Gombojab Tsybikov

“ After four short marches from here we reached the Nakchu monastery, the residence of two governors of the local nomads, appointed by the central government of Tibet. One of them belongs to the clergy and is called "Khambo," the other is a civilian, called "Nansal." They supervise the collection of taxes and decide important matters that arise between the natives; and also control the government stations between Nakchu and Lhasa. It also devolves upon them to stop Europeans bound for Lhasa and immediately to notify the central government about them, as well as about all suspicious persons. ”

“ The orchards and trees in the outskirts of the city are admired by the natives, and give the place a very beautiful appearance, especially in the spring and summer, when the gilt roofs of the two principal temples glisten in the sun and the white walls of the many-storied buildings shine among the green tops of the trees. ”

“ This fear must be manifested even on the street; a monk must not show himself before them on the street. When, on very exceptional occasions, he does meet them, he must lie down, wrap his head in his hood, and lie motionless as if dead. Justice is also based principally on bribery, and the punishment is banishment from the monastery with a fine of money and lashes. The material condition of plain monks in Tibet is so bad that the convicted always prefers the punishment of the lash to fines.
The foreign relations of Tibet are conducted with British India through Bhutan ”

“ As the political and religious center of Tibet, its sanctuaries an attraction for numerous worshipers, Lhasa becomes an important business place, as well as the connecting link in the commerce between India and northern Tibet and China with the East.
The market place is located around the central or temple section, where all the ground floors of buildings and open spaces in the streets are occupied by stores and small exhibits of merchandise. Women are preeminently the sales people, although in the stores of the Kashmiris and Nepalese men do the selling. ”

“ The unequal distribution of wealth and the subservience of poverty to wealth are conspicuous. There is such little commerce that labor is very cheap, the most expert weaver of native cloth receiving about 8 cents and board per day, while an unskilled woman or man laborer earns only 2 or 3 cents. The highest salary is paid to the Lamas, the prayer readers, who receive 10 cents a day for incessant reading. A house servant almost never receives pay beyond food and meager clothes. * * *
I will now describe the more or less prominent cities and monasteries visited in Central Tibet. ”

“ The horse and mule are, to a certain extent, a luxury to the Tibetan, and are therefore kept only by the well to do. The native horses and mules are very small and homely, so that the rich people use only those imported from western China. In the stables of the Dalai Lama and Panchen there are blooded horses from India.
Commerce consists in supplying the cities and monasteries with agricultural products in exchange for articles of insignificant local manufacture and foreign import. The excess of domestic products is exported. ”

“ The total population of Tibet has been estimated from the fantastic 33,000,000 down to 3,600,000, or even 2,500,000. The most reliable evidence indicates that Central Tibet has not more than about 1,000,000 inhabitants. Reliable statistics of the whole population were not obtainable, but it is certainly not very great, for the many narrow river valleys between high, rocky mountains are unfit for agriculture and could not sustain many inhabitants. ”

“ The present incumbent is the eighty-fifth superior since Tsongkapa, or the eighty-sixth superior of Galdan, counting the reformer as the first.
Each of the monasteries has its laws and its own land, and they are thus independent of one another. The Brebung monastery is the most influential, because of its wealth and numbers, which are both the cause and the effect. Much of this superiority is also due to the fact that Brebung monks were elevated to Dalai Lamas, to whose lot it soon fell to be at the head of the spiritual and civil government of Central Tibet. ”

“ The Nepalese and Kashmiris, about equal in numbers, are merchants almost exclusively, though a few of the former are artisans. According to tradition the Nepalese were for a long time the architects of the temples, the sculptors of the Buddha statues, and the ikon painters of Tibet, and they are still the most expert cloth dyers, and are skillful as gold and silver smiths, from small trinkets to the gilt roofs of temples. ”

“ In this rôle of defenders of the faith the Choichong — or, more correctly, their prophets — wield a powerful influence over all classes. Their power is so great that even the Dalai Lama and the highest Hutuktu must reckon with them; they endeavor to incline all toward themselves. * * *
The "ritods," who are particularly numerous at Sera, are ascetic monks, who have retired from the world and buried themselves in meditation, which is regarded as one of the six means of attaining holiness—its origin based on Gautama's abdication of kingly luxuries in search of truth. ”

“ High positions, too, are encumbered with an obligation to distribute gifts among the members of the community. The principal source of endowments comes from the incarnates; that is, the incarnates of the soul of some predecessor. Whosesoever soul he may incarnate, he is recognized in the community as such only after he has distributed a certain amount of money and food. On the other hand, howsoever learned a monk may be, he receives the degree only after he has made endowments. Consequently charity and scholarship are measured by the amount of gifts to the monastery communities. ”

