TO LHASA IN DISGUISE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 2 (Supplement)

TO LHASA IN DISGUISE.

FORBIDDEN CITY ENTERED. MY IDENTITY DISCLOSED. A FRIENDLY MINISTER. DALAI LAMA INFORMED. i/', >■ No. VII (BY DR WILLIAM MONTGOMERY Mc .GOVERN, Ph.. ; D... Professor of Oriental Studies, London University.) Below is .the seventh instalment offa B«fihic story of the adventures of a «"««« »< :ieu &in the fox bidden country 9, . TS: true romance of almost fiction! more exciting than any , lorunianes in the University of . Igery & 32, ins journey; but. disguisea S? class Tibetan, he crossed the mpn of the Himalayas in the dead ot } . succeeded in entering Lhasa. and T ? the presence of the Dalai Lama the Living Budda of that mysterious land.

Although we attempted to pass through Pede unnoticed, two petty officials ran down from the Dzong and stopped us. They asked whence we had come an whether we had seen a foreigner on the wad. At this point I thought the game was up, but- though they subjected Satan, a§ the master, to the closest scrutiny, , as the hireling,. underwent a much more cursory • examination, and shortly alter we were allowed to pass, on. Tho Tibetan mind • could not even mv ai-ine that a white man should bo willing to trudge thirty miles a day, carrying thirty-five pounds on his back, while a servant rode a pony in great, state ahead of him. The road continued along the lake, and at one point we saw two men drowned m it. A number of people were walking on the ire over to the neck of land in the middle. Two of them passed over an iceflow, and were plunged into the water. They attempted to crawl out, but before thev could do so they were so numbed bv 'cold that thev fell back helpless and soon sank. The other spectators of this drama-took it very calmly, and no one even attempted to save the unfortunates. Owing to mv cold plunge of the preceding day, I could not but shiver at their fateLater in the. afternoon we left the l a he, and ascended the mountain range which divides the Yase basin from the Brahmaputra Valley. From the top of the Kampa Pass wo once more caught sight of the famous river. The pass forms the "boundary line between the Province of Tsang, with its capital, Shigatse, and the Province of U, with its capital Lhasa. The scenery here was magnificent, be* while acting as a Tibetan peasant it was impossible to stop and admirs any natural beauty, so we decended immediately to the foot -of the pass, and stopped in the. village of Kampa Bartsi. That night the landlady of the resthouse came in for a chat. She mentioned that a " foreign devil" was trying to get to Lhasa; and asked if we knew anything about him. Needless to say, we possessed no information about any such person. She assured us that so great was the vigilance of the officials, and so powerful the spiritual force of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, that the intruder would certainly be detected and sent back to his own "country.

The next morning (February, 14) we continued our journey along the banks of the Brahmaputra-, and at dawn reached a point where a ferry carries passengers over to the opposite side of the river. I noticed that most of the people crossed in the leather coracles, but we, having animals to transport, used a largo wooden boat— only one in Tibet. Arrived on the other side, another five miles. brought us to Shushul, where the Kyichw, or River of Felicity, -joins the .Brahmaputra. It is on the River of Felicity— its source —that Lhasa stands. Our travelling companions, who were Shushul men, vouched for us to the officials of that , village, so we got; through without difficulty. But, having left, them, we departed from i the Brahmaputra again in order to follow up its tributary, and so eventually arrived at the village of Jangme. Here we ha-d to undergo our most severe examination, as this place is only a day's march from Lhasa, but once" more got through undetected. > . - '

Ever since entering Tibet we had rushed our animals outrageously in order to get to Lhasa as soon as possible- We ■were -now- to suffer for it. That afternoon oui; old friend Paris collapsed, and our sole remaining mule could only, be spurred on with the greatest difficulty. In the end we ; manage 1", to drag both animals in to Jangroe, but it was obviously impossible- to cover with them the 33 miles to I&asa the next . day, and I did not dare delay. r» At - this point Lhaten came to my rescue. He got into touch with a local: farmer, and made arrangements whereby both mules were to be given in exchange for one horse, which I was to keep permanently,, and two others, which were to be loaned for the next day's journey to Lhasa. '- This is the only horse deal with which I have been successful, as one of the mules died four hours after the transaction had been completed.

