POLYANDRY IN THIBET.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3160, 24 September 1892, Page 5 (Supplement)

POLYANDRY IN THIBET.

A little north-east of Lhassa, among the mountains that cover that part of the

grent plateau of Thibet, the explorer Bonvalot found a largo population. It is in these valleys some of the rivers of India have their head waters. The region is peculiar as the part of Thibet where polyandrv is the custom, and this feature of social lifo has given Thibet some notoriety, because there are very few parts of the world in which polyandry is practised. Bonvalot thus describes the custom as it exists in Thibet: A family has a daughter. A young man wishes to enter the family, to live under its roof,

and become the husband of the daughter. He consults with the parents, and if they

arrive at an agreement with regard to the amount of property ho is to turn over to them, he takes up his abode in the hut and becomes the husband of the daughter.

It may be that there are other young men desirous of partaking of the same good fortune. They are not at all deterred by the fact that the girl is already provided with a husband. They present themselves at the hut, make offers of certain property, and unless the first husband has paid what is regarded in Thibet as a very large sum in order to rescue the young woman as his exclusive possession, she become like wise the wife of these other claimants for her hand, and the whole family lire together in the same hut and in utmost harmony. It rarely happens that a young man thinks so much of the girl he weds iu

this particular fashion as to be jealous of others who also desire to bo her husbtad. Now and then, however, such a ca»e arises, and then there is likely to be bloodshed, He is a happy young man who is wealthy enough to became the sole Lord and master of his wife. If the young Thibetan is rich enough he hnys a wife, and remains the only master of the household. Souetimes, also, the husbaud acquires sufficient property to buy out the interest of the other husbands, and then they retire from the field. They are generally content if they recive back a little more tbau they paid for their interest in the young woman. The children aro always regarded as belonging to the woman, and the fathers lay no claim to them."