabitants; a few very small hamlets on or near the left bank, and two or three hovels on the right, are all 1 have noticed. I hear, however, that there are a great many black tents in the lateral valleys suppose the people try to get as far as possible from the highroad, where exacting officials frequently pass and the
1
;
grazing
is
comparatively poor.
growth on the left bank of the river is much thinner than on the right, where it descends to the valley bottom, on which there are large black thorns {hei-tz'u), willows and several kinds of The river is very swift, in places from fifty to seventyshrubs.
The
forest
noticed wide and between six and seven feet deep. on the rocks along its bank watermarks six or seven feet above its present level, consequently the valley bottom must at times be flooded, and so the absence of cultivation is explained.
five yards
1
August 25.
We continued
cliffs
in a
general south-southeast directhe
tion along the right
bank of the
way
along precipitous
roaring and eddying stream.

* Very near Bower's Gaima Thong.
trail running most of the hundred feet above the For part of the way we rode through
river,
several
302
TIBET.
built out
dense woods of pines and cedars, and over rickety bridges of logs from the vertical face of the rock and resting on slender Such bridges the Chinese call pienpoles or large boulders.
tzii*
Here and there
v^ê
side of the river a place
was mined.
a red cloth
We
the hillside on the
saw a little cultivation, and on the opposite was pointed out to me where iron ore had not ridden many miles when noticed on left bank two men riding towards us, one with
I
hood on
his head,
whom we at once concluded from this
He rode forward, forded the river and riding up saluted me, and said that advice having reached Nyulda, the post station on the highroad which we were now making for, that a foreigner had reached Riwoche and that the lamas wanted to prevent him proceeding
well
known
headdress must be a Chinese soldier.
as
it
was Deba djong

be.
territory, the
him, the T'ung-shih of the post, to look
Wai-wei of Nyulda had sent me up and assist me, if

where the Ke
ch'u,
need
mile or so farther on
left
we came
to
which
on the morning of the 23d, empties into the Tse ch'u. Here the yaks hired at Riwoche were to leave us, so we stopped at a farm near by and entered into negotiations with the people to As only about twelve miles carry the luggage on to Nyulda. separated us from the latter place, and as the ula yaks were on the mountain pastures and could not be brought in till to-morrow,
the Hsien-sheng and
the
1
we had
pushed on
as rapidly as
we
could, leaving
two
other
men and
the luggage to
come on to-morrow, and
p. M. in a heavy rain. narrowed considerably below the mouth of the K6 ch'u, the mountain sides still well timbered, but habitations rare and no black tents anywhere to be seen. We are apparently out of the Drupa region for a while. Nyulda is a miserable little place built on a bed of debris at the mouth of two valleys and near the bank of the Ts6 ch'u. Up one of these valleys runs the highroad to Lh'asa, Shobando being five
reached En-ta (Nyulda or Nyimda)f by 2
The
valley
*Capt. Bower says of
this valley {op. cit., 68)

in this part of
"
In
no part of Kashmir does the
beauty of the scenery exceed that
Tibet."
t Bonvalot
calls this station

is
Houmda
[pp. cit., 377),

Silver
and Bower
(p.
69)
calls it
Memda.
En-ta.
The name
Dngul-mdah, "
arrow," which the Chinese transcribe
On
Bower's
map
this place is called
Logamda.
Locally the
name
is
pro-
nounced Nyimda.

stages from this place;
Gart'ok, but
I
TIBET.
303
up the other, it is said, a trail goes to doubt it. A half dozen Tibetan houses and a mixed population of Chinese and Tibetans, some thirty or forty all told, inhabit this unprepossessing place, which is a post station on the highroad between Ta-chien-lu and Central Tibet.
The Wai-wei
1
or Corporal
commanding
the post of five soldiers
had us lodged in a filthy stable dignified by the name of Kungkuan, and was obliged to make myself as comfortable as 1 could in it, not having a tent, and it being too bad weather to camp out. Shortly after my arrival he came, in full official dress must do him the justice to say, to see my passport, and made me a present of onions, cabbages, turnips, o-sung* a few eggs and a piece of mutton, for which gave him a return present of
1 I
3 rupees, a lot
seemed
let
to
more than the things were worth, but vegetables us worth their weight in silver, for we had not seen,
alone tasted, such delicious looking ones for an age.
Wai-wei had made all he could out of me, his five came with some more vegetables and eggs, and in turn received more money from me, then came two parties of soldiers, one en route for Shobando, the other going to Lh'asa, and they likewise preyed on the foreigner. Then the
the
disreputable looking soldiers
When
had discovered me, asked for a present, and I and when the Wai-wei sent me word that he would like a further present, I revolted, and told them what I thought of them, and having accepted their apologies which immediately followed, we became good friends again, and nothing more was said about li wu. A little above Nyulda noticed birch trees and maples; they are the first of these species we have seen since leaving Kuei-te in Kan-su.f I saw also some rhubarb, but nowhere along the route have seen any as large or in such abundance as on the 1 ch'u and Len ch'u. I saw beside the Kung-kuan, a pile of iron ore (pyrites) it is mined a little way up the Lh'asa highroad to the southwest of
T'ung-shih
who
began to
lose patience,
here.
Iron
is
also found,
am
told, near
Lagong, east of Nyulda. J

is
*A
It
kind of cabbage,
believe, of
which the
stall<only
eaten, after being scraped.
tastes
something
like boiled artichokes,

' '
t Conf., however, p. 282, where the word 'birch should be substituted for
% Bonvalot {pp. cit., 378) describes at length the
spruce.'
(his
methods followed
at
Lagong
Lagoun)
in
working
iron.
304
TIBET.
It is
smelted and cast into rough kettles and a few other small
articles
I
used
in the country.
struck by hearing the Chinese soldiers here (all of them natives of Ssu-ch'uan and most of them from the Chien-ch'ang) speak of the (Lh'asa ?) Tibetans as Tang-ku-tu and of the Nepalese
was
as Pei-pung-tziJ.*
quantity of dried red peppers

;
was given me
;
one of the soldiers

supplies
all
they came from Poma.
eastern Tibet with delicacies
this evening by That region apparently it is the land of promise
of Tibet.
behind with the luggage and prepared to start at once for me ula, as 1 found it too I asked the Wai-wei to give expensive to hire pack animals, but 1 intend to give the people who supply the animals good pay for them. The system of
August
26.
The two men
left
mules got Lagong.
in
to-day at noon, and
counting as a "stage" {jya-is'ug), two points frequently not over a couple of miles apart and charging a rupee a stage for each yak
or pony,
I
makes
M.
I 1
hiring pack animals very expensive.
to start for Lagong, but the ula did not At come, and learnt that.the yak drivers would not start for Ch'amdo before I had obtained permission of the Ta lama of that place to at once called the Wai-wei and told him travel on his territory. that expected him to assert his authority and to have the ula was now traveling on an imperial highroad, and called, that being a bearer of an imperial passport, I expected every courtesy shown me. While we were talking, a number of Ch'amdo men came up and begged me not to start before they had time to inform refused to listen to them, and said I the Ch'amdo authorities.
p.
I 1 1
was ready
that
we would
all
ride to
Ch'amdo
together.
Finally
the yaks were
loaded and
we
started out, without,
however, the Wai-wei giving

done, in fact he
that he feared to
* Tibetans
as
call
me
an escort, as he should have
was
so overawed by the big talk of the Tibetans, go against what he thought were their wishes in
The
etc.
first
the Nepalese Pebu and Guk'ar.
term applies to the Par-
butiya, the latter to the Gorkas.
These same
soldiers
spoke of the Ch'amdo people
Ch'amdowa, of the Lit'ang ones as Lit'angwa,

the Mongol
The term Tang-ku-tu,
in
English Tangut, has been erroneously applied to the Koko-nor Tibetans exclusively.
It is in reality
word
for Tibet or
Tibetans generally;
'iilS-'^-^
View of Mountains North of Neda
Erh-lang-wan
).
3RIDGE OVER ZECH'U OR SUNG-LO ZAMBA iCH'AMDOi

the matter.
TIBET.
305
The Ch'amdo men, some

I
ten or fifteen in number,
got on their horses when the road to Lagong.
did,
and rode just ahead of
me
along
The Tse ch'u* below Nyulda flows as far as the Lagong or "Upper La " district, in a narrow gorge, the mountains on either
side densely covered with fine pines, junipers, small birches and a
variety of other kinds of trees; the
ground
trail,
in
many
it
places
was
trail-
covered with gooseberry bushes, strawberry vines and other

ing plants and ferns.
In places the for
is
little
better,
though dignified \yith the name of highroad, is four hundred or five hundred feet above the stream, and for quite a distance after leaving Nyulda we rode over a log platform overhanging the
river.
About eight miles from Nyulda the valley broadened, and we came to the village of Lagong and the Sung lo bridge, which some of the people called Tung-djung zamba, a log bridge of the cantilever style in two spans, over which runs a road leading to Riwoche and also around the city of Ch'amdo, joining the highroad to China southeast of that place and near the post station of Pao-tun (orPungde). The Ch'amdo men pulled up across the road
when we came
Ch'amdo
I
near the bridge, and again begged
me
I
to stop
until the
I
officials
could
finally would get agreed to remain camped by the bridge for one day my played out mules make it impossible for me to go on unless leave them all behind, which 1 do not care to do for they are still worth a good deal of money. We camped under some trees by the river side, where it flows at the foot of a cliff of red sandstone some four hundred feet high, and on top of which is a little Ih'a-k'ang. This rock is held to be wanted to fire off my gun against it, was sacred, and when told that must shoot in another direction as it would disturb the
did not do so
come and see me, saying them in serious trouble.

;
that
if
gods.
of the
There are four or

cliff
five
hamlets scattered along both sides

little
of the river below here and a

just referred to.
lamasery around the east end
Bonvalot and his party were made to cross the river by the fancy that will be requested to do the Sung-lo bridge, and
I I
* Bower
calls
it
the Zichu.
"
3o6

same.*
TIBET.
the
The Tse ch'u

fertile
valley
is,
so
far,
most
picturesque and
one
we
have seen any-
where
in Tibet,
and
at this
season of the year,
when
the rough, dingy stone houses are nearly
hidden under the sheaves of yellow barley drying on the frameworks on the roofs, and the people
are
all
gay and happy

it
after
plentiful
harvests,
we see
tains,
at its
very best.
rise
The
forest clad
moun-
jagged needles of rock or snow-covered peaks, form a fitting background
behind which
alpine scene. The ground where we camped is literally covered with edelweiss, of which there are three or four varieties. A number of persons stopped at our camp this
to this
are
afternoon
each one had something to
sell,
a ball
of butter, a pair of garters, or anything struck our fancy.

1
which
refused to pay money for made some very good bargains with buttons as a medium of exchange. We bought, however, a fine sheep for two rupees,
anything, and
and gave up the day
to feasting
and enjoying
ourselves, absolutely indifferent as to
what may
occur on the morrow, for

serious trouble, only lots of
we do
'
'
not apprehend
talky-talky.
This morning by half past five gorgeous lama official wearing a wide brimmed gilded and varnished hat surmounted by a coral button, came riding up with a numerous His fine red silk robe and shawl of the escort. most beautiful tirma had a few little patches carefully sewn on them, to conform to the rules of his
o'clock, a
August 2y.
* At
least
so
was
told
by the
people, but Bonvalot's narra-
though I am fain to admit that from the time he reached Lama until he got to Gart'ok I have no means of locating his route. It ran around Ch'amdo and then
tive does
not bear
this out,
parallel to the
highroad followed by Bower and myself, but to

it,
the east of
that the
until
Gart'ok was reached.
It
is
a great pity
map which accompanies
Mr. Bonvalot's narrative has

it
not been more carefully prepared,

worthless for geographers, though
it
is,
in fact, absolutely in
was good enough
Le
SMALL TEA DASHER

(Jyad).
Temps where
it
originally
appeared a few days
after Mr.
Bonvalot's return to Paris.

order,
TIBET.
307
which prescribe that monk's clothing must be of patched and not of new stuff; altogether he was a very fine looking fellow, and strangest of all he was remarkably clean.* This latter peculiarity, leârned later on in the day, was due to the fact that he was a Ssu-ch'uanese by birth, and a Tibetan by adoption. His face was distinctly Chinese, of the oval, refined type, and a black mustache hid his lip. His name was P'apa Shere, and he had the rank of governor of a district {djong), and was one of the secretaries or ministers of the P'apa Lh'a, the ruler of Ch'amdo.f I told him of my wanderings, but said that 1 had no account to render him of my movements, that the Chinese officer of Ch'amdo
1
was
the only person with
whom
I
could settle the question of
my
was not now traveling on a road belonging exclusively to Ch'amdo or Lh'asa, but on one of the Emperor of China's highroads, along which he had guards and over which all Chinese, traders as well as officials, could travel. Finally, said, that not speaking Tibetan well, wanted an interpreter and that must request of him to have one sent here from Nyulda or Ch'amdo before discussing any subject of importance
further
movements, adding that
with him.
He
said that
was
quite right in saying that

if
I
was
traveling on
the Emperor's highway, and that
it the Jyami would unquestionably require that be allowed to enter the town of Ch'amdo. He hoped, however, and the P'apa Lh'a had told him to tell me the same, that would not insist on going to Ch'amdo, for it would unquestionably cause trouble there. There were in the town several thousand lamas who would not hear of foreigners entering it, and though he and the educated lamas knew that foreigners were not dan-
insisted
upon
Ponbo (" Chinese
official
")
gerous,
still
they could not impress this on the
common
draba.
He would
also
beg
me
not to
insist
on having an
interpreter, or
* Bonvalot met
seen
refers
this same lama, see op. cit., 381-382. He told me he had also Bower's party. See Bower's Diary, p. 71. cannot imagine who Bower to as " the Amban of Chiamdo," it must have been the Chinese Yo-chi (Major)
I
commanding
t
the Chinese garrison.
sect,
Chamdo is an ecclesiastical fief under the rule of a high dignitary of the Gelug who bears the title of P'apa Lh'a. Under him are three other high dignitaries,
title
I
the Djiwa Lh'a, the Jyara truku, and another whose

the subject of Ch'amdo,
could not learn.
See on
and 276.
Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. Also Hue, Souvenirs d'un voyage, II, 460 et
XXllI, 54, 125, 251, 271

seq.
3o8

any way,
let
TIBET.
ami-
calling the Chinese into this affair in
us settle
it
cably
1
among
ourselves, for the Chinese
would but make
trouble.
If would agree to it, he would have me escorted around Ch'amdo to the highroad at Pungde by the road over the Sung-lo bridge, the same which the two other parties of foreigners who had visited this place previously had followed.* As to the various said wanted, he things, boots, hats, rice, etc., etc., which would purchase them in Ch'amdo for me, and meet me with them somewhere outside of the town, as he had done for the other
I I
foreigners.
I
replied that
having come to
this
country to examine
I
it,
not follow any road taken by other foreigners, for

losing time, that rather than
I would would be
would wait here
until the
Chinese
go by the road over the bridge, L official at Ch'amdo could come
here and talk the matter over with me.
P'apa Shere, seeing

trail
me
determined, said that there
was another
which led to Pungde over the mountains to the south of the city and which had not been examined by any foreigners, and that if would take it, he would meet me at a place which I would reach in three days, and besides bringing me all the things I required, he would also have for me six strong horses in exchange for my played out mules. He would also give me two guides and ula through Ch'amdo territory. finally accepted this suggestion and will set out to-morrow. The lama was most anxious for me to start to-day; he feared apparently the arrival of Chinese from Ch'amdo, whose interference in this matter he apprehended very much. The day has been a most trying one for me for have talked incessantly, but believe have acted rightly at least in the interests of geography for the right of foreigners to visit Ch'amdo is not denied, and as to thetown itself, we know all about it from Monseigneur Thomine Desmazure's and Peres Desgodins' and Renou's visit and sojourn there in i86i.t These missionaries' farthest point west was the village about one-quarter of a mile east of where we are now camped, and which they called Lagong, though the lama told me
1 1 I I I
it
was known
* He
as La-stod or
"Upper
La," in contradistinction to
tried to deceive
me
here, for neither
Bonvalot nor Bower went by this route.
\ See C. H. Desgodins,
Le Thibet
d'apr^s la correspondence des Mission-
naires, 97 et seq.

another hamlet about five miles east of here which
or
TIBET.
309
is
"Lower
August
La."
28.
The whole
left
district is
known
as
called La-ma Lagong djong.
We
little
before seven and rode

ch'u, called the
down
the
Jyabo zamba, where we crossed over to the left bank of the river. The Tse ch'u here takes a southerly bend, and the highroad leads up a valley trending east and west, the mountains on its southern side thickly covered with fine pines, those on the north side barer and terminating in high limestone peaks and needles. A few miles up this valley we came to the hamlet of La-ma, or " Lower La,"* where I found P'apa Shere waiting for me with a slight collation spread on the ground outside theyj)/a-^.f'^^'a^, or " post station " which, he said, was too dirty for anyone to eat in it must have been filthy indeed saw here some more men wearing the cangue as a punishment for killing game. have rarely seen such inveterate beggars as these Ch'amdo people; from the gorgeously dressed and undoubtedly wealthy P'apa Shere down, everyone has begged for suru. This morning at La-ma gave the lama about 30 taels of silver to buy things for me at Ch'amdo, the prices was to pay for them having been settled between us. There will be a balance due me of about 2.8 rupees; this he begged me to give him with many "Suru, suru Ponbo ch'en-po, suru kutsi ri." laughed at him and tried to make him ashamed of himself, but to no effect. Then each man of his escort came and begged for a present of money, and the lama had the impudence to back their requests, but I refused to
valley to a bridge across the
Tse
give
them
a cash.
What a difference between this people and the Panaka and Jyade, who never ask for anything and are delighted with the
smallest
trifle
one sees
fit
to give them.
find that
wherever
the Tibetan people are under direct lama rule, as in Ch'amdo, the standard of morality and self respect
is
very low; they are
thoroughly demoralized
in
every respect; the lamas of
Kumbum
and
Amdo
it.
generally, are just as
bad as those of
this
country or
Lh'asa in this respect; lamas are primarily mendicants, they never

forget
The highroad
to
Ch'amdo
leaves the
La-ma
'
valley a
little
to the
east of the hamlet of that

* Called by Bower Lani Sacha.
name, and ascending the steep and

Sa-ch'a means
land, country.'
3IO
TIBET.
rough limestone range which borders it here, crosses it by the Namts'o la. We left the highroad and followed the La-ma ch'u up to its source, camping at the base of the Shi la at an altitude of about Five miles east of La-ma the valley 14,700 feet above sea level. Up to the altitude takes, as far as its head, the name of Unda. of about 13,000 feet the mountains on the south side of the valley are covered with fine timber, juniper and pine, though on the north side only a few trees and a good deal of brush are to be seen. Above this limit there are only rhododendron bushes, and they do not extend higher than the old cabin near which we have
camped to-night. One of the yak
drivers has a supplementary

left
little
finger
growI
ing out of the side of his

noticed this deformity
hand.
This
is
the
first
time
it
have
among
the Tibetans, though
is
a very
common one
morning,
for
in
is a very limited one, this example, P'apa Shere, who is a very well educated man, said that the only word used for " foot rule " was the Chinese chih-tzu, and chien-tzu, the Chinese term for "scissors," was He told me that Chinese also the only one known in Tibet.f
The vocabulary
North China.* of most Tibetans
copper cash were used to a limited extent at Ch'amdo, and that there were no Nepalese (Peurbu) traders living there, only Chinese, of whom there were over a hundred.
August
Shi
la
29.
We
we
by
eight, after a
on
foot;
in fact
and reached the top of the we had to make walked most of the day, and it has been our
left
at half past six
very
stiff
climb which
practice for a long while past to get off the horses at every bit of
rough or uneven road. The Shi la appears to be composed of a rather fine reddish sandstone conglomerate. From the pass we took an east-southeast direction across the head of a little valley in which the water was flowing in a northerly
and then by a low col passed into another narrow and very precipitous valley whose flanks were covered with a dense
direction,
and luxuriant growth of pines (or firs) and junipers, not a few of There was a rather the former four feet in diameter at the ground.
* See
ous
in
p. 6.
\ Chinese, Mongol, Hindustani, Persian, Turkish
and Sanskrit words

etc., are
are
numer-
Tibetan, in both the written and spoken languages.
Tibetan names of
clothes, vegetables,
household implements,
etc.,
mostly foreign terms.
TIBET.
311
thick undergrowth of a great variety of shrubs, and rhubarb

also very plentiful.
was The descent of this valley was extremely steep but we very much enjoyed riding under the grand old trees from whose branches hung long threads of light yellow or bright orange colored moss (Usnea harbatd) tinging the whole forest with
their delicate hues.
Here and there we caught a glimpse of far off peaks and crags and forest covered mountains all seeming to trend southeast or south-southeast, but of so nearly an even height that it was difficult to decide the question. Numerous bunches of silver pheasants {saga) skurried across our path, but the woods were wonderfully still; save for these ma-chi's cry, 1 do not think that I heard a sound in them but the roaring of the water in the gorge
below us as it tumbled over the rocks on its way down to join the Tse ch'u. The yak drivers told me that throughout the forests of Ch'amdo, and I suppose in the adjacent countries to the east and especially to the south, bears, wolves, and leopards are very numerous. We stopped for the night at the village of G6 where the road we are following branches one trail leading up the valley goes to Draya, the other takes a northeast direction to the town of Ch'amdo, which is, a native tells me, a half day's ride from Ge. There is a jya-ts'ug k'ang here hut preferred camping outside the village as the weather is fine and the people pleasant. Oats and turnips appear to be the only crops raised at this place, while at Lagong only a little oats is grown, and barley and wheat are
:
the principal crops.

I
must not omit

la
I
to note that to-day
when on
1
the east side of
the Shi
have seen since entering the inhabited portion of Tibet. I suppose some animal must destroy them, for the Tibetans neither kill them nor eat their flesh. The marmots {huang shu in Chinese) of this section of country
small hares, the
first
saw two
are so large that
am
inclined to take
them
for a different variety
from those living in the north. Yesterday had to abandon, a few miles beyond La-ma, the yellow pony the Namru Deba had given me; it was too worn out I have now three saddle horses and will to take another step. get six pack horses when meet P'apa Shere on the Om ch'u. I had to leave my mules at Lagong as they could go no farther. have asked a great many persons how far it was from Ch'amdo thought might try to take that road all to Derge drongcher, as
1 1 I I 1
;
312
TIBET.
traffic
The in saying that it took twelve days to go there. over this road must be important, for Derge is a very fertile district and its products are much prized and generally used all
have agreed
over Tibet.
August 30. Leaving Ge we followed the Ch'amdo road up a narrow gorge covered with dense forest growth, and ascending to about eight hundred feet above the timber line by a very steep trail, we came to the summit of the Dre la. From this elevated
point was able to locate the point of junction of the two rivers which meet before the town of Ch'amdo, which as the crow flies, was not more than six or eight miles northeast of us. A large labsti crowns a hill which 1 think is immediately behind the town. Near the summit of the pass we found two or three black tents, and stopping near one we bought a bucket of sho and milk and took lunch and a quiet pipe afterwards while gazing upon the
I
beautiful scenery.
The descent from the Dre la was at first very steep and led over few hills covered with brush, and then into a densely wooded valley. Pines, firs and junipers in the upper part, and lower down willows filled the valley, and birch, cherry, apricot, apple and plum trees were seen in great numbers.* Gooseberry and currant bushes, raspberries of apricot color and taste, and strawberries were also abundant, and can vouch for the raspberries (jnaran) being delicious. Rose bushes were also abundant and the people, like the Ainu by the way, eat the skin of the seed-vessels. After a most agreeable ride of about eighteen miles, we reached the mouth of the valley, and on a little bluff near the Om ch'u river, t in the hamlet of Kinda, we saw the lama P'apa Shere standing on the roof of a house looking anxiously for us up the Djung rong tranka valley down which we were quietly making our way.
a
1
* Bonvalot found the same kind of country on the Om ch'u above Ch'amdo.
op. cit, 383.
See
Om
t According to the Hsi-yu tung ch'u. Other Chinese writers

ch'u.
wen chih, \SK. 22, 9, the name of this river is Wei Tsang t'u chih for example) write the
says that on account of
its
name Ang
Yun-nan
highroad.
This latter
work
passing through
n.
s.
it is
also called
cit.,
Yun
(nan) ho.
Joum. Roy. Asiat. Soc,
XXIll, 251.
Bonvalot [op.
383) calls it the Giomtchou and says it flows by Lamda on the In this he is certainly wrong. Bower calls the river the Nam chu.

I
TIBET.
313
All the things had asked for had been brought me from Ch'amdo, and the P'apa Lh'a had sent me a lot of presents and his thanks for having waived my right to visit the town of Ch'amdo. The six pack-ponies will be here early to-morrow, when I will be The able to push on down to the ferry over the Om ch'u. lama also brought me a very good Chinese dinner of four courses and some loaves of bread which we enjoyed very much.' Altogether, although he is a vile beggar, P'apa Sh^re has behaved most politely, and do not regret the journey around Ch'amdo he has
I
made me
take,
it
has led
of
me
through some beautiful country.

the visit
We passed the rest

him about the town
mission to Peking in
of the day talking with the lama, and telling
the French missionaries.
up between
its
chief
he had stayed there. Tibetans were trying to follow

1
made it in 1861 by him about the Ch'amdo 1885 and of the intimacy which had sprung and myself during the four or five months told him how foolish was the plan the
Ch'amdo and
I
also told
in
keeping foreigners out of the

all
country,
how
impossible
it
was
I
to prevent their getting
the the the
information they required, and

villages
showfd him
the
great Trigonometrical Survey, and read to
him the
maps of names of all
around Lh'asa and other large cities of Tibet where he had been, and told him how they were made, and that, though the British had had this information for years, no harm had come of it
to Tibet.
The lama
readily admitted the truth of
all
said,
but added
that his position, being a Chinese by birth, made it necessary for him to out-Herod Herod in all questions of exclusion even where his own countrymen were concerned, he had to be anti-foreign.
;
Among
ing
fruits.
other things he gave
me
the local
names of the follow-
Currant,
si.
Raspberry,
* At Draya
called tayu,
maran*
known
79)
from Gart'ok to Bat'ang
regions of west Kan-su, Prjevalsky
{Mongolia,
II,
In the alpine as trhui. met with a gooseberry with
a bitter yellowish berry, a raspberry

color,
another raspberry
[Rubus pungens) with delicious fruit of pale red {Rubus Idczus f) similar to the European species but only
of Barberry {Berberis), black currants {Ribes), cherry
Dr. Hooker,
two
feet high, also
two kinds
and wild strawberries {Fragaria sp.).

