iv'.ieH',nyiVj«?iij»i!i>',-if>(.'.-.c.iH7f '» 
 
 '(:■' TO PON. 
 
£ibrar;p of t:he tlieolo^ical ^tminary 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Delavan L. Pierson 
 
 BV 3420 .T5 T39 1895 
 Taylor, Annie R., 1855- 
 Pioneering in Tibet 
 
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 ^^ 
 
 /^ 
 
 FEB 25 19. 
 
 pioneering in TLihct 
 
 BY 
 
 ANNIE R. TAYLOR 
 
 J' 
 
 V. 
 
 The Origin and Progress of 
 THE TIBETAN PIONEER MISSION," 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 My Experiences in Tibet, and 
 Some Facts about the Country. 
 
 "^_ 
 
 r 
 
 LONDON: MORGAN AND SCOTT 
 
 Office of " (Tfie Ctiristian," 
 
 12, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS. E.G. 
 
 And may be Ordered of any Bookseller. 
 
The Eiigravings in f/i/s -i>oliiinc are reproduced 
 hy the kind permission of tJie PJiotOi^rapJiers^ Mr. J. 
 riionison., Messrs. Gj-ohani &^ Co., and Mr. (i. 
 Laurens. 
 
A RETROSPECT. 
 
 fWAS born in Egreniont, Cheshire, and am the second child in a 
 family of five sons and five daughters. My governesses and nurses 
 say that I was a most troublesome child, and very full of mischief. 
 
 When about seven years of age, the doctor discovered that I had valvular 
 disease of the heart. Two years later I had an attack of acute bronchitis, 
 when my life was despaired of ; and this further affected my heart. Then 
 the doctors advised that 1 should not be troubled with study, as they did 
 not expect me to live to grow up. So for some years I did much as I 
 liked, until in 1869, when at the age of thirteen, I was converted at a small 
 Congregational chapel in Kingston-on-Thames. I had been in the habit 
 of going to church or chapel ; but the only part of the sermon to which I 
 listened was that addressed to sinners, which I mentally called my part. 
 
 One Sunday, when kneeling down as others did at the close of the 
 service, a voice seemed to say to me, " If that is your part of the sermon, it 
 \% yo7ir oziw choice, because Christ died for you." I there and then 'ac- 
 cepted Him as my Saviour : and on reaching home, 1 took the Bible to my 
 room and decided to follow whatever God should teach me through His 
 Word. Soon I found that I could no longer take rides on horseback 
 with my father on the Lord's Day ; and this naturally annoyed him. 
 
 At the age of sixteen I went to school at Clarence House, Richmond, 
 where I heard an address on Missionary work given by a son of Dr. Moffat. I 
 At that time he seemed to think that women were more of a hindrance I 
 than a help to Missionary work in Africa. I was longing to be a Mis | 
 sionary ; and felt then, for the only time in my life, sorry that 1 was a girl. 
 At a meeting held by Lord Radstock, Miss Emsley (soon after the wife of 
 Dr. Barnardo) placed her hand upon my head and asked me, "When are 
 you going to work for Jesus?" I said, " Now ; " and the next day 1 
 remember walking through the back streets of Richmond to find some 
 poor person to give ten shillings to ; but finding no one, I came home 
 quite disappointed. 
 
 We had been very intimate with the Emsley family, and the life and 
 work of Miss Emsley made a deep impression upon me, 
 
 At about eighteen I went to a school in Berlin ; but after a few months 
 my mother was obliged to fetch me home, as I was again taken ill, 
 suffering from my heart. My parents were then staying at Brighton, and 
 there I began to work for Jesus. I found a poor girl who was dying oi 
 consumption, and visited her almost everyday. Then I heard of another 
 young girl suffering from cancer, and also visited her. When we moved 
 to London, I began to work in a Sunday-school; and also took a district 
 which had not hitherto been visited. A good part of the day I spent in 
 studying art, being very fond of painting ; and for a time 1 pursued art 
 studies in Italy. Before going to Germany I gave up theatres, because I 
 could not be happy in any gathering where my Lord was not found. 
 .And later on, when in London, I gave up going to dances, having ceased to 
 find any pleasures apart from Jesus. My family were very much nnnoyed 
 
vi ^ lletrosijcct. 
 
 at this ; for at that time they liad no sympathy with me in my Christian 
 life and work. One evening in 1883, when I returned home from work, 
 my father remonstrated with me, and told me I was selfish. I asked him 
 what he wanted me to do. He answered, " Give up the Mission work, and 
 go into society, like your sisters." This I refused to do ; but said, " If you 
 will let me, I will go out to the Mission field, and give my whole life to the 
 work." He then said, " Go ! "—little thinking that I really would. 1 
 was overjoyed, and at once set about to prepare for this work, going first 
 to the London Hospital for medical training. After that, I went to Queen 
 Charlotte's Hospital, my father having previously promised to pay the 
 fees ; but when the time came, he refused to pay the money unless I 
 promised that I would not go anywhere without his permission. He said 
 he was quite willing 1 should go abroad as a nursing sister in the Army ; 
 but not as a Missionary. This I declined to do, as he had previously 
 given me permission to go ; he then refused to give me the fees, and 
 stopped my dress allowance. At that time I was twenty-eight ; and so, 
 nothing daunted, I sold some of my jewellery ; and, living in a small 
 garret, I took my turn in attending to the indoor padents at Queen 
 Charlotte's Lying-in Hospital, and attended numerous cases outside. 
 After passing my examination in midwifery, I returned home. The Lord 
 had met with my mother in a little Italian chapel in Sicily, where she 
 was spending the winter ; so I had the joy of having her blessing before 
 leaving for work in China. I had been accepted as a worker by the China 
 Inland Mission. (The friendship of Mr. and Mrs. Hudson Taylor is 
 one of the joys of my life, and their letters of love and sympathy I still 
 continue to receive. This is indeed a cheer amidst the hardships of 
 Pioneer work. ) 
 
 Some weeks previous to my leaving England, my father had started 
 on a journey to America en route for Australia, accompanied by my mother 
 and one of my sisters. He left word that he would pay for anything I 
 bought to take away with me, as he did not want me to lack comforts. 
 He also gave me two letters for different shipping companies which had 
 promised to give me a passage from China to England or Australia, if I 
 should apply for one. He thought I should soon get tired after a few 
 months of Mission work in China, and he no longer continued my allow- 
 ance. I left for China in October, 1884. A friend, Nellie Barclay, was 
 one of the party ; she had been for some time governess to the children 
 of my dearest friend, Mrs. Paterson, the wife of Dr. Sinclair Paterson. 
 Miss Barclay and I were for a time together in China ; but I had always 
 realized that Tibet, yiot China, was my goal. How God opened up the 
 way for me to begin work amongst the Tibetans, and then to enter the 
 land, is told in the following pages. I am thankful to add that my dear 
 father, who is a member of the Royal Geographical Society, is now in 
 -ympathy with my Pioneer work, and he came out to India to see me. 
 Two of my sisters and a brother-in-law have also paid me a visit in my 
 far-off home in Tibet. 
 
