Sebuah Perjalanan ke Lhasa dan Tibet Tengah/Bab 9
CHAPTER IX.
FUNERAL OF THE PANCHEN RINPOCHE.—VISIT TO THE GREAT LAMASERY OF SAMYE AND TO YARLUNG.
On September 19 the minister left Dongtse, and I despatched Ugyen once more to the Rigyal Shendar monastery to obtain further information on the Bonbos and their religion. I myself went to Gyantse, where I was most kindly received by the Chyag-dso-pa and his family.
The Chyag-dso-pa of Gyantse has under his superintendence a large rug and blanket factory in which about ninety women are kept constantly employed, some picking the wool, some dyeing it, and others weaving. The tso, or "dye plant," grows in rocky soil and is collected by the Dokpas. It supplies a beautiful yellow colour. The leaves only are used in dyeing.[1]
The people employed in this factory are kept under the strictest discipline. One day one of the women who was late beginning her work, was whipped by order of the Chyag-dso-pa. A boy caught stealing wool was also punished in the same way and imprisoned for a fortnight. I was rather surprised at seeing the Chyag-dso-pa thus taking the law in his own hands; but he told me that the Government allowed great landholders like his master, the Shape Phala, judicial power over their own serfs. I may here note that the pastoral tenants on this, and probably all other estates, pay the owners every year two pounds of butter for every she yak they own, and two pounds of wool for every sheep.
On September 25, corresponding to the 13th of the 8th moon, harvest began. This day was selected as it was a very lucky one. All the people turned out for the work, and I went to the roof of the castle to watch the reapers. While working they sang hymns and offered the gods bunches of barley, peas, and wheat, as first-fruit offerings.
Ugyen returned from his trip on the 1st of October.
On September 13 (25?), the day of the full moon, while he was still at Shigatse, the dead Grand Lama was brought from Tob-gyal to Tashilhunpo. First of all came a crowd of people on foot, followed by about a hundred men on ponies. After these came the officials of Labrang, followed by the chiefs, nobles, and high officials of Tsang, all on horseback. Behind them was carried the sedan containing the remains of his holiness, the Panchen rinpoche. The sedan was followed by the Chinese garrison, consisting of fifty soldiers. The lamentations of the people increased as the procession approached, and Ugyen said he cried like a child. Some prayed loudly, looking towards heaven: "God and saints ordain that our beloved protector (kyab-gong), may soon return to this world for the good of all living beings." No bells were rung, and the procession passed on in solemn silence, all, laymen and monks, dressed in dark red apparel, without any ornaments. When the procession entered Tashilhunpo, the sedan chair was placed on the State altar, in the Hall of Departed Saints. On the following day Ugyen went to make his obeisance to the dead Lama. He found the body (ku-por) wrapped in khatags, and placed in a sitting posture. It was very small, bearing no proportion to the stature of the Lama when living. Ugyen was told that this was the result of the embalmment.[2]
The same day the period of summer retirement (yar-nas) for monks came to an end. It was observed as a holiday by the people: there was racing and other sports, and all the people, lamas, men, women, and children bathed together in the Nyang chu. The only sign of mourning still observed this day was keeping the windows of the houses in town and at Tashilhunpo shut.
On the 17th Ugyen reached Shendar ding, where he put up in the house of a man whose wife had just been confined. A woman in Tibet, as in India, is held to be unclean (kyedib) for a month after her confinement, at the expiration of which time certain religious ceremonies are performed for her purification.
Ugyen remained in this place until the 26th, and obtained from the high priest of the lamasery much valuable information bearing on the theology and history of the Bon religion. He also copied many valuable works on these subjects, which were obligingly put at his disposal by the lama.[3]
Having been prevented when at Lhasa, as previously narrated, from going to the celebrated monastery of Samye, the most ancient and famous, probably, of all Tibetan lamaseries, I now endeavoured to make arrangements for this much longed-for trip. I sent Ugyen to Dongtse, after his return from his trip to Shendar ding, to try and get a guide; but he failed, as rumours had got abroad that I was a British employé, and Phurchung was accused of having brought me into Tibet in violation of the express orders of the Nepal Durbar.