Moorcroft, Travels,
I,
Himalayan Journals,
1,
150, found the yellow raspberry in the Sikkim Terai at and above 4,000 feet,
56, says
it
99 and and
grows
in
Kashmir near Joshimath.
314

Strawberry,
Blackberry (?),
Apricot,
TIBET.
sa
si,
(lit.
"ground
currant.")
taji.
kambo.
'
Peach,
After
semkam.
requests,
I
most pressing
sold the lama one of
my Win-
chester carbines for 30 taels, and exchanged the other for the horse
for rifles,
he was Viding, a remarkably fine animal. I have no further use and my shot gun is good enough for defense and any shooting may want to do on the way.
I
six pack horses (pretty sorry ones, I am fain up early this morning, and we were soon ready to start. As far as Pungde I have ula, so we will have only the pleasures of travel with none of the attendant trouble. I hear that one of the mules I gave the lama died two days after he got it; am not a bit sorry, it evens up our account a little, and still he has a good balance to his credit. Our road led down the right bank of the Om ch'u, a fine, swift river one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards wide, as large as the Dre ch'u in Derge.' The mountains rise precipitously along the left bank, but on the right there is room for some farming and hamlets are numerous along that side. The mountains,. 1,000 to 1,500 feet high, are of sandstone formation, and the road in not a few places runs along the vertical sides of cliffs overhanging the river, three hundred or four hundred feet above the stream. At the entrance of each hamlet we found the headman, and
August 31.
The
to admit) turned
usually a
or two, with a jug of ch'ang (on the mouth of always put a little piece of butter) placed on a little table, and a rug spread on the ground for me to sit on, awaiting our passage, and I drank a cup of this harmless beverage with each one, and gave them a tanka for their pains. A little below Kunda saw a covey of partridges, the first 1 have seen in Tibet.*
woman
which
is
About nine miles below Kinda

good-sized hamlet.
site this place
we
stopped to change ula
at a
On
the other side of the river nearly oppo-
There
and at the mouth of a gorge stands a little gomba. coming from Ch'amdo and following the left bank of the Om ch'u which goes up this gorge, and comes out on the highroad near Pungd6.
is
a road
*0n
the
game
birds of Tibet, see Dr.
W.
G. Thorold, in Bower, op.
cit., 116.
TIBET.
315
At the hamlet where we stopped to change ula, the people There was a brought us tea and ch'ang and were very friendly. house, planted pretty little garden {lingo) below the headman's with willow and poplar trees, and the whole place had quite a prosperous air about it. The people were busy harvesting their The houses in barley and oats, but the wheat was not yet ripe. this hamlet were three or four stories high the first of this height we have seen the walls of the ground floor made of mud and
stone, those of the upper, the outside walls included, of wattle
plastered over with

in
mud.
Large logs are used in great quantities

I
every building in a most reckless way, or rather,

like to
suspect,
where the people would
use a bit of board, they have to
use a log, not having implements, or time, or even the desire to

In the west of the United States have seen people put one end of a log twenty feet long in their fire-place, with the other end outside the door and keep pushing it on the fire little by little, rather than chop it up. The same praiseworthy desire to economize labor animates these poor benighted Tibetans. We saw many women with small goitres (the first I saw were yesterday atGe), and a few men had them also, but none, how-
cut the log to the desired size.

I
were very large. About five miles before reaching the village of Nuyi, where we stopped for the night and which is near the ferry over the Om ch'u, the mountain sides became covered with fir trees and the hills sloped more gently down to the river and afforded greater
ever,
space for cultivation.
The houses
shaded by
seen
little
of Nuyi and those in the adjacent hamlets are
fine poplar trees,
and on many of the balconies were boxes or pots of blooming flowers, a sure sign of
Chinese influence.
especially.
The people were vilely dirty, the women The men are taller than any have seen elsewhere in
I
Tibet.
put up
my
tent on the roof of a house, and enjoyed the

river
dashing down the valley; in one were gathering on the mountain tops, and the lightning was flashing, while a little beyond was a hamlet, its houses, trees and fields bathed in sunlight.
view of the
swift,
muddy
direction the storm clouds
September
i.
A good
part of the
ting across the river.
The
Om
morning was taken up getch'u at the ferry runs for about a
3i6
TIBET.
mile in a straight, unbroken stream, nearly free from eddies and

whirlpools, and between banks of coarse gravel and sand, rising
seventy-five to a hundred feet above the water.
The horses
had to swim, and a hard job it was to make the poor fagged out things face the swift, broad current, but in they had to go, and all of them got across. The raft on which we crossed was made of eight big logs about ten feet long, strongly pinned and chained forward and aft to cross logs. Six half naked men armed with paddles propelled the crazy craft, two squatting on the front end and two on either side. It took five trips to get the party and our luggage across, and we only suffered a slight wet-
and
cattle
ting.
On
the
left
bank of the
river
were several hamlets, and nearly

1
all
the people turned out to see the foreigner and his party, bringing us ch'ang, tea and tsamba.
These people
found quite as
tall
as
those at Nuyi, the
and several of Leaving the

after
men averaging not less than five them six feet one or two inches.*
feet ten inches,
took a north-northeast direction, and in the foothills, we ascended the steep side of the mountains and finally reached the summit of the Mite la at 2 p. m. and the little post-station of Pungde was before us at our feet. From here 1 could also follow the course of the Om ch'u for some distance south of where we had crossed it. It flows in a south-southeast direction between heavily timbered mountains. About thirty miles due south of the Mite la, and probably not far from the right bank of the ch'u, we saw a range of snow-covered mountains trending apparently southeast
ch'u
Om
we
passing a couple of hamlets
Om
by
east or thereabout; but I could not connect it with any range seen farther west along our route. 1 also noticed that a road ran
from Pungde to Ch'amdo parallel to the Om ch'u but along the east side of the mountains on the left bank of that river.
The northern slope of the W\\k la was covered with raspberry bushes and the ula people, there were at least twenty of them, men, women, boys and girls, who had come of their own free
will for the fun of the thing, gathered a quantity for
me. hamlet of eight or ten houses with a Chinese post station {fang) and a post house
Pungdef
(in Chinese, Pao-tun)
is
a small
*Bonvalot, op. cit, 390, remarks on the height of the natives of this region: " Beaucoup d'entre eux ont plus de I m. 80 de hauteur." He makes it thirty-three miles from Ch'amdo. Chinese \ Bower's Pandesar.
itineraries
make
the distance 150
li,
or about
36 miles.
TIBET,
^,l^
(^Kung-kuan). There are four Chinese soldiers stationed here to forward the mail and government merchandise, also a station They received me most keeper, all of them with native wives. hospitably, gave me a good room, brought me some vegetables and eggs and made us all as comfortable as they could. people six rupees; they had enjoyed the jaunt 1 gave the ula ever so much; it would have been too unkind to have sent them
back empty handed, and so they all started off at once for home in high spirits. They will have walked, when they get back to their houses, about thirty miles in twelve hours, but they did not seem to think it was anything extraordinary.
The
in
soldiers,
Ssu-ch'uanese of course, told

said that the
the place.
They
two
foreigners
in
me all the gossip of who had passed here
the twelfth
moon (sometime
January)* had a Nepalese
interpreter
whose Tibetan was so peculiar that they could not understand it and whose Chinese was worse. The foreigners
themselves were very kind, they wrote and sketched a great deal, but the interpreter seems not to have made friends with the natives
or the Chinese.
The soldiers' wives wear very large curious earrings studded They are, with turquoises, such as I have not seen elsewhere. bought a pair from one woman 1 am told, peculiar to Ch'amdo.f who begged that I would not show them to anyone, as women I told her this trait was not were ashamed to sell their Jewelry.
I
peculiar to this part of the world, and she appeared relieved to
know
that others
felt
as she did.
These Chinese soldiers stationed along the post road between Lh'asa and Ta-chien-lu are paid 60 taels a year, but the Ta-chien-lu Chun-liang-fu and the Liang-t'aiJ of Bat'ang, instead of giving them silver, pay them in tea which the soldiers have to accept for about double the price at which they can sell it here, or at any of
the
(ang (post
stations) along the route.
The Tibetans
will not
* Bower camped here on the 2d January, 1892.

f
Somewhat
similar ones are

is
worn
in Central
and
Ulterior Tibet.
The Chun-liang Fu
"Foot
iVIa
the Commissary General for Tibet.
There are Liang-t'ai,
or Quartermasters, at Lit'ang, Bat'ang, Ch'amdo, Larego and Lh'asa,

are classed as
The
soldiers
soldiers" {P'u-ping)
is
and " IWounted soldiers"
(Ma
ping).
is
The
salary of the latter
slightly greater
than that of the former.
A man
raised
from P'u-ping to
himself.
ping for good conduct or long service, but he has to mount
3i8
TIBET.
allow them to compete with them in trade, and so they can only In some their tea for tsamba, flour, butter and mutton. of the warmer localities the soldiers raise a few vegetables, and
exchange
at
all
the stations they keep poultry, and a pig or two.
Their
Tibetan wives and their numerous offspring are hostages to fortune
with a vengeance, and few of them manage to get back to their government does not pay their traveling expenses. They seem, however, very fond of their wives and children and have pretty easy lives; the women do all the work, and they the men have but to take care of the children and smoke opium, or a water pipe if they cannot afford
native land, especially as the Chinese
to
buy the drug.
The only arms these
so-called soldiers have are
those they can buy themselves, for the government supplies none.
TIBET.
319
PART
Draya.
Mar-k'ams.
V.
Lit'ang.
Bat'ang.
Chala.
September
an escort.
crossed the
2.
We
left
Pungd6 accompanied by two
soldiers as
A few
miles southeast by east from the station
we
Ku-Iung shan, "Pierced mountains," as the Chinese call it, on account of the holes (^ku-lung) in the rocks on its summit and on the eastern side of the pass. This mountain marks the boundary between Ch'amdo and Chamdun-Draya. At the foot of the pass on the east side found a gorgeous lama and eight or ten men of Draya awaiting my advent, seated around a fire drinking tea and smoking. The lama was a Secretary or Drung-yig of the grand lama of Draya, which district is, like Ch'amdo, an ecclesiastical principality. He begged me, in view of the disturbed state of the country, which he said was at war with Derge, to take a by-road leading around the north of Draya and directly to Gart'ok.* He said 1 could have no objection to obliging them, as 1 had acceded to a similar request on the part of
Ipi la or
I
Ch'amdo authorities. was a most tempting offer, for by following the highroad which had previously been explored by Europeans had nothing to expect in the geographical line, beyond perhaps correcting a few topographical errors or making new ones myself; whereas, if took the road suggested by the lama I would be going over new
the
It
I
ground and possibly reaching Derge drongcher, a locality I had long wanted to visit. On the other hand if did not go to Draya, the next European who came along this way would be refused admission there and the point gained by Capt. Bower in visiting this place would be lost by me. Just as in the case of Ch'amdo, if Bonvalot had insisted on going into that town, Bower and
I 1
* In
all
likelihood the route followed
by Bonvalot.
320

1
TIBET.
So very reluctantly decided to refuse any other road than that leading to Draya, and having so informed the lama, I got on my horse and rode off, followed by the Drung-yig and his party who tried to take up the discussion
could have gone there too.
to take
again while riding along.
About four miles beyond the foot of the Ipi la, the Bagong ch'u, which has its source in that mountain, takes for a few miles a sharp bend eastward, coming back afterwards to its southeast course. We left the river here and crossed some forest-covered hills known as the Drama la and t4ie Luma la.* From the summit of the latter, looking northward across the valley of the Bagong ch'u, we saw a short valley trending nearly due north. The Draya lama pointing to it said that a good road ran that way around
Draya, but
tents
I rode on without heeding him. We saw ten black on the slopes of the Luma la, but it is poor pasture land.
At the eastern base of the pass

or Lung-tung ch'uf as
it is
we came
again to the
Bagong ch'u,
on account of the narrow cleft in the limestone rocks through which the stream here forces its way and which is said to resemble a " dragon's den " {lungalso called,
tung^.
About two miles below this point we passed before the village Bagong perched on the hillside some two hundred feet above the river, and stopped at the post station {fang) on the river bottom. The village is inhabited by about twenty families, and at the post station there are Chinese and Man-tzii kung-kuans. We stopped in the former, which is spacious and dirty. Each of
of
the four or five soldiers stationed here brought
me
presents of
had to give return presents of greater value, but it would never do to refuse, the gifts, and these poor fellows are awfully hard up; they all told me that they never saw a rupee from one year's end to the other. The Drung-yig and his party stopped next door in the Man-tzu kung-kuan and amused themselves all the afternoon watching me from the roof. The soldiers told me that large footed Chinese women are allowed by the Chinese government to go to Tibet, and only small footed ones are forbidden leaving China. This prohibition extends, or used to extend, to all countries outside of the eighteen
1
vegetables and eggs, for which
* Bower calls this latter pass the Shila la. For a Chinese account of the road from Pungde to Ta-chien-lu, see Joum. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIll, 36-53. t Called by Bower, Socho river.

provinces,
TIBET.
321
Turkestan,
tiiat it is
Mongolia, Korea,
strictly
but
am
under
tiie
impression
Tibet.
no longer
enforced except as regards
Many
of the soldiers take their native wives back with
China, but these
women
soon
tire
of the restraint in
them to which they
have to live there and return in a year or two to their native land. Most of the soldiers I have seen are from the Chien-ch'ang* or Sung-pan T'ing. The soldiers here have little patches of tobacco growing on the
tops of their houses; they also raise in little gardens, turnips, o-sung, cabbages, peas and beans. So far 1 have not met with
potatoes, either
among
the Tibetans or the Chinese.
from the Drung-yig and his stages to-day, kan-chan as the Chinese call it. The valley below Bagong remains very narrow, but we saw numerous hamlets of ten or fifteen houses every mile or so, and the soil was, wherever possible, well cultivated, wheat, barley and turnips being the staple crops. Crossing the river by a bridge called the Ze-chi zamba (and Santao ch'iao by the Chinese), where there is a hamlet and a small
as to escape
September 3.
I
So
importunities,
decided to
make two
gomba
as the
in which lives a Pusa,f we rode down the mouth of a valley leading to the Moto shan
left
bank
as far
of the Chinese.
Here
we
forded the river; the bridge had been carried
away by
spring freshet; and passing in front of another gomba with a pretty park (JLinga) adjoining it,t we came after a few miles to the large
of Wangk'a, with some twenty to thirty good-sized Tibetan houses, a Chinese and a Tibetan station house {kungkuari), a Chinese Sergeant {Pa-tsung) and six soldiers. only
village
We
stopped here long enough to take tea, and then rode on, crossing the river once more by a good bridge about a mile below the
village.
*On
f
the Chien-ch'ang
district, see E.
C. Baber,
Travels
and Researches in
A
short distance
It
Western China, 58
et seq.
Bower
gives the
name of
this
lamasery as Khado Gomba.
before reaching the bridge

like a castle.
I
we
passed near a large house on a
little hiIlocI<.
looked
fancy this was once the house of the " great chief Proul
II,
Tamba,"
of
whom Hue
X
(o/. cit.,
473, et seq.) speaks.
Bower
calls this
of the
river.
gomba Tara Gomba, but on his map it is placed on the left bank He makes out the altitude of Wangk'a (Wamkha) to be 12,225 feet.
322

this point
TIBET.
About two miles below
we came
up
this
to the
mouth
of a
valley leading in an easterly direction;
our road ran, and

after
having passed two or three hamlets

a half miles, to the ascent
we
came,
la.*
about four and

mile of the
summit
of the
Dzo
The
last
was very steep and we had to do it on foot. A few stunted juniper trees grew on the mountain sides, and from every twig and branch of those nearest the road were hung stones.
ject
this weighty subI could not get any opinion on from the escort, this peculiar way of adorning the trees was in lieu of throwing the stones by the roadside to make an obo. Where these trees grew the mountain side was so steep that the stones would have rolled down into the valley below. The descent from the Dzo la was very steep and along a narrow ledge, in places badly washed away, so that the utmost care had to be taken to get the loaded horses along. The Lao-han, the most unlucky of men and he always does everything just as one would like him not to do let the two pack horses he was leading fall over the cliff. Fortunately they turned over as they fell and the loads of blankets, sheepskin ch'ubas, and the like they were carrying, saved them from being hurt. We got them back on the road after a lot of trouble and a fearful expenditure of abuse on my part on the relatives, male and female, of the Lao-han to the third and fourth generations. By the time the ponies were
Apparently, for
was night, but luckily the moon shone brightly and make out our way pretty plainly. The hills along the gorge on the east side of the Dzo la seemed to me in places to be of some formation looking strangely like loess, but had not time
reloaded
it
we
could
to
examine them, and

following.
formed by opinion only from the peculiar

along the bank of the
little
vertical loess-like face of the hill
stream
we were
We finally
quite broad
came
to the
Yung
ch'u which flows due south in a

valley,
and highly cultivated
each
field in
which was
enclosed within high stone walls. spot to
In fact
we
could not find a
to go to any house to buy hay, or get anything for ourselves, even wood to build a fire with. were just opposite the hamlet of Kungsa,t but the bridge over the Yung
our horses.
camp on except on It was too late
the road, and not a blade of grass for
We
* Bower's Jola
la.
He calls the Yung ch'u the Charijansichu. t Probably Bower's Jindo. Bagong ch'u and the Yung ch'u empty into the Om ch'u.
The

ch'u having been swept away,
TIBET.
323
we
did not like to ford the swift
and apparently deep river, and so picketed our ponies by the roadside and went supperless to sleep.
September 4. We started early, and having passed through the hamlet of Kungsa we came after a mile to Gaga* at the mouth of the valley of^Gam (called in Chinese Ang-ti). Gaga is a tumbledown, dirty hamlet of rough stone houses of two and three stories, some gutted, all dilapidated. At the four corners of the roof of the headman's house were poles with lung-ta fluttering on them and also large stag horns; the object of the latter is not evident; similar ornaments are frequently seen on the roofs of Chinese temples. There is a bridge over the Yung ch'u at Gaga, and the valley below this place seemed quite as carefully and extensively
cultivated as higher up.
Gam
or Ang-tif
is
quite a large village very near the upper

is
limit of cultivation.
There
Pa-tsung and six soldiers stationed
here, but
did not stop in the village, but rode on
five miles to a spot
some four or where we found good grazing. Here we
stopped for an hour to take tea and rest the horses before climbing the steep Gam la. We reached the summit at noon and
fifteen
miles to the southeast, at the the road led,
mouth of
narrow valley
down which On
we saw
of
grove of trees which marks

large quantities of a
the outskirts of the
town
Chamdun-Draya.
la
the west side of the
Gam
we saw
peculiar looking plant with large violet flowers.
The guide
call
it
said
the leaves of this plant were used, infused in water, as an aphrodisiac.

Its
name
is
sha-p'o gong-t'ag,\ the Chinese
hsueh-
lien or
"snow
lily,"
and
it is
said to be found
nowhere
else than
on the western side of the Gam la. The descent from the Gam la was quite easy as long as we followed the mountain sides, but when we reached the bottom of the gorge it became very sjippery, and we had to lead our horses most of the way. When about eight miles from Draya and in front of the hamlet of Lower YQsaH (Upper Yusa is about a mile and a half
* Bower's Ghagwa. t Bower's Gamdi and (on his map) Gamtamch'e, may be Drongcher " iiamlet " or " village."
Bower's Iswa.
altitude 13,025
feet.
Tamche
XSaussurea tangutica, Maxitnowitch, Mil. Biol.,

11
XI, 247.
See Appendix.
324
TIBET.
higher up the valley) we stopped for a while, and I sent the Hsiensheng and the soldier who was guiding us ahead to see the ShouHaving waited pei of Draya and arrange with him for lodgings. for about an hour, we rode slowly on and after passing near a large gomba on a hill some distance south of the main valley, we came to Draya. We ascended the slope on which the town stands under a volley of stones and with much hooting from a lot of lamas and chabis (novices), who accompanied us as far as the kung-kuan, a very small building beside a Kuan-ti temple; it had good strong doors and we promptly closed them in our noisy
escort's faces.
lot
of drunken lamas
managed
tried to start a fight,
but
we
to get in the kung-kuan and kept our tempers and finally got them
out, telling the

us.
It
was
told
more peaceable ones to come back later on to see me by the old kung-kuan keeper that the Seng-
kuan (lama officials) had served out lots of ch'ang to the lamas hope that they would get me in a row and force me to leave the town. The laity behaved very well and took no part in the hubbub, except a few girls who, I was told, were concubines
in the
of the akas.
found out to be Shou-pei nor any of his subordinates to turn up in this emergency. The Chinese in Tibet do not want to risk their popularity with the dominant class of the country (i. e., the lamas) by befriending foreigners, to do which they would have to assert their authority without any advantage to themselves. Whenever China sees the necessity of doing so, it can effectually assert its supremacy in Tibet, for it is absurd to say that China is not the sovereign power there and that Chinese officials are only there to manage their own people and are tolerated, as it were, in the country. History, since the time of K'ang-hsi, or Ch'ien-lung at all' events, and also recent events at Lh'asa and along the Indian border, prove conclusively that this is not so;* but China does not propose to hold Tibet by force of arms the game would hardly be worth the candle it is by diplomacy, by its superior knowledge of forIt
was
quite in keeping with

in
what
have
now
Chinese policy
this
country for neither the
*
for
refer to
the negotiations between the Lh'asa
Amban and
the Indian authorities
the conclusion of a commercial convention between Tibet and India.
See on the
position of the
Land of
the
Amban Lamas,
in
Tihet,/oum. Roy. Asiat. Soc,

et seq.
n.
s.
XXllI, 7 etseq.;
291
Town
of Chamdun-Draya.
Temple and Mani Wall on Outskirts of Bat'ang.

eign
affairs
TIBET.
325
and nations, and by conciliating the lamas, tiiat it undoubted sway. Draya (Cha-ya the Chinese call it) or Chamdun Draya (Bybelieve, the correct spelling of the ams-mdun Tag-yab is, name) is, like Ch'amdo, an ecclesiastical principality which, A high since 1719, has been nominally under the rule of Lh'asa. dignitary, a living Buddha of the Gelugpa sect, with the title of Chyab-gong Le-pe-she-rab, is its spiritual and temporal ruler.* The town is built on a gentle slope and faces southeast. The upper part of the hillside is taken up by a large gomba, the Gunt'ok gomba, and below it is a confused mass of whitewashed houses, in which live, huddled together, about a hundred and fifty On the families of Tibetans and some thirty or forty Chinese. outskirts of the lower town is a large building, an episcopal palace I suppose I may call it, where resides a living Buddha, the Jyamba truku, and a number of lamas; this building is known as the Jyam-k'ang. Altogether there are between six hundred and seven hundred lamas in the town. Below the town, on the river bottom, are two dense groves of poplars, and taking everything into consideration, Draya is a very picturesque place. Four goodsized streams meet beside the town, the largest of which is the Ombo ch'u, which comes from the north and flows south-southwest, emptying into the Om ch'u, suppose, not very many miles south or southwest of this town. Another stream, coming from the Po-jya la, beyond Ra-dje, which is about twenty-five miles
preserves
its
I 1
southeast of Draya, empties into the
Ombo
ch'u in front of the
town, and the stream which comes down from the Gam la, and another of about equal size coming from the north and which empties into the Gam la stream near the town, complete the number. The whole valley bottom around Draya is well cultivated the crops are now ripe and the golden fields add not a little to the beauty of the scene, especially around the Jyam-k'ang, whose red walls and gilt spires look most picturesque rising up amidst broad
;
fields of
waving
barley.
other days
*
September 5. To-day has been employed, as have been all have passed in Tibetan towns or villages, receiving I
Se&Joum. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIII, Carte Gent" du Thibet as Tsiia.
47,
250 and 272.
Draya figures on
d'Anville's
326

men and women, showing and
I
TIBET.
dirty
explaining to
them the
various foreign things

suspicion.
carry with me,

elicit
aslcing occasionally a
question and endeavoring to

It is
information without exciting
horribly tedious and a sad strain on one's patience,
but a part of
my
work.
The interpreter for Chinese of the Ta lama came to see me early this morning and asked me in his master's name to leave the town this afternoon, as he feared that the lamas would again get
drunk and might
did not care
if
stir
up a row.
1
naturally refused
and said
was under Chinese protection, and the Shou-pei and his men would have to take care of me as 1 intended immediately informing the Major of what he had just
they did, that
told me.
There was a big crowd of lamas and towns-people, both men and women, in the kung-kuan the whole day long, and the Hsien-sheng and exerted ourselves to the utmost to make friends with them, and fortunately succeeded fairly well; they all went
1
away saying that we were good friends, and would come back again. Trade was not brisk,
that they
for the people
hoped I had
nothing of any value or interest to sell me; one man brought me a couple of pecks of jyadro* a small bulbous root called chih-mu yao by the Chinese, but I had no use for it; another brought a
knife,
and a
third
some wooden
I
cups, but no one could supply
a kettle, a felt hat and a pair The Chinese here say that Draya is a miserable place, with no trade of any kind beyond a little musk and some peltries,
really
me
with the things
wanted,
of boots.
mostly leopard skins. It produces nothing but barley and wheat, and even a lao-shan trader could not make a living in it. 1 was
surprised not to find potatoes grown here nor any vegetables save turnips and o-sung. The soldiers complained to me of their being paid in tea; the Liang-t'ai of Bat'angthey all said was primarily and chiefly responsible for the miserable state in which they
are kept.
They unanimously declared
that he
I
was
a great rascal.f
have not seen any very large ones. Syphilitic diseases also appear to be very prevalent. I noticed two men to-day with very heavy beards, and another
* It
is,
I
Goitres are very
common
here, but
believe, the
Anemarhena
asphodeloides, and
is
used in China as a
medicine.
iVly relations with this gentleman were not of the most pleasant. of September i6th.
)
See under date

man had
much
a great deal of hair
I
TIBET.
^2^
on
his chest,
arms and
legs.
He
is
the only one of the kind
have seen
in Tibet.
I
The women
are
undersized, and the tallest

feet,
man
have remarked here
was
only five
ten inches.
whom
Most of the Chinese here know some of the French missionaries they have met at Bat'ang or farther east, and all speak most kindly and respectfully of them. One man told me that he had traveled some fifteen years ago with a father whom he called have Hsiao-yeh. 1 cannot imagine what his European name can
been.
moon of this year three scholars from Tung-wen kuan, called HsQeh, P'in and Yi, passed through Ch'amdo on their way to Lh'asa. They were surveying
1
learned that in the sixth
the Peking
the country, doing a good deal of photographing, and proposed
pushing their work as far as Nielam on the British frontier. 1 also heard that Captain Bower crossed the Om ch'u on the ice right in front of Ch'amdo, which he was not allowed to enter and where he nearly had a fight.* He then went to Meng-pu and Pungde, from which point he followed the same road have been traveling He stopped at Draya for a day and visited the lamasery along. hill and its curiosities, among which a skull of gold especon the suppose it is a libation bowl.f ially deserved attention.
1 1
this
6. The rain came down in torrents all night, but morning the sky was beautifully clear. We left by seven o'clock accompanied by two soldiers who were to escort us as far as Ra-djong (Ra-dj6 it is locally called), the Lo-chia tsung of the
September
Chinese.
Crossing the
substantial bridge,
Ombo ch'u near a fine grove of poplars by a we rode up the valley of the La-sung
flanks of the P6-jya
la.
very
ch'u
which comes from the
We
had not gone

river,
half a mile before one of the pack horses
fell
dead into the
and we with difficulty recovered his load. It is a hard country on horse flesh, this makes the twenty-fourth pony I have lost
since leaving
*This
f
is
Kumbum.
to have
quite correct, see Bower, op. cit., 71, et seq.

left his
I
Bower does not appear

lies
lodgings while in Draya.