 A. R. T. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Some Facts about Tibet 
 
 An Englishwoman in Tibet 
 
 My Experiences in Tibet 
 
 Extracts from Occasional Letters 
 
 Yatung, or Yatong ... 
 
 Letters from Miss Foster 
 
 The Tibetan Pioneer Mission 
 
 PAGE 
 
 9 
 
 19 
 
 52 
 56 
 71 
 
 75 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Miss Tayt.or, Pontso, and Sigju, taking Tka. Frontispiece. 
 
 Map 
 
 Miss Annie R. Taylor in Tibetan Costume 
 
 Pontso and Sigju 
 
 Miss Taylor reading to Pontso and Sigju 
 
 Early Morning in Gnatong 
 
 Tibetan Wandering Musicians 
 
 Lhassa Woman and Son 
 
 Mission House and Chief's House, Yatung 
 Chinese Custom House, Yatung ... 
 
 Yatung Medical Hall 
 
 Front of Mission House, Yatung 
 
 24 
 36 
 38 
 41 
 45 
 57 
 61 
 64 
 6=; 
 
PIONEERING IN TIBET. 
 Some facte about JLxbcl 
 
 Jl^j^/HE demand for some account of the Tibetan 
 Pioneer Mission has necessitated this httle 
 compilation. It shows how the Lord, after 
 leading me through many dangers and diffi- 
 culties, has enabled not only myself but Miss 
 B. Ferguson and Miss M. Mary Foster, to live 
 and proclaim within the borders of Tibet (so long called 
 *' the closed land ") the glorious gospel of salvation through 
 Jesus Christ. While, however, the facts here recited will 
 not be altogether new to some of my readers, it is felt that 
 to many others they will be fresh, and their perusal neces- 
 sary to a right understanding of the present position of 
 an evangelistic effort, which, although in its infancy, has 
 nevertheless not a little about it that is both remarkable 
 and interesting. 
 
 The following sketch is reprinted from the pages of 
 T^e Christian : — 
 
 Miss ANNIE R. TAYLOR, 
 
 Chifiese Missionary and Traveller in Tibet. 
 
 " The heroism of faith finds fresh illustration in the 
 remarkable journey accomplished by this young sister into 
 the jealously-secluded regions of Tibet proper. Going in 
 faith, believing that the Lord had sent her, she traversed 
 
lo ^oxnc yacta about Eibet. 
 
 thousands of miles where no European foot had ever 
 trodden before. We are aware that certain travellers have 
 crossed Tibet in various directions, but few indeed have 
 penetrated Inner Tibet : and of those known to have 
 reached Lhassa, only two have returned to tell the tale. 
 Apart, however, from any question of priority, the journey 
 just completed is of peculiar interest in that it was definitely 
 undertaken by faith, and in order to open the way for the 
 Gospel. 
 
 " Miss A. R. Taylor was early led to the knowledge of 
 Jesus. Her thoughts were first directed to the heathen 
 when a school girl at Richmond. Dr. Moffatt's son gave 
 an address on Africa, which greatly impressed at least one 
 of his young hearers. The place and power of women 
 in missions had not then been discovered, and the whole 
 drift of the speaker's appeal was for young men. His plea 
 was, however, so forceful that the sympathetic young pupil 
 almost wished she were a boy that she might go at once. 
 From that time she read all the missionary literature she 
 could obtain, and pondered the theme constantly. Some 
 years later she found that the Lord wanted women for 
 China, that they were being accepted and sent out by the 
 China Inland Mission, and that their labours were being 
 blessed in the Plowery Land. When very young she read 
 in 'Near Home and Far Off' accounts of that strange 
 mysterious region so rigidly closed against Europeans, and 
 in this way Tibet seems to have laid hold of her mind. 
 
 " In due course Miss Taylor offered herself to and was 
 accepted by the China Inland Mission. In 1884 she went 
 out to China, and having learned the language, worked for 
 a time in Tau-chau, near the Tibetan frontier. She was 
 the first English person to reside in this city, and in 1887 
 visited the Great Lama monasteiy of Kum-bum, where 
 
-'Wht llooi of tljc MorltJ." n 
 
 the French priests, MM. Gabet and Hue, had previously 
 learned Tibetan. Beyond this point no English traveller 
 had gone, though a few Russians had explored the districts. 
 That great unevangelised land pressed upon Miss Taylor's 
 heart. When our Lord bade His witnesses 'go into all 
 the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,' He 
 knew all about Tibetan exclusiveness. 'We have,' she 
 reflected, ' received no orders from the Lord that are 
 impossible to be carried out.' In the story of the China 
 Inland Mission, she saw how the great interior of China 
 had seemed hermetically closed until the foot of faith 
 pressed forward, and then strangely and wonderfully it 
 opened before the Lord's servants as they went in to 
 possess : so she believed it would be on ' the roof of the 
 world,' as Tibet has frequently been termed by reason of 
 its altitude. At length she resolved to make the attempt 
 to penetrate Central Asia, and reach, if possible, Lhassa, 
 the sacred city of the Lamas, and the capital of Tibet. 
 This city lies nearer our Indian frontier than to China. 
 
 "Leaving China in 1888, Miss Taylor came home via 
 Australia and India, and went on to Darjeeling, on the 
 Bengal frontier, going to a Tibetan village near Darjeeling, 
 her object being to learn the language. From there she 
 pressed forward into Sikkim (not then under English rule). 
 ' I went,' she says, ' in simple faith, believing that the Lord 
 had called me. I knew that the difficulties were great, 
 and that enemies would be numerous ; but I trusted God 
 to take care of me, just as He protected David from the 
 hands of Saul.' She got not far from Kambajong, a Tibetan 
 fort. Here the natives would ask her frequently what they 
 were to do with her body if she died. She told them she 
 was not going to die just then. They have, however, a/ 
 custom of ' praying people dead,' and to this they resorted 
 
12 ^omz yarts about l^ibct. 
 
 taking care to help their prayers in a very effective manner. 
 One day the chief's wife invited the stranger to eat, and 
 prepared rice and a mixture of eggs for her. 
 
