Full text of "Tibet"
TIBET
THE COUNTRY AND ITS
INHABITANTS
3f. <Brenai*t>
Translated F>y A. TUXXEURA DK
HUTCWW&CW * CO,
PREFACE
'M book which I am now placing before the reader is
l>a'tial reprint of a work entitled " A Scientific Mission
o ,Up,ier Asia " (Paris: Leroux, 3 vols, 4to, and an atlas
:>!'), which I published in 1897-1898 under the auspices
f^tht? Ministry of Public Instruction. This government
plication, important both in bulk and price, is not within
hit reach of the mass of readers nor, especially, of all
f 'i< w who may need to refer to it. 1 have therefore
hi '|<ht it advisable to extract from it and to issue in a
form all that part which relates to Tibet and
IK Tibetans, to whom recent events have called general
tiiion* I have omitted only purely technical matters.
The following pages contain first the story of the
-, unfortunately attended with tragic results, which
informed with my regretted leader and friend, the
i'i ,VL Dutreuil de Uhins, across an almost inaccessible
iijoft. If devoid of any other merit, this narrative has
that of sincerity* I have been to no pains to
or in any way to distort it, nor have I ever
to astonish the reader's imagination by dis-
^ring things through magnifying-glasses or to flatter
^jvtiv&iling taste for romantic exoticism which disguises
V true character of countries and men under a con*
fitional veneer. After drawing up in his journal a list
$htij sufferings and difficulties with which we had to
\ Dutreuil de Khms wrote;
'We can never forget all these sufferings!"
iv PREFACE
Far from exaggerating them, however, I have rath'
extenuated them, knowing how greatly he detested anythi,
at all resembling advertisement and how bent he
upon not appearing to solicit the admiration or pity
others.
The second part of this volume comprises an accott
of the manners and customs, the social and econom
life and the political condition of Tibet, one of the nir
curious and least-known of countries, which is on tl
verge of losing a notable part of its originality. Th
account, although dating some years hack, has lost nor
of its novelty. Of the explorers who came after us-
Littledale, Wei by, Deasy, Bonin, Kozlof, Sven Hedin, <
whom each was very remarkable in his way, while tb
last stands in the first rank from the geographical poir
of view not one was in a position to make a thorou^
study of Tibetan society. Two men alone the Hint
pundit Sarat Chandra Dns ' and the Buriat Tsybikoff,
Russian subject t have brought us any fresh informatic
in this respect. Among recent travellers who went befo
us, I must mention, as being in the first rank of the
who have added to our knowledge of the people
Tibet, Pere Deagodins, of the Foreign Missions, t an'
above all, Mr, W, W, Rockbill,^ who is to-day the me
competent man in this matter. I have been careful not t
lay stress upon points which they already had sufficient,
elucidated.
R 0.
* Journey to Lhtt'tta and Central Tibet. London; tocjjt.
1 Ccnlnl Tibet. An article in the ttulletin of the St,
Geogfttphietrl Society : J0<>3* I*ftrt MI*
J Tibet. Pariw: 1^5. A work cntmmcU with fnctw, hut <
the scientific spirit,
S T/ic Land of tlw Unnax* London; i^.'-Dittry of tt
through Mongol*** ff "d Tibet, VValurtgt<> : x94
Tibet Washington: 1895,
CONTENTS
PART THE FIRST
THE STORY OK THK JOURNEY
CHAPTER I
FJKST UXPt.OKATIONS IX NOKm-VKSTI.KX YIUhT AND J-ADAK
AGC
m Khotiin to the Tibetan frontier- Across the plateau of Upper
Asia ! ; ix>h departure from Khofan and fresh accent of the
phiU*au--TJieflrt Tibetans The oM route from Khotanto Lhasa
Krom UUte Kgnye MorpuClm to Luke Pangon^- From Lake Pan*
^oitg to Leh" H*om Leh to Khotan through the Kurukorcini raw* i
CHAPTER II
MAKCH ON Lit ASA -Tllli AIOl'NTAIN DESBKT- -THH JfASKQIlt)
WITH Tin? rnti-rrAN O % "~
jjo in Kcnrch of it new route to Lhasa to the south
V/c reach the eximne point known to the natives -We eross the
Alth.u Tagh" The Outreuil de Khins Chain- A^ain the mountain
ilcft We meet our ftrat man after sixty one days' march -The
I TibtftaiiH try to stop tw -The prcfeet of Senju Jong-- The Num
Chp or TVf{ri Nor Pirst envoys from Lhasa Arrival of the
Chinese vice-legate and of new delegates from the Tibetan govern-
ment We arc refused permission to tfo to Lhasa We are given
Irave tn utay at Nu^chu .........
CHAPTER III
MXPLOKATIONtt OF lH94'--M*OAI TUB NAM CJIO TO
n the Mum Cho to Na^chu ; the sourcen of the Sulwen~-Nu#tihU"-
\Vc set out for Sining - HaSu of the Upper Snlwen ; an unkown
route from Lhasa to Tasienlu*- The Poubo Tihetan Source** of
tliv Hliie Kiver- SourceH of the Mekong- -Taehi Oompu; hontile
monks ; ti x^t Tibetan fair The exploration of the basin of the
Upper Mekong continued -Jyerhundo ; hostility of the nionkH;
the agents of the Chinese government ...... 91
vi CONTENTS FOR PART THE FIRST continu ed
CHAPTER IV
FROM JYERKUNDO TO SINING DEATH OF DUTREUIL DE RHINtf
I'AGl
The village of Tttmbumdo Our caravan is attacked and pillaged by
Tibetans and Dutrcuil de Rhins killed A useless combat The
convent of Labug takes our part against the people of Tumbumdo
Intervention of the Chinese agent I leave for Simng ; a deserted and
unexplored country ; the Golok bandits ; the Upper Yellow River
Our provisions fail The KokoNor; Tongkor Sitting; the Imperial
Legate ; our baggage is restored to us The monastery of Skubum 150
PART THE SECOND
A GENERAL VIEW OF TIBET AND ITS INHABITANTS
CHAPTER I
A nKSCimVTION OF Tllli COUNTRY AS A WHO US
The region of the lakes The region of the rivers - - JH;
CHAPTER II
THE INHABITANTS : THEIR PHYSICAL AND MOKAI, TYIM'.S
Statistics; ethnical name of the Tibetans- 1 - Physical uluiructeristicH
Moral characteristics - - - sau
CHAPTER III
HISTORICAL SKETCH
Origins of the Tibetan people The chief tribes in the mth mitury
A. i>,, According to the Chinese writersThe first Tthotmi Uin^tloni
between the seventh and the ninth centuries Struggles bvtwven
the civil power and the religious power j^9
CHAPTER IV
MATKRUf. LIVE 1 IIAWTAT10NK, CU)THINO, FOOD, HYGIENH
AND MHDICINH
Tents Houses Clothing Food Climate, hygiene and medicine - 240
viii CONTENTS FOR PART THE
CHAPTER X
THE ORGANISATION OF THE CLERGV
MOB
The monastic hicrarchy-The number, power and wealth of the monks
-The different religious orders; the real position of the Dalai
Lama; the Dalai Lama is not a pope 330
CHAPTER XI
ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY
Divisions! the IdngJooi of Lhasa-Central power; taxes; officials-
The public forces-Predominating influence of the elersy in the
government-!, lie Chinese protectorate and the policy ol Chiini in
Tihet-Tlie policy of EnglanJ-Tlie principalities ad tribes M
Eastern Tibet arc independent of Lhasa and directly subject to
China ' :i!2
CHAPTER I
FIRST EXPLORATIONS IN NORTH -WESTERN TIBET
AND LA DAK:
From Kholiui to the Tibetan frontierAcross the plateau of Upper Asia ~
Fresh departure from Khottm unii fresh ascent of the plateau The
first TibetansThe old route front Khotan to Lhasa -From Lake
PgayiS Hoi-pa Cho to Lake Pangong^From Lake Pangong to Lch
From Lch to Khotan through the Karalcoram Pass,
BY a decree dated 23 July 1890, the Minister of
Public Instruction entrusted Dutreuil de Rhins, who
hud distinguished himself by a journey of exploration
in the Congo and by remarkable geographical works
on I lido-China and Central Asia, with a scientific
mission to Upper Asia, the expenses of which were
to be borne in part by the Ministry and in part
by the Academy of Inscriptions and Letters, On the
25th of October of the same year, I was appointed a
member of the mission ; ami Dutreuil de Rhins and
I4eft Paris on the 191)1 of February 1891.
I do not wish to speak here of our journey across
the Caucasus, Russian Turkestan and Kashgar to Khotan,
the real starting-place of our mission, which we reached
on the yth of July. In that first year, we were to
explore the mountains which rise to the south of
Khotan ; to discover, if possible, the traces of the
route which, according to certain Chinese documents,
led straight across those mountains from Khotan to Lhasa
1
TObet 3
that stand for tiers of benches- Its soil is of volcanic
origin ; and near two small lakes are layers of sulphur
from which this site derives its name of Gugurtluk,
This is the beginning of the immense entablature which
separates the plain of Hindustan from the steppes of
Mongolia and the sands and oases of Turkestan.
Shortly after, we entered the Ustun Tagh, a mountain-
chain perceptibly higher than the Altyn Tagh, whence its
name of Ustun Tagh, that is to say, " upper mountain/*
as against Altyn Tagh, which means " lower mountain."
These two mountain systems have very different
characters. The Altyn Tagh is very articulate, rugged,
bristling with pointed peaks and slashed with deep
valleys ; the Ustun Tagh, on the contrary, has very
large rounded forms : it contains more numerous and
more extensive glaciers ; and, while the Altyn Tagh
abounds in calcareous rocks, primitive and schistose
rocks prevail in the Ustun Tagh,
Climbing up beside the River Kim, we reached, on
the 26th of September, a large, flat and marshy valley,
strewn with small lakes, covered with a light layer of snow
and bordered on the west by a chain of huge glaciers
spreading so wide that they seemed but a few feet high*
We were nw at an altitude of 17,900 feet and we
erroneously believed that we had come to the source of
the river and to the Tibetan frontier. The glare of the
sun on the snow of the plain, all that whiteness spreading
in the quivering air to the distant horizon, with not a
detail, not a shadow to relieve the gaze, pained our
eyes as though they were stabbed by a thousand needles.
When we reached the stage, our men, blinded, with
aching heads, declared that they were unable to work
and lay down on the ground without pitching their tent
or preparing their meals. The next day, we descended
the valley ag^n in order to turn our steps to the
north-east, towards Karasai, hoping to find on our
4 {Tibet
right a gap in the mountains which would take us,
next year, to Lhasa. Vain hope ! Dutreuil de Rhins
had misinterpreted the old Chinese geographers otuthis
point.
We followed the foot of the glaciers of the Ustun
Tagh through a region encumbered with moraines of
rocks, intersected with ravines, undulated with gentle
hills, furrowed with depressions the bottom of which,
although generally dried up, was sometimes occupied
by a frozen pool. All of this tract was barren, dull,
silent as death and infinitely desolate ; and the motion-
less giants of ice that stood sentry over this desolation
made it appear more horrible yet. We had a few very
hard days* We had observed as many as 40 degrees
of heat in the sun at noon; and then the thermometer
would fall to 20 degrees below zero.' hi the morning,
at starting, we shivered with cold and our hands were
swollen and cracked with the frost when we useil the
compass or the pencil ; in the middle of the day, a
glowing sun burnt our faces ; and, almost immediately
afterwards, at two o'clock in the afternoon, a keen, icy
wind got up, bringing with it snow and hail. The alti-
tude, which was almost always higher than 16,000 feet,
choked us and made the least movement, the least word,
painful. At night, buried under thick blankets which
were hardly able to restore life to our benumbed limbs,
we were often awakened by a feeling of stifling ~iwd
suffocation which compelled us to leave our tent and
greedily to gulp down the niggardly air. Add to
this the bad food, poisoned by the smoke, and the
bud water, which was sale and bitten Less than this
would have been enough to lay low our attendants,
.During two days, there were three sound men in all : the
others, blinded, attacked by mountain-sickness, harassed
by continual physical exertion, their hands bleeding from
Centigrade,
ZH&et 5
the tents which they had to fold while still covered
with ice and snow, were all unfit for work. The horses
weri still more unfortunate and were a source of great
anxiety to us. During eighteen days, we found no grass
that suited them : everywhere were rocks } snow and
a few yapkakS) a sort of very low-growing plant, with
exceedingly hard and deep roots, which we used for
firewood, this being almost the only thing that ventured
to grow in this terrible country. Our barley soon
failed. Exposed to the snow and the cold nights, with
insufficient food, the beasts began to die. We gave up
to them our bread and our rice and were reduced to
eating nothing hut mutton. Now sheep that have been
fasting for several weeks are neither very fat nor very
succulent : ours, to tell the truth, were mere wool and
bone* As for game, there was no question of it ; the
country is absolutely deserted and not so much as a
wing is sect) to pass through the sky,
Meanwhile, our road was marked by the carcasses of
our horses. To save the ailing survivors, we had to leave
the least necessary portion of our baggage behind us and
to go on foot, a very painful mode of progress at so
great a height. We began to fear that we should not
arrive in time in a lower and more fruitful region, that
we should lose all our beasts and be obliged to sacrifice
all in order to save ourselves ; our men were becoming
aiDjjpus and thought themselves lost, destined to die in
this solitude with no visible outlet. We lengthened our
stages, in spite of our ever-increasing fatigue* At last,
on the 7th of October, having surmounted a steep
mountain-crest which forms part of the Altyn Tagh, we
reached the margin of the little salt lake of Hangid
Kul, in a valley that opened out a road to the east, a
road of safety and deliverance.
On the 8th, we marched until pretty far into the
night through the valley of Sarak Tu As the moon
6 ZTfbet
appeared over the mountains, we came to a spot where
grass abounded., near an abandoned gold-mine, The next
day and the day after, we descended as rapidly as possible
by a terraced slope, carpeted with long and varied grasses,
which follows the river and is intersected by deep and
steep ravines, cut out as though by a punching-machine.
On the loth of October, night surprised us while we
were still marching in the midst of the desert and of a
silence broken only by the sound of the waters roaring
at the bottom of their gorge. Suddenly, as we were
groping our way down the cliffs which embank the bed of
the river, we heard men's voices in the dark. They were
the people whom the Chinese mandarin of Kiria had
sent to meet us with provisions and fresh horses. We wore
at the end of our troubles for that year. On the i2th,
we arrived at Karasai, where a few shepherds and their
families live in underground dwellings. This place h at
a height of only 10,350 feet and may be considered as
outside the mountains* Towards the north there are only
a few spurs which run into the desert of Takla Makan,
From there, passing through the meadows which lie
at the foot of the Altyn Tagh and exhale a penetrating
odour of wormwood, through a barren plain covered first
with pebbles and then with sandy downs, we reached the
little oasis of Nia. In any other circumstances, the fields,
shorn and empty after the harvest, the thinned and
yellowing foliage, the dead leaves rolling in the dufl^ f
the roads would have given us an impression of sadness.
But now the softer light and the varied tints of autumn
rested our eyes ; and the warmth of the temperature,
the life and movement of the bazaar, the voices of men
talking and shouting revived and gave fresh spirit to the
travellers who had come out of the cold and the solitude,
After a stay at Khotan, the length of which was
greatly increased by circumstances which I need not
recall here, we set out again on the i8th of June 1892.
Uibet 7
On the 1 6th of July, we saw, for the second time,
that poor village of Polur, with its damp, dark houses
impregnated with a smell of goats and sour milk. This
time that wretched, exiguous corner of the earth seemed
to us delightful, because we remembered the rude and
wild mountainous desert at the foot of which it cowers
so chilly. The population received us cordially, hut
the sky frowned upon us. It mined : the mountain-
paths were broken and impracticable ; the swollen
torrents were filled with muddy, swift ami deep waters ;
the roofs fell in under the ruin ; in the plain, the floods
carried off trees, houses, pieces of the fields ; in the
mountains, the slopes streamed with water, the top**
became laden with snow. We had to wait, after having
already waited too long*
When the rain ceased and the road had been wended,
we set out, on the icth of August Our caravan num-
bered thirteen men, thirty-six horses, twenty-two donkeys
and thirty sheep, to which munt be added reinforcements
of sixty men and forty-three donkeys supplus! by IV>lur
and the surrounding district. With all tnis assistance, it
was nevertheless* no easy undertaking to carry, or rathe*"
to drag, six tons of baggage to the summit of a plutcMu
loftier than Mont Blanc. For three days, we matched
with the greatest precaution and the greatest difficulty ia
the gorges and gullies of the Kunrn. Oftenest we ha*}
tfr bags and chests carried on man-back. All our
measures were fairly well taken ; and fortune favoured us
to the extent that we had to mourn the loss of only one
horse. On reaching the plateau of Sura/. Kul, we foumJ
the sky and the earth equally melancholy, Grey ami
lowering clouds hid the mountains from our night ; the
snow fell in flakes and covered the ground to a depth of
two to three inches. This was on the f 6th of August.
Everything was so wet that it wan impossible to make
a fire* When the night was over, our local recruit*,
8 TObet
flinging themselves on their knees, besought us, with
many tears and lamentations, to allow them to go back.
The suffering was great indeed, Our eyes were affected
by the dust, the sun and the snow ; the great height
made our breathing difficult, our movements painful, our
heads ache and caused all the wheels of the human
machine to grate, The natives were ill-clad, ill-fed and
without shelter. We therefore sent them away, ex-
cepting eight, of whom six were to accompany us for
three days more and two for seven.
We resumed our march in the direction of the source
of the Kiria Daria. The season was decidedly bad and
the heavens capricious. At one moment, the weather
was bright, the sun burning; and we would take off
our too heavy furs : suddenly, a groat gust of wind came,
black clouds hastened up and heaped themselves one on
top of the other, bringing snow and hail ; and once more
we would wrap ourselves in our sheepskins, shivering
from the effects of this abrupt change. But more serious
was that the snow which had fallen in spring and summer
now melted and turned the country into u vast hog. The
valleys were flooded ; the soil of t&t> slopes was muddy
and soft. A great plain crossed by the Upper Kiria Dana,
on which, in 1891, we had seen only two little bogs, had
become one great pool of water, We were obliged to
keep as much as possible to the heights, which increased
the difficulty of our progress owing to the constant
climbings and descents ; the horses sank into the ground
to their knees, sometimes to their bellies ; harassed with
fatigue, stifled by the height at which we were, shivering
with cold, wanting grass, turning against the barley,
which they refused, they wasted away rapidly; and,
already, on the aand of August, we had lost two, Eight
men of the thirteen were ifi ; the others dragged them-
selves along as best they could* Dutreuil dc Rhin
himself was very unwell.
Tttbet 9
We had meantime come to the foot of the immense
and magnificent glaciers where the Kiria River takes its
source. We succeeded in surmounting, by u pass at
18,200 feet, the chain of the Ustun T:tfh, which wits thus
crossed for the first time by travellers coming from the
north. The water no longer flowed towards Turkestan
and we could consider ourselves to have reached Tibetan
territory : two days 1 march further were stones blackened
by the fire on which Tibetan hunters had boiled their tea.
Unfortunately, the obstacles, far from becoming fewer,
increased ; the altitude, which was IN hi<j;h as before,
varying from 17,000 to i,oy feet, the marshy *oil the
scarcity of food ami the cold nights caused our be;sis to
suffer from extreme weakness, which was sijsgravattfi!
by the time during which they had travelled and the
distance which they hail covered. The necessity which
ensued of marching more slowly, of #oing only seven
or eight miles a day, instead of thirteen^ ;wtf the (on-
sequent insufficiency of our provisions, which had been
calculated for a more rapid progress obliged us to take
a south-westerly direction in order to obtain, in the
nearest inhabited regions, ihe resources which we nmied
and the indications that would enable us to make for
our goal by a more practical road.
As far us Like Surn/.i Cho, we followed, with a few
modifications, the itinerary which Carey hud marked outj
in J^c opposite direction, many years before* The men
from Polur had left us, taking with them our last mail for
France, and we now continued our journey alone Acrms
those monotonous and desolate solitude*, where the air
choked us like a leaden breastplate* where the cold frtMtt
our feet and chapped our hands ami faces. We heard
nothing but the incessant, harsh, furioun whiMtle of tht %
west wind, which Deemed to be the voice of the mountains
earning the disturber* of their peremtwl rest. We ww
nothing but a wccemon of distmal hilh, sometime**
10 ttfbet
whitened with snow, trailing sadly and low as though
weary from having climbed so high* Nothing grew on
the dry soil save here and there a few hard, short bkdes
of yellowish grass. Nothing moved in the sky or on the
ground, except that, from time to time, we saw flying, far,
very far in the distance, swift as an arrow, the vague
shape of an antelope, a yak or a wild horse. Sometimes,
however, a fine landscape aroused the attention, as on the
25th of August, on the banks of the Yeshil Kul, the first
great lake that we had come upon. It stretched to the
foot of the tall mountains all sparkling with snow, its
water of a dazzling and unshaded blue, motionless and as
it were sleeping in the absolute silence of surrounding
nature, a silence not ruffled even by the sound of a bird's
flight.
From that lake, which is two days from the source of
the Kiria Dam, the traveller follows a scries of long
valleys and amphitheatres with a red soil, confined within
mountain chains, whose summits and northern flanks
alone keep their snowy mantle at a height of 18,000 to
18,500 feet, while behind them, towards the south,
appear the tops of the gangri, or glaciers, which form a
third chain, almost parallel with the Ustun Tugh and the
Altyn Tagh,
After skirting little Lake Tashliak Kul and going
round the Sumzi Cho, we saw, on the 4th of September,
our first Tibetan. He was a hunter, with long, tanked
hair and a wild face, and he carried a matchlock of
inordinate length. He gave us a quick impression that
we had now entered upon a new and strange world-
For fear of the authorities of his country, he at first
refused to reply to our questions ; but as, on the other
hand, he feared us no less than the said authorities and
as the danger from our side appeared the more urgent,
he made up his mind to show us the road to the nearest
human habitations, on condition that we did not inform
tfibet 11
against him. In the afternoon of the next day, we came
to an immense amphitheatre of snow-topped mountains,
crossed by a deep ravine on the edges of which were
scattered seven poor little black tents inhabited by
Tibetans subject to Lhasa. This place is called Mangtza,
and forms part of the district of Rudok ami the
province of Chang ; it is overtowered by the Mawang
Gangri, an enormous rounded mountain, behind
which> at three days' march, lies the sacred lake, the
Mawang Cho, called Bakha Namur Nor by the Mongols.
In a few moments, we were surrounded by the entire
population, men, women and children, all with their skins
burnt and tanned by the sun, wind, cold and snow, their
disordered hair flowing in the wind, their bodies covered
with a dirty and rugged sheepskin or woollen gown. Good
people, for that matter, quite astonished umi delighted at
seeing men so extraordinary as ourselves, they gave us an
excellent reception and made us go the rounds of all their
tents, where they regaled us on buttered and suited tea
and grilled barley-meal (tMmb<i) % an indifferent fiux^ it"
the truth be told, but seasoned with good humour. One
of them, whose hair wan more bristling, his ;ur fiercer,
his tongue more active, his clothes dirtier, his iron pipe
heavier and longer than the others*, offered to guide us
wherever we wanted to go, in consideration of a fair
wage, swearing to be faithful to us against all comers. A
gufilc was not enough : we also wanted provisions ;
and those poor nomads* who live by rearing u few yak*
and a few sheep and who nend to latlak tor the little
barley which they consume, were unable to nupply UH
with anything*
Meanwhile, the news of our arrival had spread, awl
on the yth of September > the jpfo, or chief of the canton*
made his appearance, accompanied by three men armed
with prehistoric muskets and iron swords, Korthwith^
our faithful volunteer eclipsed like 'a star before the
12 {Tibet
rising sun and it was impossible to find him again. The
goba spoke to us very politely, informed us that he was
ready to serve us and that, if we wanted guides, he weuld
put some at our disposal, except by the road to Rudok,
where foreigners were not admitted. We had no inten-
tion of going to Rudok, first, because we knew that
we should not readily be allowed to pass ; and, next,
because we should not find the needful supplies in
that wretched little market-town, We asked only for a
guide to lead us in the direction of the south-east ; for
we hoped to be able soon on that side to reach inhabited
districts, less high up and better furnished with resources
than that in which we were. The goba, delighted to rid
himself of our troublesome presence, picked out two men
to accompany us and recommended them to us us being
very trustworthy and as knowing the country perfectly.
These guides led us towards the east, over passable
and pretty firm ground, but barren and rarely at a lower
altitude than 17,500 feet. We skirted the northern foot
of a great chain of mountains, running parallel with the
Ustun Tagh, whose snowy summits and glaciers were
often hidden from our sight by the brown masses in the
foreground. On the loth of September, we camped in a
very wide and almost level valley, covered with gravel
and sand and devoid of water or grass, like the bottom
of a dried-up lake. Quite near, concealed by a mountain
spur, lay the point of a great lake, the Rgaye Hc^pa
Cho, which I was to recognise later. Beyond the lake, on
the south-east, rose a majestic icy barrier, across which a
cutting was indistinctly outlined. Although Dutrcuil de
Rhins thought that he had lost his way, this was really,
as I have since shown/ the old road from Khotati to
Lhasa, which went by the Kyx;yl Davan, the source of
the Kiria Daria, the Rgayd* Horpa Cho, the Mawang
Cho and Thakdaoragpa,
*" A Scientific Mission to Upper Asia*" Vol. in^^^
13
Unfortunately, we were in u critical situation. Since
leaving Polur, our mission had done twenty-six days of
effective marching. Although our men had become
better accustomed to the extreme altitudes than one
would have expected at the start and although the
fatigue was now less great, on iirmer ground and under a
lighter burden, several men, ami those among the best,
had been rendered almost useless by pains in the head
and stomach, True, the temperature had varied only
between 8 degrees below and 32 above /ero, nor hud
the difference on any one day exceeded 31 degrees in
the shade, but, at a height of 17,500 to 1 8,000 feet,
with wind, bad food and the physical strain, a man
becomes very sensitive to such differences. During
the three last days' march, we had lost six horses ; on
the banks of the Rgay<! Horpa Cho, in spite of the
rest and the grass, we lost six more. Of thirty-nix
with which we started we hud only twenty-four very
tired horses left The jaded donkeys were no longer
capable of travelling stages of sufficient length to bring
us to the inhabited region** before the provisions gave
out, that is, before fourteen days.
Our losses were bound to increase rapidly in thin
desert, where the altitude became no lower, where the
grass was so scarce and so bad and where the road was
barred on the south by glaciers which the surviving
an'ynals, in their exhausted state, would not have had the
strength to cross. Lastly, Dutreuil tic Rhins, who was in
bad health when leaving Polur, was now so ill as to cautie
me serious anxiety, in spite of his efforts to conceal hi*
sufferings.
We therefore turned back. Once more travelling
near the Sunr/i Cho, we nkirted very wide valleys by the
deeply-twined lope of the northern apur* of the great
chain of which I have already spoken. Next, innteati of
taking Carey's road by the Lunik l<a PJUW, we pushed
H ttfbet
into the depth of the chain through the defile of Cha-
kar Skedogpo, between bare, red hills. On the I yth of
September, crossing a watershed and a maze of *arid
heights, we came, amid wind and hail, to an amphitheatre
of snow-capped mountains and glaciers which descended
at sixty feet from where we stood* The lower slopes
were encumbered with moraines of stones as far as the
banks of a great lake, the Kon Cho, which was over-
towered on the opposite margin by enormous steep
peaks. It looked like a drop of water lost at the
bottom of a well ; and on its wan and melancholy surface
floated great grey clouds. Notwithstanding the gloomy
and inhospitable aspect of this spot, a$ it is situated at
the junction of the two roads leading to Ladak and
Rudok, we found a few Tibetans who came there in
summer to graze their flocks on the lean tufts of
grass that grow between the .stones. We frightened
them greatly, for they took us for brigands* The
shepherds ran away and did not return that night ;
the sheep strayed freely over the mountain ; and it
took three days to look for them, bring them back
and sort them.
Two aptuksy or policemen, seat to watch the frontier,
arrived, wearing red turbans, armed from head to foot
and carrying over their shoulders a copper box containing
a sacred image, an infallible talisman against bullets ana
sword-thrusts* They cherished the purpose, as we h^pird
later, of seizing our horses during the night ; but,
seeing that we looked like honest people, they changed
their mind and thought it more expedient to employ
persuasion, They were punished, however, for their
sin of intention ; for, while they were meddling with
our affairs, the wife of the younger of them was kid-
napped by some enterprising marauders and the poor
husband, who heard of the adventure at breakfast, hurriedly
left his colleague to go in chase of the ravbhera.
ZKbet 15
The old policeman, while drinking a few cups of
buttered tea with us in the tent of a native, tried to
turn^ us from our road. He told us that the way
from the Kon6 Cho to Ladak was very had, indeed
impracticable ; that we ought to make for the Lnnak
road if our intention was to go to JLadak ; that the
road to Rudok was closed and that to the Kon<i Ding
forbidden to Europeans ; that, if he allowed us to take
it, he would be trifling with his life. But, as Dutreuil
de Rhins gaily observed, that was no reason why he
should trifle with us. We had learnt that, through the
Kon6 Ding Pass, we could go straight to the north-
western part of Lake Pangong, which is in Ladak> ami
our scarcity of provisions did not allow us to indulge
in circuitous routes*
"Be it so," replied the policeman, " 1 will serul a
messenger to Rudok at once, if you will wait for the
answer of the authorities, which cannot take long in
coming/'
"You can do better than that,*' said Dutreuil tit*
Rhins, "Go with us as fur as the Kon6 Ding, for 1
refuse to wait another day. You will sec for yourself
that I shall not try to go to Rudok and everybody
will be satisfied.'*
"Very well, 1 agree/* said the policeman, who was
a decent fellow, " on condition that you pass through
my olace to take a cup of tea/' '
un the next day, the I9th of September, we set
out together, crossing the great moraines of the glaciers
which run down to the western margin of Lake Konfe
Cho* Our worthy policeman informed us that there
used to be many bandits in those parts, but that they
had disappeared since his appointment to watch over
the public safety. When we reproached him with his
colleague's adventure, he replied that it wan probably not
so much a question of marauders, that women have their
16 ttfbet
fancies and that, when you've got a young wife in your
tent, it's wiser not to go travelling the high-roads. This
wise and formidable policeman appeared himself to^have
been a great traveller: he had seen Lhasa, Sining, Sikkim,
Darjeeling ; he had known Chinamen, Hindus, English-
men ; and, in the course of his peregrinations, he had
picked up a certain simple and decent civility. He
received us, in fact, in his own dwelling with a good
grace that enlivened the wretchedness of his smoky
tent ; and this good grace was set off by a little touch
of irony that was not without pungency.
Our host's tent stood on the west bank of the Kon
Cho, not far from the junction of two valleys, one of
which opens to the south, is wide and dotted with
fairly numerous tents and leads to Rudok in three days,
while the other, narrower and deserted, goes up to the
Kon6 Ding Pass on the wt\st We entered the latter,
accompanied by the policeman, who, faithful to his
promise, guided us to the Kashmir frontier with all the
more alacrity in that he was showing us the way out and
not the way in. On the 2oth of September, crossing
the pass at a height of 17,985 feet, wo entered the
Maharaja's territory. During all that day, we did
nothing but climb up and down by sterile gorges,
through which blew a fierce wind, laden with the cold of
the glaciers. After passing the Pagrim La ((8,000 feet),
we descended by an interminable stony and barren pipage,
500 to 1,100 yards wide, between mountains 2,000 to
2,500 feet high, with steep sides, bare and red, with
enormous black rocks. On arriving at the end of thb
defile, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the sust of Sep-
tember, we saw, on the brink of a clear stream, a coppice
consisting of humble shrubs called oml>u 9 in whose
branches little birds were singing, Thb was the begin*
ning of the end. We were now no higher than the top
of Mont Blanc. A huge number of hares lived in that
TObct 17
coppice. We saw them on every side, basking and do/-ing
in the sun, peaceful and unconscious of danger ; for the
Tibgtans, who loathe the flesh of these animal*, never hunt
them* We had the cruelty to disturb their security for
the sake of varying our ordinary fare ; hut this sport was
really too easy to be very amusing and peace was con-
cluded almost as soon as broken, We took a day'** rest
at this spot, which is called Mingy- u and which seemed
to us the threshold of paradise. It wii^ not inhabited
at this season of the year, but we saw u caravan of
Tibetans encamped there who were carrying on sheep-
back a quantity of silt, drawn from the Siwui Cho and
other salt lakes of the region, to Leh, with a view to ex-
changing it for flour, barley, woollens, cooking utensils,
artificial pearls ami ornaments. Salt is entirely lacking
n\ Ladak and is sold at its weight in barley, As> on the
other hand, there is hardly any barley m the Rudok
district, the natives do not hesitate to make the annual
journey to Leh, which takes four months there and
back.
Although our Tibetan neighbours hut! left Niug/.u a.
day before us, on the 23rd of September, we soon caught
them up in the Gyu I-a Gorge, which the laden sheep
were slowly climbing to the lazy, monotonous singing of
the shepherds. The next morning, at six o'clock, came
from Rudok four Tibetan mcBHengcn, in red turbans,
carrying gaudy flags and making a great noise with the
bells^hung round their horses* necks, Why did they enter
a territory which in said to be British from Konc Ding ?
I do not know ; but the fact is that they followed u
for some distance, accosted us jtnd tried to turn UH anuic
from the Gyu la and to make UH take a road more to
the north. They had come to the wrong address ;
we gave them to understand that we wanted neither their
advtce nor their company; and, when they rode off, their
bells sounded less noisily* The ascent of tlm Gyu L;i
9
18
Gorge (18,700 feet), the highest which we observed
in the course of our travels, is by an easy slope and offers
neither dangers nor difficulties. On the other hand^the
descent on the west, which is short but steep, may be
dangerous or even impossible with snow or ice and is very
difficult at any time. The top of the pass gives a mag-
nificent view of enormous slices of mountains separated by
transversal gorges, one overtopping the other and all sur-
passed by the distant white summits of the chain which rises
between Lake Pangong and the Indus. We made a quick
descent of 3,300 feet, climbed up again to a height of
16,600 feet and again went down some 1,800 feet to a
little deserted, sandy, salt beach at the edge of one of the
deep bays which cut the shore of Lake Pangong into
scallops. This lake stretches tortuously, enclosed by
huge rocky mountains, as though between the sides of
a gigantic, odd-shaped cup. As Dutreuil de Rhins
justly remarked, it reminds one of the Lake of the Four
Cantons; but how much more majestic it is and how much
gloomier ! In the presence of the Alps, man feels at his
ease and, so to speak, on Nature's own level, for it appears
to him as if the landscape had been created and composed
for the express pleasure of the spectator, like a sta^e
scene, or of the stroller, like an English garden- But, in
Tibet, he feels too weak before the power of rude Nature,
too small before the enormousness of what he sees ; he is
crushed : the scene appears to him to have been painted
for a race of Cyclops*
On the 25th of September, we saw, at a height of
14,200 feet, the first barley-fields and the first vassals of
Her Britannic Majesty, who, at Lukong, inhabit wretched
narrow dwellings contrived in the rocks of the mountain.
It was forty-seven days since we had left Polur and of
these we had spent thirty-nine days at a height of over
1 6^000 feet It was time to arrive at inhabited place$,
for, only the day before, we had been obliged to share our
19
provision of rice and flour with our beasts. However,
we were no longer anxious about them nor about the fate
of dthe caravan ; we were no longer afraid of falling short
of victuals; and we no longer had to drink brackish water.
We forgot our past sufferings, The traces which these
had left on our faces seemed to disappear, such was the
change that came over their expression. Our grim
foreheads became unknit, our dull eyes grew brighter^
our stiff limbs received new suppleness in the genial
warmth of hope. Those who had been quickest to yield
to discouragement and least brave in the facing of pain
assumed a valiant air. All laughed at the past, defied
the future and treated the Chang La, which we had still
to cross, as a wretched little mole-hill.
One thing, however, spoilt our cheerfulness, which
was the ill-health of our leader, who wan no longer able
either to walk or ride* Always illj for many days unable
to eat anything except a little flour mixed with tea, he
had reached such a degree of weakness that, in spite of his
wonderful courage in resisting suffering, he had become
incapable of attending to the caravan and been obliged
to reduce his work to a minimum, that is to say, to taking
the astronomical observations and making a few summary
notes. His physical pain had been aggravated by his
smarting regret at not haying done what he wanted to do
and by the grave care which the precarious position of the
expedition had given him, As far as this, at least, was
concerned, he was now reassured : the day of rest was
approaching which would doubtless put an end to hi*
sufferings; and the time was passing wnich, little by little,
would dispel his regret*
As we were making our appearance on British
territory unannounced and without pansporta and as a
Russian traveller had but recently turned Dock, there was
a danger of our situation being rather delicate. Dutreuil
de Rhins sent a messenger to the English resident at
20 TEtbet
who returned an amiable reply and gave orders that
we were to be well treated on our way.
On leaving Lukong, the traveller enters the Itng
defile of Muglibj which is rocky, wild and deserted. On
reaching the end, he sees, perched on a ledge of the
mountain on the right, a thick, short tower, with a
solitary stunted tree and, hanging from the flunks of the
rocks on the left, a chapel with hardly distinguishable
walls. Quite at the back, at the bottom of the valley,
three or four houses, with a few square feet of lean
crops, lie basking in the sun. Round about, a dozen
sheep and small goats wander among the rocks, looking
for the scarce grass.
The village of TangUe, at 13,000 feet, is reached on
the same day. It consists of twelve or fifteen houses, at
the crossing of three gorges, amid a heaped-up mass of
rocks and stones, AH is pale grey under a sapphire sky,
except a clump of young willows which the Kashmir
government has had planted to enliven the landscape, to
give a welcome shade to summer travellers and also, no
doubt, to instil into the Tibetans a taste for trees and
civilisation. But the latter refuse to be beguiled : they
see in trees a superflous invention, in civilisation a novelty
against which it is well to be on their guard ; they are
satisfied with the old customs of their fathers, with a few
spikes of barley in the valley, with a few tufts of grass
on the plateau,
The local lama resides in a very inconvenient dwelling,
but one particularly well situated and arranged to attract
the attention of future Baedekers. When the traveller
is shown this dwelling from the village, with, beside it>
the red-painted chapel at the top of an iso!atx*4 rock,
resembling a gigantic shaft of a ruined pillar, he U
persuaded that the holy man lives only on what the birds
of the sky bring him* As he approaches, he i undeceived
and seea a sort of very steep and ahapclena atatrcasty half
TTibet 21
natural, half artificial, which clambers up the outside
or even the inside of the rock and gives access to the
lanaa's chamber, n bare, narrow room, with a hard floor,
in which, however, one is as it were wrapped in the
peace of the limpid sky and in which one feels nearer
to the divine beings, the /Aas t who hover in the air,
while, very far and very low down, he sees the almost
imperceptible houses of the inferior and miserably rest-
less race of men.
At Tangtzc there is no representative of the Kashmir
government nor of the British government. The popu-
lation is allowed to look after its own affairs in its own way
and hardly anything is asked of it save the payment of ;i
fairly moderate and wisely-fixed tax. Nevertheless, we
perceived the influence in the country of a people so
practical as the Knglish by this fact, that, in order to pay
our expenses, it was enough for us to give drafts payable
at Leh, which were accepted without hesitation as cash.
On the 29th of September, we camped at the hamlet
of Durkug and, on the next morning, we set out at
half-past seven to make the ascent of the Chang Lu
Dutreuil de Rhins, who was prevented by toothache
from eating and who was never free from pain, gave way
to suffering and weakness. We had to carry him in a
litter to surmount the slope of 5^080 feet which leads to
the top of the pass, where we arrived at four o'clock in
the afternoon. For three hours we marched through
snow and ice and then descended, by a steep and narrow
path, across blocks of stone, along gloomy precipices, to
the village of Daghkar, where we pitched our tent at
seven o'clock in the evening,
The village of Daghkar con*Ut* of fifteen houses,
backed against a huge rock wall, of which they aeern to
be the natural excrescences* Thence the road leads
through the more important and Jesa wild villages of
Sagti and Chemdeh, Scarce and thin poplara outline their
22 "ttibet
slender foliage, already turning yellow, against the grey
of the rocks ; and, in the fields, ploughmen urge on their
indolent yaks while quavering a monotonous, dragging
chant The road next emerges on the valley of the Indus,
almost opposite the monastery of Himis, one of the
richest and most famous in all Tibet and inhabited by a
large number of Dugpa lamas. The Indus is here already
an important stream, at least as wide as the Rhone in the
Valais, and its green and powerful waters are crossed by
no bridge. Its valley smiled gaily enough upon travellers
who were descending from the desert of mountains,
but it must appear morose and ill-humoured to those
who come from Kashmir. It is fairly wide, contained
within two tall, gloomy, rocky, rugged mountains,
with straight sides and jagged ridges, lightly sprinkled
with snow. The soil is strewn with fragments of rocks,
leaving a scanty space, here and there, for a few fields
of corn and barley. For the rest, the spectacle is one
well calculated to please the eye* The Tibetans are great
handlers of stone and have a genius for the picturesque.
At the most unexpected places, on the most inacces-
sible rocks rise stone buildings : chapels painted in red,
little altars shaped like pyramids and known as thorium^
humble cells of solitary monks, monasteries ruined or
still standing, that look like fortresses.
On the 2nd of October, we came to a gravel plain,
surrounded by a circle of barren, snow-topped mountains,
at whose foot stood the green little oasis of Lch. A
very wide wall, which runs along the road for several
miles, adorned with flat stones bearing religious inscrip-
tions, leads almost to the entrance of the town, which
numbers about 3,000 inhabitants and consists almost
solely of the street of the baxaar, a wide, clean street,
lined with stone houses with one or two storeys, gdlirie
and terraced roofs. Its appearance is on the whole more
agreeable and more imposing than that of the mud towft
Uibet as
of Turkestan, such as Kashgar and Khotan. At the end
of the street there rises abruptly a steep and rocky
mountain, on whose slope is built a large rectangular
stone house, less wide than high, which was once the
palace of the Tibetan Kings. Right at the top of the
mountain, an isolated chapel, with no visible access to it,
is almost lost up there, in the blue sky. The descend-
ant of the ancient kings, relegated to an honourable
captivity at some distance from the town, is to-day no
more than a respected, but vain image.
The administration of the country is in the hands of
a vizier, delegated by the Maharaja of Kashmir; and the
English, in their capacity of protectors of the Maharaja,
keep an assistant resident at Leh, whose special duty
it is to protect trade, but also to control the Kashmir
administration and to maintain in it certain principle** of
equity and liberalism to which the Knglish have the good
sense to remain firmly attached and to which the growth
of their prestige among the peoples of Asia must 1> in
no small measure ascribed,
On our arrival, the British resident, Mr, Culitt,and
the Vizier Argen Nuth offered the most cordial welcome
to the travellers whom fortune had treated so badly in
the course of an expedition, lusting one hundred ana si:t
days, which had struck so severe a blow at' our leader's
health and cost us the lives of half our beasts, Mr,
Cubitt placed at our disposal a comfortable little white
house, shaded by splendid poplars, where Dutreuil dt*
Rhins was able to enjoy a few days* well -earned rett
and recover some of hi old vigour.
Leaving Leh on the aoth of October, on the next
day we climbed the Kardcwg Mountain by a very narrow
and exceedingly steep path, winding through an extra*
ordinary accumulation of rocks. On the other side, a
very stiff slope, covered with ice> leads to the bottom of
a gorge, Pedestrians have great difficulty in descending
24 {Tibet
this slope without the Alpine climber's gear ; horses slide
rather than step down to the foot of the neck ; and the
yaks alone are able to carry baggage from the top teethe
bottom without danger to themselves or their loads. We
spent the night at the hamlet of Kardong, which stands
at the foot of the mountain all covered with masses of
stone, among which the twenty stone houses of the hamlet
are difficult to distinguish. Thence the road descends by
the very picturesque gorge of the little Kardong torrent,
enlivened by small shrubs which grow in the interstices
of the rocks, and comes out into the stony valley of the
River Shayok, which is easily fordable at this season.
Below the tiny village of Chati, the Shayok receives an
affluent on the right, the Nubra, which we went up. Its
valley, which is fairly wide, is considered the most fertile
in Ladak. ft stretches between two huge walls of over
3,300 feet in height, formed of bare rocks which shoot
up their countless grey peaks into the blue of the sky.
The bottom of the valley is no less grey and barren
than the mountain walls which overlook it and is
only dotted here and there with brown patches, sorry
oases reddened by the autumn, where a few acres of
wheat and barley and a few fruit-trees struggle for
their lives amid the stone and sand. The name of
Pangmig, which the Tibetans give to one of these
oases, describes them all admirably. Pangmtg mean**
" eye of verdure." This rugged nature of Ladak docs
not make existence easy to man: unable to tame it, the
Tibetan submits to it, in the same way as he submits
to the yoke of his new masters, with the wild gentle-
ness of a captive antelope. Rugged as nature nerself
in his outward aspect, bristling, dirty and ragged, he
is morally weak, indifferent and, like all weak creatures,
suspicious and insincere ; but he pleases by an unpre-
tentious gaiety which forms a happy contrast with the
solemn gravity of the Moslem*
On the 24th of October, we slept at the village of
Pangmig, where the caravans stop to buy the victuals
neaded for the crossing of the desert mountains to Sugct
Kurghan and to hire yaks with which to climb the
passes of Karwal and Sassar La. We were kindly helped
in our preparations by the tkha of the valley of Nubra,
who, a rare thing, understood Persian well. On the 26th,
all was ready and we went as far as the insignificant
hamlet of Ljanglong, where we took leave of the last
Tibetans, !<Yom there, with the assistance of his yaks,
the traveller climbs the mountain wall on the left bunk
of the N ubra by the Karwul Puss, goes up the gorge of
the Tulumbuti, strewn with mountain refuse and over-
towered by snowy peaks and glaciers, and ascends the
glacier of the Sassar I /a. ; then, abandoning the yak% he
goes up the gorge of one of the sources of the Shayok
and, splashing in the water, passes at the foot of the
Kichik and Chong Kumdan glaciers. Our guide main-
tained that, Ufty years ago, there was no passage there,
the glaciers touching the mountains opposite, very steep
mountains, from whose summits a mass of rocks stands
out, resembling the ruins of a very enormous castle,
which the Turks have 4 christened the 1'ulacc of AfnusKtab.
Further on, the valley opens out and forms a circle of
snow-mountains, in which the River Shayok spread*
into a long lake.
Here stands Yapchan, where we camped on the 2 9th
of October, Beginning from here, the general aspect of
the country is modified* After leaving Leh, the country
had presented a series of wild and deep valleys, separated
by high, steep and difficult pase ; but the ground wt
firm and the march offered no danger when there was
not too much snow and ice. Beyond Yapchan, the
mountains have the same character which we had already
observed in the Ustun Tagh : rounded summit** gentle
slopes, high, wide, barren valleys, a ground which tn soft
when it is not frozen and inconsiderable differences or
level. This character continues as far as the Suget Pass,
starting from which we again find the steep mountains,
the pointed summits, the narrow and grassy gorges of the
Altyn Tagh.
On the 3 ist of October, we crossed the Karakoram
Pass, the summit of the Ustun Tagh. It is the highest
pass on the route (18,300 feet), but not the most difficult,
for there is no ice and the rugged portion of the ascent is
very short. An inscription, placed at the summit, marks
the boundary between the States of the Maharaja of
Kashmir and those of the Emperor of China. A little
lower, on the northern slope, covered with black rocks
and occasional patches of snow, a modest monument has
been raised by the care of our fellow-countryman,
M, Dauvergne, to the memory of the KngHsh traveller
Dalgleish, who was murdered in this spot by an Afghan
trader.
The portion of the road which lies between the
Karwal and Suget Passes is the most arduous because of
its extreme altitude, its barrenness, its lack of habita-
tions and its low temperature. We had as many as
29 degrees of cold, and on the same day, the 3Oth of
October, we observed a variation of 35 degrees, from
6 above to 29 below zero. But it would be ungracious
on our part to complain, for this same road was being
traversed, in the opposite direction, by old men, women
and children going on pilgrimage to Mecca. Many of
them were on foot and the majority had no tents; when
the evening came, strengthened by a handful of maize
boiled in water and a cup of bud tea, they squatted down,
pressing one against the other and shivering around a
poor fire, which soon went out, for fuel is scarce in this
treeless region. As poor in intelligence as in purse, these
pilgrims, young and old, have only the discomfort of the
journey and do not in the least enjoy the charms which
Utbet 27
it would have for us. They go like their beasts of
burden, observing nothing, interested in nothing, their
mirvA never drawn from its torpor by the varied spectacle
that unfolds itself before their eyes, which look and do
not see. They are content to reach the golden city, there
to perform their pilgrim rites and to bring back with
them a good policy of insurance against hell-fire*
From the foot of the Karakoram, we passed
through a series of amphitheatres of mountains which
do not appear to be very high, crossed the principal
source of the Yarkand River ami, on the 2nd of
November, reached the Suget Puss, the ascent of which
could, if necessary, be made in a carriage. After deseend-
ing a very steep and sinuous path, over a thin layer of
snow, we soon came down through a gorge of wild and
melancholy aspect, lined by great snowy musscN laden
with mist. We walked ahead alone, eager to leave the
desert; we were soon overtaken by the shades of iii^htf,
which increased the w/,e of the mountains and swelled
the uproar of the waters. The veiled and uncertain light
of the moon just enabled us to pick our wuy through
a maze of rocks, a long scries of rugged , ravines and
noisy torrents, and to arrive, after twelve hours'
march, at the foot of the small fort of Suget Kurghan,
constructed lately by the Chinese neur the confluence
of the Suget torrent nnd the Karakash River, in
order to assert their rights of possession over the sur-
rounding district. Thia little fort is composed simply
of a square yard surrounded by four crenellated walls*
Our sudden arrival at this unseasonable hour spread
terror among the garrison, which at that time com-
prised a Kirghiz woman, three boy bubie* and a lame
dog. The woman at first breathed ot a word, thinking
that, if the importunate persons heard nothing or
nobody, they would go their way* But her dog be-
trayed her and we lustily shook the door, to *meh good
28 tribet
purpose that the unfortunate garrison had to admit the
besiegers. Our respectable appearance stilled the alarm :
the dog stopped barking, the children laughed^ the
woman showed us to an empty room, spread out some
strips of felt and lit a great fire of twigs, for the cold
was keen. Our baggage train did not catch us up
until the evening of the next day.
On the 5th of November, after passing through the
gorge of the Karakash River, at the foot of the walls of
the fortlet of Shaidullah, built by the Kashmirians and
long since abandoned by them, we came, at Toghrusu,
into the midst of the gay tumult of a Kirghi'/ wedding.
Numbers of horsemen, coming from the four points
of the horizon, had met at this spot and pitched their
round felt tents, They were holding high festival and
singing at the top of their voices. We were treated to
a madrigal and presented with a bride-cake and hulf a
roast sheep.
On the 7th, we left the Karaksish IXura, the valley of
which is impracticable in the downward direction, and
began to ascend the gorge of one of its affluents which
runs down from the SanjuPass. Imagine an exceedingly
narrow gorge, whimsically tortuous, deeply confined
within tall peaked rocks, bare and strangely hewn and
slashed and the whole gorge obstructed by flint rubbish,
On reaching the end of this gorge, we found ourselves
as though at the bottom of a well. With the assistance
of some Kirghiz oxen, we scaled one of the walk of the
well and thus reached the summit of the Sanju Pass,
which is at a height of 16,800 feet. From there, accord-
ing as one turns to the north or the south, the view
offers a striking contrast. In the south is a monstrous
chaos of gigantic snow-mountains and dazzling glacier^
which the rays of the sun sometimes cause to look
like great blue lakes slumbering amid a polar white-
ness ; in the north, a few brown hills, beyond which
29
stretches something like a vast ocean wrapped in a
shroud of grey mist : this is the Kashgariau plain
audits atmosphere laden with dust.
The ascent of the pass was not easy, but the descent
was worse. The slope is so steep that, in a league of
horizontal projection, one descends 1,880 metres and,
for a distance of 800 metres, the slope, at 45 degrees,
is covered with a thick layer of ice. The yaks are
really wonderful animals which, descending a mountain
like this, uury over two hundred pounds on their backs
without stumbling. Our horses, although carrying no
burden, did three-fourths of the road in some other
way than on their feet : one of them slipped so badly
that it was hurled to the bottom of the valley and
broke its spine.
At the top of the pass, we overtook a poor little
caravan consisting of an old man, a woman and two
children. Their baggage and all their fortune were carried
by a lean, mangy donkey, The old man, whose feet
were frozen and eaten away with gangrene, was unfit
for anything. The woman saw to everything, led the
donkey, fastened the pack-saddle when it slipped, tied
up the load when it fell, helped the old man and
carried the children in the difficult places. Her air of
suffering, her drawn features, her bloodshot and lack-
lustre eyes, told of a hard life and long affliction. These
unfortunate people, who were returning to Sanju, had
exposed themselves to the dangers of this journey and its
almost inconceivable fatigues, in the circumstances in which
they were taking it, in order to go and visit, under a
distant tent, kinsmen almost as unfortunate as themselves,
from whom they vaguely hoped for I know not what*
Nothing is more extraordinary than the auite mechanical
resistance with which Asiatics meet suffering and the dull
resignation with which they accept it as a guality inherent
to this world, as an inexorable necessity or fate.
so
From the foot of the pass, one follows a deep, grassy
valley, here and there meeting the round tents of Kirghiz
herdsmen. Little by little, the mountains grow lower,
the valley wider, the grass disappears, the sand shows
itself and one sees, between two dusky hills, the trees of
the oasis of Sanju. Here there are some thousand
houses, scattered on every side, and a considerable
amount of ground under cultivation; and it is easy for
the traveller to procure all that he wants provided that
his wants be modest.
On the 2ist of November, we once more entered
our good town of Khotan, much saddened by the winter,
The flat plain was all carpeted with snow and the black
skeletons of the trees stood drearily outlined in the
mist; but the kindly welcome of our old friends cheered
this desolation* A few weeks of absolute rest and the
general sympathy with which he was surrounded re-
stored Dutreuil de Rhins' health, consoled him for his
vexations and made him ready once more to tempt
fortune,
This winter of 1892 to 1893 was occupied, as was
the previous one, with ethnographical, archaeological and
linguistic studies, which formed part of the programme
of our mission, In this connection, I may be permitted
here to recall the fact that we really laid the foundation
of the archaeology of Chinese Turkestan and assisted to
renew its history- Many travellers after us, such a*?
Messrs, Klementz, Sven Hedin and Stein, have made
remarkable discoveries in this branch of research and
have on more than one point confirmed my own
conclusions.
CHAPTER II
MARCH ON LHASA- THE MOUNTAIN DKSERT THK
NAM CHO NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE
TIBETAN OFFICIALS
We go in search of a new route to Lha&a to the south of
We reach the extreme point known tn the nativcft-Wc cw
the Akku Tagh The Dutrcui! dc ithiflft ChainAfluin the mountain
dcftcrt We mct our firt mim after wxty*one day** marchThe
Tibetan* try to atop us- The prefect of Benja Jong The Nam Cho or
Tengri Nor Firnt envoy** frnm Lhutw- Arrival of tho Chinenc vice-
legate and of new delegates from the Tibetan government-
We are refused pcrmittHion to go to Uwu We iire given kuvti to
fltuy at Nagchu,
THK problem how to cross the mountain desert which
separated us from the inhabited portion of Tibet seemed
to us almost insoluble with a caravan of horses which
eat too much (4 Ita, a day) and carry too little (200 Ibs,);
and we decided to procure camels for our expedition of
1893 and to seek a route more practicable than that of
Polur for the latter animals,
We thought that we might find one to the south of
Cherchen, where we proceeded and where we stayed
for three months because of various difficulties and an
illness of Dutrcuil de Rhin\ Our long stay appeared
even longer in this little oasis without a town, without ft
market, without trade, peopled only by jpttmnts living in
scattered farms, seventy-six league* from the nearest
village, a hundred leagues from the nearest town and as
isolated in the midst of the continent u is an islet never
81
32
visited by ships in the midst of the sea. On every side
around spreads the ocean of the sand-downs, except on
the north, where, along the bank of the river, stretches
a belt of forest half invaded by sand, a haunt of
deer, wild boar and even tigers. The traveller rarely
passes here; no caravans come to enliven the country
with the tinkling of their bells, the cries of their camel-
drivers, the snorting of their horses, the bustle of their
arrival and departure; the news of the distant outside
world does not penetrate so far, or, when, sometimes,
a small trader brings it with his bales of cotton and
spice, it arrives distorted, vague and confused, leaving
one and all indifferent.
We made a number of reconnoitring expeditions,
which failed to decide the question whether it were possible
to cross the chain of the Akka Ttigh, which rises to the
south of the Altyn Tagh and forms the prolongation of
the Ustun Tagh. However, we resolved to start. We
had over seven tons of baggage, provisions and stores
not counting the pack-saddles and harness. To handle
this enormous, but irreducible load and to attend to our
thirty camels, twenty-four horses ami ten donkeys, we
had only thirteen men*
We had had to renew a part of our staff, not
always very successfully, Chinese Turkestan being an
unfavourable country for the recruiting of a good
exploring staff. We kept the leader of our escort,
Razoumoff, a discharged Russian soldier, a willing and
well-meaning, but volatile and eccentric man, subject to
strange crotchets, and old Parpai, an experienced cara-
vaneer and an amusing type of patriarchal adventurer,
who had a mania for founding families wherever he
went, hoping at last to light upon an heiress for a wife,
whose well-filled money-bags would allow him to put an
end to his peregrinations and to rest his weary head*
We took as our Chinese secretary a aort of giant, a
33
native of Hunan, a petty mandarin whom life had
tossed miserably from province to province and flung
inter the midst of Turkestan almost without resources :
apart from all this, he was serious, well-educated, a good
writer and not devoid of firmness of character. We
engaged, in the capacity of Chinese interpreter, a certain
Yunus, a young man of very good family, tall, strong
and with a florid complexion showing every sign of
health. But the signs were deceptive. The unfortunate
man suffered from heart-disease, which proved fatal to
him, A Moslem from Ladak, Mohammed isa, became
our interpreter for the Tibetan language. Six feet high
and powerfully built, he was a good servant, well-trained,
useful, active, full of spirits as long as he had not to
struggle with too-exceptional difficulties ; unfortunately,
he was unintelligent, self-conceited, a great bouncer and
a ridiculous coward, He had as his understudy a half-
breed between a Turk and a Tibetan, Abdurrahman by
name, a short, slight, diligent and very gentle creature,
who was entirely in the hands of his big fellow-country-
man, Mohammed Isa.
On the jrd of September, the expedition started
gaily in the sun. The horses, fresh and well-fed, went
at a brisk pace ; the long string of camels unwound
itself majestically in the plain and their tinkling bells
seemed to sing the end of the boredom of repose, the
joy of action, the freedom of the wide horizons, the hope
ol fine discoveries, Alas, this music was soon to grow
slower and sadder in the weariness of the endless road,
the many sounds to cease, one after the other, until the
final silence, when the last of those patient servants had
fallen exhausted on a desert mound 1 But who foresaw
this future and thought of it then ? Who foresaw that
even these losses would be an nothing beside those
which were still in reserve for us ; that a day would come
when the entire mission would be dispersed, sacked,
8
34 Utbet
almost annihilated without a trace ; that of the men now
full of strength one of the youngest would die, after a
long agony, on the harsh soil of the infidels ; above^all,
that another, the first, the best, would die a tragic
death, that the lamentable wreck of him who had been
our leader would be sent rolling down the waves of a
mountain stream ? When we left Cherchen, our imagina-
tion described to us a very different future and read in
the sky none but happy omens,
On the 6th and yth, we halted at Tukus Davan, the
last inhabited spot, and, on the 8th, we once more set out
to cross the Altyn Tagh, which, on this side, spreads in
the shape of a fan and presents a different appearance
from that which it offers in the Polur district, There lie
wild and inhospitable valleys, jealously closed against the
rays of the sun and delighting in shadow and colti ; here
friendly and good-humoured valleys, which open wide
and joyous to receive the light and warmth of day*
One cannot conceive an easier natural road, leading by a
gentler slope to a height equal to that of Mont Blanc.
On the way we met our first gold-seekers, returning
from Bokalyk, The poor fellows had reaped more
misery than gold ; and the same men whom I had
seen a few months before on the road from Nia to
Cherchen, full of spirits and gaiety in the ruin and
hail, 1 now saw hanging their heads, dragging their feet,
shivering as they held the pitiful rags of tneir clothes
to their emaciated bodies, while the sun shone in vain
to warm them, for they had nothing left in their
wallets, not even hope. One of them, who wa from
Kashgar, having not enough left to bring him home,
asked us to take him into our service, tie little cared
that the road was long and rough, that he would have
to go through Tibet, Mongolia, China> provided that,
the trip done, he were able to return to his household
gods.
tttbet 35
At a short day's march from Tukus Davan, we left
the Cherchen River and, leaving the route of the PievtsofF
Mission on the east, we climbed the main chain of the
Altyn Tagh by the Gold-washers' Pass (Zarchu Davan^
15,680 feet), so called because, a few miles to the south,
there is a gold-mine, which is now abandoned. The
stiff part of this pass being very short, the crossing is
easy. From here we went down to a first plateau
watered by the Toghru Su, a slow and muddy river,
where the donkeys got involved in the mire to such an
extent that we had to unload them and laboriously drag
them across. This stream is an affluent of the Olugh
Su, which, with the Muxluk Su, the biggest and most
easterly of the three, forms the Cherchen Daria, Opposite
us there rose, above the plateau, an enormous mountain-
chain, like a perpendicular wall denticulated with snowy
peaks. We were not long in discovering that this
threatening obstacle was mere vanity, for the Olugh Su
intersects it and the valley of the river offers an easy,,
wide and almost flat road.
On the 1 4th of September, we camped on the left
bank, not far from the Akka Tagh, whose crests were
hidden by the mountains in the foreground. It WAS
useless to take the caravan further before knowing if it
could cross the mountains and where ; and on the
morning of the I5th of September, Dutreuil cle Rhins,
leaving me in charge of the camp, set out reconnoitring
to seek a passage across the Akka Tagh.
On his return, he found the best of our men
and the one who had been longest with us, Musa> in
bed, attacked for the third time with an inflammation of
the chest. He was decidedly not fit to travel on thoe
lofty, icy, wind-swept table-lands* On the sixth tUv,
feeling better, he asked for his discharge, which we could
not refuse him. He left us on the 23rd. It was hard
for us to part with a mau for whom we had always felt a
36 Uibct
great esteem and it gave us a pain at the heart to see him
go off in so sad a plight and not even to feel certain that
he could stand the journey. Many months after/ at
Sining, 1 had the pleasure of learning by a letter from the
prefect of Khotan that he had arrived safely in that town
and was living there quietly with his wife and child, who,
when all is said, may have counted for something in his
illness and his determination to leave us.
Those first days spent at a minimum altitude of
14,400 feet had already given us a disagreeable foretaste of
the journey which we had undertaken. The gusts of wind
and the snow-flakes had entered upon the scene and, on
the 23rd of September, the snow covered the ground,
slowly evaporating or more slowly soaking into the
earth, without perceptibly swelling the stream.' The cokl
was severe for the season of the year ; and, in the tent,
we had constantly to hold the ink to the fire before we
could write with it. Although the fine weather, the clear
sky and the sun had returned, we hat! only 4 degrees
of heat in the tent at one o'clock in the afternoon ; at
night, the thermometer fell to 15 degrees below y,ero.
When cm his reconnoitring-trip, Dutreuil de Rhins hud
observed a variation in one day of 40 degrees : this was
worse than the I^adak route at the same time of year.
On the 24th of September, while the natives who had
come with us to carry the supplementary provisions went
back with our last mail to the warm and populous plain,
we plunged ittto the cold and desert mountains, alone
henceforth in the unknown, with no other support than
our patience, already tried by long exercise, and no other
guide than our star, of which nothing had as yet occurred
to dim the lustre,
1 have now to describe the journey which we per-
formed across a region which man had never penetrated*
I will not dwell upon this narrative, which, if unfolded
at too great a length, would not fail to displease through
TObet 37
its monotony. The things which we saw in the course
of this long march were things great and magnificent,
nS doubt, hut always the same, so much so that for
us the days were distinguished one from the other by
the date which we inscribed in our journal ; barren
and dreary things :
Deserts ittlc,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven ;
immense countries where nothing passes but the wind,
where nothing happens but geological phenomena* If
the valiant Moor had hud no more interesting subjects of
conversation, he would have stood but a small chuncc of
winning the most willing of hearts. 1 could not, like
Othello, enliven these rugged landscapes with marvellous
adventures nor people them with strange men " whose
heads do grow beneath their shoulders." For sixty days,,
man attracted our attention only by his absence* thus
depriving my description of any other element of variety
than our own sufferings and our own miseries, upon
which it would be in particularly bad taste for an
explorer to enlarge in doleful fashion, seeing that he
faces and braves them of his own free will. 1 shall
therefore be brief.
On the 25th of September, our caravan reached the
basin of the Karamuren in the first masses of the Akka
Taeh, which had already been visited by Dutreuil de
Rhins, and, on the next day, we ascended by a steep
slope, covered with several feet of snow, that which our
leader mistakenly believed to be the chief chain of the
system. On the other side, we camped, amid u confusion
of blocks and of black schistose slabs, on the brim of a
sort of dark funnel, overlooked by a chaos of fantastically
shaped mountains which seemed #s it were surprised to
see us. At night, we experienced 30 degrees of cold
and lost two horses* It was a fine start, an eloquent
exordium M abruplo; but our resolve was taken, our
38 ZKbet
determination fixed beforehand and our ears closed to
all adverse argument. On the syth, we reached the
banks and were not far from the most important afid
most southerly source of the Karamuren. The springs
of this river were now completely discovered. Its
valley, which is at an altitude of 1 7,050 feet, is nearly
two miles wide, is as smooth and level as a floor
and, like the other valleys of the Akka Tagh, is of a
schistose character and absolutely barren and desert : not
a tuft of grass, not a trace of animal life, not a bird flying,
nothing but a little water flowing swift and clear over tfie
fijit pebbles. Near us, on our left, rose a colossal mass of
snow and ice, solidly fixed on its enormous base and
shooting up its tallest peak to a height 1 of 23, [40 feet
This is the highest point not only of the chain, but
probably also of the whole region between Turkestan
ami the Himalayas* ft long remained in sight, diminish-
ing slowly on the hori/on behind us: at 100 miles to
the south, we still distinctly saw its crystal pyramid,
which seemed to throne in its immutable majesty over the
numerous nation of the mountains.
The next day* march took us to the top of a pass of
18,200 feet on the sky-line of the Akka Tagh, It was
with beating hearts that we plunged our cyc down the
other side ; for, if our good fortune had permitted us to
open out a passage across the first of the chains that
separated us from Tibet, there was nothing to guarantee,
since there had never been a road in this direction, that
we should not see a definitely insurmountable barrier rise
beyond it* We were reassured when we discovered
beneath us a table-land twenty-five miles in width, closed
at the south by a line of mountains with summits cut into
almost regular peaks, which fringed the sky with a white
lace-work, but which had in their midst, straight before
u* and clearly outlined, a pass that seemed to be awsyting
us, We were in a pleasant mood, therefore, that evening,
ttfbet 39
when camping at the southern foot of the Akka Tagh,
Nothing could be more characteristic of these countries
oMLJpper Asia than what we saw from our tent, this
immense desert plateau stretched between two snow-
topped walls. The ground which, seen from above,
appears almost flat is, in reality, dented with little
hills and hillocks, intersected by ravines, generally
without water, and ploughed with a number of de-
pressions in which lie hidden as many muddy pools,
the humble satellites of the great, blue, infinitely
peaceful lake, which reflects the sun or the clouds
and no other thing. The soil is cracked by the frost,
brown in colour :uul only just relieved, at distant
intervals, by a patch of snow or a small yellow stain of
rough, short grass, while beyond, ovcrtowcring all, the
huge snow mountains, with their heavy, thickset shapes^
as though overwhelmed by the weight of their glouuy
solemness, complete the impression of desolate weariness
received from this landscape so antagonistic to life.
At this camp of the 29th of September, one of our
camels died and in the empty sky appeared black specks,
which, as they came nearer, we recognised us crown of
extraordinary si'/,e, hastening to the banquet. They were
the forerunners of Tibet, the liuul of the great crow 4.
These filthy marauders, flying from carcass to areas*,
make their way everywhere, even to places where no
sparrow, eagle nor kite dare venture ; nevertheless, they
respect the Akka Tagh, where nothing dies since nothing
lives there, the Akka Tagh, which is too wide to allow
the smell of dead flesh to reach the keenest scent front
one of its extremities to the other. For this reason, on
the north of this chain, only the small crown of
Turkestan are seen, similar to our own. The Akka
Tagh is the most absolute of frontiers, a frontier for the
sky as well as for the earth, for birds as well us for men,
This dead camel permitted us also to make an interesting
40
note on the moral value of the European and Asiatic
dogs respectively. Musa had with him a very pretty
Russian bitch, which, at the time of our last start fi*>m
Khotan, had given birth to a litter of pups. We had
kept one of these and had brought it as far as Cherchen
in a pannier on horseback. It retained a lively gratitude
for the beast which had rendered it this service and it
was curious to observe the familiarity and the good
intelligence that reigned between the two animals. By
a singular effort of generalisation, the dog had extended
its affection not only to all the horses, even those not
belonging to our caravan, but to all the quadrupeds,
including the camels. It could not see one of these
animals without going up to it and giving it a friendly
lick on its muzzle, which often brought down upon it a
pretty severe rebuff on the part of the cross-grained
brutes. It had a playmate in the person of an Asiatic
dog, the property of one of our men. This latter
animal had none of its companion's affectionate gaiety ;
although well treated by us, it was unsociable and
melancholy, dull and indifferent to everything except
its food. When it saw the camel Jying on the ground,
it reflected, like the true Asiatic that it was, that here
was a rich quarry which would last it for many a long day,
that there was no longer any need for it to follow those
fools who were constantly travelling up hill and down
dale : it therefore set itself beside the carcass and no
efforts on our part availed to induce it to stir* Its
companion, on the contrary, followed us without our
having to call it. Like man, like dog.
On the 3rd of October, we camped on the same
plateau in the hollow of a little vale which was as a smile
in the midst of that harsh nature. It was carpeted all
over with very short, but almost green grass; a little
stream of clear water flowed through it ; the tops of the
slopes assumed a golden hue under the rays of the setting
sun ; the sky, slightly paled, was steeped in a very pure
and very soft light. Disturbed by our arrival, two supple
faltew antelopes got up before us, swiftly crossed the
valley and disappeared in a few bounds. It was not
an earthly paradise, yet this momentary relaxation of
the austerity of the outside world sufficed to give our
men fresh heart for their work. One of them broke
into song : a neighbouring hare, startled at this novel
clamour, darted from its form and, in the twinkling
of an eye, ran up and over the hill.
The next day, wu climbed, through a rather rough
ravine, the chain which bounds the plateau on the south.
On the vexed crest of these mountains, the snow lay
thick and the blast raised it in whirlwinds. When
descending by a narrow gully, the bottom of which was
occupied by a frozen brook, we were almost stopped by
a cascade of ice, three feet deep, which hung perpendicu-
larly over a frozen slope. European horses would have
broken their necks, I think; ours jumped without any
accident When the camels* turn came, it seemed to us,
for a moment, that we should have to look for another
road for them, especially as the rocks were extremely
close together. However, on taking our measurements,
we found the $pace between to be wide enough and,
after half an hour's efforts, we succeeded in making the
first camel take the plunge. The others followed, all
without misadventure, except one, which broke its leg,
As for the donkeys, we had to lift them down*
In the evening, we pitched our tent on the margin of
a narrow lake which stretched its gleaming dark-blue waters
far to the east between bright-red mountains. The view
was unusually striking. Beyond extends a scries of large
mountainous folds, which, rising gradually one above
the other, form a chain descending suddenly, in the south,
upon another lacustrine valley, which we reached on the
7th of October* Next came hills and lakes, with here and
42
there one or two conical mountains, once perhaps volcanoes.
On the roth of October, we climbed a lofty chain
on whose southern slope we saw, for the first tme,
three stones blackened by fire, undoubtedly the remains
of a camp of Tibetan huntsmen. Lower down, on the
brink of a torrent, in a narrow dale that formed as it
were a gulf of the main valley, a grassy vale strewn with
great rocks which Nature had carved with a pretty fanci-
fulness and disposed at random for the pleasure and
marvel of the eyes, rose a boundary-stone with the in-
evitable inscription, " Om want pndmi hum" and near it,
on the slope, according to the Tibetan custom, a small
enclosure of dry stones, u hearth and sheep-droppings.
These vestiges of a shepherds' camp gave us cause for
reflection ; for, if we came upon men so early, we should
necessarily be stopped long before reaching the Nam Cho,
which lay nearly four degrees further south. However, a
more careful examination convinced us that this encamp-
ment had been abandoned for several years, that those
who had constructed it in these remote parts could have
had no imitators, that, in a word, it was an isolated and
quite exceptional endeavour ; and, in fact, we marched
tor many a long day after without coming across any
similar traces. This opinion was confirmed by the fearless
behavour of the wild animals, which were pretty numer-
ous in the neighbourhood. The antelopes alone refused
to let us approach them and kept in the distance, often
hardly visible, but recognisable by their great gleaming
horns, straight, curved or twisted.