In view of these disturbing rumours, I left Gyantse on October 4, and returned to Tashilhunpo, where I was rejoined on the 13th by Phurchung, who had been sent with letters to India in August.
I now decided to send Ugyen back to India with the botanical and other collections he had made, while I would visit Samye, and the Lhokha country south of it. He bought ten yaks for a hundred rupees, and pack saddles, and engaged Lachung men to accompany him to Khamba djong. He started on the 17th, while Phurchung and I returned to Gyantse, arriving there on the 18th.
The people were now busy threshing their barley—cows, their muzzles covered with wicker baskets, treaded it out, and were kept to their work by two boys.
The Chyag-dso-pa lent me a man to guide me to Samye and the south country (Lhokha); his name was Gopon. He told me he was ready to start at any time, for his brother (namdo pun, "joint brother"), as he called him, had now returned from Shigatse, and he could leave his wife. These two men had, though not related, one wife between them, and the three of them got on very well together.
On October 21 I finally started for Samye, and followed, as far as the ruined village of Ring-la, the high road to Lhasa I had travelled over earlier in the year. There is but one family now living in this once prosperous place. These poor people earn a precarious livelihood by making pottery. A concave wooden pan is used for the purpose, in which the pots are shaped with a piece of wood or the fingers, by turning the pan or mould around with the hand. This is the usual method employed in Tibet.
Leaving Ring-la, we travelled through the fine pasture-lands adjoining the Yamdo tso, and over desolate highlands with an occasional stump of a juniper or cedar tree, till we reached the village of Ta-lung, famous, as its name implies,[4] for the number and breed of its ponies. Around the village the land is cultivated, and showed evidence of great industry on the part of the people.
We at first failed to secure a night's lodgings in any of the houses of the village, for the people took us for Lhopa or Bhutia, of whom they stand in great dread, as they frequently make raids on this district; but we were so fortunate in the end as to secure the good-will of a lama of the monastery, who got a friend of his to admit us to his house.
The next day (October 24) we resumed our journey by daylight, and crossing the Shandung chu bay of Lake Yamdo, followed along the base of the steep hills which overhang its shores. We got sight, on the way, of the Chong-khor monastery,[5] from which come all the amchi lhamo dancers and mimes,[6] some of whom annually visit Darjiling. Passing the Rivotag river some eight miles north of the Djong of the same name, we ascended a ridge, from the top of which we saw the villages of Yurupe, Ke-utag, and Khyunpodo. The country was everywhere thinly populated; but large numbers of yaks, donkeys, sheep, and goats were grazing about.
We stopped at the village of Shari, prettily situated between the Yamdo and a little sweet-water lakelet, and put up in the mani lha khang, the centre of which was taken up by a great prayer-wheel about six feet high and three feet in diameter. An old man lived here whose sole occupation was to turn the wheel.
The next morning we crossed a low hill, the Kabu la, and, skirting the northern extremity of the Rombuja lake, reached by eleven o’clock the village of Melung,[7] thus called from the fire (me) stones found in the valley (lung) in which it is situated.
After a short halt at Melung, we resumed our march, the country opening a little as we advanced, and villages and hamlets becoming more numerous. That night we stopped at Khamedo, where there live about a hundred families.
We were off by sunrise, and passing some distance to the north of the large village of Ling,[8] where the Djongpon of the Yamdo district reside, we soon after found ourselves in the broad pasture-lands of Karmoling, here some ten miles broad, where hundreds of ponies, belonging to the Lhasa Government, were seen grazing.
We ate our breakfast at Shabshi, and then, passing through the hamlet of Tanta,[9] we began the ascent of the Tib la, which marks in this direction the boundary between the Yamdo and Lhokha districts, and from the top of which I had a magnificent view of the whole lake country, the like of which I have seen nowhere in the Himalayas.
The difficulties attending the descent of the Tib la were infinitely greater than those of the ascent, and the violence of the wind made it difficult even to stand erect. By five o’clock we reached the village of Tib, where there are about ten houses, around which grow a few stunted willows. The villagers were busy treading out their harvest with their cattle, and their merry songs, wafted by the night wind, fell pleasantly on my ears till I dropped asleep.
Tib is under the authority of the Gongkhar Djongpon, who, with his two lama assistants, or Tse-dung, usually resides in the neighbouring town of Tosnam-gyaling.