 "Some conversation between the women as she was 
 eating aroused Miss Taylor's suspicion as to the eggs 
 placed before her ; and sure enough, after she had par- 
 taken, she became ill, with all the symptoms of aconite 
 poisoning. The Tibetan chief was greatly alarmed at her 
 living so near the border, and came over and ordered her 
 back to Darjeeling. She refused to go there ; but settled 
 down in a hut near a Tibetan monastery called Podang 
 (iumpa, living as best she could. 
 
 "After a year spent in Sikkim, during ten months of 
 which she never saw a European, being surrounded by 
 natives only, Miss Taylor was led to see that it was the 
 Lord's will she should enter Tibet by way of China. Her 
 stay at Sikkim had, however, not been in vain. First, she 
 had learned the language as spoken at Lhassa, and secondly 
 she had secured a faithful Tibetan servant. This young 
 man, Pontso, is a native of Lhassa. Travelling on the 
 frontier of India he had hurt his feet, and was directed to 
 the white stranger for treatment. He had never seen a 
 foreigner before, and the kindness shown him won his heart ; 
 so that from that time he has been her constant companion 
 and devoted servant, as well as a follower of Jesus. 
 
 " Taking him with her. Miss Taylor sailed for Shanghai, 
 went up the great river to Tauchau, a city in Kansuh, on 
 the borders of Tibet, and surrounded by Tibetan villages. 
 She visited several large monasteries, and became familiar 
 with many phases of Tibetan life and character. Li the 
 monasteries she found some intelligent lamas, free from the 
 grosser superstitions, and willing to lend her what assistance 
 she required. 
 
^ (Bvcat Ulascal. 13 
 
 " A year was thus spent on the frontier, and at last came 
 the longed-for opportunity of penetrating the interior. It 
 came about thus. A Chinese Mohammedan, Noga, had a 
 wife from Lhassa, and he had promised her mother that 
 he would return to Lhassa with his wife in three years. 
 This he wished to do ; but, having no money, he consented 
 to conduct Miss Taylor to the capital, provided she found 
 the necessary horses and funds. Mrs. Noga had already 
 become very friendly with the young English lady, because 
 she could speak her language, which the natives on the 
 Chinese side could not do. Thus the way was prepared, 
 and on September 2nd, 1892, Miss Taylor and her four 
 servants, two Chinese and two Tibetans, started from Tau- 
 chau for the interior. 
 
 "I'he country is one mass of lofty mountains, a large 
 part of it is above the snow^ line ; the roads are merely 
 mountain tracks, while the people seem to live almost wholly 
 by brigandage, preying incessantly on the caravans which 
 traverse the country. Hence the account of the long and 
 arduous journey is simply a narrative of sore hardship amid 
 snow and ice, perils from law^less robbers, and yet graver 
 perils from her faithless and false guide, for Noga proved 
 to be a great rascal, whose only object in taking Miss 
 Taylor into Tibet appeared to be to rob and murder her : 
 in the first he succeeded pretty thoroughly ; but in the 
 second he failed, inasmuch as she had ' a shield of 
 defence ' of which he dreamt not, and she was kept with a 
 sure hand. 
 
 " Four days after leaving Tau-chau the little party encoun- 
 tered eight brigands, who were fortunately having tea, and 
 took some time to light up the tinder-boxes of their match- 
 locks. Miss Taylor's party had only five fighting-men ; 
 but these, led by a young priest or lama, who was intensely 
 
14 ^omz JFarta about l^ilict. 
 
 fond of fighting, skilfully kept off the enemy until, after 
 much firing but no bloodshed, they had to retreat. Three 
 days after, a friendly caraxan of Mongols was joined, which 
 much increased the strength of the party. Soon after the 
 entire caravan was surrounded by 200 brigands, firing on 
 all hands. Resistance was useless, and most of the men 
 slipped away, leaving the property to the enemy. Two men 
 were killed and eight wounded, and seven horses and some 
 yak wounded. At last the lama packed off the two women 
 and Miss Taylor's faithful Tibetan servant, Pontso, calling 
 out to the enemy that they were women. They were allowed 
 to ride away, as it is against the Tibetan custom to fire at 
 a woman. It appeared that this attack was a piece of 
 retaliation, the Mongols composing the caravan having 
 previously robbed the tribe now attacking them. To 
 prevent their being followed, the assailants took the chief 
 man among the prisoners as a hostage, to be killed if they 
 were pursued. Miss Taylor was amused at the truthful 
 answers returned on all points as to property and as to 
 who was the chief man, but found that absolute truth- 
 fulness is part of the etiquette of Tibetan tribal warfare. 
 The people lie terribly in trade or social affairs, but in 
 deahng with an enemy will not stoop to deception. 
 
 " Meanwhile Noga began, now that he was fairly in the 
 heart of the mountains, to show his hand, and not only 
 tried to strike and abuse Miss Taylor, but attempted again 
 and again to murder her. Humanly speaking, she was only 
 saved by the vigilance of her servant and the ready help 
 of some native villagers and lamas. At length she had 
 to leave Noga and his wife, and with her servant, Pontso, 
 and another Tibetan named Pategn, she pressed on, 
 penniless and comfortless, for the capital. They had many 
 tokens of the presence of God. At one time they lost their 
 
^ Wtxvihit fleturjt |ournc^. 15 
 
 way for three days in the mountains, finding afterwards 
 that this had been God's method of sheltering them from 
 a deUberate attempt at murder planned by Noga. Foiled 
 in these purposes, he spread the report that Miss Taylor 
 had gold and precious stones round her body — this being 
 done to tempt the cupidity of the natives to kill her for the 
 booty. Then he went on to Lhassa and told the authorities 
 of her coming. These sent out stringent orders that she 
 must be stopped, but not injured. Thus, when three days' 
 journey from Lhassa, she was arrested by soldiers and 
 brought before an official, who told her that if she 
 resolutely went on he could not stop her, but he would 
 be executed for letting her pass. She would have no man's 
 blood shed for her, and so — though on the verge of fulfilling 
 her long-cherished idea — she turned back on a terrible 
 return journey to China. The chiefs from Lhassa gave her 
 two horses, an old tent, and some food, as her tents were 
 gone, she being robbed by Noga of two horses, a tent, 
 and nearly all the food ; but half-way back the food was 
 finished, and the tent given away. Miss Taylor being misled 
 by the Tibetans. 
 
 " Sometimes travelling was so dangerous on account of 
 brigands that the escort dare not stop, and travelling went 
 on day and night. On the way to Lhassa, Miss Taylor, 
 with the greatest difficulty, induced them to stay while a 
 tall, strong servant, a Chinese Mohammedan, lay dying of 
 congestion of the lungs, calling pitiably to Allah to help. 
 