The bargain all the more fortunate •because \it •' enabled - me to complete the last- day's * journey •of • February 15, on horseback - For the last several days my dysentery had been steadily getting worse, and had new readied a stage where it was absolutely impossible for me to walk. In the afternoon we caught sight of Drapun,. one of the three great monastries of the Lhasa district. It contains 8000 monks, some of them the most turbulent men in Tibet.' A little later a sudden twist in the valley brought us in view of the , Potala- ■We saw it from the rear, arid it appeared relatively unimpressive, but atlast the ■ -goal * was 'in sight. Curiously enough, the donkey we bought in Shigatse chofee .•.thfe' moment to die. •••• The preceding day -idiep still appeared • well and strong, but gave -f up ' the' ghost as soon an she caught, sight of tha Potala. With her it was literally " see LhasaS and die." I left Diogenes and ■ the Syce ;to bring on her . load, and pushed on with the others to the - city. At 6 o'clock we • passed through the tiny , chorten, or gateway shrine, the sole entrance to the Holy City, rounded the Potala Hill, and found ourselves at Potala Shol, the little village which nestles at the foot of the Sacred Palace. •

Here we met With % a, fresh difficulty. All day long we had been passing people going to Lhasa, for the next day would be the Tibetan New Year, and at New Year time thousands of persons, especially monks, flock : into Lhasa in .order .to join in the special festivities which take place during- that period. The city was packed with .^people,. and it was impossible to find , a ; single . place ' to ' stay, . as, in the rest-houses, - people were already sleeping 20 or. 30 in a room. - This held true, not only of PotaJa Shol, but also of the city of Lhasa itself, about , a mile away. More than two hours were spent in roaming round and round the whole place trying in Tain to secure a spot where we could stay for the night. The streets of Lhasa, in honour of the occasion were full of 'drunken brawlers. 7. was in great fear of detection, and I knew that if detected 1 should be seriously injured, if not actually murdered, by 'the irresponsible mob. Eventually, When it : seemed that we fihould have to sleep in the streets for the night, Lhaten went up to a house in the very heart of the city, chiefly inhabited by officials. There he stated that wo were Sikkiraese pilgrims, just arrived, [without lodgings, and , implored its occupants to allow us to use a small room lor the night, even though they were not Professional lodging house-keepers. Fin~X„" e returned announcing success, but f»rri ft T aß l^ y thistime thiifc I had to be v I im. U j steps by the two servants. Allotted t!® Fed down in the tin y. 100111 for. two or immediately fell asleep inquired thn hours. On waking, I found him touT T our .benefactor, and Bonam, who had -if Lepc^a clerk, called mumcation of th Postal comX intended ; .®& J lb - and India - A » fflrnroent of to tae Gov- " a* l Lhasa, I decided; to? , oi , my arrival r Bonam that, Battlo o reveaV myself to ? »H»ch of "r7 disguise ®ofiing as jnent s notice, I *weut>' mi* a t a mowjjjiouDced myself. Th e r"?«« room and V bat - wa^. probably receive* Lore particularly &» UIS o |/i»s-lite. iCoit c* comimaicaW tL *^ en ' the MB»"I ... " ' tfa ® orders

to the local officials to have me stopped en route. He irecovered hiß presence of mind, however, and at once put himself out to make things as as possible. He insisted my using his own room, while he slept in a smaller adjoining chamber, , and here I stayed during the whole of my residence in Lhasa. The next morning (February 16) I arranged with Sonam to have Major Bailey and the Dalai Lama inforn d of my nrrivel in Lhasa. I decided to stay indoors until I could see what attitude the Tibetan authorities would assume regarding ine. In any case, I was still very ill, and thought it advisable to- stay in bed. I found, however, that the window of my bedroom commanded an excellent view of the great, central square or marketplace of Lhasa, which lay immediately beneath it. " By drawing my bed up to the window I could both rest and observe practically every event of any importance that was taking place in Lhasa. Incidentally, my window was one of the few in Lhasa provided with glass panes. lira most cases cloth, or occasionally glazed paper, ; s nailed to the window-frame. The whole morning the market-place was full < of revellers, singing, shouting, and dancing. Many were letting off squiibs, some of these of giant dimensions. Suddenly the house was shaken by a terrific explosion. ] thought at first that a bomb had been placed under my window, but on looking out I found that by accident the whole fireworks stall had exploded, stunning everyone in the vicinity, lour persons were killed and five more seriously injured. Owing to faulty manufacture of the fireworks such accidents are very frequent in Lhasa, and the Dalai Lama is trying to abolish the sale and use of all