October 27.—Our road led us down the course of the Tib chu. The valley was covered with willows (here called nyamyam shing, or "mourning trees"), cypresses, junipers, and a species of silver fir, and though the way was stony, it was pleasant on account of the forest growth through which it led.
We reached Tos nam-gyaling djong[10] early in the afternoon. This place is celebrated for the serge and broadcloth manufactured here. The Tib chu, as it flowed through the town between low banks covered with flowers, and the tall poplars and walnut trees surrounding the high, well-built houses, gave this place a most attractive appearance. We met here a party of Horba[11] with a caravan of yaks laden with salt, which they had brought from the north for sale in this country.
Before reaching the town we passed by the little nunnery of Peru, and shortly after leaving it we came to the large lamasery of Toi Suduling, with about five hundred monks of the Gelugpa sect.
We stopped for the night at Khede-sho,[12] a small town with two castles, and situated near the Tsang-po. The town looks like a fortress, with its old-fashioned solid houses, its narrow streets, the Dombu choskhor, or lamasery, with encircling walls painted blue and red, and an old monastery on top of the hill commanding the town.
It seemed to be a prosperous place; there were flower gardens and groves of trees, and in nearly every window and doorway flowers were growing in pots. Two Nyerpa are stationed here, who administer the town and supervise the manufacture of serge and cloth for the Dalai lama and Panchen rinpoche.
The next morning we passed through two miles of soft sand, and finally came to the mighty Tsang-po, and after much shouting to the boatmen on the farther side to bring over their junk (shanpa),[13] and after a couple of hours waiting in the cold and fog, it came slowly across, rowed by three women and two men, who sang lustily as they pulled.
The river is here about half a mile broad, very deep, but with a sluggish current. We were soon landed at the Dorje-tag ghat, where we paid a tanka for each of our ponies, and five karma (or two annas) for each man as ferry charges. The ferry belongs to the Dorje-tag lamasery near by, one of the oldest and holiest of the Nyingma sect. The incarnate lama who rules this lamasery died about a year and a half ago, but he has reappeared recently in the flesh at Darchendo.[14] This convent is at the foot of a range of hills which stretches along the river to beyond Samye, and a large grove extends from near it to the high road.
We stopped for tiffin on the river bank, where I noticed the ground covered with fish-bones and shells. Gopon told me that all the small fry which the people of this country catch are used to manure the fields with, as they are too bony to eat.
Gopon, who, by the way, was a most loquacious fellow, told me while we drank our tea that when a new-born child dies in this country the body is packed in an earthenware jar or wooden box, and is thus kept in the storeroom, or hung from the ceiling of its parents' house.[15] In Upper Tibet the body is usually kept on the roof with a little turret built over it; though the people who cannot afford to do this keep it also hung from the ceiling, the face turned upwards.
The road now led over sand hillocks and spurs of rock, in some places close to the edge of the river, where great care was necessary in getting the ponies along.
We stopped at Tag, behind which rise the forest-covered mountains, and where we got quarters in a fine new house, and were made most comfortable by the owners.
The next day we were off before sunrise, and after a few miles through heavy sand, came to Songkar[16] with about two hundred houses, and around which grow walnut, willow, peach, poplar, and other varieties of trees. It is said that Prince Lhawang, son of King Me agtsoms, was drowned here, and the king, furious at the river gods for having caused the death of his heir, ordered the river to be whipped. The nagas were terrified when they learnt the order, and repairing to the king, told him that if he would forbear, they would show him many good omens. 'Tis for this that this place is also called Songkar (or Zungkhar) lha-tag, or "Zungkhar of the gods' omens."
Near the village passes the road to Lhasa by the Songkar la and Dechen,[17] over which a great deal of timber is carried on yaks to Dechen and thence by boat to Lhasa.
From Songkar to Samye most of the way is over a great sandy plain called Nagshu chyema,[18] which stretches from the base of the rugged Lomda hills to the Tsang-po. Reaching the top of a low hill, Samye stood before me, its gilded domes glittering in the sun, and the hillock of Haboi ri rising amidst the sands to the south of the great monastery.
