The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1904. LHASSA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXII, Issue 13574, 21 October 1904, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1904. LHASSA.

It w-,16 right that when the last great goal of modern travel was reached the scene should ha splendidly impmisive, and, allowing for the help which romance gives to the imaginative oye, Lhassa, as a spectack, seems tr> bo wdl worthy of the arduous journey theiv. One corrosponcfcnt calls it "tho most, fascinating ami perhaps also the most beautiful city panorama, In the world." Tho approach is not in itself beautiful, but, for tho List half-day of the march the traveller has tho great rota-la, tho palace of the Grand Lama, always before his eyas. Lhassa itself lies hidden until the last hill ridgo is climbed. The correspondent of the " Times " has written a vivid description of the Buddhist capital. "There is'almost- nothing missing from this splendid fjpectacle," ho says. "Architecture, forest trees, wide- spacer, rivers and streams, mountains; everything lies out before one, looking dowiii from the height- upon Lha«\i immediately at one's feet. Nor is this quite all the charm.There has- been nowhere along the joirrncj a hint of what the end was to- be. The dark, forbidding spurs and ravines of the valley interlocking one behind another promised nothing of this, and the delight of Lhasea's beauty is doubled l by its uttei unexpectedness." But the town is petty. It is the palace that gives the scene its improseiveness. "It \vot?ld dominate London," says the correspondent; "Lhassa, it simply eclipses." There is a- massive simplicity about the great Potato, that compels attention. But simplicity is not the ultimate note: The vivid white of the buttressing curtains)—each a wilderness of windows and the home of hundreds of the crimson-clad dwarfs who stand in the sun at the stair heads, or, pygmy-like, man the roof tops—strikes! a clean and harmonious note with the sea of green which washes up to their bases. But one is hardly ready for the perfect taste which not only decided for the rich maroon colour of the central building resting upon and: between its white supporting- bulk of masonry, but added, with the- sparing hand of the old illuminator, the golden finials which recompose the whole from roof to roadway. Tho highest tower of the Potato lifts its head more than four hundred: feet from the ground, and tho extreme width of tho main, building is perhaps three hundred yards, so that the temple palace* would be imposing for sheer si/x;. But the buildings have been so grouped and set on tho hill in the midst.of «. veritable Bea. of green forest that the distant view, indeed the only comprehensive view, is not overwhelming. Tho 'priests h.ive divided off this sacred pile from the rest of the world with a. mile-wide belt of trees, literally hedging in the mysterious personality of the Ktcred- ruler. The- town seeme to have impressed the British travellers variously. One has called 1 it "ptrange and beautiful," another " insignificant," but the narrow streets, tho living huts with flat roofs and the occasional gilded towers set in the midst of treee can hardly be other than attractive. The closer view revealed only o, typical Chinese town. The main drain runs between black mt?d ba.nk.3, the open spaces have wide pools of stagnant water, and pigs root among the filthy rubbish heaps around even- the more imposing residences. The street is filthy underfoot; the houses are mean and poorly built; the "Plain of Milk" beyond is a, swamp. There are points of interest ,vuch as the willow tree grown from 1 a hair of Buddha's head, the horn-walled buildings of the .public- scavengers and the etone slab on is engraved a, treaty concluded between China and Tibet elevfen centuries ago. It is the panorama from the ridge that impresses) the observer. The magnificence of the Potato., the -beauty of the wide belt of trees, the quiet green of the marshes and the great peaks that rise beyond the plain, t,hese aro the striking features of the soene. *