BARBARIC BEAUTY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23123, 23 August 1938, Page 6

BARBARIC BEAUTY

TIBETAN MONASTERIES SHROUD OF MYSTERY GONE [by telegraph—own correspondent] WELLINGTON, Monday Tibetan monasteries, magnificent with barbaric colours and beautiful paintings and carvings, are no longer shrouded in mystery, stated Mr. J. Playfair Price, of the British Far Eastern Consular Service, in the course of an interview. He added that the secretiveness generally attributed to the Oriental races was, in his experience, nothing but a myth. j. Mr. Price said the monasteries had an appeal which was difficult to put into words, but it was probably due in part to their remoteness and inaccessibility. Except when services were being held, there was absolute quiet. One experienced a feeling of contentment and security missing in other parts of the world. . .. » Relations between Britain and Tibet were a model of what international relations should be, he said. It was a lesson worthy of nole that two countries entirely dissimilar, by the exercise of common sense, could live sido by side for years without any trouble. Probably the secret was that AncloTibetan affairs had been handled by a 6eries of very able frontier officers, all of whom had a genuine affection for Tibet. •