Arnold Henry Savage Landor

“ Another thing that strikes the traveller in Tibet is the sturdiness of Tibetan ponies,—long-haired, short, stumpy little brutes, which possess most marvellous endurance under circumstances which would kill most horses. They live on whatever grass they can find, which is not much—at best, short semi-dried blades which take a good deal of looking for before you can see them at all. Tibet ponies have all the qualities of a goat and antelope combined, and I have seen them, with a rider on their back, go up gradients where a human being would have great difficulty to go up on foot. ”

“ The dog ran about a good deal, barking and barking, until we prepared our breakfast, when he sat himself down upon his hindquarters and watched the proceedings with keen interest. He seemed very shy, and whenever we tried to get near him he bolted away with his tail between his legs, howling madly as if he had been hit by a stone. Dogs in Tibet are so accustomed to have stones flung at them at every possible opportunity that no doubt in his imagination he fancied he had been hit by a missile each time we raised our hand to caress him. ”

“ The winner is presented with a kata by the umpire—a high Lama or a military officer, a most picturesque creature in a brilliant red coat and fluffy hat, who has a peculiar standard with hundreds of long, vari-coloured strips of cloth, or flying prayers. Sitting on a handsome pony, with gaudy harness of green leather inlaid with brass, a valuable Chinese rug upon the saddle, and many tinkling bells round the pony’s neck, the umpire and his pony certainly produce a gay ensemble. This gentleman takes himself very seriously, and seldom condescends to smile. ”

“ So that, much as I would like to see Tibet open in a proper way to travellers, I cannot quite understand the necessity of the Government spending millions of money and butchering thousands of helpless and defenceless natives in a manner most repulsive to any man who is a man, and of which we can but be ashamed—and all this to obtain a valueless commercial treaty. It is true, the Tibetans had been very impudent in every way on our frontier, but for this we only have to blame ourselves and our incompetent officials. ”

“ Having seen that all my instruments were in good condition, I selected about a dozen of my strongest men to accompany me on my ascent on one of the Lumpa peaks. It had been sleeting and snowing during the night, and when I roused my men shortly before five in the morning there was a thick mist which seemed to penetrate to the very marrow of one’s bones. With chattering teeth and a chilly nose, we got all things ready, and brewed a parting cup of hot tea, after which we set out on our errand, the other men remaining to take care of the camp. ”

“ No matter how much non-Tibetan folks may find merriment in the idea of tea being brewed with butter and salt, there is no doubt that for a climate like Tibet it is “the drink” par excellence. It warms, nourishes, and is easily digested. I very often indulged in the luxury myself, when I could obtain butter, only, my digestion working rather rapidly owing to the amount of roughing we daily endured, I left out the salt so that I should not digest the mixture too quickly. ”

“ Not to offer a kata to an honoured visitor is as palpable a breach of manners, and as great a slight as can possibly be offered in the Forbidden Land.
Necessarily, when a kata has been blessed by the Lamas, or is won in a race before high officials, it has additional value, and these simple folks value it more than a gift of money or food. It is stored away in the tent among the heirlooms, and is handed down to posterity.
A slightly more difficult feat, very common in a similar form in most countries, is the picking up of a kata by horsemen at full gallop. ”

“ It was only on getting quite close that the huge animal showed itself to be a mere big boulder, with three mani walls with terminal chokdens (cairns) erected by Tibetans from its base, which from a distance formed the lion’s legs and tail.
So much for optical illusions; there are a thousand more upon high mountains, and it is the number of surprises one meets at every moment which makes a lonely life at great elevations full of enchantment. ”

“ Indeed, one of the great tortures of exploration in cold climates, is the immense care with which one must nurse one’s surveying and other instruments under most adverse circumstances, and the inexpressible trouble which photography, if done seriously, involves. For similar kind of work I always found plates infinitely more reliable than films; but, of course, with them the use of a red lantern becomes imperative, and often leads to the use of a good deal of bad language. ”