“ They are also pious through fear of losing the protection of the gods or of angering them. On this account they have frequent sacrifices, bowing and circling before their sanctuaries. They are very impressionable and superstitious, and at each new episode in their lives they seek explanation from Lama seers and prophets, and when sick they prefer to take barley grains blessed by Lamas and prophets, or to have curing prayers read to them, rather than resort to medicine, which, by the way, is less developed in Central Tibet than in Amdo or Mongolia. ”

“ Despite the tendency of the Tibetans in the eastern provinces to indulge in pillage and highway robbery, the central Tibetan dislikes to make war; he is much more peace loving and more inclined toward peaceful labors, on account of which he regards military duty as superfluous and interfering with domestic pursuits. ”

“ The poor classes wear white, the cheapest color; the richer people red and dark red, the soldiers dark blue, and yellow is used by higher dignitaries and princes. Women prefer the dark-red cloth. Of course, other colors are also met with. In proportion to their means, the Tibetans dress rather elegantly. Their jewelry is of gold, silver, corals, diamonds, rubies, pearls, turquoise, and other stones. Tsamba, or roasted barley flour, mixed with either tea or barley wine, is one of the principal foods. ”

“ The princes, together with the monasteries and their parishes, are large landowners, and the peasants are serfs to them. The central government, or the Dalai Lama, owns, of course, more land and serfs than the classes named. ”

“ Tibet imports from India, English materials, principally cheap cloths, enameled vessels, teapots, plates, and cups; objects of luxury, as coral, amber, brocade; medicine and dye stuffs; and various English trinkets, such as mirrors, beads, jars, matches, penknives, etc. All these articles are imported by native Bhutanese, Nepalese, Kashmiri, and Chinese merchants. In general, the Tibetans are of late becoming more and more fond of English products; the English rupees, too, are beginning to compete with the local coinage. ”

“ Since objects of cult are exported to Mongolia and since only the treasuries of incarnates and monasteries possess capital, the commercial caravans are fitted out exclusively by the treasuries of the Dalai Lama or other rich incarnates and by monastery communities. ”

“ The articles exported are various objects of cult, as small statues, painted images, religious books, and prints made from carved wooden blocks, incense candles, ribbons, peacock feathers, leaf-shaped seeds "tsampaka," and similar articles that bring high prices only because of the piety of the Mongol lamaist and his reverence for holy things from Tibet. The more famous the person that produces these articles the more eagerly they are purchased and the higher is the price paid. ”

“ In the rainy season, when the river runs deep and swift, it is impossible to cross without boats, which evidently the native nomads can not build. Thence the caravan reached the broad Sun-shan Valley, bounded on the north by Mount Samtan Kansar. From this valley, across the low crest of Chog-la, the road enters the Dam Valley, inhabited by descendants of Mongols brought into Tibet by the Khoshot Gushi Khan in the middle of the seventeenth century. ”

“ Lhasa, from the North.
of the eminent incarnates has his own inherited house. All other buildings belong either to the central government, or to the various communities of the neighboring monasteries. Buildings owned by private individuals are few and are mainly in the outskirts of the city.
All these buildings are under the control of the palace of the Dalai Lama, Potala, about two-thirds of a mile west of the city, and built upon a rocky height. ”

“ Both sexes of all classes are very fond of barley wine, and owing to its cheapness and slight intoxicating properties it constitutes the principal beverage of the poor. The men are heavy smokers of leaf tobacco in pipes, and the monks, while avoiding the pipe, consume no less tobacco in snuff. ”

“ It must be borne in mind that having penetrated a forbidden country in the guise of an ordinary pilgrim, obliged to pose before the natives as one in search of salvation in the holy land, and constantly in danger of suspicion as other than a pilgrim, the amount of information gathered under such circumstances could not have been great. ”

“ The Tibetans are fond of raw meat, and when entertaining, they serve meat either raw or not fully cooked. The principal meats are yak, mutton, and pig. Beef is not considered good, and ass and horse meat are not used at all. The poor classes also eat fish. ”

“ The monasteries are governed by their own laws, administered by their own elders, the highest of which in the principal monasteries are appointed by the Dalai Lama. Discipline and the whole regime is based on "the fear of the governors." ”

“ Upon long tables before the god, melted butter, offered by the worshipers, ever burns in golden lamps. Two other statues in the temple command almost equal respect — the 11-faced bodisattva Avalokiteshvara, of which the Dalai Lamas are regarded as incarnations, and the statue Pal-Lhamo, the protectress of women. * * * Under the latter statue barley wine is being incessantly sprinkled and grains are freely scattered. Abundance of food and snug hiding places in the folds of the clothing of the statue have attracted numerous mice, that are here considered holy. ”

“ The social classes are the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry. The nobility consists of the descendants of former rulers of separate principalities and descendants of the fathers of Dalai Lamas and Panchens, who are invested by the Manchu court with the rank of prince of the fifth degree. ”

“ The Tibetan has very few wants, chiefly limited to necessities, although some inclination toward objects of luxury, expensive ornaments, objects of cult and home adornment may be observed. The standard money is a silver coin valued at about 10 cents. ”