The wild asses, looking like nimble and frisky mules,
attracted by our horses, came gambolling by twos and
threes near our caravan ; and then, startled at the un-
accustomed things which they saw, the graceful beasts
stopped and, at the slightest movement, at the least cry,
swiftly and lightly scampered away* Families of huge
yaks, with long, black hair, watched us pass with a
43
vaguely astonished air and only on hearing a rifle-shot
made off at a heavy trot, leaving the oldest of the herd
behftid them. This patriarch received the bullets with
remarkable equanimity, contenting himself with flourish-
ing his tail as though to drive away the flies* One day,
we shot seventeen rifle-bullets at a yak and found a
dozen at least in his body. The flesh of this stubborn
beast was so tough that we were unable to eat it even
after several days' stewing. For that matter, we rarely
indulged in the pleasures of the chase, which would have
interfered with our labours and soon exhausted our small
remaining stock of ammunition.
On the 1 4th of October, we began the crossing of
another chain of mountains almost its tall as the Akka
Tagh. On its southern slopes, a few wild onions grew at
a height of almost 17,400 feet; above that, the barrenness
was absolute. The west wind, which had not spared UH
for the space of one hour since we had crossed the
Zarchu Davan, was even more terrible during the two
days occupied in crossing this chain. The unwearying
infernal tempest
Lu bufcra infernal, cho mm non
rushed through space, furious, merciless, fiercely roaring,
with, at moments, a maddened increase of strength, as
though it would have bent the impassive summits of the
mountains. The Run shone in the sky, lavishly shedding
its unimpeded light ; but not one of its rays of heat
reached us : the hurricane carried them all away and
plunged icy needles through our furs into our skin.
The horses, whose flanks were exposed to this torrent
of air which they resisted with difficulty, were Htrangc
to see, with their bodies slanting to the right against
the wind, their heads turned to the left for breath,
their manes and tails floating horizontally in the same
direction. It was a hard business to take the bearings
44 Uibet
of our route and to compass the horizon in so high a
wind and Dutreuil de Rhins never forgot the tortures
which he underwent in attempting his astronomical
observations in these conditions. On the I4th, we
climbed a first pass and a second and higher one which
led us to the very heart of the snow-mountains. On
the 1 5th, we resumed our march to cross the southern-
most ridge, which, as usual, was the highest (18,470
feet).* Our men, terrified at this endless mountain
desert, were seized with an ardent longing to escape from
it, to see something different. At each step, we felt that
they were becoming more impatient to know what would
appear in sight behind that topmost crest, which seemed
constantly to retire before them; for, as each summit was
surmounted, another rose ahead. Nevertheless, by dint
of climbing, we at last reached the final ascent : a few
steps more and we should discern from on high a new
horizon, a more clement, more human landscape, perhaps
a noisy stream flowing through green meadows, with, in a
corner, a winding column of smoke, They reached the
top, they looked greedily and frank disappointment was
pictured on every face. To a distance of many days'
march, the view on every side stretched over a gloomy
desert of bleak valleys and hills, bounded by glaciers and
giant mountains whose imperturbable serenity was not
far removed from insolence. We ourselves were almost
deceived : the mountain was perpendicular, a real abyss
opened under our feet, rendering the valley inaccessible*
After wandering for some time on the ridge, we fount!
a practicable descent, although it was very rugged and
bristled with sharp, pointed pebbles. It was only with
great difficulty that we succeeded in leading our camels
to the bottom.
On the next day, the wind having veered round to
the north, the temperature fell, the sky was overcast
* I have called tliw pa by the mime of Dutrcuil de Hhing.
TObet 45
and snow began to fall in thick flakes and to collect on
the ground The atmosphere was no more than a sea
of grey clouds, impenetrable to the eye. This lasted for
five days, keeping us in camp. They were five days of
mortal weariness, during which we had to remain in our
cramped, dark tent, shivering under our heapcd-up furs
and blankets, our feet aching with cold, our beards and
mustaches laden with icicles, ourselves unable to make
a fire, or stir, or hold pen or pencil, The horses,
frozen by the snow that covered them, vainly scratching
the ground for grass, roamed about shivering ami
dejected. The camels, very different in character, lying
motionless in a row, were as patient on the halt as on
the march, seemed not to feel the wind that blew
through their coats, the snow that gathered on their
backs, the want of grass, the hunger that slowly reduced
them, and turned the same face upon good and ill, upon
poverty and plenty. This prolonged situation was not
only fraught with irksomeness, but fraught with peril,
There was a danger lest the passes should become im-
practicable ; in any case, the animals were dying off
without doing any service, the men were becoming tired
of the length of the journey, of that funeral nhroud
which coiled around them and of that hoar-frost which
penetrated to the marrow of their bones. Parpai came
to give us notice :
"Give me," he said, "the two donkeys which you
condemned and I will undertake to make my way
back to Cherchen, however long and rough the road
may be. When ML Bonvalot sent me back from Sog
(in Eastern Tibet), I had eighty-four days* march to do
through desert mountins before returning to Turkestan
and I did it very well Of course, I would rather not
leave you; but I am ill, I feel that I have not the strength
to go further. Yes, I went a long journey in this same
'country with M. Bonvalot ; but with him we followed a
46 tttbet
road frequented by the Mongols, where there were traces
of caravans every here and there. The mountains jyere
not so high, the wind less violent, the march less painful;
and, besides, 1 was not so old then."
The good apostle had another and a better reason for
wishing to return to Cherchen, though he did not tell us
of it. He had known a young divorced woman there
who had sheep in the mountains and crops in the fields
(koy taghda, boghday baghda). This was an opportunity
which Parpai had long dreamt of finding on his travels ;
he did not let it slip. This veteran of exploration had
long ceased to deserve his name, which recalled divine
Achilles swift of foot (Parpai means "winged foot") :
he had grown heavy with age ; but he had still a fine,
noble beard, had gained experience and the old fox
knew how to catch chickens. After a brisk courtship, he
won the lady's hand and heart, her sheep and her crops.
The first husband, who repented him of his step, but
who, by Mussulman law, could not take back his wife
before she had gone through a second marriage and
a second divorce, assisted Parpai in his enterprise,
hoping that, before his departure, he would give the
young person back her liberty. Now neither she nor
much more Parpai looked at the matter in this light,
seeing which, the lady's family tried to quash the
marriage. The family was an influential one and the
first husband took the same side ; but there was no
going back upon accomplished facts ; the treble and
irrevocable repudiation had been pronounced ; from
then until the new union the legal period of a hundred
days had elapsed : Parpai was the undoubted proprietor.
Only, he feared lest the wretched plaintiffs should take
advantage of his absence to return to the attack, to work
upon the judges, to change the young woman's heart
and provoke the breaking-oflf of the marriage; and
that was why our man was restless, ill and anxious to
7
go home. We told him that discipline does not allow
a man to abandon his chiefs in the middle of a campaign
ancf we sent him back to his work*
At last, on the 23rd of October, the sun reappeared
and we resumed our march through those desolate and
endless solitudes, whose sadness cannot be expressed in
words. Now as before, every day, we passed through
high, rugged valleys, skirted blue lakes or climbed
passes covered with snow and, every evening, we saw
before our eyes white mountains displaying their majestic,
icy forms, valleys stretching wide, gloomy and barren,
lakes spreading their motionless blue and evaporating
dismally in the sun. Now as before, all visible nature
was shrouded in silence and, but for the perpetual
whistling of the wind, we should have thought our-
selves transported to some old globe dead since centuries,
resembling the world of the poet ;
Monde muet, marquiS d'un si#nc dc col&re*
Nevertheless, the country had changed its appearance
a little since the first day. Instead of the immense
valleys widely open at the cast and west, we saw, to left
and right, short links of mountains, often very high and
running north and south, between which we passed as
through a long corridor strewn with lakes and often inter*
rupted by transversal mountains*
This region, which we crossed between the 2ist of
October and the 3rd of November, is remarkable for its
complicated orography, into the details of which 1 need
not enter here, for the yellow or red-brick colour of it
soil and for a general altitude much lower than that of the
region which extends between the northern slopes of the
Akka Tagh and the southern slopes of the chains which
we crossed on the Hth and i$th of October, From
here onwards, the passes are no higher than the valleya
were before. The loftiest, which is situated at the exact
48
southern extremity of the region, does not exceed
16,750 feet. After the 22nd, we camped at a height of
less than I5>8oo feet and, strange to say, the great peaks
which tower over the whole country with their 20,350
feet afforded us a passage, on the 22nd of October, over
a wide and easy threshold which did not reach the level
of Mont Blanc. The reader must not conclude from
this decrease in the height of the ground that our
journey was any the less arduous because of it ; on the
contrary, we never had harder days than just at this end
of October. The snow that had fallen still covered
all the ground and its rapid evaporation took the form
of a thick and heavy mist which made the cold more
piercing and breathing more difficult. This mist was
not dispelled until the afternoon, under the keen blast
of the wind, when the desolation of the world around
us came into sight once more beneath its snowy shroud*
Once only, on the 25th of October, did the rent
veil disclose a wonder to our eyes. In the pearly and
immaculate whiteness of a valley overtowered by dazzling
peaks slept a limpid lake, whose deep blue was deliriously
paled and softened by the surrounding snows, while the
azure of the sky became softer as it descended towards
the horizon and assumed an opaline tint where it touched
the white crests of the mountains. The conjunction in the
pure light of those two only colours, blue and white,
which melted gradually into each other, formed a har-
mony of delicate splendour which defies description
and which was rendered yet more perfect by the
supreme calm that reigned over all ; for the least
movement would have appeared like a discord in this
picture. Our rough camel-drivers themselves were
not insensible to this beauty of things ; but the snow
exacted a high price for its picturesque effects in the
disastrous results which it had upon the eyes of our
men, who were completely blinded for some days
TCibet 49
and suffered intolerable agonies. Dutrcuil de Rhins
himself was nor spared and, one day, I was the only
member of the expedition who could see. To the
accustomed difficulties, to the scarcity of fuel, for we
were always reduced to that produced by the wild
beasts, to the frequent luck of fresh water, u deficiency
indifferently atoned for by the snow and ice, was added
the dampness of our encampments in the snow, in an as
yet unequalled temperature of ^6 degrees below /ero.
However, gaining by experience, we succeeded better
than before in keeping warm at night and preventing a
feeling of iro/.en feet from interrupting that deep and
heavy sleep which is known only in these lofty altitudes
and which procured for WH an utter oblivion of the
disagreeable realities around us- But the awakening was
rude* In order to prepare for our departure, we had to
get up at the coldest hour of the black night. We left
the tent with heavy limbs ; our men came ami went
slowly, with sleepy movements, groping their way in the
darkness ; the animals la/Jly shook their weary, numbed
bodies, all covered with icicles ; the men's voices wore
a fftufHt'd sound in the sort of moist wadding that en-
veloped us ; attempts were made to light a fire with ill-
dried fuel that refused to Ma/.e up and gave forth sw
acrid smell. Then a little quiver of wun light made itw
way through space: this was the dawn, a Horry dawn that
served only to make the thickness of the fog visible; and
the men loaded the* beasts with their customary dreamy
ItHtleasncftH, lingering by the tire to catch a breath of
warm smoke. We had constantly to he after them to
Hfir up their torpor, without, however, losing sight of
their real sufferings, their hands marting from the
touch of the frozen iron or blistered by handling the
stiff cords and the sense of suffocation produced by
physical exertion in the rarefied atmosphere* At last we
set out, finding our way as be*t we could, with the aid
4
50 tlibct
of the compass, through the dense fog which rendered
keener our sense of the weight of the silence ami ijjade
the solitude almost tangible, Amid these flouting vapours
glided confusedly, like a procession of dumb phantom*,
the camels with their monotonous swinging gait and the
horses hanging their heads and carrying on their hacks
the motionless figures of men in fantastic wraps,
However, many signs announced the propinquity cf
inhabited spots. The grass became gradually more
abundant, the plentiful game more timid ; here and then*,
hunters had left traces of their camps. On the 27th of
October, sifter passing the threshold of which I have
spoken above, we saw a sheepfold which must have IKVH
occupied that summer. We pitched our U't not titr
from there, on the bank of a river whose water, from*
only at either brink, flowed swiftly am! m a depth of two
feet. In the stern and narrow valley ot" this '-M-earn*
sparrows and partridges kept the crow* company and, in
tne short brushwood, called foxwoot! in Tibetan (*xv/Mi^) t
played countless hares. The Tibetan hitrcs, not |H*W
looked upon as animals to be trapped and t'Uten at will,
are not so timid as ours nor so difficult to uti*h>
Mohammed Isahad hardly left the camp in search ut'wood,
when he returned carrying one of these* hares nouml n(
body and bright-eyed, which he had *ei/cil by the earn.
This Is the most noteworthy feat of hunting that our
expedition accomplished; and I mention it hm* HO tlut,
should its author ever boast of it, hi* may not In* regarded
as a greater braggart than he is.
Until we came to the source of this I fare Rivi*r, our
road had deviated but little from tht* due stwtherly
course; afterwards, we inclined towards the wt*r '4
direction in which the country is letter known, with rhr
intention of discovering how much truth or probability
Em the famou* hypothesis of thr <lira:t route trorn
otan to Lhasa, but we saw absolutely nn ve^tig** of it,
{Tibet si
On the first of November, we encamped near a salt-water
lake, which hud a fetid smell and taste, like ammonia. In
the tall mountains that rise on the western margin of this
lake, we saw a gap that seemed to offer a relatively easy
passage : this is probably the way by which Captain Bower
passed in the important journey which he hud recently
made from Ladak to Sechuen, a journey of which we
had not at that time heard.
The next day and the day after, we crossed two passes
which led us to an immense grassy valley, running
indefinitely towards the south-east and stretching between
the southern slope of the mountains which we had left
and a magnificent snowy chain whose peaks rose out of
sight, gleaming and drawn up in line like a troop of
cuirassiers under arms* This recalled in a striking
manner the view of the Transalay Mountains as seen
from Sarytach, but with something much more imposing
about it, The snow and mist had sit lust disappeared
and we saw remains of camps lately abandoned Thin
provoked a great sigh of relief and yet all was not over,
The altitude was still considerable, between 14,500 ami
15,800 feet ; the cold did not decrease ; nml the plentiful
grtiHH wafc not relished by the horses, which found it too
furd, and was of no use to the fiuncls, which are able to
cut only long grass* We had already lost sixteen of
our beasts tuul the survivors were pitiful to see* The
very proximity of hitman beings w;i<* a source of anxiety:
not that we had the least fear for our safety, but we knew
that they would try to impede our passage.
Following the valley, which nhoumfcd itt game ami
wiw frequented also by herds of wild horses, we came, OH
the 7th of November, to the brink of u torrent where we
discovered a fire-place with hot ashes. And, at last, on
the next day, two months exactly after leaving the last
inhabited spot in Turkestan, we met our first Tibetan, a
meeting both dreaded and longed for. \ le was a herdsman
seated with a look of despair beside his sick goat. His
wild and rugged face, black with the sun and dirt jnJ
lost in the unkempt brushwood of his hair, did us good
to see. I will not go so far as to say that the poor herd
experienced the same sentiment at the sight of us : to
use a Chinese expression, he looked us startled its ;i new-
born calf. He took us for devils from hcl! or, at the
very least, for brigands. He was too murh taken up
with his goat's illness and too much taken aback by our
sudden apparition to give us the smallest information.
At some distance in the pasture-land, we saw several
shepherds who, ou catching sight of us, collected and
hurriedly drove away their herds of yaks and sheep.
However, one of them came up to us and wtr
endeavoured to enter into conversation. He put on ;in
air of good-fellowship, but was careful to say nothing
that would be likely to interest us* t fis replies were
either vague or untruthful, or else, when he was driven
into a corner, he suddenly pretended to he foolish and
ignorant and assumed the face of one fallen from the
clouds. It would have been amusing had it not been
vexing* We wished to find out about Nakchang, which
is mentioned in Chinese geography and which wa
supposed by Dutreuil tie Rhins to be a town situated
at no great distance from where we were, We had the
greatest difficulty in making our interlocutor umlcmami
what we wanted. He first opened wide eyes, then a wide
mouth and, at last, stood with swinging arms and his
looks lost in space. We were ready to throw up the
game, when, suddenly, a flash of intelligence Deemed to
light up the rustic's face :
"Oh, yes/ 1 he said, <c u place with men as big us the
stars ! n
We answered yes, thinking that this might be a
poetic way of describing public officials ami that we
were about to receive the desired information.
ttibet as
" Ooh ! To ma re ! (there isn't one)/ 1 exclaimed the
Tibetan in a sing-song voice, like a Provencal, but
peremptorily.
We learnt later that Nakchang was the name of the
district in which we then were and that its capital is
Senja Jong, to the south of the mountains.
We camped at a place called Gadmar, or Red Cliff,
near a fairly large lake, which is known as the Ringmo Cho,
or Long Lake, Several black yak-skin tents displayed
their spider-like silhouette?;, to use Peru Hue's very
accurate comparison. Three men and a woman came to
see us ; their types and clothing were very similar to
those of the Tioetans whom we had met at Mangrtse,
except that the woman's hair was differently dressed and
diyiaed into a number of tight plaits, each as thick as the
middle joint of the little nnger. For that matter, they
had a very peaceful appearance, but were exceedingly
distrustful or us, as they had guessed us to be Europeans,
a fact which surprised us, for we did not know that
Captain Bower nad recently passed that way. While
the men were curiously examining anything that we
cared to show them, the woman be^an to speak frankly,
with no notion that she was doing wrong, of the
things that interested us, of the roads, of the Nam Cho
or Heavenly Lake, of Senja, the residence of the great
chief, of Nagchukka, the trading district. But her
husband soon went up to her and said, bluntly ;
u Hold your tongue ; you know nothing,"
Then, filling his long iron pipe and crossing his legs,
he sat down on the ground and, carefully drawing his
sheepskin coat under him, said :
w I do not know if the women are like that where
you come from ; but here they are always talking at
random : what she has been telling you is all rubbish 1
Ask me what you want to know and you will be
told,"
54 tttbet
Thenceforth, it was impossible to learn any more,
Evidently, since Captain Bower had been there, these
worthy people had received severe and terrible orders.
The next day, a man appeared, similar to the others in
every respect, except that he had a sword stuck in his
belt. He was grave and ceremonious ; when accosting
us, he took off his huge fur hat, which he had put on for
the express purpose of being able to doff it, pinched his
left ear, showed a tongue as big as a man's hand and
began in these words :
" Revered lords ! If it depended only on myself, I
would not come to trouble you ; but the formal orders
which I have received from our venerable master, the
lord lama of Senja Jong, compel me to address a prayer
to you, * , , You see," he added, after a short hesita-
tion and suddenly dropping all solemnity, u if you go
any further they will cut off my head and, if you have no
objection, I would rather keep it on my shoulders,* 4
" My dear fellow, 1 * replied Dutreuil de Rhins,
familiarly, "these orders do not concern me. I have I
letter from the Emperor which I am going to present to
His Excellency the Imperial Legate at Lhasa/* And,
raising his voice and frowning, ** There is no objection,
I hope I"
"My lord . * 1 am at your orders I (Lafaso,
And the worthy man withdrew backwards! with hit
tongue hanging in the air.
On the n th of November, having taken our astronom-
ical observations, we continued our road and perceived
a few armed horsemen who followed us and watched us
from afar. Three of them rode up to tell us that the
4rAt, or chief of the district, was on th point ~ J
attiring and begged us to wait for him, ~ -<
1|feifity who was suffering from a rebpsa $
tht m *rjr curdy and wfcmfd
56
show themselves within a radius of two hundred
yards. As a matter of fact, the wretched herdsmen
we*e very far from wishing to employ violence : they
were performing police duty with extreme reluctance
and they felt the unpleasant sensations of one who
is placed between the anvil and the hammer. On
the 1 3th, we camped on the shore of a large fresh-
water lake, the Chargat Cho, which lay at the bottom of
an amphitheatre of snowy mountains that bathed their
feet in the bright-blue, perpetually roaring waters. The
view was very fine and Dutreuii de Rhins compared it
with that between the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles,
after a snow-fall, on a fine winters day. The next two
days, we followed, along a narrow path, the side of the
prettiest lake imaginable, straitened! sinuous as a sapphire
snake, shining in the sun and shivering in the brce/e,
close-cased between marble walls, gliding into fantasti-
cally-scalloped creeks, rounding curious clean-carved
promontories and stretching out beyond the rocks that
seemed to confine it. This would have been a delight-
ful walk had the cold been less bitter. On the i6th f we
again found ourselves amid one of those earlier desolate
landscapes, in a large valley, covered with saline efflor-
escences, with, at the foot of the great, pale mountains,
a salt lake, coated with ice, which spread into the
distance, infinitely mournful and gloomy. This was the
first frozen lake that we had come upon and also the
largest that we had yet seen* It is called the Kyaring
Cho, a name which it deserves by its exceptional length
of over 40 miles. It was on its southern bank that
Captain Bower was stopped and turned back, On the
north rise tail hills, behind which lies a more habitable
valley- We went in this direction, over a rugged, cracked,
gullied ground, strewn with frozen pools, covered with
saline efflorescences and schistose stones, which sometime*
formed a sort of ruined embankment or wall One of
56
those hideous breezes was blowing, violent, ice-laden,
sharp as a sword's point, which made us repeat the cry
that was torn from the heart of Pere Hue :
cc Really, Tibet is a very detestable land,*'
However, after observing the country from the top
of a steep hill, we discovered that we were losing too
much time in attempting to go by the other valley and
we slanted off to the south-east, towards the lake. On
the 20th, after crossing on the ice a considerable river
running down to the lake, we halted at the foot of some
perpendicular bare rocks, put together in a curious way
and hollowed out by natural grottoes, one of which
resembled the porch of a gigantic mosque. Continuing
our road, we reached the bank of the same Kyuring
Cho. It was snowing and we were wrapped in a thick
fog through which we guided ourselves by the compass.
We started in this way to cross the fro/en hike, but
cracks, accompanied by a trembling of tin- surface, made
us hurriedly retrace our steps and, after much groping
caused by the impossibility of clearly distinguishing
between the frozen water and the dry land in the white
darkness that surrounded us, we passed over the ice of
a pool, crossed some hills and came to the foot of the
great chain, in a green valley, where we saw the black
outlines of several tents and of the living wall formed by
a large herd of tame yaks. This place, which we reached
on the 24th of November, was called Tagstiipu,
Meanwhile, the horsemen who had begun to follow
us at Gadmar had not lost sight of us. Their defcw had
joined them and their number had swelled considerably,
but they still maintained a respectful distance* They
repeatedly tried to enter into a parley with us> to gain
time or rather to make us lose it. On the 24th, they
again invited us, with redoubled persistency, to stop,
informing us that the lama-prefect of Senja waft to arrive
the next day and that: he wished to have a conversation
ZtlbCt 67
with us, assuring us that, if we would comply with
this wish, we should not fail to he pleased with the
interview and promising to supply us, in the meantime,
with all the provisions which we could need* Dutrcui!
dc Rhins was convinced that, if he stopped, \ve should
soon be surrounded by two or three hundred mounted
men, who would block our road to the Nam Cho, which he
wished to reach at all costs, and finally oblige us to take
the road to Sining, going through uninhuhiti'd districts^
for the lack of victuals would place us at their mercy.
Our provisions were, in fact, in-arly exhausted. On
the 20th, we had put ourselves upon rations and the
flesh of our remaining sheep had not only become
almost uneatable, but had decreased to such an extent
that two sheep now gave lew than did one at the
beginning of the journey. At Gadmar, the women,
bribed with some small trinkets, had persuaded their
husbands to sell us u little butter and a sheep. Thin
went but a very short way. We meant to try to obtain
better results at Tagstupu and we contrived to huh there
on the 25th> knowing that> in any Asiatic language, ** to-
morrow " stands* for w within an undecided number of
days " and that, therefore, the prefect would not appear
on that day. We also made our arrangements to break
up our camp immediately, in CMC that honourable
functionary should surprise us by being punctual, and
we sent our interpreter to the tents to buy what he
could. The natives refused to sell anything, having
been strictly forbidden to do so*
"But, since we are staying/ 1 said our man/* we mw*t
needs be supplied with victuals. 1 '
The others referred the matter to the dcba, who>
seeing that, in fact, we did not go away, withdrew the
prohibition* In this way, we procured four excellent
sheep and enough tnamba for four days ; but we found
nothing for our animals.
58 ICibet
On the 25th, the prefect had made no sign ; and, on
the next day, we decamped at break of day in order to
cross the chain a little further towards the cast. About
mid-day, as we were entering a deep gorge, we saw
behind us about sixty horsemen, with, in their midst, on
a caparisoned horse, a Chinese yellow-silk jacket. The
lama had come. We pressed forward, leaning as much
as possible towards the south, so as to cross the chain
with the least possible delay. Just as we were turning
into a very narrow and difficult ravine, the Tibetans
called out to us :
"You are going the wrong way ; the road is to the
right ! "
Dutreuil de Rhins was convinced that, if the Tibetan*
told him that he was wrong, he must needs be right ami
he went straight on. His argument was not correct.
The ravine led us to a high, rugged mountain, covered
with snow, which lay to a thickness of several yanls at
the summit. The ascent cost us three camels suul a horse,
At six o'clock in the evening, we arrived, in the already
complete darkness, at the bottom of u precipice, into
which we had to lower the animals one by one, holding
them by the head and tail. The prefect took good care
not to follow us on this side : he crossed by the right
road and, on the next morning, we found him installed
in front of us in the valley, If he had been .strong in
either numbers or character, we should have been caught
in a trap. We set out on the march as though there were
nothing amiss. On coming abreast of the Tibetan en*
campment, we saw the prefect come forward with only two
or three men, an evident sign of his peaceful intentions*
He was a youngish, beardless man, with a placid face and
a hesitating air. He on treated us, with tears in his voice,
to stop ; they would cut off his head if we went any
further ; if, on the other hand, we vouchsafed to grant
his prayer, he would supply all our needs and woulu use
tti&et w
his influence to induce the Lhasa government to let us
go whithersoever we pleased. Dutreuil do Rhins replied
shortly that he could not stop in the middle of the snow-
fields; that his instructions obliged him to go at least
as far as the Nam Cho ; that he intended to treat
directly with the central power; thur, besides, he had
a passport from Peking ; and he passed on,
The lama, alighting from his horse, sci/cd mine ly
the bridle and once more struck up his doleful litany,
almost going on his knees, 1 urged on my mount,
to get rid or him ; but the poor emaciated beast, which
already had a drop of blood at it'- nostrils, caught its
feet in the countless holes with which the ground was
hollowed and fell, This ludicrous incident, ut which
the prefect seemed quite abashed, delivered me forth-
with from his entreaties, I went on and saw him, for
a moment, with a tearful air, waving his enormous
yellow sleeves like a bird fluttering its wih^s. At
bottom, he was perplexed, not knowing exactly the
terms of our passport ; and, being a well bred man ;H
well as a timid official, he was more afnnd of going
too far than of not going far enough. But it was possible
that he might repent of his weakness ;uui get together
a more numerous escort, which would allow him to act
with greater decision ; und, in order to guard against this
eventuality, we marched rapidly all day, until night fell at
seven o'clock. Then we lit tire and made tea, while wait-
ing for the moon to rise* We were in ;i large ami fairly
populous valley, the short grass of which was covered
with white dust ; on our right stood snowy mountain*
in which a gap seemed to be marked neur our bivousic*
At nine o'clock, the moon, which was full, rowe nbovt* the
mountains and we took advantage of it** light to wt out
again ; but the paleness of this light, which created
illusions and uncertainty, made u<* abandon the idea of
crossing the pass which we had seen and we continued
60
to follow the foot of the heights, We had hardly eaten
all day and our weariness soon made itself felt. In the
midst of the cold, the silence and the monotonous lulteby
of the bells, we were invaded by torpor ; our beasts let
their heads drop forward in short nods and raised them,
from time to time, with a sudden start, when their feet
knocked against a stone or sank into a hollow ; our
men, incapable of reaction, slept as they walked and led
the animals into the shallows. At last, at three o'clock
in the morning, we considered that we had gone far
enough to baffle the lama and we encamped in the valley
of Pisang, near some native tents.
Europeans were unknown in this spot. We were
taken for Mongols on their way to perform their
devotions beside the Heavenly Lake and in the Holy
City ; and, on our departure after a .short sleep, w<*
received the salutations of good people whose pre-
judices and fears did not dim their good-humour nor
their gay smiles, for the Tibetan carries within himself
all the gaiety that is lacking in the scenery that surrounds
him. A little further on, Dutreuil de Rhins entered a
tent to warm his hands and drink a cup of milk; when
he came out, an old woman bestirred herself to help him
on with his cloak and to hold his stirrup for him
while he mounted, saying :
" Tachi chigy lathi cUg ! (May you be happy ! A
prosperous journey !) "
To cross the chain that still separated us from the
Nam Cho, we first climbed a rather steep mountain
which, on our left, was quite perpendicular ami bathed
its feet in Lake Pam Cho, 1,000 feet below u.
We next crossed a series of steep hills ami narrow
valleys, the ground of which was dug out with a multitude
of holes full of snow and dented with as many protuber-
ances covered with blades of gra*>s hard as stakes, which
wounded the soft feet of the camels. This is the common
ttibet fli
type of the pasture-land of North Tibet. The fairly
numerous inhabitants whom we met, continuing to look
upon us as a band of pious pilgrims> received us kindly.
At last, on the joth November, from the top of the
last slope, we beheld the Heavenly Lake, the sacred und
revered lake, whose sombre und peaceful blue made a
violent contrast with the da/y.lin^ whiteness of the
mountains with their thousand points, like the waves of a
turbulent sea, that stood on its southern shore ; and those
waves, rising one on the fop of another, srcmed to he
climbing to the assault of u hujje mav* that sprung up
above them, quite black, for its sides were so steep that
the snow obtained no hold ; ,wd the fixedness, the
gloom, the enormous sr/.e of this mass, which WZIM MtninJ
Chari Maru, gave it a very formidable air. In the cant, the
chain of snowy peaks stretched far beyond the lakes ; and
all were overtopped by tht 4 distant and splendid pyramid
of the Samtan Gamcha, the Glacier of Contemplation*
This mountain, which, secluded $n the midst of this
almost dead region, seemed not to d^n to MT this
low world from the height of its cold and impassive
serenity and to be trying, with it* sharp top, to penetrate
and to absorb itself in the heavenly void, was indeed
the visible emblem of the Buddhist soul, which strives to
isolate itself and to collect itself in the contemplation of
eternal things and of absolute perfection, to strip itself of
all that which, good or bad, attaches it to this perishable
and troubled existence, hopes and fount, pleasures and
sorrows, hatreds and affections, which aims at suppressing
within itself every need, every seimtiiw, every move*
mcntj and at becoming one, in the infinity of silence
and of space, with Nirvana, the only absolute and perfect
life, which does not feel, nor suffer, nor change, nor end,
We had reached the goal 5 but our men, in the face
of the melancholy of this new and yet unchanging
spectacle, felt a disgust mingled with stupefaction at thin
62
obstinacy on the part of the icy mountains in pursuing
them for three months ; and for us, better informed it
was striking to see, in the latitude of Alexandria in Egypt
and so near to the capital of Tibet, a country like this, in
which the manifestations of inanimate nature were as
mighty and grand as those of animate nature were feeble
and rare.
On the ist of December, we followed the northern
bank of the lake, a hilly bank, intersected by valleys
sinking between the uplands and by promontories pro-
jecting far into the waters, which were hemmed by a
narrow fringe of ice. There were still no trees, but
only, growing in the clefts of the rocks, little juniper
shrubs (fhitgpti)) whose smoke is regarded by the
Tibetans, by the Mongols and oven by the Moslem
Turkomans as agreeable to the divinity. In the matter
of game, we saw hardly anything but hares and partridges;
and human civilisation was represented solely by ;i few
wandering herds, nibbling the short, hard grass, and by a
few wretched tents, cowering in the corners best protected
against the wind and serving as a shelter to the no less
wretched serfs of the chief Jama of Tachilhunpu, the
lord of these parts.
We camped at a spot called Xamna, five miles from
the eastern extremity of the Nam Cho. A sort of
brigadier of police, wearing a reel turban, who hail come
from Lhasa to meet us, asked us to stop where we were
until the early arrival of the officials dispatched to
us by the central government. He promised UK, more
over, using the stereotyped formula, to procure for u*
anything that we needed. Now we had furon unable to
renew our provisions in a country whose population wan
too scattered, too poor and too distruntful ; we had beet*
on rations for the last eleven days ; we had not an ounce
of flour left ; we hud emptied our ht bag of rice and
killed our last sheep. Of our *ixty*0nc animals, thirty-six
-Zibet 63
had perished and the melancholy survivors, to which
w$ had not a grain of barley to give, exhausted with
fatigue, hunger and cold, staggered on their four legs
and rolled like ships as they went ; their sides, in which
the ribs stood out in vigorous relief, were, in spite of the
low temperature, wet with fetid sweat ; beads of blood
reddened their nostrils ; their backs were covered with
sores. Dutreuil de Rhins therefore accepted the pro-
posals that were made to him and wrote to the Imperial
Legate in resilience at Lhasa to ask for his authorisation
to go to the Holy City to rest and to reorganise his
caravan. When his letter was written he summoned the
brigadier :
"Here," he said, "is a message for the Chinese
amban* of Lhasa*"
"What Chinese amban ? There are no Chinese at
Lhasa ; not one ! "
"What! You dare tell me that there is no repre-
sentative of the Kmperor at Lhasa no #rand amban r
" Oh, I was forgetting, . , , fie is ijuite a little
amban ! " and he affected a very scornful tone,
"Well, big or little, send him this packet and see
that it reaches him within four days ; if not, I ahull
lodge a complaint/*
The tone of the other chunked forthwith ; he had a
horse saddled on the spot and dispatched the letter, which
was, in fact, at Lhasa four days later,
There was another reason, in addition to the bad
condition of the caravan, that prompted Dutreuil de
Rhins to listen to the request of the Tibetan government.
He had attached essential importance to reaching the
Nam Che, which WUH the limit of the known districts*
After that, one enters what i called the Tibet
of the towns, a country whose main geographical
*A Mongolian word which *he Tibetan* jmd Turkomun*, ;tt* ivell in*
th* Mongol*, utfc to don<H ChincwJ
64
lines are pretty well known, a country, therefore,
in which it is interesting to travel only on condition
that one has the leisure and quiet necessary for
serious studies, that one can make exact astronomical
or other observations, visit the towns and monasteries,
converse freely with the inhabitants, the officials and the
lamas, collect books and curiosities of all kinds. For
this the assent of the government was necessary; and it
appeared to Dutreuil de Rhins that the best way of
obtaining this assent, if, indeed, there were any means of
obtaining it wholly or in part, was to make a show of the
greatest deference to the authorities, to prove his good
intentions by the correctness of his conduct and, in
his intercourse with the Chinese agents, of whose power
he was well aware, to make the most of the peculiarly
flattering terms of his official passport and of the friendly
relations which he had till then always maintained with
all the Chinese functionaries. True, there was no
room for any illusion as to the result of purely official
negotiations ; but it was important thut these should be
conducted correctly from start to finish, in order that we
might give an exact account of the degree of resistance,
of the nature of the real or apparent reasons which
the Tibetan government and the representatives of the
Emperor of China might offer; it was important thut the
experiment should not be vitiated in any way, that no
surprise, no act of bad faith or violence on our part
should furnish our adversaries with easy arguments
against us, arguments invented ad hoc,
One matter embarrassed UH ; this was the affair of
the prefect of Senja, to whose summons we had refused
to surrender. We foresaw the objections that could
be raised against us when we wrote to the Imperial
Legate that an individual, claiming to be an officer of
the government, had endeavoured to #top UK in the
midst of the desert ; that, as we had no proof of bin
tibet 65
real quality and as, in any case, he was not furnished
witjj full powers from the central government, we felt
that we neither could nor should enter into parley with
him ; that, lastly, he had dared to take my horse by
the bridle and had caused it to fall, a grave insult for
which we demanded apologies, if that man were really
an official person. Now the prefect hail he-en able to
think of nothing better, in order to obtain his pardon
for allowing us to pass, than to accuse us or* wounding
him in the arm with a pistol-shot, fie was summoned
to Lhasa, where it was shown that he had lied and his
trick turned in our favour, The government mat It* us
an official apology; and an incident which seemed to u*?
capable of weakening our argument served, on the con-
trary, to strengthen it.
Gradually, a few armed men came ami installed them-
selves near us ; but it was not until eleven days after our
arrival, when the first delegates of the government made
their appearance, that a troop was collected of sufficient
size to oppose a serious obstacle to our progress. !f>
therefore, we had thought it necssury or useful to continue
our march, nothing would have been easier than ro push
on to the village of Dam, on the other side of the
southern chain, and even there we should not have been
stopped except by the lack of provisions and the weari-
ness of our beasts. Supposing that our plan had been
to advance at all costs an near Lhasa as possible, we
should have taken our measures accordingly ; at the
end of October, instead of turning towards the west,
we should have turned towards the east, so as to gain
the few days indispensable to our project, Beside*, 1
consider, speaking from experience- and I aay chtft for
the instruction of future traveller* that, with a better
marching method than that adopted by UH, it is possible
at the same time both to spare the animals more and to
cover more road. As a matter of feet, prolonged halt$
6
66 tXfbCt
are of no benefit to the animals in these high-lying
countries, where there is practically no grass, at IcasJ in
the season during which we travelled ; there is no reason
for stopping except on the days required for astronomical
observations and when the weather becomes absolutely
impossible. On the other hand, the day's march should
in no case exceed seven hours, nor should the horses
nor, especially, the camels be forced to increase their
pace in the smallest degree : for the poor pleasure of
pitching camp half-an-hour earlier,, the beasts whose rate
of speed is hurried are subjected to a considerable
additional fatigue which has the most grievous conse-
quences. By strictly and patiently applying the system
which I have described, it is possible to cover on
an average twelve miles u clay, allowing for stoppages,
In this way and without altering our route, we should
have taken about seventy days, instead of eight} 1 -live,
to go from Tukus Davan to the Nam (/ho ami our caravan
would certainly have been in no worse plight than that
in which it was two months after leaving Cherehen.
Well, imagine a traveller possessed of resources sufficient
to get together a caravan able to carry an ample provision
for a hundred days for about twenty-five men, half of
whom would have been trained and carefully -'picked
soldiers, He would have gone beyond Dam without
difficulty, reached Pumdo Jong and would there pro-
bably have found in face of him only an insufficient
troopj whom the resolute bearing of his men would have
overawed and whom the fear of consequences and
responsibilities, even more than cowardice, would have
prevented from going to the length of an armed conflict ;
for the watchword given to those who are instructed to
stop Europeans in": in words firmness, but in action
prudence, prudence and again prudence. In ths* way, I
believe that he would not have been definitely stopped
before reaching the very gates of Lhasa and the twenty
Hibct 67
and so many days 1 provisions which he would still have left
would allow him to enjoy at his ease the mortal terror
into which his presence would throw the monkhood of
the country.
Our intentions, as well as the conditions of our
caravan, were different and \ve awaited the arrival of the
negotiators from Lhasa without undue impatience. Two
of them came first : a monk who was honoured with the
title of rdjctsum, a lama in attendance on the Rinpoiheh
Gyabang, or Dalai Lama, and a layman, the mhlfwi or
prefect of the town of Lhasa. The latter, who was of
mature age, had thin lips, bright eyes, movements which
were quick for an oriental, wore handsome rings in his
ears and on his fingers and waft the spokesman of the
embassy. To see his trick of pushing forward his head
when he was about to speak, his contented ;uuj self
sufficient air, his triumphant gestures was enough to
make one feel that he was convinced that his eloquence
would overthrow every obstacle on the instant. While
he gave vent to the abundant flow of his discourse, his
colleague, the lama, a young man with a placid and
prepossessing countenance, listened in silence, smiled
softly from time to time ami never ceased telling his
beads, praying, no doubt, for the success of the negotia-
tion, The midpon, presenting us with the traditional
katfigS)* told us that, cm hearing of our arrival, the
government had sent both of them to present its respects
to us > to inquire into our needs and to satisfy them, to
point out to us the safest and easiest routes : in short, to
assist us to continue our journey under the bent possible
conditions. We replied that we were very grateful to
the government for its attention and care and that wt*
thought it our duty to go and thank it in the capital
itself
"The kfituft a Htfttrf whltih 3* prrtMrntod tm it owrk of homitir and
rcKpcct.
63 {Tibet
"Certainly/* replied the midpon, "we should be
profoundly honoured and charmed to welcome at Lh^sa
guests so distinguished as yourselves ; but the law of
the country, which is founded on a secular tradition,
is opposed to your admission to Tibetan territory : we
can only, to our great regret, help you to leave a country
which you ought not to have entered/*
"The law of which you speak was made against your
enemies ; it is not pertinent to invoke it against your
friends. You can have no doubt that we belong to the
latter ; the correctness of our attitude, the deference
which we have shown towards your ^overmnent are
proof enough of this. We stopped so soon as its
emissaries asked us to and, although you yourselves did
not appear at the time fixed, we did not take your
unpunctuality as n pretext for f*uini further; and yet
this would have been easy for us tn do, smuj( that then?
was no obstacle before us, We had the fueling of
confidence, which you would not like to shake, that the
recommendations of the Court of Peking the obvious
purity of our intentions, your own f^ood sense and
equity would serve us better than artifice cir force. No
apprehension can advise you to expel UN ; your own
interest should dissuade you from that course. The
journey which we have undertaken is a work of science
and peace alone and conceals no political or religious
object, no plait connected with trade or lucre. We
belong, moreover, to a nation whose power anil ambition
can give you no umbrage, for it is very distant front your
frontiers and its solo desire is that you should live peace-
fully in your own country, Since you have no reason to
mistrust it, clearly your interest must lie in conciliating
its goodwill, in case your security should be threatened
from another side. Instead of nugget ing these wise
ideas to yourmslvufl, you had the chifromeftK, not long
ago, to set public opinion in France agaimt you by not
Tibet co
offering a better reception to two of our most considerable
and considered fellow-countrymen ; and you will end by
alienating it completely, if you to-day hold the same
conduct towards two official travellers who ask leave only
to go and rest from their fatigues in a spot less cold, Ie'<;
unhealthy, less devoid of everything than that in which
we now are. This is a request which would cost you
nothing, which it would be advantageous to you, on the
contrary, to grant, a request which the humanity ami
chanty enjoined by your noble religion do not permit you
to refuse. No doubt you are free to at I as you please in
your own country : every man's house, as we say, is hU
castle ; but, if he lives like u savage, if he snubs every-
body and closes his gate against all comers, friends and
foes alike, none will be interested in him ami, if mis-
fortune ever threaten hini| everyone, so far from cowing to
his assistance, will applaud his ruin. Well, by knocking
at your gate to-day, we pvc you an opportunity of
retrieving your past errors. It is probably the last ; do
not let it escape you ! **
"We do not,'* replied the imdpon, "contest the
accuracy of your observations; we fully understand
their importance and it seems to us that there would be
every occasion to show them the greatest respect, if only
we were free to do so. But each people has its own
customs. As you have so well said, every man's house
is his castle ; and now the householder says to you,
*The castle is mine : you must go ! * The instruuimt'i
given us arc formal ones ; we cannot change them,
however much we would like to be agreeable to
you/*
This time the conversation went no further. 7'hrec
days later, the midpon returned to the attack :
" When do you propose to leave ? " he a*kcdL u Wo
are ready to do all that ts necessary to assist you in
your preparations. It is time to make up your numl*."
70 Whet
" I am in no hurry," replied Dutrcuil do Rhins, " I
have written to the Imperial Legate and am waiting tor
his answer."
"The Imperial Legate has nothing to say in this
matter. He is sent to Lhasa to honour the Holy City
with his presence and to show the respece due to His
Precious Majesty the Dalai Lama in the name of the
Emperor, He never interferes in the government and
our powers are absolute, within the limits of our instruc-
tions* We can no longer wait your good pleasure, for
a period of time has been fixed beyond which we are not
authorised to go on any pretext."
" I am sorry, but I will yield only to force : employ
it if you dare. I am ill, 1 cannot leave this spot, exo.'pf
to go south, to a better climate, If you insist, you will
endanger my life and, if anything happens to me, you
will be held responsible,"
The two negotiators looked sit each other with u ;vr<
plexed air and withdrew for a moment to confer together
in a low voice, after which the midpon said ;
" We are much distressed that you should Imv
taken our entreaties in bud part ; we hud no intention
of being disagreeable to you. In proof of this, we \vil!
dispatch a messenger immediately to Lhasa to inform
the government of your proposals and to usk for fresh
instructions/'
On the next day, the lyth, the imperial vice-legate
arrived, accompanied by a numerous retinue. He W*IM a
Manchu, still a young man, who h;ul been secretary of
embassy in St. Petersburg, where he admitted that he
had picked up a few words of Russian with which he
brightened his conversation, here anil there, to please us,
As for Chinese, he spoke it with aa easy, fluent situ) abun-
dant eloquence and with the clearness of pronunciation
peculiar to the natives of Peking. He hau an agreeable
appearance, an easy gait, under ms ample Chinese drew,
Uibct 71
and visible pretensions to elegance : at every turn, in
and out of season, he would produce a fine cambric
hiidkerchicf, of irreproachable whiteness ; hut he made
the mistake of sniffing noisily and of spitting on the
ground with a great crash. Mis pleasant Mnile ami
courteous manners served admirably to cover the intrinsic
haughtiness of his character, in the same way I hut his
display of cordial frankness disguised to a certain evtent
his diplomatic skill. He had a supple and resourceful
mind, affected a great freedom from prejuui* e of every
kind and was clever enough to allow us the SUNK*
superiority over other men which he attributed to him*
self, With him came two secretaries of tht* legation
and three officers of the Chi MM.' cpu'rison of Lhasa,
In addition to these, the King, or rather the Viceroy
of Tibet, the Bod Gyatsab, hail sent a hrm styled a $'//>''
who was one of the two supreme judges, or ctM$pwt$,
Short and fat, with a round, smooth iiuv, a wild ;w<i
sanctimonious expression, luck lustre eyes, which often
gave a sly, upward glance, and a slow and staid vout%
without tone or accent, he was almost immovable in his
serenity, which was enlivened only at rare intervals by \\
pale and fleeting smile ; he seemed alien to what others
said to him and to what he said himself; sometimes, only,
a sudden gesture, a loiuier note in the voice of one
conversing with him would dntw him from his inner
contemplation and make him open great astonished eyes
to think that any man could take so impassioned
an interest in the things of this world. It would
have been as great a mistake to consider him a
hypocrite as to believe him to be unconcerned or
disinterested, He was capable of diwimul&tiort ami
was not loth to resort to Htrutat^m ; but he diil so
with a free conscience, in view of a lofty cause* He
was a worthy man at bottom, not without st certain
simplicity and a little weak ami timid : he often readily
72
made a promise out of kindness which his weakness pre-
vented him from keeping* He was accompanied by
three rather boorish and dull-witted lamas, who seemUd
as though they had come only to listen and to act as wall-
flowers with their yellow jackets : in reality, they had
deliberative votes in the embassy, for they represented the
three great monasteries in the neighbourhood of I Jiasa
Sera, Drebung and Galdan which have a preponderant
influence in the government. Lastly, the two jongpons,
or prefects, of Scnja and Nagchu had arrived, so that,
on the iyth of December 1893, there were fourteen
officials on the bank of the Nam Cho, of whom six
were Chinamen and eight Tibetans, Around them were
gathered four hundred long-haired musketeers, hut
yesterday herdsmen or peasants, similar in dress, hut
different in type, some of them being hardly distinguish-
able from certain Indo-Kwopt'uns by their slightly
almond-shaped eyes, others resembling the MongoK with
their wide, round, flat faces, others sixain recalling the
Redskins of North America by their tall stature, tlu*ir
long, square, bony faces, their large, hooked noses, their
wide, thin-lipped mouths, their strong teeth, their hardy
muscles, while differing from them, however, in the
height and narrowness of their foreheads and u gentler
expression of face.
The officials at once came to visit us in great ntute.
They were clad in splendid dresses dainty wlkt*, '<oft
and exquisite furs and this brilliant finery matle a
ntther amusing contrast with the wiMness ot the land-
scape and with our own attire, which was greatly
neglected, through no fault of our own, Stripped of
all its polite forms and rhetorical superfluities, the speech
which the vice-legate addressed to us might he summed
up in the phrase with which certain slanderous tonguc#
pretend that the Genevese are wont to receive thetr
guests :
Uibct 73
" My dear sir, 1 am delighted to see you ! How
soon are you going ?"
He handed us the visiting-card of the chief of the
Chinese mission, who, in welcoming us to the country,
begged us to forgive him for not replying earlier, as he hud
been prevented from doing so by having pressing matters
to settle on the Indian frontier. lie regretted not to be
able to give us a favourable reply to the letter with which
we hud honoured hinij in spite of his keen desire to be
useful and agreeable to visitors whom he regarded as
friends of the Kmpire and even as personal friends of
his own. We must he assured that he would be pleased
to accede to all our requests, with the exception of that
asking to be admitted to Lhasa, We were no doubt
aware of the strictness of the usage of immemorial
antiquity which prohibited ICuropeans from entering
Tibetan territory ; there was no precedent of a man
coming from Kurope who had ever been allowed to visit
the capital of the country and he was sure that we would
be the first to understand that it was impossible to nutkt'
an exception in our favour.
We protested that, in the seventeenth century,
French missionaries had resided for many years at
Lhasa; that, in the eighteenth century, Orattio della
Penna had written a narrative of his journey to Tiber
and his stay in the Holy City; that, in 1 8 jo, Thomas
Manning, the English traveller, had remained for a
whole year at Lhasa; that, lastly, less than fifty yearn
had elapsed since our fellow-countrymen Hue ami Gabct
hud spent several months there, We therefore claimed
only the application of the common right, founded on
an ancient prescriptive usage which had never been
interrupted.
The vice-legate cried cut : he had never heard of
all this and questioned the Tibetans present, who all
displayed a touching unanimity in their ignorance; ami,
74
surely, if the facts which we alleged hud really taken
place, none could have known better than they, whiph
showed that our credulity had been played upon by
impostors. To endeavour to correct their wilfu!
ignorance would have been time wasted ; but, in
the course of our subsequent conversations, we could
not resist the pleasure of frequently mentioning the
relations enjoyed by our predecessors and of often
insinuating some such phrase as, "One of our fellow-
countrymen, who stayed at Lhasa fifty years ago,
says ..." whereat our auditors would adjust
their countenances and affect a stern and impassive
attitude, They were the more embarrassed inasmuch
as it was impossible for them to deny the accuracy of
the facts quoted, our illustrious forerunner and fellow
countryman having had a general curt,* lor truth whith
his detractors have not always displayed.
Nevertheless, on one occasion, l\,re Hut: was dis-
approved of, in connection with the microvope. When
we described the curiosity aroused by this iintniwrnt
among the exalted dignitaries of I,hrr;a aiui told how,
Pere Hue having asked for some extremely small
object, such as an insect, for the purposes of hi 1 * demon
stnttion, one of the principal lamas present had at onu;
put his hand into his clothes and otYcml flu* experi-
mentalist a propcr-sixed flea, the vice-legate could not
help laughing and the lamas showed by their attitude
that they looked upon the thing as quite natural ; but,
when we added that, the flea having ptvrislu'J amid the
general eagerness to admire it under flu* minifying
glass, the noble onlookers hud been scandalised ami
dismayed at this ruthless killing of a living thing, our
audience protested that one was not expected so gnMtty
to respect sin animal which contains so insignificant
a particle (if, indeed, it contain one at, all) of the?
human soul : the only thing being that one mustf
TEtbct 75
crunch it between the teeth and not crush it between
the finger-nails.
* We repeated to the vice-legate, adopting the Chinese
point of view, the arguments which we had put forward
in our conversation with the first envoys from Lhasa.
We laid especial stress upon our character of disinterested
travellers : we were not political agents, nor religious
missionaries, nor seekers after adventures or lucrative
enterprises against whom the Chinese government might
have more or less well-founded reasons to protect itself;
but what motive could possibly be alleged for impeding
the progress of scientific explorers, bent, above all, upon
remaining foreign to any kind of intrigue and scrupu-
lously respecting the laws, the customs and the authorities
of the countries through which they passed ? Could it
be that the geographical labours with which we were
entrusted and the maps which we were making were
causing them anxiety, as being able to serve as a basis of
operation for a military expedition ? Bui Kuropean
Powers had waged successful wars in regions the
geography of which was no better or even less well
known than that of Tibet is to-day (in saying this,
Dutreuil de Rhins was thinking of Tongking). And, for
that matter, we were prepared to dispel any nuspicions
in this respect by undertaking to execute no geographical
labours except within those limits where we should be
authorised to do HO* In short, our one wish was to go
to the only neighbouring town where there were proper
resources and where the climate was endurable, in order
to rest from our fatigue, to restore our shattered healths
and to reconstitute our caravan so that we might net out
again as soon as possible, At the same time, Dutreuil
de Rhius gave the vice-legate his map of Tibet The
mandarin seemed greatly pleased, examined the map,
which he understood how to read, and particularly the
roads which he knew between Lhasa and Chamdo and
76 IH&ct
Darjeeling, declared that it was the most accurate map of
Tibet which he had yet seen and thanked DutreuilUie
Rhins effusively :
"You must not think," he said, "that we entertain
the least anxiety as to your geographical studies ; on the
contrary, we look upon them as very useful to ourselves, 1 '
and, turning to the Tibetans, in an imperious tone," You
will take care not to interfere with these gentlemen in
any way in their astronomical observations or topographi-
cal surveys ; you must help them as far as in you lies
and, if they ask you for the names of the districts through
which they pass or the neighbouring places, inform them
with sincerity and accuracy."
The Tibetans bowed low and the vice-legate con-
tinued :
We are entirely at your disposal for the reorganiv<
ing of your caravan ; you can do that here quite as well
as at Lhasa, whither the terms of your passport do not
authorise you to proceed, Nor, tor that mutter, have
you any great reason for regret, f Jmsu is a horrible
place, where the sky is inclement, the men savage, the
houses uncomfortable and the soil infertile. Nothing
grows there but barley and pea*; ami, even then, each
grain sown gives only four in the reaping. Since we
Chinese have settled there, we have endeavoured to
improve the country, to introduce frt'h crops, wheat,
rice, vegetables, fruit-trees ; but our efforts have been
foiled by the uncouthnesH of the population awl the
ruggedness of nature. We have with great difficulty
succeeded in planting a few puny and stunted trees, in
sowing two or three fields of corn whic'h produce hardly
anything. You would waste your time in jjoinft to look
at a country like that. You seem to think that a fear of
political intrigues is at the bottom of our refusal to
accede to your request. You are mistaken : we have
nothing to fear and, if your hypothesis were correct, we
77
could not but yield before the excellence of the argu-
rrgpnts which you have unfolded. We were convinced
beforehand that your visit, had it been possible, far
from causing the slightest inconvenience, would have had
none but the best results. To tell the truth, it is the
Tibetans who are responsible for this refusal : we are not
their masters, but simply their councillors. They decide
as they think fit and not only are they very obstinate
and jealous of their independence, but you can see for
yourself, from the functionaries whom their government
has sent to you, how very uncivilised this nation is and
how incapable of understanding* You and I, on the
other hand, know the Li, the code of international polite-
ness, and> if you had a passport for Peking, I should he
pleased to take you to Lhasa through every obstacle : if
necessary, we would call out the whole garrison of the
city to cause the Kmperor's orders to be respected/ 1
If we next turned to the Tibetans, they, with great
humility, would declare that they were acting only in
accordance with the instructions of the Chinese
authorities :
" The amban is the master/* said the very men
who had pretended that he had nothing to say in the
matter ; and, in fact, they were very tiny people in
his presence and kissed the dust beneath his feet,
We disclosed to them what the vice-legate had told
us> that, if we had a passport for I Jiasa, he would take
us straightway to the foot of the I'ntola :
" We propose, therefore/* we added, w to send to
Peking for this passport which, in view of the close
bonds of friendship that exist between China and
France and of the impossibility of raining any serious
objection, will certainly not be refused ; and, in this
way, we shall soon be visiting the Dalai Lama."
They were greatly shocked and replied that, even
if we had an order for Peking, they would not allow us
78
to pass. It was useless to insist upon the inconsistency
of their language and the incompatibility between thpir
words and the vice-legate's ; it was vain to say to them :
"At least, agree among yourselves ! "
They did not feel the need for any such agreement
nor did their mutual contradictions cause them the
smallest embarrassment :
"We are convinced,'* they said, "that you mean us
no harm and we have the highest opinion of you ; but,
according to our religion, your presence would con-
taminate the sacred soil/'
"But, after all, you admit Moslems and Brahmins;
and, if it be sufficient lo be a Buddhist to have the
right of admission, we have plenty of very sincere
Buddhists in France, Would you receive these if they
applied to you ?"
"No doubt, any good Buddhist has the right to go
to Lhasa ; but we should always have reason to suspect
the good faith of a Kuropeun professing Buddhism*
As for the Moslems and others, we tolerate them because
they are of no importance ; the Piling (Kuropeans) arc
the only people that need be considered."
This betrayed their secret and showed us that fear
was the guiding principle of their policy, a fear which
had increased at the same time and in the Mime propor-
tion as the British power in India. They reflected that,
although we, who were scientific travellers and I'Yendv-
men, might not be dangerous, the English, who were
disseminators of intrigue, discord and conquest, would
enter by the door which we .should have opened, without
counting that, behind us, they saw those Catholic
missionaries whose */,ea! greatly alarms the lamas on the
Scchuen side of the country,
Meanwhile, the days were pacing by ami our
situation was far from enviable. There was not much
snow, but a keen wind blew ; the lake had been fro/en
Uibet 79
since the middle of the month ; the temperature varied
between zero and 33 degrees below zero, according to
the time of day ; and we were still in our tent without
fire. The altitude of about 15,000 feet was hard to
endure, even for the people from Lhu**a, who complained
bitterly ; as for the Chinese, two of them were so ill that
they had to be sent back to the town : it is true that
both of them were opium-smokers. The Chan&pa, or
men from the north, on the contrary, Denied ijuite
acclimatised and we often saw them, burdened with the
weight of their arms, climbing hills at a run and shouting,
witnout losing their breath or discomfort of any kiiuL
As for us, who had been living tor nearly four months
at a similar or loftier height, our organs had become
resigned, but not reconciled to it. The heart-disease
from which our Chinese interpreter was suffering had
grown much worse and the poor man's face was terribly
swollen, Dutreuil tit* Rhins was in a sad physical
plight : he suffered from rheumatism ami attacks of
painful coughing (** This cruel cuugh which shatters me,'*
he writes) and he was subject tt> sudden fainting-fits.
One day, when he hud gone a few hundred yards from
the camp to measure the principal peaks around us with
the theodolite, he swooned away and we h;al to carry him
back to the tent.
Our sore-footed beasts, finding no edible grass, were
unable to recover- The horses, slavering on their legs,
hovering like nigs in the wind, roamed about in a tiis-
consolate way : the tamer ones came and .sniffed in ottr
pockets and raised the hangings of our tent to ask for
the food which we were unable to give them ; they
no longer hud the strength to chew their hurley ami,
every day, one of them, suddenly struck motionless* ttnj
looking fixedly before it with its glassy and watery eyes,
would begin to spirt round and fall never to rise aguin.
The camels lay kneeling, solemn and impassive, while
80 Zttbet
great crows settled on their backs and drove the hard
horn of their beaks into their open sores, with the
quiet satisfaction of an honest burgess sitting down to
his dinner; and it was as much as the tortured victim
troubled to do, from time to time, slowly 3 to turn its
long neck with a grunt. It availed little to drive away
the black monsters : they constantly returned. In the
end, all our beasts died, with the exception of two
camels. The neighbourhood of the camp became a
charnel-house infested with crows and even more
horrible huge vultures, through which we had to make
our way by flinging stones at them. They would then
move oft* by fluttering heavily away and settle down
again at three paces from us, whence these filthy carrion-
birds, which looked like hunchbacks, with their long
bare necks tucked between their shoulders, sat watching
us with their dull and stupid eyes,
Our men, who already had had as much as they
could endure of the journey anil its sufferings, were
stirred up by the stories of Parpni, who told them how
they could get back to Kashgar in two months, ami came
to ask for their discharge, I regret to say that the
Russian was at their head. He acted, I have no doubt,
as he did from impulse and green-horn stupidity rather
than from ill-will. Our Chinese secretary himself, who had
been roundly rated by the vice-legate for assisting u and
for writing, on behalf of Europeans, a much too well-
turned letter and who had come back from his blowing-up
filled with irritation against the Tatsus,* nevertheless took
advantage of the first opportunity to pack up his trunks
and go. Only three men remained faithful: Yunus, xvho
was too ill to dream of leaving ; Mohammed lsa s who
was not a Chinese subject, who was leas mad than the
others and who saw, in staying at his post, an excellent
*Thu name contemptuously given by the Chinese to the
and Mimchurian barbarians, the Tartar*.
Bi
means of distinguishing himself and obtaining an in-
crease of pay ; and, lastly, Mohammed Isa's shadow,
Abdurrahman. The Chinese secretary was the first to
return to the fold, upon the intervention of the vice-
legate, who was delighted to be able so cheaply to prove
his good feeling towards us. A short time after, the
others came to beg pardon ; but Dutreuil do Rhins
was too angry at their dastardly conduct and refused.
The Tibetans and Chinese, on their side, strenuously
opposed the men's departure ; and, after much vain
and annoying discussion, Dutreuil de Rhins yielded
with a bad grace and took back his men, with the
exception of the three worst, whom he sent back by
the road taken by the Mongolian pilgrims.
These incidents did not cause him to lose sight of
the course of the negotiations. The delegates from
Lhasa, who were being bored, tried different artifices to
persuade us to weigh anchor. The vice-legate told us
that the Nam Cho was full of terrible monsters, that an
old woman had just been eaten by a bear, that the
wolves could be heard howling at night and that he
himself dared not sleep without his sword by his side.
The long-haired musketeers sometimes went through
their military drill In an ostentatious manner, uttering
blood-curdling yells* One day, they thought out a
solemn farce ; while we were at the vice-legate's, al!
the lamas entered in a body and threw themselvcH
on their knees to beseech His Excellency to rid the
country of the foreigners. Their prayer was urgent
and a little insolent. His Excellency, turning to us,
said :
"You see! It's a difficult situation and we mut
not strain it any further/*
"I can quite understand," said Dutreuil tie Rhin%
"that you are tired of remaining in this horrible wilder-
ness ; 1 am no less tired than you. Why do we not all
G
82
go to Dam, beyond the mountains ? We can there talk
much more at our ease.'* ^
" It is quite as impossible to 1^0 to Dam as to
Lhasa, 7 '
"Well then, we must wait for the reply from the
government. 1 '
The reply came at the end of the month. Not only
did the government forbid the foreigners to go to Lhasa,
or even to Dam, but it ordered them without delay to
return by the road by which they had come, adding that,
if these orders were not strictly executed, the negotiators
would be flung into the river with hands and feet tied.
When giving us this news, the Chinese and Tibetan
delegates seemed painfully afflicted :
" We have done what we could for you," (hey said,
with a pitying air, "but all in vain/ 1
1 need, perhaps, hardly add that wr did not see the
smallest paper signed by the King or the ministers ; but
it was clear that it would serve no purpose to insist,
Dutrcuil de Rhins declared that, if the reply of the
authorities of Lhasa was not wise, perhaps, nor consonant
with their best interests, that was their affair ; that ho, as
a peaceful traveller, considered himself bound to defer to
their wishes ; that, therefore, he gave up his plan of*
going further south ; but that lu: did not think if con-
trary to the spirit of the instructions to ask to he allowed
to go by the road to Sining, in accordance with the
terms of the imperial passport, and to stay, on that
road, at the village of Nagchu for the length of time
required for the restoration of his health and the re-
organising of his caravan, for he considered that no
self-respecting government would, uiulcr any pretext,
allow official 'travellers to be left hanging about in the
midst of the desert,
"This is my last word,* 1 he said and broke off the
interview.
83
The next day, we went to see the vice-legate, who
bad something grave and mysterious in his air. When
the page had served the tea and handed round the pipe
of hospitality, the mandarin gave him a sign to go,
made sure that no one was listening outside and, after
a silence intended to enhance the effect of what he was
about to say, informed us, in a deep and impressive
voice, that the Tibetans would not listen to reason ; that,
say what he might, they were determined to turn us
back forthwith and by main force along the road by
which we had come ; thut he \*as powerless openly to
prevent them from executing their designs ; but that his
great and sincere affection for us had suggested to him
an expedient calculated to baffle their scheme : he would
place at our disposal two of his Chinese officers, with
some trustworthy servants acquainted with the country,
who, leaving with us that same night, so soon as tne
Tibetans were asleep, would take us in the direction of
the road to Sining, so that, by the next day, we should
be far enough away to discourage them from pursuing
us. This scheme was not without danger for himself,
but he was glad to run any risk in order to be of use to
us, Suppressing a roar of laughter that tickled his
throat, Dutreuil de Rhins burst into protestations and
declared that he felt touched to tears at so precious a
proof of devotion :
" I expected no less," he said, " from so firm a friend
as yourself. But you must confess that this flight under
cover of darkness would be inconsistent with our
dignity ; we must and shall act only in the light of day,
Grant me also that our last proposals contam nothing
that is unacceptable or opposed to the mitxuttiofts
from Lhasa* There can be no question of making ui
return by the exact same road by which we came,
because nobody in the world knows that road except
ourselves. In ordering us to retrace our steps, it as
84
evident that the government meant in u general way to
make us go back north, instead of allowing us to gg,
down further south. We jigree on this point and, in
order to comply with this wish, I select the road to
Sining, because my passport allows me to travel by it,
because it is that which my instructions tell me to follow
and, lastly, because it is that which will take me soonest
out of the Lhasa territory, The village of Nagchu is
on that road and, as I must needs stop somewhere to
make my preparations, you may as well authorise me to
stop there as here. You will thus have the satisfaction of
seeing me further away from Lhasa ami I shall have the
advantage of finding a house that will better permit me
to restore my health than my worn-out tent, which is in
urgent need of repair. You cannot refuse me anything
so insignificant as this or so luvcssary to myself, nor
can you force me to travel without being prepared,
in the month of February, a time at which the
roads are utmost impracticable*. You have never, for
that matter, ceased to promise rm% in agreement with
the Tibetans, that you would do everything to assist
me to continue my journey under good conditions ;
and I am relying on your promise now. As for
what you tell me of the obstinacy and ill will of the
lamas, I venture to believe that you are too modenf,
that you do not attach enough value to your method*
of persuasion and that you underestimate the power of
the Emperor*"
The vice-legate put on an air as if he thought that
Dutreuil tie Rhins was a terrible man, whose opinion
it was not easy to shake. We unite well knew how
much to believe or disbelieve of the cunning liiuio*
matist's talk, Those lamas, who, if we had listened to
him, were at the bottom of all the mischief, were^ when
one saw them in private, the most amiable and compliant
people and at the same time the most respectful to
85
Chinese authority. They were made to play the part
#f bugbears in spite of themselves,
" Well," said the vice-legate, " [ will send for the
Tibetans and you shall hear what they say."
When they came, there was but one voice against
our proposals : we were all the more wrong in insisting
inasmuch as there were no houses at Nagchu,
"No houses at Nagchu ?"
"Ask the prefect himself!"
That honourable functionary was fetched and, on
arriving, bore loud witness that he had never seen the
smallest house in the whole Nagchu district, although
he had lived there for several years.
"Then you live in a tent ?" we asked.
"Just so,"
It was as though the prefect of Seinc-ct-Oisc were
to declare that there was no palace ut Versailles, The
lie was too gross not to deicat its own object We
persisted in our demands.
"In point of fact," the Lhasa delegates ended by
saying, "this is none of our business* The prefect of
Nagchu is master of his own district and responsible
for what happens there, Let him say whether he
will or will not have you/*
The official referred to rose and, in the tone of a
schoolboy saying a lesson, made a little speech which
ended with the words;
"I draw the conclusion that it is not expedient to
grant the foreigners' demand/*
The game of tennis was now being played with three
racquets, The vice-legate stated that an idea had come
to him which was capable, in his opinion, of bringing
everybody into agreement: it was certainly impossible to
oblige travellers whom the imperial recommendation
rntoe worthy of the highest respect to stay in a spot as
as that where we now were; he had learnt that
86 ITfbet
there was not far from there a place called Changchalam/'
which had been described to him as very agreeable?
sheltered from the wind and the cold, containing running
water and good pasture-land ; they would there fix us
up a good tent and send us the animals, the food, the
stores and even the workmen of whom we stood in need.
This place was not on the Nagchu road, which would
satisfy the Tibetan authorities; on the other hand, it was
situated on an easy road which would lead us straight to
Sining and which, being unknown to that day, would
please our taste as explorers. Dutreuil de Rhins replied
that, out of consideration for the representative of the
Chinese government and to show that he was guided
in his conduct not by any vain obstinacy, but only by
serious reasons, he would send me to examine the place
in question; that, if I considered it satisfactory, he
would move on there ; but that, if not, he would
go to Nagchu and nowhere else,
On the 8th of January 1894, I set ouf > escorted by a
Chinese officer and thirty mounted Tibetans. The road
in question was, in fact, very easy, in that part of it, at
least, which I saw ; but it was not unknown and did not
lead to Sining. It was the road to the hob Nor, which the
Mongolian pilgrims follow and which M, Bonvsilot ami
Prince Henry of Orleans had taken. The vice-legate
was not a little ingenuous to imagine that 1 ahoukt not
recognise it, the more so as I had with me a man who
had been in those travellers 1 service, A$ for the apot
known as Changchalam, situated at 23 miles to the north*
west of Zamna, it possessed no advantage over our en-
campment on the Nam Cho, On my return, on the loth
of January, Dutreuil de Rhins said to the vice-legate j
" I am very sorry not to be able to accept your
proposal ; you must make up your mint! to have i3* al
Nagchu*" I
* Meaning simply the high-road tfl the north
87
The next day, two of our men, who had gone to
fetch fuel, were ill-treated by armed Tibetans. This
was the last attempt to intimidate us ; it was also the
boldest ancl the clumsiest. We politely, but firmly
declared that we demanded, as a satisfaction for this
unjustifiable act ;
1. The punishment of the culprits ;
2, A prompt settlement of the Na^chu question in
accordance with our wishes.
A few poor devils, who perhaps had h;ul nothing to
do with it, had their legs broken and our diplomatists,
who had been dancing attendance on us for more than a
month in one of the most inhospitable spots on earth, in
the middle of the winter, at a height equui to the top of
Mont Blanc, and who were growing restless at the
approach of the New Year's festivities, which demanded
their presence at Lhasa at the beginning of February,
lost patience and granted in a few moments what they
had been withholding so long. After a few conversation*
on points of detail, a convention, drawn up in three
languages and in triplicate, was signal ami scaled, on the
roth of January, by the vice-legate, the chagpon and
Dutreuil cle Rhins. It stated :
i> That we were to go to Nagchu by the fthortcst
road ;
2. That a good house should be placed at our tiisp0*dl
there for a month from the date of our arrival ;
3. That our baggage, as well an the provision* mA
stores ordered by us at Lhasa, should be carried to
Nagchu on the same conditions fts the baggagtf of
'Chimsftc officials travelling in Tibet, that it* to say fr<&
of charge or at a greatly reduced pric<* ;
4. That any disputes which might wm between our
men and the inhabitants ahould be, settled in concert
between ouraelven and the local authorities, according to
tjid rtiles of equity }
88 ZTlbet
5. That the authorities at Nagchu undertook to
procure for us, at the usual price, the necessary food aiyi
animals, to give us generally every facility needed to
allow us to continue our journey to Sining,,by the most
direct route, under good conditions and, in particular,
to give us the indispensable directions as well as guides
to the frontier ;
6. That no obstacle should be placed in the way of
our scientific and geographical labours ;
7. That we should respect the usages and customs of
the country.
Shortly before the signature of the convention, the
chief lama, despite his air of detachment from worldly
things, had timidly manifested a keen desire to know what
curious things we had in our boxes and what presents we
were going to make him ; but we took care to postpone
the distribution of gifts until after the conclusion of the
treaty* The lama appeared very much pleased with 1m
share and especially with a very fine musical-box, which
he would be glad, he wild, to present to the Dalai I,ama
in person, who would thank UK for it* Certainly*
although the skittish Majesty of the latter had kept us at
o strict a distance, it was a pleasure to us to think that
this infidel toy might for a moment detract the boredom
of this young god exiled upon earth and that the profane
frivolity of a comic-opera time would ning something of
the joy of life to a child of eighteen, condemned from hi**
swaddling-clothes to enforced holiness awl perpetual medi*
tation, imprisoned for life in his austere dignity as in a
narrow cell, removed from the pleasures of hb age,
solitary in the midst of the dreary reapect of the crowd*
hedged in by how and -endless ceremonies^ an un-
bending and superhuman idol at the same time as a frail
plaything of human ambitions which take him from thtf
ctmlk to act htm on a pinnacle, keep him in leading*
stringy suggest ull his thoughts to him, dictate a!) his
ttibet 89
words to him, arrange all his movements for him, keep
\^,tch jealously lest his personality should emerge from
its immortal sleep and, lastly, when they arc tired of
him or feel that he is weary of the existence which they
have created for him, deliver him from his revered
slavery by helping him, from pity, no doubt, as well as
from prudence, to be born again under a suppler and
more docile shape.