“ Indeed, no one who has not been in Tibet knows what wind can be. I cannot better describe a gale than by likening it to myriads of knives thrown at one with great force. It cuts into one through any kind of clothing, and penetrates to the marrow of one’s bones. The skin, particularly where exposed, chaps and cracks and becomes a mass of sores, unless the constant precaution is taken of keeping it well soaked in butter, grease, or vaseline. ”

“ I am well aware that it impresses a good many brainless folks to hear that an expedition to the Andes or the Himahlyas is accompanied, even led, by Swiss guides; but to any real mountaineer (I do not mean members of Alpine Clubs) the very fact that the members of such an expedition require guides at all is but a plain avowal that they have no faith in themselves, besides displaying a most infantile ignorance of how to find their way about. No mountaineer, who is a real mountaineer, ever needs to be told which is the best way to go up a mountain which is before him. ”

“ When a huge fire was lighted in the room, with no escape for the smoke or heat, you were simply roasted and suffocated, but after our cold, fireless nights on the glaciers this felt to us the most comfortable and luxurious abode we had ever been in. ”

“ The Murmis resemble Bhotias even more closely than the Newars. They are subdivided into two classes—the Barathamang, which is the most numerous, and the Atharajat.
Katmandu, the capital of Nepal and residence of the King and Government, lies in this valley, and is a city of great size and some beauty.
The Terai is inhabited by a poor, sickly-looking race called the Tarus, malarial fever being rampant in their district, while wild beasts abound in the jungle. They seem to be a poverty-stricken lot with a wretched physique—although endowed with astounding strength and powers of endurance. ”

“ I do not think that I have ever seen men more abruti—to use a French expression which fits them perfectly—than those two. Shivering from cold, ill-clad, living on roots and whatever they could pick up, which was not much, they were indeed the very picture of misery and wretchedness. ”

“ Babies in Tibet, as in other lands, do not lack a temporary charm. They are by nature good, [130] well-behaved babies; occasionally they are even jolly. The clothes in which their mothers garb them are not devoid of quaintness,—as can be judged by some of the illustrations,—and if often size is preferred to style, it is, as in most countries, for economy’s sake. Sometimes I have seen babies simply smothered in beads and ornaments, but even the humblest displays a row of beads round his neck and a charm or two. ”

“ In the lower portion of the valley the ice was covered with débris.
At the foot of the Armida Glacier were some immense parallel crevasses in the ice. The upper portion of these was a mixture of dark grey mud and rock embedded in the ice, showing vertical streaks and corrugations. Then there were some curious pits in the moraine, such as the one shown in the illustration, funnel-shaped and of great depth, some 60 feet deep and more, and about 100 feet in diameter. These funnels, cone-shaped, had a great fascination—quite an irresistible attraction—when one looked into them. ”

“ Notwithstanding what has been said of the strange marital customs, the average Tibetan woman is seldom absolutely sterile. This, of course, is mainly due to the fact that if she survives at all to the age of puberty, it is because she is strong and healthy; but at best she is never so prolific as her Asiatic sisters or even European women. In Tibet one rarely finds a woman with more than three living children. The majority of mothers can only boast of one. Yet, on the other hand, the Tibetan woman can bear children until a fairly advanced age. ”

“ Perhaps to those who have never slept on the ice of a glacier it may be interesting to know what it feels like. Barring a certain chilliness which anybody can imagine, a first night on a glacier has many surprises. ”

“ Amusements which are the result of prosperity and happiness are not plentiful in Tibet. Playing cards and dice and a primitive sort of chess, and one or two more elaborate games imported from China and Nepal, are occasionally to be seen; but perhaps the most interesting to us is their dancing, notably their war-dances, curious in people so little martial. With a sword in one [164] hand and a kata in the other, and with the knees bent, the dancers keep time to the beating of a double drum and the clapping of hands from the spectators. ”

“ In the case of the Tibetans, as with everybody else in regard to their native land, they believe that no country in the world can possibly compare with their own—which, indeed, in a sense, is true. They believe their land is the most beautiful, the richest, the healthiest on earth, their religion the only one, their civilisation the highest. ”