such articles. These fireworks are, however still officially recognised in one connection. Every night at half-past eight curfew is sounded, but not by means ot a curfew hell. », Instead, one of these giant squibs is let off in each of the four quarters of the city, and after this no one is allowed to be out of doors.

That particular morning in the Potala, a mile away, the Dalai Lama was holding a great New Year reception, to which all the important officials had been invited. In the midst of it, as I heard later, he was handed a note, informing him of my arrival. He said nothing concerning' this to the general court, but drew aside his favourite minister, Tsarong Shape, and fold him to give me an interview in order to see what sort of a person I was. In the afternoon Tsarong returned to his own palace in the heart of Lhasa, very near to where I was staying, and though he had contracted a chill and high fever during the morning, he sent me a very courteous note, asking me to call on him. When I arrived he was.; asleep, but on being awakened he had me brought into his private rooms and gave me a very kindly welcome, after which we remained in confidential conversation for over three hours.

Tsarong possesses a very unusual personality, and is the one really great man of Tibet. In my opinion 'he is destined to play in his own country the same role that Bismarck played in Germany, and Ito in Japan, though, of course, he has to work with infinitely inferior material. Incidentally he is, in Tibet, the solitary instance of a self-made man.

During- this first interview, after we had conversed for some time on general matters, we turned to my. own affairs. Tsarong, I knew, had been . actively in favour of permitting our whole party coming to Lhasa from the first, and privately he was

pleased that I had been able to carry through the secret enterprise. He told me, mor t -ov»r, that the Dalai Lama was by no means antipathetic. Nevertheless, as the Tibetan Government, acting under pressure from the monks, had refused me permission to come, and I had arrived in disguise, it was necessary for me to undergo certain formalities. He advised me to. make official notification of my arrival to the city magistrates the next day. These officials would report the matter to Kashak, or Cabinet Ministers, consisting of a Lonchen, or Prime Minister, and four Shapes, or Secretaries of State. This body would consider what steps should be taken in regard to me. Tsarong, of course, is a member of this Cabinet, and promised to put in a good word for me when the matter should come before , it officially. Whatever the decision of the other members might be, he promised definitely, on his own responsibility, that I should receive personal protection. Ho suggested, moreover, that I should in ray report to j the authorities, expressly omit the names I ? the rest-houses in which I had stayed loth — people with whom I had travelled. ' twue the Government, or the clamour

of the populace, might force him to take of the populace, might force him to take Home active' steps against them for having failed to recognise and stop me. From 'this I 'could see how ; : powerless, /in the face of fanaticism, even • Tibet's greatest man could be. We parted with every sign of cordiality on both sides./ It being dusk by that time I wandered about the city- without fear of detection before returning home. Later in the evening I had very good evidence of Tsarong s sincerity. I had - tola him of mv illness and of the bad effect of Tibetan food, but I wbj surprised to find a messenger arriving from his home with a large parcel containing medicine and food The medicine consisted oi several boxes of 13eechain v pills " n< 31b. of Epsom salts—a, somewhat radical cure for dysentery. The food turned out to be a sack of sugar and' several tins of English biscuits, a most welcome piesent. Generally speaking, the food question in Lhasa presented fewer difficulties than on the journey. , I was able to secure reasonably fresh meat in place of the putrid stuff which the Tibetans prefer, and by paying outrageous prices bought some red Bhutanese rice, which was more palatable than barley balls, the usual food of the Tibetans. Finally, through Jsarorig's aid, I got a regular supply ol milk. It is strange that, while there are large herds of yak in Tibet, the milk of these animals is never used as a beverage, hut is made always into butter, the Tibetans having less aversion to the use of cow s urine than to that of milk.

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