YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. SARAT CHANDRA DAS, CLE. c JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. SAEAT CHANDEA DAS, CLE., Of the Bengal Educational Service, Member of the Asiatic Society, Bengal, etc. EDITED BY THE HON. W. W. EOCKHILL. LONDON: JOHN MUEEAY, ALBEMAELE STEEET. 1902. PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. INTRODUCTION. Sarat Chandra. Das was born in the town of Chittagong, in Eastern Bengal, in 1849, in a Hindu family of the vaidya, or medical caste. He received his education in the Presidency College at Calcutta, where he became favourably known to Sir Alfred Croft, the present Director of Public Instruction of Bengal, who ever since has been his friend and guide in his geographical and literary work, and by whose representations to the Indian Government it became possible for him to perform his important journeys into Tibet. While still in the engineering department of the college he was appointed in 1874 head master of the Bhutia Boarding School, just opened at Darjiling by order of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, Sir George Campbell. Sarat Chandra at once applied himself with characteristic energy to the study of the Tibetan language, and established friendly relations with the Raja of Sikkim and many of the leading lamas in that country, to which he made several short trips in the succeeding years. In 1878, lama Ugyen-gyatso, who was attached to his school as Tibetan teacher, was sent to Tashilhunpo and Lhasa with tribute from his monastery, and advantage was taken of this opportunity to ascertain whether permission could not be obtained from the Tibetan authorities for Sarat Chandra to visit Tibet. The lama was so fortunate as to obtain from the Prime Minister of the Panchen rinpoche of Tashilhunpo an invitation for Sarat Chandra to visit that great centre of lamaist learning, of which George Bogle and Samuel Turner have left us such interesting descriptions ; and, so as further to insure his safety and justify his presence in the country in the eyes of the suspicious lamas and Chinese, the Minister had the Babu's name entered as a student of theology in the Grand Monastery of that vi INTRODUCTION. place. A passport was also brought Sarat Chandra by the lama, issued to him by the Prime Minister, by which a choice of roads to enter Tibet was given him, and his safe conduct insured to Shigatse. | Armed with these credentials, Sarat Chandra set out for Tashi-| lhunpo in June, 1879, accompanied by lama Ugyen-gyatso, and there he remained for nearly six months, the guest of the Prime Minister, with whose assistance he was able to make a careful examination of the rich collections of books in the great libraries of the convent, bringing back with him to India a large and valuable collection of works in Sanskrit and Tibetan. He also explored during this journey the country north and north-east of Kanchanjinga, of which nothing was previously known, noting with great care observations of bearing and distances. Not the least valuable result of this journey was, however, the friendly relations which the traveller was able to establish with the liberal and powerful Prime Minister, who, deeply interested in western civilization and its wonderful discoveries, of which he had learned much from the mouth of Sarat Chandra, requested him to come back again to Tashilhunpo, to instruct him further in the wonders of the west. An account of this first journey was printed by the Bengal Government some time after the author's return, with a prefatory note by the traveller's friend, Sir Alfred Croft. As the route therein described is the same as that followed by the traveller in his second and more extended journey of 1881-82, and as the results of his studies in Tibet in 1879, as shown in this report, bear nearly exclusively on historical and religious subjects, it has been deemed advisable to omit it from the present publication, embodying in footnotes all such details as have been found in it bearing on the geography and ethnology of Tibet, and which are not in the later and fuller report. The year 1880 was passed by Sarat Chandra at his home in Darjiling, working on papers on the history, religion, ethnology, and folk-lore of Tibet, drawn from the data collected during his journey. These papers, most of them of great value to Oriental students, have since appeared in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society and in that of the Buddhist Text Society of India, which Sarat Chandra founded in 1892, and of which he has since remained the secretary. INTRODUCTION. vii In November, 1881, in fulfilment of the promise previously made to the 'Prime Minister of the Panchen rinpoche, Sarat Chandra started on his second journey to Tibet, again accompanied by TJgyen- gyatso, who acted as secretary, collector, and surveyor, though much of the later work, including the extremely important survey of Lake Palti (Yamdo tso), was done by the traveller himself. Sarat Chandra again established his headquarters at Tashilhunpo, whence he made various excursions along both banks of the great Tsangpo, from Sakya in the west to Samye and Tse-tang in the east. He was also so fortunate as to be able to make a short visit to Lhasa, which had only been done twice by native explorers prior to his time, once in 1866 by Nain Singh, and again in 1880 by Kishen Singh, the latter making a detailed map of the whole city and its environs. He was present at an audience of the Tale lama, and visited a number of the important monuments of the city ; but for various reasons, especially of a prudential nature, he was prevented from seeing many places of great interest in and around the city; but his valuable notes are a most important addition to the descriptions left us by previous travellers. After this brief visit to the capital of Tibet, Sarat Chandra explored the valley of the Yalung, where Tibetan civilization is said to have first made its appearance, gathering everywhere, with the usual thoroughness which distinguishes his work, valuable information concerning each locality traversed. In January, 1883, he re-entered India after an absence of about fourteen months. The report of this journey was printed in two separate publica tions by order of the Government of Bengal. They are entitled, " Narrative of a Journey to Lhasa," and " Narrative of a Journey Round Lake Palti (Yamdok), and in Lhokha, Yarlung, and Sakya." For various reasons these reports