it
This
is
another
one of the senseless

stand
told me.
leave
in
my
diary for
it
helps one to under-
how many
difficulties
a traveler in these countries has to contend with
when
he wants to get any question straightened out.
328

valley
in its
TIBET.
The
hamlet
the sickle.
is rather thickly peopled and around each little lower part grow patches of barley, not yet ripe for The largest village we passed was Gumdo,* called by
the Chinese 0-lun-to, near
We
passed a number of
little
which place wayside
is
a bridge over the river.
shrines, the largest near
the bridge of
Gumdo was
remarkable for a number of yak skulls
nailed against the wall, with
mantras cut or painted
in red letters
on them
I
counted fifteen in a single row. heard from one of the soldiers escorting
;
me
that the
Ta
Hutuketu of Draya or Chyab-gong Rinpoche Le-pe she-rab, as the Tibetans call him, lives at Magong (Yen-te fang of the Chinese), a place two days to the south of Draya. The present incarnation is a man of about sixty. My informant also said that at Draya there were between six hundred and eight hundred lamas, one hundred and eighty odd Chinese and one thousand Tibetans. 1
fancy this estimate
is
slightly exaggerated.
till
We
was
rode up the valley
we were
were
all
within about half a mile of
Ra-dje,
when we camped on
the hillside at a spot
where grazing
exceptionally fine.
We
glad to be in
camp
instead
kung-kuan. One of the Tibetan yak drivers on the ula had a supplementary thumb growing on his right hand this malformation appears to be as common in this country as in China. Two of the soldiers from Ra-djong came down to camp and brought me some eggs, vegetables and milk. They told us that to-morrow we would have an extra strong escort as the road over which we shall have
little
of having to huddle together in a
room
in a filthy
to travel
I
is
infested
forgot to note that

I
by Chakba (brigands). honey is quite abundant

to
in
Draya,
it
is
produced,
near the
believe,
the south of that
town
in the villages
Om
ch'u.f
September 7. started out in great style this morning, for, beside the usual dirty Chinese ragamuffin of a soldier, we had six Tibetan soldiers bristling over with matchlocks, spears and
swords.
* Probably Bower's Caring doba. t The hives are made in hollowed out logs about four or five feet long, two being and hung up under the eves of the house. The bees go in by a small hole made in one end of the log. Similar hives are in common use in many parts of
We
tied together
the world.
TIBET.
329
About six miles south of Ra-dje we came to the head of the valley and the summit of the Po-jya la, whence we descended by
a very easy declivity into a valley
known
as the Jya lung or
" Long valley," and called by the Chinese Chia-pa k'ou or " Brigand's dale," from its being the usual haunt of bands of robbers
Sanghe chakba. These robber bands live along the Dr6 ch'u above Bat'ang and about five days' ride from this valley, and they have for the last hundred and fifty years, at least, waylaid travelers here and at two other well-known points along the highway, in the gorge south of the A-djod la (down which we will travel to-morrow) and on the Dre ch'u in front of Drubanang, a day's ride from Bat'ang, and where travelers are
known
as the
ferried across the river.*

It is
a curious fact that these robbers should have selected for
which is patrolled by the Emperor of China's troops, and that they should have been able to carry on their business for such a length of time. At present the Chinese will take no action against these Chakba as,
their field of operations the only road in Tibet
officially,
they have ceased to
exist,
having been exterminated (on
paper) not
Ta-chien-lu,
sible to kill
many
I
years ago by an officer sent from Bat'ang or
which, for that purpose. It is impossecond time, and all that can be done is to make the Tibetans fight them themselves whenever necessary. Much against the wishes of my escort, stopped for lunch in the Jya lung, where the grazing was, as might be expected from the valley being deserted, splendid. We saw, while drinking our
do not
know
them
off a
tea, three
or four
men
riding
some
distance from
where
be anxious to meet us, they quietly passed on. Leaving the Long valley where it bends eastward, we crossed the Ken-jya la and entered the valley of the Le ch'u, a good-sized stream flowing in a west-northwest direction. It is a sluggish
down the other side of the valley at we were, but they did not appear to and we on our side made no advances, so
*S&&Joum. Roy.
81.
He
calls
Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIll, 39, 40, 43. Cf. Bower, op. cit., them Chukkas and Chukpas. According to a Tibetan geographical
work entitled DjamlingYtsM, the country of these brigand tribes is called Ba-Sangan or " Sangan of Bat'ang." On Hassenstein's "Kartedes Tihetanischen undlndoChinesischen grenzgebieies"
10,
the
home
of the
''
in Petermann's Geog. Mittheilungen, 1882, Tafel Saguen rauber"is correctly put down on the Dre ch'u
above
Bat'ang;.
330
TIBET.
and very muddy brook of inconsiderable depth and not fifty feet broad, but it showed unmistakable signs of frequently overflowing its bank, and must often justify the term of " raging torrent"
We followed up the right it in the Wei-Tsang t'u chih* bank of the stream in a southeasterly direction for about seven miles till we came to Adjod (called A-tsu fang by the Chinese), where we camped in a little meadow {_ping pa-tzu in Chinese) below the village. The people, men and women, were engaged in harvesting the barley, and I noticed some very handsome girls, who in type and dress reminded me of those of Kanze in the Horba country, though larger and taller than they. There is a Wai-wei here with six Chinese soldiers, and they and the people were very kind and friendly; unfortunately it began raining towards dusk and everyone went home, leaving us under our tent in the meadow, which was soon transformed into a pond, but it was too late to change our camping ground, and so we had to make the best of it for the
applied to
night.
The only local products of Adjod are a poor variety of pottery and swords and knives of no great value or beauty. At Nyewa (which we pass through to-morrow), swords are also manufactured, but I cannot learn where the iron ore is procured.
September S.We got up feeling pretty seedy and stiff, and were glad to start off and walk a few miles, as far as the top of the Adjod la. For the first time on the journey we had a Chinese soldier armed with sword and matchlock; usually the knife in their chopsticks case is their only weapon. Five Tibetati soldiers also accompanied us, to protect us against the possible attacks of Chakba on the south side of the Adjod la. The country between Adjod and Nyewaf (Shih-pan-kou of the Chinese) is desert, and the latter place, where there are four Chinese soldiers and about ten native families, is dirty and uninteresting. A little barley is raised around the village. Ny6wa is on the right bank of a stream flowing westward, and about a mile
out of the
strikes
way
up a gorge
of the traveler going to Gart'ok, for the highroad to the east of the village.
n. s. XXIII, 51.
*Joum. Roy.
t Bower's Asi.
Asiat. Soc,
TIBET.
331
We
did not stop at

is
Ny6wa
but pushed rapidly on as
tlie
stage
to Lart'ang
long one (about twenty-five miles).
The Tangvalley,
yao shan which
we
had to cross on leaving the

1
Nyewa
and
whose Tibetan name
could not learn*
the soldier who escorted
me
being a recruit and only speaking a few words of Tibetan marks the boundary in this direction between Draya and MarK'ams, or "Lower K'ams," a province belonging to Lh'asa with
Gart'ok, Chiang-k'a in Chinese, as
its capital,
The descent from the Tang-yao shan led down a little gorge at the lower end of which are two hamlets. Thence crossing a low col we entered the broad Lar fang or " Plain of Lar" (A-la fang of the Chinese), where we camped beside the little Trigu gomba on the bank of a stream flowing southward down a narrow
lower part of which appeared to be covered with dense growth. About forty akas reside in this lamasery. Lar fang extends for about four miles in an east and west direction, and a couple of villages occupy commanding positions on the hills on its northern side. The country hereabout is very bare, not a tree to be seen anywhere, and in the plain there is hardly any ground under cultivation; it is at too great an altitude. noticed a few domestic fowls in some of the villages; they are the first I have seen among the Tibetans.
valley, the
forest
violent thunderstorm and a
had not much more than made camp when there was a good deal of snow fell on the mountains south of us. These mountains, by the way, appear to be of considerable height and trend very nearly southeast and northwest. 1 fancy the Om ch'u flows along the nearer side of them, and that consequently that river cannot at this point be over six or eight miles from where we are now camped probably it flows by the
;
We
below the gomba. The Om ch'u valley must here be quite wide and thickly peopled, if one may believe the descriptions given me of it by the people along the road, who spoke of it as a very rich Rongwa. One man gave me some twenty little peaches which had come from this Rongwa.
mouth
of the
little
wooded
valley
* Bower
calls it
Thongia
la.
is
Tang-yao may be the Chinese pronunciation of the
native name, which perhaps
Tong jya.
is
fThe name
'
of this province
certainly
variously written
Merlam, Merkang, Merkam,
IWarkam, but
it is
Mar-K'ams.
There
is
is
a Bar k'ams adjacent to or forming
a part of this province.
Possibly there
are well
Teu
(Stod)
K'ams
or
" Upper K'ams."
Yar-mar, yara-mara,
known
Tibetan terms for
"upper" and "lower."
332

to eat,
TIBET.
They were too green
and
fancy they are from wild trees,
as the Tibetans do not cultivate fruit
anywhere
jolly,
have been.
Some
of the akas and people living around the
gomba came and

language so
chatted with us;
they were very
and
their
closely resembled that of Lh'asa that
we
could converse freely
with them.
The language
of the Draya people, on the other
hand, differed so from any

hardly understand one
in
we had
in ten,
ever heard that

to
we
could
word
All the
though they had no trouble
understanding us.
men who came

1
my
of
tent carried
little
bamboo
flutes {Hng-bu),
on which some
them played
and several of which bought. The road we have been following since Pungde is the one described in the Wei Tsang t'u chih, but eith.er the country has very much changed since 1791, when that book was written, or else
quite agreeably,
its authors had very vivid imaginations. For example, it says, speaking of the Adjod la, that it is "a great snowy mountain where the cold is so intense that it blinds one." Of the Dzo la,
between Gaga and Wangk'a, it says that "it is a great snowy mountain over which runs a dangerous and ice-covered trail, where the cold wrinkles up one's flesh and cracks the skin of the hands." And so on for every part of the road we have been over. This book is, however, very valuable and accurate as to most
things, especially things historical and- ethnographical.
September g. Heavy rain, as usual, fell during the night, but this morning the sky was clear. About two miles east of where we had camped we passed out of Lar-t'ang* and descended a valley, densely covered with hollyf and rhododendrons on its north side, and with pines on the hills along its southern face. This valley
drains the country to the southeast as far as Rishod, the stream
bending southward when about seven and a half miles west of that
* Bower appears to
1
1
call this
it is
pass Thongia
la.
call
it
holly,
but
called
by
the
(MntiichHngk'ang
The French
or
*'
Evergreen oak."
it
In the dialect of Lit'ang
it is
known
all
as belo.
missionaries call
" chene
s.
a feuilles de houx," though
the leaves on a given tree are not like holly leaves.
Jaeschke gives the word be-k'rod as meaning
"oak
forest."
He
its
further says,
v.
ch'a-ra " ch'a-ra oak, also
growing only on the southern ranges of the Himalaya mountains, inhabited mostly by Non- Tibetans) in
several species, with pointed, evergreen leaves, a tree
mon
ch'a-ra (on account of
much
inferior in
beauty to the
English oak."
Dr. Hooker,
Himal. Journ.,
11,
114, mentionsa speciesof
oak (Q.
annulata
?)
growing on the outer Sikkim ranges to an
altitude of 10,000 feet.

village.
TIBET.
333
There are numerous small hamlets all the way to Rishod (Li-shu in Chinese) and the country is well cultivated. found Rishod such a dirty, muddy and unprepossessing place and the kung-kuan so uninviting, that we continued up the valley about five miles and camped at the foot of the Rishod la,* which separates us from the She ch'u on which stands the town of Gart'ok. Holly and pines reappeared on the hillsides about three
We
miles above Rishod but they were not so large as those seen in the morning at the west end of the valley.
crossoptilons after camping; they
We
killed
were very
plentiful
a few and tame.

like a
I
They, together with wild pigeons, magpies, a small bird sparrow, and an occasional woodpecker are the only birds
excepted.
to
have
so far noticed in the country, crows, eagles and birds of that kind
now that it only takes four or five days Derge drongcher this agrees well with what I heard in '89 in Derge. If no bad luck overtakes me, I think 1 will be able to reach Shanghai in about forty-five days, or by the
1
am
assured
to
go from Draya
2oth of October.
September 10.
Another heavy thunderstorm during the night.
la was neither very long nor steep. There are in reality two cols to cross here, for from the Rishod la one descends a little and then one has to climb over another shoulder of the mountain before descending into the Sh6 ch'u valley. From this second summit we caught a glimpse of a wooded hillside about fifteen miles to the south, and some Tibetans who were traveling along with us said that Gart'ok was at the foot of that hill. The Rishod la and adjacent mountains are entirely composed of red sandstone conglomerate disposed in horizontal strata. On the top of the pass was a scaffold of three poles, on the cross one of which was the dried-up head of a Sanghe brigand, executed here in the early part of the year by the Gart'ok authorities.
The
ascent of the Rishod
Here, again, the authors of the
imaginative; they described the Rishod

all
Wei Tsang t'u chih are too la as "a great mountain,

pierces one to the bone."
the year covered with snow, and across which there blows,
in
even
summer,
a cold blast
which
From
this
work
la;
it
also appears that this

first
the Rishod
it
gives the
second pass is properly one no name, only calls it " a little
mountain."
* Bower's Khonsa La.
334

a half
TIBET.
to a
Four miles and
below the pass we came
little
Chi-
nese post station called Lu-ho fang where we found a Chinese soldier with his Tibetan wife and a number of children.* He and
his family were the cleanest and best mannered people think I have seen in this country. stopped here to lunch and the soldier gave me a few dried fish he had caught them in the stream near
I I
by
some mushrooms and- eggs.

miles
below Lu-ho fang the mountain sides and this forest growth continues until near Gart'ok. We only passed a few black tents on the way down, and did not see a single hamlet until within two miles of the town. About a mile above the town we passed the mouth of a gorge running west-southwest up which runs a
are covered with fine pines and junipers
From about two
well beaten trail; this is probably the highroad to Southern Tibet, and the one followed by Kishen Singh when coming back from
Ta-chien-lu.
Garf ok is at the base of the hills on the west side of the valley, about a quarter of a mile from the river.f There is a small gomba behind the town in which live between two hundred and three
hundred lamas (Gelupa), and along the
linga of poplar trees.
Gart'ok, and there
is
river
bank
is
a pretty
Deba, appointed from Lh'asa, resides at also a Chinese Captain {Shou-pei), a Sergeant
{Pa-tsung) and a garrison of one hundred and forty soldiers, from which are drawn all the detachments stationed along the highroad from here to Bat'ang territory. The Tibetan population of Gart'ok
hundred souls) there and two or three Yun-nan or Ssu-ch'uan ones which carry on a small business in musk, the only export of any value to China from this district. I found the kung-kuan quite a large and commodious building, and we had two good rooms assigned us with a kitchen and sufficient stable room for our poor ponies, who are all on their last legs. There is, should remark, a small Kuan-ti miao here and the whole place is much Chinesefied. Pigs, fowls and halfbreed children tumble about the muddy lanes together, and there
is
estimated at
two hundred
families (nine
are also three Chinese firms of Shen-hsi traders
* Bower camped
13,700
feet.
here.
He
calls this station
Mongothong, and giv6s
its
altitude as
t The French missionaries established a station here in 1861, but after a year or so they had to withdraw to Bonga, farther south. See C. H. Desgodins, Le Thibet, Hue, op. cit., 11, 498, calls it Kiang-tsa. 93, et seq.

are a
TIBET.
335
number
of shops
where
different
odds and ends are offered
for sale.
for over
women and children sang prayers in chorus this is a an hour seated in a circle before their doors custom commonly observed in most parts of Tibet, but which I had not remarked on this journey, probably because 1 have most
In the
evening the
among Bonbo and Drupa. The Shou-pei was away, acting as arbitrator in a quarrel between two villages, but the Pa-tsung, a handsome young Mohammedan from Ta-chien-lu, whose people knew, was very kind and made us as comfortable and as much at home as he could. He had been stationed for a number of years at Lh'asa and
of the time been
I
had adopted many of the customs of that

he smoked the hubble-hubble
his wife
in
locality,
among
others
use there
among
the Kashmiris;
was
handsome Lh'asan woman.
The Pa-tsung sent me this morning a basket some peaches i^semkam) and apricots, and a big basket of vegetables. The fruit all came from the Rongma ("Low country or farm lands " ) along the Dre ch'u, some two or three days south-southeast of here. The fruit, peaches and apricots,
September ii.
of grapes,
I think, wild.* At Gart'ok cabbages, turwheat, barley and oats are grown, and 1 am inclined to think that the oats are a wild variety,! 'ike that which one sees in our southwestern country. New Mexico and Colorado. Pigs,
were very poor and,
nips, o-sung,
fowls, cats, and Chinese dogs are also

I
common
here.
had to ask the Pa-tsung to supply me with ula ponies and pack animals as not one of mine is fit to travel ten miles, and I have hardly any money left. I had considerable difficulty in selling to-day some musk had bought at Song-chyang sumdo and elsewhere in Jayde, and could only get about the same price I had originally paid for it. If I could have afforded to hold on to it until 1 had reached Ta-chien-lu might have realized a considerable
I I
* Alph. de Candolle, Origine des Plantes Cultivies, 177, is inclined to think that the peach tree comes originally from China. The same author ( op. cit. p. 173 )
thinks that the apricot tree
is
a native of the region extending from the northwest
of China to India.
makes mention of wild oats in Ladak. De Condolle is made of oats in a Chinese historical work covering the period from 618 to 907 A. D. He thinks the plant originally came from eastern temperate Europe and Tartary (p. 302).
(
Moorcroft, Travels,
II,
27,
(pp. cit., 299) says that mention
336

As
it is,
I
TIBET.
enough
for a at
profit.
only got about sixty rupees,

I
little
month's journey.
Bat'ang.
will
have to try and borrow some money

issued,
The Pa-tsung has acted very kindly and

of
off
on presentation
short
1
my
passport and
for
when
had explained
ula,
how
was of
weight
funds, an ula order
good
as far as Ta-chien-lu.
It is
a big
my mind
really
have no right to
officials.
I
which the Tibetans
we double can reach Ta-chien-lu in fifteen days. The harvest feast with lama dancing is being celebrated to-day just outside the town. All those who have tents have put them up on the meadow below the gomba, where are
frequently refuse to Chinese
stages
no
very
difficult
thing
we
am
told that if
camping people from all the neighboring hamlets; they are making merry, drinking and singing while the lamas are having the usual lama dance, a few of their number prancing about with hideous masks on to the accompaniment of drums, cymbals and hautboys; the Ta lama and the gomba authorities sit under a tent, drink tea and look on. The Chinese of Kumbum call such dances
also
t'iao-shai hou, the Pekinese, t'iao kuei.
There is a Chinese here who told me that he had traveled with T. T. Cooper;* he spoke very kindly of him, and said he was a
to A-tun-tzu with According to his statement Cooper had with him a Hankow Chinese who spoke and wrote foreign languages; this as I remember, is quite correct, Cooper had a Christian who spoke Latin.
most excellent man.

I
He went from Bat'ang
him,
think he said.
For the
first
time
in
Tibet
notice quantities of house sparrows.
The people
call
them cheuba.X
September i2.Vê. left Gart'ok at 7.30 with a Chinese soldier and two Tibetan ones, the latter supplied by the Mar-K'ams Deba. After fording the She ch'u in front of the town, we rode down
in 1868 from Ta-chien-lu to Bat'ang and thence south to Weiwhence he was forced to return to Ta-chien-lu by the way he had come. (See Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce.')
* Cooper traveled
hsi,
t His name was George

Cooper, op.
cit., 15.
Phillips.
He had been educated
at
Macao.
See T. T.
respectively.
tjaeschke gives the name as chyapo or chyavo, written bya-po and skya-vo Bonvalot {op. cit., 339) says he heard sparrows twittering at So gomba
on the Su ch'u.

the
left
TIBET.
337
bank of the
river for
about three miles,
when we
bank
crossed
the stream again and continued of P'ulag,
down
the right
left
until in front
when we
trees
;
crossed back to the
one.
The She ch'u

and juniper
them.
valley
below Gart'ok
is
well timbered with pine
even the valley bottom is covered with one of the finest have seen but unfortunately for the people, the highroad runs the whole length of it, and the inhabitants are ground down and interfered with in their work by the constant ula services they are called on to perform. Fortunately for them, however, the ula is changed at each village. Thus between Gart'ok and Guh'u (nineteen miles) we changed it four times, the first time when only three miles from our starting point, and a second time less than one and one-half miles farther on. At P'ulag there was not a single yak to be found when arrived, and I feared that I would have to stop over here (it is the regular stage from Gart'ok), and the prospect was not unpleasing as the kung-kuan is large and comfortable, but after waiting an hour or so some horses came in from Gart'ok and we were able to push on. The Sh6 ch'u valley is well cultivated, but villages are few we only passed three between Gart'ok and P'ulag. This is the usual
in places
is
This valley
thing in Tibet; the people will not

fer
live
near the highroads
they pre-
more remote, though possibly poorer, localities, for there they are not interfered with by traveling officials. Leaving the She ch'u valley at P'ulag we turned eastward up a narrow valley leading to the Latse la* and every where covered with pines, holly-oaks and juniper trees. Having crossed the pass we descended to Guh'u, or Ku-shu in Chinese. From the summit of the Latse la I saw, about twenty miles to the west-southwest, a range of bare, jagged peaks here and there covered with snow. I was told that they were in Mar-K'ams. It was dark when we reached the kung-kuan at Guh'u, and I
was much
room,
surprised to find a candle burning on a table in a clean
a big fire-bowl
glowing on
a stand,
and
a pot of tea
and
china cups ready on the table.
The kung-kuan keeper turned
out to be, not only an admirable house-keeper, but a first rate cook. He came in, made his bow, and asked if I would allow
cook my supper, he was something of a cook he modestly and would like to show us what he could do. Having only stipulated with him that we should have chingfan (" clean food "),
him
to
said,
separated
* Mang shan of the Chinese. Bower's Lamba by a few hundred yards.
la
and Dosi
la.
The two
are only
338

we were Mohammedans and
TIBET.
for
could eat none other, he set to

in six courses.
all
work and soon served us a capital meal had he good, plump fowls and eggs, but
Not only
the condiments dear to
the Chinese cordon-bleu, soy, kan-fen, ginger, red peppers, salted vegetables, etc., besides rice, vermicelli and last, but not least, good
BAMBOO JEW'S-HARP AND CASE Full

bread.
Size
(Bafang).
The Hsien-sheng and I, the ula and the other two men had not yet arrived, sat long over this wonderful meal, and felt so happy when it was over that we called in a lot of the natives and had them dance to the dulcet sounds of the jew's-harp {k'a-pi).
TIBET.
339
This most ancient, primitive and popular instrument is brought to this part of the country (it is only used in and around Bat'ang), from the Ts'ak'a lung and the country to the south of here, and is
It consists of three not of Tibetan origin, nor, 1 think, make. bamboo harps each of different tone, all of them played together held in the left hand, the one above the other, that with the
highest note at the top.
The harp with the deepest note is said to give the p'o ka (^p'o skad) or "male note," the middle one g\\ts.\ht ding kd or "middle note, "and the sharper note is known
as
mo ka
or " female note."
Three or four persons frequently play

girl or
together in unison, and nearly every
woman
carries a k'a^
pi suspended
from her girdle in a
bamboo
case, usually prettily
decorated with chevron shaped carvings and bands of colored quills. The Chinese of Kan-su call the jew's-harp k'ou hsien; the
Pekinese
name
name for this instrument is k'ou ch'i* The Tibetan an exact counterpart of the Kan-su one, for k'a means "mouth,"' and pi stands for pi-wang, the three stringed banjo
is
(jan hsien).
twenty Tibetan families and three Chinese soldiers. fancy, a rather shaded by fine poplars and is, desirable place, as far as -climate goes, as it is well sheltered on every side by mountains and forests; at all events the Chinese do not hesitate to prohere seemed to like it very much, and nounce its kung-kuan the best in Tibet. At Geh'u
live
The
village is
September 13.
The valley
we
in
which Guh'u stands runs nearly
it, ascending the Hondo la through a country covered with fine pines, and then traveling down a narrow but well cultivated valley to the important village This point is at the of Lh'amdun (Nan-tun of the Chinese). J junction of two roads leading, the one to Bat'ang and Ta-chien lu, the other to A-tun-tzu, Wei-hsi and Li-chiang Fu in Yun-nan.
north and south,f so
only crossed
It
is
the most easterly point of
Mar-K'ams
in this direction,
the
Bat'ang boundary being on the summit of the

to the northeast of
it.
Bam
la a
few miles
The
district is ruled
by a K'anpo sent from

the village.
Lh'asa and
who
lives in a little
is
gomba behind
He
* The Pekinese jew's-harp

t
:|:
of iron and very like the one used
among
us.
river.
Bower
calls
the stream which flows
by Guh'u
(his
Goshu) Mongothongchu
Bonvalot's Leindiinne; Bower's Lande.
340

his
TIBET.
and
some
twenty akas belong to the Sachyapa school. There are twenty families of Tibetans and three or four Chinese soldiers here, also a Kuan-ti miao and a fairly good kungfifteen to
kuan.
Lh'amdun while the ula was being changed, drank some tea and ate some yellow raspberries (here I noticed in use here a called trisui) offered me by the oldiers. of iron and copper, among good many Chinese utensils, especially which a curiously shaped cast iron teapot, cylindrical in shape and over a foot deep and five or six inches in diameter.* The copperware comes, I am told, from the Chien-ch'ang, from which
We stopped for an
hour
at
so
by the way, comes also the best quality of the red leather The wooden bowls, plates, round covered in Tibet. boxes and other similar utensils in use at Gart'ok and all through this part of the country are brought from Yun-nan. We saw on Leaving Lh'amdun we passed over the Bam la.f the summit of the pass a large red sandstone slab half sunk in the ground. This marks the boundary between Mar-K'ams and Bat'ang or, as the people say, between Deba djong and Jyade, for from was I Bat'ang to Ta-chien-lu is also known by this latter name. told that there was an inscription on it, but on the part now below the surface of the ground. J About four miles below the pass we came to the village of Bam-ding (Pang-mu in Chinese)]] where we While it was being got together I had again to change the ula. rested in the headman's house and his wife, a fine, well dressed and agreeable woman, gave me pomegranates {supong) and pears from the Rongma, a district two days south of here, and some walnuts {taga), which grow in great quantities near this place. The dress of the women at Lh'amdun and Bam-ding differs
district,
much used
considerably from that
worn
farther west.
It
consists of a petti-
coat of striped pulo with heavy (kan-chien), and a loose
box plaits behind, a waistcoat gown coming to the knee. Women

l<ettle is in use.
* In Shan-hsi and parts of Shen-hsi a similar

t Or laka; this latter term but more correct, one.
is
very frequently used in eastern Tibet for the former,
JThis boundary
line
was marked by
a joint commission in 1726.
See/oum.
Roy. Asiat. Soc,

Bower's Bon.
II
n. s., XXIII, 46.
traversed
Capt. Gill, coming from Bat'ang and on his way to A-tun-tzu, Bam-ding and passing over the eastern shoulder of the Bam la, struck the
She ch'u
(his
Kiang Ka
river)
about eighteen miles south of that
village.
TIBET.
34^
wear their hair in one heavy braid with a large tassel at the end. They have no ornaments save earrings of the Bat'ang pattern, The men's costume presents no and numerous finger rings.
peculiarity
;
it is
the usual eastern Tibetan one.
It took a long time to get the ula ready, and when it came there was endless wrangling about the division of loads, each person
wanting the animal belonging to him to carry a

question
light one.
The
was finally decided in

gave one of
in
the
way usual in
Tibet: each person
on the
are
ula
his or her garters,
woven
the
his
them behind
same pattern, back drew out

it
to the
first
no two pairs of which headman and he, holding

garter, then another
one
and
placed one on each load at random,
when
the
owner
of the garter
picked up the load and put
on
his beast
without murmuring.*
We
made about
five miles
down
the valley to a small hamlet
called Djin-k'ang ding (near Mang-lif of the Chinese),
where
we
stopped for the night in the headman's house, a portion of which It is a fine three-storied stone buildis set off as a kung-kuan. After dark the ing, and the room given us was a very nice one. room was lit by means of chips of pitch pine burnt on a flat stone, though the usual butter lamps were not wanting. We got the
women
of the house to dance for us, and
of ribbon to the best performers. the jew's-harp and the step

I
awarded prizes of bits While dancing they played on

I
was
slow
shuffle, a
poor imitation
thought, of a darkey dance.