Passing under some willow trees growing through the sand just outside the lamasery walls, we entered by the southern gate, over which was a chorten made somewhat in the shape of a dorje.[19] The guide led us to the house of the mother of the Om-dse (head priest), and we were most hospitably received by the old lady, who gave us her oratory to lodge in. Before the rooms assigned us was a little flower patch, and other plants were growing here and there in pots. There were also two singing-birds in cages.
Tung-ma, our hostess, was a fine-looking old lady of about sixty years of age. She wore as a necklace a number of silver ornaments and charm boxes set with turquoises. Her head-dress differed from any I had seen, being in shape like a pointed cap.[20]
Phurchung was delighted with Samye; he had not only reached the holiest of Tibetan sanctuaries, but a place where chang was extraordinarily good and cheap; what more could he ask for?
After taking tea I went with my two companions to visit the chief temple of Wu-tse (Amitabha). I inquired of the beadle (ku-nyer) the whereabouts of the celebrated library with the famous Indian books which Atisha had found here when he came to this monastery eight hundred years ago. I was told, to my great disappointment, that "for our sins the great library was destroyed by fire about sixty years ago, and there are at present but modern reprints in it."
In the great congregation hall the Dalai lama’s throne occupies the north-eastern corner of the chapel of the Jo-vo. Near this latter is an image representing the first Dalai and statues of the principal disciples of the Buddha.
In the second story of this building are images of Tsepamed (Amitayus) and of the historic Buddha, besides many others of minor interest. In the third or upper story are images of the three Buddhas of the present cycle. From this story I had a splendid view of the Tsang-po, which is very wide here.
On the wall surrounding the Wu-tse temple are painted various mythological and historical scenes, also pictures of the principal sanctuaries of Tibet.[21] The monks attached to the temple live close by in a two-storied building.
The next day (October 30) I visited the four ling, or minor temples built around the Wu-tse, and the eight ling-ten or lesser shrines. In some of the smaller chapels were life-size images of Indian sages who had visited Tibet in the early ages of Buddhism in this country, and these images are said to have been made by Hindu artists. I also noticed growing in some of the court-yards some stunted bamboos and Indian shrubs.
After visiting the white chorten, we went outside the temple walls to see the chapel built by the wives of King Tisrong detsan, which resembles in style the Wu-tse, though much smaller than it.
We made an excursion the next day to the famous cave called Chim phug, where Padma Sambhava and other worthies gave themselves up for a period to abstraction.
We passed through the village of Samye, in which there are probably a thousand people and a few Chinese and Nepalese shops, and then for a few miles travelled through cultivated fields, with here and there a little village, till we came to the foot of the Chim phug hill. The range of which it forms a part is a thousand feet or so high, well covered with fine timber, and inhabited, so some of the numerous woodcutters we met told us, by wild goats, sheep, deer, and snow leopards.
We reached the temple before noon. It is a two-storied, flat-roofed building built on the rock. In the rock underneath the temple there is a fissure about fifteen feet long and six feet broad, and varying in height from three to six feet. In this there is a little chapel where the image of Padma Sambhava, flanked by two female attendants, is to be seen. In the building above are images of a host of deities and saints, as also that of King Tisrong. The books I looked at in the temple belonged to the Nyingma sect, and were of no special interest.
Leaving Chim phug after a couple of hours' rest, we returned to Samye by another road, passing three little temples, or rather hermitages, where Indian pundits are said to have lived in times of yore. Flocks of pigeons were hovering about them, and walnut and willow trees grew around, giving them a peaceful and secluded appearance.
The sands are slowly but surely burying Samye, and a large portion of the town, including some of the temples, is already lost under them. There is a prophecy attributed to Padma Sambhava, to the effect that Samye will be engulfed in the sands, and it is in a fair way of being accomplished.
November 1.—I again visited the Wu-tse. The principal room in the gong khang (upper hall) is full of all kinds of weapons and armour sacred to the gods, protectors of religion (Darmapalas). In the beautiful temple of Behor and Noijinhamara[22] is a room called the wu-khang, where the breath of the dying is kept in a jar specially consecrated to this purpose.[23]
A few notes on the famous lamasery of Samye and Padma Sambhava find place here.