were kept as strictly confidential documents by the Indian Government until about 1890, when selections from them, bearing exclusively upon the ethnology of Tibet, however, appeared in an article in the July number of the Contemporary Review, and five years later further extracts from them were published in the August number of the Nineteenth Century. It is these reports which, with only such slight modifications as have viii • INTRODUCTION. seemed absolutely necessary to make the narrative connected, are published in the present volume. In 1885, when the Government of India contemplated sending a mission to Tibet, and the late Honourable Colman Macauley was sent by it to Peking to obtain the necessary authorization of the Chinese! Government to the projected embassy, Sarat Chandra accompanied him to the Chinese capital, where he remained several months in the! early part of the year. It was during this visit to Peking that ll became acquainted with the Babu, to whom I felt strongly drawn by my lifelong interest in Tibetan studies. Sarat Chandra lived, while; at Peking, in the lamasery outside the An-ting gate, known as the* Hsi Huang ssu, and in which all Tibetan traders stop when at Peking. He wore the dress common to lamas in China, and was always called the " Ka-che lama," or " the lama from Kashmir." His knowledge of Tibetan, his extensive travels, and his courteous manners gained for him the friendship of many of the lamas, among others of the Chang-chia Hutuketu, the Metropolitan of the lama church in China. Had the mission ever been sent to Tibet, it was understood that Sarat Chandra was to accompany it, and he would have rendered it valuable service ; but the project was abandoned, and since then the Babu has bent all his energies to the publication of Tibetan texts and to the preparation of other works on Buddhism while living in Darjiling, where he holds the position of Tibetan translator to the Government of Bengal. The services he rendered Mr. Macauley while in Peking were deemed, however, of such value by the Indian Government, that on his return to Bengal he was given the title of Rai Bahadur, and created a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire, and in 1887 the Royal Geographical Society awarded him the " Back Premium " for his geographical researches. The amount of literary work accomplished by Sarat Chandra since his return from Tibet in 1883 is enormous in bulk, and its value to students cannot be over-estimated. He brought back with him from his travels over two hundred volumes, manuscripts or block-prints, obtained from the great libraries in Tibet, a number of them in Sanskrit, and for many centuries past lost in India. From these INTRODUCTION. • ix sources he has drawn for the preparation of the valuable papers which ha»has since published, a list of which would occupy several pages. Besides a large number of translations into English of Tibetan texts, he has edited in Sanskrit for the ' Bibliotheca Indica ' Kshemendra's poem, entitled " Avadana Kalpalata," which he was so fortunate as to discover in Lhasa, and in Tibetan an historical work of great value, another giving the history of the pre-Buddhist or Bon religion of Tibet, a very valuable native grammatical work, and others too numerous to mention. He is now engaged, and has well on through the press, a Tibetan-English dictionary, which, he tells me, will be of about two thousand pages, exclusive of a Sanskrit-English appendix of Buddhist terms. This brief notice of Sarat Chandra's literary work will suffice, however, to show that his labours in this field are as important as those which he has rendered to geography. Personally, I am under a lasting debt of gratitude to him for the valuable information which he gave me while in Peking, and which was later on of great use to me during my explorations in Tibet, and I hold myself particularly fortunate in having been chosen by the Royal Geographical Society to edit his reports, as it is a means of publicly expressing my indebtedness to him, and also, I trust, of helping him to take the place he so justly deserves beside Csoma de Koros, as one of the greatest pioneers of exploration and discovery in Tibet. This introductory note would not be complete if further reference were not made to the Babu's faithful companion and assistant in his two journeys to Tibet, lama Ugyen-gyatso. The lama, who is a Tibetan from Sikkim and connected with the reigning family of that State, was born in 1851 at Yangang, and at the age of ten entered the lamasery of Pema-yangtse, where he took the usual course of monastic studies for twelve years. In 1873 he visited, for the first time, Darjiling in the suite of the Raja of Sikkim, and a little later on in the same year he was designated by that Prince, and at the request of the Deputy-Commissioner, Mr. Edgar, to fill the post of Tibetan teacher at the Bhutia school at Darjiling, which it was proposed to open. For a time the lama was employed in the office of the Deputy-Commissioner, and accompanied that officer on a visit to x INTRODUCTION. Sikkim. In 1874 he entered upon his duties as teacher in the school, and continued there until 1878, when he went to Tibet, as previously noted, to bear tribute from his lamasery to the heads of the church. During the lama's residence at Darjiling he had been instructed in the use of such surveying instruments as it is customary for the trans-frontier surveyors to use, and the accurate work which he did during his various journeys bears witness to the thoroughness with which he was instructed and to his own ability. From this journey of 1878, the lama brought back with him the passport which enabled Chandra Das to make his two journeys to Tibet, in both of which he accompanied him, rendering him everywhere true and valuable service. The discovery by Sarat Chandra in 1882 of the true dimensions and shape of Lake Palti,* seemed to Sir Alfred Croft so important that in June, 1883, he despatched the lama to cover the same ground in order to check off, verify, and complete the survey of the Babu. This he successfully did, adding only to the latter's work a small portion to the south-east of the lake, but establishing the great accuracy of the previous survey. He also explored the Lhobrak (Manas) valley, and again visited Lhasa, returning to India by way of the Tang la and Chumbi valley, and reaching Darjiling in December of the same year. A report of this work was prepared by Colonel, now Sir Thomas, Holdich, and appeared in the '' Report of the Explorations in Sikkim, Bhutan, and Tibet from 1856 to 1886," which was published in 1889 by the Trigonometrical Survey of India, and is frequently quoted in the notes to the present narrative. Since then the lama, whose services have been rewarded by the Indian Government with the title of Rai Bahadur, a silver medal and a grant of money, has been employed as chief Tibetan translator to Government, serving in that capacity during the late Sikkim expedi tion, and has also given valuable assistance to Sarat Chandra in editing Tibetan texts. W. AV. ROCKHILL. Block Island, U.S.A., July 27, 1899.f * Sarat Chandra has, in honour of Sir Alfred Croft, named the lake Yamdo Croft. See Journ. Buddh. Text Soe., iv. pt. iii. p. iv. t The publication of this volume has been unavoidably delayed. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Journey from Darjiling to Tashilhunpo ... .. ... 1 II. Residence at Tashilhunpo ... ... ... ... 45 III. Journey to Dongtse ... ... ... ... ... 69 IV. Residence at Tashilhunpo, and preparations for Journey to Lhasa ... ... ... ... ... ... 104 V. From Tashilhunpo to Yamdo Samding, and thence to Lhasa 122 VI. Residence at Lhasa ... ... ... ... ... 148 VII. Government of Lhasa — Customs, Festivals, etc. ... 171 VIII. Return to Tashilhunpo and Ugyen-gyatso's visit to the Bonbo Sanctuary of Rigyal Sendar ... ... ... ... 195 IX. Funeral of the Panchen Rinpoche — Visit to thc Great Lamasery of Samye and to Yarlung ... ... ... 213 X. Visit to Sakya and Return to India ... ... ... 237 XI. Social Divisions — Marriage — Funerals — Medicine — Festivals 246 LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. PAGE Portrait of Sarat Chandra Das ... ... ... ... Frontispiece Map showing the Routes of Sarat Chandra Das through Sikkim and Tibet ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1 A Kirati "Woman of the Limbu Tribe ... ... ... ... ... 9 i Sikkim Soldier ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 25 Sarat Chandra crossing the Donkhya Pass ... ... ... ... 42 Town of Shigatse ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 45 The Grand Monastery of Tashilhunpo... ... ... ... ... 50 Khandro Ye-shes. Padma Sambhava. Lha-cham Mandarasa ... 58 Chang-sa Rgyab-pa, Wine-drinking concluding Wedding Ceremonies ... 73 Black-hat Dance (Shanag Cham) ... ... ... ... ... 115 A Lhacham, or Lady of Bank ... ... ... ... ... ... 120 Tibetan Nobleman ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 125 Nam Tos-sras (Vaisravana), the Guardian King of the North ... ... 136 The Disposal of the Dead (by cutting the Corpse into pieces) ... 140 Plan of Lhasa ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 149 ^Plan of the City of Lhasa ... ... ... ... ... 151 Potala, the Residence of the Dalai lama, at Lhasa ... ... ... 154 Paldan Lhamo (srimati-devi) ... ... ... ... ... 158 Cho-Khang, the Grand Temple of Buddha, at Lhasa ... ... ... 160 Funeral Procession ... ... ... ... ... ... 164 Potala, the Palace of the Grand Lama ... ... ... ... 166 Lama delivering an Oracle ... ... ... ... ... 175 A Little Girl, daughter of a Tibetan Nobleman ... ... ... 200 Picnic in a Grove ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 201 Glaciers of Kanglachan Pass ... ... ... ... ... 215 River Zemu, Chatangla Pass ... ... ... ... ... 219 Glacial Lake and Moraines at the Source of the Zenni (?) ... ... 223 Cane Bridge on the Rungit River ... ... ... ... ... 229 Bridge at Brl, near Yangyang ... ... ... ... ... 233 Waterfall below Pachungri, between Gera-tang and Metang ... 239 Khamba Djongpon's Encampment on a Moraine beyond Kangchan Jang Mountain ... ... ... ... ... ... ¦•• ¦•¦ 243 Semarinu and adjoining Snowy Mountain ... ... ... ... 249 Snow Mountains beyond Chattayla Pass ... ... ... ... 253 Map of Tibet and the surrounding Regions ... ... ... At end JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. CHAPTER I. JOURNEY HROM DARJILING TO TASHILHUNPO. November 7, 1881. — On the night of my departure from Darjiling,* the moon was shining brightly, though some dark clouds presaged a slight fall of rain. Our eyes often turned with anxiety towards the mountain-tops on the eastern outskirts of Nepal, to see if snow was falling on them ; and the fear of death in the snows and the hope of overcoming the obstacles of nature alternated within me as I left my home in Darjiling, soon to bid a long farewell to my native land, with but faint hope that I would ever see it again. I rode on silently, and, to my great relief, unnoticed by any one, save one or two Bhutias on their way towards Darjiling, and in the stillness of the night we could hear the songs of the workwomen of Takvar and the music of their pipes and drums. Coming to the river, which was rather broad at this season of the year, I met lama Ugyen-gyatso, who was waiting to help me across. Three or four bamboos loosely laid over the main stream enabled us to cross, though with some difficulty, and with the help of an intelligent Bhutia attendant I was able to push on over the narrow slippery path till half-past one, when I reached Gok, now a deserted village, where, in place of the dozen shops and pretty Buddhist shrine which formerly marked the place, I found but a cow-shed where a Nepali was snoring fast asleep. It was here that the up-country grain-sellers used to come to buy large quantities of Indian corn and cardamom seed to resell in the Darjiling bazar. * On the origin of Darjiling as a sanatorium, see Hooker, 'Himalayan Journals,' (1854) i. 115. 2 JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. Spreading our rugs in the long grass near the cow-shed, we tried to rest for a while; but what with the unevenness of the ground, insects creeping over me, the prickly points of brambles and weeds penetrating the thin rug on which I lay, and a shower of rain which wetted us through, we could get no sleep, so we started again at four in the morning. The path, hardly a foot broad, was choked with weeds and long grass. Lighting my lantern, I followed Phurchung, my shot-gun tied across the top of the load he carried, and with many a slip and tumble we reached the valley of the Rummam at daybreak. November 8. — The Rummam, one of the principal feeders of the Great Rungit, rises in the Singli mountains, and forms the boundary between British territory and independent Sikkim on the north-west, all the country to the right (south) of it belonging to the former Government. We found it a raging torrent, and only spanned by a light footbridge of bamboo poles resting on a huge boulder in the middle of the stream, and held down by rocks. The Lepchas and Limbus catch fish, sometimes of considerable size, in the cold season in the pools in the river-bed, which the former sell in the Darjiling bazar. Sal trees were abundant, and on the hill-slopes we saw cardamom and cotton now ready to be picked. On the larger patches of cultivation, guards were stationed in bamboo watch-houses to scare away the monkeys and bears with bamboo clappers. I was told that a large species of monkeys, besides the small variety of which we saw a few, are found in this valley, and that they are a terror to the peasants and to solitary female travellers.