;
We were again given pomegranates,
pears and walnuts here the first named fruit is small and flavorless, and is used more as an ornament, something like the citron called "Buddha's hand" {Fo shou) in China.
September 14.. Below Djin-k'ang dingj the valley narrows to a mere ravine covered with a dense growth of pines, holly-leaved oaks and junipers under which is a thick undergrowth of creepers and ferns wild cherry and apricot trees are also plentiful. The road leads along the side of the hills, and the stream which flows down the valley is, after a little while, hundreds of feet below the road, dashing over rocks and fallen trees and hurrying on to the Dr6 ch'u which it meets a few miles to the east.
;
*Conf. Bonvalot, op.
cit.,
363.
t Capt.
Gill gives
the Tibetan
name
of Mang-li (which
is
on the
east side of the
valley just opposite Djin-k'ang ding) as Mflng-M'heh.
XDing
in
Bam
ding, Djin-k'ang ding,
Taga ding,
etc.,
means "
village,
hamlet."
342
TIBET.
we Continuing northward to the other end of this pretty valley (Kung-tzii ting of the Chinese), where we came to Kondjinka changed the ula. The house of the headman is a large and comand much of the interior finish of the rooms is suppose Chinese carpenters from Bat'ang built it they Chinese. The women of the house were taking travel all over Tibet.* noticed that they ate green their dinner while we rested, and
modious
building,
1
peppers with their tsamba, a mixture I had not yet seen in this A variety of vegetables are raised around this village, country. but, taking them as a whole, the Tibetans are not a vegetableeating people.
Pigs, fowls,
and pigeons were
plentiful here.
When the Wei Tsa7ig fu chih was written (1791). the highroad between this point and Djin-k'ang ding did not apparently run up this valley, but to the west of it, for it is said that between these two localities "a big mountain, infested by brigands, has
to be crossed. "t
beyond Kondjink'a we reached the head of the mouth of the one beyond it, about seven miles valley,! and away, we saw the Dre ch'u flowing in a narrow valley on either side of which rise steep, bare mountains of reddish brown color, the waters of the great river dyed of the same color. The valley leading down to the river is covered for most of its We only length with dense foliage and thick undergrowth. passed two villages, one called Taga ding or "the Walnut village," from the wide-spreading walnut trees surrounding and half Here we again changed the ula, to again hiding the village. change it a couple of miles farther down, just before reaching the At Taga ding I noticed for the first time some small true river. oak trees. We stopped for the night at Gura (Kung-la in Chinese), about The valley bottom is here a mile up the valley of the Dre ch'u. a quarter of a mile wide on the right bank of the river, and about the hamlet stands some two hundred feet above the river, while on the left bank, as far as I could see up and down the valley, the mountains seemed to rise precipitously from the water's side.
half mile
at the
II
* See
Land of
the
Lamas,
194.
\'ist&Joum. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s. XXIII, 49. X Gill's Kong-Tze-La-Ka pass and Bower's Khonji-Ia pass.
Bower says (p. 85) that Taga ding, Tangati.

II
in this valley
he saw
squirrels
on the
trees.
He
calls

Around Gura
Chinese
call
TIBET.
343
millet of
two
varieties
them), squashes, peppers, wheat,
{huang mi and hsaio mi the etc., are grown.
We
beside a little cattle-pen, as the houses at this place from attractive, small, dirty and dilapidated, and overrun with vermin and children.
camped
far
were
September ij. A Tibetan escort of six well-armed men accompanied us to-day as far as the ferry across the Dre ch'u, which is at a point called Tsobo ch'uk'a, about two and a half miles south of Drubanang. This precaution was taken because the Sanghe chakba are said to frequently attack caravans while in
the act of loading or unloading at this place.* The road all the way to the ferry was over rocks and through
sand and gravel, the mountains rising precipitously from the river bank; here and there a little brush grew along the water's edge.
The only
I
incident of the day was an encounter with the first snake had seen in Tibet, a water snake, I think, about four feet long marked with longitudinal bands of light green and black.
We were
boat
rapidly ferried across the river in a large flat-bottomed
soldiers. There are two of these boats kept for this ferry, but one is usually anchored in front of Drubanang and only used in an emergency, or when the other is being repaired. There is no charge made for ferrying
made and manned by Chinese
travelers
and
their cattle over, the ferry
being maintained by the
Chinese government.
At Drubanang (Chu-pa lung in Chinese) there are a few acres of ground under cultivation on either side of the river, and in the village live ten or twelve families of natives and four or five Chinese
The ula had to be changed here, and as all the cattle were on the right bank of the river and it required a long time to get them over to the village, I decided to push on without them, instructing the Lao-han to come on with them, while I, the Hsiensheng and Kao pa-erh rode on to Bat'ang, still a long way off. About eleven and a half miles farther up the river we came to
soldiers.
the
little hamlet of Shui-mo-k'ouf where we tried to get fresh ponies, but the headman refused t o give me any until the ula from Druba-
Gill
river at this point in 1877.
came near having an encounter with some of these brigands when crossing the See River of Golden Sands, II, 209.
there
is
t Probably Gill's Leh and Bower's Lah; the village and the river.
here a
little
Ih'a-k'ang between
344

arrived.
TIBET.
got one horse
nang had
for
After a
good
deal of wrangling,
Kao pa-erh and we rode off as rapidly as we could, as it was beginning to get dark and we had a steep mountain to cross and about eleven miles to make before reaching the town. A mile or so above Shui-mo-k'ou, or rather at another little hamlet called by the Chinese Shan ken (or ''Foot of the hill),* we left the Dre ch'u and crossing a steep mountain by a very rough and stony path down which we had to grope our way in the dark,
we came
Tibet."
into
the
valley
of
Bat'ang,
the
"garden
spot
of
The Ba-ch'ung
at the base of the
ch'u or Bat'ang river empties into the Dre ch'u
mountain
we
Had
just crossed.
The Bat'ang
is
valley
^
is
not over a quarter to a half mile wide and

;
well cultithe road
vated and thickly peopled
little
hamlets and detached farm-houses,

fruit trees, line
each surrounded by a grove of walnut or from the foot of the hill to the town.
It
was
nine o'clock
when we
reached Bat'ang; the
town was
had much diificulty in getting the kung-kuan keeper to open the door of that building for us, and when he did, he was very impudent and we had to wrangle for half an hour before we could get him to give us some tea and tsamba. It was with a deep sense of relief that I closed to-night my traverse book and packed up my prismatic compass which I have constantly had in my hand since the first day of last December. Thirty-four hundred miles of surveying is no joke, and now that my traverse has joined that surveyed by Capt. Gill, whose accuracy and care we Tibetan travelers have learned to appreciate, I can safely bring my mapping to an end.
asleep and
we
September i6.
Ba (Pa-t'ang
\
quently described
a
that
will say but
of the Chinese) has been so frelittle of the place itself.
There are some two hundred families of Tibetans living here and hundred odd Chinese, of whom, perhaps, thirty or forty are soldiers. In the great lamasery, which is on the west side of the town, live about 1,500 akas, the total population of the town,
* Gill's Niu-ku, Bower's Nougen.
Gill calls
the mountain Ch'a-Shu Shan or
Ch'a-Keu
Pass, altitude, 9,388 feet.

II,
+ See Hue, op. cit.,

II,
183, et seq.
Bonvalot, o^. V., 440.

,
502; T. T. Cooper, op. cit 245, et seq. Gill, op. cii., Bower, o/, V., 85. Rep.on Explor.
by A
69, etc., etc.

including the hamlets and the
TIBET.
345
two
or three
little
gombas
in
its
immediate vicinity, may therefore be about 3,000.* A Chinese quartermaster {Liang-fai) and a captain represent
consist of the Chinese government here, and the native authorities in Chinese as Cheng T'u-ssu and a first and second Deba, known
The Chinese tell me that there is hardly any trade business here, and there are only two small Chinese firms doing lamas do what trading there is and lend The in the town.
Fu
T'u-ssu.
money The
to the Chinese,
who
are but their agents.
climate of the Bat'ang valley is very mild, and wheat, buckwheat, string heaps, peas, squashes, cucumbers, pepmillet, pers, cabbages, onions, peaches, pears, apricots, grapes, and watermelons (the latter known by its Chinese name of kua-kua),
thrive here.f
It is
now
fruit
but tolerably sweet

is
it
the peach season, and quantities of small were brought us. The butter sold here
very nice,
bought a quantity from a
Mohammedan
butcher;
was put up in little oblong prints and wrapped in poplar leaves. The rolls of bread are also delicious, but the meat is very poor,
yak flesh. go and see the Liang-t'ai, Wang by name, as my money was exhausted and I thought he might lend me some on a check payable to his order at Ta-chien-lu by Mgr. Biet. I put on my foreign clothes for the first time since last November, and the
most of I had
it
to
change was most dehghtful, for before dressing I managed to get a tubbing, and I actually felt clean, a nearly forgotten sensation. The Liang-t'ai was not over polite and said he had no money I told him I would have to stay here until I could get money from Ta-chien-lu if he would not assist me, and 1 asked him to make inquiries at the lamasery if some one would not let me have 50 All lamaseries are engaged in money lending; the question taels. doubt it. The soldiers tell me is, will they lend to a foreigner ? I the Liang-t'ai is a blackguard and treats them all very badly. fancy this is true. I have been hearing of him ever since I came on to the highroad; he is the man who pays the soldiers in tea,
;
A
" At
(Kishen Singh) says that there are about
two
thousai^d houses,
op. cit.,
11,
including fifty shops, at Bat'ang.

says:
Report on Explor.,
Bat'ang and
its
69.
Gill,
189,
Bat'ang, where there are only three hundred families, the lamasery con-
tains thirteen
hundred lamas."
On
history
%ee.Joum. Roy. Asiat.
Soc,
n. s. XXIIl, 46, 124, 249,
260 and 272.

cit.,
fOn
the climate of Bat'ang, see Desgodins, op.
469.
346

its
TIBET.
it is worth here, and dividing the Commissary General at Ta-chien-lu. profits of his rascality with the The Liang-t'ai said he would let me know to-morrow if he don't exactly know what will do if he could get the money. me any; we have two rupees between us and a few does not get coral beads and other odds and ends of no great value, some of which we might sell, but 1 fear that as people know I am in a tight place, no one will buy any thing from me. This place appears to me dull and devoid of interest; if I had some money in my purse it might look brighter and more inter-
fixing
value at twice
what
esting.
September 17. The Bat'angites are very much Chinesefied and have lost many of the pleasing traits I noticed in the wilder tribes of the west. On the whole, Chinese influence in Tibet has been distinctly deleterious, for while China has introduced among this people a few of the arts and conveniences of its higher civilizaHere, and along the highroad tion, it has debased them morally. generally, the free, open demeanor so noticeable in Jyade and
among
servile
the Panak'a and K'amba, has given place to the cringing,
Deba, for example,
Chinese forms of politeness and duplicity. The Head is a thorough Chinese,* even in dress, speakall
ing Chinese with a broad Ssu-ch'uanese accent, and smoking
day long a water-pipe.
The
filth
of the streets
is
quite Chinese,
but the laziness of the people is not an importation from foreign parts. The men are Tibetans in dress, except that they wear their
hair
la
Chinoise.
many
of
them
corpulent.
They are The
tall
(five feet ten
and over) and

is like
dress of the
women
that of
Bam-ding, previously referred to, with the exception that all wear aprons of narrow striped pulo or Poma stuff. These are also worn at Lh'asa and over most of Tibet, except among the Drupa, whefe the ch'uba is the only garment of both sexes. The women are quite as much beasts of burden here as in other parts of the country, and their morals are not any better. The men do not
usually carry the long
*
Gill,
sword common among Tibetans; most
op.
cit.,
extraction,
but as
has
be considered as
Gill's chief
"the first native chief of Bat'ang is of Chinese came from Yiin-Nan ten generations since, he may fairly a native of the soil. * * * His elder brother is the second chief."
II,
196, says that
his family
now
retired,
and
his
son
is first
chief.
The second
chief
is
the
same
one
Gill
knew.

of
TIBET.
347
them have only
Chinese knife and chopsticks, though a few
carry a short dirk of Shigatse
make and
of decidedly Indian pattern.
Barley and walnuts are used here in lieu of subsidiary coinage.
salt, etc.
exchange for vegetables, Ba-chung ch'u and about eighteen inches long, were brought to me, but don't care
1
bought
few bushels of the former
to
Some
scaleless fish,
caught
in the
for fish in this country,
they eat too
many
corpses.
The Liang-t'ai has sent me word that he can do nothing for me, the lamas will not lend any money, and he has none, his military funds (J>ing-hsiang) have not arrived and he has no money here of his own. It is very vexatious but not desperate, for 1 can always travel as Chinese officials do, live on the people and give no presents. I saw him later in the day; he said he
would give me ula and all I required and that I had no need for money. told him that we foreigners would be ashamed to travel as he and the like of him did and not pay for what we got, but he did not appreciate these honorable sentiments and his
1
reply implied that he thought

1
me
a fool.
hear a great deal here about Gill, Mesny, Szechenyi and the other foreigners who have been through here. On the wall of the kung-kuan I found the signatures of all of them, from Szechnyi
down
to
Bower; each with a

to
patriotic
motto under
his
name.
a great deal of Chi Wei-li (Gill) and MeiSsu-hi (Mesny) and of the Ching Wang (Prince d'Orleans) ; the two first he seemed to remember with great pleasure. Many of the soldiers, and not a few of the Tibetans, asked me about the Fathers of Ta-chien-lu and regretted that they had been forced
to
The Deba spoke
me
leave this country.
September 18. \ had a very lively interview with the Liang-t'ai; he was extremely rude, forgot all his official manners, yelled and
mad man, and behaved like a fool generally. would report him to the Tsung-li Ya-men, which, of course," I will not do, as I have no one at Peking to look after my interests. Having told him what I thought of him, I got up, and without a word of salutation walked out. It was very disagreeable; nearly every Chinese in town was crowded around the door of the room in which we were squabbling, and heard every word of our
gesticulated like a
1
said
altercation.
348
TIBET.
The head Deba came to see me and wanted to buy my revolver. asked him thirty taels, but he would only give ten and I refused to part with it. Knowing that I was in need of money he tried to
I
end of it all was that I would Hsien-sheng sold the little remaining not sell him any thing. The musk we had for twenty rupees, and we will be able to get along some way or other till Lit'ang is reached, where the Pa-tsung is
make some good
bargains, but the
an old acquaintance of '89 (he was then at Dawo), and will possibly help
me
on to Ta-chien-lu.
his collection of watches, of which he had between twenty and thirty of every make and metal, and wanted me to repair a dozen or so of them. The last addition to his collection was a " railway watch," which he said had been obtained from a British soldier in Sikkim last year and had been
The Deba brought with him
sold to
1
him
in Lh'asa.
got the ula ordered for to-morrow
tion service, a relative of the Deba's
has promised
me
first
rate ponies.
is
the head of the transportaand a very obliging fellow, It is a " long ula " and will
;
go
as far as
I
Lamaya, which
is
the frontier post of Bat'ang to the
east.
hear that there
a big bobbery at Lit'ang, and that the
all
road between here and Nyach'uk'a is practically closed to trade; the tea for Central Tibet is going by way of Kanze to Derg6
and Ch'amdo.
September
ip.
This explains in a degree the bad times at Bat'ang.
had a violent thunder storm during the have had for some days. The ula arrived early and I was pleased to see that all the mules were good strong ones and that we would be able to make good time. We left at nine o'clock and struck up the valley of the Gun ch'u, which, coming down from the Taso pass, empties into the Ba-ch'ung ch'u at Bat'ang, where it is spanned by a good bridge. The lower course of the Gun ch'u as far as Hsiao pa-ch'ung is through a rocky gorge, but above that point until one reaches the timber-line, the mountains on either side of the narrow valley are covered with pine, birch, oak and juniper trees and dense undergrowth. From the branches of the holly-leaved evergreen oaks or ching kang, hang long, thread-like moss of sea green or orange
night, the first
We
we
color.*
* Usnea barbata.
This oak tree does not
feet.
grow
in this valley at
a higher altitude
than P'ongdramo, 12,632
TIBET.
349
gomba
About one-quarter of a mile from Bat'ang we passed a little at the mouth of the Gun ch'u valley. A little farther on we came to the Hot springs (Tj'a cWu-k'a) where there are a couple of low stone walls built around the springs. The springs are now nearly dry, and the reservoir over each one is not more than three or four feet square, not big enough to take much of a
.
bath
in.
The people come here

I
at certain seasons of the year
(September believe) to bathe, when they picnic by the river side and amuse themselves with singing, dancing and bathing; this is their one annual bath. P'ongdramo (Chinese Peng-cha-mu) is a filthy hamlet with a kung-kuan, where live five or six Chinese soldiers who attend to the ula. This kung-kuan is known as a Han-Man kung-kuan or a "Chinese-Tibetan post-station ;" government employes of both nationalities can stop in it. It is the second stage from Bat'ang, the first being at Hsiao pa-ch'ung. According to Chinese itineraries P'ongdramo is 90 //from Bat'ang, but only made it sixteen miles from that place. The Chinese government magnifies the distances along these remote and diflficult post roads so that it appears to the home government that the couIn the kungriers cover enormous distances in a very short time. kuan here (at P'ongdramo) was posted a notice to government take the couriers issued by the Ping P'u (War Office) of Peking. following from it: "The War Office fixes the distance from Tachien-lu to Nyach'uk'a (Ho-k'ou or Chung-tu) at 330 /?,and the time
1 1
allowed couriers to ride this
is
limited to twenty-four hours.

is
it
From Nyach'uk'a
to Li-t'ang the distance
320
li,
and couriers
Lit'ang to
are allowed twenty-four hours to
make
in.
From
to
Bat'ang the distance

allowed.
sixteen
is
480
li,
and
thirty-six hours is the time
From Bat'ang to Lh'amdun is 220 li, hours. The penalty for being four hours
fifty
be ridden in
late is ten
It is furthermore expressly blows. punishments, they must be inflicted in forbidden to remit these
with the heavy bamboo, and for any longer delay,

every case."
for being six hours late,
blows twenty blows,
Chinese
itineraries agree
with this order; they make the distance
between Ta-chien-lu and Bat'ang about 1,200 li, but Captain Gill and most other European travelers who have gone over this road say it is about two hundred and twenty-five miles. In other
350
TIBET.
words, the Chinese count 5 li to the mile when in mountainous country, whereas they only count three to the same distance when The li is, therefore, in practice more a measure in flat country.
of time than of distance, a fact to which Baber and other travelers
have, by the way, already referred. At Bat'ang and at the various hamlets this side of
that birch bark cups
it
noticed
and pails are largely used; they are made in the same way as those used in the Kuei-te country. The Hsien-sheng told me that the holly oak is found in the Han-chung Fu country;* the acorns are collected and sent to Hsi-ning Fu and other localities in Kan-su where they are used as
a dye, giving the dark
parts.
brown
color to the
felt
hats
worn
in those
September 20. A few miles above P'ongdramo we reached the and thence as far as the summit of the Dasho pass, the trail was over a mass of granite boulders with here and there In the hollow near the summit of a little patch of short grass. There was a little snow on the the pass are two small tarns. west side of the peaks around the pass, and on the east side a
timber-line,
slightly larger quantity.
The descent to the hamlet of Dasho was steep, and the view from the lower part of the valley, at the mouth of which stands Before us rose steep this unprepossessing place, very picturesque. rocky peaks covered with snow, and on the sides of the valley down which we were traveling were dark pine trees, with here
a birch or some other deciduous tree in its autumn foliage of yellow or red. There are three or four houses at Dasho (Ta-so fang the Chinese call it), one of which is a kung-kuan, filthier even than its neighbor at P'ongdramo. The mud was so deep in the courtyard that we could hardly reach the door. only stopped here to change our escort and then rode on, as Zamba fang was still a long way off, and a high mountain separated us from that place.
and there
We
The women at Dasho wear a form of head-ornament resembling somewhat that adopted in the Horba country. It consists of a discoidal piece of amber, about two and one-half inches in diameter,
with a coral bead
in the center.
One
of these ornaments
is
is
worn on
either sid e of the head,
and the
hair
arranged in three
* In northeast Shen-hsi.

plaits
TIBET.
35
hanging
down
of silver plaques and bits of turquoise.
behind, and on these are fastened a quantity The general effect is

the Pa-lung-ta of the Chinese (and Ba-
very ugly.
A
rong
good-sized
ta
rivulet,
of the Tibetans),* flows

this point the
down
the
Dasho
valley
and
is
crossed by a bridge a mile or so below the hamlet.
From
is
a little
way beyond
saw one
or
Ba-rong
it.
ta valley,
which
at least a
quarter of a mile
wide
in places, is well timbered, in
but
we
only
two houses
There
is
trail
which goes down
this valley to the
warm districts to
left
the south (Ba-rong or
Rongwa
and by a steep gorge (it is the Sung-lin k'ou of the Chinese) covered with fine trees, we made our way first to the top of the Mang la, and thence to the summit of the Rateu la (Ta shan or Tsan-pa shan of the Chinese). f From here we descended over a bare country, with an occasional black tent in some nook in the hills, to Rateu or Lit'ang Zamba, a small post-station which marks the .boundary between Bat'ang and Lit'ang. Rateu is a miserably dirty hole, where the kung-kuan is as big as a chicken-house and as filthy as a pig-sty. To add to the dirt of the place, it was sleeting when we arrived, and we dismounted before the door of the kung-kuan in a foot of liquid mud. To still more increase our discomfort, the ula drivers let the mule carrying our pots, pans and provisions, stray away in the dark, so we had nothing but a couple of eggs and some tea for supper. Some twenty black tents are scattered about on the foothills of the Bamt'ang shan, J whose beautiful snow-clad peaks close our view to the north. Down the valley flows the Ni ch'u (Gill's Nen ch'u), and above and below this place the mountain sides are covered with dense pine woods. It is too cold here to raise anything save a few turnips; barley is brought from Bat'ang, and the soldiers trade their tea with the Drupa for the few products they can supply, but even the Drupa only stay here for three months of the year; they change their camping grounds four times
of Ba), but our road
the river after a
few
miles,
annually.
* Bower t
La.
calls it
Tasu-chu
river.
Gill calls this
pass (he only mentions one) Rung-Se-La,
Bower
calls
it
Lathok
Gill calls this splendid
snowpeak Mt. Kung-Rh.
352
TIBET.
September 21. have been obliged to pass a day at'Rateu while the ula drivers went in search of the lost mule. All the people hereabout turned out to help them, and it was brought back
in the afternoon
We
minus a
leather
water
all
jar,
a tea churn,
other articles of no great value and
easily replaced.
and a few The poor
boy who was

losing
it;
in
charge of this mule

if it
he said
where the and burnt with blazing pitch-pine chips the usual punishment for such an offense. He and the soldiers fold me that the head Deba (Ying kuan the Chinese call him) is a terrible tyrant. He exercises all the droits du seigneur over the women folks among his subjects, and it is also said that he is in the habit, when dismounting from his horse; of using one of his kneeling subjects instead of a stepping stone. The Head D6ba is not as wealthy as his uncle, the Second Deba (Erh Ying-kuan), though he owns the famous salt mines, or is'ak'a, south of Bat'ang, known to us by the name of Yerkalo. * He has also an income of a thousand taels or
Bat'ang,
was terribly frightened at was not found he could never return to Deba would have him flogged, put in the
_
cangue,
so derived from other sources. I asked a very bright Chinese soldier who has come with me from Bat'ang why it was that all Chinese soldiers in Tibet were
unarmed. are here," he replied, "to talk reason (/) to the Man-chia, not to overawe them by force of arms. are
"We
are
We
they should rise up against us and put any of us to death, we would not resist, but would warn them, saying, we are the great Emperor's soldiers, beware of what you do. He will surely punish you." There is truth in what this poorly paid and badly cheated soldier said about their role in Tibet, but his faith in the Emperor is, I fear me, ill-placed; he
If
few and thsy
many.
Would probably not

poor devils
in a
trouble himself about the killing of a few remote corner of his vast empire.
I heard also, to my great satisfaction, that there are now two French missionaries at the Ts'ak'a (Yerkalo), an old one and a young one. This is most pleasing news; it shows the good fathers have at last got another footing in their old station, from which they had been so brutally driven a few years ago.
* The French
op. cit., 156.
missionaries established a station at Yerkalo in 1871.
See Desgodins '
Village of Ra-nang
Lamayai
Lit'ang.
Village of Lit'ang Golo (Hsi Olo)
in
Lit'ang,
TIBET.
353
September 22. Crossing the bridge over the Ni ch'u, lowed the left bank of the river to Nada (Erh-lang-wan
nese),
a
it.
we
in
fol-
Chi-
little
post station with
two
or three Tibetan cabins
around
The country between Rateu and Nada is uncultivated and the mountain sides covered with trees, mostly pines. Now and then we caught a glimpse of beautiful snow-covered mountains to the north, one of which must be at least nineteen thousand feet
high.*
mile or so before reaching
Nada we passed near
a high
tower
stands on a rock overhanging the stream, and is similar in shape to those described by Gill, as noticed near Bakolo, to the east of Nyach'uk'a.f It is about fifty feet high
built of
dry stones.
It
No one could tell me and in a fairly good state of preservation. any thing about it, either its use or its origin. The women at Nada have a peculiar way of dressing their hair, it hangs down in little plaits, and a small lock, taken from the right side of the part, hangs down over the nose and reaches to the mouth. On their hair and just above the ears they wear two disks of silver, four or five inches in diameter, one on either side
of the head.
About four miles below Nada, from which place, by the way, got a beautiful view of the snow-covered mountains to the north, and of the pine forests surrounding their base, we began to notice fields of barley and patches of turnips. At this point we left the Ni ch'u valley, which bends southward, and having crossed three low ranges of hills trending southward, we descended by a narrow gorge to Ranang X (La-ma-ya of the Chinese), where we stopped in a fairly good Tibetan post station. We had to change the ula here, but the headman seemed very unwilling to supply any in view of the unsettled state of the country. He said that Lit'ang was at war with Chung-hsi, that many men had already been killed (probably two or three are to be understood by "many"), and that the road to Lit'ang, unsafe
we
*This peak,
of which Gill's
eastern.
called
Nen-da by
Gill,
is
apparently the center of the massif,
Kung-Rh forms
136.
the western extremity and his

to be 20,500 feet high.
Gombo Kung-ka
the
He makes Mt. Nen-da

op. cit,
II,
Gill,
See under date of September 30.
% Bower's Ramo.
354

times on account of Chakba,
TIBET.
at
was now extremely dangerous meet a living soul on it). All the people, with all their horses and a vast number of yaks were at Lit'ang, and he could not get ula ponies for me. I told him to do his best and that felt sure we could get off to-morrow.
all
(we
will probably not
There are quite a number of hamlets in this valley some barley is raised and birch trees are quite numerous on the mountain sides.
;
also notice a
few poplars
in
some
of the hamlets.
The
birch
bark is used here, as elsewhere in Tibet, to make household utenhave much difficulty in reconciling the I sils cups and pails. names of places along this road, as given by Capt. Gill, with Many of the names used by Gill are those used by the natives. The Chiquite unknown to all those I question on the subject.
nese authors of the