The temple was built by King Tisrong detsen, whose capital was on the hill of Haboi-ri, just south of where Samye now stands, at the suggestion of the Indian sage Santa Rakshita, and with the assistance of Padma Sambhava, the originator of monasticism in Tibet.[24] It was a copy of the great temple of Odantapura in Central India. Its three stories were each in a different style of architecture, one Tibetan, another Indian, and the third Chinese: so it was after a while given the name of San-yang or "three styles," which in Tibetan is pronounced Samye,[25] though it was originally named Mi-gyur lhun-grub Tsug-lha-khang, "the temple of the unalterable mass of perfection."
Both Santa Rakshita and Padma Sambhava were unable, on account of the open hostility of the Bonbo, to remain long in Tibet. It is said by some that the latter sage remained there six years, others make his sojourn there eighteen years, after which he returned to India; but, however long he stayed, he firmly implanted mysticism in Tibet.
King Tisrong gathered together at Samye sacred images and treasures from India and the borderlands of China; but of all the collections made here the most valuable was the great library of Indian works, of which Atisha, who visited Samye in the eleventh century, said that there were more Indian books here than in the great Indian convents of Buddhagaya, Vikramashila, and Odantapura united.
Samye has experienced, since the days of its foundation, manv vicissitudes: it was partly destroyed by King Langdharma,[26] and again later on by other followers of the old religion. Then it was partially destroyed by an earthquake, in 1749 (?), and in 1808 (?) the Wu-tse itself was destroyed by fire.[27] To rebuild it the people of Tibet gave a hundred thousand ounces of silver, and the Shape Shada Dondub dorje, who had charge of the works, occupied five hundred workmen for seven years in reconstructing the temple. Again, in 1850, an earthquake caused great damage to the temple, the dome fell in and the frescoes, floors, etc., were irreparably injured. But the damage was again repaired by means of public subscriptions and grants from the State, amounting together to about 175,000 ounces of silver in value.[28]
On November 2 I left Samye for a visit to Yarlung, the early home of the first Tibetan kings, if tradition is to be believed.
The road we followed led eastward, over a sandy plain and by numerous villages, the most important of which was Do, until we reached Taga-sho, around which were many walnut (taga), peach, plum, poplar, and willow trees, all planted with great regularity.[29] Here we put up, in the house of a friend of our guide, who himself was from the neighbouring village of Do.
I was pleased to find mutton selling here at a very low price, a result of the presence of a party of Hor Dokpa from Radeng,[30] who had brought large quantities of salt, wool, and meat. Their yaks were the largest I have seen in Tibet.
Leaving Taga-sho the next morning, we passed by the ruins of Tagkar-sho, probably at one time the residence of the kings of the Phag-modu dynasty, who derive their name probably from a village near by still called Phagmodu.[31] Near this place, in a commanding position, is the lamasery of Nari ta-tsang, founded by the Dalai lama Gedun-gyatso.
At the village of Jong[32] we began the ascent of the steep hill on whose summit is the old lamasery of Densa-til, the principal building nestled amidst frowning crags, on which grow here and there a few firs and juniper trees. In the adjacent cliffs were numerous caves for recluses.
This temple differs somewhat from all other buildings of this kind I have seen in Tibet, the plan of it approaching rather that of a modern public building in Bengal. I noticed here eighteen beautiful silver and copper chorten, the finest specimens of such metal work I have seen. Six tablets of gold, each six feet long and six inches broad, hung from the ceiling, besides six piles of similar but smaller tablets in a corner.
Of all the monasteries in Tibet, this is perhaps the richest in religious treasures,[33] and the Government of Lhasa takes particular care of it. Among the curious objects placed before the images of the gods in the principal temple, I saw some bowls filled with various kinds of seed and some fossils, among which some grains of barley.
The next day we resumed our journey. The road at first led through a forest said to have sprung from the hairs of Je Phagmodu, the founder of the Densa-til lamasery.[34]
All the way to Samdub phodang, the capital of the Phagmodu kings, was a gentle descent over gravel and mica-schist rock. Crossing a fine wooden bridge about fifty yards long, with railings running along either side, we found ourselves in the principal street of the town, in which a large number of Dokpa traders were camped under some walnut trees.
The three-storied castle, once a royal residence, is now occupied by the Djongpon and the two Tsedung from Lhasa. Samdub phodang is now a gon-shi, or "Crown Demesne" of Lhasa.
