TO LHASA IN DISGUISE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18553, 10 November 1923, Page 2 (Supplement)

TO LHASA IN DISGUISE.

PBIVATIONB ON JOUBNEY. fe SATAN BECOMES INSOLENT. * PANORAMA * OF HIMALAYAS. GREAT : UNWASHED OF TIBET. -<\' V*.' ' ', >. >V No. V. ' £ '■'; ' (BY DR. TO»LI&3£ MONTOOMESY McGOYERN, Ph.. D.. Professor of Oriental Studies. London University.) ; V;^ Below is the fifth instalment of a graphic •tory of the adventures of a British scientist :- in the forbidden country of Tibet, a true romance of almost incredible dangers, mow exciting than any work of fiction. J-** author is lecturer on Oriental * languages m the University of London.,, Every precaution was taken by both, the. British authorities and the Tibet authorities to prevent nm journey; but. -disguised . as a. Jow-clasu Tibetan. he crossed the .high passes of the Himalayas in the dead of winter, - succeeded In entering Lhasa.' and reached the presence of the Dalai Lama the Living Budda of that mysterious, land.' . ' I was anxictns to press on to Kampa Dzong itself that day, so after a short halt we continued our journey. About four miles before reaching our destination ■ I again made our party stop. Kampa Dzong is the" official gateway to this part of Tibet. ■ Here are located the two governors of the district and all their official underlings:. Any one, or all, of these I. knew was likely to cause us trouble. In spite of the "reassuring experience at the village, I still felt awkward and self-conscious in ■ disguise, and was afraid' to face close examination. Our sadden arrival, in the depth of ■winter was sure to cause some comment, and I wanted to have any inquiry which might "be made over and done with before I arrived. Consequently, I sent Satan and Lhaten on to the town in advance,, to purchase supplies and to hire a "room 'in the rest-house for the night. Satan was to say that his baggage animals and the remainder of Ms servants would come on later. The syce, Diogenes, and I were to stay hidden by the roadside until sunset, and thus be able to enter the town after dark. According to plan, we started at dusk, but were considerably delayed on the way owing to the sudden collapse of our second pony. I was loath to lose him, so we stayed for some time in a vain attempt to pull .and push him along, but in the end he died under our eves. We * arrived at last, about eleven o'clock, and found that all was well. Lhaten had been interrogated by the officials, but had allowed nothing to leak out. All of us had to sleep on/ the roof of the resthouse, as the rooms • themselves were . . crowded by men in from the nearby villages, who had come into the village' for some minor festival. This sleeping on the roof enabled us to catch a glimpse of the town by moonlight. The kindly night hid the dirtiness of the; streets, and made the castle, which loomed on the hill, appear very impressive Apart from ruins there are fifty-three such castles, or dzong, in Tibet. Each of them is the capital of '.*;» district, ruled over by two governors, one lay and the other ecclesiastical, an ■•■; .excellent instance of the double nature of the Tibetan Government. • *

A Magnificent Sight. At three o'clock, the - next, morning (February 1), long" before sunrise, we started on, our journey, to Shigatse, the second city of Tibet, the capital of the whole Province Of Tsang and the seat of tie Trashi Lama. When at last dawn came v we n caught a glimpse of , the whole panorama of th© ; Himalayas. This was , the most magnificent sight thai I had ever seen. ;,.-, Our road j itself lay over the great Kampa Plain. Although called a tableland, Tibet is intersected by a number, of mountain ranges, which Creak up vast level expanse into a number of flat-bottomed basins of varying size. The Kampa Plain, which lies between 15,030 ft. arfiil6,oooft. above the sea-level is one of the largest of these. As a rule 'thees basins are very sparsely inhabited, but in the,present instance we passed six •villages during the course of the morning's march. ~ - ;%" We had now only one riding pony left, and I j insisted on Satan carrying but his part as master and mounting this. The death of two ponies had very considerably added to our load, and I chose to carry the largest and heaviest of the ; bundles . myself, 'as "being likely f: to divert * suspicion, lor, in addition to passing - through villages,, we occasionally came across % stray travellers on the road. * " - \--Jk frozen Lake, - The next day (February 2) we started ,at V o'clock across the plain, and came a little later to a. frozen lake. Tibet is the land of l&keo. On its tableland there am found i hundreds of large and thoui sands of small stationary bodies of water. Some of these, are j constantly replenished by the ; melting of the mountain glaciers, but many fof them ; appear to be gradufally drying up. > There # is some reason' to suppose , that the r basins between the Tibetan mountains were at ont» timo the beds of huge lakes, which have gradually evaporated, . and been thus connected with the present plains. Some of the prej sent lakes. f">ntam fresh water, but many ' of them are so salt as to render their water ondrinkable. Not a (few are definitely ,' poisonous. Most of these lakes are covered ' with a thick coat of ice in the winter time, but in some the water is so saline that it never freezes. In the present instance the glassy surface of the lake at which we had arrived presented a serious obstacle. One of our •mules slipped on it, and badly strained a 'leg. The poor animal went on very | bravely for the next few days, but eventually died as a result of its injury. Satan had been made very irritable by the hardships of the last several days, and after the mule slip, completely lost his tern/ per and became exceedingly insolent. I could not afford to break with him, and 'was forced to keep the peace, in spite of the fact that he was i already talking of giving information to the Tibetan authorities Unfortunately, he saw only too we!! the awkward position in : which I was „ placed,; and for the remainder of our journey was constantly taking advantage of it.. ; , , Position Becomes Serious. .