ing, for
Wei Tsang fu
fall
description of this road, but
into
chih give a tolerably accurate some curious mistakes, say-
example,
"down
a valley,"
where one would expect
" up," and
vice versA.*-
September 23.
headmen
were
of
all
were detained at Ranang until 4 p. M. the the surrounding villages having assembled here in
;
We
conclave declared they had neither

at Lit'ang
men nor beasts for me, that all with the army. Finally some were found and we made a start, though we could only go a few miles. We ascended a densely wooded valley (pines, junipers, birch, and willow trees) to a hamlet of two or three cabins, called Latsa (Lar t'ang in Chinese), about three hundred feet below the timberA few turnips line on the west side of the Gara la (or lak'a).
are
grown here. camped on a bit of green sward near the kung-kuan, as the latter was too filthy for human beings to put up in. The two Chinese soldiers stationed here and some of the Tibetans begged me to come into the kung-kuan, as brigands and thieves were
We
very bold and numerous in this place, but
we
all
preferred facing
any danger rather than the
the dingy post station. The filth we find in the Tibetan villages ever since entering Bat'ang territory is extraordinary, never, no not even in China, have I seen such dirty places. The mud is knee deep in all of them,
dirt in
(tfiird line
* See/oum. Roy. Asiat. Soc, from bottom).
n. s. XXllI, 44.
similar error occurs
on
p. 51
TIBET.
355
and swine, goats, chickens, dogs and cats all contribute to make tile ianes and courtyards too vile smelling for even my wellseasoned nostrils. Yaks, djo, and sheep are not numerous in this
part of Tibet, ponies
is
and mules do most of the work, and meat

approaches that of
but
In
little
eaten, at least at this time of the year.
the Lit'ang district the pronunciation
Lh'asa,
and
is,
consequently,
much more
readily understood
by
us than that of Bat'ang,
which
we
found nearly incomprehensible.
To add
to our trouble each locality has, of course, a large
number
of local idioms, with
which time alone can make one acquainted.
September
visit
2^. Last
left
night passed peaceably, though

lest
we
slept
with one eye open fearing

us.
the
much
talked of robbers might
We
very early, so as to be able to reach Lit'ang
before dark.
The road ascended rapidly, and soon we reached the head of the Latsa valley and entered a higher one, covered with rolled granite rocks. It trended westward and was bordered to the east by a high range of rocky mountains, over which the road to Lit'ang
led, and which is known to the Chinese as the Huang-t'u kang, and to Tibetans as Gara lak'a or Gara pen sum. This depression between the Latsa valley and the Huang-t'u kang has evidently been the bed of a glacier, and there are still several ponds in it. One called the " dry lakelet " (Kan hai-tzQ by the Chinese)
has a
small stone cabin on its bank. This refuge-house natives as Tsung-ta. The stream flowing by sources in this valley.
is
known
to the
its
Ranang has
The descent from the Gara lak'a to the post station of Jambut'ong (T'ou fang in Chinese) is short and very gradual, the ground covered with rocks and in a few spots with brush
or grass.
Jambut'ong is a dirty post station with two houses, in one of which two Chinese soldiers are stationed. There were some hundred Tibetans camped here, returning from Lit'ang, and driving home a herd of yaks and five hundred or six hundred sheep captured from the Chung-hsi people. A couple of miles beyond Jambut'ong we came to the brow
a
hill,
known
of
which
to the Chinese as A-la-po-sang shan, at the foot of stretches the plain of Lit'ang, and in a nook in the
hills
the north side of this broad valley
on
we saw
the
town
of Lit'ang
356

its
TIBET.
the golden spires of the sunlight.
Chamba
ch'0-k'or-ling temple shining in
descent, After a couple of miles of continuous and rather rapid there is also an ula we came to a bridge over the Li ch'u, where This point is called Che zangka, possibly a corrupt form station.
of Ch'u zamba, " river bridge"; Ta ch'iao, or "the big bridge."
it
is
known
to the Chinese as
tents were seen scattered over the broad Lit'ang each one herds of yaks and large flocks of sheep valley, and near The bridge over the Li ch'u had been washed were grazing. two rickety and very springy poles, lashed to the butaway and The ponies and mules had tresses, were all we had to walk on.
Numerous black
to
swim
the river, and the luggage
was
carried across
by the
ula drivers
on
their backs.
In the plain by the river reached the town at 4.30 p. m. were camped about 5,000 men, their white cotton tents pitched in a circle inside of which the horses were picketed. Near by a herd of yaks and a very large flock of sheep, captured from the Chung-hsi people, were grazing under an escort of was told that in these inter-tribal wars the mounted men. plunder made on the enemy is not divided among the victors, Two days each man carries off what he himself has captured. ago there was a fight in which two Lit'angites and three Chunghsiites were killed.and another battle is anticipated in the near future. Lit'ang stands on a hillside; on the plain at the foot of the hill are two high white-washed buildings, one the residence of the Head Deba, the other that of his brother, the Second Deba, who
We
side
is
a lama.*
The town
is
much
larger than
Bat'ang, but the
complete absence of trees makes it look population comprises about three hundred between two thousand and three thousand dred and fifty Chinese.f A wall, built by
*Tlie
chief
first
very desolate.
The
and
and
fifty
families
lamas, also one hunthe Chinese

is
I
believe,
(?).
Deba's name
is
Derang jyamts'o, the second
Kuntun dewi
its
The
lama
official is
the Drebung lama Pents'o.

n.
s.
On
Lit'ang and
history, see
Joum. Roy. K tA
houses"
thousand
Asiat. Soc,
says
it is
XXIIl, 40, 124, 248
and 271.
"a
small city, containing but
two thousand
five
hundred
Report,
etc.,
67.
Gill,
op.
cit.,
II,
189, says
it
has one thousand families
and three thousand lamas. Probably the whole Lit'ang country has between one five hundred and two thousand five hundred families, exclusive of lamas. Conf. p. 358. Ch'en Teng-lung in his Lit'ang chih lueh (1810) says (p. 2)
that there are five thousand three hundred
and twenty
district.
families
and three thousand
two hundred and seventy lamas
in
the Lit'ang

in
TIBET.
357
now in the eighteenth century, once inclosed the town, but is on a commanding point on the east side of the town ruins;
stands a dilapidated Kuan-ti temple.
had proposed stopping in a Chinese inn, of which the Chinese appeared to be quite proud, but the Liang-t'ai, fearing lest the turbulent and intoxicated soldiery might molest me there,
We
asked
me
to
come
to his
Ya-men, where he gave
me two
very
small rooms and a kitchen.
September
25.^^
to take
first
occupation to-day
to Ta-chien-lu.
I
was
to try
and get
enough money
me
fortunately found a
Lao-shan trader, whom I had met in 1889, and he lent me fortyfive rupees to be paid to his partner at Ta-chien-lu. The Hsien-sheng and I dined with the Liang-t'ai and had a This official is a very stupid very good dinner of sixteen courses.
fellow
ever,
who
has bought the office he

this
all
now
holds.
He
has,
how-
a very bright Ssu-yeh (a prompter, private secretary, or

call
whatever one chooses to

writes his dispatches,
office),
who
talks for him,

in
manages
his business,
and keeps him
good humor.
1
heard that although the lamas do not allow the people to mine
carried
gold in the immediate vicinity of Lit'ang, a good deal of rough

placer mining
brought here and sold
on in remote localities. All the gold is from fifteen to sixteen times its weight in silver. The Liang-ta'i said that about two thousand ounces of gold are collected annually; most of it is bought by the lamas, who send it to Ta-chien-lu. A fair day's earning for a gold washer is five/i? * a day. The lamas here are said to be very wealthy, and most of the twenty or thirty.firms of Chinese traders of this place get their funds from them. Besides the tea trade, a large number of sheep (about ten thousand a year) are driven to Ta-chien-lu, and, besides supplying that town, help provide the Ch'eng-tu market, which city gets also much of its mutton from Sung-pan T'ing.
is
for
The people here use
large quantities of gold ornaments.
The
women wear
* kfen
about 75
is
their hair
hanging
down
in
one large
plait,
and on
the tenth part of a liang or ounce.
Five/ of gold would be worth
tael cents in silver, or
77 cents of our currency.
358
TIBET.
silver or
either side of their heads are large disks of
embossed
gold,
"
some of them ten inches Though Lit'ang is a bare, cold

level,
in
diameter.*
tude above sea

barley here,
place, and at a considerable altiand the Tibetans do not attempt to raise even
some
of the Chinese
manage to grow
few
vegetables,
such as turnips, o-sung, greens, etc., but most of their supplies come from Nyach'uk'a or Bat'ang; even firewood is brought here from a day's journey to the south. Snow falls at Lit'ang from the ninth moon to the sixth, inclusively (October to June), and rains are frequent during the months
when
The
it
does not snow.
Liang-t'ai asked the
Deba
to supply
me
with ula as soon
as possible, but
we
learned that none could be ready before the

will
will
As we day after to-morrow. between here and Ta-chien-lu,

days, so
I
double at least one stage be able to get there in five
can be patient under this contretemps.
September 26. To-day has passed talking with Chinese and Tibetans, asking a few questions and answering innumerable All those with whom I have talked agree that the lay ones. population of the town is between three hundred and three hundred and fifty families, and that there are several thousand families of Drupa in the Province. This can readily believe from the presSeveral ence here of the large force camped below the, town.
I
districts,
am
assured, are not represented in the
army now
here.
There are in Lit'ang blacksmiths, silversmiths and coppersmiths, also a few workers in leather and saddlemakers, but none of the work have seen is of a high order, all is very inferior to that of Though all the houses are of the Tibetan type (. e., twoD6rg6. storied), most of them have roofs covered with narrow slabs of wood, about three feet long, on which are laid sods of grass to
I
hold them down.

* The national headdress of Tibet is that worn by the Panaka, K'amba and in Jyade, referred to. We find it first mentioned in Friar Odoric's Travels (H. Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither, I, 150). Athanasius Kircher (in Nieuhoflf, Embassy from the East India Company to China, p. 39 and 44) shows that
and previously
the headdresses of the eastern Tibetan
at present.
women were the same " Kingdom of Coin " is, take it, K'amdo. 39 of NieuhofPs work are those of Koko-nor Tibetans.
His
I
in the
17th century as
figures
The
on page
TIBET.
359
The incarnate Buddha, or Truku, of Lit'ang comes from Lh'asa, and the Abbot or K'anpo, who rules the great lamasery of Chamba-ch'O^k'or-ling, is also sent here from the same place and for a term of three years. The notes on Lit'ang in my translations, published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,* are still true at the present day, though the Chinese works from which they are taken were written over a century ago. One must not look for change or progress in this country.
September 2y. We left at 8 a. m. in company with one of the headmen of the Chala Jyabo (Ming-cheng-ssii) of Ta-chien-lu,
who
and
is
returning from a mission to the Deba's wife, the daughter
of his king.
is
Though
a Tibetan, he speaks Chinese like a native,
our party, especially as he has promfrom Nyach'uk'a to our destination, as from that point to Ta-chien-lu all the country belongs to his
a valuable addition to
ised to
manage things
for us
master.
The road led over low hills to the top of the Dzo-mo la, which the Chinese call "the burning-hill " (Huo shao-po), why, 1 cannot
conceive, as
1
saw no
hill
sign of volcanic action anywhere, either
here or elsewhere in the vicinity; possibly the
name means noth-
ing more than "the
(above) the
Huo
(ch'u)."
A short descent brought us to Yaokats6 on the Hor ch'u, Huo chu in Chinese, where there are ruins of a former post station. Here we met about a hundred men going to join the army at Lit'ang, all of them well armed and mounted on fine large horses, We folfor which this section of country is justly celebrated. lowed the right bank of the river as far as Hor ch'uk'a, passing on the way numerous gold washings, in fact, all the gravel beds in The gravel is and along the river have been washed for gold. rather coarse sandstone and white quartz. Hor ch'uk'a consists of three or four houses, one a kung-kuan, where live two soldiers, and just beyond the hamlet is a rather
dilapidated
Wen Hou
temple.
The houses
are of stone, but only
a story high.
lateral
At this point we left the Hor ch'u and ascended a valley which brought us by an easy ascent to the summit
of the
Wango
la (Gill's
Wang-gi
la).
We then
*New
series,
entered a valley in which in less than three miles
we
passed fifty-seven black tents.
Probably several thousand yaks
XXII!, and frequently referred to in the preceding notes.
360
TIBET.
were grazing
here, but 1 was surprised to see very few sheep. Passing out of this cattleman's paradise, at a point where it
we crossed another low range of mounand entered a rocky, narrow gorge, very appropriately called Loan-shih chiao, or "pit of boulders," the lower part of which is thickly covered with pines and oaks. We pulled up for the night at the little post station of Tsa-ma-ra dong (Tsanma-la-tung in Chinese), situated at its mouth, having made, without riding very hard, two stages in one day. This little place, lost in the mountains, is one of the most picturesque spots we have seen. The steep hills around it are covered with trees, now in their many colored autumn foliage, a brook dashes down the gorge over a bed of boulders, and around
takes a southerly bend,
tains
by the
Ku
la,
the three
little
log houses composing the hamlet are fields of oats
Three Chinese soldiers and their families inhabit the place; they received us with great kindness and made us as comfortable as they could. Here for the first time we ate potatoes raised in the valley, and the soldiers gave us also greens, a fowl
and vegetables.
and some eggs. The pack animals only arrived late in the night; the men had had a hard time getting them down the Loan-shih
chiao in the dark; in
this part of the
fact, it
is
road
was a wonder they got here at very bad, even in daylight.
all,
as
September 2S.I was awaked by the cries of silver pheasants on the hillside behind the house. The sun was shining brightly and the little valley looked most beautiful. I could have stayed for hours looking at the oaks, with their dark, glistening leaves, the moss-covered pines, the yellow-leaved birches and the high mountains rising all around, their summits a serrated line of red-
we had a long ride before us, and so we rolled up our blankets and got off as soon as we had swallowed our tea and eaten a few handfuls of tsambaour usual morning
dish rocks; but
below the station we turned up a valley leading northeast and down which flowed a little brook. All the gravel along its banks and on the lower slopes of the Zuunda la (Gill's Tang Gola), which begins here, has been worked over by gold
ten or twelve persons digging and washing the gravel. Their method of mining was simple in the extreme the gravel was shoveled into a wooden trough, about four
each,
meal.
mile or so
washers.
We
passed
two camps
of
some
both
men and women, busy
feet 'long

and
six or eight inches
TIBET.
a
361
broad
at
the lower end; through
it
little
stream of water
Across the lower end of the trough was stretched a thick woollen rag through which the water escaped. The mud and gravel in the trough were stirred up with a stick and gently removed with the hand, while the particles of gold set free were caught in the rag. Every now and then the rag was removed, the gold collected, and put in a yak horn snuff
to flow.
bottle.
was allowed
The cabins of the gold workers were beside the diggings they were tent-shaped and covered over with long strips of pine
bark.
The descent from the Zuunda

base
is
la
was
short but steep
at the
the village of Lit'ang Golo (Hsi OIo of the Chinese) in a

fertile,
broad,
lets.
well-cultivated valley, dotted over with
little
ham-
Wheat, barley, potatoes, turnips, greens, etc., are cultivated here, and pigs and chickens are as plentiful as in a Chinese village. All the women we have met in the Lit'ang country wear the same horribly ugly lock of hair hanging down over the nose, which we first noticed at Nada. It is a part of the national dress and a woman is considered to be a very brazen-faced character who does not wear it. Teuja, the dirty black paste with which most Tibetan women smear their faces, is not much used in Bat'ang or even farther west, wherever there are Chinese, but the Drupa and the Central Tibetan women use it very generally. We followed down the Lit'ang Golo valley for a couple of miles and then ascended the steep Mo-lung gung (Po-lang-kung shan in Chinese), which rises above the timber line some two hundred or three hundred feet.* The ascent is very steep and over loose Oaks, pines and stones which makes climbing very disagreeable. birches cover the mountain sides, and a variety of rose bush, the skin of whose seed-vessels is eaten by the natives, is also very abundant here. This mountain is famous as producing that curious worm-plant known as the Shar-tsa gong-bu (tung-chu7ig hsia-is'ao in Chinese), called by botanists Cordyceps sinensis. Very near the summit of the mountain is a post station with two
* Gill makes this mountain to be over 15,000 feet. a few hundred feet above the timber line which
be
at
I
think he
is
wrong
and
as
it
only
rises
found
here, as elsewhere in
this latitude in Tibet, to
about 13,500
feet.
In fact while Gill's
my obserall
vations for altitude at Bat'ang, Lit'ang and Ta-chien-lu agree closely, at

points along this route his altitudes are greatly in excess of those
1
other
found
for the
same
places.
362

it.
TIBET.
or
or three soldiers stationed in
It
is
said that this spot
is,
was, a famous lurking place for brigands. We descended into a little hollow on the farther side of the mountain, and stopped for the night at the foot of another pass, which we have to cross to-morrow, and where there is another
post station, called Chien-tzu-wan in Chinese, and Laniba in Tibetan.
At Laniba we met a party of Chinese soldiers, with their Tibetan wives and children, on their way back to their homes in Ssu-ch'uan, also a Salar from I-ma-mu chuang, who had been on a trading trip to Lit'ang. He dealt in shagreen (jsha-p't), he said, and was now on his way to Ch'eng-tu. Among the soldiers was one man who had been at Shigatse for twenty -five years and who had only been
HOE, Wooden Blade
(Eastern Tibet).
able after
him home.
is
enough money to take The Chinese government do not pay the traveling expenses of their soldiers who desire to retire from the army that
all
these years to get together
one way of keeping men in the service. It is no easy matter for one of these poor soldiers to save up enough to pay for the journey from Lh'asa to Ta-chien-lu, as it costs from 20 to 25 taels to hire a yak from one place to the other, or rather to have a yak
These soldiers had left Shigats6 in February, and thought they had not been so very long on the road four months is the time usually employed by well equipped
;
load carried that distance.
caravans, only using mules as pack-animals, to to China.
make
the journey
TIBET.
363
September 2g. Last night there was a heavy frost and this at seven o'clock the thermometer stood at +33 FahrenAfter crossing the Laniba pass we followed the valley on heit. It is everywhere well wooded with holly-leaved the east side. oaks and pines, and in the lower portion with willow, maple,
morning
birch, ppplar,
apple, cherry and,
think, mulberry trees.
We
passed on the
way
several small hamlets, at one, called Ma-kai-
chung, there
also
little
lower
fields
Chinese inn, and around this place and we saw patches of hemp and a few of barley and wheat.
is
a small
down
the valley
reached the Nya ch'u, the Ya-lung chiang of the Chinese, by noon. The river here makes a sharp bend from north-northwest to south, and on its left bank stands the town of Nya-ch'uk'a, known by the Chinese as Chung tu, "Middle ferry," or Ho-k'ou. Another little stream coming from the east and called the Orongshe ch'u (Hsiao ho of the Chinese) empties into the Nya ch'u here. On the bluff on the right bank of the river and facing Ho-k'ou is a small village, and the steep hillsides are everywhere cultivated in terraces, buckwheat being one of the principal crops.
We
made signs to the men in charge of the ferry boats (similar one used on the Dre ch'u below Bat'ang) to come over for us, and soon we heard a gong summoning the crew, and the big boat in a little while put off. It was rowed close along the left bank of the river till above the place where we were waiting for it, when it was steered out into the rushing, eddying river, and embarked, we and our was soon swept over to our side. belongings, the ula not going any farther, and in a short time we
to the
We
We
reached the water-gate of the town.

Natives cross the river in
little
skin coracles, a
;
number
is
of
them
were bobbing about on the stream government use and for Chinese
small fare.*
the ferry-boat
reserved for
travelers, the latter
paying a
Ho-k'ou is a thoroughly Chinese placq, the houses two-storied and similar to those of Ta-chien-lu. The male population is exclusively Chinese, the women half breeds. There are forty families living here, exclusive of a Sergeant (Wai-wei) and a few soldiers. It is the extreme western point of the Chala jyabo's possessions, and is practically the frontier post of China, as no
*
In
winter the river
is
crossed on a bridge of boats.
See
's
Report,
66, also Bower, op, cit., 91.
364
TIBET.
is allowed to go beyond it without first showing a passport or permit from the Ta-chien-lu Chiln-liang-fu. It is the lowest point we have come to in Tibet, being only a little over eight thousand Barley, millet, buckwheat, maize, potatoes, feet above sea level.
one
cabbages, celery, peppers, onions, cucumbers and other vegetables A variety of parroquet, are grown around and below the town.
with light green body and long light blue tail, is found here and taken in large numbers to' Ssii-ch'uan. This same variety of bird
is
found,
am
told, at Bat'ang.
of the Nya ch'u, in front of Ho-k'ou and thence northward, belongs to the Nya-rong, a dependency of Lh'asa.* I was very comfortably installed in the home of one of our escort, a young soldier from Lit'ang, and the ula was promised for an early hour to-morrow. Most of the women of Ho-k'ou wear one large plaque of silver on the crown of their heads, though some add another worn on
The west bank
the forehead.
The
hair
is
done up
in
one large
plait
hanging
Their dress is a long, loose, blue cotton gown, over which is another of the same length, but sleeveless; a colored belt is worn around the waist. The earrings are of the Bat'ang pattern.
the back.
down
September so. The ula was at the door before sunrise, and we were soon on the way again. The road led up the gorge of the Orongshe ch'u, crossing and recrossing the river which dashes wildly down, eddying around or tumbling over huge boulders which fill its bed. Pine, maple, birch and holly-oak trees grow in great profusion all the way to Bagolo, where the valley broadens out a little and some land is cultivated.
Bagolo (Pa-kiao-lu
* Perhaps
visit
in
its
Chinese)t
Chinese
is
little
post station beside

Shortly after
better
known by
name of
its
Chan-tui.
my
first
to Tibet, this province revolted against
Lh'asan governor.
After
some
desultory fighting the
and Lh'asan
rule
Deba was were restored
people beyond endurance.
and a new one sent in his place when peace new incumbent begins to squeeze the For the Chinese official account of these disturbances and
recalled,
until the
the pacification of the country, see
Peking Gazette, 29th
July, 1891,
and 24th
February, 1892.
is Pa-kou lou or " The eight angled tower," referring watch tower standing here. This would be a very good name for the place, but fancy the name is Tibetan, probably Ba golo. There is a Lit'ang golo and a Ma Nya golo. Golo, 1 believe, means "town, capital." Bower {pp. cit., 91) was misinformed when told that a look-out was still kept in this tower.
Gill
says the Chinese
name
to the peculiar shape of the

1

which stands
TIBET.
365
a very well preserved watch tower, similar to the one we passed near Nada. The people here told me that it had been built by a King of Tibet ( Tsang Wang') to guard the highroad at a time when a Chinese invasion was feared. They may refer to Latsang Khan, during whose reign (in 1719-1720) the great Chinese expedition and conquest of Tibet was undertaken. Between Bagolo and Orongshe* (Wo-lung-shih in Chinese), about eight miles farther up the valley, we passed occasional farm-
houses,
all
of a half-Tibetan,
half-Chinese type.
The
district
it
chiefs residence
was passed
few miles
east of Bagolo;
is
finely built Tibetan
house with tiled roof, the tiles made near Tungolo by Chinese who came from Ta-chien-lu and built a kiln there. At Orongshe, where we stopped in a fairly good inn, there live nine families of Chinese, but no Tibetans. The place has a certain reputation in Tibet as producing the best maple-knot cups {puru). These knots are known locally as la shing, and in other sections of Tibet as dzaya shing. The Chinese frequently, in fact usually, call these knots p'u-tao-ken mu, which, literally translated, means "vine root." These cups sell for from i to 15 or 20 taels, according to the fineness of the tracings in the wood.
Though
little
wheat, barley and vegetables are

itants say
travelers.
it
is
Orongshe, the inhaba very poor place, and that they live solely on
at
grown
October i. We left very early with the pleasing expectation of meeting an European before night, for heard that my old friend. Father Souli6, is now living at Ma-Nya-ch'uk'a (Tungolo).t Though I have done a good deal of talking in the last nine months, it has been exclusively with Asiatics, and they have no conversa1
tion, as
we
understand
it,
so
was wild
for a talk.
The valley above Orongshe is well wooded very nearly up to the summit of Kaji la, on which, by the way, we found a little snow. From its summit we saw to the east-northeast the Jara ri,
around whose base I passed in 1889,1 when going to Ta-chien-lu, and to the east-southeast its mate, the Kungka ri between the
;
two
rises the
Chedo
la,
over which the road to Ta-chien-lu
passes.
* Bower's Uru Tonga,
t Bower's Mayo golok. 268. X See Land of the Lamas,
366

the east side of Kaji
la
TIBET.
On
a
there
is
a plateau
where
is
we
noticed
few
black tents,
and
was
told that there
little
lamasery
gomba not far off, but we could not see it. Crossing this little plateau we descended rapidly to the Tungolo valley, only passing on the way a small farm house and the tile kiln This valley is quite a broad one for Tibet, referred to previously. and a number of lateral ones of about equal size open onto it
called Kaji
above and below where we entered it. living in a little room I found Pere Soulie
just outside the village.
in a
Tibetan house
He was prepared
for
been received a few days previously that I Ta-chien-lu. We sat and chatted for a couple of hours and I drank a bottle of wine, which the good fellow insisted on sharing with me, though he had but the one to use in case of sickness. He looked aged and worn, but was the same cheerful, pleasant companion had found him in former years. At Tungolo is another old watch tower, but I could hear nothing of its history or original object. left the village, which is at least half Chinese, by 2.15 p, m., and accompanied by Father Soulie, who insisted on escorting me a few miles on my way, we
1 I
my visit; news had was on my way to
rode
called
down the valley to a point where there is a little Wats6ma (Wa-ch'ieh in Chinese), beside which
camp on
a hill.*
hamlet,
are the
ruins of an old Chinese
me, and I turned up a lateral valley, one, and in which we noticed several more watch towers. We rode to Anya (A-niang-pa of the Chinese), where we lodged in the headman's house, a rather Chinesesy building, with a long line of prayer barrels around one side of the inner gallery overlooking
the courtyard.
find that the Tibetans along the highroad do not let themselves be as much imposed upon as regards supplying ula as I had supposed. A Wai-wei and three Chinese soldiers from Ch'amdo left Draya with us to go to Ta-chien-lu for money for the garrison. They had an ula order, but ever since passing Bat'ang they have
I
Here Father Soulie left broader even than the Tungolo
had
give
to hire horses, as the local authorities positively refused to
them
if
even
ponies. They had, they said, no redress, and doubted they could get their expenses refunded by the Chinese
authorities
on
their return to
Ch'amdo.
* Bower's Mana Rong.