On the 1 9th of January, all the officials and lamas
called upon us, in solemn state, to take their leave. They
were amiable, smiling, flattering and caressing and never
was bride on her wedding-morn more complimented and
congratulated than were we that day. To thank these
gentlemen for their graciousness, we exhibited a collection
of lithographic prints, which had a great success. They
went the round of the company, one after the other, and
not one came back to us. The chief lama himself, while
piously telling his beads, retained on their passage two
fair and pink, delicate and sentimental beauties, of the
type which the English love ; he was enraptured and
dazzled by them and asked to be allowed to have them
for a keepsake.
The next day we left Zamnu, fifty days after our
arrival The vice-legate offered us a stirrup-cup in the
form of a dish of buttered tea and, suddenly displaying a
more extensive acquaintance with Russian than he hail
vet done, found a number of excellent phrases in that
language in which to express his friendship for us aitd
to wish us a good journey. Had he known Italian,
he might, when thinking of the little comedy which he
had played together with the Tibetan^ have repeated
what Pius IX, said to M de Grammoftt,our ambassador *
Buffoni di qtt& 9 bn$n\ di /&/ N&i skmo mi
I am not reproaching him. Let that diplomatist
has never concealed anvthtncr and who has a heart
90
pure of all artifice cast the first stone ! His knavery,
on the whole,, was very innocent and he atoned for it by
much politeness and by the good-humour with which
he seasoned the dinners, necessarily somewhat scanty,
which we ate together and enlivened our long talks,
which did not always turn on thorny questions of
business* In the concessions which he made us s he
went to the extreme limit of his powers and of our own
hopes ; and perhaps he kept us waiting for the desired
solution only to make us appreciate it the more.
CHAPTKR 111
EXPLORATION'S OK lfa)+ ..... FROM Til! NAM CHO TO
From the Nam Cho to Nii^chu ; the swmv!* <!' il;' Ailwt'iv - Xojjclw We
act out for Sinhifj Hiwn of tint Tjij'vr S.ihvcni m unknown mut
from LhiiKJi to Taaienlu Tito i*onlw> Tibi'lim* SIMMM of the Mint 1
River -Source!* of the Mekong' Tadii (imnjt;i ; hostile inonkn; -^ (rent
Tibetan fair The exploration of tin; Iwimin of thr l'ppr Mi'k**^
continued Jycrkumlo ; luistility of the nmnb; tin: agent-, of tin*
Chinec government*
WHILE Dutrcuil dc Rhiiw proceeded towards Nagchu
by the direct road, 1 net about accompanying the chief
lama to the foot of the Dam Larghiw Lu This was a
slight favour which was not obtained without difficulty
and the risk of reopening the whole question ; hut we
had insisted on it m order to he able to connect our
route exactly with that of M, Bonvalot, I camped, in
the evening, at the extreme point reached by the latter
traveller. All day long, we hud horrible weather, heavy
mists on the mountains and the lake, hail, snow, a biting
wind and a penetrating cold.
"See! " said the lama* "The spirit* of the iftke arc
weeping because you have troubled it* sercitityl M ,
** No," I replied, u they are weeping ovcf ouf
departure,'*
, He deigned to smile at my poor joke, This chief
for that matter, ww a goodj gentle,
We talked long at^d far into the night,
92
told me that he was happy to have met us, because
people who knew each other better learnt to esteem erch
other more ; that the prejudices which nations entertain
against one another disappear with their ignorance of one
another ; that he had now a better idea of what
Europeans were like ; that he would keep a kindly
remembrance of us and particularly of Dutreuil de
Rhins, who was a little plain-spoken, it was true, but who,
It was easy to feel, had an excellent nature at bottom.
He next indulged in a dream of a journey to Europe
and France and asked me for information : how he
would have to set about it ; how many days the voyage
would take ; whether he would be well received in
France, notwithstanding that Tibet had closed its doors
to us ;
"It is not our fault," he said; "custom is too
strong for us. It is u pity ; I should have liked to take
you with me to Lhasa to sec the New Year's festivities and
you would have seen whut a beautiful country Lhasa in/*
I observed that the vice-legate, on the contrary, hud
drawn a far from attractive picture of it.
" That is because he is a foreigner," said the lama*
" One cannot fully appreciate the beauty of any country
but one's own. It is, nevertheless, the case that at Lhasa
there arc large numbers of white houses, hills crowned
with temples with golden roofs to them, a limpid river^
flowing through the plain shaded by tall trees and green
with gardens and crops, and that the soil produces all the
necessaries of life : rice, wheat, barley and fruits and
vegetables of every kind. While the people work, we
Jamas pray that rain may fall when the earth needs it ;
we bring back the sun when the country wants hestf J
and that is why this land blessed by the gods H fertile
and prosperous/'
I reminded him of two promises which he h&J maita
us : to send us, at Nagehu, two rare and interesting
{Tibet 93
volumes on the history of Tibet and to propose to the
government council that it should no longer, in the
Future, oblige travellers who appeared at the frontier
after an arduous march through the desert to remain for
long days at a time in uninhabited spots, but instead, to
offer them hospitality, for a limited period, in the nearest
village, The lama saw in this a simple Question of
humanity, which could have no religious or political draw-
back, and promised us to support this suggestion at Lhasa.
He renewed his promises, but, alas, they were all blown
to the wind. And that wind of Tibet is so terrible !
On the 2 ist of January > I set out again to join
Dutreuil dc Rhins, accompanied by a respectable
escort commanded by the tongyifF 1 * of Nagchu, This
tongyig combined the functions of prefectortal secretary,
clerk of the court, collector of taxes and chief of police.
He was a jolly companion who tried to put on a
serious air, a difficult thing with his pointed and
tolerably bald pate, his huge red ears sticking out from
the sides of his head, his small goggle eyes gay or
dull according to the time of day, and hi* large, bony,
brandy-blossomed nose* In his family, as he explained
to us, a man became a tongyig from father to gon,
in accordance with the Tibetan custom* and he was as
proud of the ink-horn that hung from his belt as a
nobleman of his sword. He was, conjointly with hi*
two brothers, the partial husband of a lady of Gyangtwc,
his native city; on the other hand) at Nagchu, he was the
sole proprietor of two wives* When, in order to dr^w
htm out, we told him that, according to our ideat* it
would not be considered correct thu to divide one wife
among several, white* at the same time, having
wives for one's self alone, he grew angry ana replied
that our ideas were the idw of barbarians, who knew
about morality j
94
"Brothers have nothing to refuse one another ! "
" So that, if your brothers came to Nagchu , . J*
" There is a distinction ! It is quite another thing.
My wife at Gyangtse lives on our common, indivisible,
paternal property ; she herself, therefore, shares those
qualities of the property, On the other hand, my wives
at Nagchu live on my personal and private effects and
they are my private and personal property, with which
my brothers have nothing to do. That is logic/'
He had under his orders a few fashionable young
men, with panther-skin borders to their tunics, handsome
silver rings in their ears, turquoise and coral ornaments
in the plaits of their hair. At one time, they would gaily
urge their horses onward; at another, they would make
them paw the ground beside the caravan, flinging to the
winds the notes of some profane song, while old men of
sixty or sixty-five, their long ^rey hair floating over their
shoulders, went their peaceful little yait, saying their
prayers in a snuffling voice, which now rose loud and
solemnly and again dropped suddenly in a confused
muttering, It is curious that very distant and very
different peoples should huve agreed in considering a
snuffling tone to be that most agreeable to the divinity,
The Roman Catholics sing Latin through their noses ;
among the perfections introduced into religion by the
Puritans, the intensity of their snuffling was one of
those which made the most noise in the work! ; the
Moslems would think that they were insulting the sacred
word if they did not pronounce it through their noses ;
I have spoken of the Tibetans ; ami the Chinese actors,
when they want to rise to the sublime, take pains to puss
the sounds through their olfactory organs,
To return to my old men, they had good, simple,
smiling faces ; they were kind and eager to be useful to
me. At the halting-place, they arranged the tent, saw to
it that the fire blazed, that the tea boiled, that nothing
THbet 95
was wanting, came and went, still brisk in their some-
what bent old age, walking with short, quick steps on
the uneven ground and wriggling their haunches in the
Tibetan fashion. No, indeed: the people of this
country have none of the shy rudeness with which our
imagination so readily endows them; but do not press
them with questions, for they are persuaded that their
masters have given them speech to disguise the truth
from foreigners.
We crossed on the ice a tributary of the Nam Cho,
the Chakartsang, So yards wide. Our horses were not
rough-shodj but did not slip for a moment daring this
crossing. Asiatic horses arc generally firm-footed on the
ice: this was not my first experiment and, to quote only
one, I had several times, on a horse which was not rough-
shod, crossed the frozen river Yarkand, about Boo yards
wide,* without encountering the least mishap. After
crossing the little Setalaghlugh Pass, which was difficult
only because of the snow which covered it at the lime,
I joined the mission, on the i2tui t in u large grassy
valley beside a lake which ran out of sight towards the
north-west. This was the Bum Cho, which corresponds
with the lake entered on Dutreuil de Rhins' map under
the Mongolian name of Buka Nor. Upon my arrival, 1
saw that the lama-prefect of Nagchu and Dutreuii tie
Rhins were on excellent terms and talking familiarly
without understanding each other. Laughingly, the lama,
with his air of a good country priest, tried to thrust
different Buddhist prayers into his interlocutor's head ;
" You see,** he said, " religion is necessary to men*
Come, say after me, c Om mam paJme hum I * * , No }
not ^pedmk ; * *p<idmij through your nose. . , ,
That's it . , . You say that ten thousand times
a day and you will be all the better for it"
* At the apot where it ia crowed in winter and counting the turni
which one ia obliged to tulcc,
96
Until Nagchu, the country is undulated by small
mountains, generally rounded in shape, grass-grown au<i
separated by valleys which extend freely and give the
easiest road that one could wish for to Tibet. On the
24th of January, we passed abreast of Lake Bui Cho, so
called after the borax that abounds on its shores ; on the
26th, we crossed to the Black River, or Nag Chu, which
is no other than the Upper Salwen and comes from the
Amdo Cho Nagh. Its bed stretches to a width of 200
yards, but, at that time, only 40 yards were occupied by
the firaen water of the river. On the ayth, we reached
the plain of Nagchu, surrounded by long lines of low
hills, covered with the wintry grass like a thread-bare,
discoloured carpet. In the middle were gathered about
sixty .square, whitewashed stone house's, each consisting
of one floor alone, so that the convent of Kyabtcn
timidly overtopped them all with its solitary upper storey
and its flat roof adorned with many-coloured streamers,
The r/,e of the plain made this poor group of houses
appear still smaller and flatter. As we entered the village,
the dirt and wretchedness of the dwellings, the silence and
solitude of the alleys frequented by lean dogs, base and
sullen devourers of the dead, the absence of any flowers
or plants, of any picturesque ntg of stuff, of any bright
colour, of all that interests or gladdens the eye gave us
an impression of shabby dreariness, which impression
was increased by the monotony of the surrounding land-
scape, a monotony hardly relieved by a modest convent
of women* on the slope of the western hill and by the
appearance in the south, above the bare knolls, of the
highest summits of the snow-mountains, which the dis-
tance and the intervening strips of foreground deprived
of their grandeur. The inhabitants have no resources
beyond their herds and their pasturage: no husbandry,
Mm* Rttwba* An<' uicmiH aunt imd, by cxteiiHum, worrwn in
general,
Wet 97
no trade ; they have to go to fetch the wood necessary
for the construction of their houses at twelve days'
march, on the banks of the Sog Chu, a little to the north
of its confluence with the Nag Chu. However, the
caravans going to or from Tasienlu and Sining pass
through this place and give it some Httlc movement and
importance. A few days before our departure, we saw
a caravan sent to Tasienlu by the Pangchen Rinpocheh
of Tachilhunpo: it was led by three noble lamas and con-
sisted of a hundred armed men and seven hundred beasts
of burden ; we caught it up on the road and met it
again at Jyerkundo. During the fine season, the move-
ment is greater and the herdsmen of the surrounding
districts come in from a distance of several days, or even
a month, to sell their wool and their hides and to buy
the tea and flour which they need.
Such is the principal town of the province of
Nagchukka, a very large province, although numbering
no more than 10,000 inhabitants* It is governed by two
prefects, a monk and a layman, according to the Tibetan
custom, which prescribes that, in the majority of
administrative offices, the religious and lay elements
shall reign side by side and mutually watch over each
other. The two prefects are supposed to take all their
decisions in concert ; and, as a matter of fact, the layman
has no difficulty in agreeing with the monk, for he
approves of all that his colleague does. On the occasion
of the stay in this spot of two persons as dangerous as
ourselves, the Lhasa government took an additional
precaution : it sent a new prefect, who was to replace
the one in office after our departure and, in the mean-
time, to watch over him. He was picked from *mt*g
the monks of Sera, who are the most masterful, the
hardest against the people, the most intolerant and
the most hostile to Europeans of all the monks of
He locked himself tip in the convent, held no
08 TTibct
communication with us and, every day, cross-questioned
the prefect about us :
" What are they doing ? What do they say ? What
do they ask for? When are they going away ? Above
all, be discreet and show no weakness ! "
The Lhasa government understood very well and
even exaggerated a little the importance of the con-
cession which we had wrung from it We had created
an embarrassing precedent by striking at the sacrosanct
principle of the inviolability of Tibetan territory; for
not only the capital is forbidden to Europeans, but" the
whole extent 01 Tibet and chiefly the towns and villages,
that is to say all the places where the Kuropouns are
supposed by these maniacs of distrust and fear to be
able more easily to keep up relations wilh the population,
to carry on intrigues, to ;iovv I IK* stvds of discord and
revolt* Since the time when tlr-s principle became an
absolute dogma of Chino-Tibetan policy, all the travellers
who, like ourselves, hud succeeded, by surprise, in pene-
trating more or less far into the country had been
rigorously shown out again ; they hud never been
allowed any right except that of leaving as quickly as
possible, by the most deserted road, and the authorities
had carefully avoided permitting them to pass through
any town or village. If, occasionally, they had stayed
for a few weeks or chiys at any point in Tibetan
territory, this had been only it state of fact, which the
government had always declared to be unlawful and at
once exerted itself to bring to an end: the principle,
therefore, had not been encroached upon. Wo were
the first to obtain, by it treaty in due form, the right
to stay on the forbidden territory, in a village which
wan the capital of a prefecture, in a house that wsw
not an inn, under the .shadow of a sacred monastery.
The government was obliged to curry out the con-
vention signed by its plenipotentiaries, but it meartC
99
to keep us strictly to the limits which the convention
ffked, to prevent us from abusing it in order to establish
any relations with the population other than those neces-
sary to our revictualling and the preparations for our
journey and to put every possible obstacle in the way of
the accomplishment of our supposed plans of espiwwjre.
For the rest, it relied upon the unpleisantness of our
stay in this wretched and remote place to discourse any
one from imitating our example and it did not reflect
that explorers find their pleasure wherever there is
anything to see, that a small village is often us fertile in
information as a great city and that our annoyances
would be quite wiped out by our satisfaction in having
opened in the wall of Tibetan prejudice i\ peep- holt: of
which our successors would make a window.
As a signal mark of favour, the preferct gave us the
best house in Nagchu, It comprised* in .ill, three rooms
on the ground-floor, opening by as many doors into a
court-yard, sixty feet square, surrounded by walls four
feet high. A rampart of dried cow dung flanked the
right of the building and set oft" its architecture. Inside,
a great heap of the same material constituted the most
noteworthy ornament of our new lodging;,, which were
floorless, dirty, overrun with vermin, smoke-ridden and
dark. Outside, the wind roared, the snow whirled) the
thermometer registered 30 degrees below 7,ero. Our
abode had no chimney, it was impossible to light
a fire and we begun to think that, in spite of
the bad weather, it might have been more pleasant
to start at once ; but it wa necessary that we should
stay the whole month to enforce our right*. We thought
of building stone stoves : we set to work and, in two
clays, all was ready and the fires were blaming merrily
in these impromptu receptacles. We hud reckoned
without the wind, which smoked us out, ami we found
no way of warding off this inconvenience. Luckily, our
ion TObct
two chimneys, having separate outlets, did not smoke
at the same time, for the wind changed according to the
time of day : in the morning, driven from my room by
irritating clouds of smoke, 1 went to call on Dutreuil
de Rhins, who enjoyed a pure atmosphere at that hour ;
and he returned my visit in the afternoon. Although
our experiment in masonry had not answered all our
wishes, it nevertheless attracted a great crowd of people.
The prefects and their suite admired the ingenuity of the
Europeans ; our landlord, a worthy old man of seventy-
eight, who endeavoured to make up for lost time by
ardently spinning his praying-wheel and interlarding his
least speeches with prayers and litanies, praised our
architectural efforts and sent in a claim for damages.
Our interpreter, who was a. wag in his way, replied that
he ought to be ashamed at his age to occupy himself
with such trifles, that he hud bolter take cure not to
migrate into the skin of a dog or a rat and that, in
all justice, he ought to contribute out of his savings
towards the improvements which we had made in
his property. He consented at last to let an off paying
provided that he were not asked to pay himself: it
is true that he received from us, for a month's rent,
more than a Tibetan would ever have paid him for
a year.
Two things consoled us for these discomforts, namely,
that the prefects were worse lodged than ourselves and
that they were amiable and obliging, 1 have not
presented the lay prefect to my readers, but thiw
estimable magistrate, a short, thin, spare man, with his
tuft of grey beard on his chin and his glittering diamond
on his finger, was a very discreet person, who loved to
stay quietly anil peacefully in his corner, and we thought
it rigrtt to respect hin modesty, 1 1$ and his colleague
did not omit to call on UK on the firt day of the Tibetan
year and to present UH with their compliments, with
101
scarves of honour, jugs of foaming clwng ' and different
presents. They and the members of their suite had put
on their best clothes and washed their faces for the
occasion. We became aware of the latter detail through
the fact that their necks were as black as on the other
days of the year, while their checks shone with an
exceptionally bright, vermilion radiance. The lama told
us that he regretted that the festivals were not very
splendid at Nugchu, that this poor village coulvl not, like
Lhasa, offer us a spectacle worthy of our contemplation ;
and he described to us the gaieties celebrated in the capital
in the course of the first month of the year; the solemn
blessing of the people by the Dalai Lama ; his banquet
to the Chinese and Tibetan officials ; the dance of axes
performed by a troop of younjj; men ; the feast of lanterns
and the exhibition ot ban-reliefs iu butter; the review of
the troops which march three times round the Jokang
Temple and which, to drive away the demons, discharge
numerous volleys of musketry and iire off the big
cannon, which is a thousand years old and which is
redoubtable not only because of its age, but also for its
inscription: "I am the destroyer of rebellion;" the
horse-races ; the foot-races ; and, lastly, on the last day
of the month, the theological discussion between the
devil and the advocate of the Dalai Lama, a discussion in
which the Spirit of Darkness, falling' short of arguments,
proposes a game of dice to settle the question, but, as he
infallibly throws blank, he takes fright and runs away,
pursued with gun-shots, mocked, howled at and beaten
fey the crowd of lamas and laymen. At Nagchu, we saw
none of these diverting things ; we had only the story of
*A wort of beer which U manufactured AH follow**: grain* of barley
arc boiled ; when cold, a y<:;ist in addtnt compogeti of flour, ginger itnd
bonga (aconite ? ) ; the whole to left to ferment for two or three clay* ;
then water h added. When carefully prepared, thiu maket* a plctutunt,
more or leaa eitcrvcscing drink ; but it doc* not keep.
102
them, like Don Cresar reading another's love-letters
to the smell of dishes that were not tor him. *
The severe cold and the snow-storms that raged
throughout the month of February were very painful to
us. The altitude, although lower than it had been, for it
did not now exceed 14,600 feet, appeared to us, because
of the dampness, as difficult to support as those above
16,400. The relative rest which we enjoyed, coming
after a period of extreme and continuous fatigue, so far
from being favourable to our health, injured it by, in a
measure, relaxing the springs of our constitution. Sick-
ness is a person that loves ease, calm and idleness ; it
hates bustle and flees those who march, act and toil
unceasingly. Dutreuil de Rhins' bronchitis bcr.ime
chronic as it grew worse : as for myself, I suffered
from complete loss of voice, u very inconvenient coin-
plaint for an interpreter in constant pnulkv ; but all this
was not dangerous. The case was different with our
interpreter Yunus, whose condition grew daily worse*
A lama doctor deigned to come down from the convent
to attend to him ; lie felt the patient's left pulse for five
minutes, his right for as long and then explained to him
at length how there were in the human body three
cardinal humours, to wit, the phlegm, the bile and the
wind, which in Tibetan is called ///#(;'/></, each of which is
sub-divided into five kinds ; that from the derangements
arising in the circulation of these three humours spring
the four hundred and four maladies recognised by the
faculty ; that the examination which he had just made of
the patient's pulse enabled him to establish the diagnosis
of a disorder of the Hwgpu or wind humour, in conse-
quence of which he proposed t'o administer an appropriate
remedy ; that* if the sick man were destined to be cured*
he would not fail to get better ; but that, in the contrary
case, his life would be in jeopardy* This doctor was an
old man of eighty yearn, whose faee blooming with health,
ftibet 103
together with his air of gentle gravity and simple
Conviction, strengthened the impression of confidence
inspired by the wisdom ami the authentic Svience of
his language. Our poor Yunus was comforted by it
and had hardly taken the first remedies prescribed by
the faculty before feeling relieved ; nevertheless, he did
not neglect his soul and, when not sleeping, piously read
a little book containing prayers out of the Koran.
He had asked to remain in the common room with his
fellows ; and, one day, the jyth of February, just three
years after our departure from Paris, passing outside the
closed door, 1 heard on the other side a snct-xc, followed
by a loud and merry burst of laughter, f went in awl
saw Yunus on his knees, in the midst of the laughers,
with his head on the ground ; 1 went to him and,
raising his head, saw that he Irul cease* I to live,
Dutreuil de Rhins wished to send for the doctor to
certify the death ; it was ditKailf to pmiwdc him
that, according to Tibetan notions, this would have
meant offering a mortal insult to that worthy man.
We arranged for a funeral according to Moslem
rites. The prefect was good enough, notwithstanding the
contrary Tibetan usage, to permit the body to be buried
at some distance from the village ; and, on the morning
of the 2 ist of February, in a storm of wind and snow, we
accompanied our unfortunate fellow-traveller to his last
halting-place, on the side of the hill The hard earth
refused to open to receive the sad remains and we had
to be content to lay them in a natural crevice. One of
the men, who was more or less of u clerk, having read
the prayers for the dead and pronounced the sacramental
words, " We are God's and to God we shall return/*
we covered the body with heavy stones to protect it
against the starveling dogs which had followed us, with
gleaming eyes, and which hovered around us?, yelping
with greed.
104
Meanwhile, we were busy making our preparations
and collecting information as to the route to Sining"
from people who had travelled over it. On the 5th or
February, they brought us a man who had five times, on
foot, made that journey of about 1,600 miles there and
back. On his lust journey, which he hat! finished a
month before, his feet had been frost-bitten and
gangrened ; hideous sores kid formed and the front
portions, almost completely severed, hung down like
horrible rags. This poor wretch enumerated the names
of I he dghU'"i.'i;j;ht halting-places where the yak caravans
arc accustomed to camp. This was the actual trading
mad followed by PITC Hut 1 ; it crosses the Yangtze
(Chumar in Mongolian) at she Srvm Fords (kabdun,
or Dolim Olon in Mongolian) and passes through the
vilhtpft* of Jung, thus making \\ ivtluT wide circuit
towards the north. \ow itccurdin^ 1 to the Chinese
documents there must In* aitolju*r and more direct nud,
whose existence' ! did, in fad, t^Uib!Kh later, although
the merchants and peaceful travellers have abandoned
it because it, in too much exposed to the incur-
sions of the < Jolok brigaiuK If coincides with
the other during its first portion, but separates
from it before reaching the Vungt/.e, which it crosses
below Chitttur Kahdim, and then pusses between
lakes Kyuritig and Ngar'mg Chu. This is the road
which Dutreiiil de Uhins wished to take, lie erow*
tjuc^rioiied all who knew anything uhout the country
lying between Nagehu antl Sining ;nid many who
knew nothing; he tiirued them insidt: out; and he
ended by having to lulmit tlmt this rinitt* h;ul been
abandoned for u very lonj; time, swing that the very
memory of it seemed to have died out,
It wan mmt difficult to obtain intormutum, HO cute
consenting to Hpenk without a fornml unthoriHiUton
from the authorities, which gave ri*ic to rather
105
incidents. The prefect had sent to us, to'^
!tbout the road to Sining and, if necessary, to
pany us, a rather shrewd young man who answered
to the name of Dongdhub Tsering, which was the
name of the famous warrior who, setting out from
Khotan with a Mongolian army, invaded Tibet, by the
road followed later by M. Bonvalot, and took Lhasa
in 1717. In the matter of roads, he knew none
besides the ordinary one, but we succeeded, one day,
in making him tell us some interesting things about
the social condition of the country. The next day,
Dutreuil de Rhins, wishing to clear up an obscure point
in the itinerary and seeing Donjj'tlluib near the door,
called to him; but the other, instead of approaching,
ran away and, the louder he was vailed to, the faster
he made off, shouting :
" I will go and ask leave of the ton^yiji;.**
They had questioned him us to his interview with us,
he had confessed his indiscretions and they had blown
him up and forbidden him to say anything without beinf,*
authorised to do so. He came back to us with the
tongyig, who received a tremendous scolding at our
hands. He protested that Dongdhub was a fool, that he
had never been told not to speak, and, turning to him $
angrily apostrophised him and commanded him in future
to tell all that he knew, all ! Dutreuil de Rhins turned
the tongyig out of doors and buttons-holed Dongdhub,
who was greatly perplexed what to do with himself ami
his tongue : he got out of the difficulty thank* to an
attack of partial amnesia.
We and our men finding ourselves in need of tailor^
the prefect put two at our d'mpoftst!, who worked for
several days in our court-yard They were excellent
workmen, natives of Lhasa, whence they had been
banished for unrulincHS and for airing their opinions,
When they were together, they were secret us the
IOG trt&ct
tomb ; but, so soon as one of them was gone, the other
would talk open-heartedly and betray fairly revolutionary
ideas. According to him, the lamas were tyrants whom
everybody hated and whom nobody had ever known to
do the least good :
cc If we could be rid of them, it would be a great
relief for all Tibet. They prey upon the people with
their tithes, collections, satas of indulgences and amulets,
usury and monopolies. The government is their
accomplice, sells justice, makes the people work for it
without paying them, compels them to sell to it for
tenpence what is worth twenty and to buy of it for
twenty pence what i worth only ten and what they have
no use for. The lamas of Sera are the worst of all.
Twenty years ago, the monastery of (lakhin contrived
a plot against the Dalai Liunu. More than one person
of importunnj was poisoned in spile of the price which
he hail paid for his platter;'! the people took up arms,
but the monks of Sera put on their war-trousers |, and,
descending into the plain, restored order. Since then,
they are the masters . . , What the devil have you
done with my thread? 11 he exclaimed suddenly to his
returning companion* " I have been looking for it this
last half-hour, without finding it; if you keep on going
out KO often and so long, we shall never get done ;
and they are in a hurry ! *'
The work that had still to be done being much for
the eight servants that remained to us, we obtained
*T< IK* t'xsict, in iSyj.
} Hvoiy Tibetan carru'H OH MM pmtim :i wumleu pUttlcr or pm'rtaffvr
which hi: u so; to c;tt from uitU which lit* tint ninth to noiwnly, Somt; of
tluw itlutturH ;irc worth as mu<*li as <<> rit(i*ttH, IH^UIIW thy
to jK'-.Mt!>M the virtue of rciuirniiij poison iuitmniotm.
{ Tiic hmuui wcur ;t ^/iwn \villioMt hitu'vcN ;iru! it hhnwi, c:ilU'ct
which Hcrviis i cover their ttnttnl jiritiH, \\'hc ejtc*tptbnitl
KtuttccH oblige them to tutu* an m'tive pnrt in ;n armed Mirugglu* tlu-y
turn their ;atn#ost ittto breech*:*;.
107
leave to engage for two months two Tibetans, one of
<whom bore the blissful name of Tachi Norbu, the
jewel of happiness. This jewel of happiness was a
very poor devil, whose property, as they say in Tibet,
consisted solely of the smoke from his fire (d/wlmpa).
As a child, he embraced the religious state, went
through his noviciate and already saw in perspective
an easy and certain life, with plenty of tea and plenty
of butter, when he allowed himself to be tempted
by a pair of bright eyes, was caught, soundly flogged
and expelled.
"And that," said the unhappy, forcibly unfrocked
monk, " that is how the small pay for the great ! Do
you think that the big-wigs stint themselves ? Not they 1
You can indulge in sweets to your heart's content, if you
have money ; and for the lamas whose purses are full
their colleagues have eyes and sec not ana ears and hear
not. They catch only the small fry, from whom the
convent expects to gain neither honour nor profit,"
After we had repaired our plant and our tent, we
thought of introducing an improvement into our
campaignmg-mstallation by constructing a small portable
stove. The comparative success of our stone chimneys
had given us a taste and stimulated our creative
faculties for this class of work* We discovered an old
iron bucket, fitted a grid to the opening, planted it
on three feet and made a circular hole in the bottom,
to which we fixed a flue which we happened to have,
This improvised instrument, simple, handy and light,
never failed to fulfil its functions with the most scrupulous
eutactness and rendered us at least as much service as the
most perfect, shiny and highly-recommended English
travelling-stove could have done, We regretted only
that we did not invent it sooner,
As for our travelling-provisions, of which we needed
a considerable quantity, our flour and rice came from
108
Lhasa, while Nagchu supplied us with sheep, barley and
tsampa. The reader will understand our weariness jtf
counting and checking the quantities, when he learns
that there is no other measure used in the country than
the </e/t, a sort of square box, with no lid, which, when
filled to the top, contains a pound at the most of tsampa.
The person engaged in measuring has a wooden rule
with which he levels the contents and he counts the
successive measures aloud, repeating the last number
several times in a different note, so as not to forget it,
and suddenly raising his voice at each tenth number.
Lastly, there remained the question of the beasts of
burden. Of the animals which wo possessed on leaving
Cherehen, we had only two camels left; and these poor
beasts had been unable, in this wretched country, to
find a grass that suited them : emaciated and exhausted,
they dragged themselves sorrily on their shaking legs.
We kept these old servants only from pity, hoping to
be able to take them to a morv clement country, where
they would regain their strength. We had, therefore,
to make up our caravan afresh, \Vu needed a con-
siderable number of animals to make the journey to
Sitting, for, on the road which we intended to take, the
traveller finds no resources and has to carry everything
with him- On the other hand, Dutreuil de Khins
no longer had enough money left to be able to depart
from the strictest economy. He had to resign him^fU
to starting on his new campaign with yaks, which are
much more economical than horses, In fact, while
currying the same load as a horse I speak of the
Tibetan horse, for the horse of Turkestan carrir; more
the* yak requires neither grain nor bran, but feeds
itself entirely on the grass which it finds on the way ;
moreover, it is much cheaper to buy. Whereas a,
middling horse cost us about 80 rupee*, a good yak
came to 20 rupees. Unfortunately, the disheartening
Uibet 109
slowness of these beasts was destined to be the chief
?ause of the disaster which struck the mission, by
preventing it from going straight to Sining without
taking in supplies on the road,
The bad weather had obliged us to prolong our
stay at Nagchu a little beyond the fixed time. The two
prefects began to grow impatient and anxiou* ami to
tremble for their places ; for the Lhasa government i
not a tender one. Accordingly, when, on the 6th of"
March, the weather grew a little better ami we announced
our departure for the next day, they felt relieved of a
great burden. Our relations) which were threatening to
become strained, grew easier ; frowning brows were
unbent ; eyes looked bright and merry ; words became
gentler and more amiable. The next morning, our
two friends had the pleasure of accompanying us to
the first halting-place, with an escort of about thirty
horses. On leaving us, the religious prefect made us a
farewell speech filled with ecclesiastical unction, while
his colleague nodded approval at each word. I ie
told us in elegant terms how agreeable our company
had been to them during the too short weeks which
we had spent together ; how they regretted to see
us start so soon on a long and difficult journey ; ami
how, nevertheless, they approved of our wisdom at
not prolonging a stay which might have caused them
so much embarrassment. He hoped that we would
not take it unkindly of them that they had shown
some impatience and ended by calling down upon
us the blessings of the gods, which we had earned, he
said, by our loyalty and our courage. We replied to
these compliments as prettily aa we could and, after
an interchange of small presents, the Tibetan official*
left us, delighted to have acquitted themselves so well
of the knotty task which their government hud laicl
upon them. The government hastened to remove thorn.
no
I do not know what became of the layman, but the lama
was appointed to an important post in the centraf
government: this was a means of rewarding him for his
services and, at the same time, of preventing him from
coming into fresh contract with other European travellers,
towards whom he might, perhaps, not display all the
impartiality desirable.
As for us, we felt as though we saw disappear, with
them, Tibet itself, with its desert mountains, its snows,
its icy winds, its privations and wretchedness. No
doubt, the road which stretched before us was full
of more rough mountains and more vast solitudes
where the wind reigned and the cold ; but it was
the road back. At its further end, our imagination
saw, as in a mirage, under a beautiful and warm sun,
rich plains, populous cities, comfortable houses and
green trees, The foretaste of this approaching future
smoothed all present asperities, And so we gaily once
more donned our explorer's harness, in spite of our
shattered healths ; for Dutreuil dc Rhins' chest was
torn with a persistent cough and he had grown
visibly thinner, while I myself was in no much oetter
plight.
The prefects had left, for our escort, a score of
mounted men, under the captaincy of the tongyig. It
was curious to see them, witn their long hair, their big
caps and their great matchlocks, carelessly dangling their
heads as they trotted on their little horses and incessantly
turning their praying- wheels and mumbling endless
litanies to beguile or at least to sanctify the weariness of
the road. On reaching the halting-place and we were
obliged to halt very soon to leave the yaks time to fe$$
they spent their leisure in swallowing an incalculable
number of cups of buttered tea and in playing at dice or
Some other game of hazard. Ardent gamblers that they
they uttered little quivering and passionate cries to
in
mark their joy or their anger at the different turns of the
contest. Still, we never saw them come to blows or
quarrel violently. At nightfall,, the tongyig lit his lamp
and a few joss-sticks, placed them on a little bench
between two vases of symbolical flowers and, with
curious inflexions of his voice, droned out a never-
ending prayer. Often we chatted ; and our conver-
sations, strewn with unexpected words and ideas,
helped to make us know and understand this eccentric
people, lovable despite its faults and its rudimentary
civilisation.
From Nagchu to the Tachung Pass, the appear-
ance of the country is monotonous and devoid of
picturesqueness : fairly wide plains stretch their long,
flat outlines between the low mountains ; the soil is
covered with a short grass, which gives to the whole
landscape a yellowish tint, except where its uniformity is
broken by a few patches of snow, a black tent or the
blue ice of a lake. The surface of the ground, which,
in the distance, looks level, is, in reality, dented all over
with protuberances the size of mole-hills having between
them hollows a foot deep, often full of water or snow.
This sort of ground is very common in North Tibet
and is very difficult to march on. On the i ith of
March, we camped at the southern foot of the Tachang
La, in the gloomy little valley of Dhuglong, which
already is outside the territory subject to the Lhasa
government. Beyond this spot, the country is under
the authority of the Hortsi Gyupeko, a Tibetan prince
residing at Pachen, in the valley of the Sog Chu, He
himsclris under the Chinese Imperial Legate at Lhasa,
but is absolutely independent of the Debajong, The
majority of his subjects belong to the &cct of the
Ponbos, whose religion is to-day regarded as a schismatic
form of Buddhism, although, in reality, it is quite
different and much olden
112
On the 1 3th of March, we crossed the Bhumcha
Mountains, the first big mountains since Nagchu, by th^
Tachang Pass, 18,000 feet high, the crossing of which
was made rather difficult by snow and bogs. Beyond,
at the end of a very wide valley similar to many which
1 have already described, is the place known as Chu-
nagkang. From this point, the Chinese geographers
give two different roads, both leading to Sin ing.
Our Tibetans swore that they knew of one only, the
more westernly, which crosses the Kamrong I,a, at
whose foot we were, and the Tang La. This is
Perc Hue's road. It is true that, us the latter had not-
made a topographical survey of it 1 , it would have been
interesting ami useful to go over it ayain ; but the*
custom roud, apart from the fact ih.it it lud never been
covered by a Kuropean, offered this advantage, thai it
passed nearer the probable source*; of the Mekong,
which we wished to explore. However, tlu* longyig,
the men with him, the people of the country ami every-
body k?iew nothing of the existence of this wad. When
we questioned them, they gravely listened to our
explanations, studied the map attentively, reflected at
length and invariably ended by replying :
" C/ies gu mti ri (we do not know)/'
Dutreuil de Rhias had almost resigned himself to
taking the road to the Tang La, when he saw \\ caravan
enter a gorge which at first had seemed to him to be too
narrow for a road to lead through, This was the caravan
of a young Hutuketu* lama, who was going from lh;m
to a convent of Dergyeh. We followed in hin tract**,
despite the protests of the tongyij^ who assured UH
that this road led not to Sining, but to Tanicnlu,
Dutreuil de Rhins refused to believe him, fur it seemed
unlikely that people coming from Lhasa should go
ao fur out of their way to the north in order to go
Mncurmttioi* of BuJUlm.
Cibet us
to Tasienlu ; but he was soon obliged to modify his
-"Opinion and yield to the weight of evidence on meeting
caravans coming from that town or going there. This
roundabout route is naturally explained by the tact
that the straight road, which goes through GyumJo,
Lhari, Shobando and Lhasa and which wa* followed by
Pere Hue on his return journey, is very bad at :il!
times and almost impracticable at this season of the
year. For that matter, in all likelihood, the road which
Dutreuil de Rhins had determined to take was bound,
for a certain time, to coincide with that of which be Wii*
in search. If> however, this hypothesis were not verified,
if we missed the fork and if the road led us too far
eastwards, we could always turn to the north. We
had done more difficult things than that ; but circum-
stances were destined to make u alter our plans.
The gorge upon which we had entered wan that
of the Charong Chu, an affluent of the Chag Chu t
one of the principal sources of the Sulwen, the others
being the Nag Chu and the Sog Chu. It is very narrow
and deep and runs between perpendicular mountains.
We went where best we could, on the left bank or
the right, on the mountain-suit 1 or on the ice of the
river itself* On the iyth of March, we left this gorge*
and, on the mountains on the left, climbed to the
plateau of Tsagni, where the chief of a native tribe, the
Atag Mcma, had pitched hi* tent* He was a I'onlw
and appeared to us a very decent man, hospitable ami
obliging. He showed us a paper which Captain Bower
had given him when passing this way praising him
for services received at his hands, We thought it;
well to stop here for three dayn, both to collect in-
formation concerning the country and to allow our yak*
to feed and rest, They needed this, for they hutl hud
a wearying march through the gorge of the Chiwwg
Chu and had found but a meagre pittance there.
114
At our next encampment, near Lake Ngongkar Cho,
on the 22nd of March, we took leave of the tongyig*
and the men of Nagchu. We rewarded them generously
for the trouble which they had taken in coining so tar
and for all that they had done or could have done to
make themselves useful and agreeable to us. There was
no reason for their further presence. In the first place,
they did not know the district well enough to give UH
the names of the places or any information concerning
the surrounding country ; in the second pkicc whereas
a man like the tongyig of Nagchu would have served
as an excellent recommendation tor us in an orthodox
region, he was deprived of all credit in then* heretical
parts. We could reckon only upon the ^ymp.itby of
the PonboSj among whom vvv uvre, nor did wr look
for it in vahu
On the i^tvl of Maivh, 1 \scnt > au'unijMimi
by a single interpreter, to pay ,1 viijt tu a uunp
of Tibetans a few miles from our u-nt, At ibur
or five hundred pace-*, as usual, an avaluuhr of"
dogn cium* rushing down upon u\ lurking t'uriou-lv
showing fierce teeth and rolling blond shut eye*** my
intrcpreter, who had been telling me how alow; and
armed with a mere lance, he had killed several wolves
in the snoww of the Karakoraw, bt'g;n to trcmblv like
a leaf and trietl to hide bchiiui tu% but in \;ti l lor
he was much taller and stouter. It was nwugh, hmv*
ever, to pretend to pick up stones to keep the barking
brutes at a distance and transform their attack wtu a
platonic, though noiny demonstatitjiu At ItM, iht?
Tibetan came out and all the noin* cesrd They
grcctcil us with respectful cordiality uml lat us to th
chief of the three tcnts f which conlaihed & gathering iif
several person**. In the fini pbct* f there were two
women with their cheeks covered with ///, thyit hid^ou*
black gla7*c which the TibeUn wotnen u^e to protect
{Tibet lie
themselves against the bite of the wind: they received
"Us with a merry smile which for the moment lit
up that blackness* One was churning butter ; the
other, standing before the stone stove, was boiling tea
in a great pot. A tiny little girl, holding on to her
sheepskin dress, threw hesitating and timid glances at
the strangers. Other children, not quite so small,
looked at us with great round eyes of astonishment and
stood motionless, with their hands before their half-
opened mouths. A few trifles which I distributed
among them changed their surprise into joy and they
began to laugh silently with all their teeth and all
their eyes, through their* disordered hair.
Seated on the ground in a corner was n Ponbo
luma, with long, grey hair, who went on reading hb
prayers in a low voice and turning his praying-wheel,
His attention did not swerve at our entrance and he did
not even reply to the few short words which 1 addressed
to him, for the majesty of him with whom he was
talking did not permit of any sharing of the conversa-
tion, At last, asking me to sit down, they spread at the
upper end of the tent a small piece of felt, the best, no
doubt, that they were able to find : alas, it was very
much worn and eaten by vermin, but it still served
to soften the hardness of the soil The five men
present sat down in their turn and filled their pipes ;
the women served the tea and conversation began.
It was full of cordiality and good humour. They
talked of those strange nations of the west whose
marvellous inventions come o near witchcraft and
whose fame, young and vague a yet, but ever
increasing, has a lively effect upon the simple imagina-
tions of these nomads lost in their solitary mountains*
They talked of the recent travellers, of M. Bonvalot,
of the French Prince, of the <* Captain" (Captain
Bower), of Mr, Rockhill ; they admired their courage,
116 Cibct
their powers of endurance, their generosity, their spirit
of courtesy and equity.
" But/* they added, " seeing that among you there
are so many people bold enough to undertake such long
journeys, why do you not come oftener ? We would
receive you with open arms. No doubt, the Lhasa
government does not look favourably upon you ; but
we ourselves are not friends either with the people of
Lhasa. They have overthrown our once powerful
religion and keep it in a state of inferiority from which
we are unable to raise it, for we are few ami weak,
Anything that displeases them is calculated to plca.se us/*
Then they made a very violent attack upon the
Dalai Lama and the Debajon^ and jtrred at the
cowardice and folly of the population, which allowed
itself to be eaten up by a heap of dea-itfui, ^rerdy and
hypocritical lamas, who displayed an austere wanner
in public ami enjoyed themselves in smvt.
"Ami the ClVmesc?" 1 asked.
There was a short silence, for the question embarrassed
them :
** The Chinese/* said one of them, at KtM, shaking his
head and clearing out the bowl of Ins pipe 1 , ** are too
good for the people of Lhasa ; but the am bun of' Lhasa
18 a great man ; he is our chief ami does us no harm/ 1
Returning to what they had said before, I declared
that, in travelling through these parts, we had no slightest
intention of creating difficulties for the* Lhasa govern-
ment ; that we were journeying under the protection of
the Kmperor of China and that we owed the saint' con-
sideration to all his subjects ; that, tie vert fu'le&n, we
could not but feel a very lively ami special *ywj>ithy for
those who had given UK such a good and friendly
welcome* I insisted on the gratitude which 1 felt
towards them and 1 ended by asking them for *t guide.
Two of them immediately offered to accompany UH* The
trtbct nr
next morning, just after we had broken up our camp,
the men came with the children to wish us a prosperous
journey :
"Above all," they said, "remember that we shall
always be pleased to see you and your fellow-country-
men."
After crossing the valleys of the l*eh Chu am! the
Pom Chu, we ascended the narrow por^e of a little
torrent, the Gema Chu> overtopped by tall, Miowy peaks.
We followed the slope of the mountain to roach the
summit of the Sot? (Jcirw La, Jit 6,Hjo fert. The soil,
which was very much broken and intersected by ravines
full of snow, made our progress very difficult, The
camels, especially, proceeded only with the greatest
difficulty. The camel-driver, seeing an almost flat field
of snow, took it into his head to lead the camel which
he held by its leash that way. After a hundred puces
the thick, soft snow yielded under the weight of the
huge brute, which sank deeper the more it struggled fo
extricate itself- Soon nothing was seen of it but its
head and the tips of its humps. It was impossible to
clear it and the man could think himself lucky to be
able to make his way back. The descent of the northern
slope was no easier and this day of the 25th of March
may be reckoned as one of the hardest of the journey.
We encamped beside people of Zachukku, rvtunwjjjj
from Lhasa. Our cook, who foul a difficulty in lighting
his fire, went to ask them for sonic. They replied
that they did not wish to hold any intercourse with
Europeans. This gave us a good idea of the polite-
ness of the people of Zachukka ; but we did not then
think that we should later have to become more closely
acquainted with them*
The next day, after descending 2,000 feet in
than four league^ we came to the hanks of the
Chu, the most important river that we had yet seen in
us tCibct
Tibet It is 135 feet wide. As it was fimcn only on
the surface to a great enough depth, however, to bear
the weight of a caravan we were able to make holes in
the ice to measure the depth of the stream, which is
under three feet at this time of year. The valley is
very narrow and gives hardly any flat surface ; it is
contained within high, snow-capped mountains, which,
especially on the left bank, are very steep, slushed by
dark gorges and bristling with pointed tops, rising 4,000
feet above the river. It is inhabited by the Sogderna
tribe, which belongs to the Ponbo religion and is under
the Hortsi Gyapeko, whose tents stood at two days*
march below our encampment; of the 251(1 of March,
When we asked some Tibetans who had come to set'
us the name of the spot where we were, they iave us ;i
very complicated name ; but an old mun with a rough
beard and a crabbed look said, curtly ;
u You don't want to know the name of this place,
which hits nothing remarkable about it. Better put
down on your map the name of that confluent just there,
where you can see that red-washed dtorten. Anyone
passing this way after you will be able to recognise it*
It is Wabeh Sunulo."
Surprised tit this observation on the part of a native,
we thought Jit first that we were, perhaps, in the presence
of an agent of the Indian government ; but nor only
were* we unable to discover anything suspicious either
in his person or his manner of speaking, but everybody
seemed to know him as si man of the country. When
we tried to make him talk, he said that he must go
home and that he had no time to waste in fine speeches.
We asked him if he would sell us some yaks to replace
two of ours which were diseased in their feet, He aul
yen, if we would go to fetch them and pay him a lot
of money for them. And the old eccentric turned hto
back on us and went away, spinning hb praying-wheel
Utbet 119
Shortly after came a rather elderly woman,accompanieJ
' by a very good-looking boy of about fifteen: he had the
reddish-brown complexion of Raphael's madonnas and
wore an odd-looking gilt-cardboard helmet. I le executed
a few gambols and asked us for food, lie told us that
he was the son of a Ponbo lama who had died leaving
him alone with his mother and unprovided for. He
himself was a lama like his father, hut he was too
young still and the trade did not pay. \\V proposed
to take him as a guide at a decent salary. His mother
consented, on condition that he did not stay away too
long. He accordingly went off with us. The coU
was still very bitter and the wind was keen. The poor
boy, who, like many Tibetans, wore no breeches for
lack of the money to buy them, shivered anil wan
obliged to fasten his drew round his knees with a string
so as not to admit too much air. He was very /caloun
about informing us, He invented names for the
smallest mountains and, anxious to give us plenty for
our money, invented them very long: he smiici] to
think that we measured the price by the yard.
At less than three miles from our encampment on
the Sog Chu, we perceived the bifurcation of two nwk
The one on the left, which was known as the road of
the Goloks, was evidently the road to Sining 5 the other
was the road to Tastenlu, but, knowing that it passed
by the sources of the Mekong, we preferred it to the
first. The crossing of the huge chain of mountains
which separates the basin of the Sog Chu from that of
the Dam Chu is very difficult. On 'the 2Hth of March,
we went over the steep pans known as the Gyring
La, at 17,000 feet; on the next day, sifter crowing a
field of ice at the foot of the Damtao la, we encamped
at mid-height in three feet of snow. On the joth,
crossing the pass, our caravan descended the northern
slope, which was very steep awl thickly covered with
120 tibet
snow, in which the yaks sank up to their necks. On
the following day, we reached the watershed in the pass
of Nyaka Marbo, at 1 6,250 feet After that, the mountains
no longer have the rugged and storm-tossed aspect
which they present on the Sog Chu side. They descend
with a gentle slope towards the Dam Chu } forming a sort
of hardly undulated plateau, which is hemmed in, in the
distance, by flattened hills. The Tao Chu, which is the
southernmost branch of the sources of the Yangtzekiang,
here spread its frozen waters to a width sometimes
exceeding 2,300 feet. Also, the valley of the Dam Chu,
of which it is the affluent, although farther from the
watershed than the valley of the Sog Chu, is much higher
than the latter (15,600 feet, as against 14,750), Look-
ing backwards, there is a fine view over a long row of
peaks of the Damtao La Chain, neaks which, on the
north side, appear to be wrapped from head to toot in a
mantle of snow, whereas on the south Hide, they have
only a white cap pulled aver their heads, The country
ahead is flat and dismal. On the ist of April, while
a snow-laden fog, which the squalls were unable to
dispel, hung drearily over the monotonous landscape,
we reached the first tents of the Dungpa Tibetans,
This tribe is dependent upon the Nanchcn Gyapo
(Rgyalpo), a very venerable and laay king who pitches
his camp in the basin of the Mekong, between Jyerkundo
and Chamdo, We were now within the territorial
jurisdiction of the Imperial Legate of Siniag,
We halted for two days because of the bad weather*
On the evening of the first day, we saw two or three
men arrive, armed with matchlocks or lances, They
remained in the tents of the natives without speaking to
us* At our departure, they were still there and began
to follow us at a short distance. We pulled up to aik
them what they wanted. They replied that they had
come in search of some lost, or probably stolen yaks ;
121
unfortunately, they had failed to find them and were going
home. In reality, they wanted to know who we were
and what our plans were* We told them that \ve were
travelling with the authorisation of the Kmperor and
under the protection of the amhan of Sinint*. They at
once showed themselves eager to serve u*. Camping near
their tents, at Kamrug, we entered into a parley with
them for the purchase of yaks ; for alreuJy some of ours
were good for little and it was clear to u i - that not many
of them would last as far as Sining. But we had nothing
but gold and the Tibetans wanted silver, for gold does not
pass current as cash ; it is a commodity which is market-
able only in the important villages. In every other
respect, these good people of Kumrtij* wen/ very obliging
and their leader himself offered to guide us as far as the
territory of the Gejis, a numerous ;im! powerful tribe,
he said. The Dungpn are greatly inferior to them*
They possess no monasteries and this is probably the
reason why we were not ill-received by them, although
they are orthodox Buddhists. They also ktvp up pretty
good relations with their Ponbo neighbours, the
Sogdema and the Kongkiemn, notwithstanding their
reciprocal thefts of horses and yaks. The Grjis t who
are a very thieving tribe, are further off and therefore
less to be feared* Consequently, the Dungpa, in their
wide valleys well supplied with grass, could feed their
herds in peace and prosperity, were it not that, five
leagues further west, their flat and unprotected country
is intersected by the famous roud of the Golokft.
These horsemen with the shaved heads are formidable
brigands and sometimes come in numerous bands to
make raids in the district, when ail those who have
not been warned or have not taken their measures in
time see their tents overturned and pillaged, their
children, their young wives, their henta carried off
without pity and think themselves lucky when they
122 tltbCt
arc not themselves killed for attempting an impossible
resistance.
On the 6th of April, we crossed the Dam Chu, or
Muddy River. We were unable to ascertain if its
name is well-deserved, for the water was frozen; but,
the wide, flat valley offering only a very slight slope,
the river divides into seven arms, the most important
of which measures 260 feet, When the snows melt,
a sort of great muddy lake forms there to a width of
some miles. On the banks of this river, three days*
march up stream, at Damsarchaho > lives the great chief
of the Dungpas, He occupies a tent, for there arc
no houses in the district.
On the 8th of April, at nine o'clock in the morning,
we hud the satisfaction, in crossing the Xanag Lungrnug
Lu, to achieve one of the objects which we htul set
ourselves to accomplish. I'Yom this pass, which is
16,760 feet high, runs the I,UIU;MUI{ Chu, the mort
westernly of tne source 1 * of the Mekong, The joys
of discover)', which arc enough to make any good
explorer forget the sufferings of a journey, were increased
two-fold for us by the tact that this humble stream of
water, now motionless under ice, but soon to flow
over mountains and plains to Krcnch territory, estab-
lished an imaginary and yet a real communication
between ourselves and the motherland of which we
had heard nothing for HO many months, Bv holding
one end of this Htream, of which France fwUU the
other, we felt nearer home ami we ceased to notice
the rugged desolation of the surrounding scene, the
gloom of those silent, gaping clefts, the melancholy of
those hare, red mountains, covered here and there with
a thin, dull layer of snow.
The Lungrnug Chu takes the name of the Zmitg Chu
after itn junction with the Norpa Chu, It* valley,
generally straitened between steep mountains ami
123
inhabited by a few scattered Geji Tibetans, led us to
*the confluence of the Zagar Chu, starting from which
the river takes the name of Za Chu, which it retains
throughout Tibetan territory. Now that the sources of
the Mekong were clearly settled, Dutreuil de Rhins no
longer proposed to go lower down the river. It would
have suited him to go north through the Zagar Chu
Valley, to seek a passage over the mountains which
stand at the source of this river and beyond them to
meet the road to Sining. But the yaks had gone more
slowly than we had expected and hud not resinted fatigue
so well UK we had been led to hope. Since leaving
Nagchu, we had covered on an average not much more
than six miles a day, allowing for the halts necessary
both for resting the animals and for astronomical
observations. At this rate, we should need nearly
a hundred days to reach Sining by a road which was
desert almost to the end ; ami we had provisions for
barely fifty days. On the other hand, in spite of all our
care to take spare yaks at the rate of one to every three,
the number of invalids proved to us that, long before
reaching our destination, we should not have a sound
beast left. We must therefore procure victuals and
animals somewhere, without, however, going to Jyer-
kundo, which would have taken UH mueh too far out of
our way. Our Dungpa guides hud left us noon after
crossing the Lungmug l& and none of the inhabitant* of
the country had consented to take their place. Chance
made us full in once more with five young wandering
lamas whom we had already seen a few days earlier
walking bravely through wind and snow stick in hand and
sack on back, Natives of the Amdo country and of
Kansu, they had been to Lhasa to present themselves to
the Dalai Lama and were now returning home through
Jyerkundo and the country of the Horkangtxe. Carrying
ail their goods on their shoulders, clad in thin woollen
124
gowns, they walked on, braving the rigours of the
atmosphere, the asperities and the length of the road,
sleeping in the open air in one another's arms for warmth,
living on what was given them for charity or in return
for a few prayers to ward off the devils ami bud luck.
They had no reason to congratulate themselves on the
generosity of the Gejis, who were unbelievers, they suid,
careless of religion and harsh to poor people, During
the last three days, they had been given nothing except a
dead gout, of which they had already eaten half among
the five of them ; fortunately, thanks to the coldness of
the temperature, the other half still smelt quite fresh and
\vould allow them to walk another two days ami a half
to Tachi C/ompa, where the other Iiunas, their brothers,
would doubtless replenish their sink. They told us that
Tachi Gompa, or the Monastery of I'Vlicity, stood on
the banks of the X;i C'hu, that it numbered nearly ihree
hundred monks and that, in two or three days, u great
fair was to be held there. Dutreuil de Khins resolved
to go to it, hoping to be able to buy what he stood
in need of.
Immediately after the confluence of the two torrent %
the Zanag and the Xagar, the river becomes suddenly
confined and forms a rapid ; its waters, free for the
first time and only for a moment, in the deepest part
of their bed, rush bubbling between two banket of
ice. The path, which follows the foot of A very steep
mountain on the right bank, is interrupted by ti
great rock which overhangs the river. We were
obliged to pass over the ice -kink, which, at that time,
attacked by the beginning of the thaw, was very
narrow. Our men had to unload the animals ana,
with the greatest caution, to curry the package* by
hand to the other side of the rock. We tried to
make the yaks pans one by otic. Bur they were un-
manageable : they flung themselves against one another,
Briber 135
pushed and crowded and, so soon as one of them had
'extricated itself, it rushed through the narrow passage,
slipping on the ice and knocking itself against the rock,
I once again wondered at these animals, which, notwith-
standing their heavy and clumsy appearance, are, in
reality, nimble and sure-tooted, tor, in spite of all this
disorder, none of them fell into the water. In this way,
we took an hour to cover a distance of u hundred yards.
At that day's camp, we lost two sheep, poisoned by the
bad grass which they hud eaten. We were told that
this was not an uncommon accident. Still, it is curious
that nothing of the kind happened on the journey to
either our yaks or our horses.
Two days later, on the *5th of April, we witnessed
some natural phenomena that to our eyes seemed almost
miraculous. The river had thawed and its waters which
were carrying blocks of ice, fillet! the valley with a dull,
but loud roar, which was increased by the echoes from
the rocks. On the slopes of the hills grew a few tufted
dwarf-willows, poor shrubs scarcely two feet hi^h ; but
their feeble branches, together with the music of the
waters, aroused in us both distant memories ami the
speedy hope of reaching gentler climes. Nevertheless
nature seemed bent upon contriving contrast** j and
snow-flakes and hail-stones obliged us once more to turn
up our collars, to pull our cups over our earn, to tighten
our belts. The one camel left to us, exhausted with
cold and fatigue, sorrowing over the death of its last
companion and despairing of thin ever implacable country,
through which it had now been travelling for *o Jong
without finding the long grass which it loved, knelt
down on the ground and refused to rise again. It was
at that time the oldest in our service of any of our
beasts ; it had a year and five clays* campaign behind it,
had covered nearly two thousand miles and, for seven
months and six days, had had hardly any grass to eat,
126
We pretty frequently met pilgrims going to or from
Lhasa, Mongols or Tibetans from the Koko Nor, poor
people who to the direct, hut deserted route preferred
this long, but inhabited road which passes hy Jyerkundo,
the country of the Horkangtze and that of the Goloks.
The Tibetans, generally, carried in their eyes and on
their brows something that reflected a thinking and
anxious mind ; whereas on the rude, fiat and almost
shapeless faces of the Mongols, for the most part
Khalkas, was depicted a simplicity that came near to
being the stupidity of the brute. Of the immense
journey which they had made on foot from Urga to
Lhasa, a journey of 700 leagues us the crow flics, they
retained only the names of Sining and the Koko Nor,
They spoke to us of the Russians, whose traders often
come to their country; themselves had been to the
Russian frontier-stations* In the course of this contact
with Slav civilisation, they had learnt to esteem the
recent masters of the north for their fine hoots ami their
good hramiy* This is all that struck their imagination
in Kuropeun culture, all that they knew of it, nor did
they feel the smallest desire to know more. The
smallness of their intellectual needs, while depriving
them of any idea of raising themselves above their
present condition, enabled them to be perfectly con-
tented with it. They had worn out the M>!CN of their
feet on the dry wastes of Gobi and on the rocks of
Tibet ; they suffered hunger and cold ; they foil
oftencst on dead meat and fresh water ; at home they
were beaten with the great whips of their chiefs, abroad
despised by the Chinese and the lama* and insulted
by the Tibetan herdsmen of whom they begged their
daily pittance ; but, like roaming wolves, they
liberty in the steppes ami mountains, the
and serenity of healthy animal* ; ami their life
sweet to them*
ttibet 127
The narrowness of the valley of the Za Chu compels
;he traveller frequently to cross from one hank to the
other ; and already the river was difficult to cross* At
nine o'clock in the morning, that is to say almost at neap
tide, it measured 95 feet in width, 3 feet in average
depth and flowed at the rate of 4 feet to the second.
We had to take the packages that would not resist the
water from the yaks, which stood too low on their legs,
and strap them one by one to the saddles of the horses,
which made u* lose an hour at each of the last two
crossings.
On the 1 6th of April, we were approaching Tachi
Gompa, when two annul men rode up to us and told
us that the noble lamas wished to see us take another
road. Dutreuil de Rhins replied by producing his
Chinese passport, whereupon the two abashed horsemen
went to the right about* Soon we pitched our camp, at
an altitude of 14,450 feet, OH the hank of the /A Chu,
on a platform over a mile long by not much more
than 300 yards wide* Although we were close to the
monastery, we could not sec it, as it was hidden by a
jut of the mountain. The two horsemen returned, this
time on foot, to tell UH that, as we carried an authorisa-
tion from Peking, we were free to go where we pleased,
but that my lords the lamas intended to hold no
communication with my lords the foreigners,
In order to try to bring the lamas to a better frame
of mind, to explain the necessities of our situation to
them and to assure them of our friendly intentions*
we sent our interpreter to them with a few present*
for the decoration of their chapel On reaching the
gate of the convent, the interpreter found no one to
apeak to ; he had to perform his meaaage after the
manner of a herald of old, by proclaiming the object
of his mission in a loud and audible voice. The lamas
occupied in singing their office #ang more lustily, $o as
128
not to hear ; and the interpreter returned with labour
lost.
Dutrsuil de Rh'ms and I went to sec the abode of
these difficult monks. Its appearance was as picturesque
as could be wished* Between two approaching pro-
jections which compress the bed of the river, the
mountain stands a little way hack, without, however,
leaving any flat surface: very steep at the summit, it
descends to the water's edge with an irregular slope,
broken at intervals. On the other bank rises a high
wall of rocks. In this nest, the convent of Tachi, whose
white houses, scattered over the mountain-side according
to the disposition of the ground, stand out brightly
against the brick-red of the rocks, lies hidden from the
eyes of the world, The every-duy road respects its
solitude; only two very rude paths bring it into com-
munication with the herd or vulgar men, who, all
unworthy of attention or esteem, supply the monastery
with butter, flour, meat, money and with its very monks.
Every year, it is the object of a pilgrimage for tne people
of the surrounding districts, who gather from several
dozens of leagues in every direction to offer the lamas
their respects and their alms, to attend to their spiritual
and temporal affairs, to their pleasures and their
salvation. For it is not only a pilgrimage, but a fiur
as well.
We had arrived just at the time of this gathering.
All round the convent, the sides of the mountain were
strewn with white or blue tents for the rich and elegant
and with common black yak-skin tents for the poor*
The Highlanders had brought the skins of yaks, sheep,
wild horses, bears, wolves, foxes and lynxes,
rhubarb, wool and antelope-horns ; the people
towns and the valleys offered woollen stufiv from ]
and Jyerkundo, musk, tsamba, salt a few arm*
copper vases from Derjaryeh. A Hindu, who partook
129
quite as much of the vagabond as of the merchant, was
selling saffron and a few valueless trinkets, such as coral
beads and artificial pearls. In the court-yard of the
monastery, beside the chapel, two or three Chinese
merchants had installed themselves. Two pigs sprawled
outside their door, grunting and squealing when the
customers knocked up against them in passing. Inside
were piles of cottons and of bricks of tea, bags of
flour, a few rolls of silk, boots, porcelain cups, tobacco
and a confused heap of rusty iron-ware, gun-barrels,
hatchets, stew-pots. The faces of the Chinamen, for
all their gravity and composure, betrayed a certain
constraint, a mixture of contempt for this trowel of
an inferior race which surrounded them and of
anxiety at feeling themselves alone and defenceless
in the midst of these barbarians, a sudden whim
on whose part would be enough to change their
momentary kindliness into violent enmity* However,
the crowd which thronged in fairly large numbers
into the narrow valley seemed guy and good-humoured*
All wore their holiday clothes : dresses of blue or
red woollen stuff, sometimes, for the women, striped
with different colours or trimmed with hems in gaudy
tints. The young men, who hud washed their facet*
and combed their hair for the occasion, looked proud
and pretentious, with a silver ring in their left
ear and a sword adorned with big coral beads passed
through their belt, and joked and flirted with the young
women, whose hair, plaited into numberless little tresses,
was laden with silver coins, pearls and turquoises while
their fresh red faces, rid of tne ordinary coating of black,
bore no mark of moral shyness. Here, in tht* mitbt
of a group, stood two men haggling over a piece of
business, obstinately bargaining and discussing ; they
took each other's right hands, hidden in their long
sleeves, to indicate by a pressure of the fingera the
9
130
price which they offered ; they exchanged remarks with
the bystanders, who endeavoured to make them come to
an agreement. There, gamblers were seated, wrapped
up in their game, now calm and silent, now stamping
and shouting. Further on, some idlers stood round
two poor little beggars, who, with their faces covered with
hideous and grotesque masks, sang and danced freiuiedly
like people possessed. And, everywhere, pots of chang
were drunk and numberless cups of tea.
From time to time, the great round head of a lama
passed by, with a severe and inquisitorial eye. We
ourselves moved about freely among the crowd, which
made way before us out of distrust rather than respect*
Nevertheless, their looks showed no ill-will, but rather
curiosity ami, in many cases, a frank astonishment,
which never seemed to wcur away. And yet the
Tibetans whom we had met until then on tin* roads
or seen in their tents had very soon become accustomed
to the strangeness of our appearance, 1 have often ob-
served that isolated individuals are much less surprised
at the sight of a stranger and less struck by his singu-
larity than arc the same individuals when united in a,
crowd. In fact, when, among two or three men, there is
one who is different from the others, they will more easily
admit the lawfulness of this difference ami will feel less
entitled to dispute his right not to be like the others ; but,
when the same man shows himself in the midst of several
hundreds of people all alike among themselves and
differing from him alone, his oddity will obviously appear
opposed to common sense, absurd and inadmissible,
Unfortunately, we had other things to do than (juivtly
to look on at what was happening ; we had to procure
provisions ; and, although everything that we wanted
was there, it was impossible for u to obtain u single
thing. The people avoided speaking to u and, when
they had no choice, told us that the lamas had forbidden
Wbct 131
the sale of anything to the foreigners. We tried to come
to terms, to treat with thenrij but in vain. The Chinese
merchants themselves, who were more particularly
obliged by our passport to assist us, coldly and politely
avoided our entreaties. To infringe the orders of the
lamas would have injured their trade ; however, wishing
to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, they sent
to our camp, with compliments and fine words, a small
bag of rice, a piece of butter and a brick of tea. The
butter was rancid and the tea musty, but the intention
was the thing and we were grateful to them for it,
As it was now impossible to curry out Dutreuil dc
Rhins* original plan, we decided to make for JyerkundOj
a commercial centre of some importance and the resi-
dence of two interpreters of the Imperial Legate of
Sining, who act as consular agents. We were assured
that we should there be able to procure all that we
needed. Now Jyerkundo is only fifteen days* march
from Tachi Gompa and we had supplies left for a
month. We were therefore able, instead of confining
ourselves to following the road, to make important
reconnoitring excursions to right and left in the basin
of the Upper Mekong, so that the ill-will of the lamus,
far from diminishing the scientific interest of our explora-
tion, increased it and seemed to offer no inconvenience
save that of prolonging our journey. We little thought
that this was to leacf us to the disaster of Tumbuwdo,
Dutreuil dc Rhins at first thought of going dnwn
the Za Chu* But the river, which is deep and contained
between perpendicular rocks, leaves no practicable passage
on its banks ; and it is also impossible to follow it along
the ridge of the mountains, which are too irregular ami
intersected by too precipitous a neries of ravines. There
is no way of (going down the Za Chu, below Tachi
Gompa, except in the winter, on the ice. Dutreuil dc
Rhins therefore resolved to take the road to Jyerkundo
132
which leaves the valley of the river to cross its great
affluent, the Purdong Chu, and runs to the source of the
Zch Chu, one of the principal tributaries of the Za Chu.
By ascending the first of these two rivers to its origin,
we would have completely solved the problem of the
sources of the Mekong and fixed the northern boundary
of its basin.
On the 2jrd and 24th of April, we marched through
a country of deep ravines and grassy hills, of which
the ground had recently thawed and made a puddle of
water at each step that we took. A chief lama of the
Zachukkapii, coming from Lhasa, joined us and travelled
a few leagues with us. He was more amiable than his
fellow-countrymen whom we had seen at the foot of the
Sok (icma La. He hiul that yrcat ease of manner ami
that rather haughty courtesy which characterises the
grandee in Tibet us elsewhere. I le blamed the conduct
of his colleagues at Tachi and begged us to fj>ive him the
pleasure of our company us fur as Xuchukka, Our duty
UK explorers obliged us to decline this polite offer, by
accepting which we would no doubt have averted a great
misfortune, but swerved from our scientific task.
After climbing the Purdong Chalwa Lit, ;t a height
of 16,700 feet, we descended abruptly to the bank or
the river, at 2,000 feet lower, by it steep slope, covered
with stones, mud ami melt ing snow* The PimUwg
Chu is an encased torrent, not wide, but deep, with
troubled and tumultuous wuterw. It can be forded only
in the morning, when it measures 53 feet across, ij feet
decn and flows at the rate of j fVrt u second ; at
fi o clock in the evening, the averse depth is increased
by iH inches, the width by h or 7 feet and the speed
by over 3 feet, so that it semis down i,Kr)o cubic feet
per second instead of 6;jo. Leaving the bulk of the
caravan ami tightly e<juippcvl, we explored the upper
twin of the river tor five Jays, from the a6th to the
Zttbet 133
30th of April. The valleys are tightly compressed
between high, steep and sometimes perpendicular mount-
ains, whose bare, rocky summits seem to have been
carved by some fanciful sculptor, so strange and com-
plicated are their shapes. They arc peopled with large
bears, which the spring was beginning to bring out of
their caves. We penetrated to the sources themselves,
in the solitude of the eternal snows, at the foot of an
insurmountable barrier.
Resuming our journey on the 2nd of May, we
entered, the next morning, a gloomy and desolate gorge,
through which we splashed pitifully until we reached the
summit of the Zeh La, one of the highest pusses of Eastern
Tibet (17,120 feet). This is the source of the Zeh Chu.
We descended into the valley by an almost perpendicular
slope of 1 60 feet, upon which was heaped an enormous
mass of snow. The astonished yaks hesitated for a
moment ; then, taking a sudden resolution, they flung
themselves down like an avalanche, disappearing in the
thickness of the snow, grunting and breathing loudly.
We pitched the tent a little lower, on a spongy soil,
which, after a few minutes' trampling, was changed into
a swamp. We woke the next morning trembling \vith
cold and with stiff legs. We hastened to descend the
valley, which soon became less wild iiml less cold and
which remained strikingly picturesque, with the red
hue of the ground enlivened by the green of the gra*;s
on the less steep slopes and with its great masses of
bare, vertical rocks, looking like mighty strongholds of
1, 600 feet high and more. The necessity for taking
observations and then the bad weather, the fog and
the snow, kept us for some days in our camp of the
5th of May, We consoled ourselves for our inactivity
by hunting wild geese, which abound in these parts*
On the loth of May, we halted at the spot where the
road leaves the valley of the Zeh Chu to make for the
134:
basin of the Yangtzekiang and for Jyerkundo, Since
leaving the Zeh La, we were on the territory of the
Raki Tibetans, who had shown themselves as unamiablc
as the Gejis and who had likewise refused to supply
us with a guide. We had with us only one of those
Sung clerici vagaries of whom 1 have already spoken.
e was accompanying us for the sake of having the
entrails of a sheep which the Moslems refused to touch,
but he knew the country very little and his usefulness
was on a level with his wages. Some Tibetans whose
tents stood near ours came to see us. Dutreuil de
Rhins made himself very pleasant, indulged all their
childish curiosity, gave them a few trinkets which
seemed to please them, flattered them with good words
and chaffed them with merry jests to encourage them to
show confidence, It was in vain. To all our requests
for information they replied in a manner which was both
circumspect and evasive ; they shuffled, contradicted
themselves, ate their words ami, if we pressed them too
hard, took refuge in an apparent stupidity, suddenly
pretending to be unable to understand us ami ignorant
of the most elementary things.
"The chief of the Rakis is a great chief/* we said,
cc Oh, a great chief! He has many yaks and sheep,
oh, ever so many ! "
And their features combined with their accents to
express ecstatic admiration.
u And docs he live far from here ? M
"Over there!"
And a vague movement of the head smneJ to point
to the east,
" How many days' march ii it with yaks ?**
" Oh, it's fur, very far* It would take five or nix days,
" If we could see him, we should give him some
handsome presents and you would have your share of
them, if you would take UK there/'
135
" We do not know the way ; and then we have
something to do here and we are obliged to go on to
Jyerkundo."
" What is the name of the place where your chief
lives?"
They hesitated, exchanged glances and ended by
saying :
"Pam Jong."