* To kill these the Lepchas use dogbane and other poisonous roots, which they mix with cooked edible roots or rice. On nearing the bridge, we fell in with some twenty men carrying oranges to Darjiling, but I was fortunately able to pass by unnoticed.? After a short rest, during which I had some breakfast, and changed my Indian dress for a Tibetan one, we resumed our journey uphill, leaving the Mitogang road on our right. Antelope and wild goat abound hereabout, but the villagers shoot but little : they are so poor * Hooker, op. cit., ii. 37, mentions seeing a troop of large monkeys in the Lamteng valley (alt. 9000 feet) in Sikkim. Ibid., p. 108, he says that in the most snowy part of Sikkim (near the Tunkra la) " large monkeys are also found on the skirts of the pine forests, and a curious long-tailed animal, Ailurus ochraceus, peculiar to the Himalaya, something between a diminutive bear and a squirrel." Large monkeys are also found in Eastern Tibet at about 9000 feet alt.— (W. B.) JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 3 that they have hardly a dozen matchlocks among them all. Nepalese settlerswire numerous here, and I noticed some Brahmans and Chetris who live chiefly by selling milk and butter. We passed several paddy fields made on terraces along the hillsides, where ploughs drawn by bullocks were used ; but the Bhutias neither terrace the hillsides nor do they use ploughs, but keep to their time-honoured implements, hoes and clubs (in) of oak, by which they get but scanty returns. The Limbus * till the ground for three consecutive years, and then leave it fallow for three, when the weeds are cut and burnt, and it is again put under cultivation. After ascending several hills by steep paths, we came to the top of a ridge marked by a mendong and a chorten,\ and from whence a picturesque view of the valley of Dhuramdien, dotted with numerous houses, and of the surrounding country is obtained. This spot is called Mani-dara by the Pahirias, and Chor ten-gang by the Bhutias, both names meaning " the ridge of the sacred stupa." Here we halted by the side of a rill, and purchased two bottles of murwa beer % and vegetables from some Limbus. November 9. — Our way led along an easy path by Limbu houses with sheepfolds and pigsties in front of them, and around which a few goats and cows were also seen. The Limbu fowls, by the way, are not so large as those of the Bhutias. As I journeyed on we talked of some of the Limbu § customs, the most remarkable of which is that * Called Chung by the Lepchas. Though not divided into castes, they belong to several tribes. All consider themselves as the earliest inhabitants of the Tambur valley, though they have a tradition of having originally emigrated from Tibet. See Hooker, op. cit., i. 137. t It would, perhaps, be better to transcribe this mangdong (from Tibetan mang, " many ; " and dong, " stones "). Chorten is mchod, " offering ; " Hen, " receptacle." B is usually pronounced chiirten. See infra, 37, 40. — (W. B.) X Made from half-fermented millet. Murwa is Eleusine coracana. See Hooker, op. cit., i. 133, 175.— (W. E.) § The country between the Aruu and Tambur is called Limbudu by the Nepali natives, and the aboriginal people who have dwelt there from time immemorial are designated by the name of Limbu, though they call themselves by the name of Yak- thanga. In the same manner the tribes inhabiting Kiranta, or the regions between Dudkosi and the Arun, are called Kirat, which name is as old as that of the great Hindu deity Mahadeva. The Kirat of the north and the Limbu of the south were known to the ancients by the name of Kirata, on account of their living by hunting and ¦carrying on trade with the natives of the plains in musk, yak-tails, shellac, cardamoms, etc., from the earliest Hindu periods. See also infra, p. 26. The Tibetans and the Bhutias of Nepal and Sikkim call the Limbus by the name of Tsang, probably on account of their having emigrated from the Tsang province of Tibet. Both tradition and written Limbu works relate that the Limbu people partly 4 JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. of beating drums on every trivial occasion. Every Limbu family, be it poor or rich, possesses, as a rule, three or four tambourine-shaped drums, which they beat on going out of or returning to their villages. The wife or children beat them in honour of the husband when he goes out, and the latter when he leaves the house. Crossing the range we entered a richer country, as was evidenced by the vegetation and the abundance of trees. We saw long canes growing luxuriantly, and there was quite a large grove of plantation trees, showing the warm climate the country enjoys. November 10. — The sky was cloudy and the atmosphere filled with fog when we set out. Along the banks of the streams we had to cross grew tall pines and giant ferns, while thick brush wood, ferns and rattans lined the banks, the water dashing down from the hill-tops in cascades. Pushing our way through the dense forests of the Hi range, the sky scarcely visible through the lofty oaks, pines and magnolias, we reached after an hour's hard ascent the Rishi chorten, near which is a moss-covered mendong. The Hi La commences here, and from it one commands an excellent emigrated thither (to Limbuan) from Tsang in Thibet and Kashi in the Madhya Desh, and partly sprang from underneath a huge rock in the village of Khedab, to the north east of Tsanpur. So that the Limbu people were divided into three great tribes, according to their original homes, Tsang, Kashi, and Phedah. The first branch from Tsang spread over Tambur-Khola, Phalung, Mirva Khola itself, Mayiwa, and Yangrub, being designated by the Tibetans as Tsang Monpa, or the Limbus inhabiting the defiles. Those