A few miles beyond this town we came to the Sangri khamar lamasery,[35] situated on a beautiful eminence overlooking the Tsang-po, whose surface is broken here by huge masses of rock. Around the great lamasery stretched broad fields of barley, now ripe for the sickle, and the beauty of the crops surpassed anything I have ever seen in Tibet,
Here at Sangri khamar once lived Saint Machig labdon,[36] an incarnation of Arya Tara. I visited the cell she lived in, and saw her tomb and an image of her. There are now two ascetics living here, who have made vows never to come out nor to speak a word so long as they live. When I approached them they smiled and seemed pleased with the little present I made them. The beadle who accompanied me said they had been immured in their cells for ten years.
Resuming our journey, we passed by Sangri Jong, and following a narrow path, scarcely a yard wide, overhanging the eddying river, reached Logang ferry;[37] but, though we shouted for an hour to the boatmen on the other side, we could not get them to come over for us, so we had to return to the village of Jong at the western base of the Densa-til mountain. Here we got lodgings for the night in the house of the headman.
November 5.—A little before dawn we left Jong and made for the Nango[38] ferry. There is an iron suspension bridge at this place, but it is so much out of repair that it cannot be crossed over, and we were ferried across in a large boat, together with a number of traders and their donkeys. The river is very narrow here, scarcely a hundred yards in breadth. Passing through the village of Khyungar we entered Tse-tang,[39] the capital of Yarlung, and formerly a place of great importance. Our guide procured lodgings for us in the house of a woman whose husband, a Kashmiri, had died a year or so before and who was now living alone with her husband's son. The Kache (Kashmiri) received us very kindly, but after a short conversation with me he became alarmingly suspicious of my true character, and kept continually turning the conversation to the Shaheb-logs ("Englishmen") he had known at Katmandu, and the greatness of the Engrez Maharani ("Queen of England"). As often as he spoke of these subjects, so often did I rejoin with some inquiry about Buddhism or a lamasery I wished to visit.
I soon began to feel excessively nervous, and told my men that we had better leave Tse-tang as soon as possible; but Phurchung assured me that I need have no fear, that furthermore the ponies absolutely required rest, so that we must stay here a few days.
The day after our arrival at Tse-tang I went on the roof of our house, and was able to see a broad stretch of the surrounding country. To the north of the town was the Gonpoi ri, one of the favourite resorts of Shenrezig (Avalokiteswara), and where, according to tradition, the monkey king and the goblin raised their family of monkeys, from which ultimately descended the Tibetan race.[40]
There are four lamaseries around Tse-tang, and in the town are some fifteen Nepalese, twenty Chinese, and ten Kashmiri shops, besides native traders from all parts of Tibet. Mutton and butter were abundant, but barley, though cheap, is of inferior quality.
I left Tse-tang on November 17 for a visit to the Yarlung valley and its monuments.
A short distance to the south of Tse-tang we passed through Ne-dong djong, where resides the Djongpon of this district, and which used to be a royal city of the Phagmodu kings. Save the lamasery of Benja, little remains but ruins to attest its past importance.
Following up the course of the Yarlung river, we came after a few miles to the temple of Tandub, one of those said to have been built in the seventh century by King Strong-btsan gambo, and to which a monastery was later on added by Tisrong detsan. It is a copy, on a small scale, of the Jo khang of Lhasa, and contains many objects of interest to the pious pilgrim.
Three hours' ride from Tandub brought us to Ombu lha-khang,[41] the most ancient of Tibetan palaces. It is situated on the side of a range of bare hills, and is about a hundred yards from the village of Ombu, which derives its name from the number of ombu trees (tamarisks) which grow around it. Ombu lha-khang, though it has temples and shrines, is more properly a kind of memorial hall. The images in it are not those of gods and saints, but of kings, nobles, and ministers. The building itself is a curious mixture of the Indian and Tibetan styles of architecture, and the interior arrangement of the rooms and their decorations were unlike those of Tibetan buildings. The rooms, I may add, all face eastward.