 " On the return journey another strong man, a Tibetan, 
 died from the effect of the cold, and Miss Taylor herself 
 at great altitudes had repeated attacks of palpitation. 
 Cooking, when there was anything to cook, was most 
 difficult, as the water boiled with so little heat. Frequently 
 pieces of ice, put in to replenish the pan, floated in boiling 
 
MISS ANNIK K. TAYI.OK'. 
 
^ flEntarhablE (Bx^cxitnct. 17 
 
 water some time before melting. Once she was twenty 
 nights in the open air sleeping on the ground, snow falling 
 all the time, as neither tent nor house was to be found. 
 The horses were almost starved, the snow covering every- 
 thing. The poor animals even ate woollen clothing when 
 they got the chance. A small ration of cheese, mixed 
 with tea and butter, was often all that could be spared 
 for them. Having lost her money, Miss Taylor could not 
 buy a goat. Raw goat's flesh is an emergency food for 
 horses in Tibet, and they like it. In fact, owing to the 
 absence of grass, Tibetan horses will eat almost anything. 
 Crossing fords was a very tiresome task. At first they 
 crossed on rafts made of inflated skins, with a few branches 
 tied across. Later on, swimming on horseback was the 
 only course, and this meant being up to the waist in water, 
 the horse's head alone visible, and running the risk of 
 tumbling into the torrent, and then on the slippery ice. 
 
 " A most remarkable experience was the meeting with 
 the tribe known as the Goloks, governed by a woman 
 chief named Wachu Bumo. This is a most ungovernable 
 tribe, amenable neither to Chinese nor to Tibetan autho- 
 rity, and living entirely by plunder. They go out in 
 irresistible parties of 500 to 2000, and are so certain of 
 victory that the women and children go out .to see the 
 fun. Plunder seems to be profitable, for they are the 
 wealthiest tribe in Tibet. Wachu Bumo took quite a fancy 
 to Miss Taylor, and gave her a royal safeguard. Finally, 
 after many adventures, which will be told in her forth- 
 coming book. Miss Taylor reached Ta Chien Fu, in 
 Chinese territory, on April 12th, having left the Lhassa 
 district on January 22 nd, the first English lady, and cer- 
 tainly the first messenger of the Gospel, to penetrate to the 
 heart of Tibet, 
 
 B 
 
i8 .^om£ JFacts about S^ibet. 
 
 " Many readers, profoundly concerned for the spread of 
 the Gospel, will ask what has all this to do with mission 
 work ? Much, we reply. x\s Livingstone by his great 
 journeys opened the way for the Gospel into dark Africa, 
 so our sister expects that God will use her journey to pave 
 the road for missionaries. She believes that the promise 
 stands good : ' Every place that the sole of your foot shall 
 tread upon, that have I given unto you ' ; and in the name 
 of the Lord God she has taken possession of Tibet, fully 
 anticipating that as soon as the right men arise to go 
 forward and possess the land the way will be made plain, 
 and the Gospel be published in this hitherto inaccessible 
 region." 
 
Hn lEnoliebwoman in Zibet 
 
 Wr'-L HAD the pleasure of contributing the following 
 
 \, article to Tke National Revieiv of September, 
 
 Jilv^ I'^QS- It is here reprinted by the kind permission 
 
 'tS^m y of the Editor. 
 
 <.^ ■ >'^ 
 
 '^ It was not until after various residences of some 
 
 length, between the years 1887 and 1892, on the Indian and 
 the Chinese frontiers of Tibet, during which I had freely 
 mixed with Tibetans, at times worn their dress, and acquired 
 a colloquial use of the language, that I felt fitted to penetrate 
 the interior of the country. My stay on the Indian side had 
 been specially fruitful. I had learnt the language as spoken 
 at the capital, Lhassa (it is more of a dialect on the 
 Chinese side). And it was on this border, when living in a 
 hut among the Tibetans of Sikkim, that I came across my 
 faithful little Tibetan man-servant, Pontso, now with me in 
 England. A native of Lhassa, he had run away from 
 a cruel master to take refuge in India, where he arrived in 
 a pitiable condition. I was asked by some Tibetans to 
 doctor him, and I brought him back to health and strength. 
 He thus became attached to me, and entered my service, 
 to accompany me in 1891, vici Calcutta, to Shanghai, and 
 thence the many weary miles through China till we again 
 reached the Tibetan frontier. 
 
 Here I settled in the old city of Tau-chow, some miles 
 from the modern town, in Kan-suh, the most north-western 
 province of China, to await an opportunity of penetrating 
 into Tibet proper. This opportunity came at last. i\mong 
 
20 ^n CBngltsbinoman in ^ibct. 
 
 my acquaintances in the old Chinese town I counted a 
 Chinese Mohammedan, Noga by name, married to a Lhassa 
 woman called Erminie. Noga had been to Lhassa several 
 times, and on his last expedition had brought away Erminie, 
 who was given him to wife by her mother for the term of 
 three years. That time was now fully up, and Erminie was 
 anxious to return home. They were accordingly thinking 
 over the ways and means of the journey ; and, knowing my 
 desires, proposed that I should engage Noga as guide and 
 head servant, and make the expedition with them. My 
 idea was to pass through the capital, and, after some stay at 
 Lhassa, to travel on across the Himalayan passes to Dar- 
 jeeling, thus traversing the country and getting a general 
 knowledge of the people. Noga agreed to conduct me the 
 whole way ; and we finally concluded a bargain by which 
 he was to make all necessary preparations, receiving money 
 from me for the expenses. 
 
 Among the several advantages which accrued to him, one 
 was that the horses were to be his when the journey was 
 over. I hoped this condition would induce him to buy 
 good and hardy animals ; but in this, as in many other 
 things, I was soon to be undeceived. Much of my money, 
 I afterwards found, he had pocketed or spent in purchases 
 for his own use. 
 
 It was on the 2nd of September, 1892, that I set out on 
 my long-wished-for journey. My party consisted of myself 
 and five Asiatics — Noga, the Chinese Mohammedan guide 
 'and my head servant ; Erminie, the Tibetan woman, Noga's 
 wife till she reached her home at Lhassa ; Leucotze, a 
 young Chinese Mohammedan servant ; Pontso, my faithful 
 Tibetan, who had become a Christian ; and Nobgey, a fellow- 
 traveller, a Tibetan borderman bound for Lhassa. Our 
 cavalcade numbered sixteen horses. Nobgey and Er- 
 minie rode their own ; the other ten were mine, consisting 
 
ilobljcii bu gri0att5s. 21 
 
 of mounts for myself and three servants, and six pack-horses 
 laden with our two tents, bedding, cloths for barter, presents 
 for chiefs, and food for two months. The brigands relieved 
 me of a good part of this luggage, together with two of my 
 horses, a few days after crossing the border ; while poor 
 Nobgey was bereft of nearly all his belongings, and took 
 a sad leave of us to retrace his steps to the Chinese 
 border. Our road first lay through the district inhabited 
 by the agricultural tribes on the frontier. Then we entered 
 the country occupied by the Mongols of the Ko-ko Nor. 
 The pasture there was the richest I have seen in any part of 
 Tibet ; but an idyllic pastoral life is by no means practised 
 by the inhabitants. Brigandage is the general profession. 
 The young men spend their time either in making raids on 
 travellers and on the encampments of other tribes, by which 
 means they mostly acquire their cherished horses, or in 
 practising the art of warfare. I witnessed a military tourna- 
 ment at which some riders at full gallop fired one after 
 another at a small given mark. 
 