“ So are the women Lamas. They live and sponge on the credulity and ignorance of the crowds; and it is to maintain this ignorance, upon which their luxurious life depends, that foreign influence of every kind is strictly kept out of the country. Their abnormal powers have been grossly exaggerated. They practise, it is true, hypnotism, but that is all. They can perform no more marvellous feats than any one can do in England who is able to mesmerize. As for the Mahatmas, who, our spiritualistic friends tell us, live in Tibet, they are purely imaginary, and do not exist. ”

“ In fact, it was almost vertical right down to the glacier at its foot, some 6500 feet below. It looked as if one half of the mountain had at some remote period collapsed, leaving the sharp-edged peak standing. There was not as much snow on the top as lower down, as the wind blows a good deal of the surface snow away, some melts with the heat of the sun, and the slope of the mountain, even on the side we had climbed, being somewhat steep, whenever sufficient snow had accumulated on the top its weight caused it to slide down in avalanches. ”

“ As I have fully explained in a previous book, In the Forbidden Land, marriages are principally family arrangements, where a girl becomes the wife of several brothers; and, in any case, bachelors are, as a whole, to be greatly congratulated in Tibet.
Other minor causes there are which tend to [134] limit population, but which cannot very well be mentioned here. Several diseases of the blood—very common—decidedly do not improve the race; and possibly all these evils—some natural, some unnatural—may in time bring about the disappearance of the Tibetan race from their lofty and sacred land. ”

“ I never feel very big on any occasion, but I do not remember ever feeling quite so small and humble and insignificant as I did on that particular occasion—a mere speck, a mere black spot, disturbing the peaceful harmony of the grandiose landscape. ”

“ In heart and soul the Tibetan is a sportsman; but if you look for grace in his movements you will be sorely disappointed. Indeed, more fervour and clumsiness combined are hardly to be paralleled anywhere. Perhaps the Tibetan is seen to advantage on his pony, and some of his feats on the saddle I will here describe.
A Lama Standard-Bearer
Horse races are quite a favourite form of amusement, and are run in a sensible manner. ”

“ The first two things that strike an observant traveller on entering a Tibetan encampment are that the number of children in the population is so small, and that the majority of Tibetans appear, to European eyes, middle-aged, or even old and decrepit. The second remark is more easily explained than the first, and many are the reasons which cause Tibetan men and women to look well on in years long before they have attained a really advanced age. I have seen a man with hands and face so wrinkled that he might easily pass for an octogenarian, yet he was no more than three-and-forty. ”

“ I have often noticed girls of fifteen or sixteen and boys of eighteen or nineteen fully developed, and it is at these respective ages that men and women of Tibet frequently marry.
Now let us try to explain why one sees so few children in Tibet. Personally, I think it is mainly due to the custom of polyandry prevailing in the country, which is bound to have disastrous effects upon the birth-rate of healthy, strong children, with deteriorating results upon every generation; and also undoubtedly the altitudes at which the people live to a great extent limit the increase of population. ”

“ We descended a few hundred feet and found ourselves in a sort of gully, which necessitated making another ascent to a higher and more difficult pass before we could descend into the valley where the sources of the Ganges are to be found.
A Weird Old Man of N.W. Nepal
Night was coming on fast, my men were in a pitiable condition from fatigue and cold, and the wind blew the ground-snow—frozen into grains like sand—in regular whirlwinds round us, which pretty well blinded us. ”

“ When both parties have amassed in their respective camps a suitable amount of ammunition in the way of stones, collected in mounds, and also a good supply carried on the person, the combatants draw nearer and nearer in a line. At a signal the fight begins, and they fling stones at one another by means of slings and forked sticks, whirling the missiles through the air with terrific force. The more people get injured the fiercer becomes the fight, till the ammunition fails,—and it lasts a long time, because the combat is, as it were, a mere exchange of ammunition. ”

“ Taking all things into consideration, there is no doubt that in a rugged, mountainous country like Tibet, and for a Tibetan, his is the most practical [157] and useful type of saddle, and his fashion of riding the most sensible—evidently the outcome of practical experience. When riding in caravans, driving herds of laden yaks or ponies, the advantages of legs doubled up high upon the saddle are soon apparent, avoiding the danger of crushing one’s lower limbs or having them partly torn off. In the English way of riding, when among obstacles, one’s legs are always in the way ”