After taking our lunch under a tamarisk tree, we remounted our ponies and rode on to Phodang djong, the most ancient town in Tibet. As all the kings of the dynasty which sprang from this place bore the title of Chos-gyal, or "Catholic majesty," this town is also called Chos-gyal phodang. The present chief of this place claims descent from this very ancient line, but even his own people do not believe much in his pretended genealogy.
A few miles over gently rising ground brought us by sunset to the top of a hill, on which is situated the Tag-tsan bumba, or "Dome of Good Omens."[42] We were kindly received by the young monk in charge of the shrine, who presented me with a basket of splendid white potatoes, which vegetable he assured me had grown around this place from time immemorial.f[43]
November 8.—We left before daylight, and, crossing the Yarlung, reached the Rachung lamasery on the top of a steep hill, where we gained admittance after a good deal of trouble, the keeper being away and the incarnate lama, Rachung, confined in a cell performing certain vows. A little below the monastery we were shown the cave in which the original Rachung, the greatest of Milaraspa's disciples, dwelt for three years, three months, and three days.[44]
We rested here for a while, and then went to the village of Rachung at the foot of the hill, where we found good lodgings for the night in the house of an old acquaintance of our guide, Gopon.
Formerly this broad valley of Yarlung, or Gondang-tangme, was covered with innumerable populous villages, and in no other part of Tibet was there such opulence. But one day the snows melting on the Yarlha-shampo and torrential rains caused a mighty flood which submerged the whole plain for many days. The villages were utterly destroyed, and the people all perished, and when the waters had retired a deep deposit of sand covered everything. In course of time the country was reclaimed, and has now reached a certain degree of prosperity, but it has never recovered its primitive flourishing state.
The next day we rode across the northern slope of the Shetag mountains, or "Black Crystal" (Shel-tag), thus called from the glistening black rocks exposed to view along the road,[45] and after a few miles came to the great cemetery which adjoins the lamasery of Yarlung-shetag. Phurchung and Gopon rolled themselves on the blood-stained stone slab, on which corpses are cut up, and mumbled some mantra.
In this lamasery there live forty monks and as many nuns:[46] their children are brought up to the professions of their parents. This arrangement has been sanctioned by the Nyingma church, as the lamasery was so lonely that no monks could be induced to reside in it till this privilege was conceded them.
Beyond this lamasery the trail led along the edge of a precipice where we passed a number of little cells occupied by hermits (or tsampa), who, as we passed, stretched out their hands for alms through the little opening left in the front of their dens. Some of these men had been immured five years, and many of them had also made vows of silence.
A little way beyond this point, and about 500 feet below the summit of the hill, we reached the cell of Padma Sambhava, near which is a chapel called the Upper Lha-khang of Shetag. The keeper led us to a heavy door under a huge rock; unlocking it we entered the cavern, which is held the most sacred shrine of the Nyingma sect. In it I saw a silver reliquary in which is kept a silver image of the saint, representing him as a boy of twelve. There was a plate before the image filled with rings, earrings, turquoises, pieces of amber, gold and silver coins, the offerings of pilgrims.
Passing the Shetag, we came to the village of Ze-khang shikha. and thence by a gentle descent we reached the famed temple of Tsandan-yu lha-khang, "the temple of sandal-wood and turquoise."
It was thus called, it is said, because that its founder, King Strong-btsan gambo, only used in building it sandal-wood, and that the blue tiles which covered it were glazed with melted turquoises.[47] It is a rather Chinese-looking structure, but one of the handsomest I have seen in Tibet. Every month six monks come here from Tse-tang to hold service.
A very short distance to the west of this sanctuary is the Lhabab-ri, or "the mountain of the descent (of the king or god)" (lha having both meanings), where the first king of Tibet, Nyakri-btsanpo, was seen for the first time by Tibetans. There is a little plateau on this hill, called the "King’s Plain," or Btsan-tang, where a temple has been built called the Btsan-tang lha-khang.[48]
Leaving this interesting spot behind, we rode on across the fields which the peasants were ploughing and irrigating for the autumn crops, and came, after a few hours, to the sanctuary of Gadan namgyal-ling, where Tsongkhapa took his final vows of monkhood. It is a fine building in the midst of a grove of trees, through which flows a brook.
From this point we retraced our steps to Tse-tang, which we readied the same day, recrossing the Yarlung chu by a long stone bridge near the monastery of Tse-chog-pa, where we saw a number of the monks bathing in the river.