 These Tvlongols are tall and fierce-looking, though they 
 proved amiable when friendly. The men shave their heads. 
 Both men and women dress in a gown of sheep-skin girded 
 round the waist, high boots of felt and skin, bound below 
 the knee with a leathern strap or cotton garter, and long 
 white felt coats, which they wear over the sheep-skins when 
 it rains. Their summer hat is of white felt, in shape some- 
 thing like the top hat worn by the old Welsh market-women ; 
 the cap they wear in winter is of white astrakan, shaped like 
 a sugar-loaf, with a red and green cotton brim. The women 
 dress their hair in little plaits, more than a hundred, caught 
 together at the ends in a wide band of coloured cloth, which 
 is embroidered with gay silks and gold thread, and studded 
 with coral and turquoise, silver coins and brass buttons, 
 which they get from Lhassa. The tents are round; the 
 
2 2 ^n C^ttgltsljhioman in l^ibct. 
 
 inner sides of trellis-work, the top of wooden ribs, giving an 
 umbrella shape, and the whole covered with white felt, with 
 an aperture for a small door of wood, and a hole in the roof 
 to let out the smoke. 
 
 We Itfft this district to enter one in comparison with the 
 inhabitants of which the Mongols are very Arcadians. On 
 the 28th of September we crossed the Yellow River (or 
 Ma-chu), as the Tibetans call it, at its first bend westward, 
 and came among the Golok tribes. 
 
 The country of this people extends from that point south- 
 wards as far as a high range of mountains running from east 
 to west, and is watered by the Yellow River. It is treeless 
 and very hilly ; but the pasturage is fairly good in the valleys 
 and on the lower slopes of the mountains, which even in 
 September show a clearly marked snow-line. The Goloks 
 are shorter and slighter in stature than the Mongols, and 
 have higher cheek-bones and rounder faces. The men wear 
 their hair long and hanging down to their shoulders ; their 
 sheep-skins are drawn up by the girdle, forming a kind of 
 kilt below the waist and a large pouch above, in which they 
 always carry their wooden tea bowls, called po-pa, and many 
 other things, when on a journey. The boots are of leather 
 with skin soles and cloth leggings bound below the knee 
 (which is left bare like a Scotch Highlander's) by a long 
 woven garter of various bright-coloured wools. The hats, 
 made of the fur of foxes, sheep-skins, or felt, are of many 
 peculiar shapes. The dress of the women is like that of the 
 men ; but the sheep-skin gowns reach to their ankles. Their 
 hair is in two plaits, hanging down their backs, and enclosed 
 at the ends in a sheath of cloth ornamented with round 
 pieces of amber and cowrie shells, which they buy from the 
 Chinese. Long earrings of silver and coral hang from both 
 ears ; the men limit themselves to one very massive piece of 
 jewellery in the right ear. The tents, utterly unlike those of 
 
Wii (golok Crthc. 23 
 
 the Mongols, are made of woven black cloth of the coarse 
 hair of the yak, the Tibetan ox. They are about forty feet 
 by twenty, and are supported by one small beam on two 
 poles inside and by several props outside. The ropes are 
 made of the hair of the yak's tail. These Golok tj-ibes are 
 the most notorious brigands in Tibet. They are feared 
 both by travellers and by other nomadic people like them- 
 selves, and they acknowledge neither Tibetan nor Chinese 
 sway. Pouring forth upon their preconcerted forays in 
 numbers varying from five hundred to two thousand, they 
 fall upon the tribes in the given district, and, surrounding 
 them close on all sides, carry off, as booty, cattle, horses, 
 sheep, tents, and fire-arms. They never fire upon the 
 affrighted owners unless resistance is offered ; but so sure 
 are they of their prey that some of their women and children 
 accompany them to enjoy the fun. It is not surprising that 
 these people are the biggest cattle-owners in Tibet, a Golok 
 chief being the happy possessor of a good ten thousand 
 head. The tribes thus divested of their cattle and worldly 
 goods sometimes rally to one leader, make an incursion into 
 the Golok country, and continue by stratagem to get back 
 some of their stolen property. They generally, however, 
 prefer the easier way of retaliating upon innocent wayfarers ; 
 and by degrees get a small herd together again by lying in 
 wait for caravans to and from Lhassa. Upon these they 
 descend at night, and carry off the grazing yak and horses to 
 some secluded spot behind the hills, where they hide till the 
 caravan is well on its way again. Thus, the Golok tribe of 
 brigands are in a great measure responsible for the dangers 
 and robberies to which travellers in Tibet are subject. 
 
 I had suffered much from loss of property when I was 
 lucky enough to fall in with a Golok chieftainess. She gave 
 me an escort of two Goloks when I left the country of the 
 marauders, which was on the 19th of October. Shortly 
 
PONTSO AND SIGJU. 
 
gcatlr of a ©Ijincsc ^erhant. 25 
 
 afterwards my young Chinese servant, Leucotze, was taken 
 very ill. The cold and exposure had been too much for 
 him. Tibetan altitudes are great ; and we had ridden in 
 storms of rain and snow, and crossed rivers where there were 
 no ferries or fords. Owing to the danger of the district, we 
 were obliged to press on ; but as the sick man grew worse 
 and worse — he was suffering from pneumonia — I with 
 difficulty induced the two Goloks to halt for a short time. 
 The end was drawing near, and was accelerated by Noga, 
 who insisted upon washing his body before death, Moham- 
 medan fashion. We buried him at noon. A bright sun lighted 
 up the snow-clad hills when the men dug up a few hard sods 
 in some swampy ground close by, laid down the body in its 
 shroud of white cotton cloth, and covered it as best they 
 could with the frost-bound earth. At night the wolves were 
 howling round the grave. This was in the Peigo country. 
 
