AN EXCLUSIVE CITY.

Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 58, 5 September 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN EXCLUSIVE CITY.

An Indian explorer in the employ of the Indian Survey has returned from four years' journeying in Thibet, during which he spent a year in Lhasa, the capital of Thibet, and the Rome of Buddhism. Before this traveller only four Europeans in this century have ' visited Lhada. Hue and Gabet, fhe French missionaries,, were driven from the city 40 years ago, after living there a few months. Moorcroft was killed after he left the city, and another traveller was permitted to remain there only a few days. He says the city is crowded with temples, and has its Vatican in the monastery at Potola, where tho Dalai Lama lives, who is regarded as the incarnation of Buddha. The building is surmounted by five gilded cupolas, whichj- when spark-

ling in the sunlight, present a dazzling spectacle. It contains numerous images, one of which is 70 feet high. During the festivals in the middle of February the Thibetans gather at Lhasa from all over the country to pay homage to all the gods and goddesses who are supposed to be present. These ceremonies last about a month, at the end of which all the citizens are considered to have become purified for another year.