who came from Kashi occupied Chaibisa, Kaikhola, and Tsolkar. Those that sprang from underneath the great rock of Phedah were also called Baiphuta. $ The name of the place in the middle of which stands the huge slab of rock, measuring ;' a hundred fathoms on either side, was Phedah Pangi-loma, which is evidently a corrup tion of the name Pheduh Pangi-lungpa, or "the pasture land in Pheduh." See also infra, p. 26. The Baiphuta Limbu were the most powerful and numerous ; their chief, Baiphuta Han Baja, ruled over Eastern Nepal. All the Limbu tribes, as well as the Kiratas, paid him tribute and military service, in a manner resembling the feudal system of Europe. The power of this family having declined, the third tribe assumed the t supremacy, and massacred the adherents of the former rulers. After the fall of the Han dynasty there was anarchy all over Eastern Nepal, until there arose in the Srisobha tribe a mighty man called Marang, who succeeded in reconciling the different tribes, and was elected king over all the aboriginal tribes of Eastern Nepal, the southern portion being ruled by a Newar chief. After the death of the most distinguished of his successors, Mohani Baja, the Limbu tribes again fell into anarchy, and continued in this state for more than a century. At last, probably in the ninth century, appeared the famous Srijanga, the deified hero of the Limbus. The cis-Himalayan Bhutias identify him with an incarnation of Padma Sambhava, and attribute to him the introduction of the art of writing by the invention of an alphabet. Tradition also attributes the introduction of this art to Marang Baja, and its revival to Srijanga.— (S. C. D.) See Garetteer of Sikkim, pp. 36-38. 7 JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 5 view of South- Western Sikkim, including Tonglo and Singli, and the hills of Darjiling. In the thickets roundabout were to be seen the tracks of wild pigs, and the woods were alive with monkeys which feed on acorns. At about 1 p.m. we reached the top of the range, some 6000 feet above the level of the sea. Crossing a number of brooks which empty into the Rishi, we came to some cowsheds, where I would have liked to have rested; but no rest was possible, for I could see the leeches* spanning their length with swift but measured paces, making for me with haste. At 4 p.m. we commenced our descent from the top of the ridge, which is marked by a lartse f — here a bush of dwarf bamboos, with scraps of red cloth tied to it, near which Phurchung uttered his lha sol,% or invocation to the mountain deities. We halted for the night in a little clearing in the jungle at the foot of a gigantic oak, a few miles above the village of Lingcham. The giant nettle creeper here attains its largest growth, some more than 100 feet long. The tree nettle also abounds in this forest, and our servants found also the common nettle, the tender leaves of which make excellent soup.§ November 11. — The sky was overcast, and there was rain and sunshine at the same time, a phenomenon the Bhutias call metog- charpa, or " flowery shower." The village of Hi, by which we passed, contains several Bhutia, Lepcha, and Limbu houses. || The latter * Cf. Hooker, op. cit., i. p. 107 : " They puncture through thick worsted stockings, and even trousers, and when full roll in the form of a little soft ball into the bottom of the shoe. . . ." Ibid., p. 167, he makes mention of them swarming below 7000 feet, " a small black species above 3000 feet, and a large yellow-brown solitary one below that elevation." — (W. B.) Leeches are found at all elevations up to 10,000 feet at least. t La, " pass ; " rtse, " point, summit ; " usually a pile of stones with brush stuck in it, on which rags are hung. — (W. B.) X Lha, " god ; " gsol, "to beg." The invocation I have always heard used is " lha gya lo, lha gya lo," meaning, " god (give me) an hundred years, god (give me) an hundred years!"— (W. E.). § The giant nettle is the TJrtica heterophylla. Hooker, op. cit., i. 182. The fibres of some nettles are twisted for bowstrings, others as thread for sewing and weaving, while many are eaten raw and in soups, especially the numerous little succulent species. The TJrtica crenulata, or great shrubby nettle, grows also in these parts. Hooker, op. cit., ii. 188. — (W. B.) II On the Lepchas, see Dr. A. Campbell, Jour. Anth. Inst, i. 128, et seq. Dr. Campbell has also written several valuable papers on the Limboos in the Jour. Asiat. Soc. of Bengal for 1855 and other years, and in the Jour. Anth. Inst, vol. i. ; also papers on the Murnis and Haius of Nepaul and Sikkim, in the same collection, I believe ; but 6 JOURNEY *T0- LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. people seem to be prosperous ; they cultivate rice on irrigated terraces, and use a plough drawn by buffaloes. A few hundred yards above the River Kalai (also called Kalhait) we saw cardamom patches carefully fenced. The Kalai river, which we found rapid at even this season of the year, rises in the Singli pass, and after a cir cuitous course of about 20 miles, empties into the great Rungit near the foot of Tashiding hill. Villages are numerous along the river for J many miles; they are situated on ridges, which look like lateral ribs of a range running on either side of the Kalai from west to east, generally sending out southerly spurs. The Kalai is overhung on both sides by lofty trees growing on steep banks apparently inaccessible when looked at from the river bank. The river is bridged by two long, stout bamboos resting on a huge boulder in the middle of the stream, and weighted down with slabs of stone. In the shallow part of the stream piles have been driven to hold bamboo nets for capturing fish. This torrent is well known for its delicious fish; and we saw growing by some of the Limbu houses the na-dag-shig* a tree, the leaves of which are used to poison fish which swarm in the stagnant pools in the river. There are five classes of priests among the Limbu people, who perform their religious and secular ceremonies. They are called Phedangla, Bijua, Dami, Baidang, and Srijanga.