"But you have just told us that your chief is five
days' march from here and, from what you and others
before you have told us, it is twelve days from here to
Pam Jong/*
"Just so. Twelve days going slowly and five days
going fast, with a good horse,"
"A moment ago, you showed us the east a<* the
direction in which your chief lives, whereas Pam Jong is
on the south* Besides, Pam Jong is the residence not
of your special chief, but of the Nanchen Gyapo, who
is the King of the Dungpa and the Gejis as well UN
of the Rakis."
"The foreign lord knows everything. The Nanchen
Gyapo is the chief of the Rakis,"
It was impossible to get anything out of them or to
convince them of their inconsistencies. They opened
wide, stupid eyes at every word of our interpreter and
declared that he spoke the Lhasa dialect, which they did
not understand, Dutreuil de Rhins broke oft the
conversation and sent for tea. He asked them if they
liked sugar and, on their replying in the affirmative,
gave them some lumps. But they had never seen white
sugar and its colour frightened them. He atc k a lump
himself to reassure them ; they persisted in refusing it j
they had too much distrust or everything that came
from Europe, too great a prejudice against the powerful
witchcraft and subtle poisons of the foreigners, enemies
of Buddha and tools of the evil one. This distrust
136
and prejudice are, in a certain measure, natural among
half-savage herdsmen, isolated in their remote retreats ;
but they are also carefully fostered and increased by the
lamas, who are jealous of holding undivided sway over
the minds of the people who feed them, The lamas, in
fact, teach that we are the soldiers of the Spirit of Evil,
who are to invade the whole earth, glorifying falsehood
and sin, until the day when Buddha himself, alive in the
person of the Dalai Lama, shall arise, gird on his sword
and put his foot in the stirrup for the destruction of his
enemies and the triumph of his religion. Although a
certain number of the less narrow-minded lamas do not
indulge in this trash, the anxious and intolerant ignorance
of the remainder has only to spread the legends in order
to bring about the most grievous consequences, Hud
they been left to themselves, these* wild highhuuicrs would
have been more tractable, for they are not bad at bottom ;
but, when the fear of the despotic and mischief-making
authorities in added to their own natural distrust, they
become impossible to handle. Dutrcuil de Rhins told
me that he had found it easier to get on with the savages
of Africa* who are given to sudden and capricious fits of
violence, but who arc less obstinate in their suspicions
and less resolute in their ill-will.
We dispensed with the aid of our neighbours to go
and explore the course of the Zeh Chu below where we
were, After five hours' march, we were stopped by
enormous perpendicular rocks, through which the river
forces a narrow passage and flows swift and deep and
encumbered with great blocks of stone. There was
absolutely no means of scaline the mountain, Dutreuil
de Rhins, in order to see if it was possible to follow
the bed of the river itself, bravely urged his mount late
the roaring water. The horse, which suddenly plunged
in up to the neck and struck its nostrils against a rock,
was nearly carried away with its rider. Fortunately, w*
Hibct 137
escaped with the fright and we rode a long way into the
mountains in order to try to circumvent the obstacle*
We camped at the top of a pass, at exactly the height of
Mont Blanc, on the way to Chamdo, and the wind over-
threw our encampment. The next tiny, we succeeded
in reaching the Zeh Chu again through the deep ^orge of
a torrent. There, an extraordinary spectacle awuiled us,
Above and below us ran the river, squeezed between
two walls of rocks several hundred feet high and
apparently quite vertical. It looked as though the
mountain had been suwn open, \Ve were obliged to
throw our heads right back to see a thin strip of sky, on
which the rocky ridges outlined their grey hce-work.
This is continued for I know not how many miles with
windings in every direction. There is not the smallest
ledge on the walls to afford a foothold. We were
obliged to turn back. On the brink of the torrent
and close to the confluence, we saw, for the first time
since leaving Chcrchcn, some real small trees, willows
six or seven feet high* This was the lowest point that
we had observed for a long timer 13,^70 teet
On the 1 4th of May, we returned to join the
bulk of our caravan, It was cold and snow was falling
thickly. Dutreuil de Rhins, wanting a cup of tea* went
to a tent on the roadside to ask for fire* Just as the
Russian, Razoumoff, was about to raise the door-curtain^
a Tibetan rushed at us, flinging stones at us and
shouting to us not to go in. As other men were
approaching, threatening us and uttering cries which we
did not understand, iXitreuil de Rhin% to intimidate
them, ordered Ra'/oumoflf to fire a blank cartridge into
the air. The Tibetans kept buck and RarotimofF
entered the tent and came out at once with some live
embers which he had taken from the hearth. He told us
that there was no one in the tent except u little bleating
lamb and a sick man lying on the ground, groaning
138 Uibet
and giving out a fetid smell. We now knew why the
Tibetans had tried to keep us away ; for it is one of
their customs never to enter a tent which contains a sick
man whose condition is beyond hope. Any violation of
this rule never fails to bring groat misfortunes and they
are always careful to shut up with the dying man a
young lamb, to which they ascribe the power of warding
off bud luck. However, we withdrew to a couple of
hundred paces and quietly made our tea and dried our
feet at the fire, while the Tibetans watched us from a
distance.
After rejoining our caravan, we resumed our journey
to Jyerkundo. Going through very large anil almost
level valleys and over low hills, we passed by the Poroka
La to the basin of the Yangt/,ekiang, or Blue River,
which the Tibetans cull the I)o GUI and the Chinese
the Tungt'mgho. The comparatively numerous inhabi-
tants of these valleys are rich in herds. They employ
these in order to carry on a lucrative trade with pulsing
caravans by exchanging fresh yaks for tired and worn-
out yaks at the rate of one to two or three, according to
their condition* When the tired beasts have browsed
placidly for a few weeks and recovered a fairly good
appearance, they arc passed on again at the same price
to other caravans. At our request, they brought us
five beasts, three of which appeared to have been
recently acquired and were in a very hud state.
Their owners, nevertheless, praised them to the nicies,
asking their pick of three of ours for each of them,
and explained to us that they were making a very
bad bargain, for our animals were sure to die within
twenty-four hours, Upon our refusal, they went off
and then came back, lit a fire, produced a stew-
pan, tea and tsamba ami, while lunching to protect
themselves against the pricks of the stomach, reopened
the negotiations. Hours elapsed, during which they
Uibet 139
displayed all the resources of their artful and crafty
minds in order to induce us to buy chalk for cheese.
They gave way regretfully and then ate their words,
pretending to misunderstand our proposals and to
confuse the yaks one with the other. At last, having
exhausted their provision of tea, of tsamba, of craft and
of patience, they were contented to take a small profit
instead of a large one. We left our worst four beasts
with them in exchange for their best two. The knaves,
pretending to be hustled in the hurry of departure, tried
to take away the good yaks and to leave us the bad
ones; but they reckoned without their host and gained
nothing by their trick but shame,
On the 2 ist of May, we made the ascent of the
Serkiem La, behind which lies Jyerkundo. It is a
mountain consisting of terraces rising one above the
other. When the panting, perspiring traveller has
climbed a very steep slope and rejoices at having
finished his labours for the day, he perceives that he
has another similar slope above his head* He moderates
his joy, takes fresh courage anil resumes the ascent,
We camped on the fifth floor. We had just settled
down, when we saw two Chinamen puss on foot carrying
a few pieces of clothing on their backs. They were
two merchants who had had their animals stolen by the
Tibetans during the night and who were returning to
Jyerkundo in this sorry state to lodge a complaint with
the agent of the Imperial Legate. They cherished no
illusions as to the pktonic character of this step ; but
they had to go back, in any case, to procure fresh
beasts,
The next day, after climbing the sixth and lant
storey, we were descending by a winding path like a
balcony contrived in the perpendicular side of the
mountain and hung over a deep precipice, when
suddenly, at a bend in the way, we suw before us,
140 Uibet
planted on the top of a rock, the square buildings of a
monastery, with its red, blue and yellow-striped temple,
and, lower down, clinging to the slope of the mountain,
the white houses of a little Tibetan village. This was
Jyerkundo. The bottom of the valley is at an altitude
of only 12,460 feet : in a few hours we had gone
down 3,600 feet.
Meanwhile, we had sent our interpreter on ahead to
present our passport to the Chinese agent and to beg
him to have a house placed at our disposal during the
time which we would need to recruit our caravan. It
was raining, a phenomenon which we had not observed
for a whole year, and the worn felt of our tent was no
longer water-tight, The road had led us to the bunk of
a modest river which flows to the foot of the village and
beyond. Over it was built- Jin unwonted luxury- a
shelving bridge, fitted with hand-rials, a sort of porch
and u staircase that led up to it. It looked very
picturesque ; but the horses energetically refuse*! to pass
over this unknown machine and dashed into the water^
which, for that matter, led to no inconvenience. Our
interpreter was waiting for us on the other side, having
accomplished his mission, The results were not brilliant.
On his arrival, the inhabitants hud thrown stones at him
and replied to his questions by an obstinate silence or
derisive laughter ; and it was not without much beating
about the bush that he at last succeeded in finding the
abode of the twigf/wt Pit Lao Yeh. The latter received
him politely and agreed to procure us a house ; hut
the superior of the monastery interfered, forbade the
population, upon pain of a tine and bastinado, to let
us a house, to sell us anything whatsoever or even to
speak to us and exacted that we should vacate the plttctf
within twenty-four hours. After fixing our camp at two
hundred paces from the village, we set out forthwith to
ask the tungchen for explanations. We found him
ICibct 141
waiting for us in his doorway, which was reached by
three uneven and unhewn stone steps. Beyond stretcheu
a narrow passage in which played a little monkey from
the forests of Nyarong ; on the right stood the wall of
the next house and on the left a small barn, serving as a
stable, with barely room for two horses. At the end of
the passage, a staircase made of rough, knotty wood led
to a sort of antechamber on the first floor, with doors
opening upon one or two rooms and a larger one
leading to the private chapel. We climbed up a stair-
way on the right consisting of a few steps ending 1 in a
very narrow and very dark apartment ; turned to the
right, feeling our way along the walk as we went ; and,
going down two steps, with our backs bent so as not
to knock our heads against the door-frame, entered a
damp room, badly lit by a small window with paper
panes looking on the passage* A heavy smell of must,
of fusty air and of rancid butter came from it The
floor was of beaten earth and unearpeted. The furniture
consisted of two or three chests ami stools* At the buck,
according to the Chinese custom, stood a wide stone
Clatform, covered with felt, with, in the middle, a
)w tea-table. This was the reception-room of the
representative of His High Excellency the Imperial
Legate.
Our host was very simply but tolerably cleanly dad
in the Chinese fashion ; only, his mtikoutsv was of Tibetan
red wool. In his hand, he held a string of Buddhist
beads, which was intended, as was a little sacred st attic
conspicuously placed on a bracket, to give the people a
lofty idea of his piety and to ingratiate himself with
them* Later, it became clear to us that religion did not
fill a great place in his heart and served him only us a
political mask, His tull stature and large nose dis-
tinguished him from the everyduy Chinese type* Mis
gait was slow, as were his speech, his mensural gestures
142
and movements, his vague and somewhat dull glance ;
his thin lips hardly opened when he spoke. His person
and his physiognomy gave the impression of a reflective,
prudent, weak man, crafty by necessity rather than by
character, who felt ill at ease in a part that laid upon
him greater responsibilities than he had the personal
authority to face, of a man who must suffer because his
honorary and pecuniary position was not commensurate
with the difficulty and delicacy of the task that devolved
upon him. He told us how happy he was to receive
guests so highly and strongly recommended by the
imperial government. The mere sight of us would
have sufficed to inspire him with the keenest sympathy
for us and this feeling was still further increased by the
fact that he knew the bonds of close friendship that
united cur two #reat countries, I'Yanee and China
(us a mutter of fact, he knew nothing about them ami
suiil this at all hu/ards in order to curry favour with
us). Moreover, he had already learnt to value the
Europeans in the person of Mr, Koekhill, of whom
he plumed himself upon being the intimate friend,
for he had hud the pleasure of travelling for several
days in his company. He placed himself entirely at
our disposal and assured us that we could rely upon
his complete devotion. If it depended only on himself,
all our desires would be immediately satisfied; but, to
his great regret, he was but one man in the midst of
ignorant and obstinate barbarians, who distrust the
Europeans because they do not know them. The lama,
their chief, was a greatly venerated and all-powerful
personage, over whom he hud no authority, It did
not, alas, behove a modest tungehen to revoke orders
which a chief lama had given 1
Dutreuil de Rhins replied curtly that he was {going
to stay a fortnight, that he meant to have provision*
and animate and that, if the chief lama had anything
Ift&et 143
to say, he would go and pull his ears for him. Fright
suddenly enlivened the Chinaman's ordinarily impassive
face :
" No scenes, I entreat you, no scenes ! You could
not wish to place me, your friend, in a position of such
cruel embarrassment. Reflect that I could not answer
for what might happen. Really, I am not the master
here; I cannot give a single order. The chief kma does
as he pleases. He does not even receive me and does
not condescend to come to see me.* How then could
I interfere with him ? When Mr, Rockhill came, they
tried to harm him and he was obliged to go away secretly
under cover of the night Still, if you will be reasonable,
there will be a way of coming to an understanding.
There are some Chinese merchants here who are subject
to my authority. They shall sell you flour, rice, tea, the
material for a tent. A certain number of the natives
owe me taxes and forced labour : I will call upon them
to supply me with beasts and barley, which I will pass on
to you. As you are here by command of the Emperor,
on imperial territory, no one can object to your stay,
provided you do not live in a house. On this last point
we shall obtain no concession, I would with all my
heart give up my own dwelling to you, were that
possible ; but 1 am only a tenant and, if I entertained
you here, I should get the landlord into trouble.' 1
Pu Lao Ych thought himself a sly politician to lower
himself in order to lower our pretensions, to take credit
to himself for good-will, good offices, devotion towards
us, while throwing the responsibility for all the difficulties
on the native leaders. It was the same artifice as on the
Nam Cho and, here and there, the thread with which the
trick was patched up was visible to the nuked eye, We
talked of the general situation of the country, Pu Lao
* Thin wan lie. The chief Uuwu or rather the tthtuittQ of Jyerkiwtta
comes to ee the tungchen whenever there m any huaincHH to
M4 ttfbet
Yeh thought this a good opportunity to retrieve himself
in our eyes. He explained to us that the Tibetans of
this district were very turbulent and divided into a large
number of small cantons of which the chiefs were inde-
pendent of one another and none too obedient to the
Nanchen Gyapo, their nominal prince. Thefts of cattle,
raidSj armed attacks were constantly and repeatedly
taking place, He was incessantly obliged to interfere
in order to allay quarrels, settle differences, prevent
conflicts. Although this was an arduous task, the more
so as he had no soldiers at his disposal, he performed it
fairly successfully, thanks to the authority which he
derived from his capacity as representative of the
Imperial Legate, whose name was everywhere feared
and respected ; thanks also to the personal influence
which he himself hud been able to acquire with the
native chiefs, who were very powerful personages in
the eyes of the Tibetans, although very insignificant in
those of the Chinese, They were grateful to him for
the generally successful efforts which he made to pre-
serve peace anil recognised so thoroughly the useful
part which he played that they had sent a petition to
the Imperial Legate, begging him not to recall Pu I*ao
Yeh and promising to increase his salary, The worthy
man spoke with conviction and with a self-complacent
leisureliness, forgetting that he was contradicting him-
self- His vanity compromised his diplomacy, fn fact,
he now overpraised himself as greatly as he had slandered
himself before. We soon had a first proof of this. One
of our yaks was stolen during the night and the enquiry
opened at our request by the tungchen was without
result
Pu Lao Yeh had a colleague of inferior rank to
himself and of an entirely different character, called Li
Lao Yeh, He was short, he had a small face hideously
pitted with the small-pox, a small, flat nose, small, narrow
TEtbet 145
and very bright eyes. His movements were brisk,
his gait decided, his expression gay, his voice hoarse
and loud. Pu was the diplomatist, Li the soldier. He
was often with a sword in his belt and a horse between
his legs. Whenever there was a bad business anywhere,
at Pam Jong, in Zachukka, on the Nyam Cho, among
the Gejis or elsewhere, he set off to reconcile the
different interests, to calm the excited passions, to instil
sense into the stupid and heart into the wise, negotiating,
promising, threatening, always ready to draw his sword
if need be. Prudent, nevertheless, he knew that soft
words are better than hard blows. He came up to us
with outstretched hands, pressed ours vigorously and
cordially, made us sit down on a plain bench in an
absolutely bare room and gave us buttered tea and
indifferently savoury pipes :
"I have not much to offer you/* he said, "but what
I have I offer with all my heart. Here, you see, we
are not in China ; Tibet is a savage country, where
ceremony is almost impossible. However, since you
started on your travels you must have known worse
times: it is not always pleasant, eh?'* And, noisily
laughing his hoarse laugh, showing his yellow teeth and
slapping his thigh, "I know all about it,'* he continued,
" I, who am always travelling over hill and dale. One
has rough times in these horrible mountains and among
this race of knaves, all obstinate as mules. I admire
you for venturing to come from so far and for resisting
vso many difficulties. Look here ! You are brave men
and, if I go to Sining soon, I should like to go with
you ; I should feel safer/'
To-day, this sentence has a sad and ironical sound.
Meanwhile, thanks to our two tungchens, we actively
pushed on our preparations. We changed our gold at
the rate of one pound of gold to fifteen of silver, a very
bad exchange in itself, but excellent considering the
10
country which we were in ; we chose fresh yaks ; our
men repaired the pack-saddles ; tailors sewed up the new
tent ; our barley was grilled in huge pots and the grilled
grains were ground to make tsamba ; we got together
white flour, rice, butter and tea. As for the sheep, we
could not find as many as we wanted and they cost very
dear, averaging four rupees apiece. Pu Lao Ych advised
us to procure them at Labung Gompa, where one of his
friends was the superior. There was good pasture-land
in the neighbourhood and sheep cost only from two
and a-half to three rupees. We wanted but little more :
a few tools, some brandy in case of sickness. I went to
sec the Chinese merchants who lived right in the middle
of Jycrkundo and availed myself of the opportunity to
sec the place. Between our tent and the main village
stood a few lonely houses, inhabited by poor creatures,
wretchedly ill-clad and following some despised trade,
such as that of the blacksmith. Their children brought
us dried cow and horse-dung for fuel, in return for a
slight payment. Two of them one day proposed that
we should buy their squalid little persons for a few
rupees :
" It would please mamma,*' they said.
A little path leads up from the river awl is used
by women who walk laboriously with their backs bent
under a heavy barrel full of water : the bottom of the
barrel rests on the small of the back and the top is
fastened with ropes or straps which the woman holds
in her hand. At the edge of the river, some men
had fitted up a shooting-range, having us in view,
perhaps* They were fairly good marksmen, so long as
they had a rest for their guns and leisure for taking
aim, and I noticed that their muskets did not carry
straight beyond 130 to 160 yards. The entrance to
the village is adorned with a very modest chorten and
mani, Next comes a lane a little over 200 yards long
147
and forming two very pronounced bends. It is so
narrow that two horses are not always able to pass
through it abreast and is Hned with sullen walls pierced
here and there with little embrasures which seem to
distrust the passer-by. In all, Jyerkundo may perhaps
contain eighty houses, sheltering five hundred inhabitants,
including fifteen Mongols and twenty or thirty Chinese.
The remainder of the canton numbers possibly as many
more inhabitants, housed in some hundred tents and
making a sum total of one thousand laymen. The
monastery, which we were not allowed to approach, is
famed for its wealth and contains ut least three hundred
lamas in permanent residence. The superior is a very
great religious person, for he has several other convents
under his authority, with about three thousand monks.
In the middle of the village, the little street widens
out to form a tiny square, in which a few morose old
men, in the company of some lean, snappish, mangy
dogs, sit warming their aches in the sun and catching
their fleas. The house occupied by the Chinese merchants
stands in this square. I found five or six of them in
a large, smoky room, seated on chests and stools and
pulling at their hubble-bubbles. They were from Chensi
and represented houses at Tasienlu. They exchange
cottons, flour, tea, vinegar, brandy, tobacco, porcelain,
copper and hardware for furs, yak and sheep-skins,
musk, gold-dust, stag-horns, rhubarb and wool. They
were fairly satisfied with their little trade :
(< We sell all this very cheaply and it is worth less
still/' they said, showing me their wares, a collection of
the very worst articles produced by the Middle
Kingdom, "but it is good enough for these penniless
barbarians. They have never seen anything better and
they are quite contented. There are no Yangjens 7 here
to disgust them with it. As we are alone, without
* European*.
us IClbet
competitors, we buy and sell pretty well at our own
prices* Certainly, the Tibetans are greedy and bargain
shamelessly ; but at bottom they know nothing of trade.
We profit by this and, although we are sometimes
beaten, robbed and held to ransom by these rogues,
we always come off to the good,"
Their language was not quite so explicit as the above,
but amounted to it ; and it was fine to see the proud
disdain with which they spoke of those coarse Tibetans,
of that tribe which was there for them to exploit and
fleece to their hearts 7 content.
While completing our preparations, we took care to
collect information respecting the numerous roads which,
starting from Mongolia, from Sining, from Lhabrang
Gompa, from Songpanting, from Tasienlu, from Charndo
and Batang, from Lhasa, all meet at Jyerkundo and
give a real vStrategic and commercial importance to
this place of inconsiderable size. We ascertained that
there were four roads leading to Sining for us to
choose from* One goes through Tun, in Tsaidam
Mongolia ; the second passes between the great lakes
of Kyaring Cho and Ngoring Cho ; a thin! goes north-
cast, in a straight line, to the east of those hikes ; and
the fourth and last crosses the Yellow River three times,
at Archung, the residence of the King of the Goloks/
Rircha Gompa and Kueiti. The first is, at the same
time, the longest and the easiest : it is the only one
followed by the Chinese officials ami the merchants, the
only one that is safe ; but it had already been explored
by several travellers, including, among others, Pr/evulsky
and Mr, RockhilL Although we had covered more than
two hundred leagues since leaving Nagohukka, through
unexplored country, rugged mountains and a still more
rugged population, and although these travels, added
to the long and irksome marches patiently pursued
* Golok mean* hud head ; cf,
mbet 149
during the past three years, might perhaps have
entitled us to avoid new labours, new fatigues and new
dangers, nevertheless Dutreuil cle Rhins, whose ardour
for knowledge made him indifferent to every difficulty
and every danger, resolutely struck the too well-known
Tsaidam road from his programme. He rejected the
fourth road for opposite reasons. It has never been
studied and is only partly marked on the maps, but
Dutreuil dc Rhins was uncertain whether the Ma Chu
was everywhere fordablc at this season, while he was
sure that the Goloks would not allow us to pass
without plundering us, even if they did not massacre us.
There remained the second and third roads. The
former, which coincided for the greater part of the way
with the direct road from Lhasa to Sining, brought us
as near as possible to our original plan and allowed us to
verify the supposition which makes the course of the
Ma Chu pass through Lakes Kynring and Ngoring. The
other had the two-fold advantage of shortness and new-
ness, for it was marked on none of the maps and was
mentioned only in the vaguest manner in the Chinese
geography. Moreover, nothing prevented us s if we
thought fit, from pushing on to the lakes on our way*
No doubt, this road went very close to the country
of the Goloks, whose hordes often crossed it ; but the
other road was almost as dangerous* Besides, an ex-
plorer who has no faith in his star and dare not defy
fate would do better to stay at home in his dressing-
gown, with his feet on the fender* In a word, Dutreuil
de Rhins decided in favour of the shortest road, which is
sometimes followed by the special couriers of the Chinese
administration, who, with two horses, cover the distance
of over 500 miles between Jyerkundo and Sining in
eighteen days*
CHAPTER IV
FROM JYERKUNDO TO SINING DEATH OF DUTRKUU
DK RUINS
The village of TumbunuloOur caravan is attacked and pillaged by
Tibetans and Dutreuil ck Khins killedA usek'SH combat The
convent of Labug Inks our part ngainst the people of Ttimbumilo
Intervention of tlie Chinese ngenl I leiive for Sinin#; a dwsrteti
ami unexplored country; the Golok bmiits; the tipper Yellow
River Our provisions fail The Kolu> Nor; Toitylwr Sitting; the
Imperial Lejjatu; our baj&'ntfe is restored to us "The monastery of
Skulumi*
ON the ist of June 1894, we set out at the first gleam
of dawn, happy to leave this inhospitable place, to know
that the caravan which we were now leading would be
our last and to feel the object so long dreamt-of and
longed-for almost within reach of our hands, Pu I^ao
Yeh went with us for a very short way and took leave of
us with his excuses at not being able to go further, as he
was detained by a very urgent piece of business, None
of his servants was free and the little monk who had
come with us as far as Jyerkundo had deserted at the
sight of the reception which his great brother had given
us, We were therefore without a guide, a matter which
gave Dutreuil de Rhins hardly any concern. This time
he was wrong. The tracks of the road were lot in
grassy bogs and he missed his way and wenr up a valley
instead of crossing it. Being thus obliged to make a
considerable circuit, he was unable to camp that same
150
tttbet 151
day at Tumbumdo and had to halt half-way. One of
the ancients might have believed that a hostile god was
contriving everything to lead him to the spot and time
at which his evil destiny awaited him.
On the next day, our new caravan was greatly tried
by the difficulty of the road, which climbed or descended
steep slopes and passed through rocky ground and bogs
in turns. Several of our yaks fell by the road. After
seven hours 1 march, we were approaching Tumbumdo
when rain began to fall, lightly at first and then extremely
heavily. Our clothes were soon soaked through and
Dutreuil do Rhins, who complained of acute pains in the
shoulders, hurried on to find shelter in the village, On
our arrival, we found all the doors closed and no one
outside. In answer to our summons, two men appeared
and told us that there was no room in the houses* A*
the valley was very narrow and the few places where the
incline was not too steep seemed to be covered with
crops, we asked them to show us a place where we could
pitch our tent. They answered with careless insolence :
"Go down the valley ; you'll find a place there.*'
We saw a walled enclosure surrounding a rather
large space of empty ground with an unoccupied shed.
It was a cattle-enclosure which was act being used at
the time, as the herds had been sent to the pastures for
the summer,
" Let us camp in that yard which you are not using/*
said Dutreuil de Rhins. * c We will pay you/ 1
"The owner is away/* replied the owner himself
" and has taken the key with him.*'
" Nonsense ! " retorted Dutreuil cle Rhins, bluntly,
losing patience. " I can't remain in the rain like this.
Open that gate at once/'
The man went away grumbling and called his
daughter, who came with the key and took off the
padlock. There was nothing inside except a little fuel :
152
"Leave that there," I said to the owner, "we shall
want it. Here ! Here are two rupees and, before we
go, we will pay you for the use of the enclosure."
u Ah, you are people who know how to talk ! If
you want anything, just come and tell us : we will
supply you. M
And, in fact, a real zeal to serve us followed upon
the ill-will shown at the start. They brought us water,
straw, a lump of butter. A boy of about sixteen
appointed himself our scullion and devoted himself
fervently to his chance employment. The rain stopped
and a few people came to see us. Dutreuil de Khins
produced the Tibetan letter which Pu Lao Yeh had
given him and asked if anyone knew how to read. The
young scullion offered his services and read the docu-
ment to those standing around. It was a summarised
translation of our Chinese passport, with a special ami
urgent recommendation, in the name of His Excellency
the Imperial Legate, that they should not steal our
horses, nor our yaks, nor anything that was ours*
"Di tibo ri (Very good, excellent as the thumb
compared with the fingers)," said the Tibetans, raising
their thumbs in the air to mark the liveliness of their
approval*
All this smacked a little of hypocrisy and it would
have been prudent not to linger. That same day, a
dorgha came from Jyerkundo on behalf of Pu Lao Yeh*
A dorgha is the name in Tibet, as in Turkestan and
Mongolia, of a man who combines the duties of a
policeman and a courier and who, in a general way,
is the errand-porter and factotum of an official of any
kind. This one, who was called Tiso, wore his hair
shaved, for he was a Golok by birth. This ex-brigand
and son of a brigand had settled down, had married a
Taorongpa wife and, changing his trade with his country^
had become a policeman in the Chinese service; but he
Hfbet 153
was careful to keep his shaven head, a sign of kinship
with the Ma Chu bandits which might he valuable on
occasion. He squinted in a burlesque fashion, grinned
and laughed incessantly, always wore a hurried and
excited air, spoke quickly, fluently and noisily, was fond
of giving advice when he was not asked for it and
boasted readily. He told us that he had been charged
by Pu Lao Yeh to assist us in making our purchases
at Labug Gompa ; that he had much influence in the
country; that he was a particular friend of the chief
lama's ; that he felt a great sympathy for us ; that he
would serve us zealously and hoped that we should
reward him with our customary generosity ; that, if we
started on the next day, he would have the pleasure of
going with us ; that for the moment he was very busy
and begged for permission to leave us until the morrow,
And he went off.
On the following day, having risen before daybreak,
I was giving instructions to prepare for our departure,
when Dutreuil de Rhins came out and, seeing the sky
covered with black and lowering clouds, gave the order
to remain. He told Razoumoff to occupy his day in
making the men practise their shooting, which had
been neglected during the journey. I myself made an
excursion up the torrent on whose right bank Turn-
bumdo stands. This is the Deng Chu, a little affluent
of the big river, the Do Chu, a glimpse of whose valley
was seen from our encampment, I passed a village
whose inhabitants kept fiercely aloof. The few people
whom I was able to accost answered my questions in
a curt, dry and evasive manner When I returned, I
had a vague and confused feeling that thing* might
go badly. Just then, I saw Razoumoff, knowing that
Dutreuil de Rhins could not see him, indulge in one of
ht8 ordinary eccentricities. He was showing off before
some Tibetans, ostentatiously directing our men's drill
154 ttibet
and grotesquely mimicking their awkward movements.
I put an end to this scene, which had the two-fold draw-
back of making the Tibetans think that perhaps our
intentions were not strictly peaceful and of showing
them that our men did not know how to handle their
weapons.
The sky seemed to brighten a little and Dutreuil de
Rhins spoke of breaking up camp in the afternoon.
But he changed his mind :
" Bah ! " he said. cc Why risk wetting everything
and spoiling everything for the sake of going three or
four miles r It's not worth while."
For that matter, the rain soon began to come down
and flooded us in our tent, However, Dutreuil de
Rhins fixed the start for three o'clock on the next
morning, whatever the weather might be.
We had just fallen asleep, when they came to tell us
that two horses had disappeared. Shortly after nightfall,
a heavy shower had driven our sentry to take shelter for
a few minutes in the shed and, when he came out to go
his rounds, the two animals were missing. I was able by
the light of a lantern to follow tracks of horse-shoes,
accompanied by the tracks of Tibetan boots, until where
they were lost in the stones on the ground. The first
tracks were those of our horses, for the Tibetan horses
are never shod; and the others were certainly those of
a native, for none of our men wore those boots* Besides^
the tracks were all equally fresh and, as those of the
Tibetans were always evenly beside those of our beasts,
it was evident that the latter had been let! away by the
former. The theft was therefore duly established and
there was no doubt but that it had been committed
by a man acquainted with our habits who had taken his
measures in consequence, possibly by the over-jealous
scullion, Nevertheless, at peep of day, we ent two
armed men on horseback, one of whom knew the
155
language of the country, in search of the missing horses,
knowing that they would be found if, against all
probability, they had escaped of themselves, m spite of
the care that had been taken overnight to fasten them,
But, after many hours, the two men returned without
having seen anything.
The natives, meanwhile, instead of coming to our
camp as on the previous clay, kept aloof and sneaked
off with cunning speed so soon as they saw us go
towards them. Those who allowed themselves to be
taken by surprise were indifferent to the glamour of
rupees and to soft words alike and, in a tone that
seemed to reproach us with their theft, declared that
they had no chief or that they did not know his house,
This display of ill-will and insincerity confirmed Dutreuil
de Rhins in his conviction that the villagers were the
culprits and in his determination not to yield. He had
good reasons for this. When he left Jyerkutido, he
had no more horses than were absolutely indispensable
and he had no money left with which to buy others,
On the other hand, he feared that, if he did not insist
upon obtaining justice, he would encourage the Tibetans
to commit fresh thefts and would run the risk of losing
all his animals. He consulted me and consulted
Mohammed Isa, the interpreter, and we were all of the
same opinion. An expedient must be found which
would induce the population to emerge from their silence
and the invisible authorities to show themselves and
interfere. Dutreuil de Rhins thought that the best thing
would be to seize two horses belonging to the Tibetans,
not, as Mohammed Isa suggested, by way of restitution,
but as a pledge, while declaring that we would restore
them so soon as we should have come to an understand-
ing with the authorities, whether these undertook to
hunt for and recover our animals or took measures to
prevent any similar act m the future. On the whole.
however irritated he might be, his intentions were ex-
ceedingly moderate and he was so Far from expecting a
serious fight that he did not even order the few rounds
of ammunition to be taken from the chests containing
them*
The orders given in consequence were executed at
daybreak the next morning, while we were preparing
to start. Did the Tibetans grasp the meaning of our
declaration ? I cannot say ; but the promptness with
which they seized upon this opportunity to attack us
seemed to me to show that they were waiting for it
and that they had only been looking for a pretext, good
or bad. A clamour arose, grew ever louder and soon
filial the whole village. A formidable cry of " A7 ho
/in!" rang through the valley and we saw a few men
run in the direction of the monastery, which was hidden
from us by a projecting portion of the mountain. The
.shiulso, that is to say the lama charged with the temporal
administration of the convent, is at the same time, as I
learnt later, the chief of the whole canton of Tumhumdo,
which numbers seven villages. Hardly had these men
returned, when, as we were beginning to leave the
enclosure, 1 heard a musket-shot and the sharp whir/
of a bullet. It was a quarter-past four in the morning*
Meanwhile, we formed our march according to our usual
order ; Dutreuil dc Rhins in front, armed with his
Winchester rifle; 1 bringing up the rear, armed only
with my compass. The village is situated on an
eminence in the angle formed by the confluence of the
Deng Chu with the torrent which we had come down
on our way from Jyerkundo, The road retreats a little,
describing a small curve in order to cross this torrent
and to pass along the side of the mountain on the right
batik of the Deng Chu. The houses are similar to all
those in Tibet, with thick walls, narrow embrasures* and
flat roofs with parapets.
ttfbet
157
At four paces from the enclosure which we had just
left stood a regular donjon, square, very high and pierced
with loop-holes, through which issued the barrels of fire-
arms. The shots, rare at first, became more and more
numerous. We abstained from replying, thinking that
it was merely a threatening demonstration. Dutreuil
de Rhins, who had taken up a post of observation
behind one of those little stone walls, called /M^W, which
DETAILED PLAN
OF TUMBUMDO.
run through the Tibetan valleys in every direction, said,
as I joined him :
** Those fellows don't shoot btdiy; a Wte ail Jim
graced my coat. The devil 1 OM om't tee t$ Jniich u
the tip of the nose of one of those blackguards 1"
"We're in a bad po4lb<! 1 4^d7 We shall
di. be killed, if we dk^,fewnT-tiid aet to a mew
'
placed
158 {Tibet
He made no reply, but he stood up and we crossed
the torrent together. The firing of the Tibetans became
very brisk and was regularly kept up and, several of our
animals having been struck, we began to fire back, but
sparingly, for we had only seventy-two rounds in all
We were then following the mountain-side on the right
bank, exactly opposite the houses and within range of
the Tibetan muskets, without being able to move off to
the right, because the mountain is perpendicular, The
passage was the more dangerous inasmuch as the narrow-
ness of the road obliged us to go in single file. I left
Dutrcuil de Rhins in ortier to reach the head of the
caravan, to lead it as well as I could and myself to take a
rifle from one of the men who did not know how to use it*
I came up with our Chinese secretary, who was dragging
his horse by the bridle, and, while i was unfastening the
rifle slung across the saddle-bow, two bullets struck the
poor beast, one after the other, and it fell While firing
in the direction of the Tibetans, whom we were still
unable to ace, I hastened the speed of the caravan, which
was greatly diminished by the wounded beasts. A
few more steps and the worst part would have been
passed ; the mountain ceased to be perpendicular, we
could have climbed the slope, placed ourselves beyond the
reach of the enemy's fire and turned the position to our
own advantage. Suddenly, I heard cries of distress ; I
realised that Dutreuil de Rhins was wounded. Turning
round, I saw him at thirty paces from me, still on his
feet and leaning on his rifle* I rushed to him and he
fell swooning in my arms* He had had the fatal idea
of stopping for a few moments to fire, instead of con*
turning his march ; and this was doubly dangerous, for
he was wearing his coat that day with the fur ouUide
and made a good mark and, also, the Tibetans, who4f$
when shooting at the moving marl^ tre
shots at any fixed object. 1 kid the
ttibct 150
unhappy man on a piece of felt in a spot where the
road widens slightly and behind a little wall a foot high,
so that he was sheltered from the bullets. I sent
Mohammed Isa to the Chinese agent of Jycrkundo, with
instructions to bring him at once, and I released the
horses which we had seized, hoping that the Tibetans
would give us at least a moment's breathing-space,
which I meant to employ to prepare a litter and carry
off the wounded man as quickly as possible* The
sight of the wound left me no hope ; the bullet had
penetrated far into the belly, a little below the left
groin,
"Do not touch me/* he murmured, "I am in too
great pain. Make terms with the Tibetans anil take
back the caravan to the place we came from. 1 '
And he asked for a glass of water.
In obedience to his order* I sent the cook, who spoke
the Tibetan language, to parley with the natives. 1 had
no great confidence in the success of (his negotiation,
although the firing had ceased for the moment ; but,
in addition to the fact that Dutreuil de Khins* instruc-
tions were formal, there was nothing better to <io in
the state in which he was- Meanwhile, 1 had a litter
prepared with a camp-bed and I began to dress the
wound in accordance with the medical instructions which
I carried on me. The wounded man spoke a few more
indistinct wordvS as though dreaming :
"Bandits! , . . Labour lost. * , , Fine
weather for starting! . . ."
As a matter of fact, the sky was clear and blue*
Then the unhappy man, who was ready for the last
start, threw up blood and fainted. His head and
hands were colder than the stones of the road,
They had at last brought the camp-bed, but there
were no sticks to carry it," They went to fetch some,
while the other men, at about a hundred and fifty paces
160 ttfbet
from me, close to a little hamlet whose inhabitants,
fortunately, had taken no part in the combat, were
struggling to collect the scattered yaks and to reload
the fallen packages. The confusion, the lack of cool-
ness in our men, the absence of their leaders delayed
this business unduly. I was still alone with Dutreuil
de Rhins, who did not regain consciousness and was
growing colder and colder, when I saw, in the bottom
of the valley, three Tibetans run along with bent backs,
crouch behind a wall one hundred yards in front of me
and fire at me over it. Their bullets flattened them-
selves on the metal-work of the medicine-chest against
which 1 was leaning and I had not a single cartridge
with which to reply. At the same time, my emissary
returned at a run :
"They won't let us stay," he cried, "we must go
at once ! "
And he went out of his way to avoid me, fearing,
no doubt, that I should stop him ; but I did not think
of trying to do so, the poor lad was so frightened and
was running so fast, He hmi just seen death face to
face ami the sight had thrown his heart into his legs.
I gave him my orders for the caravan, that they should
at once bring me the shafts for the litter, that they
should start the convoy with all speed and that the
armed men should join me. To execute this commission
would have taken two minutes. Unfortunately, he did
not hurry to convey my orders, I saw him talking
with a Tibetan of the neighbouring hamlet, who waved
his hat and made great movements with his arniM as
though to interpose his mediation with the aggressors ;
and, 'mean while, no one came to my assistance and the
firing was breaking out at several points at once. The
enemies came nearer and increased in numbers, I
shouted : no reply. I ran myself to fetch the man and
the things that I needed to carry the wounded mart*
ZCibct li
"Be off quick/ 1 said the Tibetan with the hat, "ami
they will cease firing,"
Thinking it dangerous to go down the road to the
bottom of the valley, I gave orders to march at mid-
slope, above the hamlet that had kept neutral; but the
inhabitants categorically objected to this and I did nut
think it wise to add to the number of our enemies.
While Razoumoff was taking the forty rounds of am
munition* from the cases in which they were packet!,
I tried to go back to Dutreuil de Rhins. It was ton
late: the Tibetans, ever more numerous, for they were
constantly coming up from "the other villages, h;iJ
advanced and taken up their position so as to prevent 1
me from retracing my steps. As always happens in such
a case, I bitterly regretted not having followed my first
idea, which was to make off at once, notwithstanding
even the wishes of my chief, forgetting the reasons which
had made me reject this idea and which, had I to do so
over again, would still have obliged me to act as I did.
At this moment, I was in a painful dilemma : was I ro
leave our chief to his now inevitable fate, but to save
that by which he set store above all else, I mean the*
scientific results of his mission, the cause and fruit of
long labours and long sufferings, or wan I to sacrifice
everything to an honourable, but useless attempt to snatch
from the enemy's hand a man whose life had perhaps
already left his body ? I did not hesitate, however.
I kept five armed men with me and, although their
awkwardness, combined with the insignificant quantity of
ammunition in our possession, forbade all hope of achiev-
ing a result of any kind, we opened fire on the Tibetans.
The ktter, cleverly hidden behind wall* that served
them at the same time as a rampart and a rest for their
muskets, shot at us from three sides at a time* Our
* There were alno u tew rountla, fifty pwhapfl, f<t Dutivuil tl'
Hhtn* Winchester; but we were unnble to Hnd them,
11
162 ZTibet
animals fell one after the other, the bullets rained around
us, flinging up fragments of stones in our faces or tearing
our clothes. By singular good fortune, only two of our
men were hit, one in the shoulder, the other in the hand.
Then, when our supply of ammunition was exhausted, a
troop of the enemy came to fire at us almost point-blank
from behind.
" Stop firing," they cried, " and we will leave you
alone/ 7
Ra'/oumofF, whose rifle was still loaded, took aim at
the most prominent among thorn. But, in spite of my
rage and of the pleasure which it would have given
me to see one of those brigands bite the dust, I stopped
Razoumoff, saying :
** If you kill him, Dutreuil de Rhins will pay for it.'*
It was then about three hours since the first shot had
been fired, And the ^Tibetans rushed upon us, waving
their swords, charging with their lances and uttering
savage yells* My terrified men fled, excepting the
interpreter, whom I held back by the tail of his coat
1 tried to reason with the barbarians and to remind them
of their promise ; but they drove us along by main
force, striking us with the nuts of their swords ami the
shafts of their lances and shouting :
" Seng, song I (Go, go !) "
A lama on horseback, in full dress, apparently a
stranger to the canton, came riding by. He wore an
air of solemn good-nature, I begged him to interfere
and he replied, with hesitating gravity :
" No one shall be hurt."
And he did, in fact, make some timid efforts to allay
the wrath that had been stirred up- U was in vain*
My interpreter, whom I had had the greatest difficulty
in holding back until then, took to flight ami I had to
yield to force. I retired slowly, with the lances in my
back, amid the furious shouting of the Tibetans, who
163
were exasperated by my slowness. When they were
not pushing me with the shafts of their lances, they
fired at me at ten paces, deafening my ears \vith the
noise of the reports and the whistling of the bullets. 1
was now convinced that my last hour had come and iluit
they were sparing me for :i moment only to muke me
taste the relish of death the better. However, i Bulked
with a calmness which, although artificial and Mudied ut
first, gradually became natural and eu\y to me. Stul -
denly, 1 heard a shout of " <V/r/X?> <*^X< ' (^ n \\ stn p ) "
I turned round and saw two muskets pointed at me and
fired at the same moment. 1 stood firm and they flung
themselves upon me, rifled my pockets, robbed me of
my watch, the only object of any value that I then had,
and began their former game once more.
Shortly after, still driven on by the yelling crowd
of Tibetans, 1 came up with one of our men, who
had sat down behind a projecting rock, I Je was
wounded in the hand and the sight of his own Wood
had deprived him even of the courage to run awuy.
When he saw the Tibetans, he began to tremble and
cry and hurriedly got rid of a carving-knife which he
wns carrying in his belt. Taking him by the arm, I
shook him violently :
"This is not the time to cry," 1 Haiti and made
him take back his knife.
The Tibetans seemed curiously astonished at this
scene ; their shouts and threats ceased. I thought that
1 might profit by this and, laying my hand familiarly on
the shoulder of the boldest :
"Let us go that way," I said, pointing to the top
of the valley.
Taken aback for a moment, he soon recovered his
assurance and, whirling his sword, he let fly with nil
his might at my head. Fortunately, 1 was able to ward
off the blow with my left arm* At the same time, the
164 UH)Ct
others once more began to shout, to strike me, to push
me, to fire off their muskets and again forced me to go
down along the torrent, As 1 passed at the foot of a
big village, perched on the side of the mountain, the
inhabitants, from their roofs, flung huge lumps of
stone at me, which might well have done for me.
Then the convent trumpet sounded, the firing ceased,
my escort stopped and the children came and threw
stones at me with their slings. I had reached the
boundary of the canton of Tumbumdo, on the banks
of the Do Chu.
A great silence reigned, My power of will, until
then violently strained, so as not to show weakness in
the eyes of the enemy, now relaxed for a moment. The
murmur of the deep waters of the stream seemed to call
to me and to claim that dreary life which had remained
faithful to me despite myself. Of what use was that
life to me? Had I not lost all that made it precious
to me ? Was I not alone, stripped of every resource,
surrounded by inexorable enemies, without anyone whom
I could trust ? And, if men's hatred spared me, had I
not vast deserts to pass through, where cold, hunger and
the wolves awaited me ? And, yet, had I gone through
so much to abandon all in the despair of the moment ?
Was there nothing more to be attempted and must I
cast off my burden because it seemed to me too heavy ?
What had sill this hard journey been but one long lesson
in patience ? Had I not there learnt that there are no
clouds so thick but the sun dispels them, no night so
dark but retires before the dawn ? Come, then ! Let
us take up our burden again : a day will come when our
shoulders shall be relieved ! Besides, if the Tibetans
had not killed me when this would have been so easy,
was it not a sign that they were not implacable, that
there would be a' means of saving whut was not already
irreparably lost ? As though to force myself to hope and
Uibct 165
to show my scorn for hostile fortune, 1 took my compass
from my pocket and began to take my bearings as 1 went
up the narrow valley, deeply set between high mountains
with rounded tops. I was resolved to look for the
dorgha whom we had seen two days before and who
could, perhaps, help me. I had taken a few steps when
I met a man on horseback who greeted me with a
kindly air. This simple greeting gave me more pleasure
than I can tell. It was like that vague quiver in the air
which is the forerunner of the awaited dawn.
After walking less than two miles, 1 found four of
my men, who, no longer hearing the sound of tiring, had
sat down by the roadside, hoping that I would come that
way, if I were still alive. It was exactly half-past nine
and it was more than two hours since 1 had left the
battle-field at about four miles' distance. 1 passed quickly
in front of several villages and, a couple of leagues
further, I came to the hut of the ferry- -man, for the
Do Chu, which is eight or nine yards deep and i^o
to 1 60 yards wide, is not fordahk 1 * It is crossed by
means of little boats, each of which is made of two
undressed yak-hides sewn together. The ferry-man told
us that Tiso, the dorgha, was on the other side of the
river ; and, when we asked him to take us across, he
began by saying that he would want much money for
that, in this way expressing his opinion, which, for that
matter, was very well founded, that people whone
appearance was so little in their favour could not be rich
enough to pay him for his trouble.
" You have received orders concerning us," I $aitl<
"Our caravan has remained behind because the beasts
are tired. I have gone on ahead myself to have the
flour which we need got ready at Lab UK Gompa-
When the caravan comes, you will be paid.
The good man looked at me from head to foot with
a suspicious eye :
166
"So you/ 1 he said, in a voice that betrayed his
surprise ami his doubts, " are the mun about whom Pu
Lao Yeh sent me his instructions ?"
"Just so, but hurry!" I replied, adding a few
imaginary details to reassure him completely.
Few things in my life have been so painful to me as
this little comedy, which was, unhappily, indispensable.
At last, the ferryman made up his mind, fetched two of
his boats, which were drying under a shed, and carried
us to the opposite bank.
Hardly had 1 set foot on land, when I met the man
whom I was in search* of. 1 told him our terrible
adventure. He showed some compassion, much alarm
and more embarrassment :
"However," he said, "all is not lost. The shadso
of Labug Gompa, which is near here, is a great friend
of Pu Lao Yeivs and you can rely on him* I will go
to see him presently and we: will discuss what measures
to take. Meanwhile, come to my house, where you
will find food and shelter, and ( will ut once semi a
messenger to Tumbumdo, He will arrive there to-night
and will perhaps get something out of those people/'
I accordingly spent the night at Tiso's house, which
was in a village at two leagues from the Do Chu, within
the jurisdiction of Labug Gompu*
On the next morning, the 6th of June, I received a
visit from a tall, thin old mun, with long grey hair and
regular features of the Tibetan type. He wa$ the
diplomatic ngent of the shiulso of Labup;, who hardly
ever leaves his convent himself and who, above all,
may not compromise himself by seeing wmrBuddhist
strangers. I le was accompanied by a lama and by
servants bringing meat, tsumbu, tea. and butter* Thia
old Nestor, whose grave* gentle expression and simple,
easy ways prejudiced me in his favour, made me a
regular speech, long ami elegant and full of dignity and
TObet 167
cordiality. He told me that his chief had sent him to
bid me welcome and to assure me of his sympathy and
concern in the great misfortune that had befallen me*
The shadso had been to Peking atid hud heard speak of
France as a great and noble country ; ho would sec to it
that her representatives were well treated on the territory
under his jurisdiction and would do what he could to
prevail on the people of Tumbumdo to restore the
baggage and animals of our mission, to respect the life
of Dutreuil de Rhins, or, if he were already dead, at
least to give up his mortal remains. In the meantime,
he would take care to provide Tor my wants and hogged
me to stay quietly in the house where I was, for far of
complicating what was already a very difficult matter.
Having finished his speech, the old man set out at once,
with the dorgha, for Tumbumdo,
They returned in the afternoon, in the company of
the tungchen Li Lao Yeh, who, at Mohammed Isa's
entreaties, had gone to Tumbumdo on the evening of
the 5th of June. He had been very badly received by
the population, who had threatened him with death
and obstinately refused to listen to reason. He hud
seen our Chinese secretary, whom he had left at
the village with Mohammed Isa ; but he had heard
nothing of Dutreuil de Rhins or myself. Only, it was
rumoured that I was seriously wounded and, as he found
no trace of me when going up the Do Chu, he had
already given me up for lost, when he met the men sent
from Labug Gompa, who reassured him as to my fate f
whereupon he hurried to come to see me. He averred
that he and Pu Lao Yeh would make every effort to
obtain satisfaction, that they would convoke the general
assembly of the twenty-five Taorongpa chiefs and
persuade them to intervene with the people of Tum-
bumdo to force them to give way ; he exhorted me to
have patience and eagerly invited me not to go out nor
168 TTibct
to take any personal steps, which would be dangerous to
myself and prejudicial to the interests which I wished to
defend, or, at the very least, useless.
On the yth, they brought me provisions from the
gompa, but no news. About mid-day, as, in the sadness
and impatience induced by my forced inactivity, I was
pacing up and down the terrace of the house, which
overlooked the valley, and examining the too-restricted
horizon, 1 suddenly perceived something red moving on
the bank of the river. That something could be only a
man's clothing and the r^d was Loo bright for it to belong
to a native. 1 sent to see and they brought me Parpai
and Tokhta Afchun* These two men had displayed a
certain firmness in the combat of Tumbumdo, l*arpai
had bravely fixed his bayonet at the end of his rifle and
had stuck to his post so long as the ammunition lasted
and the number of our aggressors did not outflank us.
Tokhta Akhun had even distinguished himself by going
under the noses of the Tibetans to fetch a rifle which
had been abandoned by its owner; but he was stopped
by a group of the enemy and prevented from rejoining
u. iJoth of them, instead of going down the road, had
lost themselves in the mountains, where they met each
other and chance had led them to the valley of the
La Chu. Their situation was a critical one: they had
no supplies except two pounds of tsamba, they had lost
the hope of ever finding me, they did not know the roads
and they knew that long days' marching through hostile
or desert country separated them from the nearest places
where they might obtain some help. However, seeing
that the sun hatl reached its highest point, they had ttat
down beside the clear stream with real eastern apathy,
had taken out their bag of flour and set about lunching*
In reply to my questions*, they Jtaid that they had
observed absolutely nothing ; as regards Dutreuil d<s
Rhins, they had neither seen nor heard anything and
160
they did not know what had become of the man who
was still missing, ex-captain Ahmed.
The next day was the first day of the fair at Lalnig
Gompa: the valley was alive with numerous gay wayfarers
in their holiday clothes; but none of them was of any
use to me. On the gth, tired of champing the bit, 1
resolved to make an attempt to go in search of news
and, if possible, to return to Tumbunulo. This step
was an unreasonable one, but 1 felt, that I must ascertain
for myself whether it were impossible and try to fimi
out what they were keeping from me* The boatman
on the Do Chu refused to ferry us across and, on the
other side, the road was guarded by armed horsemen,
so that we had to go back to our lodging, or rather
our prison. On the icth, by means of promises which
happier circumstances enabled me to keep, I persuaded
a young Tibetan who came to see us from time to time
to go to Tumbumdo and try to discover what was
happening. He returned at five o'clock in the evening
and told me that Li Lao Yeh hud been obliged to leave
Jyerkundo to settle a conflict that had broken out
between the people of Surmang and those of Lhasu
and that two of our men were kept prisoners at Tum-
bumdo ; but he had seen or hearu nothing on the
subject of Dutreuil de Rhins. On the next morning,
the Do Chu ferryman charitably came to warn me that
fighting men had been posted on the banks of the
stream to assassinate me if I appeared ; but, about
mid-day, I received better news : my host, the dorgha,
who had gone, on the 7th, to the convent at Lalwg
with a message from me to the shadso, at last returned,
explaining that his delay, which was a long one, seeing
that we were not two miles from the monastery, was
due to the fact that he had gone to meet a powerful
htma of the neighbouring district of Zachukka, who had
now arrived at Labug Gompa*
170
This lama, whose name was Yapsang Tenam, was
the chief of the convent of Tubchi and, as he was a
native of the country around the Koko Nor, he was
commonly called "the Chinese." The dorgha repre-
sented him to me as being a dreaded justiciary, endowed
with a great spirit of enterprise and having a large
number of valiant men-at-arms under his command ;
he told me, moreover, that this lama had appeared to
him to he favourably disposed towards the cause of
our mission. I therefore sent him back to this singular
monk, captain of mercenaries and justiciary, to beg him
to interfere and to explain to him that I would recognise
his services in u more substantial manner than by mere
thanks. I could not have a better go-between in this
negotiation than the dorgha Tiso ; for not only hud he
shown great readiness to serve us and hud his loyalty
been guaranteed by all those who had interested them-
selves in us before or after our misfortune, bur also the
fact that he was a Golok allowed him better than any
other to influence the Zachukkupa, who were kinsmen
and friends of the Goloks and who shared with them
many characteristics that distinguish them from the other
Tibetans* Yapsang Tenam forthwith dispatched a
haughty and threatening letter to the chief of the
Tumbumdo convent, swearing that, if justice were not
promptly done, he would cross the river at the head of
ni$ men-at-arms* At the same time, he let me know
that he could not interfere more actively at the moment,
because the omens were not favourable and the moon was
unpromising. I then sent the dorgha to Jyerkundo, to
see Pu Luo Yeh and tell him how astonished J was not
to have heard from him for so long ; thai I did not
doubt but that he had busied himself in this grave
matter with the xcal which both hin duty ana his
own interest prescribed ; that, nevertheless, it was
strange that he should delay in having Dutreutl de
171
Rhins conveyed to me, a concession which it ought not
to have been difficult for him to obtain from the people
of Tumbumdo, since a refusal on their part would serve
them not at all and would only aggravate their crime and
the punishment that awaited them ; that, if he were
unable to obtain the restitution of the baggage and
animals of the mission, he ought at least to insist upon
the immediate restitution of the papers and instruments,
as well as the release of those of our men who were still
detained at Tumbumdo : this was of urgent importance
to us, whereas the people of Tumbumdo could not derive
any benefit from keeping either* the one or the other.
Tiso set out in the morning and, that same evening,
two dorghas arrived from Pu Lao Yeh, accompanied by
our Chinese secretary, Mohammed I$a and Ahmed* I
had no great praise to bestow upon any one of these three
men. Mohammed Isa had displayed a ridiculous fear at
the beginning of the fight : true, he had acquitted him-
self very well of the mission upon which I had sent him
to the tungchen of Jyerkundo, but he had done wrong m
not returning to me at once. He made the excuse that
he had been forcibly detained at Tumbumdo, in which
case it was very strange that they should have left him
his rifle, his cartridges, his revolver, his sword-bayonet
and his horse and that they should have allowed him,
on his own confession, to return on the third day to
Jyerkundo, where he remained for twice twenty-four
hours without letting me hear from him. The proba-
bility is that, despairing of my luck, he intended to
abandon rne, but that the tungehen refused to look upon
the matter in his light and forced him to rejoin me.
The Chinese secretary had disappeared so noon as
Dutreuil de Hhins was wounded and had left me alone
at the very moment when he would have been particularly
useful to me in helping to attend to our leader and
perhaps in carrying him away, while the other men were
172 mi>ct
engaged in collecting the scattered caravan. He hid
himself somewhere or other and, when the fighting was
over, showed himself to the Tibetans, who, of course,
respected his Chinese nationality and even showed him
hospitality, As for the former captain of Yakuh Beg,
he had prudently concealed himself in the midst of the
yaks, which had served him as u rampart, and, when the
Tibetans carried off the animals, they carried off the
captain at the same time, without, however, doing him
the least harm.
Mohammed Isa told me that, when 1 was driven
out, the Tibetan^ at once hired two wretched vagrants to
take up Dutreuil de Rhins, bind his hands and feet and
fling him into the waters of the Do Chu. He added
that, at that moment, he still gave some signs of life ;
but this lust detail was not confirmed by the dorghas of
Pu Lao Yeh, whose information was official ami whose
evidence agreed in all other respects with that of
Mohammed Isa, Although 1 did, at first, accept the
version of out interpreter, I am inclined to think, on
reflection, that it should be received with caution, for
not only was Mohammed Isa always greatly given to
exaggeration, but it is not likely that Dutreuil de
Rhins, who was already cold when I was obliged to
leave him, can have survived for several hours more.
The accounts which were then given me by our
secretary, our interpreter and the dorghas corroborated
what I had already heard elsewhere ami proved
evidently that the aggressors had acted only upon
the instructions received from their chief, the superior
of the convent, who commanded them to kilt the
Europeans and to spare the others ami who then,
when Dutreuil de Rhins had fallen, ordered them to
seize upon him, the baggage and the animals, but to
kill no one so soon as we were disabled and disarmed.
This quite explained the Tibetans' conduct, which at first
ZffbCt 173
seemed very strange to me, Dutreuil de Rh'ms was
considered and treated as alone responsible for an act
which was a mere attempt at pressure to obtain the
justice denied us, but which it had pleased our aggressors
to qualify as an act of brigandage in order to palliate
their own.
In certain conventicles that had taken place since'
among the Tibetans, there had, according to Mohammed
Isa's account) which the others neither denied nor
confirmed, been a strongly-urged question of prevent-
ing me from reaching China and of doing away with
me as an inconvenient witness. It would have
been simpler for our enemies to do away with me
when they showed me the polite attention of accom-
panying me for more than an hour to the river ;
but they had not thought of everything and it now
occurred to them that my complaints were very
annoying and that my depositions at Sining would
be unfavourable to them, whereas those of our
servants, who were almost all Chinamen and people
of low condition, could easily be influenced in such a
way as to throw the fault upon the Europeans. How-
ever, I troubled but little about what I heard in this
connection, for it could be only a rumour spread with
a view to intimidating me and 1 was firmly resolved
not to yield by a line's breadth to any pressure of
this kind. Lastly, 1 was told that all that could be
found of our baggage had been collected at the
instance of the Chinese agents and placed under
seal by the authorities of Tumbumdo, who, however,
persisted in refusing to restore any part of it. Tht*
negotiations, moreover, had become more difficult be-
cause Pu Lao Yeh was alone at Jyerktuulo ; his
colleague, Li, had had to go to the Tno Lti to settle the
difference to which 1 have referred above, a difference
caused by the Tibetans, subject to Lhasa, who hud gone
in search of suit in the direction of Surmang and who
laid claim to the right to revive an old custom by which
the population, who were once themselves subject to
Lhasa, were obliged to furnish a thousand yaks for the
carriage of the salt from their territory to that of the
Debajong* All this I learnt on the 12th of June. I at
once made the Chinese secretary write to the tungchen
all that I had instructed the dorgha Tiso, in the
morning, io tell him in connection with the baggage
and papers and I also directed him to order a search
to be made for the body of Dutreuil de Rhins, so
that we might give it a Refitting burial. Alas, it was a
very useless recommendation : the river had long since
curried off" the sud remains in its deep waters, confine*!
between perpendicular bunks, and he who had been
snah'hed from the honour due to him in life was to be
deprived also of honour in death.
T!u* night that followed was the most anxious and
the longest of sill. 1 tried in vain to sleep: the ruin,
which hud not ceased pouring in torrents during the 1
day, now soaked through the ceiling of the narrow
and dump lodging that served as my bed-chamber.
Wrapped in u dirty blanket, worn and full of holes,
which I owed to the charity of my hosts, 1 was soon wet
through and lay shivering on my straw mattress, which
swarmed with vermin. I moved it to each corner of my
cell in succession, but to no purpose, for the rain entered
everywhere. 1 cursed with all my heart the lama who,
on the preceding day, clad in the nacrcd emblem?* of hi#
office, had gone to pray on the river's bank and to fling
pellets of flour and butter into the water, in order, by
this propitiatory sacrifice, to prevail upon the genius of
the waves to send down the rain which wan wanted for
the Imrley-cmpn. 1 remained thus almost all the night,
sitting with my blanket over my head, thinking of those
terrible things which had happened beyond recall, of
{Tibet 175
that shipwreck in sight of port, of that death on the
eve of happy days. A brutal certainty had suddenly
destroyed the vague hope which I had insisted on
preserving against all likelihood. The loss of a chief
whose noble and courtly soul had not belied its kindness
to me during the whole course of three and a half years
of life shared in common and had changed the bonds
of discipline, which united me to him, into the sweeter
and surer links of friendship; my sorrowful powcrlessness
to help and relieve him in his distress ; the bitterness of
the defeat inflicted by barbarians devoid of all generosity;
the fruits of long labours, whicl* hail ripened only by
dint of care and pain, spoiled by an hour's storm ; the
absolute destitution which condemned me to rely upon
the charity of strangers, wavering between their pre-
judices and their humanity, between the fear of the
present and the fear of the future ; the sense of my
solitude, of my subjection, of the inanity of my effort*
deprived of any point of support : all these miseries,
added and multiplied together, gave mo the impression
that I was sinking into a dark and silent depth from
which there is no returning. Two things, however,
strengthened me and inspired me with the energy to
fight against despair: on the one hand, the consciousness
that, in these painful circumstances, I hud done nothing
which I did not consider useful to the interests of our
chief and of our mission, nothing that was inconsistent
with our dignity as men and Europeans, and that I had
abandoned nothing to the fear of approaching peril, but
only to material necessity ; and, on the other hand, the
feeling that there still lay upon me great duties which,
whatever measure of success I might achieve, demanded
all my zeal and all my strength.
Nothing happened during the next two days and I
did my best not to give way to the evil suggestions of
impatience, which, in Asia, is the most serious and the
176
most dangerous of faults. On the ijth, the dorgha
Tiso returned with the tungchcn's reply. The tungchen
regretted that he had not yet been able to do anything
because, in the assembly of the twenty-five Taorongpa
chiefs which he had summoned, the majority were against
us and some of them used violent and threatening
language ; he asked me nevertheless to have confidence
in him, assuring me that he would do all that he could
to appease their minds and to satisfy my demands ; he
hoped to come to see me to put before me the results of
his efforts and to procure for me the means of reaching
Sining ; in the meantime, he was writing to the shadso
of Labug to supply me with the money and the
provisions necessary for my support and that of my
men.
What Pu Lao Ych toM me of the hostility shown
by the majority of the assembly did nor astonish me,
tor not only is the canton of Tumbumdo one of the
most important in the district, hut, above all, its
monastery belongs to the rule of Saslcya, us does the
Jyerkundo monastery, on which it depends* and of which
the chief lama is the most influential am! powerful
individual in the country* The Utter, therefore, from
ft spirit of comradeship, supported his colleague and
subordinate with all the weight of his high authority
and carried with him all the convents of the Sankyapu,
which seerm to predominate in this part of Tibet, On
the other hand, the monastery of Labug, which belonged
to the reformed order of the Gdupa, of whom thr
Dalai Lama is the chief, had taken our part, because it
* To umplity s\ ctmipnrimm which th' nuulcr will iMsily uiulw*itaitit,
kit HH way thai the convent ;tt Tmntuumlo IH th rcnitU'tUT of :u it)*Hat
that tit Jyrrkutulo cf n provincial ;uu! tlmt the HI'IIPIM) of the onter
tv-mlc'4 (it SnsKyu (}<unp:i. In tlu: Niuttii way, tiu 1 . wupi-i-itM- of Lrtbttff it
it provinciul of the {JelujM order tuut it tni^ht uclt In; that tlu- i
of Ttitidii WHH a nicft: tiMnrt who w=^ imtrv {xw^rfut tcmporulty
h'.s liientrchicnl MUpviriur, the provinciul of
177
did not consider itself bound to make common cause
per fas et nefas with the monks of another rule and
because the Gelupa, without being less fanatical than
the other lamas (the reader will remember the reception
which we met with at Tachi Gompa), are more devoted
to the Chinese government, which gives them its special
protection.
Here is a fact which will throw more light than
any other upon the real sentiments of the lamas of
the reformed rule, A very numerous caravan, sent
to Tasienlu by the Panchen Rinpocheh, the second in
dignity of the Gelupa lamas, had come to Jyerkundo
about the beginning of the month, It was led by a
religious of high rank whom we had often seen on our
road and who had treated us with politeness, but reserve.
Shortly after the disaster to our mission he sent me
a message to express his regrets at the misfortune of
which we had been the victims and to assure me that,
if a similar thing had happened to us within the
jurisdiction of Lhasa, we should only have had our-
selves to blame, but that, in a country where we
had the right to travel by virtue of a passport from
the Emperor, the case was different ancf that he, for
his part, disapproved in the highest degree of the
action of the people of Tumbumdo. It will be seen
that his reservation as regarded the Lhasa jurisdiction
was a pretty strong one and that his friendliness
towards us depended solely upon the orders of the
Chinese government*
On the 1 6th, the shadso of Labug sent me a little
money and some provisions and informed me that he
had had a conference with the lama of Tubcht touching
the best way of assisting me and of making the people
of Tumbumdo disgorge and that they would act with
energy so soon as the circumstances and the almanac
be propitious.
13
178 .
On the same day, I tried to distract my thoughts
by going to see an old spiytt^ or fastness, whose ruins
rose picturesquely on a tail rock on the other side of
the valley, some 400 yards from where we were. It was
difficult of approach because of the steepness of the slope
and, when I had reached the top, I saw that the peak on
which the castle was built was separated from the
mountains on the left bunk of the La Chu by a very
deep and unsurmoimtable precipice, so that it was isolated
on every side. It was a very strong position in the
absence of cannon ; and the very thick pieces of wall,
ten yards high, which 'remained and a few cells, over-
looking the valley through narrow embrasures, that still
stood intact- would have afforded a solid defence in case
of need. When I returned from this excursion, I was
given to umk'rstiuul, with much circumlocution, that I
was not to go out, or they would be responsible tor
nothing.
Confined to my gaol, I can think of nothing better
to pass the time than to describe it in detail, as the
negotiations are stopped for the moment. Imagine a
square court-yard of about 30 feet, surrounded by &
plain wall on one side and by galleries or sheds on the
three others. Under two of those sheds arc a dung-
heap and Dutreuil tie Rhinfi* white horse, which was
given him by the imperial vice -legate and brought back by
Mohammed Isa. The third shed serves us as a drawing-
room, dining-room and kitchen. It U furnished with
two stone*, which do duty for a stove> a htcw-pan and a
wooden dish. In a corner is a little dark hole with
a litter in it : this is my bed- room ; in the* opposite
corner, a staircase leads down to the street and up to
the terrace that runs above the galleries* The front
looks over the narrow little rough and winding street of
the village^ which leans against the mountain ; on the
left, a yard similar to the first helter% at night, a
Uibct 179
she-goat and its kid ; the hack gives a view of the valley,
which is four hundred yards wide, stony, almost barren,
between fairly high and gloomy mountains, enlivened,
however, by a few poor barley-fields and the clear and
pretty current of the La Chu ; the terrace to the right
rests upon the main building, the walls of which
are constructed of flat, unhewn stones. The first
floor consists of a barn full of straw which opens on
to the terrace ; above it are (he rooms of our host's
family. Their large window is fitted with shutters
of wood painted red and sometimes shows the little old
wrinkled head of the grandmamma, a very good person
for a daughter and sister of brigands. As for her
daughter-in-law, who is one of the beauties of the
country, I should be pleased to introduce her to you,
but she left the house, with her children, a few days
before our arrival. The entrance to the apartments of
the master of the house is on the street and is reached
by a wooilen ladder, which leads to a square hull, around
which the different rooms arc distributed. The recep-
tion-room is very small and is furnished with a platform
covered with a piece of felt and a tea-table ; the walls
arc adorned with somewhat clumsy, faded and peeling
pictures representing flowers, animals, human figures.
But let us return to the court-yard : it was a reduc-
tion of the " Court of Miracles," peopled us it was by
half a score of beggars in rags and tatters, the staff of a
mission of the French government, employing its en-
forced leisure as best it might. Ka/oumoflf chattered
incessantly ; Parpai mended his clothes ; Tokhtu rubbed
his bad leg ; the cook, whose work had never been
intricate, hat! a holiday, for, by the munificence of the
lamas, we had some solid quarters of beef which hud been
preserved since the last autumn and which wus eaten
raw, in thongs, in the Tibetan manner : he employed
this holiday in hunting his parasites ; the Chinese
180 trtbet
secretary, an eminently serious man who had never burst
into song in his lifej now, seated on the edge of the
terrace, warbled a tune that would have served to bury
the devil to ; Mohammed Isa sat squatting in a corner,
trembling with fear and dressed in a filthy, worn-out
coat of black cloth, under pretence of mourning, but
I soon discovered that it was rather from a tear of
showing his European clothes and I peremptorily made
him doff his disguise and brine out his English coatee
adorned with brass buttons, like those worn by the
soldiers in India : nevertheless, he was perhaps right
not to tin re to display those buttons, for they are
usually seen on sturdier breasts,
The days came, the days went, slow and dreary, void
of occupation filial with preoccupation, But there is
nothing so sad but has its comical side, The interlude
was supplied by our friend the shadso of Labug : one
day, he sent his lay and clerical delegates to tell us that
in the treasure of the convent there was a European
machine which they did not know the use of, but which
they supposed to be intended for a mincing-machine ; it
was out of order and the shadso sent word to me that, if
I would repair it, I should have a great claim on his
gratitude. I replied that I had an ingenious and skilful
Russian artisan in my service, who would perhaps be
able to do what was necessary, They brought us the
mysterious machine, which proved to be a sewing-
machine that had come from Russia* In addition, as he
did not doubt but that we were prepared also to mend
anything that Europeans know how to manufacture, the
shadso sent us several objects, instruments or arms out
of use; an American revolver and cuckoo-clock, a Russian
fowling-piece, an English telescope, a French watclytlHfr,.
Swiss musical-boxes. Our court-yard was thus fti|&*
formed into a workshop and a European museum, which
attracted all the people of the village, men, women and
181
children. The sewing-machine puzzled the idlers, the
musical-boxes amused them, the telescope, with which
they saw nothing, hut by means of which they were per-
suaded that European eyes pierced through the thickest
mountains, filled them with superstitious respect ; as for
the cuckoo-clock, no sooner was it in going order than
it became a popular favourite* It achieved the greater
success inasmuch as the hands completed the circuit of
the face in fifteen minutes, which enabled the cuckoo to
give a larger number of performances to the great joy
of the spectators. It was curious to see these Tibetans,
but lately so hostile and infuriated, now so respectful,
merry, good-humoured, smiling amicably to the unhappy
foreigners who had just been fighting against their
brothers. I reflected in how small a measure the ill-will
which we had since long encountered among these people
was due to their natural wickedness, but much rather
to the policy of their lords and masters, a policy of fear
and sectarian tyranny, which keeps up in every class
of society a spirit of mutual spying and of universal
distrust, destructive of all pity und justice.
From the i6th to the 20th of June, matters made
no perceptible progress, notwithstanding some conversa-
tions which I had with delegates from the convent of
Labug, from Pu Lao Ych and from Yapsaug Tenum.
However, I prevailed upon them to procure me the
barley which I considered necessary for my journey to
Sining and I had it made into tsamba. I debated for a
moment with myself whether 1 should go secretly with
my horse and my interpreter to the nearest Chinese
post of Kfitweh, which was half-way to Tomcnlu and
about as far as the distance from Milan to Stmsburg.