The Yarlung valley appeared to me to be a most prosperous one, the people gentle and good-natured. The soil produces grain and fruit in greater abundance than any other part of Tibet; chang, butter, meat, oil, barley, wheat, and fuel were everywhere plentiful.
On November 10 we left Tse-tang, on the return journey to Tashilhunpo.
We forded the Yarlung river, in which there was but little water, nearly all of it having been drawn off by irrigation ditches higher up the valley, and passing to the villages of Yangta and Gyerpal, we came to the old sanctuary of Yarlung, called the Chyasa lha-khang, or "the resting-place-of-birds temple," for the vast flocks of birds[49] which pass here in their migrations make it a resting-place. It is situated on the banks of the Tsang-po, and is a finely built and well-kept edifice, with a courtyard and beautifully frescoed walls. The image of Sakya Buddha in the temple is said to be made with an alloy of gold, silver, copper, and iron.
Following the bank of the Tsang-po, through heavy sands or over low hills, we came towards evening to Chincho-ling, a secluded and desolate little hamlet, the houses surrounded by low walls of stone to keep off the drifting sands, and here we put up for the night.
The next morning there was a heavy fog—quite a rare phenomenon in these parts—when we started. We breakfasted at the little fisher village of Dong-sho,[50] and a mile or so beyond this entered a well-cultivated valley containing numerous villages and fine trees. Near the first village we came to stands the monastery of Chongdu-chog.[51] We reached, before evening, the famous Nying-ma lamasery of Mindol ling, in a dale opening on the west side of the valley; a little below it is a very large village, where we found, after some difficulty, accommodation in the house of a well-to-do man.
The next day we visited the temple, which is very beautiful, though the lamasery itself has never recovered from the pillage l)y the Jungars in the seventeenth century; and the Nyingma[52] Church being at present, moreover, persecuted by the dominant Gelugpa, no longer enjoys its former wealth. The neatness of the stonework and the finish of all the masonry about the temple were very remarkable, and the courtyard was regularly paved with stone slabs.
To the south of the monastery is the residence of the abbot, who is always selected from the Tertalingpa family, in which this office is hereditary.[53]
I left Mindol-ling on November 12, returned to the Tsang-po, and reached the village of Cho by dusk. Quite early the next morning we entered Khede-sho, where our route joined that we had taken when going to Samye.
We left Khede-sho by daylight the next morning, and continuing along the bank of the Tsang-po, crossed the long meadow of Ding-naga, which is covered with a fine, short, moss-like sod. Then passing through the villages of Kyishong, Panza, and Gyatu-ling, we came to where the Gonkhar mountains abut on the river. On their farther side is the town of Gongkhar,[54] still surrounded by imposing, though ruined walls. Here, after much difficulty, we managed to obtain shelter in the house of a fisherman, who gave us leave to pass the night in a hovel half filled with yak hides. He and his wife were very kind to us, and looked, to the best of their ability, after our wants and those of our ponies.
We resumed our journey at 4 in the morning, and pushed on slowly and with considerable difficulty, for the path was over rocks, in places overhanging the roaring river. At daybreak we passed by the village of Shyati-ling, and shortly after the sun pierced the fog which had enveloped us. A low col, called Yab la, was next passed, and we joined the high-road between Lhasa and Shigatse, which I have previously described. We stopped for the night at Tamalung.
The very next day (November 16) we reached Palti djong.
On the 18th, a mile or so to the west of Oma-tang, where we had passed the night, we fell in with the Chinese Amban and his train their way to Lhasa. First came numerous parties on horseback, then about three hundred men on foot carrying all the paraphernalia common to Chinese processions, and finally the Amban's chair carried by Chinese and sixteen Tibetans, the latter only holding strings attached to the poles to show that they were assisting in the work. Two Chinese armed with whips kept the way clear.
On November 24 I found myself once more at Tashillhunpo, and immediately set to work to prepare for a trip to Sakya, from whence it was my intention to proceed directly to India. A day or so after my arrival I was delighted at the receipt of a passport from the new Shape of Shigatse, permitting me to proceed directly to India and return to Tibet. It had been obtained at the instance of my friend, the minister.