^ The Phedangba enjoy the privilege of conducting the religious ceremonies, and of dealing in omens and fortune-telling. The Bijuba are trained to the Shamanic worship, of which fantastic dances are the characteristic feature. The third order practice witchcraft exclusively, and are said to be able to expel evil spirits through the they are not accessible to me. Dr. Hooker, op. cit, i. 127-136, says of the Lepchas : " They, or at least some of their tribes, call themselves Bong and Arratt, and their country Dijong. Polyandy is unknown among them, and polygamy rare. Marriage is by purchase. The dead are burnt or buried. Omens are sought in the entrails of fowls (p. 135). They have no religion, though acknowledging the existence of good and bad spirits." — (W. B.) * Perhaps Nya-dug-shing (nya, " fish ; " dug, " poison ; " shing, " tree "). Dr. Hooker (op. cit, i. 168) mentions as growing in Sikkim, aconite and convallaria yielding the bilch poison.— (W. E.) t Dr. Hooker (op. cit, i. 138) says that in their funeral ceremonies " the Bijooa of the Lepchas is employed; but the Limboo has also priests of his own, called ' Phedangbos,' who belong to rather a higher order than the Bijooas." Dr. Hooker's description of the Bijua and of the Lepchas' religious beliefs prove them conclusively to profess nearly the same religion as the Bonbo of Tibet. — (W. B.) JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 7 mouth. The fourth class, called Baidang, are physicians, the name Baidang being undoubtedly derived from the Sanskrit Baidya. The fifth, wlf?ch is the most important of the five orders, has the exclusive privilege of interpreting the religious books, and of studying religious observances and rites. My informant, though a Srijanga, combined in his person the qualifications of the other four orders; hence his great reputation among the Limbus, who considered him endowed with divine attributes. Leaving the banks of the Kalai, we pushed on uphill through long grass and reed thickets, where wild pigs were numerous and the porcupine abounds.* The latter animal is said to do much harm to pulse and radish fields, and destroys a great many of the wild yams on which the people chiefly subsist. On ascending about 3000 feet above the Kalai valley, we enjoyed distant views of Pema-yangtse, Yantang, Hi, Sakyang, and other villages on the high flat ridges on either side of the Kalai and Ratong rivers, and on our right was the village of Lingcham with its orange groves and numerous murwa fields. We halted near a Limbu house, and the coolies plucked wild onions (lagog) f growing in the crevices of the rocks, with which they seasoned their curries. This lagog, though smelling like the common garlic, is not half so strong, and gives a peculiar flavour to meat. It is said to produce coughing. November 12. — We continued to ascend by a hardly discernible trail, passing patches of Indian corn and a few miserable Limbu houses : one woman we saw was carrying a basketful of wild apricots. At 2 p.m. we reached the top of the ridge, on the furthest extremity of which to our right was the Sangnag Choiling (pronounced Changachelling) monastery, while near the path we were following was an old moss-covered chorten. Passing through dense woods of oaks and pines, and pushing our way through thickets of tree-nettle and underbrush, we reached, after two hours, the little village of Tale, where there are some twenty houses, and around which some mares, buffaloes, pigs, and a large number of cows were feeding. The inhabitants were anxious * Cf. Hooker, op. cit, i. 205.— (W. E.) t The Tibetan word lagog is usually translated garlic. I have always heard onion called by its Chinese name tsung. Wild onions are very common in Northern Tibet, at elevations of 15,000 feet and upwards. — (W. E.) 8 JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. to get salt from us in exchange for chang,* for the October fall of snow had prevented the Yangpung salt dealers from reaching this place, and salt was in consequence scarce ; but we had to decline their offers, as we had no more than we required ourselves.! November 13.— Our way led us through the village of Tale to the Ringbi river, a stream as rapid as the Kalai. There is a strong bamboo bridge over it, but we crossed by some bamboos laid side by side where the river was narrowest. To the north-west of the village, on a parallel ridge trending northward from the same range of hills, - is the village of Nambura. We followed the stream up for 5 miles by a circuitous trail, and then crossed over again to the right bank, a little below Nambura. The path led along the side of a ^ cliff, and we had great difficulty in making our way along its slipperyZ side, placing our feet in fissures of rocks and holding fast by creepers and grass. Then, following the course of the river, we ascended towards the village of Ringbi, and looking back we saw Tale, Nam bura, and many other villages perched high up on the mountain sides several thousand feet above us. Passing under a huge rock, below which the stream had cut gullies, we crossed over by means of bamboos and wooden ladders. Looking up once I saw some stuffed pheasants and a Tibetan shirt of red cloth hidden in a fissure of the rock, evidently by some bud.-shikaris. Birds of various hues, especially several varieties of pheasants, abound in these woods, which are frequented by shikaris who earn a livelihood by selling stuffed birds at Darjiling. A mile further on we came to the village of Ringbi,J situated in a beautiful plain, behind which rose cragged rocks ; to the north and east the Ringbi river roared far down below us. The wild plantain, a gigantic rattan, and numerous pines and oaks covered the hills on the other side of the torrent. There are here a half- dozen houses inhabited by Limbus, who raise rice, Indian corn, murwa, and other varieties of millet. As soon as Phurchung had laid his load on the ground, he ran off to the house of an acquaintance to buy for me some bottles of * Chang is made from half fermented barley, and is the national drink of Tibet. . On its preparation, see JaeBchke, ' Tib.-Engl. Dictionary,' s. •«. chang and infra 34 note 1.