By travelling double stages, 1 could reach it in eight or
nine days, half the time, or a little more, needed for the
whole journey to Sining* But this post consisted only
of a very insufficient force of twenty soldiers, commanded
182
by a mere lieutenant, who took his orders from the
Viceroy of Sechuen and hud no authority in the Jyerkundo
country, which was under the Imperial Legate of Sining;
also, 1 had no passport for Sechuen. It was a desperate
expedient which my situation, uncertain though it were,
did not seem to me to justify : it was better to wait. At
last, on the 20th of June, Yupsang Tenam came and
camped with some armed men on the banks of the Do
Chu and laid definitely before me the conditions upon
which he was prepared to intervene. These were, first,
a reward in money for himself; secondly, an under-
taking given in my own "name, in the name of the family
of Outreuil de Rhins and in the name of our government
to forego any further claims if he succeeded in restoring
the baggage which 1 had lost and in punishing the
offenders. His object was to avoid any intervention on
the part of the Chinese, whom the Tibetan,-; prefer to
know to 1)0 at si distance than to MX close at hand. I
replied that, as for the money, 1 would gladly give him
the sum demanded on my arrival at Sinin# (we had not
in our boxes enough money having local currency) ; that
I would pay half of that sum if all the papers, documents,
instruments and collections were restored to us and the
other half if he brought me the body of Dutrcuil tie
Rhins ; that, if he succeeded in these two matters and
furnished me with the means to reach Sin ing, I declared
myself personally satisfied, but that I could not answer
for it that our government, even in the supposition that
all our baggage and our money were restored to ua t would
refrain front claiming any further reparation or damages ;
that, in the mutter of the punishment of the offenders, it
must lake the regular course ; that an act of violence
must not be atoned for by another act of violence ; that^
if the offender* were sentenced on the spot after a regular
trial, I was not in a pouition to guarantee that there
would be no appeal to Sluing or Peking ; lastly, 1
TttbCt 188
recommended him to use prudence and not to forget
that it was a question less of waging war than of saving
manuscripts which a spark was enough to destroy, but
which nothing could replace. Although my language
was not entirely to Yapsang Tenam's liking, he did not
throw up the game : he parleyed with the people of
Tumbumdo and then, seeing that they were obstinate
and that they resisted more strenuously than he had
expected, he sent, on the ijrd, to his own district ibr
reinforcements, which were to be ready in three days,
Meanwhile, the tungchen did not enme, in spite of
his promise, and the superior of Labug (lorn pit sent to
me to express his astonishment, adding that, if he did
not come soon, the convent would procure me the
provisions and animals which I needed for my journey
to Sining. On the 25^ I at lust saw Pu Lao Yeh, who
seemed struck with consternation* He bore witness to
being painfully affected by the calamity that had over-
come us and by the pitiable condition to which we
were reduced and showed his regret that the body of
Dutreuil de Rhins had not been found and that there
was now no hope of ever finding it. lie added that the
negotiations with the people of Tumbumdo were no
further advanced and that, as ill-luck would have it, two
facts kept alive their obstinacy nnd that of their [xirtmn*.
In the nrst place, in the fight which had followed on the
fall of Dutreuil de Rhma, a Tibetan had been killed by
one of our bullets, which had passed through his chest
from front to back. I replied that, if that were so, the
Tibetans had only themselves to btatne ; that, at that
moment, we were more than ever on the lawful defen-
sive ; that our enemies, after wounding, or rather killing
our leader, after recovering possession of their animah,
after giving us to hope that they would cease hostilities,
had suddenly renewed their attack with a perfidy that
doubled the gravity of their crime ; and that, moreover,
if we had killed one of their men, there was no doubt
but that the Tibetans would not have failed to take an
easy revenge when I fell into their hands.
"They did not know of it then," said Pu Lao Yeh.
"Also, if they did not kill you, it was not that they did
not intend to do so, but they pretend that you threw a
spell over them and that the spirits protected you. In
any case, I assure you that I have myself seen the dead
man. Certainly, no one can blame you for it, seeing
that you were obliged to defend yourselves, and I only
mention the fact to explain to you the persistent ill-
will of the people of* Tumbumdo. In the second
place, the Kakis accuse your leader of having, in your
absence, ordered or allowed one of their men to be
shot dead ; here is the petition which I have received
on the subject ."
So saying, he showed me, with an embarrassed air,
a piece of paper half the si/.r of a man's hand, containing
two linen of writing, without seal or signature. ! replied
that this story was a contemptible and ridiculous trick,
an odiou* machination invented by our enemies to make
some nort of excuse for their conduct by charging
their victim with an imaginary crime and that any
difficulties which we had had on the way with ill-
disposed inhabitants had never degenerated into an
affray, thanks to the Kpirit of wisdom and modera-
tion which our leader had never failed to show. And
I mentioned the incident of the I4th of May,*
which* distorted in the main and in detail with
more audacity than skill, had possibly served as
a groundwork for the fabrication of the charge with
which they were trying to sully the memory of Uutreui!
de KhitiH* This incident was, in reality, *o devoid of
importance that, during the two days which we spent near
the wot where it happened, we never heard *pe#k of it
TObet 165
and that, during the whole of our stay at Jyerkimdo, no
one said a word to us about it It was not until several
days after the fight at Tumburndo that the Tibetans had
thought of employing it to lend colour to the calumnies
with which they were seeking to palliate their crime.
There could be no greater proof of the knavery of the
accusers than the care which they had taken to remove
my evidence by pretending that the act with which they
were reproaching Dutreuil de Rhins had been committed
in my absence, whereas it so happened that, during all
the time that we were on Raki territory, I had never left
my leader's side* Lastly, in spite of the indignation
deserved by the ignominious methods to which the
Tibetans resorted in their defence, 1 was not without
deriving a certain satisfaction from them, since they
proved that our enemies were conscious of the iniquity
of their conduct at Tumbumdo and that it was im-
possible for them to lay the blame upon us.
Pu Lao Yeh did not wait for me to develop the
whole of my argument before he assured me that he had
never believed that story and that he recognised in this
calumny one of the ordinary methods of procedure of
the natives. He next told me that I must stay another
fortnight. I observed to him that he had already kept
me waiting five or six days longer than was arranged
and this to no good purpose and 1 asked him what he
proposed to do in that fortnight and if he could promise
to come to a result of some kind within that time, He
replied that his authority was too uncertain for him to
give me any positive assurance ; that I must even not
cherish too great a hope of obtaining the result by
which I set the greatest store, for he had been told
that all the papers were burnt ; but that I knew that
he was not a rich man and it would take him quite a
fortnight to get together what I needed for my journey.
At the same time, he took from his breast a set of twenty
IHO TObct
rupees strung together, saying that this was an ornament
of his wife's which she hud consented to give up to him
for me ami that it was all that he hud been able to find,
because his colleague's wife was very miserly and had
refused to hand over her jewels. The poor man was
at great pains to play his comedy of /cat and devotion.
There was no denying that he hud the good intention to
serve me, but he puffed it to excess and affected this
great spirit of sacrifice only because he wished to force
as great a one upon me. I told him that I could not
accept the money which he offered me ; that I had only
to say a word to the lama of Labug to have everything
that 1 mjuiivd ready for me by the next day and that
I did not me;m to remain much longer,
Pu Lao Ych had his own reasons for wishing to
prolong my stay. He dmuled tin- intervention of the
Imperial legate as much as did the Tibetans, although
for other reasons : the Tiluluns feared any Chinese
middling in their affairs, berausc it would be more or
less prejudicial to their independence ; l*u Lao Yah
feared that he would be made to bear the responsibility
for the difficulties from which he hud not succeeded in
saving his government : that was why he was trying to
settle thing* as bent he could before the Imperial Legate
was toll! of them and, if he were forced to admit the
imtxwsibility of this, he wished at least to be the first to
inform Sining of the events that hud taken place, so as to
present them in the most favourable light to himself*
As for me, I did not cure whether ! found a well or ill-
informed heari*r at Sining ; besides, I considered that the
failure nt i'u Lao Ych and his friends to obtain satisfaction
arose cither from radical impotent*)* or from defective '/cal
and that, in cither case, it was my business to betake
myself, with the least possible delay, to the only authority
capable of removing that impotency or reviving that %tisu.
I wan kept back only by the hope that Yapsang Tenant'*
THbet 38?
efforts might be more effective than those of Pu Lao
Yeh. I had heard that the latter did not look favour-
ably upon the lama's attempt. I taxed him with this
and told him how wrong he was, since he and the
lama both had the same object in view, adding that,
if their combined influence and forces succeeded in
making the people of Tumbumdo yield, the authorities
at Sining would thank him and he would reap both
honour and profit, lie protested that he had done
nothing to impede Yapsang Tenant's action, that he had
long hud excellent relations with him, and he promised
me to act in concert with him ii* to the best measures to
be taken to achieve the desired result and even, as he
was in the minority among the Taorongpa, to instigate
a collective intervention of all the Zachukkapa chiefs, I
replied that, in that case, I would wait patiently.
The tungchen thereupon left me and went to the
convent of Labug. He soon returned with horses and
provisions and told me that we must not reckon on the
intervention of the Zachukkapa chiefs, that the lama of
Labug was formally opposed to it and that I must leave
at once* I retorted curtly that I should leave when
I pleased. The delegates of the shadso then spoke and
assured me that their superior was inspired by my own
interests and those of the cause which I was upholding
as well as by those of the country as a whole ; that
he had been in favour of Yapsang Tenam's intervention
so long as he thought that demonstrations and threat**
would be sufficient, but that he disapproved and would
do all in his power to prevent a recourse to arms which
would provoke a general war, the issue of which would
be in doubt owing to the strength of the people of
Tumbumdo and their partisans ; that, on the other
hand, my departure for Sining would probably make
the people of Tumbumdo more tractable, because it
would spare their susceptibilities and allow them to
188
appear to be yielding to the Chinese government and
not to a foreigner and adversary and also because
they would become more frightened if the intervention
of the Imperial Legate appeared to them to be more
imminent.
This was very well argued and these reflexions
were the more calculated to convince me inasmuch
as I had already made them myself and as they came
from a man to whom I owed everything and with-
out whom I could do nothing. It would, no doubt*
have been very picturesque to fling that con4otlitre
of u Yapsang Tenam with his band of moss-troopers
against Tumbumdo, to make twenty or thirty native
chiefs take up arms for or against me, to cause a fine
break ing of lances and a fine plunder ; hut that was
not what we had come to Tibet for; we had come to
work; ami, given the impossibility of doing anything
for Dutreuil tie Rhins, of even showing him the last
duties, 1 considered myself fortunate in having been
able to gather round me all the men of the mission*
without exception, and my only object now was to
recover the scientific documents, Now there was always
the danger that an armed attack would prompt tne
Tibetans to burn these, if they had not already done
so. By vexing the only friends of whom I felt certain,
I risked the chance of setting them against me, of
depriving myself of al! support and of rushing into a
new disaster without even having right on my side*
Nevertheless, I wished to know Yapsang Tenam's
opinion i that was why I put off my departure; but I
waited in vain for him to send a messenger to conier with
me and I could dispatch no one to htm because Tiso
had been sent on another mission by the tungchetv V
On the evening of the 2yth, being still without ttW*>
I decided to start the next day. As 1 wished to arrive
first and as soon as possible at Sining and ts I wished
189
also, out of respect for the memory of my unfortunate
chief, to carry out the programme of our mission to
the end as he himself had settled it at Jyerkundo, I
was resolved, in spite of the danger, to follow the direct
and unexplored road which skirts the country of the
Goloks, But 1 did not care for the brigands to he
told beforehand of my passing and I therefore con-
tinued to declare to all-comers that I should not start
before the 301(1 and that I should go through Tsuidam.
Only, I sent for Pu Lao Yeh and the shatiso's delegates
and confided my plan to them. They dissuaded me
eagerly and told me that they wotild not answer for my
safety except on the Tsaidam road and that they could
not procure me a guide for the other. I replied that
my resolution was immovable, that I had no time to
lose and that I should quite well find my way alone*
At last, they determined to acquiesce in my plan,
which, however, was executable, they assured me t
only if the secret were not rumoured forth too early
and if 1 marched very quickly. I charged them to
follow up the question of the restoration of the mission
documents by every means, even by payment ; J
especially urged them not to allow themselves to be
turned from their efforts because they were told that
the papers had been burnt ; and I made them under-
stand that, if this rumour were true, the action of
the Chinese government would be twice as vigorous
and the punishment twice as severe, i recommended
them also to resume their search for the body of
Dutreuil de Rhins and, if they found it, to send it
to Sining, I undertaking to pay for their outky
and trouble, They swore that they would do all that
they could and the best guarantee of their sincerity
was their desire by a tangible result to prove the truth
of their zeal and the usefulness of their services to the
Imperial Legate, who would soon be informed of the
190 UVbCt
business and would ask them for an account of their
action,
The shadso sent me a letter for his brother, a lama
in residence at Tongkor Gompa, and a guide, an old, but
still active man, who had formerly been a merchant} who
had often made the journey to Si rung by the different
roads and who, having one clay fallen into the hands of
the Goloks, had been pillaged, ruined and reduced to
turning monk. That night, 1 once more saw Tiso, my
host : Yapsang Tenam had asked him to tell me that he
saw no objection to my departure ; that, on the contrary,
matters would probably take a better turn because of it
and that he would continue to deal with the people of
Tumbumdo in accordance with my last instructions,
Although the interference of this lama did not have
all the success that 1 hoped for, it did, at least, thanks
to the anxiety which it causal, make my friends the
tungchcn and the shadso display more liberality and
a greater eagerness to contribute towards the expenses
of my journey, I handed Tiso, as a reward tor his
excellent services, a certain quantify of gold which I had
found sewn up in the clothes of one of my men and,
while the village was still sleeping and a little uuivering
of the air accompanied the first pale rays of tne dawn,
I left this sad, though hospitable placej where I had
passed twenty-three days of anguish and mortal weari-
ness. Notwithstanding the thought of the sufferings
and dangers that awaited me on this new journey under-
taken with the slightest possible resources across an
unknown, mountainous and desert country, infested
with bands of brigands and as wide as that which
stretches between Lyons and Florence ; notwithstanding
my grief at recognising my helplessness and at being
obliged to leave everything behind me, buried in
a disaster from which perhaps nothing would ever again
emerge, I felt a genuine relief from the necessity that
Efbet 101
drove me from these parts, to which such cruel and
gloomy memories were attached.
We went first towards the north, in order to avoid
the more populous parts of the turbulent region of
Zachukka and to give the impression that we were
making for the Tsaidam road. Shortly after our depar-
ture, while we were crossing the high hills on the right
bank of the La Chu, we suddenly suw, at some distance,
coming in an opposite direction, a troop of thirty or
forty mounted men armed with muskets and extraordi-
narily long lances. On seeing us, they stopped and we
ourselves halted, wondering whal could be the meaning
of this challenge and whether the road was already
going to be barred to us. However, I ordered the
march to be resumed ; the Tibetans, closing up
their ranks, did the same and passed close to us
without saying anything. It was the head of the
canton of Chinto and his escort ; when he learnt who
we were, he sent two men on horseback to the village
to forbid the inhabitants to admit us to their houses
or to supply us with any goods. When we passed
through this village, which squats humbly and slily
in a slightly wider portion of a narrow valley, there
was not a soul outside.
A little further, we came to where four valleys
meet, between two monasteries which, instead of
settling themselves comfortably w the plain by the
waterside, have taken refuge in the barren ruggedness
of the mountains : on the right, a Saskyapa convent
scatters its many-coloured buildings along the side
of the red hill ; on the left, a reformed and more
modest convent perches its white walls on a projecting
rock. Next, going up the Chareh Chu, we passed
before a village and, a little further, before a long
array of tents drawn up in line at the bottom of a
valley, pressed one against the other and surrounded
m tttbet
by a wall of stones, high as u man and pierced with
loop-holes. We felt ourselves to be in u curiously
ticklish country, plundering or plundered as the occasion
demanded, at the gate of the Goloks, those mountain
pirates, and of their advance-guard, the Zach ukkapa. We
camped, at nightfall, in a deserted cornet- and, the next
day, a first pass took us into the territory of the short-
haired Zachukkapa and a second led us from the basin
of the Do Chu to that of the Za Chu, which is some-
times called the Za Chu Golok to distinguish it from the
Za Chu Mekong, The gorges of the basin of the Do
Chu, its narrow, deep 'and gloomy valleys, with their
swift and roaring torrents, and its steep, grassy, rounded
hills were ".ueceeded by the wide, dour and sad valleys,
the slow and silent rivers, the fl.il :uu! bare hills nf the
basin of the Zu Chu. On both Mtir, nf tlu- mad stood
snow mountains, of which those MM the Irti fnrm the
sources of the river. The country, more barren ami
doubtless higher, becune <nuiu ( illy lev, populous ; the
houses were replaced by tent%, which themselves dis-
appeared on the ^oth of June, when we hud tlu; pletwire
of seeing the last of them. After crossing the Zn Chu,
which was fifty yards wide and half u yard Jeep, we went
up the valley of its affluent, the Clm t'hu, the volume of
which is very similar* Our delight at finding ourselves
alone, without alarming neighbours and masters of all
we survey ed, was spoilt by a very bail storm, which
dashed hundfuls of hail in our faces* When the wind
dropped, the hail gave way to ruin and the rain to MIOW,
We had to lie down in the mud and the little calico
tent which had been given us prevented us, it is true,
from seeing the clouds, but not from receiving their
water, A few men pretended to In* ill, being of opinion
that ! was going too fust. Indeed, we had far to go
every day and little to cut. For all our food, we had
barky-meal mixed with about a tenth part of nund uiul
Ufbet 193
gravel to make up the weight, unstalked tea and rancid
butter; we had also taken two sheep with us, but, as
they delayed our march, we killed them and carried only
the best pieces. This was little for ten men, for fifteen
or, perhaps, twenty days : the more reason to hurry on,
I said that all laggards would be abandoned without
pity and forbade every man to turn his head to see if
anyone was left behind. My threat took effect ; the idlest
found their legs again and forgot their aches and pains.
On the rst of July, at the foot of some snow-topped
mountains, we came to the source of the Cha Chit and,
in order to cross the not veryJiigh Pachong Pass, we
splashed through deep, slippery mud strewn with a
host of great stones, The northern slope was covered
with snow, sometimes to a height of several feet. As
the darkness of the night was invading the cold and
desolate valleys and rugged mountains that surrounded
us, we camped, again in the rain and snow, on the bank
of a torrent that ran into the Ma Chu. The next
day, still in bad weather and in the teeth of the wind,
we finished the crossing of the chain that separates the
basin of the Za Chu from that of the Ma Chu, or
Hoangho, and went down the valley of the Kala Chu,
which runs into Lake Kala Nam Cho and runs out of
it again under the name of Kiang Chu. This valley,
which is two milevS wide, rich in water and grass ami
peopled with wild yaks, is a sacred valley. It is over-
looked by the white summit of the Kula Dagseh, the throne
of a revered spirit, a siJag 9 to whom every traveller must
do homage, if he would avoid misfortune. On the
slope of the hills is a little wall of dried ox-dung against
which, in legendary" antiquity, stood the tent of a
nymph, or spamo^ the sovereign of these parts and u
great huntress ; and the traveller who pusses before this
relic of her wandering palace never fails to bow and to
mutter a few deprecatory words.
13
194 iribet
On the 3rd of July, the fine weather fortunately
returned and we crossed the great valley of the Kiang
Chuj the river of the wild horses. The valley is seven
miles wide at this spot and stretches for a distance of
fifty miles from the mountains that rise to the south
of the Ngoring Cho to the valley of the Ma Chu itself,
drowned in the mist of the distant horizon. The ground
is now grass-grown and marshy, for want of a slope to
drain the water, and now pebbly and barren. We halted
to take a cup of tea on the bank of the sluggish and
muddy river, not far from the road which the Goloks
take when they go for >salt to the Kyaring Cho. Our
guide told us how, many years before, he was surprised
by the brigands with his caravan of forty-two men, as
he was descending the pass which leads from the Ngoring
Cho to the Kiang Chu, and how the brigands, discharging
their fire-arms and uttering savage yells to terrify the
peaceful merchants, had flung themselves upon them
with couched lances, carried off* the beasts of burden,
robbed the men of their trinkets and exchanged their old
clothes against the newer ones of their victims. My
interpreter, who had long been anxiously examining the
horizon, suddenly cried :
"There are the Goloks I " and pointed to a great
dark, moving mass, strewn with gleaming points, far
across the plain*
It was a huge herd of wild yaks, whose horns, shining
in the sun, looked in the distance like the lances of a
squadron. We laughed heartily at the coward and
finished the stage gaily, although the danger was more
than imaginary ; but we had so little to lose that, had
the robbers come, themselves would have been robbed-
On the 4th of July, we came to the brink of a little
lake hidden in a fold of the mountains on the right bank
of the Ma Chu and stopped for a few moments, beguiled
by the charm of the landscape, so rare in this centre of
IHbet 195
Asia. The easy slope of the hills was thick with long,
close, supple grass, such as we had never seen, and, in
this narrow frame of verdure, the lake smiled sweetly
under the pure sky. There was no other sound and no
other movement than a light buzz of insects in the air, a
light antelope's flight at the bottom of a gorge, the light
quivering of the ripples shimmering on the surface of
the water. We would gladly have lingered in this
peaceful, warm and luminous retreat, which lightened
some of the burden with which our hearts were weighted.
But we had to go on, for the road was long and time
precious. We crossed the Ma t Chu, which, at this spot,
is a slender river, fifty yards wide and not much more
than two feet deep. It flows through one of those
valleys which arc exactly characteristic of this region,
many miles wide, flat, stretching out as far as the eye
can reach, resembling the alleys of a classical park
immensely magnified, even as the mountains which hem
them in on either side remind one, with their flat,
monotonous and unending lines, of some classical
building whose proportions have been enlarged by ex-
tending it indefinitely. We have here an architecture
of straight, horizontal lines which takes the place of
the Gothic architecture, with its broken, perpendicular
lines, of the basins of the Za Chu Mekong and the
Do Chu f Allowing for the differences caused by the
decrease in height (13,000 as against 16,000 to 17,000
feet) and by the greater display of the mountains, one
is struck by the resemblance between the appearance
of this country and that of the Ustun Tagh, even as the
Pachong La had seemed to me an exact 'counterpart of
the Karakoram. At more than eight leagues to our left,
at the end of the valley, rose a great chain of snowy
mountains in front of which runs the famous road from
Lhasa to Sining which we had intended to take when
leaving Nagchu, It passes between the two lakes,
196
Kyaring and Ngoring, and is, therefore, constantly
traversed by bands of the Goloks, on their way to fetch
salt, which abounds in those lakes and in which they
carry on a lucrative trade, for they make sure of a
monopoly in it through the terror with which they
inspire their neighbours.
Beyond the valley of the Ma Chu, we climbed a mass
of mountains, which is wide, but not very high, by a
series of passes called the Maladun, that is to say the
Seven Passes of the Ma Chu, although I counted only
three. On leaving this mass, we dropped into the valley
of Dug Jong, similar to the last, except that it is almost
without water and barren, It also opens on the Golok
country, which, in the distance and almost endlessly,
displays its lofty mountains, whose whiteness seems to
evaporate into the sky. The brilliancy of the sun in the
spacious horizon was very painful to the sight. Our
guide suffered from it to such an extent that he was
unable to see the road and that I had to correct his
mistakes and myself to direct the march across the Dugri
Mountains by the compass and the appearance of the
ground. In this way, we arrived exactly at the fork
formed by our road with that of Lhasa, south of the
Stongri Cho and north of the Stonga Alacha mountains,
which must be numbered among the strangest in the
world, uncommonly rugged and abrupt, slashed and
jagged and bristling with rocky white crests* After
passing the southern extremity of the Stongri Cho, the
road crosses a valley, still very wide, but more broken
up than the others, which reveals, on the left, a close
chaos of ugly mountains, bare, grey and dismal, which
suggest the sands of Gobi and separate us from the
Mongol country, and, on the right, much further away
than it seems, a prodigious and resplendent mass of
snow and ice, which strikes any man, however accus-
tomed to mountains, with admiration and astonishment*
TTfbet 10?
Since leaving the great peak of the Akku Tagh> \vc had
seen none that presented so marvellous an effect. It
was the Amyeh Machen, the sacred mountain of the
Goloks, before which they pray, striking the earth with
their foreheads, while its redoubtable divinity, who is
not assimilated by Buddhism, proteets their imlepcr.dence,
makes their herds increase and prosper and Messes their
marauding raids.
We had at last succeeded in crossing without let
or hindrance the regions generally frequented by th;
Goloks. On the 7th of July, we found a camp of I'anak
Tibetans, numbering some ten^c;ulvw the shore of the
Pcritun Cho. These Tibetans, who wittth their herds
on horseback, in the Mongolian manner, have a rather
bad reputation as thieves, but they sire not so t|uan el-
some as the Goloks ami do not, like these, travel in
large bands. They were not greatly to he feared, then*-
fore, and we had only to look after our woods to prottvt
them. We would have been glad to renew our to,k
of provisions, which was corning to an end ; but they
would have none of our rupee's, declaring that they
accepted only Chinese money. Beyond the Perium
Cho> the country was once more inhabited, which wemed
to confirm our guide's statement that these Pawiks hail
come so far only to escape taxation*
The appearance of the country had now decidedly
changed and recalled the Altyn Tagh, with the narrow
gorges of the Chemorong Chu and Angarong t'hu and
the deep gash of the Yamatu, similar to that of the rivers
of Kashgar, When we had passed this lust river, we iul
twelve miles without finding a drop of water, going first
through pretty, verdant valleys, studded with tiny flowers
and scented with fragrant herbs, ami next through ;i
wide,, flat valley which stretched between dusty hills ami
which might have been compared pretty correctly with
the Sanju valley, if it hml hail trees and crops. lit the
198 Ufbet
evening, we at last came to the bank of a very modest
river, the Cheche Chu, where we drank our last cup of tea
and ate our last pellet of tsamba. This was on the 9th
of July. Notwithstanding the uncommon swiftness of our
march, it was less than 1 had reckoned upon, as I had
expected to reach Tongkor Gompa on the roth, whereas,
now, the greatest effort could not bring me there before
the 1 2th. I resolved to make for the nearest habitations
as quickly as possible and, as there was none on the
direct road, I resigned myself to lengthening the journey
by half a day and turned straight towards the Koko Nor.
Having taken our las* meal, we pursued our way until
nine o'clock in the evening and camped in the middle of
a large steppe, having marched for fifteen hours that day.
Before five o'clock the next morning, we had done half
a league across the same steppe, which measures over
twenty-five miles in width and stretches as far as the hills
which edge the Koko Nor on the south. This dull
waste, with its sandy clay soil, at one time offers level
ground, covered with gravel and tall grass, and at another
is intersected by ravines with perpendicular sides or else
bristles with earthy, white paps, sometimes with downs,
We could have believed ourselves back in Kashgar. In
the middle lies a small lake, the Kongu Nor, with marshy
banks, infested with mosquitoes, and a little further to
the north runs a slimy river, the Obeh Chu, a smaller
reproduction of the Cherchen Daria. We lost two
horses in the crossing and the men, wearied by the
unusual effort of the previous day, by hunger, by a
violent north wind, which raised clouds of dust, arrived
exhausted at the foot of the hills. We began to climb
them slowly by a stony ravine, but we still failed to see
the longed-for smoke, to hear dogs barking or herds
lowing* To complete our wretchedness, there wast no
water anywhere : we explored every corner of the
mountain, but everything was hideously barren and dry.
ttibet 109
At last, we discovered in the hollow of a rock a small
store of the precious fluid, just sufficient to fill all our
cups. We lay down here. The next morning, a slender
stream of water was trickling between the stones of the
ravine.
We resumed our march and, as \ve went on, the
water became more plentiful, the hills greener ; ami
soon we saw, hanging on the mountain-sides, black tents
similar to those of Central Tibet, but much larger^
without being any higher, and measuring as much a>
50 feet by 30, They were occupied by Panuk Tibetan'-,
who revived us with cups (if excellent buttered tea
and agreed to accept three rupees for a sheep; they took
good care, however, to break one of the rupees to make*
sure of the quality of the metal. At :i short distance
further, I met a little Chinese merchant, whom I asked if
he had any provisions to sell. He said yts, thut he \vnuU
let me have all that 1 wanted and that I could pay him at
Sining, where he would be in a fortnight. One hour
later, he brought me all that I had askeil him for t
apologising for not being able to do more* I never saw
him again nor was I able to learn who he was or what
had become of him.
These mountains to the south of the Kciko Nor arc
comparatively very populous ami the pastures which
grow richer and richer as one approaches the lake, teed
great herds of excellent horses of Mongolian breed and
of fine red cows like those of Europe. On leaving the
hills, one emerges on a grassy plain, sloping gently
towards the immense lake, which i nvcrtowereJ* far
away in the north, by snow mountains. This lake, which
the Mongols, with their usual poverty of imagination,
have called simply the Blue Lake, is not by a long
measure so picturesque as the Num Cho or a large
number of other Tibetan lakes, for it is not *o well
framed and decorated with mountain* ; the scenery in
200 ttfbet
empty and spacious ; but, on the other hand, it is in-
finitely less wild and rugged, infinitely more friendly
towards man, who, under the genial warmth of the sun,
feels much more at his ease here. In the middle of
the water stands a little barren rock, used as a dwelling-
place by four or five solitary lamas, who never go on
land and who receive their provisions in the winter
only when the lake is frozen ; for there are no boats
on the Koko Nor- This eyot is sanctified by legend,
according to which it was brought by a divine bird to
close the orifice through which the water, coming from
the place where Lhasa *jow stands, poured and trans-
formed the meadow into a lake.
Along the Koko Nor, the traveller comes across
numerous tents, some of which are of felt and round,
like those of the Mongols: they are never pitched on
the plain, but take shelter at the foot of the mountain
and hide away in the dales, so that they rarely catch the
eye of the wayfarer. On the I2th, we joined the Tsaidam
road again and, on the I3th, we once more came
upon the old Lhasa road. On the same clay, we arrived
at the gorge of Tongkor Gompa, which is very deep,
steep and rocky. At the bottom, by the water's brink,
grew a cluster of shrubby trees, the first that we had
seen for eleven months, that is to say since leaving
Cherchen. This was to us an undeniable emblem
of civilisation. On the slope of the rocks stood the
monastery buildings, built in the Chinese style, one
of which served the Labug convent as a hostelry, a
warehouse for goods and a residence for its representa*
tive, who was an own brother of the shadso. The little
brother was not worthy of the big one : he was short
and fat, with an apoplectic face and unruly mpve-
ments. He had drunk a good drop of brandy that
morning and received us with enthusiasm ana with
tears in his eyes. The next day, having recovered his
Cfbet 201
composure, he was more reserved, but nevertheless lent
me some fresh horses and some money. We descended
swiftly to Tongkor by a carriage-road, feeling, in spite
of the terrible memories that kept on coming to the
surface, the immense relief of thinking that an en-
thralling, ungrateful, interminable tusk was ended at
last, From every side, the waters of the rivers and
brooks ran softly murmuring ; the abrupt sides of the
mountains were divided into fields' of crops of different
colours; the valleys were strewn with villages with white
houses surrounded by green trees; a large number of
Chinese came and went, busy, Active am! culm, looking
so refined and graceful by comparison with those
rude and rough Tibetans ; and the carriage-wheels
grated, the horses neighed, the dofjs barked, the cocks
crowed Life and plenty had followed upon scarcity ami
death.
At mid-day, the walls of Tongkor came in si^ht,
marking their geometrical square and their regular
battlements among the confused and disordered lines
of the mountains. Pert* Hue gives us an animated
and picturesque description of this town which leaves
the impression of something singularly tierce and
gloomy. The reality, on the contrary, gave me
an impression of brightness ami gaiety ; this wun
because Pere Hue came out of the light, whereas 1
came out of the shadow, and, us the Persian poet says,
"To the houris of paradise, purgatory is a hell ; but ask
the damned in hell: purgatory is a paradise!" Thcne
truculent Tibetans, whom the good father depicts for u*
in the streets and inns of Tongkor with their awords
stuck in their belts, their shaggy hair> their repulftive
dirtiness, their proud gait, their abrupt gesture.*, their
loud voices and their fierce glances, are, in fact* quiet
people enough, even somewhat timid, because they feel
that they are among stranger*, a little awkward in their
202 ttfbet
Sunday clothes ; people who have washed, combed,
decked themselves out to make themselves presentable
in a polished town, who make it their business to appear
elegant and well-mannered, as is seemly in the noble
neighbourhood of a sub-prefect of the august Emperor ;
and if, sometimes, they shout and make a noise, this does
not mean that they wish anybody mortal harm, but that
they are amusing themselves, that they are gay and
merry and that they want everybody to know it. Pre
Hue compared them with the Chinese ; I compared
them with themselves and I was pleased with them for
their efforts to clean and polish themselves. For that
matter, the Tibetans are far from being in a majority at
Tongkor, which is, above all, a town of Dungans and
Chinese and, although those Chinese inhabitants are not
the flower of China, they were a change after the
Tibetans. I saw the sub-prefect and the colonel, who,
knowing nothing as yet, were greatly astonished and
touched at the piteous state in which I was and at the
catastrophe of which we had been the victims ; they
showed me a very genuine sympathy and did me every
service that lay in their power, during the few hours that
I spent in their town.
On the next day, the I5th of July, at five o'clock
in the evening, I passed through the west gate of the
town of Sining, which at first appeared to me a very
imposing, bustling, noisy, populous city, and I was a
little deafened by the tumult that reigned in its narrow
streets. The inns were full of people and I had to
instal myself provisionally in a miserable tavern, than
which I had seen none worse in the whole course of
my journey, I at once sent my curd to the Imperial
Legate (Kincka)^ Koei Choen, My arrival and the sad
news which 1 brought made a great sensation in the
Yamen : a number of functionaries and officers, with the
prefect at their head, came to call on me that same
Cibct 203
evening and, seeing my lodging, at once had the best
inn in the town evacuated ami placed it at my disposal.
On the 1 6th, I had an interview with the Imperial
Legate, who received me with great honour. His face
betrayed the profound agitation into which he was
thrown by the tragic and unexpected nature of the
affair in question, the grave responsibility which it
caused him to incur, the vexation which it promised
him. He was quite overcome, he kept his eyes lowered
or raised them only with an effort, he spoke in a low,
very gentle and uncertain voice* After expressing to
me, with emotion, hh sorrowful concern in my great
misfortune and his intense regret that the event
had not permitted him to receive Dutreuil de Rhins
with the honours that were due to him after so
long and arduous a journey, he decided to go in
person to Lanchow in order to telegraph to the govern -
ment in Peking, to arrange with the Viceroy as to
the best steps to be taken and to obtain from him the
necessary resources and soldiers for an armed expedition
to Tumbumdo. Alone, indeed, he wu able to do
nothing, for he had hardly any money, and disposed of
no troops except a few Mongols encamped in their own
country and armed with bows and arrows,
In the meantime, I made him at once send two of hi-^
interpreters to Jycrkumlo to recall the two interpreters
on service, Pu and Li; to carry a mandarin's button,
with the official thanks of the Imperial Legate, to the
superior of the convent of Labug, in recognition of the
assistance which he had jfivcn me ; to order the body
of Dutreuil de Rhins, if it could be found, to be
conveyed to Sining ; and to call upon the people of
Tumbumdo to restore the lost baggage and, especially,
the papers. I hoped that the Tibetans, on receiving
the direct and express orders of the Imperial Legate,
knowing that he was determined to act and to treat
204
them with rigour and thinking that perhaps they would
escape more lightly by making an easy concession, would
no longer persist in their refusal. I was right ; but, as
the interpreters took the high-road through Tsaidam
and, in spite of the orders of the Imperial Legate and
the pecuniary encouragement which I gave them,
travelled by short stages, I did not hear of the partial
success of their mission until I reached Peking. In
addition to this, the Imperial Legate advanced me, even
before I asked for it and not only promptly, but
abundantly, all the money that I needed, so that I
sent back my guide tfr Labug, in the company of a
caravan which was going there, with letters for the lama
and the tungchen, money to refund their outlay and
various presents.
Meanwhile, I had explored every corner of the
town of Sining, which is small enough, in spite of the
number and importance of the dignitaries whom it
shelters. Its walls, which are higher than those of
Khotan and which look dignified with the dark colour
which the years have given them, form a quadrilateral
of four thousand by two thousand feet, containing a
population of about fifteen thousand inhabitants. In
this figure I include the garrison, which consists of
three thousand soldiers on paper, although the effec-
tive force does not exceed fifteen hundred men, the
pay of the other fifteen hundred going to swell the
salary of the very amiable general or division, the
commandant of the place* Without the walls lies a
considerable suburb, peopled almost exclusively by
Moslems, to the number of nearly ten thousand.
These are distinguished at first sight from the rest of
the population by their little caps, which are polygon^
instead of being round ; by their generally tftller
stature ; by their very prominent features, their^ firmer
and manlier gait, their brisker movements > their bold
tlibet 205
glance and an air of turbulence and bravado that beram
their impatience of the yoke. They rake little trouble"
to conceal their contempt for the Chinese infidels or
their sympathy for the Europeans On the secern!
day after my arrival, some of their notable* and
mollahs came to offer me their condolence and 1 ha.l
always every reason to be satisfied with them and with
their correligionists in the other parts of China,
The little streets of the town are generally calm an,i
lonely, frequented by rare pedestrians picking their way
through the mud, the tilth and the dogs and lined by
low, bare walls, with hardly an}^ windows to them, for
the Chinese lodgings are lighted most often from the
inner court-yards* Only in one or two streets which
have shops drawn up on either mdc is there an animated
crowd, a crowd in which an occasional wild and discord-
ant note is struck by a thick-set, stupid-looking Mongol,
with a face shining with grease, or a more slender, but
still very clumsy Tibetan. The great number of saddlers
felt-makers and sellers of hides, skins and furs indicate
the neighbourhood of a nation of horsemen, herdsmen
and hunters; but, close at hand, in the carpenters' .shops,
those great displays of substantial coffins, giving out ;t
good smell of dry wood and presenting tlieir inviting
and comfortable interiors to the public, recall old
China, sedentary and slumbering in the coffin of her
traditions,
I will speak here neither of the trade of Sining
town nor of its monuments. 1 shall have occasion to
return to the former in the second part of this* work
and, as for the monuments, it is unnecessary to enlarge
upon them, for all the buildings in China are but repe-
titions one of the other and are more remarkable and
more imposing for the vast extent of their inner courts,
which follow one another in long rows, than for the
effect of the architecture, which is heavy and us it were
206
crushed under the excessive development of the roofs.
The insignificance and ugliness of the human construc-
tions are atoned for, in a certain measure, by the beauty
of the site. The valley in whose bottom the town
stands opens, in its bright and happy grace, like a basket
of verdure and fruit, between high hills whose natural
ruggedness is modified by a few crops and a few trees
scattered over their sides. They are not so near as to
interfere with the free effusion of the light nor so far
that one is unable from any part of the valley to
distinguish the details of their structure. What remains
of their barrenness, t^he steep red rocks that every-
where pierce through the thin vegetal layer, reminds the
traveller of the proximity of Tibet ; but he feels very
far removed from that country of poverty when he sees
at the foot of the rocks and thrown into relief by them
that flourishing champaign covered with kitchen-gardens,
with wheat, barley and millet. Although the fertility
of the soil is not very great in itself, he is nevertheless
driven to admire it, when he reflects that he is at a
height of 7,400 feet, that is to say far above the
extreme point reached by the coarsest crops in our own
alpine regions.
Here and there the picturcsquencss of the hill-slopes
is increased by the varnished roof of a Buddhist temple
and one might think that the religion of Sakya Muni
reigns over men's souls , even as his temples command
the valley ; but, on climbing the path that leads to the
sanctuary, one discovers that it is abandoned, almost
without worship or worshippers. A custodian alone
keeps watch over the chapel which contains the gods of
bronze or of striped and gilded wood : in the middle
sits Buddha, grave and culm, with his long mustaches
drooping after the fashion of a Chinese mandarin,
himself tearing the stamp of a dull serenity, as though
he felt> from the destitution to which mankind has
tttbet 207
condemned him, that the end of time is at hand ; on
either side stand the spirits whose mission it is to
destroy the infidels : they are gigantic and grotesque,
armed from head to foot ; they roll furious eyes and
show fierce teeth : vain grimaces which there is none
here to see or fear. Around the chapel are disposed
clean and well-paved courts, well-constructed buildings,
bathed in the warm light of the sun, cooled by a vivi-
fying breeze, and, from the outer galleries, the view
embraces the whole landscape, in its severe frame of
mountains, and looks down upon the valley, upon the
watered-silk ribbons of the rivers and brooks, upon the
check mantle of the fields dottul with houses and with
clusters of white flowers, upon the grey walls of the
town, which, from this height, resembles a town of
dwarfs. This charming abode ought to be peopled with
monks, but the hostility of the Confucian administration
and the steady indifference of the populace tend to
keep it empty : in the air, which ought to drone with
pious orisons, the only sound was that of a profane
lute, twanged by a Chinese, the one inhabitant of the
place besides the watchman. He was a consumptive
patient^ who had been recommended by the doctors to
Dreathe the pure air of the hills and who had come
to spend the fine season in this deserted convent.
At the moment of my visit, he had taken shelter from
the heat of the day in a charming, verdant summer-
house, beside a pond of clear water, and, to huntcn
the flight of time, was accompanying on his instru-
ment the shrill and quavering song of one of his
friends, who had come up to enquire after him. The
Buddhist monasteries of China are not only country
refuges for the use of convalescents : they serve also
as pleasure-resorts for the townsmen, who often send
one of their cooks to prepare a good dinner for a troop
of merry table-companions in one of these charming
208
retreats so well-suited to promote g:iy conversation and
a good digestion.*
Very different from this is the famous monastery
of Skubum, a really Tibetan monastery, dependent
administratively upon the Imperial Legate. It is the
most celebrated of the convents of Kansu and the most
important after that of Lhabrang, It is separated from
Sining by an easy road of seventeen miles, following a
little tributary ot the river, which leads first to a small,
bustling village, full of shops anil inns, of merchants and
pilgrims, purveyors and clients of the monastery, I
there met a lama doctor whom 1 had already seen at
Tongkor, an old man with a lively anil prepossessing air,
si voluble talker and a curious type of adventurer. A
native of JLudak, he had left that country many years
since, to escape creditors who put forth exorbitant
pretensions to be paid. He had shaved his head, placed
the threatened remnants of his fortune in a bag, girded
up his loins and, saddling a stout hack, had set out with
a light heart for Lhasa, where he arrived as a devout
pilgrim as well an an unscrupulous debtor* Received
as a monk and furnished with the Dalai Lama's blessing,
he studied medicine at the same time as theology, visited
the principal sanctuaries of Tibet, travelled through
Nopal, Kashmir and a portion of India, made a long
stay in Turkestan and in Mongolia, where he followed
the trade of a horse-dealer, pushed on his peregrinations
as far as China and Eastern Tibet and then, beginning to
feel the weight of age, settled down at Tongkor, I do
* There exist* a fallacy, difficult to uproot that China belongs to
the Uuddhiwt religion. Aa a matter of fuel, there to a, fairly large
number of Buddhist monks in China; but there J no BudtlhiHt popula-
tion. The case in the mime with the majority of the nation* which the
fancy of the Htatit*ticiim include*) among the votartett of BiuUlhu. In
point of realty Buddhbt nation*, I know only the Mongol* and the
Tibetan*, or Icsa than mx millions of people (/. my " Scientific Motion
In Upper A#Ia/' Vol. I., pp. 378-380).
Htfcet 309
not mean to say that he kept the house, for he was
still very active. To-day, he was at Tongkor; to-morrow,
he was seen at Sining; and, soon, at Skubum or Lhabrang,
on the banks of the Koko Nor or at the gates of the
Great Wall, with the Salar Moslems or the Tsaidam
Mongols. He travelled by hill and dale, in the stone
cities or the woollen tents, atoning for his lapses from
his monastic vows by frequent devotions at the most
reverenced sanctuaries, gathering simples, selling prayers
and incantations, prescriptions and remedies, spices and
tea, stuffs and horses and, in general, all that was to be
sold at a profit. He knew how to read and write his
mother-tongue, was fairly well-vSrscd in Tibetan literature,
spoke the Turkic and Mongolian languages decently,
jabbered Hindustani and murdered Chinese, Ever
ready to serve me, he cured me of a painful cramp
in the stomach by means of a certain black powder of
his compounding, gave me many particulars about the
countries which he had visited ana tried to sell me a
one-eyed horse with a cracked saddle. The variety of
the nations which he had seen and the manners which he
had observed had singularly enlarged his ideas and his
theology smacked of heresy. He expressed to me his
opinion, based upon a great abundance of arguments,
that the three religions the Buddhistj the Christian and
the Moslem were, at bottom, only one and the same
religion, laying down the same rules of morality, and
that Sakya Muni, Jesus and Mohammed were prophets
inspired by one and the same divinity, who bears
different names Sangy6, God the Father or Allah a
divinity one in its essence, but infinitely varied in it$
attributes, a principle from which everthing emanates
to which everything must return :
"In short/* said he, "the difference betwee.-
three doctrines lies in this, that the Buddhists look
the divinity as immanent in all nature, which is
14
210 ZHbet
a perceptible and hence illusory manifestation of the
supreme Intelligence, whereas the Christians and the
Moslems, with their narrow and precise minds, consider
God as a Being distinct from all the others and outside
nature, although He is infinite. Now this is a contra-
diction, for, if God be distinct from other beings and
outside nature. He is necessarily limited by them and it,
In the same way, the Christians and Moslems think
that God wished for the creation of the world and that
this creation pleased Him, that He is offended by bad
actions and gladdened by good ones, that He desires the
conversion of sinners: and yet they add that He is
perfect. These, again, arc two contradictory proposi-
tions, for a desire is an aspiration after that which is
wanting ; now, if God be perfect and absolute, He can
want for nothing : therefore He can desire nothing nor
foci cither joy or sorrow.*'
And the worthy man wiped his forehead with his
wide red sleeve ; for he spoke with heat.
The monastery, which is in a lateral ravine, is not
visible from the village. You have to go round a pro*
jection of the mountain before you can catch a vague
glimpse, through the trees, on the slope of the hills,
which are hollowed out like a cradle, of a few pieces of
wall, rising in storeys one above the other, and the gUt
roof of the great temple. This wild and towering site
was chosen expressly, according to the Buddhic custom^
to show how greatly superior to the worldly life, which
seethes in the plains, is the religious life, which blows on
the uplands, in a purer air, untrodden by the crowd,
where man is freer, more the master of his soul and his
destiny, delivered from the slavery of earthly relations^
interests and passions and by so much the nearer to the
divinity as he is further from the vulgar herd it*
ignorance and its blindness and more wrapped up in
silence and calm, which are the forerunners of eternal
ttibet 211
peace. When you have passed through the entrance-
gate, you see a large number of different, scattered
buildings, large and small, chapels or dwellings of lamas,
so that this monastery resembles a village. Three
thousand five hundred monks live here, each in his own
room or house and each on his own money ; for the
community supplies its members with only a piece
of woollen stuff and a certain quantity of barley per
year and with three measures per day of buttered tea,
which is prepared in colossal cauldrons on huge cooking-
ranges.
Among the visitors, some of whom receive the
hospitality of the convent m return for their pious
donations, the Chinese are remarkable by their scarcity ;
on the other hand, people come from every corner of
Tibet and Mongolia, even from British Tibet and
Russian Mongolia. They all seemed very devout and
very much occupied in prostrating themselves and burn-
ing lamps before the sacred images or in turning
round the sacred edifices. I saw, however, a Mongolian
lama who was abominably drunk and who was still hold-
ing in his hand one of those little tin cups which serve to
measure brandy, The figures which he described as he
walked scandalised some and roused laughter in others,
He greeted me in Russian as he passed and I was not
vey proud that the first words that I hud heard for a long
time in a European language should come from such a
mouth. But for how much did this imperfect fact count
beside all the perfections acquired and heaped up in thin
great prayer-factory ? On every side, banderoles covered
with religious inscriptions streamed in the wind, rows of
cylinders, large as barrels and full of mystical invocations
and sacred formulas, turned on an axis, driven by hand,
uttering numberless orisons. It is a pity that steam-
engines have not made their way so far ; by their
means, a much greater output could be secured and
212 THbet
perhaps it would become possible to counteract the
terrifying sum-total of -imperfections, which increases
day by day and which, for some years, has been visibly
dragging poor humanity into a circle of ever more
deplorable ills,
In one of the principal temples, glittering with a
multitude of lighted lamps, perfumed with the smoke
from the censers, several hundreds of monks were
assembled, chanting the divine office in a double choir
and presided over by a mitred and crosiered chief
lama. In the last row and alone in the middle aisle
was an old monk, kneeling on the bare flags, with bent
head, motionless : feeling his approaching end, he had
resolved to give up his personal property and to divide
it between the coffers of the convent and his poor
colleagues, in order to spend the rest of his days in
meditation and privations and, having nothing more in
this world, to hoard up an inexhaustible treasure for the
next. A large court beside the chapel was filled with
children, with novices learning their lessons aloud under
the direction of professors. When school was over,
the noisy and restless band filled all the space around,
crowded about me to look at me and prevented me from
passing ; but a disciplinary prefect came up with a great
whip at the end of his bare arm and all the Tittle
friarlings flew off hurriedly and laughing*
At last, we came to the marvel which has made
Skubum famous throughout the world. In the small
court-yard of a chapel stood a few shrubs * of which
the bark and even the leaves were studded with
Tibetan characters. According to the legend spread in
Europe by P&re Hue and widely diffused among the
* The tamaa have it that thene shrub* are sandal-tree*, fthrub* held
acred by the Buddhiat*. The talieat ii ju*t about tan feet high; th*
leave* AT* lanceolate and not very sharp-pointed. There arc no hrub
like thm to the country.
tttbet 213
Buddhists of Asia, these letters were formed spon-
taneously by some unknown mysterious influence.
At first sight, I thought that they had been artificially
carved by means of a knife, although the incisions
were neither very clear nor very fine ; but the two
lamas who accompanied me said that it would be
considered a sacrilege to apply the steel to these
revered trees, for they grow upon the exact spot where
the great reformer Tsongkapa was born and it wus the
very blood which escaped from his mother's womb that
fertilised the soil and gave birth to the first of these
trees, from which the others sprang. For this reason,
childless women come to this place to pray and lick the
ground at the root of the tree that stands in the centre
of the court : it is an infallible remedy for barrenness.
The lamas went on to say that, in order the better to
assert the miraculous origin and virtue of these plants,
the monks had, with their finger-nails, traced religious
characters on the trunks and leaves, I told them what
I had heard said of these characters, that they were the
result of a miracle and appeared upon the new leaves
without any human intervention. They told me that this
was a fable, born in the imagination of clumsy people
given to exaggeration and to attributing a marvellous
character to everything at random,
" However/' they said, " the legend is based upon
fact : the first shrub that grew on this spot, immediately
after the birth of Tsongkapa, did bear letters proclaiming
the divine mission of the child. This shrub, which is
much smaller than those which you see here, is preserved
to-day inside the temple with the gold roof and none
is allowed to see it except the loftiest incarnations of
Buddha. It is related that letters appeared upon it
new leaves in divine circumstances, but the impioumiess
of the age has withdrawn the favour of heaven from
us and the sacred tree is dumb/'
2H
This golden-roofed temple, so jealously closed, stands
in the centre of the monastery and contains one half
of the body of Tsongkapa's father, whence the name
of Skubum> which means mausoleum. This was the
only portion of the convent which the lamas were able,
by dint of entreaties, to save from pillage and ruin at
the time of the Moslem revolt of 1862. All the other
edifices are, therefore, of recent date and, at the time
of my visit, the monks were still engaged in building.
Among the masons and carpenters, I observed a large
number of Moslems, men of acknowledged skill, who
were only too pleased to earn money in the service
of the idolaters and who considered themselves free to
destroy what they had done so soon as the occasion
offered.
I here end my narrative, sparing the reader the
Htory of the 1,532 miles which I had still to travel on
horseback in order to reach Peking, where I arrived on
the 1 6th of December 1894. Nor will I enlarge upon
the negotiation!* which, thanks to the good offices of
the Viceroy of Kunsu and of the Imperial Legate of
Sining, backed up by the firm and persistent action of
ML Girard, at that time French Minister in Peking,
ended by bringing about the restoration of the docu-
ments of the mission and, later, in consequence of a
Chinese military expedition, the punishment of four of
the Tibetans who were most deeply compromised in the
crime of Tumbumdo, The head of one of them was
set up on the gate of Sining* Unfortunately, it wa<*
impossible to touch the superior of the convent of
Tumbumdo, whom I have always regarded as the real
culprit*
PART THE SECOND
A GENERAL VIEW OF TIBET AND
ITS INHABITANTS
CHAPTER I
A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY AS A \VIIOLh
The region of the lakesThe region of the rivm,
TIBET occupies the most enormous and the highest mass
of mountains in the world, Bounded roughly by the
Dapsang peak on the west, the towns of Skardo and
Simla, the chain of the Himalayas, Likiang, Tasicnlu,
Sungpan, the monasteries of Lhabrang and Skubum,
the Koko Nor, the Kyaring Cho and the Baycn Kara,
Akka Tagh and Ustun Tagh Mountains, it affects the
shape of an immense shoe, or, geometrically speaking, of
a trapezium with elliptical sides, It measures 1,600
miles in its greatest length between Skardo and
Sungpan, 250 miles in its shortest width from the
Karakoram Pass to the banks of the Sutlej and 800 in
its greatest width between the Koko Nor and thr
southern bend of the Takiang or Blue River, Its total
superficial area is considerably more than a million
square miles, covered by a series of snowy mountain-
chains, which are gathered up on the meridian of the
Karakoram into a narrow sheaf, spread out towards the
east in the shape of a fan, turning north and south, and
then close up ag^in, turning in the opposite direction*
Physically, Tibet is divided into two parts, the lake
region and the river region, which surrounds the former
on three sides in a semi-circle. The lake region, which
extends between Lake Pangong, the sources of the Indus,
217
218
the Dam Larkang La, the sources of the Salwen and the
Blue River and, lastly, those of the rivers of Turkestan,
takes the form of an axe, having a width of 200 miles
at the handle-end, on the side of Lake Pangong, 450 at
the other extremity and a length of 700 miles, and
covers a surface equal to that of France. As this part
of Tibet is the furthest from the sea, atmospheric
precipitations are rarer here than elsewhere, the climate
is exceedingly dry and the rivers are unable to acquire
enough power to overcome obstacles and to force a way
to the sea. The mountain-chains are widely spread,
rounded, ill-jointed anfl separated by almost level
valleys,* similar to the Pamirs, at a considerable absolute
altitude, but fairly lower than that of the summits.
There is no sufficiently determined general slope to
enable the waters to collect into rivers ; the streams and
torrents run into numberless lakes, scattered in every
direction like the fragments of a broken mirror. The
draining of the waters receives so little assistance that
the ground, except on the declivities, is entirely soaked
in water, which is frozen and solid during eight
months of the year and muddy and shifting in the
heart of summer, exactly as in the Siberian tundra,
No other country in the world has a like mean
altitude with a similar surface* This mean altitude is
over 16,500 feet, the valleys being at 14,500 to
1 7,400 feet, the peaks at 20,000 to 24,600, the ptte$
at 16,400 to 19,000. The northern part of this region
is the highest : the valleys there are never lower than
15,800 feet ; and the temperature is very severe, rising
with difficulty, in summer, to 15 or 16 degrees at "~
o'clock in the afternoon and falling to zero or "
night: in winter, a sharp cold rages of 40
more. Vegetation is almost non-existent and
*Tht* are the valleys called tang fa Tibetan, *s oppo**4 to fifr^,
an *tabftkl vsiltoy or
Zibet 219
as grows is never green. The Tibetan herdsmen do
not come to pitch their tents there. To the west of the
8oth degree of longitude, they go as far as a little to
the north of the 34th parallel, but to the east they
venture only a little beyond the 33^ in the warm
season and remain below the 3 2nd in winter.
That portion of the lacustrine reign which extends in
an elliptical segment between Lake Pangong and the
Nam Cho, along the itinerary of Nain Singh, being more
to the south and a little less high (15,000 feet on an
average) is more habitable and even contains a few
poor market-towns built of stone* such as Rudok, Ombo
and Senja Jong. It is almost quite unsuited to cultiva-
tion, there are no trees in it and, at best, a few pastures of
shottj hard grass in the midst of absolutely barren wastes.
The waters are more abundant and seem to wish to
unite into rivers, without, however succeeding. This
is a transition zone. Further south, after crossing the
southern chain of the Nam Cho, the transformation is
complete. There, in the same way as in the west and
east, the so to speak shapeless mountainous mass which,
like a donjon, commands the centre of the Asiatic conti-
nent, becomes articulated, diversified, fashioned. The
climate Is less dry, provides more moisture and assists the
erosive work of the waters, which have hollowed out
deep valleys and found a course towards the sea. Thus
great rivers have taken birth ; the Indus, the Sampo or
Brahmaputra, the Salwen, the Takiang, the Mekong, the
Hosmgho. Near the sources, the appearance of the
mmfty changes but little : we have still the same wide
valleys, very high and inhospitable to life. At the
sources of the Blue River, the country is uninhabited
and the Tibetans do not take their herds beyond a
broken line drawn from the extreme north-west of the
Kko Nor and passing through the Stongri Cho,
tlie .Ngoring Cho, the source of the Mekong and the
220
Tang La Pass. Between the Tibetans and the Mongols
lie desert marches which grow narrower as we go
further east, that is to say as the ground becomes
lower, so that, on the northern banks of the Koko
Nor, the two peoples touch and intermingle. In Eastern
Tibet, the vegetation, very scarce and poor, begins
to appear at a line drawn from Dam (14,400 feet)
to Labug Gompa (12,400 feet); then, a little more
to the south still, the mountain-slopes beconie clad
with mean and thinly-scattered timber : juniper-trees,
tamarisks, willows, pines and firs, cedars, elms. The
more we go towards tfce east, the closer the mountain-
chains come together, narrowing the valleys, the ground
of which falls lower and lower without any notable
decrease in the height of the summits, so that the country
bristles with very tall mountains, steep, rocky, difficult to
climb, which leave between them only a series of very
restricted spaces for pasture and agriculture. Neverthe-
less, as we go lower, we see the crops improve, the forests
thicken, the villages become more numerous until, at last,
when we leave the Tibetan prison-house, at the border
of the Chinese country, the valleys do not go above
8,200 feet, arc fertile, produce wheat, vegetables, fruits,
even grapes, pomegranates, rice in the more southern,
such as Batang, and important towns arise Batang,
Darchado, Sungpang, Tongkor where the two ethnical
elements, the Chinese and the Tibetan, clash and mingle
together. On the west, towards Ladak, we see the
same contraction of the mountain folds, the same deep
and narrow valleys, separated by enormous rocky walls;
only, the altitude remains higher, the vegetation is
thinner and there are no trees. The southern zone of
Tibet, formed of the basin of the Sampo-Brahmaputr%
is the most favoured by nature. The valleys are generally
a little wider and their greater proximity to the equator
permits rice, apricots and jujuoes to be grown at an
221
altitude of 11,500 feet It is here that the most
important towns in the country are built; Shigatse,
Lhasa, Gyangtse.
Tibet is a hard and miserly land which only grudg-
ingly yields a little bread to the men who inhabit it.
The wildest cantons of Switzerland are as pleasure
parks beside it. In whatever part of it one may
be, one is surrounded by heights which the snow
never leaves, lashed by violent and piercing wimis,
exposed to arctic colds. The appearance of the scenery
is austere, monotonous, overwhelming, thanks to the
hugeness of the proportions, and seldom enlivened
by the least touch of fugitive grace. Life there
would be almost insupportable if the sky and the water
were not clear. Such a country as this could even
less easily than Turkestan be the cradle of a brilliant
civilisation; it was destined only to serve as a refuge
for some race wanting in ordinary intelligence ; and, in
fact, the Tibetan people have never achieved more than
an indifferent culture, a pale reflection of the civilisations
of China and Hindustan* The Tibetan writers them-
selves have had the rare modesty to recognise the
inferiority of their country by calling it Kol yul^ the
barbarian land*
CHAPTER II
THE INHABITANTS : THEIR PHYSICAL AND MORAl TYPES
Statistics ; ethnical name of the Tibetans-Physical characteristics-
Moral characteristics*
THK immense territory which I have described is very
sparsely inhabited. There would not appear to be in
all more than three millions of Tibetans, subjects of the
Emperors of China and India respectively,* but all,
in spite of the distance that separates them, present a
remarkable unity of manners and language. They all
give themselves the generic name of Bodpa. The
inhabitants of the kingdom of Lhasa and those of
fjulak look upon themselves as the purest portion of
the Bod race and distinguish their congeners of the
north and north-caw by special names, The nomads
who frequent the pastures of the high table-lands between
Like Fangong and the Nam Cho are called Changpa
(Byangpa), that is to say the Northerns. The nomauic
or sedentary Tibetans who live beyond the Nam Cho and
to the north of Chamdo, from the district of Nagchu
Jongf to the Koko Nor and to Tasienlu, are designated
by the word Horpa, which probably has the general
, * I do nut include in this figure that part of the population of Nepal,
? utn and Hurmah which in cnnmsrtdl with the Tibetan r. Mto
*x*hllP conctuHiortu on the rtathtici of the Tibetan populated agre*
1th mine, t *m ccrtuin that alt the other cntimntcs arc exflggerated,
f The pcopla of Nagchdtkn arc already Horpu, while thow cm the
Nam Cho are Htill Chancy.
229
Hibet 223
sense of barbarian. The Mongols are often so called in
the books, whereas in modern usage they are more
often given the more precise name of Sokpo. In
Western Tibet, where the Mongols are very little known,
the word Horpa is applied solely to the Moslem
Turkomans of Kashgar, The herdsmen of the steppes in
both the west and the east are called Dogpa (Hbrogpa),
in opposition to the sedentary husbandmen. None of
these names has any ethnical meaning and all the Bodpa,
from the Koko Nor to Baltistan, look upon one another
as brothers.
They all have a certain family likeness, but they are
a heterogeneous family, whose members recognise one
another only because they do not resemble the neighbour-
ing families and not because they resemble one another
mutually. When you see a Tibetan, you at once decide,
judging by his manners and his dress, that he is not a
Chinese, nor a Mongol, nor a Turkoman, nor an Indo-
European, but you would do wrong to conclude that all
the Tibetans are cut after the same pattern, for, should
a neighbour come into sight, you will set* that he differs
almost as greatly from his fellow-countryman as no
matter which Chinese, Mgfljjglor Hindu* If you take
a group of fifty Tibctap ~ ~'^ l ^ m ****i^h to pick out
among them three or ' **<which have
little in common with the same
2 pes are found pretty M se among
the ethnical groups *,. ated to form
the Tibetan people there ,/usatuis of years
pa$t> been intimate, frequent a..,. terrupted relations
which have completely mixed up , *e ethnical frontiers
while unifying the language.* It therefore becomes
* Whatever the dialectical difference* may be, they arc ICN great
than formerly existed in France on a much amattor surface, m>r do
they prevent the TibctsuM of the moat dint ant, district* from under-
*timding one another.
3*4 Uibct
impossible to evolve a general type from amid this
confusion. As to describing with exactness and
classifying the three or four irreducible types to which
all the individual types may be carried back, this
is an enterprise that could be attempted only by a
specialist who had first studied the question very
minutely on the spot* Here, however, are some of the
characteristics that are most often seen : a high, narrow
and sometimes receding forehead ; large ears standing
out from the head ; a nose sometimes wide and flat, but
oftonest prominent, not unfrequently aquiline, but
almost always with wide nostrils ; eyes less prominent
and not so almond-shaped as in the Mongols : in certain
individuals, even, the almond-shape is hardly notice-
able ; targe, prominent cheek-bones ; a long, bony face,
sometimes square, hardly ever round as in the Mongols;
a wide split mouth ; strong teeth, very often irregular
and rotten ; lips thick in some, but thin in the majority;
hands and feet large and clumsy ; thick, hard hair, with
a more or less pronounced tendency to wave; beard
rare, with a few exceptions ; I have seen Eastern
Tibetans bearded like patriarchs, but, as a rule, it is their.
custom to remove ^e^hrjiao their faces with tweezers*
The wtature of jk^* ^hove the middle height
and b talk- - - " Tibet, where it averages
5 feet $ #est, where the mean
height is Their bones arc large,
their muscle .tard and firm ; stout-
ness is extreme ,n the women, i met no
fat people, excejx the monks; and even then
I saw none that L *id be described as obese* The
skull is visibly brachycephalic, but less so than among
the Mongols. The colour of the eyes is light btoWn
or hazel, of the hair always black, of the skin m*
determinable, because of the dirt with which all alike
are covered ; nevertheless, I had the good fortune to
Uibet 223
see a few Tibetans who had just washed themselves :
they appeared to me to be bronzed like Italians, with
a slightly reddish foundation. The collection of legends
of Padma Sambhava speaks of Tibet as the land of the
red-faces, dongmar bod yuL There is no room for estab-
lishing any characteristic distinction between the Tibetans
of Lhasa and Tachilhunpo, of whom I saw a fairly large
number, and the nomads of the north and north-east,
except that the latter naturally have a rougher bearing.
On the other hand, the Panaks of the shores of the
Koko Nor must be set apart ; they are much nearer the
Mongols than the other Tibetanj ami, in particular, their
eyes are more almond-shaped, their noses less prominent
and their figures more thick-set.
The Tibetans have much more suppleness, agility
and grace in their walk than the inhabitants of Chinese
Turkestan; they move very fast, excepting the grandees,
with comparatively short, quick steps, wriggling their
hips as they go, I have pointed out elsewhere how easily
they accommodate themselves to the excessive altitude
of their country, which is no inconvenience to them.
Thanks to this power of accommodation, they are able,
without too much difficulty, to endure long marches and
to indulge in rapid journeys of which few Europeans
would be * able in such mountains as these. Never-
theless, v> : ****^ not find that the Tibetans were better
able to resist fatigue or to endure suffering than we
are: rather is the contrary true, for, though their bodies
are leas delicate, they have not so powerful a moral
energy,
It is, perhaps, a rather deceptive undertaking to try
to draw a moral portrait of the Tibetan, The few
characteristics which are common to all the inhabitant*
of Tibet and to them alone in no way help to compose
the Tibetan soul, but are simply supentddal, resulting
as they do from historical antecedents and social and
15
political conditions. In general, it may be said that the
Tibetan possesses gentleness not devoid of hypocrisy;
he is weak, timid, obsequious and distrustful, like all
weak people. This is a consequence of the clerical
government that is laid upon him, a tyrannical, sectarian^
suspicious government, trembling lest it should sec its
authority escape it, mindful to keep every one in a state
of servile dependence and making a system of mutual
spying and informing the basis of the social edifice. Fear
hovers over the whole of Tibet : the government fears
its subjects and the subjects their government ; each
man dreads his neighlpur, his enemy and his friend;
the private individual is afraid of the arbitrary power of
the official and the lama ; and these both tremble before
their superiors, who, in their turn s stand in constant alarm
of the secret intrigues which they discover or imagine
among their inferiors. Fear usually leads to cruelty and
this explains the frequency of murders and especially of
cases of poisoning, as well as the barbarity of the punish-
ments to which the Tibetans condemn their criminals ;
for their hearts are not naturally hard and closed to
pity* It goes without saying that the Tibetans show
even greater distrust with regard to strangers than
to their fellow-countrymen and that is why it is so
difficult to extract the least information from them,
But it is so greatly a matter of policy that the
Ponbo Tibetans, who detest the Budemists, open out
quite readily to Europeans, in whom they sec a
possible support against their orthodox enemies. In
the same way, the Tibetans of the east, who are
divided into independent and mutually hostile tribes,
exposed to the raids of their neighbours and always
upon the alert against attack, are much more dis-
putatious and quarrelsome than their congeners ih the
west and south and yield with less constraint to the
violent impulses of instinct.
227
There is no traveller but has observed the heedless-
ness of the Tibetan. He does not love long reflection :
"Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof" is his
maxim ; and, when occasion offers, he amuses himself,
sings, dances and has good cheer without troubling about
the morrow. And what is there of which he should take
heed ? The social organisation is such that he can scarcely
hope to rise above his condition and that, wherever fate
has caused him to be born, he is almost sure of his
daily pittance, with which he is contented because he
knows that he can obtain no better. Anxious characters
occur only in societies as complex and as unstable as ours,
where there is a superabundance of population, where
nearly every man, instead of finding a place kept for
him in the sun at his birth, is obliged to make one
for himself by his own efforts, at the cost of much
time and trouble, where it is impossible to procure
contentment cheaply, where men's ambitions are un-
loosed by the capacity which all possess or believe
themselves to possess for climbing to the topmost
summits.
It is well to be on one's guard, in a certain
measure, against the accusations of lubricity made against
the Tibetans by the missionaries, who are always
curiously inept when speaking of this sort of matter,
and by the Chinese, wno are always full of national
pride and smug respectability. I do not believe that
the Tibetans arc, at bottom, worse in this respect than
the majority of men* To tell the truth, notwithstanding
the recommendations of the Buddhist religion, they
attach but a very slight importance to what others regard
as very immoral. Their example serves excellently well
to prove the vanity of the theory according to which
the inhabitants of cold countries have naturally better
morals than those of hot countries. In any case, the
Tibetan, who is coarser and less restrained by prejudice
228 .
than the Chinaman, indulges his libertinism with less
refinement and less viciousness. He is also less proud
and less of a scoffer ; he is not prone to insolence and
depreciation and is given rather to displaying frank
admiration. He has a simple gaiety, an ingenuous good-
humour, that causes him to be amused by the least thing,
like the big baby that he is. Of very indifferent culture,
both in the towns and the steppes, he has a less prudent
and less industrious mind than the Turkoman of Khotan
or Kashgar ; and yet education is a little more wide-
spread in Tibet than in Turkestan, But this education is
limited to the first elements of reading and writing and
to prayers and the catechism ; and this necessarily rude
religious instruction has but increased the profoundly
superstitious character of these munis us yet dark and
crammed with childish fears and credulousncss. How-
ever, the TibeUn is the intellectual superior of the
Mongol, less heavy and less stupid ; he does not lack
vivacity or goodwill ; ami, with fj;ood mamifjement, there
is sometiag to be made of him.
CHAPTER III
HISTORICAL SKLLTCtl
Origins of the Tihctnn people The chief tribes in the Htr.th century
A.I),, according to the Chinese writers The first Tibetan kingdom
between the ttevcntli and the ninth eiHurit!K8tru$jlc between the
civil power and the religioim power,
WE have no precise and certain Information as to the
origin of the Tibetan race, The Tibetans declare that
they are descended from an ape-god and a female
demon (shrinm); in the same way, the Turkomans
contend that their first ancestor was a wolf. The
Chinese state that the Tibetans are the descendants
of the Sanmiao tribes, which Chun, the mythical
emperor who lived in the twenty-third century )i,c.,
sent to the neighbourhood of the Koko Nor. This
would prove that, in the opinion of the Chinese, the
Tibetans originally occupied the fertile valleys of China,
whence they were driven by the conquering people of
the Hundred Families, and that the settlement of the
Tibetans in their present country dates back to pre-
historic ages.
It is very probable that the Tibetans belong to the
same stock as the different Turco-Mongol nations. Not
only is there a considerable resemblance between the
physical types of all of them, but their respective manners
and beliefs present striking analogies. No doubt, the
processes of civilisation being much the same in all
races, we must not, in order to prove their ethnical
229
relationship, rely too much upon the identity of certain
customs between two nations nor even upon the simi-
larity of the general principles which serve as a basis for
their respective social systems. Otherwise, it would be
very easy to demonstrate that the Chinese have the same
origin as the Greeks. But, in the case of the Tibetans,
we observe between their oldest usages and those of the
Turkomans and Mongols resemblances so close, following
one another sometimes so exactly down to the smallest
detail, that it is impossible not to see more in this than a
chance coincidence. The difference in language is a
difficulty: we know that the Tibetans speak an idiom
which is partly monosyllabic like Chinese, partly agglu-
tinative like Mongolian, and which already possesses
rudiments of declension und conjugation which permit
it to have a syntax more nearly allied to the Turkic
than to the Chinese syntax; moreover, its vocabulary is
quite special* It is certain that, if the hypothesis of the
common origin of the Tibetans and Mongols be correct,
the former have undergone remarkable modifications in
the course of the ages, an their physical type proves. It
in very possible that, coming from Mongolia, they found
another race settled before them in the land of the
sources of the great rivers uiul that they mixed with
this race ami, in a certain measure, borrowed it*
language and its corporal structure. Perhaps a few
remnants of this primitive race still survive among the
wild horde* of Sechuen, Yunnan or the Himalaya**
The Tibetan legends of the Book of Kings teach
us nothing as to the origins : they are only inventions,
laboriously arranged by pedantic scribes, which remind
one greatly of the traditions of primitive China, distorted
with a puerile rationalism by later historians. ThiJM
the same system that consist* in attributing to a $erie
of very wine kings the discovery and application of
the arts necessary to life and the establishment of the
Uibet 231
institutions that are the ground-work of society. The
first of these kings, Nyati Tsanpo, is said to have come
from India ; he entered Tibet from Bhotan and crossed
Mount Yarlhachampo to go to Lhasa. This is a legend
which was evidently fabricated by the Buddhist monks
accustomed to attribute everything to India and which
must be rejected at once. Nevertheless, it is not
impossible that the monks, in saying this, were uncon-
sciously uttering a truth and that a part of the Tibetan
people did, at an extremely distant period, issue from the
plain of the Ganges. The oldest certain mention made
of the Tibetans in history is to be found in the annals
of the Hans, which apeak of* them under the general
name of Kiang and relate that, in 770 B.C., they were
at war with the Chinese.' 1 ' As early as the commence-
ment of the Christian era, traders crossed Tibet to go
from Palibothra Regia (Patna) to the capital of China,
passing through Nepal and Lhasa, Pliny the Elder
calls Tibet the land of the Attacori, a name which we
find again in Ptolemy under the form of Ottorokorrhu, a
town situated near the Sampo and corresponding very
probably with Lhasa. The Alexandrian geographer
already knows the real name of the Tibetans, t /fcu'wu ;
but for him the Bauti are only one of the hordes
inhabiting the country lying between the Himalayas
(Emodes) and the Nan Chan (Kacian Mountains) and
he places them north of Lhasa, However, it seems
that this was the chief of the tribes of Tibet, since it
gave its name to the River Buutisos, an ideal generali-
sation of all the streams which derive their source
between Nepal and Tsaidam and which, for Ptolemy,
all join the Hoangho.