Late in the afternoon we passed through the important village of Kuma. At this .point, a shepherd fell in with us, and accompanied our party until he came to his own hut, another mile or so further on. 'He insisted on carrying on a long conversation with me, for, I being apparently '.ihe humblest member of the party, he thought I would be the most approachable. Though m my replies I attempted to be as laconic as possible, I was afraid that the misuse of some words or a false intonation might betray me, but ho continued to talk, and at the same time to spin his woollen yarn quite unconcernedly, 7 the latter being a favourite occupation of the Tibetan peasants, both men and " women, when walking. That night we halted at a gloomy, deflate place .10. miles beyond • Kuma. A >Sii% mornin E ' had developed into a ! Snlf fte , rnoon - lfc was cloudy, and, Slin" We *w>«ld see that snow was :&feSefte na *> over which we m^S^^ Had wo waited anshould certS °fc the otlw *. side wo «ew. Our it« P nt av -! P? ri3hed i» the enough:-Anothlt- ] uatlou was serious brought ffRS :: »*«n»--Mt in, and :T'i experienced To & eatest °° ld we had ■finger or toe "woufd w eXpo * ed a sin g le :- . ; froßtrbite:: Worst if - n ave Inea .instint yak dung, and w rr9 I f; l '>r e i Co , uW «"<* no n* that We were w tho S° to *L , B ,,t a fire- ! -,•;,; tea which cheer* thii > wlat . Ti V etan ~ r oon» frightfully bv^aHU ? S4'*Pßh>we' bad encamped by a *m,, . thou gh we [■•;:;: : ;; water of{this was tho • way wo could qnenehV.n* S^. 8 - o;tho only \, ■ chipping off . melt in our mouth*. The ni»M »,? these . • more Zbfto'sic? 4!* &rs =■. , ■ were unable t 0 sl6en' an^'Tu^- ; , t we

Later, events on the ? next day brought me into ? still': closer ■ contact with the Tibetans. An t hour or so ' after starting we: overtook two petty traders, father \ and son, who 5 were returning from : a business •journey.? to their native city of Shigatso.We paused for a moment to speak to them, and, hearing that we were bound in the same direction, they suggested that we travel as far. as Shi gatse : together. ; To my horror, Satan;'- acting ;in his capacity of master, i agreed to this proposition, but though I strongly objected to take this added risk, I .was, unable to make, e'siy, open protest, so they > ■ fell.' in • with us, and we journeyed on together. A pleasant ignorant, f well-meaning couple they turned out to -be. At first I was afraid of their proximity, but later I got to find, pleasure in listening to their „ prattle, especially as they seemed ouite content with an occasional monosyllabic answer from me. The main trouble was that their presence prevented me from relaxing my disguise even for a moment. I was unable to give any order to the servants, and had always to address Satan in honorific terms. I noticed that he did not seem to object to the situation. ■* A Tibetan Rest-House. Late in the afternoon of that day. our whole party arrived at the village of Yako, and it was there that I had my first experience of a real Tibetan resthouse. The Tibetans are great travellers within the limits of their own country, and nearly every village has one resthouse, and sometimes two or three. More elaborate places are kept, for the use of Government couriers and officials, but for the common people a typical rest-house consists of a large courtyard, with crude stables running «long its sides. One corner of this is roofed in, and serves as the communal-room for all travellers Baking accommodation. Here they eafr, drink, talk, and sleep. Ac ron brazier in the corner serves as a stove. Yak dung fuel and food supplies may be purchased from the nemo* or landlady. But the preparation of the food is carried out by the travellers themselves. There is no furniture of any kind, and the bare j ground is the only floor. At night each traveller will spread out I his rug. mdl a sheepskin blanket over | him, and fall asleep, the whole paffty in one room. The travellers will either j sleep in their, clothes or else strip them- ! selves naked and place their clothes over them as an additional covering. In many cases they will sleep on their stomachs, with their knees drawn up under them. Among the peasants the use of artificial light is almost unknown, so the travellers retire to rest soon after sunset. , No Use for Soap. There are no fzcilities for washing. Most Tibetans never touch their bodies with water throughout the whole course of their lives, and become practically encased in a mixed layer of fat and dirt, which serves the useful function of keeping out the cold. It may be added that from the time I entered Tibet until I arrived in Lhasa I found it impossible to wash even my face and hands. To have done so would obviously have been to attract unwelcome attention at once. The next morning (February; 4) our two trader friends initiated us into the routine of true Tibetan travelling. Following their example, we arose two hours before sunrise., and started on our day's journey without a mouthful either to eat or to drink. We continued at a slow, steady pace until a little after 11.o'clock, when we halted at another rest-house for an hour. >'and prepared our 'first meal. About noon the journey was recommenced and continued until shortly before sunset, when we arrived at the village of Yabu Dzong, wßere we halted for the night, -after having marched for over 30 miles. The days' marches which followed were replicas of this day's weary plodding throughout all the. hours of daylight. '~'■;-..