— (W. E.) ' t On the salt trade vid the Eathong valley, see Hooker, op. cit., i. 340 350 X Hooker's Bingbee. JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 9 beer, and presently returned with three, of which he well knew one would be given him. Our tent was pitched on the flat near the river, and my rugs being spread, I stretched myself at my ease, forgetting the fatigues of the journey. The servants had dispersed, some to collect firewood, some to pick edible wild plants, A KIRATI WOMAN OF THE LIMBU TRIBE. others to buy vegetables for our evening meal — nothing broke the silence save the sound of the rushing torrent below. I slept soundly, my mind more occupied with the future than the past. November 14. — The morning was clear, the view on all sides superb, and, though familiar with mountain scenery, my eye never tired of its wild grandeur. We waited and waited for hours for 10 JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. Phurchung, whom I had sent to Nambura to buy provisions ; but, as he had not appeared by noon, we had to give up all thoughts of ;; travelling that day. In the afternoon he made his appearance, loaded with rice, maize, murwa, eggs, vegetables, etc., and leading a ewe, which he said had cost him Rs. 4. He was very drunk, but conscious of his condition. He begged to be excused, and, after ; numerous salams and lollings of the tongue after the Tibetan fashion, he vanished from our sight. We were asked by the Limbus to exchange salt, of which they stood much in need, for tsuo* a dyeing creeper which grows here in abundance, and of which they had collected many large bundles ; but again we had to refuse. Phurchung much regretted that one of his best friends among the Limbus of this place had gone to a distant village to attend a marriage, for he might have rendered great assistance in many ways. The marriage customs of this people are very curious and interest ing. Some among them at the time of marriage consult astrologers, , When a man and a girl think of marrying, they meet, without con sulting their parents, at some place — a market, if there be one near — in order to sing witty songs, in which test the man is required to excel his fair rival. If he is beaten in this contest by the maiden*s whose hand he covets, he runs away in deep shame at his defeat ; ¦ but if he wins, he seizes her by the hand and takes her to his homef without further ceremony, but usually accompanied by a female^ companion. If the man has had some previous knowledge of the' girl's superior attainment in singing, he sometimes bribes the maiden's companion to declare him the winner in the singing competition. Another means of wife- winning is by courting her in the house of her parents, to which free access is readily gained by presenting the girl's nearest relative living in the house with a pig's carcass, a present called in their language phudang. When the marriage cere mony takes place, the bridegroom, if rich enough, kills a buffalo or a pig, which is presented to the bride's parents, a native coin fixed on its forehead. Among the lower people, the parents of the bride seldom know anything about the marriage till the return of the girl from her ' captor's house. Then the marriage ceremony takes place. The * Tsos (pron. tso) means "dye" in Tibetan. The dye here referred to is probably the yellow one prepared from the symplocos. See Hooker, op. cit, ii. 41, and J.R.A.S., 1891, 218.— (W. E.) JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 11 friends and relatives assemble in some spacious courtyard, each bringing a present of a basket of rice, a bottle of murwa or arrack. The bridegroom then beats a drum, to the music of which the bride dances, outsiders also taking part in the dance. This over, a Phe- dangba priest conducts certain religious ceremonies beginning with the following mantra : " According to the commands handed down to us from ancient times and the doings of the patriarchs, we bind our son, and daughter to-day in marriage." As the priest repeats the formula, the bridegroom places his palm on that of the bride, holding at the same time a cock, and she a hen, which they afterwards hand over to the Phedangba. When the above formula has been recited, the fowls' throats are cut, and they are thrown away for any one to pick up and keep, and the blood is col lected on a plantain leaf, and from it omens are drawn. In another leaf is some vermilion paint, in which the bridegroom dips his middle finger, which he passes across the forehead of the priest to the tip of the bride's nose. The bridegroom then says, " Henceforth, maiden, thou art my wife ; " and shouting repeatedly, " Maiden, thou art my wife," he puts a vermilion mark on her brow. The following morning the priest invokes some friendly spirit, and says to the newly married couple, " You two should henceforth live as husband and wife as long' as you remain on this earth ; " to which the parties suitably reply, "We will do as you command." Unless this period of a lifetime is mentioned, the marriage is held to be unlucky ; and to make it fortunate further ceremonies, which open new sources of profit for the priest, are considered necessary, At the marriage feast, where first murwa is served to each guest, the meat is generally pork, and finally a dish of rice is presented to every one of the party. When the marriage ceremony is over, the bride, released from her captor's hands for the first time, returns to her parents, who are supposed to have been in ignorance of the previous proceedings. Two or three days after her return comes a go-between, or parmi,* to settle differences with the bride's parents. He brings, as a rule, three things — a bottle of arrack, the carcass of a pig, and a silver coin, as presents to the bride's parents. Just as he is about to make them the presents, they are bound to fly into a passion and threaten * Parmi seems to be Tibetan bar, "middle;" mi, "man."— (W. E.) 12 JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. to beat him, whereupon he entreats them not to do so, and tries to pacify them with the present of another rupee. Then they ask him in an angry tone, " Why did you steal away our daughter ? " and such like questions. When their anger has subsided, he pays the price,, of the bride, which, according to the wealth of the groom, varies from Rs. 10 to Rs. 120, or the equivalent; but in all cases a pig is an indispensable part of the price. Then a further present of usually Rs. 12, or its equivalent, is made to the soffas (subahs) and village headmen. This present is known in Limbu as turayimbag, meaning satis-1 ,; faction to the parents for stealing their daughter ; and though it is really due to the bride's parents, it is nowadays appropriated by the village officials. Like the Tibetans, the Limbus present white cotton hhatag to all" who are interested in the marriage. When the time comes for deliver ing up the bride to the parmi, the parents must say, " Oh, our daughter is lost ! She is not to be found ! Some one must go and find her ! " Then a couple more silver coins are paid, and one of the relatives discovers the lost bride, who lias usually hidden herself in the storeroom, and she is handed over to the parmi. Now adays, however, it is more common for the bride to come forth of herself as soon as the money has been paid, but not before.