October 2.
TIBET.
367
The
ula
in getting off, for
Ta-chien-lu
About three miles
was ready by daylight and we lost no time was at the end of the day's march. above Anya we came to Nashe,* where we
saw
yet another of the old watch towers, the last one
we met with.
them, and holes in the walls in which rafters for floors must once have been set they are loopholed and a few have windows in them near the top, which is octagonal, while the lower portion is star shaped.
All these
towers have doors
in
Passing Nashe (Na-wa-lu in Chinese)
we came
to another
little
hamlet called Tiru (Ti-ju
in Chinese),
where
there are three Chi-
Here we met some Chinese women on their way toLh'asa; they were wives of small officials whom we had passed a few days before. These women were riding disguised as men, for Chinese women are not allowed in
nese soldiers and a post station.
the country, wearing big red
feng-mao
;
to hide their headdresses
and
faces,
and
their
little
feet stuffed in big velvet boots.

la
At Tiru.
the ascent of the
Chedo
it
begins
it is
very gradual and not over
two
miles long, but
was
bitterly cold, a strong southeast
wind
blowing over the snow with which the mountain was covered. The descent on the east side is also gradual, and were it not that the road has been paved with irregular blocks of granite, it would be very good traveling, as it is, it is a veritable loan-shih chiao, or
"pit of boulders."
The country from Tungolo

east side of the pass,
is
to near the hamlet of Chedo, on the
bare of trees or even shrubs, but at
Chedo
and
farther
down
the valley of the
Che ch'u there grows
a consid-
which supplies Ta-chien-lu with firewood. But what surprised me beyond measure was to see two men employed repairing the road it was such an uncommon sight that we stopped for a few minutes to look at them work. A few miles above Ta-chien-lu we passed the mouth of a short valley running to the southwest, in which-we saw the summer It is a Tibeto-Chinese house of residence of the King of Chala. no great size, and is known as the Yu-ling Kung. At four o'clock we reached Ta-chien-lu, and before going to my
erable quantity of brush,
;
old lodgings in
Yang
lama's house,
stopped
at the Bishop's, out-
side the south gate,
and found Dejean, there to welcome me,

* Bower
calls
my
good
friends, Peres
for they too
Mussot and had been advised that
Anya Amia To and Nashe
Nashi.
368
TIBET.
was coming. was hard work

I
We
at first for
I
passed a couple of hours talking, though it me, I had not spoken a European lan-
guage
for so
long that
was
continually dropping into Chinese or
Tibetan.
At Yang lama's house the Pbnbo, as they call his wife, for she belongs to the family of the head Agia of the country, received
me
at the gate,
filling
were
and in a few minutes a the courtyard to greet me.
crowd
I
of
took
my old friends my old lodgings
of '89, and settled of
down
for a
starting out for Shanghai,
few days of well-earned rest before which I will be able to reach by the ist
November.
October .?. Lu Ming-yang, the lieutenant
to
me
at
Kanze
on
in
1889,
and
who
I
is
who was now here on
so kind waiting
again
orders, called
from Kanze the lamas mobbed him in his Ya-men for having given me an escort to Ta-chien-lu and otherwise befriending me. They also asked him to give up the Kanze Horba, who had guided me from Jyakor gomba to Kanze, and who had taken refuge with him, as the mob wanted to put him to death. Lu kept the crowd off with the carbine had given him, and after a long poy/-wow lasting several days got them to consent to the guide's going back to Jyakundo; but he says that he passed some very uncomfortable days
1
to-day.
me yesterday, but was out. He told me that after my departure
He came
before things
were
finally settled.
that the Chala King is thinking of sending troops to Lit'ang to assist the D6ba, his son-in-law, and thus bringing the war there to a close, as the Ta-chien-lu trade is suffering very much by it.
Lu
also told
me
The Chinese here have the following couplet :

" Chiang-k'a
min chan pu-U, BaPang ya-t'ou yao pu-U,

Lit'ang tsaniba chihpu-tS, Ho-k'ou hsien-hua shuo pu-tS."
Translated this means "At Chiang-k'a (Gart'ok), don't stand in the doorway; at Bat'ang, don't flirt with the girls; at Lit'ang, don't eat tsamba; at Ho-k'ou (Nyach'uk'a), don't talk twaddle." The explanation is said to be found in the well-established fact that the Chiang-k'a people are gossips, that the Bat'ang young
:

women
grit,
TIBET.
369
are very unreserved, that the Lit'ang tsamba is full of and that the people of Hok'ou are fond of silly, empty talk. Pere Mussot showed me a map of Tibet, on which Bonvalot and Bower had roughly marked the routes they had followed. My route met theirs at Batasumdo, was more or less the same as theirs to Lagong, from which point to Gart'ok Bonvalot followed some little used trail, while Bower and I went over the highroad. Pere Mussot has very obligingly lent me all the money I require to
take
me
to Shanghai.
mission have
The kindness the fathers of the Tibetan shown me on both my journeys can never forget
I
nor sufficiently acknowledge.
friends,
The day passed rapidly, talking first to my French 4.. then to old native acquaintances, and in making arrangehave hired a I ments to continue the journey to Ya-chou Fu. sedan-chair to take me to the latter place in six days, a day less
October
than
is
usually used for the
trip.
have been told a great deal
about the terrible ravages of cholera (ma-chuo chen or wen) in Ssii-ch'uan this year; at Ch'eng-tu people have died by thousands.
The disease has spread
to the
Ya-chou
it,
district,*
where
it
is still
raging, but Ta-chien-lu has escaped
though
it
has been visited
by typhoid fever Pere Dejean has had it twice. Lu Ming-yang called again to ask me to dine with him to-morrow. I mentioned to him the story of Punropa, so graphically told by Baber,t and asked him if he knew of any additional details
of this interesting episode in Tibetan history.
He
said that
he was a Chin-ch'uan man and spoke and read Chinese. This explains why, having become a For a Lh'asa official, he was given the government of Lit'ang. popular there among both natives and while he was extremely
he had
known Punropa
well, that
Chinese, but
fancy he worked too
much
in the interest of
China,
hence his recall to Lh'asa and his sudden death
by
poison.
The old king of Chala, until some twenty years ago, was a thorough-going Tibetan; he wore his hair long, carried a big sword in his belt and would suffer no interference from the ChiDuring a war with the Nya-rong (Chan-tui), in which he nese. was hard pressed by
*
1
his enemies,
he had to ask the assistance of
going on
found nearly half the people of Ya-chou in mourning and funeral ceremonies in innumerable houses, but the people told me that the scourge was abating, Researches in Western China, 98. t E. C. Baber, Travels and
37
TIBET.
the Chinese Chun-liang fu and his troops.
This he secured, but on

a
the condition that he

a Chinese
;
would henceforth wear
queue and dress
like
he was forced to accede to these humiliating conditions. He has, nevertheless, resisted all Chinese encroachments on his states, and frequently orders out of Chala all Chinese who have
His sons have been brought up as and dress as such, but they cannot escape their fate. The present king's successor will be more and more under Chinese rule, and finally this strong little state, which has resisted its powerful neighbor's encroachments for a century more than Bat'ang and other parts of Eastern Tibet, will become a part
surreptitiously settled there.
true Tibetans,
and
live
of the province of Ssu-ch'uan.

the
To the south of Chala is another large native state known as Huang lama's country or Meli,* and south of it again live
savage tribes (so say my informants, but I fancy the savages are Li-su). I have also been told that the Chin-ch'uan extends all
the
way from Wa-ssu-k'ou
to
Sung-pan T'ing
or, in
other words,
to the
Amdo
country, f
Musk, which, when I last visited Ta-chien-lu, was a most important article of exportation, has given way to wool. The reason assigned to the fall in the price of musk (it fell to 4 huan,
but
is
now
at 5 or
British of a plant
same perfume.J
II
5>^) is said here to be the discovery by the which has the same medicinal qualities and the As to the use to which the enormous quantities
of elk horns exported from here are put, I learn that they are taken to Chung-king and there ground up and are used in making a very good toilet powder ifen), in great demand among Chinese
women.
* " Mill " and " Terres des lamas de Mong Fan " are marked on d'AnviUe's Carte du Si-Fan (V= Carte du Tibet), to the north of Li-Kiang Fu. See also Baber,
op. cit.,
93 and 96.
On
the Chin-ch'uan, which

/
is
divided into Little
and Great Chin-ch'uan,
see
also Baber, op. cit., 94.
X The Customs Returns for 1893 give the export of musk from that year as 72,766 ounces, valued at 478.192 Haikuan taels.
Chung-king during During the same

In
year 8,080 ounces of
musk vvêre imported into Shanghai from foreign countries. 1893 over 14,000,000 pounds of wool were exported from Chung-king.
II
They come principally from Lit'ang, but Ch'amdo and even the country farther west supplies a considerable quantity.

October 5.
TIBET.
371
Hsien-sheng and I dined to-day with Lu house on the mountain side overSpeaking of Po-yul, he told me that it was looking the town. divided into Po-ma or " Lower Po " and Po-to or " Upper Po."* The latter is inhabited by Drupa, but the former is now in the possession of people of Chinese descent. During the war between China and the Gorkas (in 1793 think), a detachment of five hundred Chinese soldiers from Ssu-ch'uan and under the command of a iVIajor ( Yo-chi) was started for the seat of war by way of PoThe detachyul, a country then very little knt)wn to the Chinese. ment lost its way, and arriving in Po-ma, was so delighted with the beauty and fertility of the country that the men decided to go no They married women of the farther and to make it their home. country and greatly prospered, and their descendants still occupy
The
Ming-yang
at his pretty little
the land.
While Po-to
in fact,
it
is under the rule of Lh'asa, Po-ma is independent being under the nominal control of a high Manchu officer
stationed at Lh'asa
who
is
known
as the
Ch'in-ch'ai,
" Envoy
to
This the savage tribes," or San Ch'in-ch'ai, "Third Amban." official has also in his jurisdiction Jyade, and a number of other
tribes, thirty-five in all,
among which is the little district of T'aibetween Ta-chien-lu and Dawo. Po-ma is visited by Lao-shan and YQnnanese traders, and it carThe horses of ries on a large trade with Derge, Jyade and Lh'asa. Po-ma are famous throughout Tibet, and its leather work, iron work and jewelry, as well as the products of its looms, are The products of the soil are celebrated and in great demand. varied and of excellent quality, and altogether this country would seem to be the most fertile spot of Tibet. The intimate relations existing between Po-ma and Derge may also account for the superior quality and style of goods made in the latter country, which resemble closely those of the former, in fact, Lu Ming-yang said that, in his belief, the Po-ma people had taught those of Defge to work metal and leather in the way they now do. Lu told me also that the King of Derge, who is now about forty
ling (or Gata),
is
years old,
the son-in-law of one of the Ministers of State {Kal'dn)
* These words are written Spod-smad and Spod stod. On d' Anville's Carte du Si-Fan, previously referred to, there is a " Pays de Pomsara " on the Chin sha river just north of Li-kiang Fu, and to the west of it he places Kung-pu (Ken-Pou-Y) Pomsara is in all likelihood Po-ma.
372

own
TIBET.
of Lh'asa, and that he constantly calls on the latter country to

assist
him
in
squeezing his
subjects,
by
whom
he
is
very
He passes much disliked. has a residence, and is entirely under Lh'asan influence, though his people are strongly opposed to that country, and have for years resisted its attacks on their national independence.
much
of his time at Lh'asa,
where he
This evening
take him
far as
gave the
little
Amdo
I
lama,
who
has shared
my
to
fortunes ever since the middle of August,
some money, enough
home
to Sung-pan.
also settled
my accounts with the
Lao-han Ma Shuang-hsi, who will, however, travel with me as Ya-chou Fu, and thence go by way of Ch'iung-chou and Sung-pan to Hsi-ning. He does not look forward with much pleasure to seeing his home again he would much prefer going directly to Shang-chia in the Ts'aidam and to his Mongol wife. The Hsien-sheng and Kao pa-erh go with me to Shanghai,
;
whence
the latter will return to Peking.
sheng, he wants to put

articles at
some
of his
As for the good Hsienmoney in foreign-made
sell at a good profit at Hsigo home by way of Han-k'ou, Hsi-an Fu and Lan-chou, and will probably reach his home about the same time that will mine, in December. Four carriers {J>ei-tzu) left yesterday for Ya-chou with part of my luggage and two more will accompany me, carrying our bedding and cooking apparatus. pay them at the rate of a rupee a day. My chair has eight coolies, paid at the same rate, and we will make good time. Several of these men carried me down this
Shanghai, which he will

will
ning.
He
road in 1889.
It was with a heavy heart that said good-bye to-night to Pere Mussot and Pere Dejean, they have been so kind to me and we have got to know each other so well that 1 felt sad at the thought that 1 was probably saying farewell forever to them and the mission, for which, they were good enough to say, I had done some good work in my wanderings in Tibet. Here I close my long journal; the road over which I still have to travel is the same as that which I followed in 1889; many others have gone up and down it before and since then, and most of them have written about it, and though much remains to be said of Ssii-ch'uan, it is not my province, Tibet is now behind me.
1
106
1.07
108
109
ILO
ax
112
O
-Ditch
\
E/,0.^
^Wu-ta.-hu
EX
MONGC
Alang-TijOJ^
ROUTE MAP
OF
34!
EXPLORATIONS IN
MONGOLIA
BY
AND
TIBET
W.WOODVILLE ROCKHILL
1891-1892.
Prepared aadpubHslied Ijy the
SmitlisoTiian
rnstiiiitioii.
33
94-
95
c^
')6o
<J
-^
Tsahan-horga
^
nturen
mitar
Atanff-nor'c'^J^^s^ gg;g
Alanff-ffol i!^
'^'^,
""iV&,
E2
MONGi
35
ROUTE MAP
OF
34:
EXPLORATIONS IN
MONGOLIA
BY
AND
TIBET
33
W.WOODVILLE ROCKHILL
1891-1892.
Prepared aiidpTiblLsliedty the
SmitlisoTiiaii Institiitioii.
Scale 1 irLcli-32 Miles or 1:2,027,520.

lO
10
-i
20
i
30
I
40
I
50
1
100
I
^rTn*TT\4\
Note. .At points along the Tvicte zaiderlined in Black, sextant oiseTvatuins vere taken.
The numbers indicate Tvladve altitudes feet above the route.

S.P.
in
Snowy Peaks.
SALAR VOCABULARY.
373
APPENDIX
I.
Salar Vocabulary.
English,
374
English.
SALAR VOCABULARY.
SAL A J? VOCABULARY.
English.
Salar.
375
Osmanli
Turkish.
Red pepper
Garlic
La-tzu (Chinese)
Samza
Ts'olian
Onion
Bread
Rice
Erne
Tzut'uran
Brown Sugar Kara sha-tang

(Chinese)
White sugar
Potato
Aha
Yang
sha-tang
(Chi-
(Chinese)
yii
nese)
Chopsticks
Ch'ulto
Porcelain
bowl Tobacco
Pear
Felt
Tsanza
Yen (Chinese) Armut

Ch'eh
Winter
fur
gown
Hat
Belt
Ismak(orTeurde)
Sorok
Bulh'a
Ishtan
Trousers
Socks
Boots
Ungwa(Cy. Chinese wa-tzu)
Etu
Sash
,
Queue
Clothes
T'un
Hai (Chinese)
Sandals
Button
Pillow
T'ugma(Cy: Tibetan tob-chi)
Yerto
Looking glass Kusku

Cotton
Stirrup
Mamu
T'eng (Chinese)
Cotton doth P'ost
Matchlock
Yerma nechte
Gunpowder
Em
Kanju
Gun
Bow
Arrow Sword
Ya
Ush
Kilish
Whip
Pen
Paper
Book
Kamjo Kalam (Arabic) Hahe Shu (Chinese)
Chinese cash Hel
376
SAN-CH'UAN T'U-JEN VOCABULARY.
377
APPENDIX
II.
San-Ch'uan T'u-jen Vocabulary.
English,
378
SAN-CH'UAN T'U-JEN VOCABULARY.

English.
38o
CENTRAL TIBET PLANTS.
APPENDIX
W.
III.
Central Tibet Plants.

By
Botting
Hemsley,
F.
R.
S.,
A. L.
S.
[Extract from the Journal of the Linnean Society Botany, Vol. xxx, pp. 131-140.]
Since the foregoing paper on Dr. Tliorold's Tibet plants and Captain Picot's
Kuen-lun plants was read,
tlie
Kew
Herbarium has been enriched, through the kind-
ness of Prof. C. S. Sargent, Director of the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University,
U.
S. A.,
by the
collection of dried plants

in 1892.
made by Mr. W. W.
Rockhill on his last
journey in Tibet,
hill's
had prepared a
brief outline of Mr.
Rock-
route from
a condensed report
of his account of his journey read before
the
Royal Geographical Society

I
of going to press
the purpose, and
in March of the past year; but on the very day have received a prefatory note from him, which is much more to
may
had
follow here:
in
S.
"The
object
view when making the
little
collection of plants, which,
through Professor Ch.
Sargent's kindness, has been examined and classified
by
Mr. Hemsley, of the Royal Gardens at Kew, was to give some idea of the flora of the country between the Kuen-lun range to the north and the inhabited regions of Tibet adjacent to the Tengri Nor on the south. This region has an average altitude
of 15,000 feet above sea level along the route followed by

prior to
me
in 1892,
and had not,
my
visit,
been explored.
Col. Prjevalsky, when traveling towards Lh'asa, one that I took, differed considerably as regards the configuration of the country from mine; and consequently I anticipated that notable
" The
route followed in 1879
by
which was nearly
parallel to the
two roads would be discovered. "I traversed this country in the months of May, June, July, and part of August, and heavy snowstorms and nearly daily frosts occurred during this period, though the thermometer rose more than once to 70 F. and even 83 on one occasion in the shade, at 2 p. m. The mean temperature from the 17th of May, when we entered
differences in the flora along the
,
the mountainous region to the south of the Ts'aidam, to the nth of August, when we descended to below the Timber line (13,500 feet above sea-level) on the Rama ch'u,
where ceased collecting plants, except such as the natives pointed out to me as being used by them either as food or medicinally, is shown in the following table:
1
1892.
^
.
.
A.
M.
F.
p.
M.
F.
p.
M.
F.
May
J""
J"Iy
17 to 31
+37=5 +35^7 +43fo

+4o.6
+54=5 +55f9
-|-54r6
-f 37^3
+38r3
-f 44^2
4-47r3
August
I to II
+61^5
381
tion, the
" Nearly the whole of the region traversed in this interval was of sandstone formapredominating color of which was bright red. The water was invariably brackish, and in many cases undrinkable; the soil everywhere sandy, or covered with a rather fine gravel, and occasionally a little clay. The grasses grew in bunches, nowhere forming a sod, except around the rare pools of pure water fed by the melting snows we occasionally passed. " 1 was careful to collect all the flowering plants I saw along my route, and the barrenness of this region may be judged by the very small number 1 have brought home with me. " The only edible plant we found in this country was a species of onion {Allium senescens), which grew in the sand in great quantities at altitudes higher than 15,000 feet above sea-level, though we looked for it in vain below this level. " I may here remark that the rhubarb plant, which found growing in enormous quantities on the north and northeastern slopes of mountains on the I ch'u, Len ch'u, and other feeders of the Jyama-nu ch'u, thrived at an altitude above sea-level ranging
I
from 12,000 to 13,500

the level of the sea."
feet. I note this fact as Col. Prjevalsky (Mongolia, ii, p. 84) says that this plant rarely flourishes at an elevation of more than 10,000 feet above
"W.
This
is
WOODVILLE ROCKHILL."
an exceedingly interesting collection, especially
when examined
in
connec-
tion with Dr. Thorold's;
the plants for the greater part being of the same habit and
half of them, however, are different species;
diminutive
size.
More than
of them had previously only been collected

the lamented Maximowicz described them.
viously only
by
Prjevalsky, from
it
and most whose specimens

were prewhere the
localities,
Several,
will
be
seen, too,
known
from the extreme western part of Tibet.

is
In all cases
species are different from Thorold's their general distribution

altitudes,
given.
The
and geographical positions were supplied by Mr. Rockhill.
Enumeration of the Plants collected by
Mr.
W. Woodville
Rockhill.
Flowers light yellow. Po chu valley; very 1. Clematis graveolens, Lindl. Aug. 14, 1892. WestLat. N. 31 45', long. E. 94 45'. abundant at 14,000 ft. This form is the ern Himalaya at 6,000 to 11,000 ft., Tibet and Western China. same as that named C. orientalis var. tangutica by Maximowicz, but if the two
are maintained as independent species
2.
it is
better referred here.

i,
Anemone imbricata,
of
Dang la mountains, N.
Maxim. Fl. Tangut. W. extremity of range at
p. 8,
t.
ft.
22.
ff.
1-6. Foot-hills
16,500
Lat. N. 33 40', long.
E. 90 35'.
June 27, 1892.
Previously collected only
by Prjevalsky on the extreme
Upper Yang-tse kiang

3.
i.
in Tibet.
Ra'nunculus TRicuspis,
t.
Maxim,
Fl. Tangut.
valley
i,
p. 12; at
Enum.
ft.
PI.
Mongol.
p. 16,
4.
ff.
17-27.
18'.
Valley of Murus,
June 23, 1892.
bottom
15,640
Lat. N. 33
44', long. E.
91
Mongolia.
382

Delphinium grandiflorum, Linn.
long.
E.
4.
Ke ch'u
On
valley at 12,700
ft.
Lat.
N. 31
25',
96, 28'.
(?),
Aug. 22, 1892.

fine grass.
river-bottom;
fine forest
growth,
mostly pines
5.
on
hillsides;
Delphinium pylzowii,
3.
Maxim,
in
MH.
Biol.
ix. p.
709; Fl. Tangut.
i.
p.
21,
ft.
t.
Dang ch'u
valley, river-bottom of gravel
and
clay;
good
fodder, at 14,500
Lat. N. 32 12', long. E. 92 12'.

6.
July 23, 1892.
Mongolia.
vilest
Plateau Meconopsis horridula, Hook.f. et Thorns. Lat. N. 32 51', long. E. 89 44'. July ains at 16,350 ft.
of
Dang la mountSandy
soil,
3,
1892.
some
7.
clay.
CoRYDALis m.mi^w.om\,
Sandstone.
foot-hills of
Hemsl. Basin of JWurus. Extreme head of valley on Lat. N. 33 43', long. E. 90 50'. Dang la mountains at 16,340 ft.
See description of this species in Thorold's
list
June 25, 1892.
at p.
109 (of present volume of Linnean Soc. Journ.).

8.
hills
Parrya exscapa, Ledeb.

of
Basin of Murus.
Extreme head of
ft.
valley,
on foot-
Dang
la
mountains, sandstone, at 16,340

Altai
Lat. N. 33 43', long. E. 90
50'.
9.
June 25, 1892.

Arabis, sp.
ft.
mountains and Western Tibet.
?.
Insufficient for determination.
Valley of Tsacha-tsang-bo ch'u

;
at 14,700
10.
Lat. N. 32 13', long. E. 90 14'.
July 6, 1892.
Maxim. Fl. Tangut. i, p. 63, t. 28. ff. i-io. two miles north of Murus river (head-waters of Yang-tse-kiang) sandy Lat. N. 33 53', long. E. 91 31'. soil, some clay, at 14,750 ft. June 21, 1892. Lat. N. 33 45', long. E. Basin of Murus in lateral valley, sandstone, at 15,700 ft.
Erysimum cham^phyton,
Hill-slope
91 05'.
11.
June 24, 1892.
Northeastern Tibet.
EuTREMA
pRjEVALSKii,
Maxifti. Fl. Tangut.
i,
p.
68,
t.
28.
ff.
11-23.
Basin of Murus, in lateral valley, sandstone, at 15,700
ft.
Lat. N. 33 45', long. E,
91 05'.
12.
i,
June 24, 1892.
Northeastern Tibet.
Myricaria prostrata, Hook.f. et Thorns, in Benth. et
p. 161.
Upper Naichi gol valley near

May
21, 1892.
I
Hookf. Gen.
PI.
river at
12,130
ft.
Lat. N. 35 52', long. E.

First plant in
93 49'.
Called "aura
kashim"bythe Mongols.
flower seen on journey.

specific rank.
It is
have followed Maximowicz

Tangut. p. 95,
i.
in restoring this
form to
restricted to the elevated alpine regions

(Fl.
t.
of the Himalayas and

is
Tibet.
figured.
See Maximowicz
In
31),
is
where
it
fully described
Hooker's
Fl. Brit. Ind.
p. 250,
it
treated as a variety of
M.
and ger-
manica.
13. GuELDENST/EDTiA
?,
insufficient for determination.
Gela,
on Ramong ch'u
at
12,670
ft.
Lat.
N. 31
40', long. E.
94 36'.
Aug.
13, 1892.
Fine crops of barley
and turnips near by.

14.
Astragalus or Oxytropis,
at
sp. ?
ft.
Toktomai-ulan-muren
1892.
15.
Material insufficient to determine the genus.

Lat.
14,340
N. 34
09', long. E.
91 30'.
June 20,
Sandy
soil.
Astragalus or Oxytropis,
sp. ?
with certainty.
Valley of Murus, head-waters Yang-tse kiang,

June 22, 1892.
Material insufficient to determine the genus

at 14,900
ft.
Lat. N.
33 45'i long- E. 91 20'.

16.
383
mountains
soil,
PoTENTiLLA FRUTicosA, Linn., var. PUMILA, Hook.f. Plateau west of Dang la Sandy at 16,350 ft, Lat. N. 32 51', long. E. 89 44'. July 3, 1892.
some day.
PoTENTiLLA ANSERiNA, Linn.
clay, at 16,220
in
ft.
17.
Plateau
west of Dang
la
mountains;
2,
sandy,
some
Lat. N. 33 09', long. E. 89 38'.
July
1892.
This
is
widely spread
hemispheres.
18.
the temperate and cold regions of both the northern and southern
PoTENTiLLA NivEA, Linn.

25', long. E.
Ke ch'u
valley;
on river-bottom at 12,700ft.
Lat.
N. 31
96
28'.
on
hill-sides;
fine grass.
Aug. 22, 1892. Fine forest growth, mostly pines (?), Alpine and Arctic regions of the northern hemisphere.
19.
Sedum ALGiDUM, Ledeb.,vm. TANGUTicuM,il/a;irz. Camp north of Tsachasandy

is
tsang-bo ch'u;
1892.
soil,
at
15,650
ft.
Lat. N. 32 28', long. E. 90 03'.
Julys,
The
species
a native of the Altai regions of Siberia ;
the variety
was
des-
cribed from specimens from northwestern Kan-su.