In the fourth century of our era, the Tibetans
assisted in bringing about the downfall of the Tsiu
* We rnuttt not attach much importance to thin date of 770, an Chinese
history acquires no certainty until the second half of the third century n.c.
232 ZEfbet
dynasty : they then numbered one hundred and fifty
tribes, sub-divided into a swarm of little clans, established
on the left of the River Min and of the Takiang, Their
most important chief resided to the east of the river of
Lhasa (Loso)j probably on the site of the present town.
The annals of the Soei and the Tangut give us the
principal tribes in the sixth century and supply indica-
tions of sufficient precision to enable us to place them
on the map. They are, beginning at the north-east ;
1. The Tukuhun, so called after the name of a
Turko-Mongol chief who came from Liaotung to settle
in their country in 312* They occupied the region
lying between Sining and the Yellow River, the neigh-
bourhood of the Koko Nor and Tsaidam. They are
the ancestors of the Panaks and the Gomis. Their
capital was situated at 15 or 50 lis to the west of the
Koko Nor, In the fifth and sixth centuries, their
dominion extended as far as Cherchcn. The women
of the country of the Tukuhun, like the Tibetan
women of our own day, parted their hair into a
number of little plaits and adorned it with beads
and shells. The bulk of the population certainly re-
mained Tibetan, but the Turko-Mongolian element
introduced by the invaders was far from unimportant,
numbering no fewer than 1,100 families, according to
the annals of the Soei j
2, The Tanghiangj* to the south of the above and
to the east of the River Tao and of Sungpanting,
occupied the mountainous district of the Upper Yellow
River and the Za Chuu They were a people of horse-
men, warlike and given to pillage, having no houses
but only yak-skin tents, We recognise in them tl$
ancestors of the Goloks, the Zachukkapa and the people
of Ngamodo. It was from one of their tribes, probably
* The term Tangut come* from the immt of tbia honk. It
Mongol plural of Tang,
mbet 233
that of the Topa, that the celebrated Sihia dynasty
took its origin ;
3, Various tribes, such as the Chunsang, Misang
and others, to the south of the Tanghiang and doubt-
less corresponding with the people of Dergyeh and the
five Horpa clans ;
4, Nukno, that is to say the kingdom of women, or,
more correctly, Nuwangkno, the country governed by a
queen. This country, situated to the east, or rather to
the south-east of the Tanghiang and to the north-east
of Yachow, is the modern Toskyub and Somo. Mr,
Rockhill notes that, when he passed through the
Horpa, Somo was governed by a woman. We must
be suspicious of information given by the Chinese
authors, who are apt to exaggerate customs differing
from their own and who imagine that, if women do
not occupy in a particular society a place as low as
that which they fill in Chinese society, they become
sovereign mistresses through this very fact. Note that,
in Nukno, all the officials who are not employed in
the interior of the palace, the military officers? and the
priests are men ;
5, The Tangchang, to the west of Sechuen (Ta-
sicnlu) ;
6, The Tengchi, beside the above (Li tang or Batang) ;
7, The Pelan, to the west of the Tanghiang, occupied
the country of the Nyamcho, of the Taorongpa and,
generally, the territory of the Nanchen Gyapo* Their
name is found under the form of Paliana in Ptolemy,
who places them at Long, 162 25', Lat. 41 between
Tsaidam and Lhasa ;
8, The Tomis, to the west of the above, occupied
the present territory of the Hortsi Gyapcko in the
bain of the Sog Chu ;
9, The Tufan, to the south of the above and east of
Nepal, occupied the Lh?*';* country urn! th<; whole
234
province of Bu : they were the most powerful tribe in
Tibet from the fourth century onwards ; *
10, The Silis, to the south-west of the above, a tribe
of 50,000 families dwelling in towns and villages.
Their country was South Chang and more especially
the neighbourhood of Tachilhunpo ;
1 1 , The Changkiepo, nomadic Highlanders, number-
ing about 2,000 tents to the south-west of the Silis,
that is to say on the confines of Nepal, in the neigh-
bourhood of Nilam ;
12 and 13. The Yangtung, divided into Little and
Great, were nomads who grazed their herds west of the
Tufun, north of Nepal, "south of Khotan, that is to say
in West Chang and in Eastern Ngari, or, roughly,
between Long. 77 and 83. The Little Yangtung
lived in Ngaris and the Great in Chang ;
14, The Great Poliu or Polu, to the west of the
Yangtung. These are the people of Ladak ;
15* The Little Poliu, to the west of the above,
occupied what is now Baltistan, They were at the
outlet of the road to Kashgar through the Pamirs,t
The annals of the Soei and the Tangut depict to
us these Tibetans of yore as very similar to those
whom we see to-day, with their dirty faces, their tangled
huir, their long skin robes, their yak-hair tents in the
north and their flat-roofed houses in the south. Even
as to-day, they made barley-beer and kneaded pellets at
tsambu into a buttered drink ; they had a taste for
brigandage and never went out without their bows and
their sword* ; their manners were very free and the
punishments which they inflicted upon criminals very
* They had nbxorhtid, umontf other tuition*, the Supi, who probably
intuibitcit Nstgtihukkii urul Naniru,
| Klaproth ; //MoriVi/f Wtrturtrs qM*to-ButihisU: The
of TibutVf. Kockhill : The Land of tha Lattnatt Whet: a
MiKtorltMt ttnti Mthttotfrtrphivat Skftuh derived from Chinete
Uitdiourtne : A MixtQry of Tibet and the Kolto Nor (in
ZCibet 235
ferocious. Their women wore their hair divided into a
mass of little plaits * and coated their faces with a black
glaze. The crops were scarce and comprised little
besides barley, buckwheat and pease. The father passed
his authority as head of the family on to the son when
the latter was grown up. Their religion was the same
as that of the ancient Chinese and the ancient
Turkomans, consisting in ancestor-worship and a coarse
naturalism : we shall sec presently that this religion
has survived almost in its entirety among the people.
The priest-wizards, similar to the Turkic kttms^ wielded
a great influence over the superstitious minds of
the ancient Tibetans ; by means of sacrifices and
prayers they gave a religious sanction to the oaths of
political fidelity which the chiefs took to the prince
every year and, with greater solemnity, every three
years ; and it is related that, at the great triennial
celebration, human beings were sacrificed. For the rest,
the civilisation of these Tibetans was very rudimentary ;
they did not know how to write and, to convey orders
or establish contracts, they used notched wooden pins,
like the old Turkomans and like the Tibetan or other
hordes who live in the south-eastern corner of Tibet
to this day*
About the year 630 A.U., the Tibetan Prince
Srongtsangampo (the very mighty and very wise [?]
Srong)t collected a large number of Tibetan tribes into
a confederation and founded a great State, with Lhasa for
its capital. This new kingdom took the name which it
has since kept, Tufa in Chinese, or rather, according to
the old pronunciation, Tupat. l\n is a transliteration of
* At IcuHt, among the Tanghwng Tibctanw of this north -cast.
fSrong to often pronounced Kong, wherefore the Chinese writer*
have transcribed thiw name a Lung, The meaning of Gumpcj or Stfnmpft
in very doubtful (Cf. Ja*Hchk*B Dictionary, p. 114). Thi sovereign in
more shortly called
236
the word Bod^ which the Tibetans use to denote their
country and their race ; tu represents the Tibetan mfo
(pronounced /'0) 5 or high. The Arabs have turned it into
Tibbet, 1 which is pronounced very nearly as if composed
of the two English words " tub, but,'* and Marco Polo
wrote Tebet, which afterwards became Tibet or Thibet.!
A few rays of civilisation began to illumine the country.
Srongtsanpo sent a missionary to India> who brought
back a writing and translated two or three Buddhist
treatises ; he gave some encouragement to the religion
of Sakya Muni and built several temples: the lamas
rewarded him later by raising him to the dignity of
an incarnation of Avalo&teshvara, However, Buddhism
spread very little in Tibet in this reign. It was not
until after the arrival, in the middle of the eighth century,
of Muster Padma Sambhava, the tamer of demons, that
the monasteries were founded and a regular clergy
created. The influence of Chinese civilisation at once
made itself felt with much greater strength than that
* Generally pronounced Bod as written.
tThey ought to have transliterated it with n T and not with a T;
but we know that it was their custom to Arabicine foreign words by
substituting the simple t for the aspirate t\ As for the reduplication
of the & this Is a later corruption, which probably owes its origin to
the effort that was made to pronounce the particular sound of the
vowel tt.
| GJ, M, L. Peer's pamphlet, Etymology of the word Tibet. I thitffc
that I am right in writing Tibet without the ft, because, first, tfat
letters Th represent to me not a t aspirate, but the English sound of th t
which cannot be figured in any other manner ; secondly, it is absolutely
useless to encumber the spelling of names so current in every-day us*
as that of Tibet with superfluous letters which are not pronounced an4
cannot be pronounced ; thirdly, if it be thought necessary to .
the Tibetan aspiration, then there is all the greater reason for i
the vowels t and t, which make the original word quite t
fourthly, the oldest texts of Marco Polo give Tebtt oftener than *
fifthly and lastly, It is possible that the first syllable,
ft transcription of m**o, it that of stod, which faaj f
and almost the same sound, but without the aspiration.
237
of the Buddhist religion, Srongtsanpo recognised the
suzerainty of the Emperor of China > married a princess
of the imperial family, dofted his hides of beasts in
favour of silk garments in the Chinese fashion, surrounded
himself with Chinese literati who conducted his official
correspondence, sent the children of the Tibetan nobility
to study the classical literature of China and had work-
men brought from Singan to make paper and ink.
At the same time that they were putting themselves to
school in China, the Tibetans acquired a material power
which they were never to know again in all the course
of time. In 663, they destroyed the Mongolian dynasty
of the Tukuhun, which held sway in the region of the
Koko Nor, and soon their empire extended from Lanchow
to the gates of Badakshan, They entered into relations
with the caliphs of Bagdad, who at one time allied them-
selves with them against the Chinese, at another with
the Chinese against the Tibetans ; they repeatedly
captured Singan, the capital of China, and would
perhaps have succeeded, in the eighth century, in
breaking up their suzerain's empire, if he had not
provoked an almost general coalition of Asia against
his dangerous neighbours.
I have explained elsewhere how, for nearly two
centuries, they had been the more or less irregular
and disputed masters of Chinese Turkestan and how,
in the course of the ninth century, their kingdom
became dismembered in consequence of the legendary
rivalries between the civil power and the clergy.
The lamas, fed, protected and loaded with favours by
royalty, rewarded its benefits, so soon as they felt
strong enough, by trying to expel it from the home
where it had made room for them. It is the ever-
lasting story. The kings defended themselves and one
of them, Lingdarma, signalized his reign by u relent-
less persecution of the clergy, lie was no other, if
238
we may believe the chroniclers, than the devil incar-
nate : he had an incipient horn on his head and he
carefully concealed this deformity, which would have
revealed his true character to his people. Only those
to whom he entrusted the care of his heard and hair
were able to see the accusing; sign, but they had no
opportunity to be indiscreet, for they were put to death
so soon as their task was done. At last, an ascetic
saint, who, by dint of ruining his health in contem-
plation, had acquired the gift of second sight, came
to know of the existence of the horn and realised
that his duty was to rid the sacrecl land of Bod of
this uncleun monster. * He succeeded in penetrating
secretly into the monarch*.'; palace and killed him
with an arrow.
In the tenth century, the clergy was restored to
its privileges, Kublai Khan recognised as the chief
of the Tifcctan clergy the superior of the convent of
Saskya* and conferred temporal authority upon him
under his own suzerainty ; and, since then, China has
not ceased to support the clergy. The power of the
monks as against the lay monarchy declined together
with the strength of the emperors and again resumed
its vigour at the same time as they. Tsongkapa, the
great reformer, triumphed with the Ming dynasty ; his
successors were eclipsed by the secular kings, who were
supported by the Hi Mongols so soon as the Ming
dynasty had lost its ascendant, and recovered their pre-
eminence so soon as the Tsing dynasty was established ;
and, lastly, when the lay prince tried once more to aei&e
the authority, the Emperor Kicnlong, who raised the
Chinese power to its topmost point, ordered him to be
condemned and executed ant! awarded the royal title
to the Dalai Lima and the functions of viceroy to
another lama in 751. The consequence of this good
* The prcdeccHKor and uncle of the famous
Uibet 239
understanding between the Tibetan clergy and China
was that the latter was able to dispense with sending
a colony to Tibet, kept up a much smaller number of
officials and soldiers in Tibet than in Turkestan and,
nevertheless, exercised a much greater influence over
Its civilisation, so that, generally speaking, everything
which. In the civilisation of Tibet 5 is not of Indian
origin may be said to have derived its source from
China*
s
CHAPTER IV
MATERIAL LIFE : HABITATIONS, CLOTHING, FOOD,
HYGIENE AND MEDICINE
Tents HQIIHCJI Clothing -Food Climate, hygiene juitl medicine,
I IUVK already, in the' first part of this work, given
some details concerning the different subjects which arc
treated in this chapter, Also, Mr, W. \V, Rockhill hiv
handled these questions with remarkable accuracy in his
/Vto wi the Kt/iHfikgy '/ Tikty which are abundantly
illustrated from nature. I refer the reader to this hook
and will content myself here with very briefly sum-
ming up my own observations and information, which
confirm the work of the celebrated American traveller
without adding greatly to it.
1'Yom the point of view of dwellings, Tibet may be
divided into two regions ; the region of tents and the
region of houses. The latter does not extend further
north than the itinerary of Nain Singh by Rudok, Ombo
and Senja Jong, hast of the Nam Cho, Nagchu,
Jycrkundo and the villages of the La Chu Valley present
the last specimens of stone houses. Beyond those limits^
tents mingle with the stone houses, more numerous
than the latter at first and then less numerous, without,
however, disappearing entirely, except in a few district*
specially favourable to agriculture and unfitted for
gnuing, Thus, in Ladak, from Like 1'angong to Lch
and from Leh to the Karaul Pass, there are no tents.
Although tents are pre-eminently the dwelling!* of the
340
herdsmen, there are, nevertheless, a certain number of
Tibetans, as, for instance, the inhabitants of Nagchu
Jong, who, while living solely on their cattle, live in
houses.
The Tibetan tent (gur) is quite different from the
Mongolian tent. It is made or a coarse black web of
yak-hair, greatly inferior in every respect to the Mongol
felt ; is quadrilateral instead of round ; and is held up
by one horizontal and two vertical poles, which arc fixed
and strengthened by a large number of ropes stretched
outside, passing over little stakes at some distance from
the tent and then pinned into the ground. It is never
pitched on level soil, not only hfecause Tibet has hardly
any flat surfaces, but also because the natives avoid
the low ground and take shelter on the slopes of the
mountains in order to escape too much moistness in
spring and, generally, to protect themselves better against
the brigands* The tent rests most often against a thick
wall of dried ox-dung, which serves at the same time
as a stack of fuel and as a screen against the wind ami
snow ; it is usually surrounded, at some distance, by
a little stone or mud wall, very low and insignificant in
Central Tibet, very high in those parts of Eastern
Tibet where brigandage is frequent. This enclosure is
called the niwa (rabti^ the yenchu of the Chinese^ ; and
this is the name which I have always heard given to the
Tibetan tents ; the enclosure, in fact, has a capital
moral importance : it is the limit of the domain of
the household gods and the stranger who has crossed
its threshold at once becomes the owner's guest*
Inside the tent, at the back, is the cella^ the cup-
board of the gods, before which, on the ground, in
the place of honour, lies a great block of wood, one or
two yards long by eight or ten inches high and badly
squared, on which he who is admitted to the place of
honour puts down his cup of tea. In the middle is
16
the hearth. The dried dung burns cither in a little
iron apparatus consisting of three hoops placed one
above the other and supported by three legs, or else
in a stone furnace, long, narrow, breast-high, with a
hearth at one end and a transversal channel with room
for several stewpots to boil upon. The smoke escapes
through the hole contrived in the top of the tent or
most often spreads through the interior, black, acrid and
sticky, contributing in a marked way to bronzing the
faces of the natives. To the right of the entrance,
near the canvas, stands a row of small bags containing
rhe provisions ; to the left, the strips of felt and the
blankets that serve for bedding are piled up with saddles,
iron-ware, pots, pans, cups, a lump of stone for pounding
the tea, a churn, a number of mutton-bones, sometimes
one or two live lurnbs ami a heap of dried dung. The
furniture of the houses displays the same simplicity,
except in towns of some importance : the furnace is
similar to those in the tents and the chimney is also
reduced to u hole in the ceiling*
The Tibetan houses (k/MNgpttJt built for rhe most
part of stone slabs, have generally several storeys, two
or three, the ground-floor serving as a stable 1 . The
roofs are flat, the windows sparingly contrived and, as
often as possible, looking out on the court-yard ; most
of the rooms are lighted merely by narrow slits: only the
state-rooms admit the light by wide windows fitted with
paper panes and thick shutters of red wood. Every
respectable house has, on the first or second floor, a
verandah, which does not stand out, but which consists
simply of a room of which the outer wall has been
removed. The poor houses have a yard at the front or
back, while, in the rich dwelling*, the building* arc
arranged around an inner court or Horn (khyam)* The
tsom is sometimes on the first floor, the ground-floor
being entirely covered over, in which cane there is
Gibet 243
nothing resembling it in European buildings : the
tsom becomes a large open-air upper halL According
to the somewhat summary descriptions which the annals
of Tang give of the houses of Tibet in the seventh
century, it would -seem that the architecture has not
changed since. These houses, though more solidly
built than those of Turkestan, are, on the whole, less
convenient and are arranged in an odd and awkward
manner, but they are pretty well-suited to serve as a
refuge against an armed aggression or as a base for
nu attack. Like the tents, they exhibit a marked
preference for sloping groun^, preferring to look
down upon the passer-by rather than to see him from
below.
The Tibetan dress consists essentially of a very wide
gown, 5J feet long, with very long sleeves, tightened in
at the waist and gathered up so as not to fall below the
ankle of the men of quality or the townsmen nor below
the knee of the common people, who have much walking
ami work to do. Thus gathered up, the gown puffs out
at the breast, forming a huge pocket. At night, the
wearer lets it fall and is thus wrapped up from his ears
to his feet as in a bed. The women wear the same
gown, but never raise it above the ankle. This
garment is called chuba^ the same as the pelisse of the
eastern Turks (juba, jiw)* Among the herdsmen of
the north, it is made of unlincd sheepskin, sometimes
adorned with wide edgings of panther-skin or coloured
woollen stuff. In the towns, they wear the same gown
M indigo-blue or dark-red wool. The latter colour is
the most popular, A woollen gown of the first quality
costs at Lhasa as much as 400 tonka, or .15, The
ceremonial dress of the chief lamas and officials is the
Chinese silk costume with the mrtkoatw. Trousers are
not a national garment ; neither the lamas nor the
majority of the nomads use them* Delicate people wear
241
drawers of the Chinese pattern. As for shirts, these
are worn only by the refined : they are made either
of calico or of a sort of very course Nepal silk called
bun (hunu)) which 1 have always seen grey, but I
have never been able to discover its original colour.
Then? arc two sorts of boots worn : Chinese boots
and native boots, which hitter have undressed yak-skin
soles and stuff uppers with coloured bands. The chief
lamas also wear white boots, which are made at Lhasa,
Perhaps there is no country in the world where one
sees a greater variety of head-dresses than in Tibet :
slender red turbans ; little Chinese felt hats with narrow,
turned-up brims ; hut r c fur caps with eur rlups, with or
without wide ribbons ; tall hats for the summer, with
narrow crowns and very wide brims, fastened under the
chin by straps; and straw hats of the Tyrolese shape.
Some are worn at the same time in liw same places;
others arc peculiar to certain districts, certain tribes or
certain groups of tribes, Thus, the shape of the fur
caps of Ladak differs greatly from that of the caps in
common use at Lhasa, The Goloks and the Xaehukkapa
have a special round cap, fitting close to the head
behind ami forming a peak in front ; the Panaks wear
a round cup, ending in a point, but quite low, Matty
of the nomads are content to cover their heads am!
ears with a strip of sheepskin like a peasant-woman's
kerchief. Lastly, a large number go bareheaded, which
offers no inconvenience, because the Tittttans allow their
hair, which is thick and tangled, to grow freely. They
are in the habit of twisting the hair at the top of the
head into a plait, so as to reconcile the national way of
doing the hair with the Chinese, and they adorn this
plait with an ivory ring and a narrow band of stuff, in
which they fix turquoises or coral;-:, In the towns, the
hair is dressed in the Chinese fashion, but not no care-
fully as among the inhabitant* of the Middle Kingdom,
Uibet 245
The Zachukkapa, the Goloks and the Panaks are
exceptional in having their heads shaved.
The Tibetans, like all nations still in a state of
barbarism, delight in showy and massive jewels. In the
Jyerkundo district, there are scarcely any men but wear
in their left ear a large, heavy silver ring, set with a coral
or precious stone. One of the officials who came from
Lhasa to the shores of the Nam Cho to meet us wore,
by way of an ear-tirop, an oblong sapphire not much
smaller than a pigeon's egg. As for the women, they
wear regular jewellers* shops on their heads. Among
the nomads, their hair, arrange^ in innumerable small
tresses that involve more than a whole day's work, is
decorated with three great bands of woollen stuff or red
Htlk strewn with rupees, shells, artificial pearls, corals,
turquoises, amber beads, red agates, gold, silver or copper
reliquaries and the rest. The head-dress of the women
of Ladak is more modest. The women of Lhasa, I was
told, wear their hair like the women of Chinese
Turkestan, gathered into two plaits hanging down their
back,
The dress of the women varies more according to
the districts than that of the men. In the east, they wear,
in addition to the chuba, a sort of petticoat striped blue,
green, yellow and red. At Leh, they cover their backs
with a sheepskin shawl fastened at the throat with a
brooch. This shawl is indispensable at all ceremonies or
visits ; the rich women line the sheepskin with silk or
English cloth, bringing the gold letters of the trade-mark
well in view on the shoulder- There ha been much
spoken of the custom general among the Tibetan women
<^f coating their faces with catechu and much discussion
of the reasons for this odd custom. The real reason ia
the wish to protect themselves against the chaps which
would otherwise be caused by the wind and the cold.
When the women go into society^ as we should say, they
246 trtbet
remove this coating and are very proud to be able to
show a fresh, pink complexion.
The Tibetans, especially the nomads, generally carry
on their persons a host of accessories : a knife, a needle-
case, a tobacco-box, a pipe, a powder-horn, a tinder-box.
The tinder-boxes are similar to those of Turkestan and
Altai. A man rarely goes out unarmed, at least in the
districts which I visited. Usually, he is content with a
sling and with a sword with a straight, strong, two-edged
blade, stuck slantwise through his belt, like a dagger.
When he is fully armed, he carries also a long rapier in his
belt ; in his hand, a lance six feet long, with an iron head
and u light, but solid shJft ; and, slung across his body, a
lung matchlock, with a slender butt-end and a widfc and
thick iron barrel, furnished with a forked rest,
The food of the Tibetans has been described too often
ant! in too much detail for me to dwell upon it here,
I will only make a few remarks, Tsamba, which consists
of barley-corns grilled and ground, is not, as some have
said, the staple food of the people. U is a very expensive
commodity, chiefly among the nomads, and they are as
sparing with it us possible* A man eats little more than
one or two handfuls of it a day ; on the other hand, he
is continually drinking innumerable cups of tea beaten up
with butter and salted and he cannot do without this for
long, for there is nothing that he dreads so much as a
dry stomach* This, with dry, more-dialed cheese, forms
the real basin of Tibetan food* They add to it a very
respectable quantity of meat supplied by the dead
animals of the hen), beasts killed when hunting and a few
yaks and sheep slaughtered ou great occasions They
arc in the habit of carefully preserving a certain IXMC (l
forget whidV) of each animal eaten and this is why we *t%*
long rows at bones arranged in the tents, At Lhaoa, yak-
flesh is mostly eaten* As a rule, the animals intended
for food are killed at the end of autumn, when they are
THbet 247
well fattened ; they are cut into quarters, which are
hung up to dry ; and, during the rest of the year, the
natives eat this raw meat, which they cut into thin
shreds. Pork and poultry are absolutely unknown to
the nomads and are found only in the southern towns.
A change of diet is supplied to the herdsmen of the
north-east by a root (toma ?) which grows freely up to
an altitude of 14,500 feet ; it is almost black, the size
of a small red radish and, when cooked, tastes not
unlike salsify. At Lhasa, they have cabbages, potatoes
of the European kind, onions, carrots, turnips, peas and
beans. They cat a fair quantity of wheat-meal and rice.
The rice is usually boiled in the Chinese manner and
served with different meats in a sauce, after the Kash-
mirian style* They also know pilau and different Chinese
dinhes. But the Tibetans are not at all dainty in their
food and set no store by variety- They are naturally
large caters, although many of them are obliged to go
on short commons. A Tibetan who had travelled in all
the neighbouring countries and who stayed some time
with us expressed surprise at our abstemiousness and
told us that he had never seen any but the English eat as
much us his fellow-countrymen. They have a very pro-
nounced weakness for alcoholic liquids; they drink large
quantities of their national beer (eating) and of brandy, of
which one kind (arak) is manufactured by themselves and
another is supplied to them by the Chinese. One may
be sure that, if a Tibetan has brandy within his reach and
money to buy it with, he will get drunk. But his
poverty sometimes mounts too strict a guard over him-
The very severe climate of Tibet is healthy because
of its dryness, which is not so extreme as in Turkestan,
and of the ordinary purity of the atmosphere. Its chief
danger lies in the great variations of the temperature*
We observed daily variations of 27 degrees, in December
and January, on the sthores of the Nam Cho and at
Nagchu, and of 24 degrees, at the end of May, at
Jyerkundo. At Lhasa, the thermometer fluctuates most
probably between 30 degrees in the winter and + 35
degrees in the summer. The thaw also presents draw-
backs owing to the moisture which it produces; but, on
the whole, the climate is not favourable to illness. I
cannot say as much for the habits of the natives. They
have, it is true, the advantage of living much out of
doors ; but, also> their houses are dirty, as they were
thirteen centuries ago, and full of draughts ; they
sleep immediately over the stables ; the court-yards
are poisoned with rubbish of every kind and dung-
heaps. Among the norrfluls, whole families are crowded
promiscuously in tents which are always too close and
sleep in greasy beds eaten up with vermin, in an
atmosphere tainted with smoke and with the emanations
of the herds gathered around. Neither the men nor
the women take any care of their persons. They wear
their clothes very long without changing, brushing or
shaking them, keep them on even at night, use them
as clusters and towels and take them off only when
they drop off of themselves. They never wash their
bodies and only in quite exceptional circumstances wash
their faces and hands. However, to protect themselves
against the hites of the wind, they cover themselves over
with butter, the most rancid that they can find, pre-
ferring to cat the other ; and this i.s very efficacious,
for the dust, sweat and morsels of cuttle-dung, settling
on this greasy layer, form an outer covering which,
fortunately, doubles or trebles the connivency of the
already thick skin allotted by nature to the Tibetans
Thanks to this process, the people of the country
give out a characteristic smcll^ not so much agree-
able as penetrating and persistent, from which the
greatest personages are not exempt* They neglect their
hair as much as the rest of their bodien and comb it wo
more frequently to-day than they did thirteen hundred
years ago. They content themselves with, from time
to time, buttering their hair to drive away the fleas.
One is inclined to ask what their plight would be if
they did not take this precaution,
In these conditions,, it is not surprising that illness
is extremely frequent, as well as infectious and con-
tagious diseases of every kind, such as cancerous ulcers
(ftwgpit)* k'p ros y (mttet)) plague (nyan)^ syphilis and
malignant smallpox* The cold causes many cases of
rheumatism and gangrene. Cases of ophthalmia are also
very numerous, because of the dirt, the smoke and the
glare of the snow* Mediciile, of Hindu origin., is
practised exclusively by lamas, who use mainly Chinese
remedies, 1 have spoken of this in the first part of
the present' volume and need not return to it.
CHAPTER V
THE FAMILY
Solidity and extension of the Tibetan family, compared with the Turkic
family and the Mongolian family Marriage ; polyandry : Tibetan
polyandry to only a form of patriarchism -Condition of the women
'Amusements. f
FAMILY tics arc not nearly so much relaxed in Tibet as
they arc in Turkestan. Individualism has made but
little progress and Tibetan society is to this day
essentially a communistical society. It is based upon
the idea of the $w/ of a group of persons who can
go Kick, by an uninterrupted chain of generations, to
a common ancestor, Every Tibetan traces his pedigree
to a very remote stage and all those who arc united
in blood have not only vague duties of courtesy towards
one another, but precise and serious obligations, All
are bound collectively to assist their kinsman in his
need, to come to his aid with money when he marries
his children, to pay his debts, to see that he is ritually
buried and, in case of murder, to exact the price of his
blood, The difficulty of gathering information in Tibet
prevents me from fixing this solidarity exactly, but
everybody admits it, proclaims it ; and if, probably, it
has grown weaker with time, it is nevertheless a very
living thing still and reveals itself in every action of
life, When an individual is guilty of a crime of high
" QyuJ (brgytttt)) a word which ul*o mcaiift cord or, M w *hottU
ttuy, ciutin,
250
treason, it often happens that all his kinsmen, to a very
remote degree, are included in the punishment inflicted
on him. It seems that, among the nomads, the tribes
are only so many large families, all whose members
look upon themselves as springing from a common
origin. In fact, it is customary for them all to bear the
same name, adding to it, to distinguish themselves, a
surname usually borrowed from Buddhic nomenclature.
Lastly, the Tibetan nation as a whole is regarded as a yet
more extensive family ; to denote it, the same expression
is used as indicates the series of generations issuing from
a common ancestor (Mkft Mi$ytitl)\ and the king Ls
sometimes given the title of th father of the family.
So far, we have seen nothing that docs not exist also,
in different degrees, among the Chinese, the Mongols
and the Turkomans, Pursuing our analysis and passing
from the family in the wide to that in the narrow sense,
wo shall find that the principles upon which it rests are,
at bottom, the same among the Tibetans as among the
Turkomans, with the exception of one point, a very
important one, it is true, and so strong that it has
caused the points of resemblance to be unduly for-
gotten* The father of the family is the sole and
absolute master ; his wife and children owe him an
entire obedience, possess nothing in their own right
ami are not even able, at least in theory, to dispose
of their persons. The sons thus remain minors until
the day of their marriage ; but, on that day, the father,
contrary to the Chinese usage, keeps of his patrimony
only so much as is necessary for him Co live on and
to provide for the cost of his funeral and constitutes
his sons the owners of the rest. It is here that we
see the difference between the Turkic at\d the Tibetan
custom. Among the Turkomans, each son receives his
distinct part (inchi) at the moment of his marriage ;
among the Tibetans, the eldest son alone receives the
252
whole and becomes the head of the family : the younger
sons pass under his authority, fall to his charge and
remain incapable minors under his guardianship, even as
they were under that of their father. This is primo-
geniture driven to the utmost point. Are we to behold
in it two radically different customs, or to consider that
one is derived from the other ? And, in that case, which
is the older of the two ? I am content to put the
question, knowing no fact that will permit me to solve
it, I will only observe that, among the nomads of the
north-east, there is a very marked tendency to divide the
herds among the children, although this is not the
general custom. It mvf be contended that this is a
survival of the old usage, the nomads being more
faithful to tradition than the settled population ; but, on
the other hand, it would be urged, with, perhaps, greater
probability, that non-division, being more in accordance
with the principle, which is being impaired, of solidarity in
families, was the original rule and that the nomads modified
it, as time went on, because they felt its drawbacks and
because it is neither difficult nor detrimental to divide
herds, while the husbandmen persevered in the errors of
the past because they found it inconvenient to portion out
houses and fields and because they considered that, by
dividing and subdividing among the children and the
children*** children lands which do not increase of
themselves like herds, they would end by turning si
large and rich family into a collection of small, poor
households, incapable of keeping up the honour or the
ancestor's name.
In the matter of marriage, we notice the same
analogies and the same differences. Marriage, among
both the Turkomans and the Tibetans, has us its object
and its effect to hand a woman on from one family to
another, to submit her not only to the authority of her
husband, but also to that of her husband's family* The
Ufbet 253
bond which attaches her to that family is so strong that
it is not broken even after the husband's death ; she
then remains under the guardianship of the brother or
the nearest kinsman of the deceased, becomes his
property and, what is more, his wife, without that this
entails any new ceremony. The nuptial rite performed
by the first husband has given his relations rights
over the woman married which each of them may be
called upon to exercise in turn on the death of the
last holder. The brothers-in-law of a Turkic woman
are thus her deputy-husbands, whose rights are only
suspended during the principal husband's lifetime. In
Tibet, there is no suspension*: all the brothers collec-
tively become the husbands of the same woman so soon
us the rite is accomplished. There is therefore an
exact correspondence between the rule of marriage and
that of property. Among the Turkomans, each man has
his own portion, takes up his residence in a separate tent
with his wife, of whom he is the sole owner in the same
way and within the flame limits as of his herds. In
Tibet, the land being undivided among the brothers,
the wife shares this quality; or rather, for these terms
" undivided " and " non-division " are full of confusion
and errors, the eldest brother is the sole possessor of
the land and the sole husband of the wife. In the
nuptial ceremony the younger brothers have absolutely
no part ; as incompetent minors, they can enter into
no valid contract except through the medium of their
elder ; they have not the power of making a marriage
on their own account, even as they have not that of
inheriting from their father in equality of right with
their elder,
The Tibetans look upon the family as a group of
such absolute unity that there an be only one individual
of full age, who is the first-born of each generation,
He alone has power of attorney and lieutenancy over
264 CibCt
the land of his ancestors ; he wields authority over the
persons of the family and administers the patrimony; he
is the living link or the chain at once mystic and real
that is formed by the dead ancestor* and their urtborn
descendants ; he has the duty of providing for the con-
tinuation of that chain after him by begetting sons and
of keeping for them the property which' he has received
from his fathers, The first-born son is henceforth the
depositary of the rights of the ancestors and, when he has
grown to man's estate, when he is capable of acting
tor himself and of fulfilling the duties that devolve
upon him, his father retires before him, marries him and,
in consequence, emancipittes him, tor his marriage is in
itself an net of majority, since it enables him to fulfil
the essential office of the head of the family, which
is to ensure the succession of" the descent. The father
has solidly forged his- link in the chain ; his task in
this world is done ; he retires superannuated and has
nothing more to do than, with the little estate which he
has kept back for hirrsdf, to wait for the hour to strike
for him to go and join his ancestors under ground. It
is the emancipated son who is now the real and sole
muster ; he alone is charged to continue the family cult ;
he alone is responsible and able to act and speak in the
name of the ancestors whom he represents ; he alone i
master of all that the patrimonial house 4 contain* : the
women who enter it are his, the chiMrcn who are
begotten in it are his, But his younger brothers', born
of the same lints h' e l * l sor ^ * natural proxy of his
powers : when he is dead, his junior will become, ipw
facto) sui juris ; he will be the master of the wife, of the
children under age and the goods of the deceased, within
the same limits as the latter w;is, that w to say, ntbject
to the duty of retiring, when the time comes in favour
of the first-born son, whether it be his own or the dead
man 1 *. During the elder'* life, all his brothers have the
tHbet 256
faculty of taking his place In all the actions of life ; they
are really his substitutes. They, for their part, enjoy
the paternal property, which they own virtually, without
being able to administer it ; and, if their elder, for a
time, cease to enforce his rights over his wife, they
may, thenceforward, enforce theirs and the wife has
towards them the same obligations as towards the
head of the family, of whom they are the born
helpers in his task of perpetuating the race. They
are not allowed to take a wife for themselves, since
no strange person may be introduced into the paternal
home, which must be single, according to the Tibetan
idea, except by an act of tfce father of the family,
the only major, and any woman introduced is neces-
sarily the wife of the master; on the other hand,
the latter is not entitled to refuse the co-operation of
his juniors, for he would run the risk of compromising
the continuity of the family, which only the birth of a
considerable number of sons can ensure for certain.
Although he has the right to refuse his wife to his
brothers, even as he has the still graver right of expelling
them from the home, nevertheless, if he reserved to
himself the sole exercise of the husband's prerogatives
simply from aversion for the sharing system, he would
be universally and severely blamed. This sharing
system is in no way repugnant to Tibetan ideas, for
not only do the relations of the woman with several
brothers issuing from the same ancestor fail to impair
the purity of the descent, but all other considerations
disappear before the legal conception that everything
that shoots, grows or is born in the paternal nouse,
whatever its origin, belongs to the master of the
house. Legal conceptions of this kind have, in general,
a much greater hold upon the minds of barbarians
than upon ours and it is not always true to say that
primitive or very ancient nations are nearer to nature
256 trtbet
than ourselves. Nevertheless, if one wife be not
considered sufficient, the eldest brother can marry
a second and a third, without being limited save by
his wishes and his means ; and there is nothing, Jrhen,
to prevent each brother from having practically a wife
to himself: it is a question of friendly arrangement,
This leads me to think that the idea of limiting the
population has not contributed at all to the establishment
or the continuance of polyandry.
To sum up, the principle of Tibetan polyandry He*
in an extremely strict conception of the privilege of
the first -born and the unity of the genealogical line,
which musf not be broken ami scattered into number-
less divt'rqait branches* It is closely connected with
tht* rule of property, which is concentrated in one
hand and sfttk\l by primogeniture because it is necessary
that the [possessions, which the ancestor made sacred
by his ownership and bequeathed to his posterity,
should be preserved in their integrity. Thin con-
nection is peremptorily shown by the tuct that, when
one of the brothers leaves the paternal roof and settles
down apart to live on his industry ami his work, he
can introduce into his new home a lawful wife, who
belongs to him alone ami over whom his brothers have
no rights, for she does not live on the property of the
family ; and, at the same time, he retains his rights over
the wife of his brothers as over the paternal inheritance,
of which he continues to enjoy the usufruct to the extent
of his share- Among the nomads, who sometime**
divide their patrimony, polyandry ccu?tt*s when property
no longer remains undivided. If it be true that, at, a
prehistoric period, the Turkomans and Mongols lived
under the system of non-division, it is probable* that
polyandry prevailed among them also* The custom
which I have mentioned above *cerm to 1x2 a vestige
of it and, beside*, we know, from the tnnab of Liang,
ttibet 257
that, in the sixth century, a Turkic horde, that of the
Hoa or Yeptalites, was still practising polyandry in the
same manner as the Tibetans, that is to say restricted
to th<; sons of the same father.
The custom of polyandry is considerably reduced in
practice, among the rich families, where the sons have
many opportunities and facilities for settling down apart
and, consequently, for having each his own wife. Orazio
delta Penna observed this correctly, but he made the
mistake of believing that polyandry was only an abuse
introduced by the luxness of morals in the poor classes
(tra A' />*TO;/<; non motto cctm&Jt}* It is among the rich,
on the contrary, that the primitive custom has altered
and then only in practice, for the theory remains un-
changed. What led the Itstlian monk to think that
polyandry was not authorised by law (non ordinal ddln
faggt) was that the over-strict lamas do, in fact, censure it ;
but it had penetrated so deeply into the morals of the
nation that Buddhism has always been powerless to
extirpate it and, to-day, the members of the clergy accept
it without taking any steps to contend with it ami arc
satisfied with replying to travellers who ask their opinion
that every country nas its usages. The brother who
separates himself from the community to found a new
family may take as many wives as he pleases and it is
only poverty that compels him to content himself with
one* To sum up, there are four kinds of regular
households in Tibet, namely, in order of frequency,
those in which there are several husbands and several
WIVCH ; those in which there are several husbands and
only one wife ; those in which there are only one
husband and several wives ; and those in which there
arc only one husband and one wife.
Tibetan marriage is exogamous : marriages do not
take place within the fourth degree of consanguinity
and the nomad chiefs have to marry outside their clan.
17
258 ttibet
Conjugal union being a family affair and not a matter
of personal inclination, the wishes of the young people
interested are in nowise consulted ; the marriage is
usually arranged upon the birth of the children by the
parents of the two parties. I will not dwell upon
the ceremonies that accompany it ; they resemble in
essence, if not always in form, those in use among the
Kazaks and the Kirghiz. The negotiations are conducted
and the betrothal concluded by brokers (barmi) sent by
the suitor's father, who pays a kalyn (p'yosma, pro-
nounced choma) to the father of the affianced bride ;
but the latter, instead of returning only an insignificant
present according to th^ Turkic custom, sends back
almost the equivalent of what he receives and the kalyn
or choma does not represent the purchase-price of the
wife.* The marriage-rite itself is divided into three
parts : the ceremony by which the young girl is parted
from the gods of her family ; the transfer to the bride-
groom's house and the sham struggle between his friends
and the friends and relations of the girl, which typifies
the old wars in consequence of which the clans obtained
jus connubii among one another ; lastly, the introduction
of the bride to her husband's domestic hearth, the puri-
fication which she is made to undergo and the partaking
of tsamba, butter and milk (this is the confarreatio),
She 'then receives a new name, for she is as a new-born
child to her husband's family ; next, she takes between
her teeth a piece of wood, which her husband bites
between his, and twists a rope out of a few strands of
wool which he holds in his hand. The whole thing
ends with a great banquet and with part-songs, executed
* The wife ia considered to have always belonged to the family which,
she enters by the marriage-rite. Her father, who has provided for her
maintenance until the wedding-day, is like a foster-father whose expenses
are refunded with the kalyn (C/> "A Scientific Mission to Upper Asia/'
Vol. U,, p. 114)-
Uibct 259
alternately by the girls and the young men ; * he who
stops short when his turn comes to improvise a distich
or quatrain has to pay forfeit.
The matrimonial bond is indissoluble in principle
and it seems, if my information be correct, that there
is no legally organised divorce. However, the hu-oumi
has the right to put away his wife for a grave reason,
such as adultery. When the husband dies, the wife
continues to be bound by marriage to the brothers of
the deceased ; but, if she have no children, she can re-
sume her liberty, provided that she have taken cure to
announce her intention before the decease; of the eldest :
if he agree, he holds one tfhd of a thread of which
she holds the other, both pronounce the words of the
separation and break the thread by burning it* This
rite having been performed, when the decease of the
first husband takes place, the widow is at liberty to
return to her own family. It must be remarked that
the husband must obtain the consent of his brothers
in order to repudiate his wife against her wish* If the
younger brothers refuse to part with her and the eldest
persist in his decision, it may be expedient to divide
the patrimony, the younger brothers taking their share
and keeping the wife whom the elder has rejected,
This proves the exceptional seriousness of the marriage-
bond and shows that the younger brothers are not
only, as has been contended, slaves and authorised
lovers of the wife of their elder brother, but that they
possess private rights, derived from their ancestors,
which rights f r all that they usually remain latent
and slumbering, are capable of being revived in certain
circumstances.
It is important that we should not confuse the
solidity of the marriage-bond with conjugal fidelity*
There is no fixed connection between these two terms.
* The itm<j custom pi'uvuitH turning the
260 TObet
Tibetan husbands and wives, though united by a very-
strong chain, as a rule observe none too strictly what
we should consider their first duty. True, adultery is
esteemed to be a grievous faultj because it affect? the
purity of the descent; but it is not a mortal crime: as
a rule, the husband contents himself with correcting
his wife and exacting a light penalty, four or five
rupees, from her accomplice. From the point of view
of family law and domestic religion, it is the judicial
notion : Is pater est who obtains control ; the essential
thing is not so much the material reality of the filiation
as the legitimacy of the wife, the recognition of the child
by the father and its solemn initiation into the family
cult. It is for this reason that the Tibetan who is unable
to have a child by his wife or wives sometimes introduces
a stranger into his house and charges him to perpetuate
his line in his place and stead. In reality, this stranger
becomes a conventional brother, having the same rights
as a brother born. In the same way, since hospitality,
among primitive peoples, consists of the accession of
the guest to his host's family, it follows that he can
lay claim to the favours of the lady of the house* This
is what takes place in Tibet, although the privilege
is reserved for intimate friends or for distinguished
persons who deign to honour their host of the
moment by looking upon themselves as belonging to
his family. I remember one Tibetan who was extremely
proud that the head of the embassy of Ladak had shown
his esteem for him in this way. This custom implies
polyandry and, in some nations, survives it.
The Tibetan women enjoy a freedom of demeanour
unknown to the women or China and of Moslem
countries ; but the Chinese authors and many European
writers after them have greatly exaggerated the superiority
of their condition and their influence upon the family
and in society. They are perpetual minors, under the
Hibct 261
wardship first of their father, then of their husband,
lastly of their son. They attend to all the duties
which are most repugnant to their weakness or which
the ^nen refuse : they work in the fields, fetch water
from the river in heavy casks, gather the clung along
the roads, carry the loads of the caravans in the difficult
places. The Chinese authors, often more yiven to
argument than to good and faithful observation, have
given out that they are stronger than the men* This
allegation is utterly incorrect, although, in truth, I need
hardly say that they are less feeble than the Chinese
women and, in general, more robust than the pale scribes
of the Imperial Legate, tho firmness of whose wrists
does not equal the elegance of their pencils. If they
carry things with a high hand in household matters,
this is due more especially to the idleness of their
husbands ; besides, they would not be women if they
did not know how to profit by the plurality of their
lords and masters in order to stir up rivalries between
them, play off one against the other and thus attain
their ends. There are some who have one of the
brothers as their favourite and make the lives of the
others so miserable that they drive them to a division
of the property or to exile. But it is a fur cry from
this to laying down the principle that the Tibetan woman
is the mistress in the house and, as it matter of fact,
she is not a little despised and harshly treated. I gave
up counting the number of times that Tibetans expressed
to me their surprise that England was governed by a
queen and it was beautiful to see the air of pity ami
contempt with which they spoke of it an though J
were personally responsible for the fact :
"With us/* they would conclude, "the female line
is the inferior*'*
However, I rose again in their esteem when I
explained to them that, if a woman was then reigning 5n
262 TTibet
London, it was only because the last king had left no
male posterity. The Tibetan nuns stand far below the
monks in the general opinion and are hardly superior
to the laity. The murder of a woman is settled ky a
compensation half as great as that exacted for the murder
of a man. Tibetan polyandry has no kind of relation
with matriarchism : it is only a form of patriarchism no
less absolute in its principle than the Chinese or Roman
forms. Those who imagine that polyandry marks a
transition between matriarchism and patriarchism might
lay stress, in support of their theory, on the fact that, in
Tibet or, at least, in several parts of that country, the
consent of the brother of.a girl's mother is required
before she can be given in marriage, But patriarchism
has never implied the suppression of all relations between
an individual and his mother's family ; marriage breaks
only the judicial and religious bonds that connected a
daughter with her father : it allows the natural bonds to
subsist ; the parents of the girl continue to be her
protectors after her marriage : they have the right to
make representations to the husband if he behave badly,
to take back their daughter if she be ill-treated,
abandoned or become a widow, to see to it that her
interests are respected ; and this protection may, in
certain cases, extend to the daughter's daughter without
there being any need to seek an explanation in the
hypothesis of a primitive matriarchism, which there is
nothing in the case at issue to justify.
The Tibetan families arc moderately prolific : more
so than the French, less than the Chinese. Our own
investigations agree sufficiently well with the information
which the prefect of Nagchu gave us concerning
Gyangtse and Lhasa to permit us to state that a
polyandric family numbers, on an average, seven or
eight viable children, say about three children for two
parents* The monogamous households procreate less
ttibet 263
absolutely, more proportionally. Girls are a little less
numerous than boys, at the rate of seven to eight,
according to the prefect of Nagchu, which is the exact
ratio which Sir Alexander Cunningham gives for Ladak.^
It cannot, therefore, be said that the insufficiency of
daughters was the cause of the institution or the reason
for the continuance of polyandry. On the contrary^
there are too many women in Tibet to-day and many of
them do not get married for these two reasons, that, on
the average, there are a few more husbands than wives
in the Tibetan families and that a host of men arc
devoted to religious celibacy, Some of them become
nuns, a larger number abandpn themselves to prostitu-
tion, In all the towns and in the smallest villages,
there are unmarried women who ostensibly ket k p small
businesses and particularly drinking-bars ; but brandy
and beer are the least important things that they sell.
Lhasa is no less renowned for the multitude of its
courtesans than for the multitude of its monks ; and
a Tibetan who was not apt at glossing over the truth
told me, one day, that, like the majority" of his
countrymen, he went there on pilgrimage more from
the first motive than the second. In the main, the
Tibetans are very immoral, from our point of view,
and they are too coarse to attach much importance
to the matter,
In the eyes of a passing traveller, the interior of
the Tibetan families seems devoid of light and joy, so
wretched is the appearance of things : outside, an icy
cold prevails and the whirling snowstorm rages : inside,
a poor, smoky, stinking, almost useless fire burns ; the
tent or house is dirty, uncomfortable, cold and km* t
with its felts too much worn to soften the hardness of
the ground ; the clothes are neglected and full of vermin,
the food insipid and dull, the duties rough or mesm*
And yet none loves his country and his home HO fondly
264
as the Tibetan : to him his sullen and obstinate country
is the finest in the world ; for him outside his dilapidated
house, outside his tattered tent, shaken by the wind,
there is neither peace nor mirth. He finds means of
being gay oftener than sad ; he has a fine time of it and
enjoys himself at a cheap cost. A cup of buttered tea
or a pot of beer, with a good pipe of tobacco ; a noisy
talk, seasoned with spicy jests ; a lively game of dice or
huckle-bones: that is all a Tibetan asks to make him
happy, I did not notice that their amusements were
very much varied : what matter, if they always find a
now pleasure in them ? In this connection, I will point
out a mistake made by Mr. Rockhill, who is usually
such a safe observer : he maintains that the Tibetans
do not indulge much in games of chance and that, in
particular, the game of dice is unknown to them. Now
there is no people more smitten with the passion for
gambling than the Tibetans : they outdo the Chinese
themselves and would wager their very shirts, if they
had any ! The game most commonly played with them
is just this of dice : they use three cubical dice (cko) 9
marked, on the opposite faces, i and 6, 2 and 3, 4 and 5.
But, of sill amusements, those which occupy the first
place in their opinion are stinging and dancing. They
have strong voices and do not raise them in so shrill a
tone as the Turkomans; their songvS and also their dances
are less gay and less lively, but not devoid of grace.
Although the slowness and monotony of the voices and
movements seem sad to us, the Tibetans arc convinced
that nothing could be more joyous* Their musical in-
struments are the Hindu guitar (piwang} 9 the guimbard
or Jew's harp (khapi)^ the bamboo pipe with nix or
seven holes (tingbu) and the tambourine. They love
double choirs or men and women, drawn up in opposite
rows, replying to each other in alternate verses and
moving slowly forwards and backwards in time to the
265
music. They indulge in these musical exercises especially
in the spring and always surround them with a certain
solemnity: the date is settled beforehand and the men
and ttomen who are to take part in them must have
made their ablutions and donned clean garments, as if
for a religious ceremony. It would be unbecoming to
dance at random and out of due form, merely for
amusement The Tibetans have the habit of singing
when going through the different labours of agriculture:
ploughing, sowing, reaping- In Turkestan, Cherchen is
the only place where 1 observed the same custom. In
1892, at Leh, we were present at a dance similar in
every respect to that at whick Bogle assisted at Jikatsc
in the last century: a large number of men ami women
dancing very slowly in a circle, with a few men cutting
extraordinary capers in the middle,*' 1 ' The women who
took part in this dance all belonged to the nobility ;
for only ladies of high degree arc permitted to dance
before the king ; it is their duty and their privilege,
In this case, the king was represented by the vizier
of the Maharajah of Kashmir,
*C. R, Markham : Narrtttive of tht Mission > &C M p* 92*
CHAPTER VI
SOCIAL ORGANISATION
Ari&tocrtvtic organisation nf society, stability of social conditions, heredi-
tary character of the professions Nobles and commoners.
TIBETAN society is essentially aristocratic, with hardly
any of the compromises tbat have been introduced into
the social systems of China or Turkestan. There is an
hereditary nobility, which concentrates in its own hands
all such wealth, power and influence as the lay element
has preserved. As for the clergy, I will not mention it
here ; its communities are neither more nor less than
collective nobles more powerful than the others.
The hereditary principle rules everything and makes
itself felt everywhere. Each man is very solidly, if not
indissolubly linked to the profession and condition even
as to the house of his father. The constitution of the
family is excellently designed to perpetuate in one and
the same line the possession of the same lands and, as
far as possible, to prevent the property from being
parcelled out and passing from hand to hand. Not only
do the sons succeed to their fathers* estates, but they
succeed also to their callings. The son of an official is
an official ; none is an administrative secretary, a farmer,
a painter or a tinker, if his father have not followed the
same profession before him. A few exceptions are met
with, but their rarity confirms the rule. The protonotwjr
of the prefecture of Nagchu exhibited profound astonish-
ment when 1 asked him what his father had been; truly* it
would have been a wonderful thing if they had ventured
366
Uibet 267
to profane the corporation of protonotaries by the intro-
duction of people who could not have qualified with
a respectable number of quarterings of protonotarial
nobility !
There is something in all this that recalls the Indian
castes, with less rigour and complication, however. It
does not appear that there is anything to prevent a
man from passing from one to another equally honour-
able profession, and Tibetan society is not, like that of
^Hindustan, divided into it host of small and strictly
exclusive clans. I should look upon it rather, in HO far
as 1 was able to ascertain the state of things, as divided
into different classes between which were barriers difficult
to overcome: nobles, burgesses, plebeians, serfs, pariahs.
The last all belong to certain despised trades which are
followed by none but pariahs from father to son, such
as the smith's, the corpse*carrier ? s, the currier's and the
butcher's, all of which imply religious defilement. 1 do
not think that we must look here for an effect of
Buddhism, for the smith's occupation is not Wamablc
from the point of view of the doctrines of Sukyji
Muni* If a person belonging to an honourable class
of society be deprived, through hard times, of every
means of existence, he will beg rather than take to one
of those derogatory professions* There are degrees
among the pariahs themselves : the smith despises the
currier and the latter the bearer of the dead. The
trades which are accounted honourable arc not cither
all on the same footing and a tinker, for inntaticc, is
less esteemed than a maker of religious statuettes, AH
a general rule, the arts connected with religion confer
a special dignity upon those who practise them ami
place them apart among all the workmen ; this
Favoured treatment they evidently owe to Buddhism.
What makes it very difficult in practice for a man to
change his trade in order to rise in the social scale is
268 TObet
that the employers take no apprentices from among
the sons of the profane. When, however, a pariah
succeeds, by way of exception, in following a decent
trade and making money at it, he is none the less
exposed to the scorn of respectable people, who treat
him as an intruder, and, at the same time, he loses the
esteem of the pariahs, who spurn him as a traitor.
Everybody refuses to accept him as a son-in-law and
should, at last, a decent, but poor man be found who.
submits to stoop, for the sake of a little money,
and to give his daughter to the pariah's son, the original
stain remains attached to the latter and also to the issue
of this mixed marriage and will not be wiped out until
the second generation.
It is still more difficult, not to say impossible, for
commoners to enter the ranks of the nobility. They
may succeed when, by chance, a needy noble consents to
give his daughter to a wealthy commoner ; in time, the
descendants of the latter may be looked upon as noble,
if they always manage to marry girls of noble birth
during several generations ; but this is not easy, for
it is a debasement for a nobleman to allow his daughter
to pass into an inferior class* As for the aspirant to
nobility, his position is an embarrassing and ambiguous
one. I was given the instance of a man of Ladak
who, having acquired a considerable fortune, succeeded
in allying himself by marriage to an aristocratic family :
during his lifetime, he was able to command more or
less respect by virtue of his money ; but, after his death,
there was none to attend his funeral : neither the nobles,
who had never looked upon him as one of themselves,
nor the commoners, whom he had disowned and who
now disowned him in their turn. Class prejudice is
stronger than religion itself. The Buddhist king
of Ladak and the little Moslem kings of Baltistan
consent willingly to enter into mutual matrimonial
269
alliances, but they agree to no match between their
family and that of a cot-religionist of inferior rank. As,
on the other hand, there are but few opportunities of
self-enrkhment, since big business is almost unknown
and trade is in its infancy and almost entirely in the
hands of the government and of the lay or religious
aristocracy, it follows that, even as there are great
obstacles opposed by manners to the change of class,
there appear but few aspirants to any such change.
The stability of social conditions is therefore very great.
The monarchy has done nothing to impair it; for the
purpose of government it has employed the nobility,
in whose favour it has reservtyUall the important public
offices, so that official and noble arc synonymous terms.
The government delivers no patents of nobility ; only,
it may happen that a commoner, thanks to exceptional
merit or singular good fortune, rises to one of the
highest places in the State : should his descendants
succeed m maintaining the position, they will end by
taking rank among the hereditary aristocracy.
Apart from the private domains which they have
inherited from their ancestors, the Tibetan nobles receive
from the State, by way of fiefs, lands of more or less
considerable extent, which constitute the salary attached
to the office which they fill ; they exercise rights of
justice, taxation, requisition and base service over these
lands in the place of the government- In return, they
owe the latter a certain annual fine and a certain military
contingent in case of need* The population that inhabit*
these seigniorial domains is in a state of serfdom which
my imperfect information does not allow me to define
with exactness* It appears that, by law, no man is bound
to the soil and that all arc free, at any time, to leave the
master's service ; but, in practice, they remain heredi-
tary servants of an hereditary master, in consequence
of the very great difficulty of finding the means* of
270 Utbet
livelihood elsewhere. These serfs are called miser or
yog (gyog); they are husbandmen, herdsmen, artisans,
office-clerks, domestic servants and secretaries and they
give their work for a certain salary or a ccrtaitl share
in the profits of their work. The State, on its side,
possesses private domains, organised and administered
in the same manner, and it may be said that the State,
or rather the King, is only a great noble, richer than
the others, but possessing, besides, like our own
mediaeval kings, a conspicuous right of property over all'
the land of the kingdom, in addition to their born serfs,
the nobles have around them some men who have taken
service with them of their* own free will, in the hope of
obtaining a decent post through their protection and of
nuking their fortune : these dependants are usually
younger sons who were not comfortable under the elder
brother's roof. Lastly, let us add to these different social
classes that of the freeholders, of the small landed pro-
prietors, who, though plebeians, are able to dispose of
their goods at their pleasure and owe nothing to any-
body, with the exception of the taxes, military service,
forced labour and requisition due to the State.
The territories of the nomads of the north-east,
which are not within the jurisdiction of Lhasa, have a
social organisation similar to the above, but simpler and,
probably, olden Each of the different kings is surrounded
by a court of hereditary barons, who divide the chief
offices of State among themselves and receive per-
petual concessions of land, of which the inhabitants are
their serfs. Under them are the chiefs of tribes, also
hereditary and invariably the largest land-owners of their
respective tribes, and, next, the chiefs of clans, who form
the lowest degree of the nomad nobility* The monarchy
is a comparatively modern function which has been $et
above the two essential and primitive groups, the tribe
and the clan. These appear to be, in the first instancy
TEiftet 271
more or less extensive families, whose heads possess not
only political power, but also all the authority of the father
of the family and all the prerogatives of the landowner.
The Tibetans have no other surname than that of their
tribe' 1 ' and the titles which they give to their chiefs
are the same that serve to denote the relations between
master and servant and between landlord and tenant.
To sum up, the great mass of the lay society of
Tibet appeared to me to be divided into two principal
-classes : that of the very powerful and highly honoured
lords and masters on the one hand ; and, on the other,
that of the menials and serfs, whose condition is a pretty
wretched one, except in the cg^ of those possessing the
master**; confidence. Almost all the men whom we met
were dependent on the great landlords, had charge of
only a small part of the latter's property, had heavy
burdens and but little profit, did not own the right of
disposing of a single sheep and were concerned only to
live from day to day with the least possible toil. As for
what might be called the independent middle-class, it
seems unimportant and uuinfluential ; the small owners
of land and herds are generally over head and ears in
debt, to the greater profit of the nobles and, especially, of
the monks, who lend to them at a high rate of intercut,
allow their obligations to mount up, suddenly exact
payment when they know their debtors to be insolvent
and then have the goods of the unfortunate borrowers
seized and sold at a contemptible price. However, these
are questions which are as yet very obscure and which
would require long, careful and patient study made on
the spot. I am fully aware that my observation* are
incomplete, but I shall be satisfied if I have succeeded in
attracting the attention of an intelligent traveller to a few
important points,
The annuls of the Soei (nixth century) show that thto waft sdlO the
emit among the Tanghiung.
CHAPTER VII
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS: CATTLE-BREEDING, AGRICULTURE,
MANUFACTURES
Social conditions of economic development Physical conditions
Agriculture Cattle-breeding Hunting Mines Manufactures.
THE family and social organisation which I have just
sketched is very unfavourable to the good economic
management of the contry* It discourages the spirit of
initiative and enterprise. Everyone is certain of finding
all that he needs in the paternal house, which is common
to all the sons ; everyone is confined to the condition
and profession of his father, without having the means
of raising himself. Those, however, who are too
cramped in the too-crowded family home ; those who
dislike their father's calling ; those who aim at issuing
from the obscure station in which their birth has placed
them : all those, in short, who, among us, form the
most powerful lever of the progress of the public wealth
go to swell the numbers of the dependants of the nobles
or the countless army of the monks, who live at the cost
of the industrious population and accumulate ever-in-
creasing' capital, whose economic activity is accompanied
by a great waste of strength* A few useful trades arc
considered vile and are reserved for the pariahs ; a man
of decent station who lapses into poverty prefers to
beg rather than follow a derogatory profession* The,
serfs have no interest in improving tnc cultivation of the
soil or the breeding of cattle, because they would gain
272
TEibet 273
much less by it than their masters; the small landowners
are crushed by the great proprietors and the convents,
who bear them down under the weight of taxation, ruin
them {>y usury, prevent them from improving their
condition by disposing of their property, monopolise the
produce and fix the market prices ; the large individual
or collective landlords are not stimulated by competition
to keep on developing their output. And so, from
top to bottom, routine reigns side by side with neglect
v and all efforts towards improvements are banished, for
they would be almost always useless and sometimes
dangerous. To these general facts, common to the
whole of Tibet, must be adcjjjd, in the eastern portion
of the country, political troitoles, struggles between the
different tribes, local brigandage and lack of security
for life and property.
Bad physical conditions join with bad social conditions
to make Tibet one of the poorest countries in the world*
We have read how naturally scanty the vegetation is*
Spread throughout the whole of Tibet are great spaces
covered with snow and rocks and occupied by rugged
slopes on which nothing grows. The spaces that are
not absolutely barren produce, in the greatest portion
of the country, only an herbaceous vegetation which
is anything but luxurious. In 1892, 1893 and 1894,
we travelled in Tibet without seeing any timber. The
forests do not go beyond a line drawn about NJK.
by E,, starting a few miles to the north of Lhasa,
passing through Batsumdo, to the north of Dergyeh,
and ending at Ltasen Gompa, at the bend of the Yellow
Riven To the north of this line there are only in certain
specially favoured spots a few shrubs or bushes which
could easily be counted. In Ladak, the juniper-tree
(chugpa) and the tamarisk (ombu) are the only trees
that grow naturally ; on the northern banks of the
Nam Cho, a few juniper-trees appear ; tuul, in the
274 tttbet
basin of the Upper Mekong, at about Lat 33, there
are a few dwarf willows (changma). In the south, the
same species exist, but the willows are taller ; one also
comes across the pine and the fir-tree (somching)* which
are by far the most wide- spread species, the holly-tree,
the birch and, in small quantities and only, I believe,
in Eastern Tibet, the cedar, the oak and the dm. Nor,
for that matter, is the absence of variety made up for
by plenty, for the wood is nowhere sufficient to provide
fuel for the natives, who use dried horse or cow-dung
in all parts of the country. The crops, which, in
Western Tibet, reach as far as the foot of the Karaul
Davan and the western extremity of Lake Pagong and,
in Eastern Tibet, as farT,s Dam and Labug Gompa,
are not at all extensive, nowhere form large, continuous
fields and are only like so many small spots of mould
on the huge skeleton of the Tibetan mountains.
Generally speaking, the ground and climate suit
only barley, which does not require a very rich soil nor
great moisture and which is sown in May> when the
winter frosts arc over, and gathered in September.
This cereal grows up to a level of 15,000 feet in Ladak
and of 14,450 at Dam. It might, perhaps, be possible
to grow it in a few districts at present entirely un-
cultivated, such as, for instance, certain cantons of the
basin of the Upper Mekong which arc below 14,700
feet ; but it is evident that there are no great hopes to
be based upon this possible extension of the areas fit for
cultivation. The price of barley in the places where it
is reaped is more than double that which it costs in
Chinese Turkestan, varying from i\ to i|j rupees the
bushel. Wheat, which is rarer and of inferior quality>
grows at a highest level of 13,000 feet in Spiti and <Jt
12,450 feet in the Jycrkundo country. The yield is
very small, does not often exceed the proportion of five
to one and reaches ten or twelve only in the very beafy
tHbet 275
warm and low valleys. They say that rice is grown at
Lhasa at a height of over 11,500 feet, but the informa-
tion which I received varies in this respect. In any
case, Jibetan rice is very bad and hard, more or less red
in colour and formed of small and irregular grains ; and
the well-to-do send to China for the rice which they
consume. In the matter of vegetables, those which
grow best and in the largest quantity are onions (tsoug) ;
they are found wild, in the uninhabited districts, at a
height of 17,400 feet. Turnips and pease are also very
common. As for fruits, the first place, in point of
quantity, is occupied by nuts (suirka) and apples, I
have stated elsewhere all thejfruits and vegetables grown
at Lhasa. As rain is scar*^ they generally resort to
artificial irrigation- Agricultural implements are few in
number and clumsy and thin shortness of took aggravates
the ill effects of the thankless soil The plough (M} t
which is of Indian origin, consists of a piece of bent
wood with a sock at the lower end : this machine is
drawn by a yak and does no more than scratch the earth.
The Tibetan husbandmen use also the spade and the hoe
and they reap with the sickle, I do not know if there
are any harrows outside of Ladak,
The chief resources of Tibet at the present time
lie in the pastures and herds. There are no natural
meadows and, so to speak, no artificial meadows except
a few fields of lucerne. The food of the cattle is supplied
solely by spontaneous common pastures, indifferently rich
in consequence, but at least very wide. The grass is very
nourishing, but hard and rough and is suited only to
specially adapted cattle, Sheep and yaks are the most
numerous and the most valuable kinds, Kverybody
knows the yak (gyag)^ the kutas of the Turkomans, a
* The inittal $ in qutanucnt, like mnny initial It'tlcr* in Tibetan; the
final ' in pronounced very hard, according to the gitrturut rule : that in
why we tranvcrlhc it with a ft.
276 {Tibet
very large, grunting ox, with long, black (sometimes
grey, or even white) hair ; it is used as a pack-animal ;
it gives hair for the manufacture of tents and coarse
stuffs, meat which is savoury, although a little tougji, and
hides for export ; the female, moreover, gives excellent
milk, similar in every respect to that of the cow, of
which the Tibetans make butter and cheese. The butter
is white, of moderate firmness, and has an insipid, but
not at all disagreeable flavour ; it is very much like
Russian butter. This commodity plays a leading part
in the life of Tibet, which is the real land of butter :
it forms the staple food and serves as pomade, cold-
cream, vaseline, lamp-oil jinl a material for modelling
different religious figureij tw certain festivals. The
price of a good pack-yak varies between [5 and 20
rupees at Nagchu and Jyerkmulo; the beasts intended
to carry burdens are naturally exceptional animals and
an ordinary yak is worth, on an average, only ro to
12 rupees.
The sheep supply meat, furs for the winter and
wool for export and for the manufacture of the native
stuffs. In Western Tibet, where the yaks are less
numerous, sheep are used for the purpose of carrying
loads. The Tibetan sheep is less fat than the Kirghiz
sheep and the sheep of Ladak, a country with but little
pasture-land, is smaller than that of Eastern or Central
Tibet. Its flesh is less delicate than that of the Khotan
sheep, the fat more plentiful ; the wool is less fine, is
thick, hard and rather coarse. The price of the wool
is about the same as at Khotan, 26 to 28 rupees the
hundredweight; only, it must be remembered that, the
cost of living being dearer in Tibet than in Turkestan,
the Tibetans in reality derive less profit from the wool
of their flocks than the Turkomans, A fat sheep which
you could buy at Polur for a rupee or a little over
generally costs 2j rupees in the Tibetan pastures. Tibet
tHbet 277
supports only a small number of goats, the inhabitants
caring for neither the flesh nor the skin, which is
reserved for people of the lowest class. It seems that
they do not know how to shave the goats' wool, except in
Ladak, This very dry and rocky country is well-suited
for breeding goats ; it contains over 80,000, all very
small in size ; their wool, amounting to 360 hundred-
weight at 300 rupees the hundredweight, is sent to
Kashmir, where it is employed for the manufacture of
shawls, together with the superior quality of wool which
conies from Turfan,
The horses are few in number, small and indifferent,
excepting on the shores of he Koko Nor, where a host
of horses, of Mongol breed, graze: these are rather short-
legged and stubby, with short, stout bodies, thick necks,
short, wide heads and low cruppers* They differ sensibly
from the Kirghiz horses and are exactly similar to those
of Polur. Excellent ambling-horses, good trotters on
occasion, they are, above all, resisting, sober, gentle and
patient; they cover very long distances without stopping,
drinking or feeding, in the deep sand of the desert or or*
the hard rocks of the mountains, under the burning sun
of summer or in the snow and the icy winds of winter,
content to wait until the halting-place for some brackish
water and a little grass of the consistency of pen-holders
or pencils, always even-tempered and ready to start again
at the first signal A few of them, by way ot exception,
are big and long in the body ; I have even seen some
of the size of our Norman beasts. An ordinary saddle-
horse, of suitable age, fetches 80 rupees at Lnasa and
only 50 at Sining : these prices must be doubled for
an animal fit for the service of an official, The grazing-
grounds of the Koko Nor, which are probably the best
m Tibet, feed oxen and cows similar and not inferior
to those in Switzerland, The crossing of the cow
with a yak gives a special product called d%o (mdzo).
278 Uibet
Donkeys are found only in Ladak; at Lhasa, they
know of that animal's existence, but hold it in great
contempt ; and we once greatly shocked a worthy
Tibetan by offering him one of our donkeys *as a
present.
Side by side with the domestic animals, the wild
animals form a resource that is not to be despised. The
nomads are good hunters; they make long journeys,
sometimes lasting for months, in search of game and
penetrate to distant, uninhabited and very inhospitable
regions. They go to the north of the Nam Cho as far as
the 34th parallel, rarely as far as the 35th* An astonish-
ing number of animals find^fic means of supporting life
in the icy and barren solittfdes of North Tibet* There
are three kinds which are met with everywhere ; the
wild yak, which is called dong (brwg) and resembles the
domestic yak, but is bigger ; the wild ass (cyuus
hemionus), called kiatig (rkiaxg) by the Tibetans, kulan
by the Turkomans and Mongols, which has the fawn
colouring, the size and the appearance of a mule ; and
the antelope (kiik in Turkic, chawa^ goba or tsod in
Tibetan). There are five different kinds of antelopes,
of which I know only the Turkic names : the yurga ;
the sarygh tskkeh) which has very long, straight, grooved
horns and is perhaps the tsod of the Tibetans ; the aka ;
the djura ; and the white kukm&t?' Nowhere are there
so many of these different animals as in the upper basin
of the Yellow River, to the north of the Golok country*
where they wander by thousands in the fine pastures,
forsaken by men, which extend over the wide valleys of
this region. It is the most wonderful hunting-ground
in Asia. The Tibetans hunt the yaks and the wild asses
for their skins, the antelopes for their horns, which the
Chinese pharmacopoeia regards as possessing the most
* There arc two other varities of Iclik which are not met with In th
mountains : the 2>ug*, or deer, and the djiran> or gazelle*
mbet 279
marvellous tonic and restorative properties. Hares
abound in the remotest and wildest districts ; but
superstition protects them against the hunters. The
brownbears are more fastidious than the animals already
named : although we established their existence all along
our road between the Nam Cho ami Jyerkundo, they
appear not to frequent the deserted portions of the high
table-lands. The wolves penetrate a little further : they
are small-sized and not feared by men. We camped
more than once near a lair of wolves, but no one thought
of taking any special precautions ; they are dangerous
only to the sheep and dogs, which are very frightened of
them, except the huge red-haired mastiffs of Lhasa.
