THE MYSTERIES OF THIBET.

Otago Witness, Issue 2849, 21 October 1908, Page 78

THE MYSTERIES OF THIBET.

REMARKABLE .DISCOVERIES OF DR. - SVEN HEDIN. Thibet, on© of the most romajifcically '. aged and mysterious regions', of the East, still awe-inspiring even to the^ knowing West by reason oi ite silently terriWe j mountains, its -sacred^ retreats of lamas — > almost disembodied spirits in their con- i tempt for earthly life — its age-long de- j termination to shut out all intruders, all explorers, all the world, in fact, 'has been brought once more into the limelight through new discoveries by Sven Hedin, the famous Swedish explorer, in his latest journey, who has managed to penetrate into the very heart of Thibet, And ha» rendered services to the geo- ' graphical societies by discovering one of the highest mountain chains in the world, a rival of the Himalayas, and before now ' wholly unknown, to civilisation-. He has found (says a writer in^ the New York • Tribune) as well ibe sources oi.two of the most famous .rivers of India, the Brah- : mapootra and the Indus. But it is not only these things which 'axe, of interest in his' journey. An acoonnt in the Ulustrauon f rpm the cotes sent to that paper by Dr Hfedin reveals many things which -go to confirm the impression of Thibet which we have always &ad,*.,an. impression of* a' profoundly awe-hifcpiring region, of the world. Between India and China, Thibet forms, as almost everyone knows, a formidable mountainous barricade which constitutes the most elevated projection of the earth's crust. It ds, in a way, the backbone of the planet. Directly above the plains of India rise the majestic Himalayas, more than 8000 metres high; then, on top of this gigantic bastion, is Thibet proper, an immense plateau perched at the height of the Jungfrau, dotted with crests as high in themselves as the Bernese Alps, and, in front of this 'platform, above the centre of Gobi, rises a (new obain of 7000 metres, the famous Kuen Lun. An .idea of this , . formidable relief may be obtained by " thinking of , the highest peaks of the , Pyrenees crowning the summit of Mont , | Blanc. And this enormous protuberance . of the globe covers a, -territory three times -! as large as France. / - j This strange region has remained a pro- ' ! found mystery,. With the exception of the ' j Polar zones <no part of 'the world has .p-re-; • seated such a blank in our maps, so that the greater part of Thibet is less. known to us than the face of the moon. This is because of the difficulties of obtaining access to those colossal mountains, difficulties augmented by the inhabitants. Lhfaaa, the capital of Thibet, the centre > of the Buddhist priesthood, the residence ' of the reigning pontiff of this powerful religion, mistress of the country, is forbid- ? den to strangers. For 60 jiears. no Euro- ' pean has succeeded in penetrating to- ' Lhasa. In, vain the most hardy explorers , — Bouvalot, Littledale, Sven Hedin himself — tried to come at. this Asiatic Rome. .. arriving after ia thousand 1 perils at a few • miles from their goal, they were always forced to retpeat by the Thibetan- guards. Once, in 1904, the mystery which en- \ veloped Lhasa- was rudely broken by the ' arrival of a little English army ; but the British colony departed, and Thibet was closed to strangers more hermetically than ever. This situation did not deter Dr Sven Hedin, however, iand two years ago - (August, 1906) he left Cashmere with the * intention of traversing Western Thibet "• parallel to the Himalayas and following a . track quite unknown. — The Explorer's Objective Point. — * His objective point was Chigotse, on the Brahmapootra, the second moat sacred city of the royal priesthood, the .residence of Tachi Lama, the most important religious person of the -country after the mysterious Dalai Lama. There were 2000 kilometres of desert to- cross, the most desolate solitude of inhabited •continemts ; through all this distant he had to be without the ? least resource, not even wood to make a fire with ; the only combustible to be found on the plateaus ws6 the dry manure of animals. After the desert, the mountains, 5940 metres high — 1130 metres higher than Mont Blanc. Here the greatest difficulty was the danger of asphyxiation. Every four or five steps they had to stop, completely wind-ed. Add to suffocation horrible pains in the head, dreadful diummings in the ears, nasal hemorrhages, uncontrolled vomitings, and you have an idea of the enercy of the explorer who pushes always forwaid in this- atmosphere. T'>ie barrier crossed, he faced the | Thibetan plateau!-, an infinite stony soli- ■ tude of poignant dreariness, with gieat lakes lying in the foldi- of the huge mountains, giddy ravines which look a& if the world had split open, and far, far oil ice peaks against la cold bJue sky. There was abundant «ame in this strange pla.ee. Mouilons, ante^pes, hoars, wolves, foxes, yaks, the- wild cattle of Thibet ; "koulanee," a sort of a.«s — and in such numbers! Of all these animals the only dangerous one is the yak. Confident of Lie strength, he nev^ei" hesitates to charge. They are a good bag of game l tbete bovidas : a large one measure's 1.50 j metres from hoof to shoulder, and 3.25 j metres from his neck to the 'bejrinning of I his tail. The big brutes can si-ar.d «iv • amazing quantity of lead. Sven Hedin ' once lodged no fewer than 11 balls in, the body of a bull before he saw Lim fall. j — Weather Hardships. — The season advanced ; the cold grew irtcn.3e, .'md ie\v?ry day brought snowslornis. Above burning India, Thibet, lost in its atmc^plu-re of unbelievable heights, io a polar l-etrion. This lowering of the temperature brought, new difficulties for I the caiv\an. Xow there w;'h, i>o runni)]^ j Matar. Every c\fnin2. to <ri\e <lnnk to i men and bcg'iU-.. bloeki of ice had to be