20.
Aster tibeticus. Hook. f.

ft.
Valley
of Murus, valley-bottom at 15,640
ft.
Lat. N. 33 44', long. E. 91 18'. altitudes of 14,000 to 16,000
June 23, 1892.
Western Tibet and Kashmir
at
21. Inula ?
ains,
Material insufficient for determination.

it.
Foot-hills of
Dang la mount-
northwestern extremity of range at 16,500
Lat. N. 33 40', long. E. 90
35'.
June 27, 1892.
22.
Leontopodium
alpinum,
Cass., var.
;
Bank Chib-ch'ang-ts'o (Lake Glenelg).

salt,
Hill-side; limestone
and red sandstone
lake
at 16,000
ft.
Lat. N. 33 27', long.
June 30, 1892. Alps of Europe, through Central Asia and North India The variety collected by to Chinjf, ascending in the Himalayas to nearly 18,000 ft. Mr. Rockhill is a very elegant little plant about three inches high with remarkably
E. 90 10'.
spathulate leaves.
23.
Leontopodium stracheyi, C. B. Clarke in Herb. Kew.
(L. alpinum, Cass.,
var. Stracheyi,
Hook.f.).
95
12'.
Ru ch'u
Aug.
valley, in river-bottom, at
12,100
ft.
Lat. N.
31
ripe.
10', long. E.
16, 1892.
Fine crops of barley and turnips

is
now
Also a
little
wheat.
This Western Tibet and Himalayan plant

it
so easily disIt
tinguished from the other forms that
may well be accorded
specific rank.
ranges
from
Kumaon
to Nepal.
Basin of Dang ch'u, right bank affluent. 24. Anaphalis mucronata, C. B.Clarke. Lat. N. 32 20', long. E. 92 08'. July 21, Clay and sand-gravel, at 15,180 ft. This form is united with A. nubigena, DC, in the " Flora of British India." 1892. It is only found at great altitudes in the Himalayas and Tibet.
25.
tse kiang, at 14,900
Antennaria nana, Hook.f. et Thorns. VzWsy oi tAnms, head-waters YangJune 22, 1892. Western Lat. N. 33 45', long. E. 91 20'. ft.
ft.
Tibet in the Nubra and Shayuk valleys at 12,000 to 14,000

26.
Saussurea tangutica,
(or Angti) la at
Maxim,
ft.
in Mil. Biol.,
xi, p.
247.Near summit
of
Gam
tonic.
15,600
Tibet.
Lat. N. 30 40', long. E. 98 13'.
Sep. 4, 1892.
Tangut and Northern

side of this
The
leaves are infused

It is
Called in Tibetan Sha-p'o gong-t'ag.
mountain.
The Chinese call
it
and used by the natives as a grow only on the west " snow lotus " {Hsueh lien).
said to
384

Taraxacum palustre, DC.
N. 33 44', long. E. 91
18'.
27.
Lat.
Valley
of Murus, valley-bottom at 15,640
ft,
June 23, 1892.
This
is
usually regarded as a
variety of the almost ubiquitous T. officinale.
Cyananthus mcANUs, Hook, f, et Thorns., var. leiocalvx, Franch. in i, 1887, p. 279. Ke ch'u valley at 12,700 ft. Lat. N. 31 Aug. 22, 1892. On river-bottom. Fine forest growth, mostly 25', long. E. 96 28'. A Himalayan species, of which this is a nakedpines (?) on hill-sides; fine grass.
28.
MoroVs Joum. de Bot.
calyx variety, also found in Yun-nan.
The
typical form inhabits alpine localities at
12,000 to 16,000
29.
ft.
Androsace tapeta, Maxim,, in MSI. Biol,

ft.
xii,
p.
754.
Valley of
iVlurus,
head-waters Yang-tse kiang, at 14,900

22, 1892.
Lat. N. 33 45', long. E. 91 20'.
June
Kan-su and SsQ ch'uan,

villosa,
ft.
in
Western China.
30.
Androsace
at 15,640
Linn.,
var. latifolia,
Ledeb.
Valley of
IWurus, valley-
June 23, 1892. This species is widely dispersed from Asia iWinor through Central Asia, North Asia, and the mountains of North India.
bottom
Lat.
N. 33 44', long. E. 91
18'.
31.
Gentian A rockhilli,
HemsL,
n.
sp.
Species G. aristatee, Maxim., similis
sed minor
strictior floribus fere
cylindricis angustissimis.
Annua,
erecta, simplex
vel pauciramosa, 1-2-poIIicaris, glaberima.
Folia
subscariosa, lineari-subulata, vere
conduplicata, 3-4 lineas longa, apice breviter aristata, basi semiamplexicaulia, suberecta, cauli fere appressa.
Flores
casrulei, terminales, solitarii, subsessiles,
circiter
lineas longi;
calyx subscariosus, corollse
tubum
sequans, dentibus lineari-subulatis;
corollffi
sursum
leviter dilatata:, lobi breves, oblongi, vix acuti, erecti, conniventes,
intermediis brevioribus albis tenuissimis, fauce nuda;

inclusa; styli brevissimi, stigmatibus capitatis.
stamina
cum
pistillo
ft.
omnino
Lat. N.
Ke ch'u
valley at 12,700
31 25', long. E. 96 28'.
Aug.
22, 1892.
fine grass.
On
river-bottom.
Fine forest growth,
mostly pines
32.
(?),
on
hill-sides;
Tretocarya
Aug.
2,
sikkimensis,
Su ch'u
93
17'.
valley, north side,
Oliver, in Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 2255. Basin of Drayalamo pass, at 14,600 ft. Lat. N. 31 52', long. E.
1893.
Limestone; fine grass; flowers blue, very abundant.

ft.,
Sikkim Himalaya
specimen
is
at
11,500
much
smaller than the others

oederiI
ft.
and Western China near Ta-chien-lu. and nearly glabrous.

(P.
IMr.
Rockhill's
33. Pedicularis
Vahl
versicolor,
Wahlenb.).
E.
Valley
of Murus,
valley-bottom at 15,640
Lat. N. 33 44', long.
91
18'.
June 23, 1892.
Alpine and Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America.

34.
fig.
ft.
Pedicularis prjevalskii,
state.
Maxim,
Su ch'u,
93
17'.
in Mil. Biol,
x, p. 84, et xii. p.
787, n.
2.
2. Large
Basin of
valley north side,
Drayalamo
pass, at 14,000
Lat. N. 31 52', long.
E.
Aug.
2,
1892.
Limestone; fine grass;
flowers blue, very abundant.

35.
Eastern Himalaya, Tibet, and China.
Lagotis brachystachya,
Maxim,
in Mil. Biol,
xi, p.
300. Hill-slope two
miles north of
53', long. E.
Murus
river,
91 31'.
head-waters Yangtsekiang, at 14,750 ft. Lat. N. 33 June 21, 1892. Sandy soil, some clay. Kansuh.
36.
Polygonum bistorta, Linn.

Aug. 14, 1892.
Pochu
valley at 14,000
ft.
Lat.
N. 31 45',
long. E. 94 45'.
Temperate and cold regions of Europe, Asia, and
America.
37.
long. E. 94 45'.
Polygonum viviparum, Linn. Pochu valley at 14,000 ft. Lat. N. 31 45' Aug. 14, 1892. The seeds are parched and ground and eaten

mixed with barley-meal {isainba). Tibetans call and Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America.
38.
it
385
ranpa
or
ramba.
Temperate
Polygonum
bistortioides, Boiss.
Rama
is
ch'u valley,
hill-side,
at 1,200
ft.
Lat. N. 31 48', long. E. 94 28'.

like
Aug.
12, 1892.
P. viviparum.
distinct
This species or variety
Used by the natives for food found in Asia Minor and Persia.
iv,
Although very
from ordinary P. bistorta, Boissier (Flora Orientalis,

it
p.
1028) subsequently united

39. Iris thoroldi.
gol,
hill-slope
with that
species.
Baker, ante,
ft.
p. 118, et
Hook.
Ic.
Plant, ined.
Sharakuyi29,
ft.
at
13,800
Lat. N. 35 50',
long. E. 93 27'.
May
1892.
Described from specimens collected
by
Dr. Thorold at an altitude of 17,800
Mr.
Rockhill's specimens furnish better flowers.

40.
TunpA (Orithyia)
ft.
sp. aff. T. eduli,
Baker.
Sharakuyi-gol,
1892.
hill-slope at
3.
13,800
cation. 41.
Lat. N. 35 50', .long. E. 93 -27'.
May
is
29,
Tulipa edulis m
native of Japan, and Mr. Rockhill's one flower
insufficient for satisfactory identifi-
Carex moorcroftii, Boott.

clay.
Hill-slope
two
miles north of Murus river, head-
waters Yangtsekiang, at 14,750
ft.
Lat. N. 35 53', long. E. 91 31'.
Sandy
soil,
some
42.
teis
June 21, 1892.
Yarkand and Western Himalaya.

,
KoBREsiA SARGENTiANA, //i?wi/. n.
sp.
.^. jcA(7jVifi
valde
affinis
sed brac-
latissimis
emarginatis.
at 14,750
ft.
omnino involventibus late scariosis subtruncatis simul Hill-slope two miles north of Murus river, head-waters Yang-tse kiang, Lat. N. 33 53', long. E. 91 31'. Sandy soil, some clay. June 21,
spicam
fere
1892.
43.
MiscANTHUs
in
SINENSIS,
Anderss.
Near top of Fei-yueh-kuan
pass, southwest of
Ya-chou Fu,
Korea to
Celebes.
West SsQ-ch'uan, at 3,583 ft. Oct. 11, 1892. China, from Japan and Hongkong and Canton, Luchu and Bonin Islands, Tonquin, Borneo, and
Hill-slope
44. Stipa, insufficient for determination.

river,
two
miles north of
Murus
head-waters Yang-tse kiang, at 14,750

soil,
ft.
Lat. N. 33 53', long. E. 91 31'.
Sandy
45.
some
clay.
June 21, 1892.

sp.
Calamagrostis,
Near top of
ft.
Fei-yueh-kuan pass, southwest of Ya-chou
Fu, in
West
Ssu-ch'uan, at 3,583
Oct. 11, 1892.
46. Festuca ovina,
Linn.t
Hill-slope
ft.
two
miles north of
Murus
river,
headsoil,
waters Yang-tse kiang, at 14,750
Lat. N. 33 53', long. E. 91 31'.
Sandy
June 2i,%-R92. Europe, North Africa, Siberia, Himalaya, North and South America, and mriiwtains of Australasia. Mr. Rockhill's specimen is a mere
some
clay.
fragment.
47.
Usnea ZKVxkTk, Fries.
Valley of Pontramo, east

Sept. 19, 1892.
of Bat'ang, at 12,600
ft.
Sometimes 30 feet long. Hangs only on the oaks called "green oaks " {ching k'ang) by the Chinese. This oak is All over the world called by the French missionaries "chene a feuilles de houx."
Lat. N. 29 59', long. E. 99 42'.
in
temperate and tropical regions.
386
LATITUDES AND ALTITUDES.

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395
396
MEAN MONTHL Y TEMPERA TURE.
APPENDIX
V.
Mean Corrected Monthly Temperature from

January to October,
1892.
Mean
7 A. M. 7
P.
M.
Temperature.
F.
F.
F.
F.
January
February...
i!2
March
April
May
June
July
+17!5 +i8r9 +28ri +4of9 +35f7 +42r6
+3or4 +39fo
4-39fo
+i7r7
+27.o
August
September.
+41 r?
+5of7 +47^3
October
+52r4 +6ir5 +56f2 +54r6 +63f8 +64:0 +48ro
+26f3 +32:5 +44f3 +38f3 +44^2 +49f5 +5or8 +47^5
+i6f4 +27!8 +28ri +37ri +48:9 +43f4 +47fi

+5iri
+47!?
INDEX.
397
INDEX,
A-chia Chuang, loi, 107. A-chia Gegen, loi, 107. A-Ia po-sang shan, 355. A-lat'ang, 331, A-iiiang-pa, 366. A-tsu t'ang, 330. A-tun-tzu, 289, 336, 339. Adjod, 330. la. 329. 330. 332.
Ara, 248, 249. gol, III.

ossu, 147. Arabic, 13, 81.
Arachedo, 148.
Arbus
ula, 34.
Arik Fan-tzu, 112, 114, 121. Arki Panaka, 112, 143.
Adornment, 68, 82, 103, 253, 259, 260,

273. 27s, 284, 288, 290, 353, 357, 364-
Armenians, 106. Arms, 98.

Arrak, 278.
293, 350,
Adzes, 89.
Agriculture, 5, 9, 12, 20, 27, 42, 44, 46, 52, 53, 54, 61, 154Alum, 63, 74, 75, 80, 81, 84, 106. Alang gol, 141, 143. nor, 112, 121, 142, 143, 155, 178, 182. Ala shan, 16, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37 38. wang, 38. Ya-men, 38. Albinos, 6.
Alkali, 10, 17, 18, 22, 28, 39, 40, 42, 45,
Arrows, 93, loi. Ashan, 28.

Asseveration, mode of, 282. Atak, 244, 248. Haijsere, 214, 215. Naichi, 185, 186, 188, 191. Atchok Panaka, 114. Aura Kashim, 186.
120, 181, 184.
Allowances to lamas, 100.

Altars, 123, 211.
Axes, 89. See Bat'ang. Ba, 344. Ba ch'ung ch'u 344, 347, 348. Ba rong-ta, 351. Bagolo, 353, 364, 365. Bagong, 320, 321. ch'u, 320.
Balekun gomi, 91, no.
Amber, 103, 350.
Balro,
,
26.
Amdo,
68, 87, 370. ts'o-nak, 190, 220, 221, 224, 227, 229, 230, 243, 248.
Bam-ding, 340.
la,
339- 340.
Amnye,
130. Malchin, 124, 139, 142.
Bamboo, 292. Bamt'ang shan, 351.

Bargu Mongols, 14.
Barley, 83, 116, 117, 259, 276, 281, 286, 290, 295, 306, 311, 315, 321, 32s,
mengku,
195, 206.
Amtun
ula, 185.
Anemarhena
asphodeloides, 326.
Ang-ti, 323. Ange lung, 279, 283. Angirtakshia, 184, 187,
326, 328, 330, 3^5, 347. 351. 353, 354, 361, 363. 364, 365. Barma Ts'aidam, 161.
190,
188,
189,
Baron gomba, 26.

kure, 129, 163.
194, 196, 214. Antasu kun, 82.
Antelope, 27, 46, 47, 120, 122, 145, 187, 194, 201, 212, 215.
Sunit Mongols, 74. Ts'aidam, no, 135, 139, 147, 166.

Basalt, 141, 181, 182.
A nti- Christian movement,

Antilope gutturosa, Anya, 366, 367.
57. 27, 194.
Apple, 16, 90, 312, 363. Apricots, 16, 312, 335, 341, 345.
Bat'ang, 88, 256, 291, 300, 317, 326, 329, 334, 336, 339, 340, 343. 344, 349, 356, 358, 364, 368. Batasumdo, 281, 284, 285, 369, ch'u, 284.
398
INDEX.
Bumza
Buri,
shili,
Baternoto gol, 178. Bathing, 349. Bayan gol, 132, 162, 165. rong T'ing, 62, 74, 76, 77, 78, 84, 89, 107.
221, 222, 251, 252.
69, 253.
Burgasutai gol, 166.
Burhan bota k'utul, 165, 167.

Burial, 80.
rong ho, 77, 78.

Beans, 18, 51, 62, 90, 321, 345. Beards, 2, 75, 125, 176, 234, 326. Bears, 129, 145, 201, 202, 247, 311. Bee hives, 328. Beggary, 274, 279, 286, 309. Beginning of spring, 60. Belgian Catholic Mission, 22, 23, 33, 59, 61. Bellows, II, 163. Bewitching, 171. Birch trees, 86, 88, 89, 104, 282, 303, 305, 312, 348, 350, 354, 360, 361, 363, 364bark, 88, 350, 354. Birds, 120, 128, 201, 225, 265, 278, 281, 333Biwaltanag, 288. Black lamas, 99, lor. magic, I, 71. Blackmailing, 94, 132. Black men, 203. Blacksmiths, 48, 105, 163, 164, 292, 258. Black-thorn, 183, 301. Blankets, 292. Blue eyed Mongol, 176. Boats, 19, 38, 49, 55, 92, 343, 363. Bolang, 172, 173.
Burusutai gol, 166.

Butter, 21, 47, 66, 97, 122, 126, 130, 185,
234, 292, 345.
bas
reliefs,
69, 70.
Butterflies, 208.
Cabbages, 36, 90, 283, 295, 303, 321, 335,

345. 364Camels, 3, 5, 13, 15, 23, 28, 43, 50, 119,
139hair, 3, 12, 28, 44.
Candles, 15, 97. Cangue, 58, 295, 296, 309, Canton, 71, 85.
Carpets, 41, 42. Carrier service, 349.
Carts, 2, 3, 16, 17, 24, 32, 43, 45. 46. Cats, 265, 335.
17, 27, 118, 122, 126, 285, 29s, 355Cave dwelling, 7, 12, 61, 73, 106, 126. temples, 47. Cedar trees, 302. Celery, 364. Ch'a-chia Kun, 82. Ch'a-tao, 4. Ch'abche, 116.
Cattle,
Cha gomi,
91.
9, 12.
9, 10, II, 14, 19.
Bonbo, 63, 68, 86, 88, 91, 93, 230, 260,

261, 262, 272, 273, 280, 282, 283, 288, 289, 290, 293, 295, 335. Bonvalot, Gabriel, 138, 214, 235, 237, 254, 256, 263, 305, 306, 319, 369. Boots, 100. Borax, 164.
Chahar bolan,
Mongols,
296, 328, 330, 354. Chala, 363, 367. Jyabo, 359, 369. Ch'am ch'u, 278.
Chakba, 262,
Chamba
257, 291,
Borgaso,
ch'fl-k'or-ling, 356.
26.
Boro balgasun, 33.

Bota, 33, Bower, Capt. H., 226, 263, 291, 293, 295, 3?o, 317, 319, 327, 369. Branding, 6. Bread, 21, 48, 53, 83, 89, 313. Breasts exposed, 5. Briar, 162, 169, 170. Bridge, 55, 60, 271, 287, 288, 293, 294, 3c, 302, 305, 327, 348. Brigands, 7, 262, 296, 297, 328, 329, 333, 354, 362. Brokers, 89.
Ch'amdo, 238, 251, 252, 254, 255, 256,

260, 261, 263, 272, 280, 293, 294, 295, 300, 304, 307, 308, 309. 3". 312, 313, 319. 325. 348. Chamdun Draya, 319, 323, 325. Chamri Panaka, 102, 104, 105, 109, 115, 117, 127, 172, 173. Chan-t'ou, 14, 56, 161, 193. Chan-tui, 364, 369. Ch'ang-chi miao, 30. Chang ch'i-ts'ai, 63. Chang-chia Kun, 79, 81.
283,
30s, 314,
114,
Chang chong chaka,
Buckwheat, 345, 363, 364.
224,
Buddha caves, 47. Buha mangna, 209, 212, 213, Buhutu ula, 185, 186. Bumtok Panaka, 114.
Chang-kai Ying-tzQ, 21. Chang-k'ou, 8, 9, 12.

214, 218.
Chang lam,
238.
3.
Chang-liu shui, 48, 50.
Chang-ping Chou,
INDEX.
Chang fang,
219, 251, 275. cli'u, 345, 246. Chargut Cho, 228.
399
Ch'u-k'or fang, 94, 95.
Ch'umar, 189, 194, 195, 196, 197, 199,

206, 217.
Charms, 93, 153.

boxes, 69, 153, 253, 260. 367. Ch'e-rgya fang, 93. Che zangka, 356. Chedo, 367. la, 36s, 367Ch'emar, 120. fang, 120, 122. Chen-hai P'u, 67, 94, 99, 104, 105. Chen-tu, 56. Ch'eng-tii, 362, 369. Cherry trees, 312, 341, 363. Ch'i-ling, 237. Ch'i-ming-i, 4. shan, 4. Chia-pa k'ou, 329. kuan, 14, 39, 69. Chia-yu Chiang-ka, 331, 368.
Che ch'u
Ch'u-marin dsun kuba, 194. Chu-pa-lung, 343. Ch'u-rnang, 115. Chu-shih sect, 58.
Ch'u-wu doksai, 194. ChQ-yung kuan, 3, 4.

Chua-tzQ shan, 34, 37. Chuan Rung, 87. Ch'uba, 125.
Chung-ch'ang-tzfl, 53. 'hsi, 353, 355, 356. king, 370. nyi la, 288. f ai, 105, 107. tu, 349, 363. wei Hsien, 37, 44, 45, 48, 49, 50,
Chuoma,
Ch'iang-pan, 24.
Chura, 126, 150, Churema, 285.

Churn, 276.
5266, 97, 150, 204, 262, 278. 176, 204, 234, 262, 278.
Chib-chang
ts'o,
223.
Ch'ibeke, 183, 184, 186, 191. Chien-ch'ang, 304, 321, 341. Ch'ien-hu, 93, 94. Ch'ien-hu Ch'eng, 94. Chien-tzCi-wan, 362.
Chih-li, 9, 23, 60, 76.
Chyab-gong Le-pe-she-rab, 325, 328.

Ch'yi-chab, 271, 272, 277. Chyi-bo Ten-chin, 290. City of beauty, 55. Clematis, 284. Climate, 5, 16, 21, 42, 45, 63, 70, 91, 103,
120, 158, 212, 121, 131, 132, 135, 152, 153. 169, 176, 188, 191, 203, 211, 218, 221, 245, 272, 280, 285,
Chih-mu-yao, 326.
Chin Chiang ho, 209.
Chin-ch'uan, 369, 370.
Chin sha chiang, 209. Chin-wa Ssu 69, 87, 103. China Inland Mission, 13, 42, 57, 58, 71,
95, 96, 125.
Chinese policy in Tibet, 324, 352, 370.
women
Ch'ing fang, 95.
Ch'ing-hai,
i.
in Tibet, 320, 367.
295, 296, 345. Coal, 3, 4, 8, 16, 36, 38, 42, 45, 48, 49. 50. 53, 77Coke, 36, 50. Colocanthes indica, 67. Columbus range, 187. Concubinage, 283, 324. Converts to Christianity, 13, 17, 22, 23,
33, 34. Convicts, 58. Cooking, 150, 268.
stove, II, 24, 86, utensils, 98. Cooper, T. T., 336.
Ching ho,
Wang, 113. town of, 3.
Ch'ing ngai-tzO, 52.

shan, 12, 15. -shih pao, 108. -shui Kun, 82.
123.
-f u yahu, 75. Chingo, 261, 265, 272.

Chiringols, 106. Ch'iung-chou, 126, 372. Cholera, 369. Cho-mu ch'uan, 107. Chong Kum kul, 171. Ch'orten, 271. Christianity, 61, 190, Ch'uan, 107. Chu-chia Panaka, 114, 119, 122, 124.
Copper, 193, 341, 358.

Coracles, 363. Coral, 69, 103, 253, 273, 284.
Cordyceps sinensis, 361. Cornelian, 103, 273. Cotton, 90, 285. cloth, 100, 105. Courier service, 349. Crossoptilons, 299, 333. Crows, 128, 141, 333. Cruppers, 104.
Cucumbers, 345, 364,
Ch'u-k'a, 78.
400
INDEX.
Dre ch'u rabden, r, 209. Dre la, 298, 299, 301. (of Ch'amdo), 312.
Dress, 5, 6, 10, 57, 68, 69, 79, 80, 82, 103, 234, 236, 240, 241, 253, 256, 260,
,
Currants, 33, 312. Currency, 253, 259, 274, 275, 310, 347. Cymbals, 69, 336.
Dabachen, 106. Dabesu gobi, 109.

nor, 116, 119.
273. 290, 306, 330, 340, 346, 364. Dried fish, 65, 334.
fruit,
Dabje Panaka, 114.

Daldy, 29, 106.
262.
Dam Sok Mongols, Damaru, 86.

Dang
157, 158.
Dancing, 91, 92, 336, 338, 341.

ch'u, 251, 252, 257, 262, 265, 279. la, 158, 196, 209, 214, 215, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 224, 225, 245, 248, 252, 25s. Darjeeling, 179, 257.
meat, 242, 262. Drifting sands {Hu sha), 46, 49, 50. Drinking, 10, 314. Drohe la, 284, 285. Drolma nam-ts'o, 190. Drought, 10,
Dnpa,
Drubanang, 329, 343. Drums, 56, 57, 59. 336243, 285, 302, 335, 351, 358, 371. 157, 166, 167, 169, 170. Ducks, 46, 142. Dugei, 18.
Dasho, 350, 351.

la, 350. 371. Daza, 87. Diba, 158, 260, 334. Deba djong, 231, 233, 239, 256, 273, 287, 289, 293, 302, 340. Dedecken, Mr. 257. Deer, 177. horns, 276. Deformities, 6, 291, 310, 328. Degrees conferred on lamas, 100. Derben chin, 132. Derge, 116, 255, 259, 274, 311, 312, 319, 333. 348, 358, 371. Dm-yuan-ing, 38. Ding-hu, 36. Dinsin obo, 178. Dispelling storms, 197, 198, 20l, 202. Divination, 198.
Dsun Ts'aidam,
Dawo,
Dugus, 18.
Dulan-kuo, 110, 113, 114, 123, 127, 138.
Dung
in architecture, 248.
Dungans, 36. Dungbure, 200, 205, 208, 209, 212, 217. Dunzsu, 89. During ula, 140, 141, 146.
Dwarfs, 291. Dyes, 41, 136, 171, 293, 350. Dykes, 18.
Dzd,
275.
Dzang ch'ere, 267. Dzo la, 322, 332. Dzo-mo la, 359. Dzuha ula, 187, 192.
Dzurken
ula, 219.
nor, 219.
Djassak Mongols, 29. Djaya, 94.
^m-k'ang ding, 341, 342. Djong-pon, 294, 295.

Djung rong tranka, 312.
19, 24, 29. T'a, 20, 29. 92. Do fang, 115. Dogs, 68, 107, 265, 335.
Djungar Mongols,
Eagles, 141, 333. Earrmgs, 19, 236, 259, 284, 288, 290, 317, 341. 364Edelweiss, 192, 306, Edjong, 229.
Do-bong,
Eggs, 48, 303. 320, 328, 334, 360.
Eken Habsere, 215, 217, 218.

Naichi, 185, 186, 187, 190. Elders of lamasery, 99. Elephant, 298.
teeth, 64. Elesu nor, 197, 199. Eleut Mongols, 30. 112, 113, 157. Elk horns, 370.
Dolerite, 77.
Donkeys, 24, 105, 122.

Doors, loi. Do-rnirta, iii.
Dowry, 156.
Drajya lamo la, 267, 268, 272. Drama la, 320.
Emnik
ula, 165, 169.
Drapo,
88.
Draya, 311, 319, 320, 323, 324, 325, 327, 328, 331, 333,^ . Dre ch'u, 209, 314, 329, 335, 341, 342, 343. 344. 363- *
Erh-lang-wan, 353. Erh Ta-jen ying-tzQ, 10. Erh-tzQ tien, 37.

Erhte, 118.
ch'uk'a, 117. shan, 117.
INDEX.
Erosion, 116, 118, 122, 140. Eu-ling-trin or O-ling-tan, 9,
401
Ge, 311, 312, 315.
Eyeshades, 75.
Factories, 41, 42, 4S, 60. Fairy caves, 7.
Ge-dun-drub, 68. Ge-ho-wa or Ai-ho-Wa,
9.
False hair, 80.
Famine, 23, 25, 32, 33.

Fan-tzii, 74, 76, 82, 83, 89, 92, 94, 103. Farsi, 14.
Feet of Chinese
79-
women,
5, 12, 59, 74, 75,
Geese, 26, 142, 146, 196, 197. Gekor lamas, 99. Gela, 283. Gelupa sect, 87, 91, loi, 261, 283, 287, 294, 334Gentse, 277. Gesar, 130, 165. Ginseng, 56. Glaciers, 220.
Fei hsia, 109. Fei-tzu ch'uan, 84, 85, 87, 90. Fencing, 70. Feng Cli'eng, 8. Feng fei ling, 108, iii.
Glycyrrhiza uralensis,
32. Gneiss, 27, 37, 50, 77, 84, 92Goats, 12, 15, 28, 265, 288. God of rain, 8.
T'ai-sui, 59.
wine,
Ferns, 305, 341. Ferry, 92, 315, 316, 343, 363. Festivals, 53, 58, 59, 60, 68,
5.
231, 280,
Goitre, 291, 315, 326. Gold, 61, 73, "5, 116, 187, 261, 274, 276.
357> 359, 360-
336, 349Feuds, 84, 8s, 105.

Fire
making, 35.
signals, 8.
washing, 73, 360, 361. Golmot, 171, 174, 184.

nor, 171.
Golok, 113, 124, 125, 152, 155, 175, 182,

188, 190, 196, 206, 259, 273, 278. Gomba soba, 109, 157. 186,
t'ang, 91, no. Wahon, 91, no. Gona Panaka, 114.
Fir trees, 297, 298, 299, 312. First fruit offerings, 86.
211,
212,
Fish, 65, 143, 347. nets, 65.

Flies,
282.
Gomi
Flints, 222.
Flour, 48, 70, 97, 126, 276, 292.
Flowers, 42, 192, 210, 215, 267, 315. Flutes, 69, 332.
Gongma Ts'aidam, 161. Gonwa Panaka, 114.