Foxes are very common in Both the south and north and
avoid only the most inaccessible and the coldest regions,
Lastly, there are other animals which are met with
only further south, beyond the roads which we followed ;
such are the small monkey, which, in Eastern Tibet,
comes as far as Nyarong, at Lat, 32 , the lynx, the
squirrel, the otter and the panther. The skin of this last
animal is especially esteemed and the fashionable Tibetans
love to trim their clothes with it. A panther-skin costs
at least ten rupees at Lhasa and a fine one quite double
the money. On the whole, Tibet is far from supplying
so many or such valuable furs as North Mongolia and
Siberia. The wild animal most profitable to the hunter
ia the musk-deer, moschus moschlfsrus^ known as Uiba
(gkba), I will only just mention the, various birds j
partridges, which are very common on the shores of the
Nam Cho ; wild geese, frequent in North-eastern Tibet ;
cranes in the same parts ; the Tibetans do not care to
waste their powder on them. Although many lake*
abound in fish, as, for instance, the Nam Cho, and we
caught small trout in the basin of the Mekong at a
height of 14,750 feet, fishing does not seem to be
in favour nor to constitute an appreciable resource
280 mbet
for the population, at least - in the districts which we
visited, except at Chuchul on the Indus, south of Leh,
It is difficult to give a valid opinion on the mineral
wealth of Tibet, This is probably important. Auriferous
ground is found more or less in every direction, especially
in the valley of the Do Chu or Takiang, where gold costs
only fifteen times its weight in silver, and in the province
of Chang ; there are copper-mines, silver-mines and
mines of precious stones, such as turquoises and lapis
lazuli ; sulphur, sal ammoniac and borax are plentiful,
The Tibetans carefully conceal their lodes of metals and
gems from foreign travellers, because they suspect the
latter of having no other object than to steal their under-
ground treasures : a serious thing, for, if a profane hand
were laid on the riches buried in the bowels of the earth,
the incensed divine dragon would at once cause them to
disappear and would spread poverty through the land.
This superstition makes the Tibetans very cautious of
exploiting the subsoil ; but, even if it did not exist, the
rudimentary condition of their industries would not allow
them to make a great profit from the extraction of
mineral matters.
The Tibetans display an uncommon ignorance and
awkwardness in the most usual and every-day trades.
The smiths, whose stock of tools is often confined to a
small anvil, a bad hammer of Chinese origin and a
bellows resembling those used by the Soudanese, do the
little that they know how to do with the greatest clumsi-
ness. We were never able to use a steel axe made at
Lhasa : a prehistoric flint axe would have been prefer-
able ; and yet it was the master-piece of the best workman
in the capital. In the matter of wood-work, the Tibetans,
who, in the parts which we visited, have no other instru-
ments than the axe and the adze, make hardly anything
themselves except churns, buckets and, in Dergyeh ana
at Lhasa, stools and wooden cups or basins, which
ttfbet 2si
latter are the principal ariS only indispensable piece of
native table-ware. In the east, the framework of the
houses is almost always built up by carpenters from
Sechuoji. The rosary-beads, the bamboo tea-strainers
and many of the wooden basins are of Chinese or Hindu
origin. The pottery is of native make, but they use the
Chinese wheel. They do not know how to cut or set
their precious stones. The art of the armourer and of
the worker in copper, which have always been in favour
^throughout Asia, are less neglected than those which I
have mentioned. Lhasa and Dergyeh are the two most
important centres that I know of these two industries,
some of whose products are not to be despised either
for their solidity and fitness tu; for their ornamentation ;
but the daggers, swords, gun-barrels, tinder-boxes and
copper tea-pots that are turned out by the little Tibetan
workshops are far from satisfying the local consumption.
1 may also mention, in particular, the metal-workm,
who make trinkets, mostly of solid silver and a little
coarse, but not without a certain artistic stamp ; at the
same time, it must be noted that the most skilful
silversmiths in Lhasa are natives of Nepal*
Apart from and above all the manufactures must be
ranked that of wool-weaving and the arts necessary to
religious worship, which are comparatively flourishing
because of the special encouragement which they receive*
The religious arts are generally practised by the lamas,
who print books, paint frescoes on the walls of the
convents, cast copper-gilt, broir/,e and silver statuettes
and make sweet-smemng sticks out of sandal-wood,
powdered juniper, musk and incense. The production
of woollen stuffs is very considerable everywhere and,
although they are very greatly used, is sufficient for
local consumption and, to a certain extent, supplies the
foreign trade. At Lhasa or in the surrounding districts,
they make very thick, warm and stout blankets which
282
are perhaps the best of all travelling-rugs. In the tents
and houses, all over Tibet, one steps on felts which are
rather indifferent and very inferior to the Chinese or
Kirghiz felts. The nomads, in the long leisure* hours
of their pastoral life, weave a large quantity of wool and
themselves make it into very coarse stuffs, probably similar
to those which their ancestors manufactured in the sixth
century. In the villages of Eastern Tibet, the inhabit-
ants weave woollens of a little superior quality, streaked
with green, red, blue and yellow stripes and adorned
with little crosses. But the best fabrics, known by the
name of tug (pntg), are manufactured in certain towns
between Lhasa and Tachilhunpo and especially at
Gyangtse, which is the chfef centre of the industry.
They are dyed in one colour, blue, yellow, or dark red,
this last shade being by far the most sought after. The
piece, which is ten good fathoms (about twenty yards)
long and only twelve inches wide, is sold at a price that
varies according to the quality : the more indifferent
kind fetches 6;. at Lhasa ; for ^4 you get a very fine
cloth ; and for 6 (about 20;, the square yard) you can
buy one of the marvels of human industry, a stuff
thinner than cloth, but supple, strong, warm, smooth and
glossy, very different from the poor specimens which
European travellers have brought back with them so far.
This industry belongs to the government, which obtains
the necessary wool in the pastures of the north on the
score of taxation and distributes it among the inhabitants
of the midland districts with orders to weave it free of
cost for the government ; this forced labour takes the
place of all taxes in the houses subject to it. The State
sells a portion of the produce to the trade at a rate settled
beforehand ; it sells another portion to the population
through the medium of special commissaries, who
themselves usually hand over the retail transactions
to the local officials ; in that case, the government
283
overcharges the prices in accordance with the needs of
the treasury^ the commissary adds his commission, the
prefect allots himself a small profit, the head of the 4
canton ^>ays himself for his trouble and the ratepayer is
charged twice as much for the woo! ^is it is worth.
It is certain that, if weaving were free, the prices
would fall noticeably, while individual activity,, at present
fettered, would have un excellent* opportunity of display-
ing itself. We thus sec that the most important two
Industries in Tibet, weaving and the religious arts, are,
in fact, almost wholly monopolised by the two great
official powers in the country, the government and the
convents.
CHAPTER VIII
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ( concluded) ; COMMERCE
AND ROADS
The Tibetan's small capacity for commerce The grout trade is in the
hjtnds of the monks and the chief land-owners; organisation of
trade Roads to Chinn; to India Tibet'n trade with China The
markets of Lihiangfu and *fontfkingTibct's trade with British
India ; xvith other countries The currency.
TRADE affords an even smaller outlet for private
enterprise, It is, in fact, almost entirely in the hands
of the State, the lamas, the grandees and foreigners;
and there is not, so far as I know, a private individual
who makes trade his regular and exclusive profession,
except in Ladak, but only among the Moslems, Yet
the Chinese look upon the Tibetans as endowed in a
high degree with the spirit of traffic and brokerage.
To tell the truth, they deal in all sorts of things so
soon as the occasion presents itself; and, should the
occasion not present itself, they readily bring it about,
offering to all comers every manner of thing in exchange
for something that seems to them worth more, It is not
easy to strike a bargain with them, still less to come off
best at it. Where there is anything to be made, the
Tibetan displays a resourceful, suspicious, crafty, cunning
and tenacious spirit ; he scrutinises with the greatest
attention the object that is offered him in exchange for
his wares, handles it, smells it, weighs it in his hand and
tosses his head, discovers all the flaws which it has and
284
tribet 285
ascribes to it all those which it has not, looks at you
out of the corner of his eye to fathom your views
and to see the effect produced by his words, gauges
your commercial capacity, measures the degree of your
generosity or your avarice, sounds and flatters your
vanity, tries your patience, for the rest makes no firm
offer, uses vague circumlocutions and beats about the
bush indefinitely, shows the greater disinclination to
conclude the transaction the more advantageous it
appears to him, docs not bind himself until he is certain
that he will never obtain better terms and, if, neverthe-
less, he thinks that he has gone too fur, comes back to
declare that he has consulted his wife and that she
refuses to ratify the bargain* and makes you a humble
bow, putting out his tongue Smd scratching his ear.
But this is not the way in which a real trader acts*
Commerce demands more liberty and breadth ; and the
Tibetan, unlicked highlander that he is, with his in-
genuous cunning, is too much afraid of being taken in
and too eager to take in others ever to do much
business* Besides, he is domesticated to excess, like
all primitive peoples and particularly nomads ; he does
not want to see anything new ; and, when, by chance,
circumstances make him come out of his hole, he is
uncomfortable, bewildered, and thinks only of returning
home at the earliest possible moment, incapable as he
is of altering his habits in the smallest degree or of
accommodating himself to unaccustomed surroundings,
At bottom, he is a husbandman and a herdsman and
is only an occasional dealer. He does not settle
down to business as a merchant ; all the shops and
warehouses in the country are kept by Chinamen,
Nepalese, Kashmirians, Moslems from North-west India,
Laaak and Baltistan. The drinking-establishmcnts
(thwgkang) run by native women cannot be considered
an exception. The business of the home trade is done
286 mbet
either in the bazaars of the town (krom^ pronounced tom)^
or in the periodical, generally annual fairs which are held
near the villages or the monasteries. People go to these
fairs from many hundreds of miles around ; there are
herdsmen who travel 400 miles to go and sfll their
produce at Nagchu Jong. There, private individuals,
shepherds or farmers, exchange their respective wares
among themselves or sell them to the professional
traders, who are the foreigners above-mentioned, or to
the representatives of the great nobles and the monas-
teries, who, together with the State, are the only
merchants on a large scale. They alone, in fact, dispose
of important funds, consisting of their properties, their
benefices, taxes, perquisite^ more or less voluntary gifts
and bequests, which are paid, to a good extent, in kind,
and the produce of the manufactures which they carry
on, or cause to be curried on for their benefit. Thus, the
Lhasa government, the heads of the several principalities,
the officials, the convents accumulate considerable stocks
of goods, collect in a central point the produce of the
surrounding country and fit out large caravans to carry
it to places at several months' march and to bring back
foreign goods, which they sell off, at the best possible
profit, at the most favourable time. For the rest,
princes, lords and lamas all abuse their power to
increase their gains : if the buyer does not turn up
of his own accord, they hunt him down and sell him
at a very high price something for which he has no
use ; they oblige the villein bound to labour and
service to work for nothing or at a ridiculous wage,
force him to sell at a loss everything that he possesses
and condemn him, for the least fault, to pay a fine
consisting of so many bricks of tea, furs or pieces of
stuff.
The great lay or religious nobles who do a foreign
trade keep, in the places where this trade is centred^ at
Uibet 26?
Tongkor, Darchedo, :: Likiiing or Leh, their responsible
agents, called t$ottgpon$ y that is to say overseers of
commerce, who remain constantly at their posts, super-
intend the warehouse in which their employers' goods
are kejtt, receive and lodge the caravans dispatched by
the latter and attend to the operations of buying and
selling. These tsongpons, some of whom have small
armies of servants and inferior agents under their orders,
are men of importance, confidential persons, sometimes
Delations of their masters, government officials or lamas
of mark. They arc not the same as our agents or
managers of branch establishments, for they are bound
to their principals not only by commercial obligations,
but also by social duties; hey are their subordinates
in the capacity of subjects, olledicntial monks, depend-
ants, serfs or domestic servants, before being so in
their capacity of business-agents.
The roads being long, difficult and sometimes
dangerous, consignments of goods are not made often :
it is more profitable to fit out the largest caravans
possible, in order to diminish the general cost, to travel
only at the best seasons and to be better protected against
the brigands. Thus we mot, on the road from Nagchu
to Jyericundo, a caravan dispatched by the chief lama of
Tachilhunpo that numbered no fewer than Koo horses
and 90 men* These great convoys are led by tsongpons
who are similar to those who live abroad and who are
more or less high in rank according as he who sends
them is himself a more or less great person. The
tsongpon has supreme authority over all who accompany
him ; he can, us a special favour, permit private in-
dividuals to join the convoy with a limited number oif
loaded animals, on condition that they submit to his
command and pay a certain fee- On the journey, he has
the right to requisition animals and food everywhere and
* The Tibetan name for T;tsicnlu.
288 tHbCt
in the same measure in which his master possesses it ; if
he be a monk, he receives hospitality in all the convents
of his order, if a royal or ministerial agent, from all the
officials, if the agent of a minor noble, from all those who
keep up relations of hospitality with his employer* This
organisation of the foreign trade goes back to the
remotest antiquity; in former days, China knew no other
and the imperial and royal caravans were no different
from the political embassies. In the same way, the
commercial expeditions dispatched periodically to Peking;
by the Maharajah of Nepal and the chief lamas of Lhasa
and Tachilhunpo and to Lhasa by the King of Ladak or,
in his stead, since 1842, by the vizier of the Maharajah
of Kashmir to this day assupie the character of a political
mission,
The means of communication are extremely incon-
venient and difficult and arc no more encouraging to
trade thun are the lack of resources of the country and
the aristocratic organisation of society. What is known
as a road, him^ or even a high-road chalam (rgy#t&w) t is
a mere track that crosses valleys deeply set between
mountains, tumultuous torrents seldom supplied with
bridges and not always fordable and rugged passes over
jt 6,000 feet high, on whose slopes the snow lies heaped
to a thickness of several feet ; the ground, full of dents
and holes or encumbered with blocks of stone, seldom
offers a space wide enough to allow two loaded animals
to pass abreast ; sometimes the road consists only of
a ledge of a few inches wide jutting oufr from the
perpendicular wall of the mountain, a ledge covered
with ice or sticky mud and hanging over deep precipices.
The yak is the animal best-suited to roads of this sort :
its weight breaks the ice and it hardly ever slips ; its
huge mass and its short legs give it a wonderfully firm
balance, which enables it to pass everywhere and to
extricate itself from the worst scrapes. It is Hot
Ufbet 239
necessary to carry fodder for the yak, which contents itself
with such grass as it finds, hard though the grass may be ;
and this quality is particularly valuable on the desert
roads, devoid of all resources, such as that from Nagchu
to Jung. But the yaks are lazy, undisciplined, fond
of feeding and ruminating at their ease ; they can only
go short stages and carry tolerably light and not easily
breakable loads, for, instead of marching with even steps,
in a regular file, like the horses and camels, they go in it
, troop, promiscuously, shaking from side to side, jumping,
trotting, knocking one against the other. In the mount-
ains, they cover only nine or ten miles a day ; over
flat country, as between Tsaidam and Sitting, one can
get as many as sixteen mil^s out of them. Horses go
twice as for in a day as yahfs and they are sometimes
preferred, although they are more expensive and more
difficult to feed.
The high-roads of Tibet may be divided into five
groups. The first group joins Lhasa with Sining (Ziling
in Tibetan) and Lanchow, The most westerly of the
roads of this group, which is also the longest, but the
most frequented, because it is the only one that is safe
from the incursions of the Golok brigands, goes through
Nagchu Jong, the Lugrat and Chumar Rabdun fords
find Jung in Tsaidam* This road, which was followed
by Hue, has been gone over by no Europeans south of
the Do Chu, It is 1,160 miles long, or only 1,130 to
Tongkor, where the Tibetan agents reside. The yaks
take 108 days to cover it : 20 days from Lhasa to
Nagchu, 88 from Nagchu to Sining* It passes through
populous districts for only 56 miles from Lhasa until
a little beyond Pumdo Jong and 92 miles from Sining
to Tongkor Gompa : between thene two narrow belts,
the traveller comes upon only two small villages, those
of Nagchu and Jung, in the distance of 1,060 milcs >
of which over 500 are uninterrupted desert, that
19
290
separates those two localities. At any rate, the region
which it crosses, being very near the sources of the big
rivers, does not, as yet, present any very deep erosions
nor, consequently, great marching difficulties, notwith-
standing the lofty altitude, Another road, wh&h was
used in the last century, has been abandoned because
of the Golok robberies. It is straighter than the former,
from which it parts a little to the south of the Chumar
Rabdun fords, to make for Lakes Kyaring and Ngoring,
between which it passes, and then for Tongkor : it,
measures 1,060 miles to this last town, of which 800
are in the desert, and therefore offers no appreciable
advantage, even if its safety were restored- The road
which we were the first to reconnoitre and which
runs past the sources of* the Mekong, Tuchi Gompa,
Jyerkumlo, the Stongri Cho and Tongkor Gompa is
not perceptibly longer (r,iro miles) and is uninhabited
for only 360 miles between the Za Chu and the neigh-
bourhood of Tongkor Gompa. Still, from the com-
mercial point of view, it does not compare with that
which leaves it at Labug Gompa and, passing through
Archung, Ltasen Gompa, Lhabrang Gompa and Hochow,
reaches Lanchow, which is the real commercial centre
of this region. It goes almost wholly through inhabited
country and the journey is only 1,275 niilesj as against
1,315, the lengtn of the road used to-day. But the
Goloks who occupy it allow none save the Lhabrang
Gompa caravans to pass, even as they leave the Kyaring
Cho road open only to the chief lama of Tachilhunpo,
when, every three years, he travels to Peking, and the
road from Jyerkundo and Tongkor only to the caravans
of the monasteries around Jyerkundo.
The second group of roads connects Lhasa and
Tasienlu (Darchedo)* These roads arc three in
number and, by a strange chance, the first Europeans to
see them and travel by them have all been Frenchmen.
291
The most southerly, the most direct and also the
most difficult is that which passes through Gyamdo,
Lhari, Chobando and Chamdo and has been followed
so far % only by Hue and Gabet: it is 1,030 miles long
and takes the yaks three months and a half, M.
Bonvalot and the Orleans prince inaugurated the middle
road by Sog Jong and Chamdo, which appears to be
little used. Lastly, we ourselves were the first to trace
out the north road through the sources of the Mekong
and Jyerkumloj the portion which joins this lust point
to Tasienlu having been covered by Mr. Rockhill in
1891. This third road is more frequented and is uot
much longer than the former (1,140 miles, as against
t, too). The reason for *h$ preference which many
ive it over Hue's shorter road Is that the latter is
etestable. The description which the famous missionary
gave of it cannot be far removed from the exact truth :
several of the details were confirmed to us by Tibetans
who had followed it and notably that relating to the
pass which the yaks can descend only by sliding from
the top to the bottom of the frozen slope. Never-
theless, the Imperial Legate of Lhasa never takes any
other road, because this is the most inhabited and
the best supplied with resources. To this group we
may add the road of 540 miles which goes from
Songpanting to Chamdo through Zogchen Gompa,
with a branch road to Jycrfcundo, but which is not
open for regular purposes of commerce and is used
only by the Songpan smugglers, who are good friends
with the Manchu bandits.
The third group joins Lhasa and Likiang in Yunnan,
The distance 'between those two towns is 950 miles,
passing through the valley of the Sampo-Brahmaputra as
far as Chum Jong, through Po Jong, either K'umgka
or Dayul, Tseku and Wisi. This is the least-known
district of Tibet.
292 ttfbet
The fourth group comprises the roads which connect
Lhasa with India* The most practical of these is closed
to commerce by the Tibetan government, acting in
concert with the Chinese government. It is 32; miles
long and takes a mounted man in nine days from Lhasa
to Darjeeling, the terminus of the English railway. The
open roads reach India through Bhotan and Nepal.
Tasisudan, the capital of the former country, is only 250
miles from Lhasa; Khatmandu, the capital of Nepal, is
530 miles, going through Gyangtse, Tachilhunpo, Saskya,
Lasikar Jong and Nilam, A fourth road goes from
Lhasa to Assam through Chetang, Dirang Jong and
Odalgari, but the traffic on it is insignificant
The fifth group is composed of" the two roads that
lead from Lhasa to Leh, one through Tachilhunpo,
Gartog and Rudok, the other through Senja Jong,
Ombo and Rudok, The first, although the longer of
the two (1,340 miles as against 1,175), is the only one
that carries any considerable traffic, because it passes
through much more populous districts, the most
populous, in fact, and the most flourishing of Tibet.
This is the road taken by the mission of the vi^ie^
of Ladak. The traders make the journey in four
months with yaks and in two and a naif with horse**,
while the official messengers, who travel day and night
and change horses at each station, do it in eighteen
days, thus covering about 75 miles in twenty-four
hours, I will not speak here of the roads that lead
from Lhasa or Tachilhunpo to Chinese Turkestan,
because these have no commercial importance,
One would naturally expect that Tibet would have
more active relations with India than with any
other country ; but history and politics have decided
differently. The greatest part of Tibetan trade is
carried on with China and finds an outlet at Tongkpr,
Taaicnlu or Likiang, the towns where the tsongpona
{Tibet 293
are settled. At Tongkor, the Tibetans buy Mongolian
horses, leather, saddles and harness, boots, felt hats, a
few silks for the lamas, a few cottons which the Panaks
are almost the only ones to use, flour, tobacco from
Lanchow and Singan, paper, iron pots and different
articles of hardware, swords and fire-arms* They sell
wool, furs, musk, joss-sticks, rhubarb and, moreover,
saffron, sugar-candy, dates, shells and amber which
they have bought in British India. The value of
the turnover does not appear to exceed forty thousand
pounds.
Much more important is the Tasienlu market,
although the roads that lead there arc no shorter and,
indeed, if we look upon lh$ real commercial centres,
namely Lanchow and Chingtu, as the termini, we find
that the former is less far than the latter from Lhasa
(1,310 miles and 1,210 miles as against 1,360 and
1,250). But the districts passed on the road to Tasienlu
arc more thickly populated ; while Kansu is poor,
Sechuen is one of the richest and most populous prov-
inces in China and produces almost everything that
China produces. Tibet depends politically upon Sechuen,
and Tasienlu has the monopoly of the tea-trade with
Tibet just as Sitting has the monopoly of the same trade
with Mongolia and Turkestan. Now tea is the article
that is sold in much the largest quantities to Tibet and
at much the highest profit, According to the official
accounts of the likin^ Tasienlu sells every year to its
Tibetan customers over thirteen million pounds of tea,
fetching, according to the quality, from 4d* to 6d. per
pound at Tasienlu and from nd* to is. yd. at Lhasa ; a
respectable figure to which must be added all the tea
that is smuggled, principally by way of Songpan, This
trade is a source of great profit to the Chinese houses
at Singan, which have obtained from their fellow-country-
man, the Viceroy of Sechuen, the exclusive privilege of
294 ttibet
selling tea on the Tibetan market. The absence of
competition enables them to charge a very high price
for very bad material. This export tea contains more
wood than leaves in the bricks of inferior quality ;
it is often damaged and the best is not calculated to
flutter our European tastes. But the Tibetans are used
to it and like it. They have a fixed prejudice in their
minds that any other tea is adulterated and dangerous.
Kvcn in Ladak, subject to British authority, where they
can obtain tea from India of a better quality and at
a lower price, they obstinately insist upon drinking that
awful tea from Tasienlu, declaring that the tea sold
by the Knglish is a poison capable of giving the con-
sumer every sort of discos*. Merchants, government
and lamas often, for that matter, one are all alike
interested in encouraging this popular prejudice, the
merchants because of the material profit which they
derive from it, the government ami the lamas in order,
us far as possible, to prevent commercial relations with
the Knglish.
One might write ;i curious chapter on the influence
of prejudice in commercial matters, We have just seen,
in regard to the tea-trade, that prejudice can be stronger
than personal interest. The saffron-trade affords a no
less singular example of the same fact. China gets her
saffron from Tibet, which itself is obliged to buy it from
India. The road is bad and long, the carriage costly.
In order to make up for the consequent increase in
price, the goods arc adulterated and the Chinese buy
under the name of saffron an ingenious and abominable
mixture. It would evidently be to their advantage to
have this article sent straight from India by sea ; they
would then have it cheaper and of a better quality. But
the Chinese arc persuaded that Tibetan saffron is the
best of saffrons and they will not exchange their
persuasion for the truth*
ttibct 295
Besides tea, Tasienlu exports to Tibet cottons in
small quantities, cotton tents, silks to a somewhat import-
ant value, brocades, katags (a sort of coarse silk scarves,
which%the Tibetans give to persons whom they wish to
honour and which perform the functions of our visiting-
cards), expensive furs, saddles, porcelain, turquoises finer
than those of Tibet, tire-arms, hardware, drugs, tobacco,
Japanese matches, which are used all over Tibet, wheat-
meal, rice, black sugar, vinegar and preserved provisions
for the Chinese functionaries and officers. The Tibetans
bring in exchange woollen stuffs and blankets, hides
and furs, musk, joss-sticks, gold-dust, antelope-horns,
rhubarb, borax and Indian goods* They buy much
more than they sell and *njake up the difference in
rupees, which they obtain through their trade with
India, where they sell more than they buy.
The Likiangfu market scerns to have been important
before the revolt of the Moslems of Yunnan. But, in
consequence of the war which unsettled that province
from 1855 to r8y3, I-'ikiang was ruined and has never
completely recovered itself. This town is the centre
of the rather slender trade which Tibet carries on with
Yunnan ; and musk passes through Likiang on its way
to Tongking. It is the natural outlet for the products
of South-eastern Tibet and of the comparatively rich
and populous valley of the Mekong to the south ot
Ycrkalo. There is no doubt that, being without the
tea-trade, this market is in a condition of decided
inferiority to Tasienlu, Still, it occupies a fairly good
geographical position : situated at seven days north of
faltfu, which itself is the meeting-point of the valleys
of the Mekong and the Red River, it is nearer to
Lhasa than any other Chinese town and, what is more,
the Tibetan capital is, by way of Likinng, hardly any
farther from the Tongking frontier than from Chtngtu,
It is therefore not impossible that, if the proximity
296 ZTfbct
of our Indo-Chinese colonies give new life to the trade
of Yunnan, JLikiang will profit by this and supply us
with the means of establishing lucrative relations with
Tibet. We would buy sheep Vwool, goatVwool, hides
and furs, meat, cattle, Mongolian horses, gold and musk,
all of them things which, in this part of Asia, are hardly
to be procured except in Tibet* We would give in
exchange glossy cloths, in plain colours, by preference
red or blue, wrought and set precious stones, amber,
arms, telescopes, spectacles with smoked glasses, clocks
and watches, musical-boxes, metal plates and dishes,
ornamental paper-weights, broad-nibbed steel pens,
strong, unglazed writing-paper, mirrors, thread, needles,
large scissors, knives. In th houses of the great people
and especially in the convents arc rather curious col-
lections of European objects from all parts. The Dalai
Lama and the Pungchen Uinpochch have little museums
of our arts and industries. It is quite certain that, if
only our merchants urn! manufacturers succeed in plant-
ing their economic influence in Yunnan, this influence
will be able to spread over Kustern Tibet and it will
then do so qritc naturally. But we must cherish no
false ideas; the radius of Tongking's commercial activity
is very limited ' and extends only to inhospitable lands
whose scattered and poverty-stricken inhabitants arc
unable to buy much of us and* what is worse, arc not
disposed to be satisfied with the costly and rubbishy
articles that ait* too often offered them. In this respect
there is even much less to be expected from Tibet
than from Yttnnan. Only if Tongking becomes an
industrial country, which it is quite capable of becom*
ing, can it Wjl^f^j a considerable centre of
attraction- In' iBPBBPI\jMan and Tibet, which ate
now insignificant and not v^-Jq^prfuL customers, will
he useful to the development of the colony through the
metals and wool with which they will supply it.
At present, Tibet buys in British India almost all
the European goods that it requires. But this trade
is not encouraged by the Tibetan and Chinese authori-
ties anji suffers greatly from the prohibition against
the import of Indian tea, which might compete
triumphantly with the Tasienlu tea. I have said that,
the Sikkim road being kept strictly closed, there are no
direct dealings between Tibet and India, except through
Assam, :m exception of no importance. India trades
nvith Tibet mainly through Nepal; next to that, through
Laduk ; lastly, to an almost inconsiderable extent,
through Bhotan, Tibet sends to India across its
southern frontier woollen blankets and stuffs, raw wool,
hides and furs, gold, silver, -Aorax and salt, musk, karui
(%ira) y or cumin, and medicinal plants ; and it receives
inferior cloth-stuffs, a few silks and flowered cottons,
brocades, indigo, spices, sugar-candy, coral, pearls,
amber, shells, arms, knives, scissors and needles, copper
kitchen-utensils, a few metal plates and dishes and
different European knicknacks. The greater part of
the rice consumed by the Tibetans comes from Nepal,
Sikkim and Bhotan ; Bhotan also supplies them with
much -appreciated tobacco and Nepal with the cloth
known as buras and with jewellery*
To Leh, Lhasa sends principally tea, woollens and
rdigious objects. The inhabitants of I-adak use no
other tea than the brick-tea from Tasienlu, which
costs them 35. per lb,, more than double the price at
Lhasa, while the Indian dealers offer them good tea at
one rupee the pound. I -eh also receives from Western
and Central Tibet and sends on to India gold from the
mines of the province of Chang, turquoises from Lhasa
or China, salt, borax and sulphur from the northern
uplands (Changtang), shecpVwooI and goat's-wool from
the provinces of Chang and Ngaris (to the value of about
250,000 rupees), musk, rhubarb and various medicinal
293 Uibct
plants. It imports from Kashmir, to send on to Western
and Central Tibet, shawls, brocades, English cloth,
indigo, saffron and spices of every kind, sugar-candy,
a little barley and rice, copper dishes, cutlery, jewellery,
coral, artificial pearls, &c. The total value of the trade
between India and Tibet is very small. The inevitable
insufficiency of the English statistics does not enable me
to estimate it with exactness, but I do not think that
it amounts to two million rupees. Between 1891 and
1893, the fluctuating trade with Ladak averaged 53,5ocf
rupees and 169,000 rupees with Tibet through the
intermediary of Ladak. During the same period, India
did business to the extent of 38,500 rupees a year
with Tibet through Sikkimj of 2,815,000 with Nepal,
of 49,000 with Bhotan, The trade between India and
Tibet, therefore, amounts to 261,000 rupees, plus the
undecided amount, very much greater, however, than
this figure, of the business done through the intermediary
of Nepal and Bhotun.
The increase of this traffic depends upon the throw-
ing open to commerce of the road between Darjecling
and Lhasa by thu Chumbi Valley. The attempts made
by the Anglo-Indian government to secure this opening
ended, in 1893, * n a commercial treaty of which I shall
speak later, because at present it offers only a purely
political interest. But, even if trade were entirely free
on this side, neither India nor, still less, England could
expect to find in Tibet a very important market for
disposing of their produce ; only, from the clay when
the Himalayan region is given up to British activity
and is dependent, at least from the economic point of
view, upon the Indian Empire, it will supply that empire
abundantly and cheaply with the things in which at
present it is most lacking : salt, hides and, above allf
metals and wool, which, in India, is of very^ inferior
quality. India will then definitely be what it is already
ICibet 299
on the way to becoming, one of the greatest manu-
facturing Powers in the world.
Lch is at present as important a commercial position
as any Commercial position can be in the midst of poor
or indifferently rich districts. It is not a centre of
production and consumption, for Ladak is one of the
most barren and thankless countries of Tibet and its
population does not exceed 178,000 souls ; but it is still
the necessary point of transit between India, Baltistan,
iJiulakshan, Turkestan and Tibet. The roads which
run to it from Lhasa are prolonged to Srinagar and
Rawal Pindi, to Yarkand and Khotan by the Karakoram
Puss, to Badakshan and Bactriana by Iskardo and Gilgit.
This last route, nowadays $f no great importance to
Tibet's foreign relations, was famous in the middle ages
and was the great connecting-road between Balkh and
Lhasa. From Lch to Iskardo is ten days 1 march (185
miles) along the Indus ; from Iskardo to the Baroghil
Pass, thirteen days (250 miles) down the Indus, up the
rivers Gilgit and Yasam and across the Darkot Pass.
Beyond the Baroghil Pass, the road joins, at Sarhad, on
the banks of the Ak Su, the routes from Kashgar, goes
down the Ak Su as far as Ishkashim, crosses the Sardab
Pass and, through Zebak, runs down to Feyzabad, which
is twelve days from the Baroghil Pass and nine from
Balkh* This town, therefore, is twenty-one days, or 440
miles, from the Baroghil Pass ; forty-four days, or 475
miles, from Lch; and 2,200 miles from Lhasa* This is
the road which the Tibetans used in the seventh and
eighth centuries when they went to occupy Wakhan
and to spread themselves as far as the extreme western
limit of the Arabian Empire. Since then, the Tibetan
race and language have receded as far as Baltistan and the
relations between Tibet and the region of the Upper
Qxus have became almost insignificant. The yak-oxen
of Tibet carry to Wakhan a little hashish bought in
300 zribet
Chinese Turkestan and, in the Iranian dialect of the
Wakhan, the hashish and the yak-ox have kept their
Tibetan names, bang and dxo. Tibet receives a small
quantity of rubies and lupis-lazuli from Bajlakshan
and a few dried fruits, especially apricots, from Baltistan.
The very small trade done between Tibet and
Chinese Turkestan uses almost exclusively the Kara-
koram Road. Leh imports from Yarkancl, either for
local consumption or for export to Tibet I am not
speaking here of what is destined for India a little
tobacco, hashish, of which the Western Tibetans have,
unfortunately for themselves, acquired the habit, dried
fruits, Kirghiz horses and Ili horses, which hitter are
known in Tibet as Yarkani horses and are sought after
for their relatively larger size, felts and rugs, especially
Khotan saddle-rugs, a few sable and otter-skins and a
little Russian leather. I am not aware that Tibet sends"
anything to Chinese Turkestan in return, except a few
turquoises and some musk, which has become famous in
the writings of the Moslem authors under the name
of Khotan musk. The Karashar Mongols, who go to
Lhasa by the Ambalashkan Pass or the Angirtakshia Pass,
take a few of their native horses to the Tibetan capital
and bring back some religious objects and a few woollens j
but this is unimportant.
Among the European goods sold iu Tibet, German
or Austrian goods occupy the first place after and a very
long way behind those of English origin* Cutlery, drugs,
fancy goods, needles and thread are the articles that most
often bear the mark "Made in Germany'* or "Made
in Austria/' Imitation jewellery commands no sale at
present, for the Tibetans are not stupid savages and buy,
in respect of jewels, only such objects as can be sold,
when necessary, at not too great a loss. A very small
quantity of Russian goods finds its way into Tibet
through Yarkand or Lanchow, I, for my part, saW no
<*
accepted by the Tibetans on the shores of the Koko Nor,
The Chinese ingots occur less frequently, because they
are not so convenient to carry ; but the ounce of silver
(SMUX) ^ considered from one end of the eountrf where
the Tibetan tongue is spoken to the other as the real
monetary biisis. The silver ounce does not vary,
whereas the rupee and the tangka arc subject to slight
fluctuations* The former was quoted, "in 1894, at
3125 ounce, the latter at -125. The value of the
currency has not been affected by the fall in the pric^
of silver and the price of commodities has remained
stationary. Only gold has gone up in price, but not so
much us in Turkestan ; it still costs only eighteen times
its weight in silver at f Jutp and fifteen times at Jyer-
kundo or Batang*
CHAPTER IX
RELIGION : SURVIVAL OF OLD FORMS OF WORSHIP
THK 1'ONBOS
Dogmatics of Buddhism in general and of Tibetan Buddhism in par-
ticularHow the original principles of Buddhism have become
degraded and distorted Cult of the dead, of ancctor and of the
domestic hearth Remains of the old worship of natural phenomena;
gods and demonsThe Ponbo sect, which has remained faithful to the
primitive religion True character and role of Buddhism in Tibet.
WITH the exception of the 'people of Baltistan, who
are Shiitc Moslems, and about half % million Ponbos
^distributed over every part of the country, all the
Tibetans are Buddhists. But, though 1 have only to
say that the inhabitants of Chinese Turkestan arc
Moslems for the reader to know what 1 mean, explana-
tions are necessary to point out precisely what must
be understood by my statement that the Tibetans are
Buddhists* The religion of the Tibetans is very
different from the doctrine which the Enlightened One
preached in India in the fifth century B,C. This doctrine
conceived the world to be a mere collection of attributes
which are not attached to any real substance ; the
universe is composed only of appearances, is an immense
illusion ; nothing exists in itself, for everything ceases
to exist at the very moment at which it is, everything
lapses in a perpetual evolution. Happiness is, there-
fore, not possible, since it would be destroyed at the
very instant when it was attained ; life, an aggregate
of indefinitely changing modalities, is necessarily im-
perfect, devoted to evil, suffering and death, Death,
in its turn, is only a speck in the universal evolution,
303
30* {Tibet
a passing from one form of life to a new form ; for
so great is the power of illusion that the elements that
constitute the appearance dissolved by death retain in the
depths of the unconsciousness the desire to ettfer into
the composition of a new appearance and, like* a blind
man who does not see the vanity of things, they wander
through the empty night, allowing themselves to be led
by karma, the effect of all their former actions, and
to be flung into the mould, whether superior or inferior,
which the latter assigns to them; : the form having beejp
* The Hucidhist conception of the ntctumpyehosu# i very different
from the vulgar conception. It l& not the continuation of the personality
of eaoh individual after death, the passing of the soul into another body.
The first ttudtlhists and the profound Hindu philosophers upon whom
they huned their teaching, the pUiluHOphern who invented, five or HIX
centuries toforc Christ, almost aff the utanii which the German philosophy
of our own ;>Rc thought that it luul diiicovcrcd, were fur from entertain-
ing any such childish notion** To them the soul m only :\ soric-H of
psychic attribute'!* und net*;, in the ame way an the hirdy in only f
Hcrit'H of physical fiicts. When the whole of the fctctK that coimtitutc
the corporeal appearance in diNtiolvtMl by death, it docn not disappear
any more than tloen the whole of the psychic factH that constitute the
moral personality, for nothing is lost, nothing in created. The uctH mib-
Hit mid continue to influence the entire life of the world by entering
into new combinations. If an individual have led a bud life* the bud vffect
of hia uetti will make itwelf felt after hU (tenth by entering into tho form-
ation of new moral beings, who will have the warne qualitten of covet-
ouHneMB, of vain attachment to the thingn of the world ; and the evil of
the universe \vtlj be increased by it. On the other hand, he who hau
led A good life, who has Htiflcd desire within himnelf and supprcKited
activity, will* by thut very fact, have uuppreHticd the CUCB of future
evils, will not have contributed tr> the motion of the wheel of life that
engender** wretchedneH* *, nd, if all living beings follow bin example,
that fatal wheel will at hint come to K HtandxtiU, rest will nuccecd
action nd perfection Hnd the cemtutton of existence, thone two indis-
soluble term, will reign iilone. The rewnrd or the penalty of u gotnt
or u bud life m, therefore, not individual happinew* or tmhapplnew* in
the world to come, but general happiness or unhuppincs*.
Thii theory wan too lofty for the universal #oim to foUow: each
wiwhcd to keep the benefit of bin clfort for lumelf, instead of plucing it
In the public money-box ; and the Buddhmts, with the exception of the
mtmt distinguished tcachem, ended by accepting childish and popular
opinion0 on the soul and the life to come.
305
recovered, consciousness returns and, after i^
sensation, the desire for life, the love of the go
things of the world, the transmission of existence
to an heir, suffering and death, The wheel thus turns
withouf end ; and we cannot escape from this circle of
wretchedness save by the knowledge of the truth that
shows the falseness of things and the irreparable evil of
existence and by the abolition of passion and desire,
which are the causes of life. By realising absolute
apathy, we avoid the law of becoming, we enter into the
perfect, immutable state, from which consciousness,
feeling, joy and suffering have disappeared, This pessi-
mistic philosophy excludes all theodieean speculation*
God is superfluous, since everything in the world is
rigorously determined. He Trannot exist as a perfect,
distinct Being and master of the universe ; for either
fccxistcnce cannot be conceived without action ami move-
ment, whereas action and movement derogate from
absolute perfection, or else existence is conceived
abstractly, stripped of all its modalities, in which case
the perfect, immutable Being, without thought or will,
without anger or love, incapable of acting or of thinking
of acting, without limits and, consequently, indistinct,
without attributes in short (for attributes are relative
and therefore incompatible with perfection), becomes lost
in Nirvana, that is to say in the cessation of existence,
which differs in nothing from the absolute,
This severe doctrine, reserved to the initiated few,
was soon corrupted and was invaded by the mythologies
of Brahmanism and Shivaism, by {wpular superstitions
and by the metaphysics of the theologians, The deteriora-
tion was especially perceptible in the countries of the
north, which adopted the teaching of the school known as
that of the Great Vehicle, or Mahstyamu, because, making
the greatest allowance for human weakness, it boasted
that it carried more men to the shores of salvation.
306 mbet
The Enlightened One, the Buddha, who, they say,
under the name and form of a small prince of the
north-west of India, was the first to preach the good
rule, became a god and was considered as the universal
soul in place and stead of Brahma. He was tlie first
principle, the sole being, eternal, incorruptible, mani-
festing himself in three persons without affecting the -
unity of his essence : the first is the transcendental
Buddha, the personification of Nirvana and of the
Supreme Law ; the second proceeds from the first, o
which it is the reflection and the representation in the
celestial world, where conscious and active life develops
itself with all the splendour and all the perfection of
which it is capable, an intermediary world between that
of the absolute and that <?f humanity ; lastly, the third,
which proceeds from the two others, is the Buddha
made man.
Later, but still in very remote ages, each of these
three persons was multiplied by five ; each of the five
metaphysical Buddhas (Dhyani Buddhas) and of the five
celestial Buddhas (Bodhisattvas) was subdivided, in
accordance with the Shivaistic conceptions, into two
principles, male and female; and, above this ramification,
was recognised a supreme and primordial Being (Adi-
Buddha or Togmai Sangyeh), of whom all the others arc
only emanations in the first, second or third degree. It
was a desperate effort to pass through a degradation of
subtle shades from illusion to truth, from movement
to repose, to bridge over the space between miserable,
lying, transient man and the true eternal, infinite,
immutable, impassive being, the Nirvana-God, by
ascribing to that Motionless One an eternal evolution,
begetting throughout eternity a conscious and active,
but wholly spiritual manifestation, which, in its turn,
begets an active and carnal hypostasis. Buddhism thus
became a form of monotheism deeply impregnated with
ttfbet so?
pantheism and Nirvana was transformed into absorption
into the bosom of the divinity or of the universal soul,
of which each individual soul is a detached atom.
This view seems to have prevailed among the
Tibetan people, who were unable to understand the
theory of primitive Buddhism. They generally speak
of Sangyeh without an epithet, as of a sole God, not-
withstanding his different names which denote his
numerous manifestations. They semi up prayers to
-him and believe him capable of interfering in the
affairs of this world and even of modifying the effect
of karma ; or, rather, each pious invocation goes to
increase the assets of him who utters it and entitles him
to a better life in the neat world* Many ascribe to
Sangyeh a, creative power similar to that wfiich the old
Hindu mythology attributed to Brahma, By an effect
of his will and the power of his meditation, he is said
to have formed out of pre-exlsfcnt chaotic matter the
Rirab Gyalpo, or King of the Mountains, which,
stretching its prodigious mass of ^old, rubies, sapphire*
and crystal from the depths of the abyss to the
summit of the skies, was to be the axis of the universe ;
then he brought forth from the bonom of the primitive
waters a first world which was successively destroyed and
reconstructed, for an incalculable number of times, under
different forms, Sangyeh, according to the same people,
is interested in the universe and in men in particular: he
is a god-providence. Originally, men were superior
beings, who looked at Sangyeh face to face, whose bodies
were illumined by an inner light, performing the office
of the absent sun ; they enjoyed extraordinary length of
days, were exempt from the ills ami maladies that distress
modern mankind and had no need to work to live*
But, in time, they became perverted ; their bad actions
weighed down their good deeds ; and, lofting their
privileges, they descended (probably by successive
308 tttbet
regenerations) to the level of the men of to-day and
were plunged into darkness in consequence of the loss of
the divine light that formerly shone from their bodies.
Then, Sangyeh created nine suns, whose excessive heat
liquefied all that existed, and the world became no more
than a mass in a state of fusion, in which the King of the
Mountains alone subsisted. Next, by the force of his
meditation, he provoked the formation of a sort of proto-
plasm, which, solidifying, increasing and subdividing,
constituted a new world, with its four real or fabulous
continents, its stars, its gods, men and beasts. Men,
trusting the subtilty of their intellect, will become per-
verted again until, despising the supreme and eternal law
which Sakya Muni preached, they will, in the pride of
their apparent power, come to make war upon the last
of the faithful and upon the terrestrial incarnation of
Buddha, the Dalai Lama, who, under the name of
Gyaser (?) Gyalpo, will have to mount his white charger
and draw his sword in defence of the truth. Then, the
end of time will be at hand ; and, when the universe
has been destroyed by the will of Sangyeh, he will
fashion another in a later period, Note that the world
in this conception does not cease to be an appearance
without reality : it is the product of the power of
illusion of Sangyeh and as it were a dream of the
Divinity, the only really existing thing. This essentially
Shivaistic doctrine does not, perhaps, agree with the
teaching of the majority of the Tibetan doctors, except
the conclusion, which presents anew the legend of
Krishna, recalls that of the Antichrist and is an article
of faith ; but, as no great importance attaches to these
questions, it is possible for even Gelugpa lamas to hold
these ideas without being treated as heretics.
Apart from Sangyeh and his celestial and terrestrial
emanations, who make only one with him, Tibetan
Buddhism recognises a host of secondary divimtie$
300
borrowed from Hindu mythology and from the old local
religion. These divinities, good and bail alike, receive
a regular worship and enjoy special attributes and inde-
pendent power. The Tibetans are very much afraid of
their whims and their anger and are more anxious not
to displease them and to appease them or to force their
favour by ceremonies, forms and sacrifices than to follow
the mystic road that leads to the final deliverance*
Therefore, Buddhism is atheistic, monotheistic, pantheistic,
polytheistic, according to the view which one takes of it,
The disciples of Gautama are not at all embarrassed
by what we are inclined to look upon us monstrous
contradictions. Anyone who is more or U'ss accustomed
to metaphysical speculation knows how easy it is to
pass from one to another of those categories by almost
imperceptible shades and how frail are the barriers
that separate them, barriers set up by the prejudice or
the limited logic of the philosophers or theologians. At
bottom, Tibetan Buddhism bears a strong resemblance
to Hinduism in its metaphysics, save on a few important
points, m its doctrine of karma, of the transmigration
of souls, of the renunciation of the good things of the
world, of the absorption into the universal soul ; in itn
mythology, worship and ceremonies* Buddhism, origin-
ally devoid of worship, has taken to itself almost the
whole of Hindu worship, with its array of uiols,
formulas and complicated rites* It has also borrowed
some details from the Christian liturgy, through the
intermediary of the Nestorians established, in the middle
ages, in China and Mongolia ; but it appears that thin
influence has been exaggerated, many of the things which
were believed to be taken from Christianity having mnce
been found to exist in the religions of India,
Moral perfection and indifference to the outward
illusion, necessary to obtain salvation, have been relegated
to the background and the coarse, popular conception
310 mbct
of religion has gained the day. The divinity has ceased
to be inactive, insensible to the prayers of men and to
their efforts to please it ; it has become a king whose
wrath is to be feared, but whose favour can be skilfully
captured ; it has again fallen under the domination of
rites and formulas. Prayer is no longer a simple
homage, but solicitation and even, in certain conditions,
a means of effective compulsion. Works have assumed
an excessive importance and by works we must under-
stand not morally good works, but acts of material'
devotion, intended to circumvent the divinity, to force
his attention, to tire his resistance, to oblige him, by
special favour, to bend the impassive law to the will of
his courtiers, Buddha, whQ'laid down the principle of
the renunciation of the vanities of the world, Buddha,
who set up for an object the annihilation of the
personality, is asked to grant wealth, health, the satis-
faction of covetousness and pride, is constrained by a
ceremony more solemn than any of the others to distil
the elixir of long life. His devotees pray for the dead as
though the dead could escape the fatal consequences of
their acts. If Buddha refuses to be moved, they apply
to one of the thousand gods that surround him, each
of whom has his particular role, his special power, his
own horrible or amiable shape, his personal harsh or
benevolent character, a host of courtly chamberlains,
graceful maids-of-honour, generals, fierce defenders of
the faith, dread duennas, not to speak of the diabolical
animals that go about in the purlieus seeking whom they
may devour. The supernatural world is a court where
they distribute good and bad seats for the life to
come, spiritual graces and temporal goods, calamities and
miseries : to obtain the former and to be dispensed from
the others, the Tibetans exhaust themselves in measures,
in solicitations, intrigues, gifts. They build thousands of
temples ; make tens of thousands of statues ; prostrate
themselves ; sing hymns ; mutter endless prayers ; grind
out an even greater number by water-power or by hand j
say their rosaries ; celebrate solemn services ; make
offerings and give banquets to all the gods ami all the
devils ; wear amulets and relics ; write talismans ; wave
streamers covered with prayers or lucky emblems, which
the breath of the wind sends flying through space ; pile
up numberless heaps of stones with pious inscriptions ;
turn around all the objects which they regard as sacred:
"mountains, lakes, temples, heaps of stones ; go in pro-
cessions and on pilgrimages ; swallow indulgences in the
shape of pills made by the lamus out of relics ; drink
down with compunction the divine nectar (dudtfti) com-
posed of the ten impurities 1 ^ such as human flesh ami
worse ; practise exorcism, witchcraft and magic, even to
obtain spiritual blessings ; perform pious mysteries ami
dance strange and fren/.ied sarabands to drive out or
shatter the devil : and thus is Tibet made to spin dis-
tractedly, without rest or truce, in religion's mad round.
I will linger no further on the dogma or ritual of
Tibetan Buddhism. Mr, Wadtlell has treated this
subject lately with much greater accuracy am! detail than
I could do from my unaided memory. 1 will content
myself with giving a few notes on a mutter that particu-
larly attracted my attention in the course of our journey,
namely the remains that still survive of the old local
religion. What I have already said show* that the spirit
which animated this religion of former rimes is deep-
rooted in the Tibetan soul, has grafted itself on the
Buddhic stem and made it bear fruit* which it was* not
intended to produce. Much more, a certain number of
forms, rites, divinities of the old religion have remained,
if not untouched, at least recognisable* Such in the cult
of ancestors, although Buddhism was of all religions* the
least disposed to leave a place for that, for it doe* not
Zttbet 313
in the dead man's clothes and place on the top a piece of
paper which is supposed to be his portrait ; and, every
day, they offer him food to eat. We know from Tibetan
books ^that this was a general custom in the seventh
century ; nowadays, the ceremony is limited to forty-
nine days, by the end of which period the spirit of the
dead man has necessarily found a place in a new body,
But they continue to show him worship. The ashes of
the burnt portrait are mixed with earth and made into
Hlittle cones (chacha), which they carefully preserve on the
domestic altar. They also place a few in rough monu-
ments raised in the country. Throughout Tibet one
comes across these chachas, which are sometime** said
to be representations of Bu4ilha ; this is only a manner
of describing their sacred ^character. The relics of
important persons, of chief lamus, are placed in more
imposing monuments called clwrcfwn (mtcfmtlrtm)^ that is
to say receptacles of offerings, altars. Nowadays, these
very numerous chorchens are oftenest only empty tombs
or cenotaphs ; but it was not the same in former days,
as may be concluded from their old name of thwgrun
(gdungrten)) receptacles of bones. The Chinese authors
tell us that, in the seventh century, tumuli were raised
over the tombs of the dead kings and even great build-
ings to which people came to do homage and to present
offerings to the spirit of the prince- Here we have the
prototype of the Ishmiscd mmars of Turkestan, Again,
the shades Jived in the tomb a life similar to that which
they had led on earth, for with the king were buried hi
Rges, his horses, his clothes, his jewels and his arms*
owadays, the Tibetans celebrate a commemorative
ceremony one year after the death of their kinsman and,
every year, in summer, they offer libations to the shades
of their ciead ancestors. Before every tent one sees a
cord, stretched horizontally, to which are fastened
streamers, generally nine in number, They reproduce
the somos of the Altai Turkomans, which represent the
souls of nine ancestors, whose duty it is to protect their
descendants ; but, in modern Tibet, these protective
streamers are covered with Buddhist inscriptions with
wishes for happiness.
The cult shown to ancestors is not only a token of
pious memory, is not only a provision served out to them
to save them from starving in the next world, but is also
a homage shown to divine beings, to superior powers, in
exchange for their protection. The ancestors receiver
the title of gods (//;<?). It is from their ancestors that
the Tibetan sorcerers, like the kams of the northern
Turkomans, derive their power and they are necessarily
hereditary. The grand official sorcerer of Tibet, who
resides at Nechung, always invokes a special demon
called the king (gyalpo}, from whom he himself is
descended and who came from Mongolia. The lama
summoned to a sick man to exorcise the demon that
possesses him has recourse to his own tutelary genius,
who is very probably, in that case, the Buddbic form
of the ancestral genii, the natural protectors of their
descendant. A certain number of gods or devils,
honoured by the Tibetans, are considered to be the
shades of heroes or heroines whose cult has spread from
their own family to a wider circle. Thus the spamos,
or fairy huntresses, are the ghosts of ancient queens* It
is contended that the most terrible of all the devils,
the duds y are the spirits of the old persecutors of
Buddhism. But the fact that proves beyond doubt
that they are divinities of an earlier date than the
religion of Sakya Muni is that offerings of swine are
made to them, although sacrifices of live animals are
forbidden by that religion.
The cult of ancestors is complemented by the
worship of the household godvS, which stands toward*
the former in a correlation which my insufficient
315
information does not enable me to state with precision.
Every house has its divinity (nanglha), which ordinarily
occupies the hearth, although, at certain times, it is
installed^ in other parts of the home* This god does not
love strangers, who, for this reason, are admitted into
his presence only with certain precautions. Kvery
morning, the members of the household offer him water,
wine, milk ; they light a lamp before him and take care
to revive the fire in the hearth with ;i brunch of juniper,
tfhich is a sacred shrub to the Tibetans, as it is to the
Turkomans. At night, they again burn a branch of the
same plant and carry it through and about the house in
order to drive away evil spirits; for fire itself is regarded
a$ a divine being and as the* natural protector ot those
who keep it in. It might be worth finding out if this
domestic fire was not originally confused by the
Tibetans, as it is by the Turkomans and the Mongols,
with the domestic divinity and the" divinities of the dead
ancestors. Be this as it may, the community of domestic
worship forms the link that bind 4 * together the members
of one family and is able to take the place of real
relationship. All the Tibetans are organised into lirtltf
mutual burial-societies, composed of neighbours and
friends who are not related by blood, but who all huve
the same god and who, consequently, are assimilated to
descendants of the same ancestor (ruspa digchigj : they
are called faspon^ or cousins, and it is their duty to
provide one another with burials ; and none but a
paspon can show the last honours to a deceased person,
for the shades reject the homage of any vtwngcr to their
family and cult. Consequently, the soul of one who
dies far from his paspons and who is interred without
their aid will be for ever miserable and will rojun the
earth to the great terror of the living. To allay the
irritation of the shades that have not received regular
burial, the lamas go from time to time and fling pellets
316 {Tibet
of tsamba into the rivers and wells, inviting all wander-
ing spirits to come and share the feast. In the same way,
two Tibetans who propose to conclude a compact of
friendship similar to the andalaku of the Mongols
solemnly sacrifice an animal and drink its blood, the
essential vital fluid, in order to bring themselves in
intimate communion with the divinity to whom the'
victim has been offered and who has become infused by
consecration in the animal's veins : in this manner, the
contracting parties have within them the blood of the
same god, that is to say of the same ancestor, and are
brothers.
Side by side with the remains of the domestic religion,
we find a large number of remains of a religion of nature
absolutely similar to that cr the ancient Turkomans and
the ancient Mongols and to that which is still in vigour,
in spite of some modifications, among the Chinese. Thef
Tibetans behold a divinity in every natural phenomenon,
in every external object that attracts attention by its
peculiarity or its she. Many lakes and mountains have
a divine character and are the object of worship : such are
the Nam Cho, the Iki Namur, the Koko Nor, the
Samden Kansa Mountains, Mount Tiseh near the
sacred Lake Mansarovar, the Amnyeh Machen, the
sacred mountain of the Goloks, whose name means
the August Ancestor Ma and seems to point to a con-
nection with ancestor-worship, I could prolong this
list indefinitely. There is a god who makes liquids
to ferment ; another who causes illness ; a third who
causes death : whenever a decease takes place, a special
ceremony is performed to drive him away. There is a
goddess who looks particularly after little children
(tumlhamo) ; a god who presides over the chase. Each
canton, even each inhabited valley has its special genius
(juiag). On the rocks and in the caves live mischievous
gnomes (twn); the depths of the earth are occupied
Uibet 317
by legions of jealous and spiteful demons (sadag), of
gloomy and hideous aspect, who fly into a rage when
men dig the earth in search of hidden treasures or for
other reasons and who kill them or spread misery and
disease Hn the neighbourhood ; the sources and rivers
are guarded by so many man-snakes f/#j, who remind
-one of the naiads and have been assimilated by the
Buddhists to the nagn of the Vedic mythology. Above
these particular divinities reigns the celestial dragon
(4hug)) the personification of the clouds and, perhaps,
more generally, of the gloomy sky, who makes the
storm burst forth, sends down the gentle rain, causes
floods, the plague and contagions. He is the exact same
as the dragons of the Mongols and Chinese, His
earthly enemy is the red tig$r (nagmar). The latter
is often represented in five-fold : one, yellow, in the
oniddlc, personifies the earth ; and, in the four corners,
the blue one is wood, the red metal, the white
fire and the black water* These are the five sacred
elements, which are revered also by the Turkomans,
the Mongols, the Chinese and the Annamites, The
divine tiger has been turned by the Buddhists into
a protecting genius of the true raith. As for the five
elements, although the Tibetans still know them ami
speak of them as sacred things, their worship has lost
its Importance and tts precision. Traces of them survive
in the five flags carried by the official sorcerers when
accomplishing their rites, in the five colours with which
the Saskyapa lamas paint their convents and, especially,
in the successive groups of five hypostOHca in which
Buddha is manifested. With the worship of the five
elements are also connected the two crossed sticks, ji
symbol of the sacred fire, and the feast of water, which in
celebrated in September: at that time, water is considered
to be gifted with supernatural properties and everybody
bathes in the rivers, thinking thus to obtain n long life.
318 TCibet
Another ancient god, having also the form of an animal,
is the Wind-horse (lungsta)^ who is depicted on in-
numerable streamers waving in mid-air. This Tibetan
Pegasus, whom the Buddhists have laden with the
three precious jewels of the good law, appeafs to be
a personification of the wind galloping through space
and breathing good and bad luck by turns. When a
hurricane gets up, the lamas send a host of sheets of
paper, with the effigy of the Wind-horse, flying in the
air, so that the god, accepting the homage, may he
appeased and cease to endanger the lives of travellers.*
The celestial bodies play a smaller part in the
religious preoccupations of the natives, although the
latter believe in their influence over destiny ; but their
astrology, which is wide$ practised, is of Chinese or
Hindu origin. As in China, a sacred respect is shown
to the hare, which the hunters never touch ; this animal
is probably connected with some lunar cult* In the
month of December 893, we assisted at the feast of
lanterns, or rather of lamps, which is known in China
as in Tibet. The poor herdsmen on the shores of the
Nam Cho lit, at night, in their tents, all the butter-
lamps which they had at their disposal ; this ceremony,
in its humble simplicity, showed us better than any
sumptuous festival in a big town could have done the
depth of superstition of which it was a manifestation.
Its object is to ask for the return of the sun and to
pray for the triumph of the light threatened by the
winter darkness. The lamas have made it into the
feast of Tsongkapa ; but the example of China proves
that its origin is much older.
At a later period, an attempt was made to put a little
order into this chaos of primitive deities by arranging
them all under two categories, each with its supreme
head. The terrestrial gods were subjected to old
* Hue, describing this ceremony, distorts its renl meaning. ,
Mother Earth, dressed in yellow, mounted on a ram
with great horns ; an ugly, gloomy and fierce goddess,
the guardian of the gates of the infernal abyss, which,
if they % opened, would spread terror and death among
the rac of mankind. We have seen that she was
\vorshipped by the inhabitants of Chinese Turkestan
before the introduction of Buddhism, The gods of
the sky and air received for their master Namlhakarpo,
an old white-haired man, dressed in white and riding
on a dog. He, like Zeus, represents the clear sky that
distributes light* These two higher divinities of the
sky and earth have their equivalents in the Turkic,
Mongolian and Chinese mythologies ; they were the
chief objects of Tibetan worship in the seventh century
and their cult most probablt- dates back to that pre-
historic period in which the four nations were neigh-
^bours in the mountains north of Mongolia and formed
only one ethnical group.
The Tibetans thus live in the midst of a formidable
swarm of gods and demons * whose rustling they hear,
whose breath they feel, of whose vague forms they
catch glimpses in the darkness, They have a heavy
task to conciliate, to avoid offending or to appease all
those fantastic beings, jealous, susceptible, powerful and
always ready, like savages, to abuse their strength.
Hence come the innumerable practices to which the
natives devote themselves and to which Buddhism has
only added. Some of them, of course, are of earlier date
than the introduction of the religion of Sakya, Muni*
For instance, the nomad, before drinking, dips the fore-
finger of his right hand into his bowl and sprinkles a
Oml in Mitt, dumrm </</* (hdruh). ThtM latter ward seem* to have ft
very general ntf titling uniting ail the cuti^nrieu <>f demon*. We must
lutt trannlutc iku by good #i*nhiH and deli by bad #ouiu; the lhatt, at
bmtnm, atv no totter thuti thvf dcliH ; but, tin genii of the uir d light,
they huvc more benefits to bo.unv, whereas the other* are fiuhtcrruncan
And tenebrous genii,
320 Uibet
few drops towards the four cardinal points, while reciting
a prayer : this is a libation in honour of the genii of the
air and the ghosts of the dead that may be wandering in
the neighbourhood ; in the same way, they are Coffered
the remains of each repast. The traveller does not fail
to pay homage to the special divinity of the canton
through which he is passing, for fear lest it should play
him some trick. The mountain-passes are supposed,
because of their height, to be more particularly fre-
quented by the gods and the Tibetan, on reaching the
summit, mutters a deprecatory formula and throws a
stone on the little pile heaped up by those who have
come before him and almost always surmounted by a
few nigged streamers. These heaps of pebbles (oto in
Mongolian, dobum in Tib|tan), which resemble the old
Kirghiz tombs, are sacred monuments and not mere
land-marks to show the road,* The people often turn
around them, which among most of these nations con-
stitutes a pious act* These pious turns (skorba)^ are
certainly not of Buddhic origin, for we know that the
ancient Turkomans employed the same method to show
their veneration for the holy places and for their dead
in particular. It is worth noting that this ceremony
is performed by keeping the object of worship on the
right, that is to say by turning in the same direction as
the course of the sun ; and this leads one to think that
it was originally a form of sun-worship : indeed, we
know that the sun, especially the rising sun, filled a great
place in the primitive Turkic religion.
There subsist a few traces of the old animal sacrifices
banished by Buddhism, To drive away the ghosts
returning from the other world, the Tibetans sacrifice
animals in effigy. On the last day of the year, the lamas,
* The obo ia the analogue of the ansab of the Arabs and the
of the ancient Romans.
f The tawef of the Arab*.
ttibet 321
dressed up as skeletons and as hideous demons, perform
the dance of the red tiger, the most extraordinary of the
ceremonies of Tibetan Buddhism : they cut into pieces
and pretend to eat a puppet in human form representing
the eneiAy of religion and of the country. This festival
is evidently the survival of that at which the Tibetan
chiefs, meeting on the first day of the new year, took the
oath of fidelity under the auspices of the priests, who
immolated a number of criminals and divided their flesh
among those present* The Tibetan sorcerers are very
like the sorcerers of the Mongols and Turkomans ; like
these, they indulge in frenzied and convulsive dances
and in horrible yells, addressed either to their own
ancestors or to the earth and sky. The first among
them, the grand sorcerer of Nijichung, who is one of the
principal persons in Tibet, contends that his ancestors
were natives of Mongolia. It is very possible that he is
descended from the high-priest of the old Ponbo
religion. He who is said to be his first ancestor is
that same white god of heaven who is the first divinity
of the Ponbos and the tradition which declares that his
.ancestors were Turkic and Mongolian kings suggests the
idea that the clergy of the ancient Tibetans was perhaps
of the same stock as that of the ancient Turko-MongoK
The almost entire similarity in the religion of these
peoples, as opposed to the characteristic differences of
language and customs, would thus be explained of itself,
All the sorcerers (n#gpa) y to whatever category they
belong, arc lamas ; they foretell the future,! point out
which practices should be fulfilled in order to remedy
* Hence the stceuHtttiotiB of cannibuliKm of which the Tibet an have
been the victim*.
f Some of their method* of divination are purely Chinese. Qflwtt
uw Turko-Mongoliun, ftuch mt the pebbles arntnged in ft certain order,
corresponding with the kumttlttk of the Kiunhn, and the consulting nf
the nhouldcr-hladc of a sheep (wtffrt) put to the fire, which fa especially
In discovering lost or Htoten ottjcctH,
SI
322
present evils and ward off evils to come, conjure up and
exorcise devils and cure the sick. There are some who
make a specialty of causing the rain to fall or cease ;
they correspond with the Turkic yadachi and, lifce these,
employ a stone to which they attribute sujfernatural
virtues, calling it the water-crystal (chuchel) : it is prob-
ably jade. However, the orthodox lamas have recourse
to a simple offering in honour of the divinities of the
waters (nagas) y accompanied by an appropriate form of
prayer.
Not only has the old religion left a deep impression
on the soul of the Tibetans who profess Buddhism, but
it has also retained to this day a large number of adherents,
who are called, as in former times, Ponbos. They are to
ho found in every part ofjfTibet, but especially in Eastern
Tibet and in the province of Chang, which they look
upon as their cradle, or, at least, as the seat of they:
most revered sanctuary. The Buddhists having brought
their efforts to bear mainly upon Central Tibet, in other
words upon the richest district in the country, one meets
with but very few of the votaries of the old faith there.
On the other hand, Eastern Tibet having never been
subject except in part and superficially to the Lhasa
government, the Ponbos are still strong there and their
number amounts to not far short of half the popula-
tion. All the Tibetans living along the high-road from
Nagchu to Jyerkundo, between the Chachang La and the
Damtao La, are Ponbos, as arc also many of those who
live in Dcrgyeh and in all the country to the north-east
of Chamdo. The Ponbos are said also to predominate
in Poyul. Zogchcn Gompa is the most important of
their monasteries in the north-east ; it is there that most
of their books are printed* Hating the victorious religion,
they have nevertheless felt its influence and, prompted
by fear, they have tried to lessen the dogmatic differences,
so as to be able to pass for heretical Buddhists and ttot
323
for infidels. Thus they ascribe the foundation of their
sect to an incarnate divinity whom they assimilate to
Buddha and call Chenrabyungdung (Gchenrabsgyung-
drung). Nevertheless, they recognise none of the
human 'hypostases of the Buddha whom the orthodox
revere and they treat the Dalai Lama as an impostor.
He whom they look upon as the true and only
incarnation of Chenrab bears the title of Ma Rinpocheh.
They say that the first head of Buddhism in Tibet, who
pretended to be a god made man, maintained a long
controversy with their high-priest. The latter proposed
to his adversary, in order to settle the quarrel, that they
should together attempt the ascent of the great ice-
mountain, Gangrimochehj the sacred and inaccessible
mountain said to be situated^in Chang. The proposal
was accepted and then the Ponbo high-priest had
recourse to powerful enchantments, which enabled him
to rise in the air and to arrive without difficulty at the
inviolate summit of the mountain, amid thunder and
lightning, while his rival was struggling to climb the
lower slopes. The orthodox accept this legend at least
in pnrt ; but they declare that the infidel magician was
struck by lightning while flying through the air, thus
leaving the victory to the protagonist of the true faith,
The Ponbo lamas are not compelled to celibacy
ant! they wear their hair long ; some of them live in
convents, others are distributed among the lay popula-
tion, from whom they are distinguished neither by their
manner of life nor by their appearance. The Ponbo
priests are often hermits, leading isolated lives in remote
mountains : the more solitary they are the better are
they able to influence the powers* of heaven and earth*
At a place called Zama, in the dark gorge of the
Charrong Chu, we passed not far from the tent of a
Ponbo hermit, much revered as a priest and feared as a
magician, and the terrified Tibetans who accompanied us
324
hastened their steps. The institution of convents is, no
doubt, borrowed from Buddhism. The primitive clergy
of Tibet does not seem to have had a monastic organisa-
tion. It was none the less very powerful, as may he
conjectured from the important part which it played in
the most solemn act of Tibetan politics, the taking of
the oath ; from the vigorous struggles which it main-
tained against Buddhism ; and from the high position
retained in modern society by the official sorcerers, who
are certainly the successors of some of the Ponbo higk-
priests, if not their descendants.
The Ponbo lamas are, before all, sorcerers and
necromancers and exactly resemble the kams of the
northern Turkomans, the bos of the Mongols and, lastly,
those whom we call sharfans* When exercising their
magic functions, they wear a tall, pointed, black* hat,
surmounted by a peacock's feather or merely a cock's
feather, a death's head and a pair of crossed thunderbolts ;
they have a drum formed of two human skulls^ which is
as essential an object to them as is the tambourine to the
Siberian shaman. Different from the orthodox lamas,
they sacrifice animals and especially cocks, whether
because they attribute a sacred character to this bird or
because it has this advantage for the worshippers, that
it is not expensive. They throw spells in the same
manner as our mediaeval sorcerers, by sticking pins into
a little figure representing the person upon whom the
spells are cast. To cure diseases, they employ the same
method as the Mongols : they put the sick man's clothes
on a clay figure upon which they write his name and
throw it away in a distant and desert spot ; the spirit of
death takes this little statue for the patient himself and,
believing him dead, troubles about him no longer. If
the patient be a notable chief, a man plays the part of the
* it is probably the colour of their hate which hat* cttuaed them to
be vulgarly called black lamas.
Eibet 325
statue for a small sum of money : he has to leave the
camp or the village and go away as far as possible,
without returning so long as the chief is alive. These
customs are perhaps not quite unknown to the orthodox
Tibetan's.
The principal divinities of the Ponbos are the White
God of heaven, the Black Goddess of the earth, the
Red Tiger and the Dragon, They profess a profound
veneration for an idol called Kepang, made of a mere
Week of wood dressed in bits of stuff. I was not able
to ascertain what it represents, but they say that it is the
same divinity that, under the name of Pekar, inspires
the orthodox sorcerers. The most sacred symbol ot the
Ponbos is the gammadion cross, the swastika of the
Hindus, but turned from right to left. This emblem
is a remnant of fire and sun-worship : it represents the
solar wheel and the two sticks (the antni of the Hindus)
which, when rubbed together, produce the sacred fire.
The presence of the name of this symbol, yungdun& in
the name of the mythical founder of the Ponbo religion
shows the predominant importance of fire-worship in the
primitive religion. The Buddhist Tibetans also possess
u similar emblem, except that the brackets are turned
in the opposite direction ; they, however, ascribe a less
value to it than do the Ponbos. For the rest, we can
apply to the latter all that I have said concerning the
survival of the old native creeds amon^ the so-called
Buddhist Tibetans. Their religion, which is a coarse
naturalism combined with ancestor-worship, is the same
as that practised from time immemorial among the
Turkomans, the Mongols and the Chinese ; and that Is
why it so greatly resembles Taoism^ which is no other
than the primitive religion of China, covered with a
varnish of Hindu metaphysics*
The religious practices of the Tibetan Ponbos do not
differ essentially from those of their Buddhist brethren;
326
both recite endless litanies made up of invariable
formulas, unwearyingly spin their praying-wheels, erect
wants * and obos^ wave pious streamers, turn at every
opportunity around the religious monuments, temples,
manis and sacred lakes and mountains. But the
Ponbos are distinguished by small details of form.
Instead of employing as a prayer the Buddhist formula
" Om mani fadmc hum ! " they use the formula " Om
mate muyasaledo ! " of which I do not know the meaning,
Instead of turning their praying-wheel inwards, from
right to left, with the sun, they turn it outwards, from
left to right ; and again, while the orthodox Buddhists,
in describing the sacred circle around the objects of
their cult, always keep them on the right, the Ponbos
always keep them on th* left. This is the capital
difference between the two sects, the only one which
each takes account of; and the mills that turn to the
right abominate the mills that turn to the left. In the
old religions, we often find the two ways of turning
and the two svastikas employed concurrently, those
which go with the sun being considered divine, the
others demoniacal and suited for magical operations.