 Next day we passed into the Sa-chu-ka country, the tribes 
 of which also live by brigandage, though they are so far 
 civilised as to pay taxes to China. The people were friendly, 
 and exchanged two of my tired horses for fresh ones ; but 
 my party kept watch the whole of the night we spent in the 
 native encampment. We were visited by A-tra, a Lhassa 
 man, who had settled in this district and married a woman 
 of the tribe ; and he, Pontso, and Erminie, while keeping 
 the night-watch, passed the time by relating wonderful stories 
 and hairbreadth escapes, and droned out many a Tibetan 
 ballad. 
 
 Leaving this district, our way led us through a more 
 smiling landscape, past monasteries, villages, and fertile 
 crops of barley, peas, and turnips. We stopped the night 
 at a village hard by the Sha-i-Gumpa, and the next day 
 came to the Dri-chu. This we crossed in a boat made 
 of skins tightly stretched over a wooden frame. A steep 
 ascent from the rivers bank brought us to the picturesque 
 
2 6 ^n ^ngltsljhjoman tit l^tbct. 
 
 little town of Gala, whose houses rise one above the other 
 up the mountain. Here we made some stay in the home 
 of a Tibetan couple, Pa-tegn and Per-ma. The courtship 
 and marriage of this couple had been romantic. Pa-tegn, 
 when a baby, was set apart to become a lama. As a boy, 
 he lived at the Lamaserai (or monastery), where he learnt 
 to read and write, and did the duties of a priest. But, 
 when he was about twenty years of age, he fell in love with 
 Per-ma. Celibacy is a sine qua noji for lamas, and the chief 
 was shocked. One fine day, then, this Tibetan Abelard 
 disappeared, and in company with Per-ma made his way to 
 Lhassa. Here Pategn let his hair grow long, cast off his 
 priest's robe, and prosaically took to tailoring and boot- 
 making. On the birth of a girl they returned to Gala with 
 presents to pacify the chief, and settled down in their 
 native town. Their house, like most in the town, was built 
 into the hill ; the stables and cow-shed were on the ground 
 floor ; the first storey contained the kitchen and a small 
 sleeping-room, of which the roof formed the verandah for 
 the storey above. The second storey was the most 
 important. It contained a large open room to receive 
 guests and quarter travellers, and a small prophet's chamber 
 reserved for the lama when he came to read prayers for the 
 benefit of the family. In the roof above were stored the 
 grain and the straw, the latter serving as fodder during the 
 winter months. In looks the inhabitants of Gala bear a 
 strong resemblance to portraits of the time of Charles the 
 First. They have long, narrow faces, aquiline noses, 
 pointed chins, and big lips ; cut their hair in a fringe over 
 the forehead, and wear it hnnging long — men and women 
 alike. Their gowns are of red or blue or white cloth, 
 woven at Lhassa. They drink freely of a spirit distilled 
 from barley, love singing and dancing, and, like most 
 Tibetans, are full of fun. Pategn, who was an experienced 
 
lea-iDnnkin0. 27 
 
 traveller (having even reached Tau-chow, my starting place 
 on these travels), journeyed on with me from Gala, 
 replacing poor Leucotze in my service. Our route lay 
 over the Rab-la, one of the most difficult passes in Tibet. 
 We stopped a night at the village of Rab-da, and on the 
 morrow we passed by Ma-ni-tang, a largish town for Tibet, 
 on our way to the big and important town Ke-gu. We first 
 caught sight of the Ke-gu Lamaserai beautifully situated 
 on the top of a high rock at the foot of which lies the 
 town. 
 
 Ke-gu, the half-way halting place on the famous tea road 
 between the Chinese border town Ta-chien-lu and the 
 Tibetan capital, is the centre of the tea trade, and accord- 
 ingly the residence of numerous tea-merchants. It has 
 many Chinese inhabitants, a mandarin from Si-ning, and a 
 mandarin from Lan-chav. It is the Chinese who chiefly 
 bring the tea here, to sell it to the Tibetan merchants, who 
 forward it to Lhassa. The currency in this trade is the 
 Indian rupee, which, however, is often dispensed with ; and 
 then the tea is bartered by the Chinese for wool, hides, and 
 furs, gold dust, mercury, and other Tibetan products, for 
 importation into China. The tea (branches as well as i 
 leaves) is packed in pressedTiricks about fourteen inches! 
 long, ten wide, and four thick. Eight of these bricks are! 
 sewn in a skin, and a yak carries two skins. All Tibetans 
 drink tea. They boil it, branches and all, in water with a 
 little soda and salt, and before drinking add butter, barley 
 flour (which is called tsampa), and dried native cheese. 
 The solid part of this mixture when merely moistened with 
 a little liquid tea and made up into hard balls is called ba, 
 and forms the staple food of Tibet. The chief meat 
 consumed is mutton, upon which the black tent people 
 almost live. Sheep are cheap. In the interior of the 
 country they cost from one rupee to two rupees. For 
 
2 8 ^n (BngUsIjtDoman in Cilict. 
 
 winter consumption they are killed early in the cold season, 
 and the meat is frozen. 
 
 Leaving Ke-gu after a lengthy stay, we followed the tea 
 'road as far as the Pau-gau Lamaserai. Here we quitted the 
 highway for a mountainous route, which took us over the 
 Pass 0-may, till we reached Tash-e-Gumpa, which is 
 situated on the river Tsa-chu. By this monastery we took 
 up our quarters for twenty days in a cave excavated in the 
 gravel of the hill-side ; and we were kindly treated by the 
 chief lama, from whom we obtained' a horse and some food 
 in exchange for a few remaining English goods. Here the 
 Chinaman Noga, who had behaved very badly the whole 
 time, with his wife Erminie, left me, carrying off one of my 
 horses, a mule, and the larger of my tents. I was not sorry 
 to get rid of him ; for he had frequently threatened, and 
 even attacked, my life. My party now consisted of myself 
 and the two Tibetans Pontso and Pategn. Besides the 
 horse obtained from the chief lama, we had three worn-out 
 hacks left, two of which we exchanged for old beasts with 
 little flesh on their bones. The remaining tent I was 
 obliged to sell for bare necessaries : so from now, the 15th 
 of December, we slept in the open air, choosing holes in 
 the ground, that we might have a little shelter from the cold 
 high winds. Joining a small caravan on the way to an 
 encampment, we first followed a road through a valley 
 thickly populated with nomads, and watered by the Tsa-chu, 
 which we frequently crossed. After a march of seven days, 
 we again struck the tea road, and, crossing the mountain- 
 pass Tsa-nang-los-bu-la, came to the district Damchung, 
 watered by the I^ong-chu. Having crossed this river, we 
 traversed a small plain, and partly following the stream up 
 its course, came to the Dam-jau-er-la, one of the highest and 
 most dreaded Tibetan passes. The cold here is generally 
 so intense that many travellers freeze by the wayside. 
 