melied— a long amd' tedious, operation, o^er a emaJl camp-fire made of yak dung. For jsevseral weeks the explorer travelled in this vast solitude, urt6l suddenly there Was before him an entire-ly new chain of momiments, a serious obstacle for -a weary caravan. While they painfully ascended the steep cliffs, tempests of snow assailed them without intermission.. Finally, worn out, hungry, with rapidly dying horses, they were forced to turn to, the east, to-, ward the -nearest habitations, and after three months' .journey in the desert they found men — Thibetan shepherds. Sven Hedin bought domesticated yaks to replace .his played-out horses, aad arrived at Nyarzbse-Tso, one "of the immense -lakes whioh makes one of the remarkable features of the country. Now, when tLe "Swedish, explorer expeoted, according to the reports made by preceding , travellers, to find the country between, this lake and, Ohdigotse to be relatively free from obstaclas, what was his etttpefacition to find a new chain of mouo>fcains, .higher than all the preceding ones, ■and of which no explorers 'had made mention. This, range, stretches furtitr'than 2000 kilometres from east to west, between the Kuen Luoi and the Himalayas, north of the long valley of the Brahmapootra. This discovery, which comr fpfetely changed the face of Thalbeitan ! maips, must heiHeeforth appear in all •school bocks. The ascent of, this massive range was i the final effort, and on February 11, 1907, after six moaths' march across the highest mountains in the world, Sven Hedin entered Chigotse. Far from 'being, arrested, as he feared, the traveller was very well received^ The Taoffai Lama expressed his desire to see the •Swedish savant, And during ihis etay elbowed him .great ■courtesy. The Lama did nob appear to be an ecconltrdc fanatic, but an intelligent and lively host, who gave the doctor iguidies for a tour of the ! monasteries and temples of the place. j — Chief Industry of Thibet. — | Religion, indeed, seems to be the chief ißtd'ueitTy of Thibet. Dr Hedin was impressed by the intensely devout atmospaiere of—the temple of Layang, a great ( dark, silen* for.edu of columns, lit only | by an altar flame, in front of which, the i lamas pass and ■repass, (rustling, whieper- • ing. He noted that- the temples were : budllt at a great • elevation, to draw the j attention of the people all. over the couai- ! try. In desert jrlaoes you find little j altars, «md an. clifls are huge scu&pturedi effigies of Buddha. Om the eacred road of Kail'as .he met- a procession ,of pilgrims — men.') women,, old men, children, lamas, , shepherds— silenibly marching. ! Of. the well-known practice of the lamae ! to immiire "themselves .in a grotto in order to give 'themoelTies up entirely to oomtemj plation and prayer he heard a good dea'i t If ear 'one o£ the convents of Maneisarowaai they showed 'tlhe traveller a. rock where for j three- years already- a lama has lived in [ complete Eeclrasion. Ons day tihis godly j man . arrived at <t)be monastery and told Ihm pious design to hie superior. Some ; time affcenvaaiicte all tihie lamas, ito red j cloaks, conducted him in a procession to ■ his cavern, and there wailed him up with , all the ipomp ouistomary on such occasions. , Once a day- he is furnished food through a HWJe subterranean canal. One such . religious m-an lived in this way for 69 years. \ Next to the rdigious fervour of the j Thibetans, their artistto sense in, airchij iecture is remarkaible. An example may . be seen, in the "dzong," or igovernment j house, ! buatt up on a ib:M, and co fceauti- ; fully ©et in' the socket of -rock that it eeems to be aJu of a piece wMi it and the -natural crowa of the cliff. Like some oaithedrails of Europe, fUnes© temples are gay with colours. The mortuary chapeJ oi .tihe first Taebi Ivaina has -a facade in ' red, white, and black, and «. pilded roof j whiidh- giyes it the • chairacterisftic Orienital 1 richness. Why> do. not our .archkectg vtary the monotony of Elizaibetihan a.nd colondail efi'ecits by some Asiatic idieae, sutfh as ,the gilded roof, is ia question often asked.