The Buddhists having preserved only the first, the
Ponbos attached themselves solely to the second, from
a spirit of contradiction and also because their religion
bore a strongly accentuated character of black magic.wjy
And so, in this citadel of Buddhism which is Tibet,
the population either is very hostile to the religion of
Sakya Muni, or else adheres to it only with its lips
and in form, while neither men's hearts nor their minds
have, at bottom, changed. The lamas allow the infidels
to live around them, even as they let false opinions live
in the minds of their faithful. The real fact is that
Buddhism, whose expansion has sometimes been com-
pared with that of Christianity and Islamism, ia a religion
* The ntttni is a heap of etoney covered with pious inscription*.
tEibet 327
of monks and initiates that is not made for seculars or
the vulgar. There is no genuine Buddhist save him
who has known the vanity of the world and who has
renounced it absolutely. Without that there is no
salvaticfh. The monks, who have taken vows of poverty
and chastity, who are plunged in meditation and who
are not concerned with the cares of this world below:
the monks alone are within the pale of the church ;
the laymen, the black men (nnnag)^ as they are called,
poor people with dim minds, chained to falsehood,
steeped in the flesh, eaten up with desires, arc necessarily
without the fence: they are definitely those who do not
follow the way of truth. That is why the lamas deeply
despise the laymen, the more so as the latter are unable
to allege any excuse, to clain^ any indulgence, seeing that
the inferiority of their condition is the consequence of
the inferiority of their conduct in their previous
existence,
Christianity also, no doubt, preaches indifference to
the world and one need not stretch greatly certain
passages in the Gospels to deduce u theory of renuncia-
tion as absolute as that of Buddhism ; but beside those
passages there are others which make allowances for the
necessities of active life and which make room in the
house for all men of good will. If the tendencies
towards perfect renunciation nearly prevailed at the
beginning, when men were enclosed in a narrow circle
and believed the end of the world to bo at hand, the*
practical side of Gospel teaching soon gained the ascend-
ant when the community had spread. As for Islamism,
this is an entirely practical religion, which does not stray
into the indefinite regions of the ideal and which, there-
fore, is, even more than Christianity, a religion of laymen,
of men engaged in the business of the age ; and, whereas,
in Christianity, the priest preserves a marked spiritual
superiority over the layman, he has none in Islamism,
328 Itibet
Such are the reasons for which these two last religions
have always exercised an incomparably greater social and
moral influence than Buddhism.
The Tibetan lamas trouble hardly at all abqut the
people, except to extract their sustenance from it*and to
keep it under their temporal authority. For this reason,
they solicitously foster its superstitions instead of crush-
ing them and nurture its belief in their superiority, which
is inaccessible to any layman, and in their power over
divine beings, demons and nature. They pass fo$
the necessary intermediaries between mankind and the
divinity. "There is no god without lama," says the
proverb ; and the clergy has constituted itself the dis-
tributor of temporal as well as of spiritual benefits, has
given a fillip to Buddha to Compel that impassive god to
trouble himself a little about the affairs of this world, has
infused new life into all the popular deities whom the
Enlightened One flung back into their nothingness,
has monopolised them and made itself their com-
missioner on earth. The necessity for strengthening
their credit with the common people that supports them
has obliged the monks to modify their original character
as well as alter their doctrines : they have had to
diminish their isolation, to step down from the tower
of ivory in which Sakya Muni meant to enclose them,
from contemplative to become militant, to combine
with their monastic profession the functions of priests
and sorcerers. They have purely and simply taken the
place of the Ponbo priests of old and resigned them-
selves to rendering the people the same services in
order to receive from them the same wage. Shrewd
dealers in religious commodities, they supply all articles
in demand after the desired pattern ; ana, more eager
to satisfy their customers' tastes than to impose their
own, they have opened more departments * in their
shops than Buddha ever expected. To tell the truth,
TCibct 329
some of these wares arc of a quality so inferior that
the lamas do not stoop to use them for themselves :
such s for instancej are the ceremonies intended to guide
the sank of the dead in their passage from this world
to thfi next ; hut, since the vulgar herd likes them and
is willing to pay a good price for them, they let it have
as many as it asks for.
On the whole, Buddhism has but very little improved
the manners of the Tibetans* It has added to their
superstitions without removing any in return ; it has
kept alive their distrustful and crafty highland ways ;
it has done nothing to inspire them with a deeper sense
of virtue and honesty. From the religious point of
view s it has not inculcated a more wholesome conception
of the divinity ; and of all ifs beautiful metaphysical and
moral doctrines only one has pervaded the whole people:
that of the transmigration of souls, but spoilt and
debased to such a pitch that the Tibetan employs it to
silence his scruples and, with a safe conscience, to cheat
his neighbour, whom he presumes to have been capable
of cheating him in a previous life* Still, we must
honour Buddhism for abolishing human sacrifices, for
spreading the respect for science and books, for setting
a noble moral aim before a few chosen soul% for kindling
a flame of ideality, feeble though it be, on the mountains
of Tibetj which, but for that flamt% would have remained
dark and devoid of glory-
CHAPTER X
THE ORGANISATION OF THE CLERGY
The monastic hierarchy The number, power and wealth of the monks
The different religious orders; the rcai position of the Dalai
Lama; the Dalai Lama is not a pope,
THE influence of Buddhism has been, above all, material
and political, thanks to its cltygy, which has obtained an
unprecedented temporal power and ended by holding
universal sway, by bending all men's minds to passive
obedience and imbuing them with a certain gentleness,
which has been very wrongly attributed to the theories
of Sakya Muni, The clergy of Tibet owes its social
and political mastery to several causes and, first of all,
to its powerfully-organised hierarchy and to the inflexible
discipline to which all its members are subjected. At
the head stands a general, whose jurisdiction, which
comprises rights of life and death, extends over all
the convents and all the monks of his order spread
over the whole surface of the countries where the
Tibetan tongue is spoken, In each district is a pro*
vincial appointed by the general ; at the head of each
convent an abbot (kanpo) deputed by the provincial
and sanctioned by the general
Under the abbot, in each monastery, are two classes
of dignitaries, spiritual and temporal, The spiritual
dignitaries are the kbpon (sbbdpon), or director of studies ;
the bumdxad (dbumdzad),w minister of reli|-^; and
the chochimpa (chwkrimspa), or prefect of discipline and
830
331
ecclesiastical judge. When the first dies or resigns, he
Is regularly succeeded by the second and the latter by
the third. This last is chosen by lot before the sacred
imagoe by three lamas appointed for that purpose by the
princfpal dignitaries. It often happens that the lobpon
is the same as the kanpo, but this depends upon the
wishes of the provincial The administration of the
temporal goods is confided to u shtiJstt (pyagmdzoth),
or treasurer, who comes immediately after the bumdzati
in rank and who has under his orders a >/tr/w, or bursar
and coadjutor of the treasurer CM spc sttccessionisy who is
himself assisted by a nerchonfa or undcr-bursar, nominated
by the treasurer* The under-bursar is the ordinary
agent of the convent outside its walls ; he looks after
the workmen, the husbar^lmen, the herdsmen of the
convent. Different inferior functions, some profitable*
some honorary, are distributed by the spiritual awl
temporal heads, who thus keep up among the monks
a spirit of emulation beneficial to good order and
discipline.
The monks are divided into two classes : the #'/0;/jf
(dgfshng)) who are monks in the full enjoyment of their
functions, and the getsul) or deacons, who have received
a solemn initiation, by which they become the husbands
of the church, and who spend twelve years in passing
through different stages. Below these two classes of
monks are the dapa (graft* )* or novices, and, lastly, the
simple candidates for the noviciate, who are subject to
discipline without having any privileges* Not every
one is allowed to present himself as a candidate : thc k more
important convents receive only the sons of good families
all accept only children of decent birth and endowed with
good physical and mental constitutions* The monas-
teries skim the cream of the population for themselves ;
they talce the most robust and the most intelligent
individuals. As, on the other hand, the clergy is usually
332
better fed than the laity excepting a few of its members
who practise maceration the expression "as fat as a
monk " is as current in Tibet as it used to be elsewhere ;
and, as they have leisure and are obliged to study^ they
maintain and increase their intellectual superiority* over
the rest of the nation.
To the powerful organisation of the monastic body
and the superior quality of its members must be added
the extraordinary number of the latter. There is no
instance of any ancient or modern country containing so<
great a multitude of monks, for they number, on the
average, one to every four laymen. There are certainly
in Tibet at least 500,000 monks, without counting Ladak
and Sikkim. All the superfluous children who would
grievously overcrowd the paternal house, all those who,
though of poor birth, are ambitious and feel that they
have the intelligence and the will to succeed go to swell
the army of monks* To people of low origin to enter
the religious state is the only way to rise above their
condition : by this means, they may hope to attain the
highest positions, with great difficulty, it is true, and
with a great disadvantage as against members of rich or
noble families, who are always preferred and privileged
in those homes of poverty and humility, the convents ;
but still the door is not hermetically closed to them, as it
is in the lay state, In this way, not only does the clergy
draw to itself all individual men of worth, but again there
fa not a Tibetan family, noble or base-born, but has several
of its members in convents and is thus interested in
the prosperity of the clergy. The prefect of Nagchu
Jong told us that, in every family, two male children
out of five become monks* This evidence was con-
firmed by several persons and nothing could be mote
imprudent than for a family to try to avoid paying this
human tithe. Moreover, the considerable material
advantages offered by the ecclesiastical state and the
Utbet 333
compromises that can easily be effected with the
apparently so strict rule remove any reason for
fearing to take the cloth.
The monastic army is not only numerous and well
disciplined: it is concentrated in 3>ooo monasteries re-
sembling so many fortresses, perched on the mountain
rocks, amply stocked with provisions, filled with arms
and ammunition, to which the lamas, despite their
ministry of peace, are not afraid of resorting. In case
of public danger, the sacred trumpet sounds and the
monks take down their matchlocks and lances, make
trousers of their shawls (stingos) and go off to the war.
Around these monasteries lie vast domains which are
their property, crops and pasture-lands which feed
immense nocks. These fields and pastures are entrusted
to farmers (gonyoks) who work on shares, who hold
nothing in their own right, who contract to cultivate
the land and watch the herds of the monks and who
are bound to supply annually a quantity of butter, wool
and barley fixecl beforehand by the treasurer, If the
herds or the fields entrusted to the farmer produce more,
the surplus is for him ; in the same way, the probable
increase of the cattle is fixed each year by the treasurer
and the farmer benefits by any residue. The treasurer
makes his calculations strictly enough to prevent the
farmer's profit from being more than a slender one and
he nearly always takes more than half the gross income
for the convent. These gonyoks are not only tillers of
the soil and shepherds : they are also manufacturers ;
they make woollen stuffs, jewellery, pottery for their
ecclesiastical masters ; they are masons, carpenters,
smiths, millers, caravaneers. They are subject to the
jurisdiction of the lamas and owe them all the labour
which the latter choowe to exact, without being entitled
to any w5ge, Nevertheless, they do not entirely escape
the authority of the Lhasa government: they pay taxew
334 {Tibet
to the amount of two-thirds of those paid by its direct
subjects and are allowed to appeal to its judicial system
in certain cases and according to certain rules which I
was not able to ascertain with precision,
Over and above their landed and house property and
their herds, the convents possess treasures accumulated
during centuries : gold, silver and precious objects,
sometimes of considerable richness. They receive a host
of gifts and bequests: not a Tibetan dies but leaves a
good part of his personalty to the nearest convent; every
child that takes the vows brings a dower in proportion
to his means: every lama gives to the convent a share
of his personal gains, for the lama is anything but a
worthless asset. He is, according to circumstances, a
parish-priest, a fortune-teller, a wizard, a doctor, an
apothecary, ;i painter, a sculptor, a printer, a writer, a
reader, a trader or a beggar ; he sells little statues,
praying-wheels, books, lucky trinkets, rosaries, indul-
gences in pills, prayers, formulas, charms and amulets
against all possible and impossible misfortunes, remedies,
incantations and horoscopes. When a man marries or
dies, the lamas come in the greatest possible number to
assist him, for cash ; when he meets with misfortune, they
charge for driving away his bad luck ; when he meets
with good fortune, they charge for offering up thanks ;
when nothing happens to him, good or bad, they charge
again for preventing things from becoming worse* All
perquisites remain the monk's own property, except the
tithe deducted by the community. If a lama leave a
personal fortune at his death, it goes to his family, all
but the part which he always bequeaths by will to the
monastery. For the rest, the monks support themselves
at their own expense. They have a separate house or
room in the convent, where they live more or less
comfortably according to their means and thfiir ptet^*
The community supplies them only with a certain
quantity of barley (about 24olbs. a year in Ladak),
with buttered tea three times a day and with a piece
of stuff for clothing. Its expenses do not amount to
the profit which it derives from its members ; and, even
then, Jits burdens are relieved by the offerings of the
laity or the rich lamas, who often pay for a round of
tea or a piece of stuff to all the monks of the convent.
The chief lamas, being personally richer than the
others, are, of course, supported at the expense of the
community ; by virtue of their dignity, they receive
plentiful alms from the devout ; the treasurers, in the
course of their administration, make considerable sums
and always have a share, generally a fifth, in the
commercial business of the convent
As the monasteries dispose of most of the capital of
the country, they have monopolised nearly all the trade
and all the finance and these do not form the smallest part
;>f their revenues. Of the trade I have already spoken ;
'is to finance, the convents undertake to make the money
sf private individuals pay by investing it in their own
business ; also and above all, they lend money at thirty
per cent, to all applicants, on good security, chiefly on
mortgages. If the borrower does not pay at the given
time, they show kindness and consideration, let him sink
deeper into debt, help him a little and end by selling
him up and annexing his fields to those of the monastery,
They do not lend to the poor, for that would be giving ;
and the lama receives, but does not give*
t If you cnre to seek for a comparison in history, you
might say that a Tibetan convent is a Roman patrician,
great landlord and justiciary in one, having under its
orders many agents and many servants, who make of
its house and its annexes one large city, producing all
the commodities necessary for life, supplied with nil the
necessary* or superfluous manufactures, importing and
exporting great quantities of goods. The comparison
336
becomes still more accurate when you consider that the
lamas, like the patricians of old, are masters of the
auspices, alone possess the formulas that influence the
gods and reign over souls as over matter. This .moral
cause of the strength of the clergy is perhaps nti less
powerful than all the others put together. It has not
converted men's minds to the truth, but it has taught
them to respect the ministers of the divinity, some
hundreds of whom are gods upon earth,* while a few
others are able, by force of meditation, to hold then
breath long enough to defy the laws of gravitation and
to float in mid-air.
The religion of Tibet consists in its essence of a
concatenation of superstitious practices and of a constant
veneration shown to the lamas, to whom it would be a
namelesss crime to do the feast injury. A theft com-
mitted on a lama entails a ten times greater penalty than
one committed on a layman; to murder a layman is
thrt k e or four times as cheap as to murder a monk.
This docs not keep the Tibetans from loving to sneer
at their monks, to criticise their greed of gain and their
tyranny, to scoff at their hypocrisy and to tell sprightly
stories about them. In this they resemble the Italians
of the middle ages; but their boldness shows itself only
in words and they are all the humbler and more servile
in action.
And so, to sum up, the Tibetan clergy possesses all
the known elements of dominion : religious authority,
territorial wealth, financial and commercial supremacy^
armed force, numbers and discipline. Even the spell
derived from the principle of heredity has been pressed
into their own service by these celibates in a very par-
ticular fashion ; for those of the lamas in whom the
spiritual authority resides are considered as being divine
* The incarnntloiiK of Buddha number 70 in Tibet, 76 in Mongolia
and 14 !n the neighbourhood of Peking.
ttlbet 337
hypostases, of which not only is the race perpetuated
through the ages, but their very persons are reincarnated,
ever identically, under successive forms.
Until now, I have presented the Tibetan clergy as a
body <Jne and indivisible. This is its first appearance ; but,
' if we prolong our examination, we find that this clergy
is divided into several different monastic orders, each of
which has its special hierarchy and its own independent
general. The Dalai Lama is only the most important
general of these orders : the other generals show him the
deference due to a person of eminent dignity, but they
are in no way subordinate to him from the religious
point of view ; they owe him no obedience save inas-
much as he is actually their temporal sovereign ; and that
is why it is quite inaccurate ^to compare the Dalai Lama
with the Pope. Within the order of the Dalai Lama
himself there is a person, the Pangchen Kinpocheh of
Tachilhunpo, who enjoys no less a spiritual dignity and
Is his inferior only in temporal power. The Chinese
take good care to support him and to keep hint in
reserve, in case the Dalai Lama should cease to show the
necessary docility*
The monastic order of which the Dalai Lama is the
head is that of the Gelugpa (Dgelugspa), which was
founded about the year 1400 by Tsongkapa, a monk
of the Koko Nor district, who may be compared with
Hildebrand (Gregory VII.), like himself a reformer of
the monastic orders which had lapsed into laxity and
forgetfulness of their good rules. He endeavoured to
restore Buddhism to its original purity, to rid it of the
Horccry and the superstitious practices that dishonoured
it and to compel the true believers, that is to say the
monks, to display a more austere virtue and a greater
respect for their vows of renunciation and poverty* He
Succeeded *in part ; and although, since his death, the
convents of his rule have gradually degenerated, there are
338
still some in which the greatest austerity and discipline
prevail, The monks who drink brandy or have com-
merce with women are beaten and expelled ; and one
comes across a good number of unfrocked Gelugpa. It
is said, it is true, that punishment reaches only tfte poor
devils who have no money with which to soften the
rules and those who apply them ; still, we must not
put greater faith in the popular talcs than they deserve
and, though abuses evidently exist, it is none the less
true that many chief lamas are above all suspicion. A^
for sorcery, it was too effective a means of domination
to be given up without, at the same time, being replaced
by some inferior substitute ; and, accordingly, the
Gelugpa, while maintaining a certain reserve in this
respect, nevertheless number among their ranks the
greatest two or three sorcerers in Tibet and the famous
convent of Ramocheh, at Lhasa, is a veritable school of
magic.
Since the time of Tsongkapn, nil the heads of the
Gclugpu, called Dalai Lama or Gyamcho Rinpochch
(Rgyamcho Rinpocheh)* have been looked upon as
incarnations of Avalokita or Chara/i (Spyanrasgyjgs),
the Creator, the judge of souls, the celestial hypostasis
of Amitabha, the Sun-Buddha. Charazi had already
been incarnated before in King Srongtsangampo ; he is
the special patron of Tibet, he to whom the invocation,
a million times repeated, "Om mam padmt hum /" is
addressed. The present Dalai Lama, Tub Chan, born
in 1876, is, according to the only authentic list officially
recognised at Lhasa, the twelfth successor of the first
Dalai Lama, born in
i Uimu h Mongolian; Gyamctw Kinpocheh it* Tibetan. The
former title, although couched in *i foreign language, J* fairly wett
known in Tibet, Dalai means aea or ocean, UH doc Gyamcho ; Kinpocheh
mean* prectouft jewel. The title mrwt frequently uncd^ncxt to th^
Above, U Bang (Dbang) Rinpocheh : Hi* Mont Mighty and Mont
PrecbuM Mtgcwty,
{Tibet 339
Side by side with the Gelugpa exist some twenty
different orders, of which only four deserve mention.
The oldest of all and also the most corrupt is that of
the Nyingmapa (Rnyingmapa), or the old ones, of
which'the origin goes back to Paclma Sambhava himself.
This first apostle of Tibet was obliged, in order to
spread Buddhism widely in the eighth century, to make
it more agreeable with a host of devilries borrowed
from India and from the old local religion, thus fighting
4he Ponbos with their own weapons. The Nyingmapa
have followed in the errors of their patron, to whom
they offer an idolatrous worship, and they are to
this day addicted to all the practices of magic familiar
to the Ponbos* Their rule is not a severe one and
does not enjoin celibacy. Their principal convent,
where their Living Buddha resides, is that of Tsari ;
Sugti Gompa, in Ladak, and perhaps Dergyeh Gompa
belong to this rule, as does the convent of women at
ISamdingj on Lake Yamtog, whose abbess is an incarna-
tion of a greatly-revered sow-goddess, assimilated to
the Indian goddess of the dawn, but probably a relic
of the old local creed, The Tibetans believe that
the nuns of this convent are sows in human shape
and that they resume their real nature when they
please. The pig plays a great part in the popular religion
of the Tibetans : it is a powerful enemy of the evil
spirits and the god of the hearth is represented with
tnj head of a pig. It is probably a symbol of the
fecundity of nature. The number of the Nyingmapa
monks is considerable and it is not certain that it does
not equal that of the Gelugpa,
The reforming movement introduced in the eighth
century under the influence of Atisa gave birth to two
separate qfdcrs, which were subsequently divided into
several sub-orders. That of the Kargyupu was not very
l, because it was ait order of hermits ; but from
340 tCibet
it issued the two important sub-orders of the Karmapa
and the Dugpa (Hbrugpa). The principal Karmapa
monasteries are those of Sutsur, to the north of Lhasa,
and of Gyeseh ; the centre of the Dugpa is Dejenchu
Gompa(?) and their most famous and wealthiest convent
is that of Himis, in Ladak. In Bhotan there are no
monks except of this latter rule, which is not much
severer than that of the Nyingmapa.
The order of the Saskyapa, which received from
Kublai Khan the temporal sovereignty of Tibet, stitt
holds sway to this day in Mongolia and North-eastern
Tibet. Its living Buddha, who resides at Saskya Gompa,
to the south-west of Jikatse,* is also venerated by the
Nyingmapa. The gcgen of Urga, the chief lama of
Mongolia, belongs to thij order. The monks of
Jyergu Gompa and of Tumbumdo arc Saskyapa. Their
convents are painted in longitudinal white, black, red,
blue and yellow stripes, which are the five colours
representing the five sacred elements. The lamas oi
this order are not allowed to drink brandy ; celibacy
is not looked upon as necessary or obligatory, but
only as meritorious.
All orders other than the Gelugpa arc commonly
spoken of by the Chinese as red lamas, in opposition to
the Gelugpa, who are called yellow lamas because of the
colour worn by the celebrants in the ceremonies of their
religion. All these orders are distinguished more par-
ticularly by their rules of discipline, by a peculiar
devotion for this or that hypostasis of Buddha, by the
choice of a special tutelary divinity. The dogmatic
differences do not mean much to us : they are no
greater than those which separate the Roman Catholic
Church from the Greek Catholic Church, Many lamas
* This incarnation of Buddha can be born again only in tibet \ * trick*
of Chinese policy, which has than tried to withdraw the choice from
the always} considerable influence of the lay prince* of Mongolia.
341
know nothing of them ; and the sometimes very keen
rivalries that exist between the various orders are based
upon temporal rather than spiritual reasons. AH, with-
out exception, recognise the Pangchen Rinpochch and
the Dalai Lama as the loftiest incarnations of the
divinity ; the Gelugpa, in their turn, admit the authen-
ticity of the incarnations venerated by the Nyingmapa
or the Saskyapa; and the latter are not subordinate to
the former, because both, in principle, represent one
%nd the same god. The Dalai Lama is merely primus
inter pares : he has no authority over the other orders
and cannot reform their rule, which has never been
submitted for his approval* As for the people, they care
not at all for these divergencies ; in their eyes, all the
lamas, yellow or red, are equally qualified to influence
the supernatural powers on their behalf, to save them
from the tricks of the devils and to obtain for them
good health, good harvests and a happy transmigration.*
* Thcttc various considerations, added to the fact that there are very
few real Huttdbtt outside Mongolia and Tibet, nhow that any policy
founded on " PunbudUhinm " would be the vainest of vain illusions.
CHAPTER XI
ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY
Divisions : the kingdom of Lhasa Central power ; taxes ; officials The
public forces Predominating influence of the clergy in the govern-
ment -The Chinese protectorate and the policy of China in Tibet -
The policy of England- -The principalities and tribes of Extern
Tibet arc independent of Lhasa and directly subject to China,
FROM the political point of* view, the whole of Tibet,
with the exception of Ladak, Baltistan, Spiti and a part
of Sikkim, is dependent on China ; but it is fur from
forming one administrative whole. Since the remotest*
times, Tibet has been divided into four provinces which
cut up the country into longitudinal zones and which
are, beginning in trie west : Ngaris (Mngaris), the inde-
pendent region ; Chang (Gtsang), the pure country ;
Bu or Wu v (Dbus), the central country ; Kam (Khams),
the land. Ngaris includes Baltwtan, Ladak and the
Gartog and Rudok districts ; Chang has Jikatse for its
capital; Lhasa is the capital of Bu ; and Charmio may
be considered as the centre of Kam, which is the largest
of the four provinces, This purely historical division
corresponds, at the present time, with no reality and I
mention it only by the way.
For the purposes of the Chinese administration,
Tibet, in our day, is divided into three parts : the south*
west, which is directly dependent on the Viceroy of
Sechuen; the north-west, which is subjeft to the 1
342
authority of the Imperial Legate of Sining ;
remainder, which is under the Imperial Legate of ^
The boundaries of this third division contain the
kingdom of the Dalai Lama and various detached
principalities.
Let us speak first of the kingdom of Lhasa* which
forms the most important and the most populous^ part
of Tibet Its limits are British India and Chinese
Turkestan, the sources of the Chumar, the mountains
that separate the Upper Nag Chu and the Upper Chag
thu, the Tachang La, the Nfagchu Valley, the Mekong
Valley from about I/at. 31 to nearly Lat. 28. Beyond
these limits, certain territories are in dispute, as we
shall see ; within them, the Pangchen Rinpocheh of
Tachilhunpo holds sway over nearly 100,000 souls in
the province of Chang an< the chief lama of Saskya
Gompa is master over his own district. Poy^'j which
is inhabited mainly by Ponbos, forms an enclave inde-
pendent of the Dalai Lama and directly dependent upon
the Imperial Legate of Lhasa. I estimate the territories
directly .subject to the authority of the head of the
Gclugpa to contain a population of 1,500,000 inhabit-
ant^ including 300,000 monks,
The government, in its present form, was organised
by the Chinese, who, in 1751, finally abolished the lay
monarchy and placed the temporal power in the hands
of the Dalai Lama, who, however, has but a purely
honorary title from the political point of view : he is
only the nominal depository of public authority, ^ nor
could he well be otherwise, seeing that, on principle,
he in raised to the throne while still in his si waddling*
clothes; moreover, he would degrade his divinity by
busying himself too closely with the world's afflun^ The
effective power belongs to a lama who bears the title ot
gyatsat Ctgy&faabJi w viceroy, who appoints of confirms
all the officials and who settles all business of high
344
importance in concert with the kalons (bkabhn). These,
who are four in number, are all laymen : they have the
general direction of the administration and are the
keepers of the royal seal, but they are bound to report
any weighty business to the viceroy. Under the Galons
are sixteen or seventeen administrative colleges of two
or three lay or religious members, such as the college
of accounts (tsifon)> the college of the treasury (shadso)^
the college of public granaries (nyertmngfa)^ the college
of justice (chagpon) and the rest. The kalons have
around them a court of young attaches (tungkor), all
of noble birth, from among whom the lay adminis-
trative staff is almost exclusively recruited. The Tibetan
territory is divided into 80 (?) districts administered by
prefects (jongpon} t who, like the Chinese officials,
combine administrative, judfcial and financial functions.
The Tibetan government raises few taxes in money;
most often, it draws from each district contributions in
kind according to the nature of the produce proper
to the district : butter, hides, raw wool, barley, wheat,
horses and so on. Nominally, the taxes amount to
about one-sixtieth of the capital (one rupee to five
yaks), but the arbitrariness of the officials largely
increases the proportion. Moreover, there arc contribu-
tions in manual labour : the manufacture, on behalf of
the State, of woollen stuffs, arms, appliances, tools ; the
carriage of baggage ; the building and repairing of roads,
bridges, forts and various structures. If, luckily for
the tax-payers, the State is not lavish in the matter
of public works, it and its agents, by way of retalia-
tion, are constantly sending over the roads all manner
of goods and baggage, for the carriage of which its
subjects arc bound to supply, free of cost, hones,
yaks, or, on occasions, the use of their shoulders*
Nothing makes them grumble more than tMs forced
labour (ula& from the Turkic ulagh}, which often takes
TCibct 345
them by surprise at the moment when they most need
their time and their beasts* Add to this forced sales
at exaggerated prices, of which I have already spoken and
to which the government resorts more or less according
to the condition of its coffers, and free gifts, which
are obligatory, for every good and loyal subject and all
subjects are thus defined is bound to give alms to the
State and, when he dies, to bequeath to it a part of
his personal chattels. In the main, in Tibet, children
inherit none of the personalty of their fathers, all that
(Joes not fall to the government going to the monks.
The Dalai Lama, for his part, has a special resource in
the sale of indulgences, which takes the most unexpected
forms, and in that of statuettes, amulets and blessed
rosaries, He sends his agents into every Buddhist
country, into Tibet proper, Ladak, Mongolia and China,*
to sell tea or pieces of wool, in his name, at the most
exorbitant prices and to throw in with the goods a
^quantity of indulgences in proportion to the generosity
of the believers*
The officials are paid no salary, but receive, by way
of privilege, more or less extensive territories, upon
which they have the right to administer justice** and
to raise taxes on their own account. They have also
various sources of profit, lawful and unlawful ; they
make deductions from the product of the taxes ; they
requisition workmen free or almost free of cost for their
private needs ; they exact presents on various occasions :
accession-gifts, parting presents and so forth ; they
pocket the fines in which they mulct culprits ; lastly,
they receive the fees of the litigants* This last source
of revenue is one of the most profitable, for, if the
litigant docs not bring a few lumps of butter under his
cloak, if the money does not chink in his purse, if no
* The Chiruttte buy object a coming from the Dalai Lama a magic
talisman*.
346
sheep bleats behind him, if a few chickens do not pule
in his bag, his case is dismissed and he has to pay the
costs. The Tibetans know this and comply without
reluctance, thinking, with Crispin, that justice is so fine
a thing that you cannot pay too dearly for it.r The
lower orders, in general, display towards the magistrates
and the agents of authority a crawling servility which
I have never seen equalled in cither Turkestan or
China* This respect is not instilled into the Tibetan
by esteem, but by a state of mind in which arc mingled
the fear of blows, superstitious terrors and the sense ol
his own wretchedness and of his weakness in the face of
the evils that beset him. The king and his agents, even
the laymen, arc considered to partake of the divine nature ;
consequently, the. people have the same opinion of them us
of the gods, those formidable and malignant beings whom
one must carefully avoid irritating and against whom one
must protect one's self by means of incantations. No
Tibetan goes to law before performing certain rites,
intended to oblige the judge to decide in his favour.
The public peace is maintained by a sort of mounted
police consisting of men called aptuks. There are many
hundreds of these under the direct orders of the central
government ; in addition, the prefect has several at his
disposal The policemen of the central government are
fed at the expense of the State, but they all live apart,
each with his own family, and receive no salary. They
must have their arms and their horse and be always
ready to start at the first call When the father is too
old, his son succeeds him. The departmental policemen
are not fed at the cost of the administration ; they are
merely exempt from taxation. It is rather a title of
honour, the aptuks all being men of good family and
enjoying a certain credit.
There is no regular army, except a small* troop at
Lhasa which serves as a pretext for the employment on
347
active service of six dapons (mdadpon)^ or generals, and
^i 56 other officers. The whole population is organised
into a militia in the same way as the Mongols, but less
severely. Every man capable of bearing arms and of
paying the cost of his military outfit is bound to serve
as a soldier whenever he is ordered to do so. His
keep during the continuance of the campaign is at his
own expense. This expense is very heavy, for there
arc great distances to be covered and the roads are very
bad. Under good officers, the Tibetans would make
fairly good soldiers, provided that they were not taken
out of their country. They are accustomed to marching,
make little of crossing mountains that would cause
foreigners to hesitate, are easy to feed, do not fear the
inclemency of the weather, are practised in the use of
weapons and have a profound respect for their leaders,
while nothing is easier than to inspire them, by human
or supernatural means, with the most absolute confidence
5u victory. But clericalism has enervated the military
spirit and they who have constituted themselves leaders
of men are often violent, but timid and cowardly. At
the time of the Sikkim business, the government was
at great pains to collect on the British frontier 30,000
men, some of whom came from Chatndo > having marched
for two months, carrying all their provisions with
them : when the day of battle came, the English shelled
the chief lamas, who stood gathered on a rising ground
and who immediately turned to the right about, having
imposed all this labour and almost ruin upon poor
people only to treat them to the spectacle of their
leaders' shame.
In sptte of the absence of a standing army and the
weakness of the police, the government is able to make
its orders obeyed even in the most remote districts.
This is title to the terror inspired by the severity with
which it punishes the least offences against its authority ;
t;
to the presence in every centre of any importance of high
officials, who are great enough to command respect and
too small to venture to attempt anything against the
State ; to the cunning system of mutual espionage that
prevails in every section of society ; and to the* great
number of lamas distributed throughout the country, all
of whom are devoted to the government, which works
through them and for them. In fact, from the political
and administrative point of view, the clergy has reduced
the lay clement to a small pittance and has left it onlj
so much as could not well be taken from it without
exasperating it to the pitch of revolt. It is true that the
four ministers are laymen, but they are subordinate to
the religious viceroy. In the central government there
is an equal number of lamas and laymen ; in each district
there are two prefects, one religious and one lay, who are
supposed to be equal, whereas, in reality, the chief duty
of the second is to nod his approval of all the acts of the
first. If a layman be placed in charge of a special
mission, diplomatic or other, he is always accompanied
by a lama, who says nothing, who seems to have nothing
to do but tell his beads, but who watches his companion's
words, deeds and movements and reports them to Lhasa*
The social condition of the clergy, as described in the
last chapter, prepares us for this state of things.
Though absolute in theory, the authority of the
central power is limited in practice by the privileges ot
the clergy in general, to whom the greatest deference
is due, and by the privileges of the local magnates.
At Lhasa, the viceroy is the master only in appearance.
Chosen obligatorily from among the members of one of
the three more important monasteries of the neighbour-
hood Depung (Hbrasspungs), Sera, or Serra, and Galdatt
(Dgaldan) he is a tool in the hands of that one of the
three to which he belongs and he allows it to enjoy
a predominant influence. Moreover, the ecclesiastical
349
authorities of these three monasteries are always con-
sulted in important affairs and each of them assigns
a special delegate to every official mission. All three
place j large number of their members in the public
offices and there is hardly a civil servant but comes
from one of them ; all three alike are supported at
the cost of the State ; and it may be said that all that
portion of the net proceeds of taxation which is not
absorbed by the Court of the Dalai Lnma and the
rt?quiroments of public worship ' is employed in pension-
ing Depung, Sera and Galdan. In conclusion, these
three convents are the real masters of the State by
reason of the number of their monks (20,000),^
of their wealth, of the multitude of their servants, of
their proximity to the capital* of the large number of
priories under obedience to their abbots and of their
relations with the greatest families of the country^ all of
^which number members of the monasteries among their
kinsmen. The result is a series of ardent rivalries and
intrigues, in which poison and riots play their alternate
parts ; Sera owes its present pre-eminence to no more
laudable means. In the provinces, the government is
limited by the landholders^ who have certain rights of
justice, forced labour and taxation over their serfs,
notably by the chief among them, namely the great
monastenCvS, such as Dikung, Mindoling, Tsari,
Gyangtse, Mingeh and Lharu Furthermore, it limits
itself by abandoning all or a part of its rights over portions
* The expense* of public wornhip, ceremonies, prayer* and HO forth
amount to 32,000 ; of the Dwlui Lama and his Court to 8,000 charged
upon the tuxes, without counting the Dalai Lama's private profits,
which are much greater.
i They mty that there arc 9,000 at Dcpung, 8,000 at Sera and
5,000 at GuUlun, Theae figures are p r0 bably u little exaggerated, but
ttfrtt much, ^Thti plain of Lhaaa contains 30,000 itwnka, all of whom,
tm fitting, wee the ftnrt ray* of the gun tthirtc upon the golden roof
of the 1'otwin.
350
of territory in favour of its officials or of the convents,
leaving it to them to provide for their administration
and to keep a special register of the receipts and
expenses connected therewith.
We now see the complex nature of a political situa-
tion that hides itself under an apparent homogeneity:
two aristocracies, one of which is lay, enfeebled and
subordinate, but nevertheless exists ; the other religious
and itself divided into a score of monastic orders, of
which four or five are important. In the first of these
orders are two persons who are equal ecclesiastically,
although unequal politically; among the dependants of
the first of these persons are three convents disputing one
another's influence. This enables us to understand how
the Chinese government can keep up its authority in
Tibet with twenty-one officials and less than 1,500
soldiers. It was the Chinese government that placed the
Dalai Lama and his partisans in the high position which
they enjoy to-day, because it saw in them the best instru-'
ment for bridling the king and the lay aristocracy, ever
turbulent and impatient or the yoke ; because it clearly
saw that an ecclesiastical administration is eminently
adapted to humble men's souls, to teach them meekness
and obedience ; lastly, because, by attaching the principal
religious head of Buddhism to itself, it made sure, at the
same time, of the fidelity of the pious Buddhists that arc
the Mongols. Even if the Dalai Lama and his followers
were tempted to forget the obligations under which they
lie towards the Chinese government, they could not
forget that Tibet is unable to resist a Chinese army and
that the Emperor, by shifting his good-will to the rivals
of the Dalai Lama, could cause the latter the greatest
annoyances. Besides, the Emperor does not admit that
an incarnation of Buddha can, by virtue ot fcis divine
nature, escape in any manner from the imperial
authority ; and, should the case occur, he arrogates to
fcfbet 351
himself the right to withdraw from circulation the
Buddhas who have ceased to please, by issuing decrees
prohibiting them from reappearing in human form.
And, therefore, the Resident General, who represents the
Empefor at Lhasa, enjoys considerable authority in both
internal and external affairs ; I say considerable and not
undisputed authority, for the Tibetans, for all their
appearance of gentleness, are not lacking in that
obstinacy and that stubbornness which we observe in
the devotees of all countries.
This Resident General or Imperial Legate (kinch&i)
has the same rank as the governor of a province (second
class of the second rank, with the dark-red button),
He is always selected from among the Manchus, as are
the Imperial Legates of Sining and Mongolia. He is
under the Viceroy of Sechufcn, but he has the right of
corresponding direct with Peking. He is assisted by a
vice-legate, who is also a Manchu, and by fifteen officials,
TVlanchu, Chinese or Nepalese secretaries and inter-
preters* Moreover there are a commissary (kiingtai)
and a military officer at Lhari, with 130 soldiers; a
commissary and four military officers at Lhasa, with
500 men; a commissary and six officers at Jikatse, with
700 men; and an officer, with a few soldiers, at Tingeh,
on the road between Jikatse and Nepal The troops
are kept up by the Scchucn treasury; the commissaries
arc appointed by the viceroy of that province; it is
their business to pay the troops and to fulfil the
functions of consuls, that is to say, they adjust the
differences between the Chinese merchants and between
the latter and the Tibetans*
The Imperial Legate alone is qualified to conduct
the foreign affairs of Tibet, although he has to consult
the local ^authorities. In the interior, no official, no
*sihbot of a great monastery is appointed without his
approval; he has practically the last word in the
352 afbet
election of the Viceroy ; he has the right to control the
public finances- Moreover, he is the equal in dignity
of the Gyatsab and, consequently, superior to the
ministers, who have only the rank of laotai (third rank,
pale-blue button), and to all the officials, who, in principle,
owe him absolute obedience. But his authority is
accepted and respected only on condition that he does
not make it felt too severely. He has ulag rights
over all Tibet and, like all Tibetan officials, receives,
by way of allowance, a certain number of cantons,
in which he levies taxes and exercises all the rights of
sovereignty. In this way, the canton of Dam and part
of the country north of the Damlurkang La are within
the jurisdiction of the Imperial Legate, In Tibet, as
in Mongolia, the Court of Peking remembers to grunt
salaries to the chief pcrsSnugcs : this is a sign of
sovereignty as well as a means of action ;' :< a feeble one,
it is true : the Dalai Lama himself and the Viceroy
receive a certain sum under this head ; the ministers*
receive ^30 a year each, with four pieces of satin, and
the convents, in the aggregate, about ^12,000.
The Chinese do not seek here, any more than in
Turkestan, to profit by the economic resources of the
country. They do a certain amount of trade and, as
in Turkestan, have kept the tea-monopoly for them-
selves ; but they have done nothing to improve the
means of communication, to perfect agriculture, to
develop the pastoral industry, which ought to be able
to supply the whole of South Aia with wool, or to
exploit the different mines in which the subsoil seems
* The dependence of Lhuga on Peking is, for that matter, marked in
a more formal manner. The new Diilai Lama cho*cn by lot muttt receive
tav<stitur<! from the Emperor, who J# free to withhold it. The Vteefoy
hold* his flcul at the Emperor's pletimire ; the kalona are furnished with
imperial patents ; the imperial edictH are valid in Tibet, *lm condition*
that the local authorities countersign them, which they cannot refunts
to do.
Tttbet 353
to be very rich. Chinese goods are admitted only on
payment of a piece of silver per package ; the Chinese
merchants are not allowed to live in the country nor
to enter it for the purposes of trade, unless supplied
with a* ticket from the Sechuen administration, which
is valid only for a year : at the end of that period, they
have to go. As for the Chinese women, all of them,
even the wives of functionaries and officers actually
serving in Tibet, are absolutely forbidden to set foot
in the country. And so, whereas, in Turkestan, you
find at least a small number of Chinese colonists, you
do not see a single child of the Middle Kingdom in
Tibet. These measures may be ascribed to a sense of
prudence on the part of the Peking government, which
prefers to avoid difficulties and unpleasant businesses,
and to the national want <jf tolerance of the Tibetans,
who refuse to suffer strangers within their gates. The
monks, those representatives of a religion which was
able to pass for a religion of universal brotherhood,
open their convents and grant orders only to Tibetans,
the sons of Tibetan fathers.
The economic and colonial points of view are quite
secondary matters for the Chinese ; it was, above all, for
strategic and political reasons that they annexed these
marches of Tibet, so that they might serve them for a
barrier against independent and encroaching neighbours,
According to the principles which I have set forth in
connection with Turkestan, 1 " it appeared to them that the
best way for them to hold the country easily and cheaply
was to prevent strangers from entering it and thus to
deprive them of any temptation to concoct intrigues
with the malcontents, under pretext of opening up
commercial relations, and excite the people to rise in
rebellion* The question has sometimes been mooted
whether It is the Tibetans who wish to close their door
*' A Hdentlti a0a{.
23
354 ttibet
or the Chinese who force them to close it This is an
idle question. The Chinese and the Tibetans sometimes
quarrel with each other, but they are quite at one against
the foreigners. The lamas, jealous of holding undivided
sway over the people that feeds them, fear lesfc new
ideas should enter together with the foreigners, lest the
simplicity of their dependants' hearts should be impaired
and their numbers decreased. They well know and
the example of Ladak is there to remind them that, if
another Power than China should take possession of
Tibet, it would not fail, with the complicity of the laity,
to cut down the prerogatives and the exorbitant profits
of the monasteries : hence, to whatever order they
belong, they feel it to be to their interest to keep the
foreigners at a distance, to checkmate their pretensions
as far us possible and to mgke common cause, in this
respect, with the Chinese government. Taking advant-
age of the unbounded credulity of their flocks, there is
no absurd legend that they do not sanction with regard
to the Europeans, those sinister wizards who are coming
to rob Tibet of its protecting gods and to deliver it as
a prey to all the devils of the abyss let loose.
However, the government of Lhasa is unable to
close the gates of its territory hermetically : it is needs
obliged to admit, under close supervision, those natives
of India to whom their common religion, or old custom,
or a regular treaty gives the right of travelling and trad-
ing in the country. Notwithstanding irksome obstacles,
the trade between India and* Tibet is fairly active:
Kashmirian, Nepalese and Hindu merchants live in the
principal towns, at least provisionally ; the Moslems of
Western India have built a mosque in the shadow of the
acred mountain. Through their subjects, merchants,
pilgrims and bandits, who move secretly about Tibet, the
English are perfectly well-informed of all thUt occurs
among their auspicious neighbours : of the religious
zrtbet 355
dissidcnces, of the restless factions, of what they may
hope to expect. The geography of the country is well
enough known to them to enable them, in case of
needj to dispatch a military expedition into the country,
the present maps being no worse than those which we
used to conquer Tongking. Certain signs warrant
one in believing that English money has been dis-
tributed among influential persons in Tibet to pay for
actual or virtual services of a political order. But the
system of isolation of the Tibetans has, none the less,
the double advantage of fostering the distrust and
prejudice of the people against the Europeans and
turning it into a vigilant guardian, like a chained watch-
dog, and) besides, of preventing the English from freely
organising and supporting a party of their own, around
which the malcontents ami seekers after novelty would
be able to range themselves*
Up to the present, the English have displayed
little enterprise or decision in their attempts to end
this state of things. The last important event was the
conquest of Sikkim, which they achieved in 1888
and which was confirmed by the treaty of 1890. This
conquest gave them the whole sky-line of the first
range of the Himalayas, except, however, the little
valley of Chumbi, to obtain which they made fruitless
efforts. This valley being the key of the best road
leading from Lhasa to Calcutta, the Tibetans attach great
importance to its retention.
When, in 1893, wc arrived on the shores of the
Nam Cho, the English and the Tibetans were just
engaged in discussing, at Durjeeling, the terms of a
commercial treaty; and this coincidence caused us some
difficulty. The Indian government demanded that the
road frpm Darjccling to Lhasa through the Chumbi
Valley should be thrown open to trade and the Tibetans
opposed this with all their might* Troops were brought
356
up and we heard that they were ready to close with one
another. Finally, everything was arranged and, on the
5th of December, a treaty was concluded between the
Chinese and the English stipulating that a market sijould
be established in the Chumbi Valley, seven miles beyond
the Jilep Pass, which marks the frontier. The Indian
merchants were authorised to go to this market and
there to trade under certain conditions. The English
thought, perhaps, that, by establishing the market at
Yatung, they were at least opening a garret-window into,
Tibet ; but the Tibetans took care to put ground-glass
panes to it. This Yatung is an absolutely deserted place,
with not a man in it nor a house, The Chinese, it is
true, undertook to put up the necessary buildings ;
the promise may be taken for what it is worth ;
"///*/ A? fan hllki qifn Lti*C/Mtre!" as Ninon do
I'Knclos said on a famous occasion* The sale ot
Indian tea being prohibited for five years, there is no
hope, in any case, of doing much business on this
market ; but the English, no doubt, think that, if no
goods are exchanged, there will, at least, be an ex-
change of blows, which would permit them to send a
few Sepoys to restore order.' 1
If England has succeeded in chipping the frontier of
Tibet, she has lost the faculty which she enjoyed in the
eighteenth century of keeping up agents there* In 1772,
the chief lama of Tachilhunpo having written to Warren
Hastings to ask him to withdraw the British troops
from Bhotan, Hastings acceded to his request and Kent
Bogle to him as an ambassador, who was exceed-
ingly well received. In 1782, the Pangchen Rinpocheh
having meanwhile died* his successor received the con-
gratulations of Warren Hastings through the medium of
Captain Turner, After him, a Hindu, Purungir^Gosaify
remained at Tachilhunpo as^the permanent agent of the
* In reality, thi treaty haw mwrtJ* bi&u iuittUcd (Notu o/
IKbet 357
Viceroy of India and was even received at Lhasa, In
1792, Warren Hastings* successor, instead of assisting
the Tibetans against the Nepalese, who had invaded
Tibet, took the part of the Nepalese against the Chinese,
who had sent an army to drive out the invaders. From
that time, the Tibetans ceased to have friendly relations
with the English and coalesced against them with the
Chinese, We must not, however, attach greater value
to this fact than it deserves: the Indian government had
had relations of an intimate character only with the chief
lama of Tachilhunpo, whose political importance is very
insignificant ; since then, there has been no absolute
rupture, the Pangchen Rinpocheh is not in the main
hostile to the English and there is reason to believe that,
if the matter depended only on himself, he would be
glad enough to receive their visit.
The Dalai Lama, on the contrary, has always shown
grcut reserve, although things were not so bad at first as
they are to-day. In 1810, Thomas Manning, who, it is
true, bore no official character, was admitted into the
presence of the Dalai Lama at Lhasa and remained in
the capital for a year, No European hzis been so far
since, except Pere Hue, who was soon expelled.
Alarmed at the immense and continuous progress of the
Imlo-British power, the Tibetans have sat lurking in
their kir, have barricaded the entrance and refuse to lot
the foreigner establish a footing, lest he should soon
establish more* I believe that China and Tibet are so
firmly convinced of the necessity of keeping their door
closed that they would risk a war rather than give way
on this point Now, whatever interest England may
have in keeping up untrammelled relations with Tibet,
not only would she never undertake a war to end the
itfolatiqp in which that country confines itself, but she is
not even anxious to embark upon a serious diplomatic
campaign with this object, As a matter of fact, Tibet,
358 ftibet
so soon as it had become accessible to the English,
would, at the same moment, become accessible to the
Russians, who could thus easily push their intrigues
as far as the Indian frontier ; and England, whc^ can
never be sure of the loyalty of the numberless popula-
tions of India, considers Russia's intrigues to be more
dangerous than her arms.
I am therefore of opinion that Tibet will never be
open to Europeans until it is under British protection*
The Indian government is in not so great a hurry to
extend its territory in the direction of Tibet as in
that of Afghanistan, because it has not, on that side,
to fear the progress of so ambitious ami formidable a
Power as Russia. It has, I know, up to the present,
been a fundamental axiom of Indian policy to keep
China as far as possible ; hut China has only just
enough power in Tibet to prevent herself from being
driven out by the natives : she is not capable of taking
the offensive and asks only to In* left in peace and to
leave her neighbours in peace in their turn. Only,
should the day come when Kngliuui would be unable to
defend Turkestan against Russian conquest, then it would
seem to her necessary to enforce her protectorate on
Tibet, not only by way of compensation, but especially
in order to establish on her northern frontier a Ixmler-
state similar to that of Afghanistan and serving to
keep at arm's length a disagreeable aiul dangerous
neighbour. This is the same object which she
pursues on every side of the Indian frontier ; and,
when she has attained it, she will be furnishedwhat
with Afghanistan, a portion of the Pamirs, Ludak
extended to the edge of the Desert of Gobi, Tibet unit
Burmah with a colossal buffer of mountains, behind
which she will at last enjoy her repose in her garden,
sheltered from the storms that sweep the desert and
feeling only the soft and refreshing iwc/ea that Wow
Tttbet 359
from her seas. It is a glorious and charming dream,
similar to that which China had, but not beyond
realising, nor absurd,
One sometimes hears it said that their pro-
tectorate over Afghanistan is more embarrassing than
profitable to the English and this would be all the
more so in the case of a protectorate over Tibet.
This opinion does not seem to me to be inspired
by a sound acquaintance with Asiatic things. The
^Calcutta government is ambitious, but it has a clear
and accurate view of the conditions under which it can
exist and expand* History is there to teach it that a
powerful and warlike enemy, having the upper hand
in Afghanistan, would soon be master of the basin of
the Indus and the plain of the Ganges, To this the
examples of the Glmnevids, of Sultan Baber and of
Ahmed Shah bear evidence. Now the case is exactly
the same with Tibet, So soon as the English have
reason to fear that the influence of so dangerous a
Power as Russia will make way in that country,
they will bo driven to establish their protectorate
over it. Let the Cossacks enter Kashgur and Khotan
and the Sepoys will enter Tachilhunpo and Lhasa.
These two eventualities will depend strictly upon one
another-*
* I make no alteration in my text of ityH. Since then* the Indiun
{government has been led to interfere in Tibet by the miH#tvm#H which it
hit* felt ut the attempts* made by Kututht to entabtinh relation* with the
Dtttai I/anm.
A chief tumtt of LhaHU, Agouti E)ordjiiiIT, ti Burial and u Rumtian
nubjeet by birth, went to St. Peternburtf In 1900 and njoi and w*m officially
received by the Kmperor, The Kutwiiui government, on it* Hide, tent
M, Twybikoff, a Uurlat, ft graduate of the faculty of oriental language*
of St, Peteraburg, on u minwion to Umtia, where lie rcmttineU during
tttmoHt the whole of 1901, The TibiJtnna, cloning their dotr to all the
world jtMfce, by that very fact t'ouHtitiited thcmclvc this voluntary
proti^tom of the northern frontier of India and it WH to Uftgliittd'*
intereht to reujiect their i notation. As they now however, ceued to play
360 tribet
There is another matter : Tibet would be for England
an excellent position from which to defend against the
attacks of any other nation that basin of the Blue River,
or Yangtzekiang, of which she is so jealous and to k;eep it
dependent upon her from at least the economic pomt of
view. If China should show herself definitely unfit to
resist both the enemies that beset her on every side and
the internal troubles that gnaw at her vitals, if the
advance of "Russia towards Mongolia and the northern
provinces should come to threaten the basin of the great*
river, the English will feel the necessity, to protect their
interests, of spreading to the gates of Sechuen and, by
occupying the Tibetan citadel, of obtaining a strong hold
on land of the stream which their naval power would
not be great enough to guard,
China is quite aware of* the precarious nature of
her dominion over the kingdom of Lhasa, which is
threatened by the Knglish, on the one side, and com-
promised, on the other, by the lamas, who suffer her
cmly for fear of falling into a yet worse evil. She
seeks to remedy this situation not by taking action at
Lhasa and endeavouring to substitute her direct govern-
ment for her protectorate, which would be too difficult
and dangerous, but by gradually reducing the extent of
the country subject to the authority of the Dalai Lama>
by stripping it, whenever the occasion offers, of some
morsel of territory, by eating the artichoke leaf by leaf.
She would be quite content to leave tin: Tibetans in
that part, it suited the liritwh government in nt-ck to maku it* influence
paramount in their country. The object HUH remained the name;
circumsttuiccK und the means* employed huv ttltcrtftl.
Ruttftta, separated from Lhuan by ifttmy thmmund miles of ttautrt
utid of partly irmtpcrable mountains, IB IntUly ituatu4 to offer opptmitittn
to tho ttction <rf the Knglmh. Moreover, tthe can affurdl to ftUvui aloof,
IKCWUC Buddhitmi in of but very little fxrfiticul importune^ while th*
infiucmi* of th Dalai lHmtt, which watt crettt&S by the ciJll power,
cun bit by It destroyed, reduced ttr trun^fcrrcd to other incwrnktiotn of
Buddha (Note of 1904;.
{Tibet 361
peace ; but a powerful and rebellious Tibet does not
answer her purpose.
In previous centuries, the struggles between the
clergyand the civil power were an excellent means of
weakening Tibet and, when the Emperor decided to
intervene in favour of the representatives of religion
and to restore the government to them, he took care to
keep a good slice for himself: the portions in the east
and north-east now administered directly by the Viceroys
*>f Sechuen and Kansu; so that, if the kingdom of Lhasa
rume to be destroyed by a national revolt or by foreign
amc}uc5it, there would still remain a belt of land to serve
as s protection to China proper* The successors of
Kienlong followed this policy of successive and almost
imperceptible encroachments with the continuity of view
and the tenacity that chsfracteme Chinese diplomacy.
They took advantage of the now latent, now active
rivalries between the native princes, the chief lamas, the
different sects, as so many constant pretexts for inter-
ference ; and, so soon as a landed magnate put forward
a violent claim to his independence and showed himself
strong enough to maintain it, they explained to the Lhasa
government that it did very wrong to undertake to keep
HO turbulent a vassal in order ami that it would be worth
much to its peace of mind to shift the burden to China's
stronger shoulders.
Tne Dcbajong>on its side, made use of every circum-
stance to try to recover the land that had been snatched
from it ; and this led to conflicts that were incessantly
renewed. The terrible reverses which China experienced
after 1860, the Taiping Rebellion, the revolt of the
Moslems of Turkestan, Kansu and Yunnan gave Lhasa
it opportunity. In 1863, a war having broken out
bctwecnJMcnyag and Dergyeh, the Debajonjg interfered
in favour of the latter, upon which it imposed its
protectorate, and annexed Menyag in 1866,
362
The general of the Dcbajong, a certain Punropa,
governed the country for ten years and ground it
down, without pity, to provide for the barbaric luxuries
with which he surrounded himself. An able politician,
he had succeeded in preparing for the annexation flf the
neighbouring countries of Litung and Butang and had
already made secret conventions with the chiefs of those
two territories. But the inhabitants had complained to
Lhasa of the exactions to which they were subjected
and jealousy of the ambitious general's power and
success-es caused their complaints to fall upon willing
ears* Punropa was recalled, on the understanding
that he would be made a minister, but he had hardly
returned to the capital, when he died, suddenly, in
December 1877; a few weeks after, his son, his
daughter and nil his relation* disappeared ; and to-day
there is not u single member of his family living.
Pergyeh took advantage of Punropjfs departure to
recover its independence; in 1890, Menyag, in its
turn, at the instigation of the Chinese, rose in rebellion
and drove out the Lhasa functionaries,
In 1887, the Dcbajong intervened in the country
of the Hor Kangsar ; in 1894^ it entered upon a
conflict with the people of Surmang, whom it laid claim
to submit to ulug ; but, in both cases, its intrigues were
baffled by Chinese diplomacy. The Chinese, having got
rid of the Moslems, had regained the upper hand in
Tibet : Rtbocheh and the Hortsi country were detached
from Lhasa in 1886, the chief lamas of Jaya and Chitmdo
received authority to send periodical embassies to Lhasa
in the same way as the Dalai Lama and the Pangchen
Rinpocheh and their independence towards the Debajong
was recognised. At the moment of writing, I hear that
a Chinese prefect has been installed in Men/ftp*
Chinese power does not make all thin p*ogrc^
without encountering .serious obstacles on the part of
ttibet 3C3
the local chiefs as well as of Lhasa, Although the name
of the Emperor still carries great weight in those
countries and the chiefs prefer the mild and almost
imperceptible suzerainty of Peking to the harsher and
more mperious sway of Lhasa, nevertheless the efforts
made by the Chinese to restrain the jurisdiction of the
Dcbajong have not been free of disadvantages to them-
selves. They stirred up feelings of independence in the
princes near their frontier and urged them to revolt
appinsf Lhasa in order to make them subject to their
, direct authority ; but those princes did not shake off
one yoke to pass tamely under another and the Chinese
felt the difficulty of submitting to their law those whom
they had encouraged to throw off discipline. The
native chiefs reduced their obligations to a minimum ;
some even refused to make any act of submission.
The Prince of Dergyeh allows no Chinese traders to
live in his territory and does not let them travel on
Ihe high-road except on payment. The seventeen other
Tibetan States of Sechucn Chagla (containing Tasienlu),
Litang, Batting, on the Chando road, Mili 7 south of that
road, Menyag, the five Horpa clans, Toskyah, Somo,
etc., in the north although they have long been direct
vassals of Chmu, give the Viceroy great trouble in
making them respect the small authority to which he
lays claim* The Chinese are installed seriously only
at Tasienlu ; on the Jyerkundo road> they have only
three little posts of twenty men, of which the farthest
and the most considerable U that of Her Kangsar, near
the Za Chu. Of their recent occupation of Menyag
5t is impossible to aay anything as yet.
Apart from the Tibetan States that are directly
subject to the Viceroy of Sechuen, there are two other
classes ttyc are dependent on the Imperial legates of
Lhau and Siniug respectively. The Imperial Legate of
Lhana is empowered to exercise the Chinese protectorate,
36* fttbet
not only over the possessions of the Dalai Lama, but
also on all the independent countries enclaved within
them Tachilhunpo, Saskya Gompa, Poyul and .all
the outlying countries that have been detache^I from
them subsequently to Kienlong's conquest, ftamcly,
the principality or the Hortsi, Ribocheh, Chamdo and
Jaya. The boundaries of the Imperial Legate's influence
are formed, on the north, by the Tang La and Dumtao
La Passes, by the mountains that separate the basin of
the Nu Chu from that of the Pam Chu, by a line crossing
the Pam Chu and the Za Chu, or Mekong, at about Lat
31 40*. Then the frontier reaches the valley of the
Blue River, goes down it to about Lat, 29^ 30', from
there turns into the valley of the Mekong and follows it
until about Lat, 27. The Chinese keep a small garrison
at Kiangku, under the order* of a captain, and another at
Chamdo, under the orders of a colonel ; but they are
not even represented in Ribocheh or in the Hortsi
country. This latter country, which lies between th<f
Tatsang La and the Damtuo La, comprises the basins of
the Chug Chu and the Sog Chu ; south of the Tatsang
La, the little valley of Duglong also forms part of it*
The majority of the population are Ponbos and thin was
the cause of its separation from Lhasa* All the Tibetans
living on the road from Nagchu to Jyerkundo within
the limits specified, the Ataka, the Horpongntma,
the Sogdcma, the Kengkicma, are, without exception,
dissenters* This is the case also with their chief, who
bears the title of Hortsi Gyabpcko, is a layman and
lives in a tent like all his subjects. Hi* residence is at
Pachen, two days below Wabeh Sumdo on a little affluent
running into the Sog Chu on the left* It may be remarked
of the Tibetan chiefs that, like the Mongolian chiefs, they
do not care to instal themselves on the hjgh-roaids,
beside the big rivers, or in the plains ; they generally
resort to remote places, difficult of access, near the
tHbet 365
sources of the rivers. Three days below Pachen, in the
Sog Chu Valley, stands the monastery of Sogzendeh,
wHpse lamas are independent of the Hortsi Gyabpeko.
The latter's dominion extends, from west to east, be-
tween the great eastern tributary of the Nag Cho to
Bumundo. He has a number of tribal chiefs or debas
under his orders and receives a small allowance from the
Emperor of China. The kinglet, whose country is
poor and sparsely peopled and who wears a simple
sheepskin gown, seems to be fairly well obeyed ; he
levies on each family and each head of cattle a very light
tax, of which the Imperial Legate takes a share. The
latter has no agent in the country, but, from time to
time, sends an officer to Pachen to receive the prince's
homage and tribute.
The third part of Tibet subject to China lies within
the jurisdiction of the Imperial Legate of Sining, who
himself is dependent upon the Viceroy of Kansu.
This jurisdiction is bounded by that of the Imperial
Legate of Lhasa as far as the sources of the Dergyeh
Chu ; next, the frontier goes up to the north-east, crosses
the Do Chu at 60 miles to the south-east of Jyerkumlo,
runs to the north of Dcrgyeh and the Hprpa country,
crosses thcTa Kinchuen at Lut, 32 and, in the north-
east, joins the frontier of Kansu proper, following the
watershed between the Hoangho and the River Min.
Within these boundaries arc contained the States of
the Nanchcn Gyapo, the four tribes of the Zachukkapa,
the States of tnc King of the Goloks, the Gomi and
Panak tribes and, lastly, the district of Ngamdo. The
Nanchen Gyapo, a lay king, resides at Pam Jong, on
the Pam Chu, north of Rtbochch, The whole region
from the Damtao La to the frontier of Mongolian
TVaidam ^nd to the boundaries of the Do Chu basin
placed under hi* suzerainty. The Tibetans speak
of aim as a venerable person, but ulso an a poor fellow
366 ZEtbCt
who is led by the nose by the lamas. For that matter,
in all the principalities of Eastern Tibet, the lamas
either are the nominal and real masters or else jure
completely independent of the civil power and exercise
a considerable influence over it The King of itisienlu
is the only one who has authority over the clergy of his
States, for which reason he is surrounded, in the eyes
of the Tibetans, with a formidable and mysterious
majesty, no less than the petty King of Ladak, with
whom nobody in the world is fit to be compared, unUss
it be the Emperor of China in person. The power
of the Nanchen Gyapo is effective only in the Pam
Chu Valley, in the immediate neighbourhood of his
residence, Elsewhere, the tribal chiefs, more or
less encouraged by the Chinese, render him little
more than a platonic homage. The tribes known
to rnc arc the Dungpa, the Gejis, the Rakis, the
Taorongpa and the Nyamcho. The Dungpa extend
from the Damtao La to the source of the Mekongf
Their chief h encamped at Damsarchawo, near the
source of the Dam Chu, three days to the east of the
road, The Gejis, who are more numerous and consist
of 3,000 laymen and 500 lamas, are distributed over
the upper basin of the Mekong, between the Zanak La
and the Zeh I A. Their chief is encamped at Zamar-
sang The Rakis run from the Zeh l& to the Serkyem
La* The Taorongpa, a much superior tribe to the
foregoing, are bounded by the Serkyem La, the Tao La,
twenty miles south-east of Jyerkundo, and the water-
shed between the Do Chu and the Zachu Golok. Their
not very large country is comparatively thickly populated
and covered with numerous villages; and they are the
only one of all the tribes which I have named that occupies
itself with agriculture* They are divided inty twenty-
five clans, each commanded by a lay chief; it wouicf
not appear that they have a general chief and their
ttfbet 367
common affairs are settled in the assembly of the chiefs
of clans. In reality, the Saskyapa abbot of Jyergu
Gompa is the veritable master and the chiefs of clans
are, in fact, no more than his agents. He has 3,000
monks* in his obedience, distributed over various con-
vents, each owning large properties and having rights
of high and low justice over the surrounding cantons.
The only parts of the country that escape his authority
arc the lands and villages belonging to the rare Gelugpa
rponasteries, which have the abbot of Labug at their
head and do not number more than 800 monks. To
the north of the Taorongpa are the Nyamcho, who
themselves border upon the Mongols of Tsaidam,
In the east, the region of the Upper Za Chu, which
is fairly populous and contains crops and villages except
in the part which 1 traveled through, is independent
both by right and in fact of the Nanchen Gyapo. It is
divided into four cantons, administered by four native
'chiefs, whose head is the superior of Tubchi Gompa,
Next come the superior of Kanar Gompa, the lay chief
of Yongka and the lay chief of Chuma. The people
of this country are distinguished at first sight by their
tihorn heads from the long - haired subjects of the
Nanchen Gyapo, Also, they carry longer lances, measur-
ing about 1 1 J feet. These points make them resemble
their neighbours the Goloks, to whom they arc closely
related by kindred. They arc particularly turbulent
ami, if they are a little more cautious in their robberies
than the Goloks, this is only because they live in houses
and are more exposed to reprisals.
If the subjects of the Nanchen Gyapo give the people
of Zachukka a bad name, this does not mean to say that
they are much better themselves. Private property is
but little respected among them ; one often meets small
'caravans *of Tibetans or Chinese that have had their
horses stolen by the natives ; and the people of Lhasa
368 Uibet
never travel that way except in numbers and well-armed.
As for the cantonal chiefs, for the most part lamas
perched in their lamaseries as in sparrow-hawks' nests,
it is not uncommon for them to be parties to the pillage
and to justify it by invoking the law of reprisal In
fact, everybody, afraid of being robbed by his neighbour,
indemnifies himself as and when he may, often enough
beforehand, and pays himself by theft for the losses
which he has suffered or may suffer in the future. The
Kirghiz system of the banimta is practised everywhere.
When an individual has occasion to complain of a theft,
a murder, a rape, an outrage of any sort, on the part of
an individual of another clan, instead of running off to
his solicitor, he appeals to his own clan, which takes up
arms and goes off to plunder the herds of the clan to
which the culprit belongs- ^This is the Tibetan way of
serving a writ of caution* Struggles ensue, not always
unattended with bloodshed ; prisoners are taken and
often drowned ; and, from reprisals to reprisals, the,
quarrel can be indefinitely prolonged. It is very difficult
to settle it definitive peace that wipes out all the wrongs
done and suffered on both sides.
The Goloks/ generally called Sifans by the Chinese,
are masters of the whole region lying between the
Kyaring Cho and the watershed between the Ma Chu
and Min rivers ; they extend aouth to Lat 32 and are
bounded by Dergyeh and the Horpa clans. They arc
divided into twelve tribes, of which that of the Kengens
is the most important. Their king, who bears the title
of Archungnurlm Gyapo, resides in the Ma Chu valley,
to the south of the mighty chain of the Amnyeh Machem
They are equipped and dressed in the same manner as
the Zachukkapa : sheepskin garments, long lances, short
* From Oa (n^o), face, ami fof, crooked, that IB to *ay r<$cl.
chedfrr, to pull a crooked face, is a currant phrase meaning to rite in
rebtilion,
Uibet 369
hair, flat, round caps fitting close to the head at the back
and forming a kind of peak in front. They have no
houses and live in tents, the lamas and the king as well
as the rest. The clergy seems to occupy an inferior
positirti among them, although it is fairly numerous and
not devoid of influence* The Goloks arc absolutely
independent of China, both nominally and in reality.
They form a regularly-organised society of brigands.
Every summer, they fit out one or more expeditions of
300 to 1,000 horsemen, who ride mostly in the direction
of Lhasa, carry off herds of cattle, women and children
and plunder the caravans of merchants. These expe-
ditions are commanded by the chiefs of tribes, with the
consent of the king, who receives a percentage of the pro-
ceeds. They sometimes penetrate within sight of Nagchu
Jong and pursue their end% until well within Mongolia,
The people of Tsaidam fear them greatly : Naichi, whose
pasture-lands were formerly frequented by the Mongols,
has had to be abandoned because of the repeated inroads
of the Goloks. A void has been made all around the
country of those bandits ; large and rich pastures arc
to-day deserted, none daring to venture there and put
his head in the lion's mouth : although they never pitch
their tents nor drive their herds beyond the Amnyeh
Machen Mountains, they permit nobody to settle there
or even to pass between these mountains and Lake
Kyaring. This is not the policy of the dog in the
manger : it is a mere variant of Protection. The
Goloks, in so acting, confer upon themselves, by virtue
of the right of the strongest, the monopoly of working
the salt of the Kyaring Cho ; and this monopoly is a
very profitable one, for a large part of Eastern Tibet
has no salt : the whole country between the Tatsang
La and Jyerkundo is without it and the poorer natives
Use salt fed earth instead. The Goloks therefore sell
their salt at their own price to the Zachukkapa and to
24
Ufbet 371
money which the Emperor sends for the maintenance of
the troops.
There remains but little for me to say of the
Panaks, who live on the shores of the Koko Nor,
to tjre south, east and north, the western margin
being occupied by Mongols. They wear their hair
short like the Goloks and are distinguished from the
other Tibetan nomads by their round, peaked caps
and their blue trousers of Chinese cotton-cloth. I
have already pointed out the peculiarities of their
physical type, which indicate an admixture of the
neighbouring Mongolian element. Like the Mongols,
they always guard their herds on horseback, which
is the habit of the people of the plains or of wide fiat
valleys. Their tents are similar to those of the other
Tibetans, except that they jre larger, measuring as much
as 50 feet by 30. The stone stove is also a little
different in appearance. Some of the Panaks have white,
round felt tents like those of the Mongols, but this
is an exception. The Panaks seem to have but few
relations with their Tibetan congeners of the south, from
whom they are separated by many days' march, and
they would hardly know them, if they did not go on
pilgrimage to Lhasa and if they did not see a few
caravans from Lhasa and Jycrkundo pass their way.
This fact at once becomes evident to the traveller
through the disappearance of the rupee, which is replaced
by Chinese money* The Panaks arc known inTsaidam
and at Tongkor and Sining as incorrigible thieves,
though they struck me as decent people enough: they
ure only pilferers and not brigands like the Goloks
They have no king, but only cniefs of clans ; they are
more nearly subjected to the Imperial Legate of Sming
than the other Tibetans and pay him annual taxes,
it if safe to say that the authority of China is not
firmly felt btyond Tsaidam, the chain south of the Koko
372 tibct
Nor, the country of the Gomis and that of Lhabrang
Gompa, The Goloks do not trouble about the Imperial
Legate, except to rob his agents on occasion, and the
Imperial Legate, on his side, pretends to ignore them!
Fn the vast region that stretches between Tsarijlam,
Chambo and the Damtsto La, he has only two representa-
tives at Jyerkundo, mere interpreters of his yamen,
knowing the Tibetan language. These modest agents
employ their abilities as best they can in persuading
the petty local chiefs to keep the peace and their
mediation sometimes has good results ; but thtff
mediation is of the platonic order, for they have
no serious means of compelling respect of their
authority, beyond a thivut of Chint-w intervention,
'nicy have no escort, but only a few dorghiis, or
native policemen, similar to the aptuks of Lhasa.
The few Chinese merchants who trade in the country
are allowed to reside only at Jyt'rkumio ami, although
thi^ village is subject to Kiinsu, they have to be
furnished with letters from the administration of
Sechucn, The Imperial Legate i^ur-i letter* only
for the immediate neighbourhood of the Koko Nor
and for Tsaidam ; and these letters are valid only
for forty days, which prevents the holders from
going as far as Jycrkundo. The only reason for thin
measure is to preserve for the Sechuen administration
the whole profit from the Tibetan trade*, part of which
passes through Jyerkundo. The fiscal obligations of
the inhabitants of this district towards the Chinese
government are limited to the payment of u tax of
one-eighth of an ounce of silver, suy cmi'-third of a rupee,
per hearth and per annum* to the maintenance of the
two interpreters and their durghas and to the free supply
of the animals, straw and fuel which they need for
their movements, The Imperial Legate ncvei* appears
in the countries which he is ordered to administer)
373
he tftinks, very justly, that his majesty gains by not
being seen close at hand. Only 3 every three years or*
perhaps, every year, he goes in great state to the first
pass affording a view of the Koko Nor and makes his
offerings and prayers to the divinity of the Iake 3 \vhOj
in return, assures to him the possession of the whole
country under the divinity's protection. Moreover,,
every three ycars s he sends to Jyerkundo a Chinese
official having the rank of a prefect, in order to receive
the solemn homage of all the assembled chiefs. This
is the same ceremony that was observed in the sixth
century and doubtless earlier still* In truth^ the
Tibetans are one of the nations that have changed
least in the course of the centuries and it is greatly
to be regretted that they are so difficult of access and
so obstinately opposed to enquiries.
THE END
I'iUN'TKl) BY A, r, I'OWLNIl,
ftlOOHFIltfiDH AND
HltUUK.mTt'H,