Gooseberry, 293, 305, 312.
Fo
t'ung, 47. Food, 19, 20, 40, 47, 48, 53, 65, 83, 86,
89. 90. 97, "9. 150, 169, 170, 235, 237, 241, 242, 262, 269, 274, 278, 282, 292, 312, 338, 342, 345. Footprint on stone, 69.
Gopa, 67, 69, 87, 125.

Gork, 115. Gorkas, 304, 371.
Gouchi Khan, 112.

Granite, 27, 37, 79, 84, 85, 92, 122, 125, 128, 162, 191, 192, 193, 220, 260, 261, 26s, 350, 355, 367.
Fortune telling, 69. Fowls, 265, 331, 334, 335, 342, 360, 361. Fruit, 312, 313, 332, 335, 340, 341, 345. Fu-erh tien, 33.
Fuel, 21, 247, 248. Fu-ming Fu, 8, 9, 12.
Grapes, 16, 335, 345. Great Wall, 1, 8, 23, 37, 39, 48, 49, 52,
60, 94.
Greyhounds, 13.
Grist mills, 24, 77.
Guh'u, 337, 339.

Gaga, 323.
Gumdo,
328.
Gam,
323. la, 323. 325.

13.
Gun
Gambling,
ch'u, 348, 349. Gunegon gomba, 293. Gunga nor, 118, 121.
Game
laws, 296, 309. Gara la, 354, 355. pen sum, 355. Garing Chho, 228.
Garlic, 36.
Gunt'ok gomba, 325.

Gura, 342.
Gurbu-gunznga mountains, 182, 183.

Ha-la hu-to ying, 109. Hail, 70, 190, 196, 203, 204, 207, 208, 212, 215, 216, 220, 229, 241, 243, 252, 262.
Garters, 248, 276. Gart'ok, 303, 319,
330, 331, 333, 334,
336, 337, 369-
402
INDEX.
Huang-t'u kang, 355.
Hue, Abbe,
27, 46, 120, 194, 199, 215. 9, 13, 15, 16, 23, 32, 38, 44,
Jih
403
Yueh shan, in.
Huang yang,
Khan, 29, 34, 43. Jujube, 44, 90, 97.

Jingis
48, 50, 52, 69, 94, 95.
Jung,
See also
56.
Huchesha Ponbo, 296.

Huei-huei, 14, 43, 74, 75, 83.
Mohammedans.
Hui Hsien, 56, 59. Huito Tola gol, 174.
Hultu, 147. Hun ho, 5.
Hung-mao pan-tao pass, Hung mao-tzu rebels, 2. Huo ch'u, 359. Hue shao-po, 359.
Husetan river, 21. Husnabad, 55.
108,
no.
Huyuyung, n6,
125, 136.
118, iig, 120, 121, 123,
Juniper trees, 27, 68, 87, 123, 132, 280, 283, 297, 298, 299, 304, 312, 322, 334, 337, 341, 348, Jyabo zamba, 308. Jya-de, 244, 248, 249, 252, 253, 254, 257. 259, 560, 266, 270, 27s, 289, 296, 297, 309, 340, 346, Jya lung, 329. Jya-ts'ug k'ang, 309, 311. Jyakundo, 58, 66, 135, 136, 137, 252, 255, 257, 259, 262, 265, 273, 276, 277, 368. Jyama Ngul ch'u, 269, 277. Jyamba truku, 325.
148, 310,
354.
255,
288, 371.
153, 267,
Ka Gomi,
1
91.
Ch'in-ch'ai, 254, 371. ch'u, 254, 277, 278, 279, 280, 303. I-ma-mu chuang, 79, 81, 82, 362. 1-tiao shan, 52. I wan ch'iian, 50. Igneous rocks, 12, 46, 122. Ike chao league, 19. Ike gol, 135, 148, 153, 162. Ike tale nameha, 173.
1
Ka-tzti
Kun, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82.
Kaba Kado
Kaji
talen, 117, 118.
gol, 140, 143, 146.
Kajang, 92, 93, 94.
gomba, 366.
la,
365. 366.
2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12,
Kalgan,
53.
Kalidium
Kalmuk, K'amba,
i,
gracile, 162.
6, 30.
Ilchi, 59.
Images of Buddha,
15, 47.
Im&k,
81. 79.
67, 87, 124, 198, 229, 346. djong, 190. K'amdo, 96, 153, 331.
Imam,
Kan-chou, 44, 52, 59, 71.
Imperial gifts, 109, 113, 159, 260. In shan, 15. Incense, 9, 67, 123, 130, 132, 198, 201, 202, 262. India, 14, 59, 85, 236, 238. Interference with travel, 138, 188, 231, 233> 23s, 236, 239, 241, 251, 256, 29s, 305. 307. 319Ipi la, 319, 320. Iris, 210.
Iron, 193, 302, 303, 330. Irrigation, 13, 20, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 35,
Kan
Kan-su,
hai-tzu, 355. i, 7, 15, 19, 29, 32, 42, 44, 46,
Kan
61, 70, 73. 94. ii8. t'ang-tzii, 50.
Kan-tu, 77, 78, 82. Kandjur, 150, 160. K'ang Ch'eng, 84. K'ang-hsi, the Emperor, 14, 42, 105.
Kangsa-Kas, 171, 187, 192.
K'angsar,
Kang-tzu
163.
tien, 33, 34, 38.
39, 42, 43, 44, 45, 48, 49. 52, 53. 87, 89. 133. 154, 170, 173Itinerant singer, 300. Ivory, 253.
Kano k'utul, 181, 182. K'anpo, 134, 138,359Kanze, 137, 301, 330, 348, 368. Kao-chia chuang, 85. Kao-lan Hsien, 60.
Kao
miao-tzu, 62, 63.
Ja lam,
Jalang,
Jara
ri,
257, 263, 277, 279, 291. 160.
Jambut'ong, 355.
365.
I,
Kar Pai-hu, 264, 290. Kar fang, 112. Kara k'utul gol, 185. Kara muren, 55.
Kara-sai, 181.
Jarang gomba, 88.

Jehol,
2.
Jewels, 64, 103, 253. Jew's-harp, 338, 339, 341. Ji-wa, 99.
Kara Tangutans, 89. Karawan, 81. Kargan, 77, 78, 82, 83, 84. Karmat'ang, 121, 175.
404
Karsa, i6i, 171, 196.
INDEX.
INDEX.
Language, 51, 62, 65, 81, 82, 85
405
4o6
INDEX.
Muri
Matchlocks, 84, 109, 196, 241, 274, 328, 330.

Me-tar, 9. Medicine, 10, 33, 43, 67, 104, 139, 323.
Wahon,
102, 104, 105, 120, 132.
Muring Wang, 113.

Murrain, 64, 118, 134, 145, 153. Murus, 206, 207, 209, 213, 214, 215, 217, 218, 219. Mushroom, 266, 269, 278, 334. Musk, 71, 90, 268, 276, 283, 326, 334, 335, 348, 370. Mussot, Mr. I'Abbe, 368, 369, 372. Myricaria prostrata, 186. Mystic syllables, 67, 280.
Medina, 14, 74.

la, 278. Meester, Mr. de, 55, 56, 57, 58. Mekka, 13, 74, 84. Meli, 370. Melons, 14, 61, 90. Meng-pu, 327. Mer djong, 261, 263, 271, 276, 291, 294, 295, 300Metamorphic rocks, 122. Migrations of Tibetans, 113, 143, 158. Milk, 235, 328.
Medo
Na-chia Panaka, 104, 114, 115, 122, 124,

125, 127. 278, 292, 314, 315, 316. Na-chung gomba, 298. Na-wa-lu, 367. Nada, 353, 361, 365. Nagch'uk'a, i, 58, 138, 157, 184, 190, 196, 212, 221, 229, 234, 236, 237. 238, 240, 244, 247, 249, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 263, 265, 291. Nai ch'u, 254. Naichi daban, 185, 187, 189. Naichi gol, 155, 171, 174, 175, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 185, 188, 194, 221, 224, 249, 268. Naichi mengku, 183. Naktsang, 254, 263, 273. Namch'utola muren, 200, 203, 204, 205, 208, 217.
Nd ch'ang,
Millet, 19, 39, 77, 89, 90, 343, 345, 364.
Ming-cheng-ssii, 359. Ta-chien-lu.
See also Chala and
Miri, 272, 274, 275, 276.
Mirka Panaka, 114.
Miser, 294.
Missionaries, 6,
13, 17,
55,
138, 190, 313. 327. 368, 369, 372. Mite la, 316. Mizar, 170. Mo ch'u, 284. Mo-lung gung la, 301.
57, 61, 109, 347, 352, 366,
Mohammedans,
7, 13, 14, 16, 33, 40, 42, 48, 58, 62, 63, 70, 74, 76, 78, 81, 83, 89, 102, 109, 117, 222.
Namchutu ulan muren,
189, 196.
Mongols,
3, 6, 9, II, 19, 33, 64, 65, 66, 76, 87, 112, 121, 132, 133, 149, 158, 166, 176, 180.
Names, 23, 81, 107, 115, 178, 193. Namru, 230, 231, 232, 234. 235, 239, 245,
252, 253. ts'o, 231. la, 310. ch'uan, 94.
3.
Monsoon, 245.
Morals, 136, 156, 346. Morjia, 109.
Namts'o
Nan
Mortuary customs, 80, 86, 152. Mosque, 74, 76, 78, 105.
Mosquitoes, 139, 171, 173, 178, 183, 223,
282.
Nan-k'ou,
Moss, 193, 311, 348.
Moto
shan, 321.
Mourning, 79. Mt. Djoma, 214. Mt. Dorsi, 214.

Mt.
Samden khama,
springs, 216.
254.
Mud
Muktsi Soloma, 155. Mulberry tree, 363.

Mules, 3, 54, 59, 62, 71, 98, 99, 102, 103, 104, 128, 204, 280, 355.
81.
94. 73, 75, 76, 92. Nan-tun, 339. Nang-ssti-to, 77. Nanyi la, 296. Nar Pai-hu, 264, 290, 292. Narta Panaka, 114, 119. Nashe, 367. Nashe ch'u, 265, 266, 267, 270, 278. Needle cases, 242, 259. Nemen Kun, 82.
Nan men, Nan shan,
Nepaul, 53, 59, 304, 310.
New
Year, 53, 54, 56.
Mumin,
Munni ula, 16, 27. Munta Kun, 82.

Murder, 172. Muri ch'u, 122, 123, 131.
la 123, 124, 125.
Ni ch'u, 351, 353. Ning-hsia Fu, 14, 15, 16, 19, 38, 40, 42,
43, 45, 48, 51, 105. 33. Niu-hsin yahu, 75. Nomoron gol, 170.
Nttrarta schoberii,
hutun, 157, 158, 170.
index:
Noshe
la,
407
284. 133.
Noyen hung,
Numerals, 64, 161, 162. Nuyi, 315.
Pang-mu, 340. Pao-chia chii, 94. Pao t'u, 14, 15, 16,
38, 39> 43shan, 25.
19, 23, 25, 26, 27, 36,
Nya
Nya
ch'u, 301, 363, 364. k'a, 348, 349, 358, 359, 363.
rong, 364, 369. Nyam-ts'o, 137.
Nyam-ts'o Pur-dung, 91, 136,160, 261,

295-
Pao-tun, 316. P'apa Lh'a, 307, 313. Paper, 42. Parroquet, 364.
Partridge,
9, 26, 31, 120, 141, 146, 185, 278, 314. Passport, I, 108, 179, 236, 252, 304. Pay of soldiers, 317, 345. Pe-chia Fo-yeh, loi, 107. Peaches, 16, 90, 331, 335, 345.
Nyerpa, 236, 237, 256, Nyewa, 330, 331. Nyima sect, 235, 299.
261.
Nyul-chan t'onbo, 186. Nyulda, 302, 303, 305, 307.

O-lun-to, 328. O-sung, 303, 321, 326, 335, 358. Oak tree, 332, 342. Oats, 311, 315, 335, 360.. Obo, 9, 10, 37, 92, 93, 322. Odontala, 26. Offerings to gods, 86.
Officials, 122, 159, 160, 196, 345, 356. Oil, 19.
Peacock
feathers, 67. Pears, 90, 340, 341, 345. Peas, 83, 90, 293, 295, 321, 345.
Pei-pung-tzu, 304.
Pei-t'ou
{Ursa Major), worship
of, 6.
Oim,
135, 136, 139. k'utul, 148.
ch'u, 297, 311, 312, 313, 314, 316, 325, 327, 328, 331Om-yong, 261. Ombo ch'u, 325, 327.
Om
Peking, I, 2, 3, 5, 6, 13, 14, 15, 18, 57, 158. Pene-ringu, 293. Peng-cha-mu, 349. Peppers, 292, 304, 342, 343, 345, 364. Pere Tibetans, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 261. Pheasants, 26, 27, 31, 46, 103, 174, 311, 360.
Philadelphus coronarius,
Pichan, 56.
68.
Photographing, 88, 133, 265.
Onghin
cola, 16.
Onions, 90, 197, 204, 206, 215, 222, 246,

295. 303, 345, 364-
Pien Men^,
60.
Pien-niu, 118.
28, 56.
Opium,
7, 10, II, 13, 14,
Orat Mongols, 25, 28, 29, 30. Ordos, 14, 23, 25, 33, 36, 46, 106. Mongols, 19, 29.
Orondeshi, 34.
Pigeons, 103, 124, 265, 278, 333, 342. Pigs, 318, 334, 335, 342, 361.
Pilchetai, 25. Pilgrims, 174, 180, 183, 278, 289. Pine trees, 86, 88, 272, 297, 299,
Orongo
antelope, 187, 194, 196, 197, 199, See also ling yang. 210, 212, 215.
Orongshe, 365.
Ottok Mongols,
ch'u, 363, 364. 29, 33. Outfit, 70, 71, 73. 97, 98Ovis poli, 126, 128, 151, 187, 188, 190. See 3\so pan yang. Ox hide water jars, 172.
301, 302, 305, 309, 310, 312, 332, 333, 334, 337, 339, 341, 348, 350, 351, 353, 354, 360, 361, 363, 364. Ping-ch'ing Wang, 2. Ping-fan ho, 63. Hsien, 51, 52, 53, 57. Ping-lo Hsien, 39, 40, 44.
Pitch-pine, 341.
Planorbis albus, 143.

Plough, 170, 293. Plum trees, 312. Po ch'u, 284, 289, 297. Po-jya la, 325, 327, 329.
284, 285. ga, 284. Po-lang-kung shan, 361.
la,
Pa-kiao-lu, 364. Pa-lung-ta, 351.
Pack-saddles, 60, 98, 104. Pai ma ssu, 64. Pan yang, 126. Panaka, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 124, 127, 129, 346. Panakasum, 58, 76, 91, 102, 108, 112, 113, 211, 309. Panch'en rinpoch'e, 134, 158, 255.
.
Po
Po-ma, 292, 304.

to,
371-
yul, 254, 262, 292, 371.
Poisoning, 242, 267, 285, 369.
408
INDEX.
INDEX.
Samda
ch'u, 254.
409
San-ch'uan, 64, 100, 106, 107. San-sheng Kung, 33. See San-tao ho-tzu. San-tao cli'iao, 321. San-tao ho-tzu, 23, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34,
35, 36. 38. 46.
San-Yen-Tsin, 52.
Shaving, 11, 75, 80. She ch'u, 333, 336, 337. Sheep, 13, 15, 30, 35, 52, 83, 116, 122, 126, 140, 224, 255, 265, 270, 288, 292, 295, 355, 356, 357, 360. Shelakang, 28. Sheldrakes, 120, 124, 142, 174, 197, 204,
221.
Shells, 120, 121, 143, 238.
Sand grouse,
9, 18, 21, 27, 31, 46, 52.
Sandal wood tree, 68. Sandstone, 4, 37, 47. 5o, 51. 53, 63, 75,
77, 78, 79, 85, 119, 141, 142,
Shene hoto, 109. Sheng-chin-kuan
183, 191, 200, 203, 207, 209, 210, 211, 219, 222, 223, 224, 277, 279, 284, 293,
204, 205, 213, 218, 248, 270,
305, 314,
92,
359.
tien, 47. Shi la, 310, 311. Shigatse, 138, 177, 179. 184, 19, i97, 206, 207, 217, 222, 227, 232, 237, 238, 240, 257, 286, 362. Shih-erh t'eng, 18.
Conglomerate, 37,
310, 333Sang Amnye, 167. Sangen gol, 167.
293,
Shih Fo ssu, 47. Shih-jen-wan, 12. Shih-kung-shih P'u, 47.
Shih-kung
ta ssu, 47.
Sanghe chakba, 329, 333, 343.

Sangyi Tibetans, 252, 255.
Sarlik ula, 165.
Shih-pa-erh t'ai, 11. Shih-pan kou, 330.
Satokto san-koban, 214. Saussurea tangutica, 323. Savate performance, 70. Sayi la, 123.
Schist, 85, 284.
Shih-rung-wa, 9. Shih ta fan, 107.

Shih-tsui- (Shih-tsui-tzu or Shih-tsui shan)
16, 33, 37, 38, 39, 45Shire nor, 205, 207. Sho, 230, 278, 284, 312. Shobando, 238, 276, 292, 294, 302, 303. Shudenge, 167, 169. Shugan ula, 182. Shugu gol, 182.
Schizopygopsis, 65.
Scythe, 24.
Seldum
gol, 143. Selling wives, 9.
Ser-chan t'onbo, 186.
Seremdo ch'u, 285, 286, 288, 291. Serkok gomba, 65, 153.
Sha-erh-wan, 74, 79, 81.
Shui-mo, 9. Shui-mo-k'ou, 343, 344.

Shui-pei ho, 54, 55.
Shuoma
Sha-ho ching, 53.

Sha-pa, 49. Shagreen, 362. Shale, 108, 225.
Shan-hsi, i, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 23, 42, 47, 76. Shan ken, 344.
Ts'aidam, 161. Shurtsang Panaka, 114.

Sickle, 24.
Sikkim, 184, 237, 298, 348. Silver, 187, 274. smith, 163, 164, 292, 358. Singing, 87, 91, 168, 335.
Single-stick, 70.
Sini nor, 121.
Slate, 193, 200, 243, 279, 284, 299. Slings, 264.
Shan-tung, 42, 76. Shaner Panaka, 117. Shang-chia Panaka, 114. Shang chia (of Ts'aidam), 114, 124, 127,
130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 138, 146, 147, 148, 372Shanghai, 41, 57, 60, 78, 84, 97. Shang-wu chuang, 104, 109, 138. Shang ying-tzd, 39. Shapka IWonomakh, 195. Shar-yong, 261. Shara gol, 129, 165. Kuiyi daban, 189, 191, 192, 194. kuto, 91, 108, 109, no. III, 112, 117, 121.
tolh'a, 169.
Smallpox, 235. Smugglers, 76. Snake, 343.

Snipe, 174. Snow, 27, 28, 40, 42, 75, 91, 107, 120, 126, 127, 129, 140, 153, 158, 164, 186, 190, 191, 192, 197, 201, 203, 206, 207, 209, 218, 220, 358. blindness, 129, 130. line, 209, 219, 220.
Snuff, 19, 243. Soda, 5, 18, 21, 241.
Sharba, 58, 117, 121.
Sodzum,
170,
4IO
INDEX.
Tasi ch'u, 294.
411
412
INDEX.
Ulan
ula, 208. Ulasutai gol, 166.
Tsacha tsang-bo ch'u, 227, 228, 230, 238,

240, 241, 243, 244, 245, 247. Tsan-pa shan, 351. Tse ch'u, 297, 299, 300, 302, 305, 306, 309, 311. Tsega, 272, 273, 276.
tjmeke ula, 187, 191, 192, Unda, 310.
Uneven
Tsobo-ch'uk'a, 343. Ts'o-do lung, 142, 143.

go, 142. kadri, 120.
gol, 173. Urga, 4. Urine as medicine, 104.
Vaulting into saddle, 130.
non-bo, 113. Ts'ong-k'a, loi.

Tsonju, 178. Tsuchi Kun, 82. Tsung-ta, 355.
See Koko-nor.
Vegetarians, 58. Vultures, 95, 152.
pa, 68, 99.
Wa-ch'ieh, 366.
Waho la, 300. Wahon ch'u, 125,

la,
126, 128.
jamkar, 126.
123, 125, 128.
76, 77, 78.
T'u-fan, 68, 76, 77, 85, 90, 95, 103, 107. jen, 62, 64, 65, 71, 73, 74, 76, 77, 87, 100, 106.
ssii,
omsa, 125.
Wai-kun,
Tu-mu,
71, 76. village of, 4.
Walnuts, 340, 341, 342, 344, 347. Wan-chiian Hsien, 7.

94. P'u, 44. Wang Mongols, 29. Wang-yeh Fu, 38.
Tub-chia Panaka, 114.

Tufa, 9, II. Tugeta, 174.
gol, 174. Tulips, 192, 210. Tumba, 116.
Wan-li
Meng,
Wan-hu
Wango
la,
359.
119.
Turned
iVlongols, 14.
Wangk'a 321. Wangk'a Mongols,
Tumta
Habsere, 215. Naichi, 185, 188.
Wangsht'ah'a Panaka, 114. Washing, 154.

Wa-ssu-k'ou, 370.
Tola gol, 174. Tung-chou, 3, 4. Tung djung zamba, 305. zamba. T'ung-kuan, 19.
Water
See Sung lo
bottle, 30.
wheel, 60.
Watermelons, go, 345.
Tung lu, 103. T'ung-sliih, 86, 117, 122,182,183,302,303.

T'ung-tien
river,
Watsema, 366.
Wax,
Wayen
64. nor, 109, 112, 115, 116, 121.
137.
Tung Wang,
29.
Weaving, 41, 248, 268. Wei-ching P'u, 38.

Wei-hsi, 339,
Tungolo, 365, 366. Tungor, 35.
Wei-Tsang
Wei-yang-chi
Tungor gomba, no.

Turbans, 80, 256.
Turfan, 56.
t'u chih, 330, 332, 333, 342,
, .354, 359ti, 30. Wells, 10, 20, 25, 53, 54. Wheat, 39, 83, 90, 286, 295, 311, 315, .32.6, 335, 343, 345. 361, 363, 365Whistlmg, 20, 248. White horse temple, 64. poney, 150.
Turgen
ula, 141.
Turkestan, 14, 20, 56, 74, 166, 263. Turkey, 80.

Turki, 76. Turnips, 283, 285, 290, 295, 303, 311, 321, ^ 326, 335. 351, 353. 358, 361. Turquoises, 69, 253.
Turun, 87. Tweezers, 125, 234. Typlioid fever, 369.

Uighurs, 56.
Wickerwork, 7, 18, 54. Wild asses, 120, 122, 124, 126, 141, 142,
145, 185, 186, 187, 190, 194, 201, 210, 212, 215, 225, 278. goats, 141, 145, 146. men, 143, 144. ,. Willow trees, 7, 9, 12, 17, 18, 20, 25, 26, 27, 30, 34, 35, 36, 43. 44- 92, 162, 167, 169, 170, 173, 174, 182, 183, 184, 191, 299, 301, 312, 315, 354, 363.
Ula, 86, 183, 262, 263, 265, 304, 314,

335, 336, 337. 341. 342, 366. 347,
348,
INDEX.
Wind,
4, 7. II. 36, 42, 48, 51. 59. 64, 7, 91, 119, 120, 121, 167, 212.
413
Wo-lung-shih, 365. Wolves, 12 26, 27, ia, 103, 172, 173,

177, 198. 311. position of, 156, 268, 346. Wool, 3, 26, 28, 41, 51, 64, 78, 90, 108, 275. 370. Woolen stuff, 56, 60. Wrestling, 70.
Women,
Yangyu Panaka, 114. Yaokatse, 359. Yar Sok, 159. Yaru tsangpo, 190, 207, 286. Yasho-santo Panaka, 114. Yeh-niu shan, 108, iii.
Yeh-sheng P'u, 45. Yellow River, 12, 14,
16, 18, 20, 21,
22,
Wu-la
lio, 32. shan, 15, 16, 23, 25, 26, 27. Wu-Ii-pa, 12. Wu-ta-l<u, 31.
23. 24. 25, 26, 27, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 43. 45, 46. 48. 49. 50. 52. 55, 60, 61, 66, 78, 79, 83, 84, 87, 91, 92, 106, no, 113, 115, 116, 117, 118, 121,
127. 175-
Wusliun, 20, 29.
Wutushin
Panal<a, 114.
Yen-te fang, 328. Yerkalo, 352. Yin shan, 36. Ying pan, 112, 116.
shui, 51, 52.
Ya-chou Fu, 369, 372. Yadro, 326. Ya-dza k'uar, 78. Ya-lung Chiang, 363.
Yagara, 158, 196, 249.
ch'u, 251. Yaks, 102, 104, 105, 109, 116, 118, 119, 124, 126, 128, 129, 130, 131, 142, 145, 153. 190, 193. 199. 200, 204, 205, 210, 212, 215, 219, 221, 245, 255, 264, 265, 270, 2S0, 288, 355,
Yirna
ts'o, 228, 241.
Yo-mu Mongols,
Yogore
145Yii-lin Fu, 26.
14. gol, 132, 133, 139, 140, 141, 142,
Yuan-pao, 260.
Yun-nan,
Yung
i, 54, 339, 341. ch'u, 322, 323.
356, 359-
Yung-k'an, 47. Yung-shan chuang, Yusa, 323.
9.
Yalawach, 81. Yang ko ku, 56, 59.
See drums. See Dre ch'u.
Zamba fang,
350.
Yang
ho, 7, b, 9. Yang-tzii kiang, 209. Yangamdo, 281.
Ze-chi zamba, 321. Ze ch'u, 288, 290, 293, 294, 296, 297. Zuun'da la, 360, 361.

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(5otneU

CHARLES WILLIAM WASON

CHARLES WILLIAM WASON

Cornell University Library

ourney through IMongoiia and

3 1924 023 224 656

Cornell University Library

Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright

the United States on the use of the

WILLIAM WOODVILLE ROCKHILL

PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

The journey described

volume was undertaken by

Mr. Rockhill partly under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution,

and the work

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

From Peking through Mongolia to Kumbum

From the Naichi gol to Namru

near the Tengri nor.. i8i

From Namru to Ch'amdo

Table of Latitudes, Altitudes, etc.

Mean Monthly Temperature

Hobbles, etc Butter-boxes Pail Hats Caps

256 266 272

Mountains near Neda

Belt, Knife, Tinder-pouch,

Plan of Panaka Cooking-stove and Tent

Jew's-Harp and Case

who, coming from Northwestern

China, traversed Central Tibet on his

in its capital, Lh'asa.

us of this country in his " Eastern Parts of the

however, very meager and of no geo-

Three centuries elapsed before another Western traveler visited

In 1624 the Jesuit

Antonio Andrada went from

to the sources of the

and thence through

Tibet, to Kiria probably,

whence he journeyed along the

northern base of the Kun-lun to the

Tangut, ultimately reaching China.f

The next journey through Tibet was performed by Fathers

and followed the highroad to Lh'asa by Nya-ch'uk'a and Reting.

Grueber's narrative contains

valuable information on Tibet,

people, their customs

In 1716 the Jesuit Fathers Desideri

and Freyre reached Lh'asa,

coming from Sikkim, and remained

f See Peron et Billecocq, Recueil de Voyages X Published in Thevenot's Relations,

mission there which flourished until about 1760.

have been published several

times and are of great value.*

the journey to Tibet of the

ing again to Lh'asa and to India, and dying in Batavia in i745-t

1774 George Bogle was sent

Shigatse to try and open commercial relations with Tibet.

account of his journey has been published