* November 15. — The villagers tried to dissuade us from attempting to cross the passes where the paths were hidden by the snow, saying that it would be more convenient to stay at Ringbi, where pro visions were easily procurable. If I remained here, however, various reports would be spread to prejudice the frontier guards of Tibet against us, and we would, moreover, be unable to ascertain when the snow should have hardened sufficiently to admit of our setting out on our journey, as the passes were three or four days' march from the village. We determined to try the Yampung la, which still remained free from snow. Our coolies gave the villagers to under stand that we shikaris (for Phurchung, with his fowling-piece and load of cartridges, was enabled to pass us off as such) had very little, to do with the passes, except for going to Kangpa-chan, where game * Cf. Hooker, op. cit, i. 137, 138. Speaking of their burial ceremonies, he says, " They mourn, burn, and bury their dead, raising a mound over the corpse, erecting a headstone, and surrounding the grave with a little paling of sticks; they then scatter eggs and pebbles over the ground." — (W. E.) J JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 13 was more abundant : if we failed entering Namga-tsal, we should most probably return by Jongri to Darjiling. We passed behind the village, where there are some tall cypresses and a solitary juniper tree, which the people erroneously call chcondan, or sandal wood.* A short distance from the village we passed the road leading to Dechan phug, " the cavern of bliss," a huge rock, the hollow in which is haunted by numerous demons and evil spirits. Now and then we saw Limbus making bamboo mats or collecting osiers to thatch their houses. The road along the river was easy, the rills falling into it bridged, and the steep banks carefully crossed by stone dykes, while steps were cut in the rocks where necessary. By one o'clock we reached Paongtang, where, in a wretched shed for travellers (dong-khang), we made our camp. A light rain was falling, so we had to cook our food in the miserable shed, where we could not stand erect, where ants and centipedes were creeping over everything, and the smoke and dust raised by the bellows nearly suffocated us. Though we had a tent, the obstinacy of my servants compelled me to forego the comfort it afforded, for to them the dong-khang was a comfortable dwelling, and they insisted that I should enjoy it too. Phurchung bought some milk, cheese, murwa, and excellent fish from one of the neighbouring herdsmen, a cousin of his ; and when we had refreshed ourselves with the beer, we sat listening to two of our companions, Jordan and Tonzang, as they sang and declaimed over their drink. Though these men carried our loads, they were men of much respectability in their own country, and had been induced to do menial work only to oblige me, as I did not care to trust outsiders with the secret of my movements. I amused myself listening to Jordan, and really wondered that even among the uncivilized dwellers of the hills wine could inspire such eloquence. Among the volleys of his eloquence were quotations from a book called ' Binchen Tenwa' or ' The Precious Rosary.' " All here assembled, pray attend. " The eagle is the king of birds ; when he rises, all rise. " The lion is the king of beasts ; when he leaps, all leap. * Trees or shrubs, with aromatic wood or having sweet-smelling flowers, are fre quently called chandan in Tibet. At Kumbum, for example, the famous tree, which is said to have sprung from the hair cut from tbe head of Tsongkhapa, and which is in all probability a Syringa, is called Tsandan (or Chandan) karpo. — (W. E.) 14 JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. " He who drinks is the prince of speech ; when he speaks, all hear." Here Jordan's analogy broke down, for lie should have said, " When he speaks, all speak ; " but as his were quotations, he could take no liberties with the text.* November 16. — After having started Jordan and Tonzang to Darjiling with letters and my Indian clothing, we resumed our journey, and after a mile along the course of the Ringbi we climbed the Lungmo la, which is thickly covered with dwarf bamboos and mossy oaks of immense size. At 2 p.m. we came to Chonjom, the junction of the two head- streams of the Ringbi, where there is a well-made bridge across the river with strong boulder-made buttresses ; its bed is here covered with thick green moss. A little later on we halted at a place called Keta, in the midst of dark woods, the abode of bears, pigs, and Sikkim leopards. As I had sent my tent back, we had to make a shelter against the inclemency of the weather by a contrivance made with* our bed-clothes, and on the branches of a neighbouring tree we hung our meat and fish, which attracted owls and mice during the night. November 17. — Our hearts quaked as we continued our way through the dense wood and thick undergrowth, for a man-eater was reported to have killed two Nepalese wood-cutters in the Singli la. The year before last a tiger came up to Jongri, where it killed a dozen yaks, and we feared lest now it might have come back to make havoc on the Yampung yaks. While crossing one of the numerous fences dividing different pieces of property, we found a pheasant caught by the neck in a hair-trap. The way was steep and stony, and the cold piercing. At noon we reached the zone of rhododendrons, and, passing through the pines, where we startled pheasants and some other birds of beautiful plumage, we came to a snow-covered ridge. Then we began the ascent of a steep spur, where we were told the Lepcha * This work of Sakya Pandita, the Sanskrit title of which is ' Subhaahita ratm nidhi,' is well known to Orientnl scholars by the translation, accompanied by the Tibetan text, published by Csoma de Koros in vols. xxiv. and xxv. of the Journ. Bengal Asiat Soc, and by the French translation of a selection from it made by Ph. E. Foucaux, Paris, 1858, 8vo., under the title of 'Le tre'sor des belles paroles.' The original work is in 45 1 stanzas. Csoma only translated the 234 first. Sakya Pandita's Indian name was Ananda Dhwadja ; he lived in the thirteenth century. His Tibetan name is derived from that of the lamasery of Sakya, near Tashilhunpo, where he resided.—