So More Sleeping in Open. Early next morning (February 3) the servants announced that their sufferings were so great that they could no longer go on as we were. Either the while project was to be abandoned or else hereafter, instead of sleeping out in the open we must halt each night at some Tibetan village where fire and shelter from the cold in a rest house could be secured. This, of course, would enormously increase the chances of detection. , Each day I would come under the surveillance of the villagers, but I felt that I culd no longer expose my servants to such privations as we had endured. Furthermore, I felt emboldened by the success of my disguise. Already I had met and talked with numerous Tibetans, who seemed to notice nothing unusual about my appearance or speech. .Consequently, I accepted the servants' proposal, and thereafter we had no further occasion to use the tent.. —

The two meals of each day consisted invariably of the same food. These-were meat, barley, and tea. The meat oaten in Tibet is either mutton ''or yak" ' flesh. A haunch is left outside to freeze, and this preserves it to a certain extent for several months, though . tb«> recurrent heat of the day causes it to thaw sufficiently to become ; putrescent. At , night it freezes again, a ; process: which repeats itself as long as the meat lasts. The Tibetans do not object to jthe semi-putres-cent, as they consider that the taste is in this way improved. Occasionally the meat if, cooked, bu't for the most part the peasants prefer to eat it raw. Hacking off small pieces with their great knives, they eat it with their fingers. Arrival at Shigatse. .

The next day (February 5) brought us to Shigatse. We were now in the most populous part of Tibet, and we Eassed numerous villages during the day, ut I noticed that each community was very small. I calculated that the whole of the Tibetan plateau could not contain more than 1.500,000 inhabitants. By this time my feet had become so frightfully blistered ;; that .every step was agony. I tried to walk without my Tibetan boots, but the sharp stones cut my feet, and after I had begun to leave ruddy footprints on the path I was forced to replace them. Poor Diogenes .fared even worse, for, owing to his frost-bitten feet he began to lag, behind, and was cruelly beaten by Satan to make him keep up. Late in the afternoon of the sth we crossed over another mountain divide, and came in sight of Trashilhumpo. the great Shigatse monastery, some five miles away. The city of Shigatse itself lay hidden behind a hill a mile further on. At the foot ,of the monaster'/, however, there is a tiny village. In this our two Tibetan companions had a house. By this time we h?d * become such friends that they invited us to make use of it during our stay in Shigatse instead of cuing to a rest-house in the city proper The invitation we gladly accepted. We decided to spend the whole of the next day (February 6) in Shigatse in order to give ourselves and the animals a muchneeded rest. We thus had the opportunity of looking about the city and enter in i the monastery, to which so many thousands of pilgijma come every year.

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NEW AUTOMATIC LOADING DEVICE BEING FULLY OPESATED ON QUEEN'S WHARF, AUCKLAND, ■ , '/• > ;■ \ LAST MONDAY. > Weekly -'New*

FINISH OF THE NEW ZEALAND CUP AT RIOGAETON LAST SATURDAY: ROUEN (ON OUTSIDE) WINS BY A NECK FROM DAME SraAITLACE. —H. H. Green, photo.

LADY GOLFER'S BULLDOG OADDY. ; Owned by a member of the Bellingham Club, England, this dog not only carries the clubs efficiently, but is an expert at' finding lost balls.' >;•■■■'■'■:.;■'.• ..-■■■••■■•■•.':-/ ZZZxIZ. '; / " -L.N.A.

GREAT FEAT BY TINY MOTOR GLIDER. ,',...' ."..^... .. " Mr. "Jimmy" James, famous English air, pilot, in his small machine, fitted with an engine of only 5 h.p. In it he recently flew; from y . v Brooklands to Croydon at r speed of 72 miles an hour. '< r.—- '■ -A..!':'- ■-• . ".- ■-■''•:-■•- ■■ --: ' "'V'..'■. .' '■ ■'*'';./ ' r —L.N. A.

"SHBARINQ* TIME ON. A OAUFORHIAH OSTRICH FARM: CLIPPING THE PLUMES PROM A BLINDFOLDED BIRD. ' ' - - r —Keystone