LONE WOMAN’S VISIT TO LHASA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17345, 27 September 1924, Page 17

LONE WOMAN’S VISIT TO LHASA.

DISGUISED AS TIBET PILGRIM. PENETRATES HIDDEN COUNTRY. KALIJIPOXG, August 7. Mine Neel, trie woman traveller, who recently visited Lhasa in disguise bad as her only companion on the journey a Tibetan youth whom she has adopted as her sou. Instead of money she carried small gold bars hidden in a waist belt. Once when stopped by Chinese brigands, who began to search her. Mm© Neel hurst into tears when they found a few coins and not only convinced the brigands that they were taking her all but also prevailed on them to return what they had already taken. She travelled as a beggar-pilgrim, visiting tho shrines in Tibet, and her disguise was so good that it was never detected, even during her two months’ residence in Lhasa. Mme Neel is a tiny, frail-looking woman of sixty. She speaks Tibetan like a native. She said the nightly halts in the crowded caravanserais we. » tho most dangerous and trying periods of the journey. Only by steadfastly maintaining her character as a beggarpilgrim was she able to avoid detection. The gold she carried was an additional anxiety, for she was unable to remove her clothes for fear of somemo seeing her hoard.