I^earittg Jtljassa. 29 
 
 Stopping to attend the cold-stricken men would only mean 
 destruction to the rest of the party. We came unscathed 
 through this redoubtable pass to cross another, the Long-er- 
 tsa-ke-la. The valleys here were populated thickly with 
 the black tent tribes, who, judged by their large herds of 
 cattle and horses, were evidently well-to-do. 
 
 We still marched, with slow pace and sorry exterior, 
 along the tea road, which took us on over the So-ba-ner-la, 
 and on the 28th of December across the Sok-chu, the river 
 followed up by Captain Bower on his late expedition, till it 
 brought us within sight at last of the boundary of our 
 promised land — the waters of the Bo-Chu, which confine 
 the Lhassa district, the sacred province of tj. We were 
 prepared for this : we had been meeting large caravans 
 returning from the capital. On the last day of the old year 
 (1892) we crossed the river and found ourselves within the 
 sacred district. 
 
 Pategn told me that last year, when he travelled by, 
 there were a troop of soldiers encamped there, on the look- 
 out for a European traveller who (they had heard) was on 
 his way to Lhassa. The U province is governed by the 
 Lhassa lamas in the person of a chief appointed from the 
 capital. On the side we entered, one chief rules over the 
 district Na-chu-ka between the Bo-Chu and the confines of 
 Leu-dring-tsong ; which latter is under the sway of another 
 head, the Pem-ba chief. 
 
 On the other side of the Bo-Chu the road took us over 
 the Peh-la-me. We recrossed the river, passed by an 
 encampment on the banks of a small lake called Ang-nga, 
 and by a steep descent came to a deep gorge, through 
 which flowed the Da-chu, which we crossed to pursue our 
 way over a very stony course. At this point we were 
 suddenly confronted by two fully-armed Tibetan soldiers, 
 who bade us halt and informed us we were their prisoners. 
 
30 ^n (Bn^lisljtnoman in ®ibct. 
 
 We had perforce to stop, and, resigning ourselves to the 
 situation, took up our position on the banks of a frozen 
 stream hard by. This was on the 3rd of January. We 
 were very soon surrounded by soldiers ; but it was not 
 until the evening, upon the arrival of a chief, that we learnt 
 the reason of our detention. Noga had by making long 
 stages arrived with the woman, some few days ago, at 
 Na-chu-ko-kang. He had informed the resident chief that 
 while on the road he had met two Tibetans conducting a 
 European lady through the country. He had told them to 
 take her back to China, which they had flatly refused to do : 
 so, accordingly, at great inconvenience, he had hurried on 
 to give information to the Government. He hinted his 
 expectations of a reward ; but the chief wished first to be 
 assured the story was true. Then Noga regretted he must 
 hurry on to Lhassa ; but the chief, whose duty it was to 
 send scouts in every direction (no joke in case of a hoax), 
 refused to allow him to go till his information had been 
 verified. The wily Chinaman was caught in his own trap. 
 
 In three days there arrived a military chief of some 
 importance. His sheep-skin was trimmed with a wide 
 band of bright blue lasting of European manufacture, and 
 was bordered with a broad strip of beaver ; but what 
 specially drew my attention was the fantastic way in which 
 his hair was dressed. The fringe across his forehead was 
 caught together at the ends in a kind of horizontal Grecian 
 plait not unlike the plaited edging of straw litters in a well- 
 appointed stable ; his back hair hung down in plaits which 
 started from the crown of the head. Of his earrings, gold 
 and coral, one was pendant, and the other a round piece of 
 jewellery. His sword sheath was of massive silver, studded 
 with coral and turquoise. As soon as his tent was pitched 
 he sent for Pontso, and cross-questioned him about the 
 foreign lady and himself. Then he invited me to his tent, 
 
^ Son^ gag's ffXavclj, 31 
 
 and asked me where I was going to, where I came from, 
 and whether I had made any maps. He informed me that 
 he could not allow me to continue my journey ; but he was 
 on the whole very friendly. Both Pontso and Pategn w^ere 
 strictly watched ; and, after settling down for the night's 
 rest in the most comfortable hole to be found, were 
 surrounded all night by at least twenty soldiers. I myself 
 was left unmolested in my narrow coffin-shaped hole. I 
 had demanded that Noga and his wife should be brought 
 before me, that I might clear my servants of the charge 
 Noga had brought against them. For this the presence of 
 a Lhassa chief was necessary ; and, on the sixth day of our 
 detention, orders were given to set out, and we did a long 
 day's march towards Lhassa. It w^as so cold that my limbs 
 grew stiff and numb, and I had to stop and get my servants 
 to collect some cattle dung (the Tibetan fuel) and light a 
 fire by the way. 
 
 When we arrived at our journey's end, they pitched a tent 
 for us. We were close to the conjunction of the Si-ning 
 and the Tea road. There are three roads to Lhassa — one 
 by Nag-chu-ko-kang, where custom is levied from all the tea 
 caravans, was situated on the other side of a hill close by. 
 For the levying of this custom, two Lhassa chiefs reside 
 permanently at Nag-chu-ko-kang ; and both of them, 
 accompanied by a chief of lesser importance, came to 
 interview us, bringing Noga and Erminie with them. As 
 soon as their tents were pitched, they sent for Pontso ; and 
 they subsequently asked me to come before them. As a 
 mat was not placed for me on which to sit, I sent for one ; 
 and when they tried to browbeat me I refused to answer 
 impolite questions. Noga at first denied all we said ; but 
 upon his wife being cross-examined a little of the truth was 
 extracted. During the trial, which lasted several days, 
 communication with Lhassa was kept up continuously. A 
 
 / 
 
32 ^n CSnglisljiiromatt in ^tbet. 
 
 youth who had been to Sikkim was sent to the encampment, 
 and proved the truth of Pontso entering my service there. 
 Word was sent from headquarters that I was to be treated 
 well ; whereupon the chiefs treated me with respect. We 
 excited much curiosity: and Pontso was often invited in 
 the evening to the chiefs' tents, to entertain them by 
 accounts of the lives of the English, of what he had seen 
 in India, and the railways and steamships by which he had 
 travelled. They were also interested in my attempts ; and 
 told me that of all later European travellers I had reached 
 the nearest to Lhassa, from which we were only a three-days' 
 ride. The ultimatum of the trial was that if I liked I could 
 go on to Lhassa. Should I do so, however, they, the 
 chiefs, having given me this permission, would lose their 
 lives, and my servants would be seized. I, as an Annia (a 
 woman religious teacher), would surely not wish to bring 
 about the death of innocent men? Should I, however, 
 decide to return to China, all necessities for our journey as 
 far back as Ke-gu, the half-way halt, would be given. 
 
 The true case of the matter was pretty obvious ; but I 
 was not in a position to fly in the face of such persuasive 
 opposition. They gave me two extra horses, an old tent, 
 provisions, and ten ounces of silver in rupees and Tibetan 
 money. An escort of ten soldiers was to accompany us for 
 eleven stages ; but a few days after we left the encampment, 
 which was on the i8th of January, we overtook a yak 
 caravan, on which our escort quitted us. The progress of 
 this caravan was too slow for us. We went on ahead, to 
 arrive on the 2nd of February at Tash-e-gumpa, where we 
 had lived in the gravel cave from the 26th of November till 
 the 15th of December. 
 
 Fortunately, we pitched our tent on the side of the river 
 opposite to that of the monastery. Crowds of hostile- 
 looking lamas collected on the banks to watch us. The 
 
Bin ganger of bnxtQ ^tontti. 33 
 
 chief who had been friendly to us was away ; but the head 
 lama in charge told Pategn on the morrow that Erminie, 
 before she and Noga had abandoned us, had spread the 
 report that I was a witch, could see through mountains and 
 inside all the temples, and took note of all the gold and 
 silver in the mountains. On our re-arrival, therefore, the 
 lamas wanted to stone myself and my servants and throw 
 our bodies into the river. This the head priest prevented 
 them from doing : arguing that, as the chief at Nag-chu-ka 
 had given me a tent and two horses, I could not be what 
 Erminie represented. 
 
 From here our difficulties were much increased by the 
 great depth of the snow. Three of our horses succumbed, 
 for the grass was scanty and hard to procure. As the yak 
 caravan caught us up, we continued with it till we reached 
 Ke-gu, which was on the 21st of February. Here Pategn 
 left us to return to his home at Ga-la ; for I no longer 
 intended to retrace my steps, thinking it best to continue 
 along the Tea road to Ta-chien-lu, and, once in China, to 
 travel up the Yang-tse river to Shanghai. I gave him, in 
 part payment for his services, two of the remaining three 
 horses and the tent (which, I was told, I should no longer 
 require). My last horse was spirited away, and we found / 
 ourselves in a predicament. The two Chinese officials were 
 changing ; the old ones had left for China, and their sue- • 
 cessors were not yet arrived ; the lama chiefs told us we 
 must not stay ; the people refused to sell us horses. We 
 finally came to terms with some 0-gan-ze men returning to 
 their native town. They were to lend us two horses for the 
 journey, and to provide food and lodging for the night in 
 rest houses, for a certain sum of money, which they wanted 
 paid down. They were not particular as to keeping their 
 w^ord. Instead of stopping at the rest houses, they encamped 
 in the open for the sake of economy, pihng up the packs to 
 
 c 
 
34 ^tt (BnctUsIjtooman in ^xbct. 
 
 the weather side for shelter. The day after leaving Ke-gu 
 we passed the boundary line between Amdo and Kham on 
 a mountain, and stayed a night at Kar-sa, where tea-mer- 
 chants reside. 1'his town, like all others in Kham, is 
 nominally under the rule of the Chinese officials of Si-chuen, 
 whereas Amdo is governed by Si-ning. We crossed the 
 Dri-chu (Yang-tse-kiang), on the ice, which was not too 
 strong, and made for the mountain pass of Mo-ro-la, near 
 the summit of which we had to spend the night. The cold 
 was so intense that one of the horses was found frozen in 
 the morning. It had snowed nearly every night. 
 
 On entering the Kong-pa-sa-ga we put up at a good-sized 
 inn. The people seemed well-to-do. The country is fertile, 
 and pigs and fowls are plentiful — the first we had seen since 
 we left the Chinese border. We passed on by Kor-ta-ge- 
 gumpa, which is walled round. The houses are built of 
 clay or bricks or stone, as far as the first storey, which is 
 of wood ; the pretty little trellis-work windows are lined 
 with coloured tissue paper. Here there is a huge prayer-_ 
 wheel. The benefit of the prayers wafted around is shared 
 by the men who grind them out. After crossing the Tza- 
 chu we arrived at 0-gan-ze, whither the men had undertaken 
 to bring us. It is a large town, the residence of a Chinese 
 official, a Tibetan chief, and nierchants. On the night of 
 our arrival one of the men, one who had been troubled 
 with numbed knees from the great cold, especially on the 
 mountain passes, was taken ill and died — just able to see 
 his wife and family. That I should have survived the 
 exposure of this journey, to which two strong men had 
 succumbed, was indeed marvellous. 
 
 I stayed a few days, and was much struck by the inhabi- 
 tants. The men are tall and broad, with round faces, high 
 cheek-bones, short noses, and Chinese eyes. They cut 
 their hair in a fringe in front, and, that they may have a 
 
plait reaching to the ground, add a quantity of false hair to I 
 the back. In this they insert two or three ivory rings ; 
 then they catch it up and wind it round the head in the 
 guise of a turban. The women dress their hair in tiny » 
 plaits — I counted one hundred and thirty-eight on one 
 head — and wear gowns of wool or cotton cloth, white or 
 red or blue. Their jewellery, in which they delight, is of 
 silver and coral and turquoises. These 0-gan-ze men make 
 their livelihood as carriers between Ta-chien-lu and Ke-gu, 
 and for this purpose keep horses and mules. The price of 
 a pack-horse to cover this distance is ten or twelve rupees. 
 They consider they have the monopoly, and attack men 
 from other parts of the country who venture along their 
 road. 
 
 Leaving 0-gan-ze, we passed Da-tong, on the river Kon-sa, 
 and the town of Oh-trang-go, where there are many Tibetan 
 shop-keepers and a colony of five hundred Chinese. After [ 
 Sau-ri-gumpa, an important place, we next reached Kham- 1 
 ga-dak, where the temple is roofed with sheets of gold. A I 
 small house was pointed out to us as the birthplace of a' 
 former Buddha of Lhassa. Our road now made a deep 
 descent and led us through beautiful forests. In these the 
 province of Kham abounds ; villages and monasteries are 
 scattered about the hillsides : and the ground is tilled by 
 the inhabitants— a pleasing contrast to the grass lands of 
 Amdo, where the people mostly are nomadic. On the top 
 of the Ya-ra-la we passed a small lake, so deep that it had 
 never been fathomed, in which (we w^re told) a horse 
 lived. 
 
 My Tibetan trip w^as now drawing to a close, and in a 
 few days we arrived at the town of Ta-chien-lu, in the 
 Chinese province of Si-chuen. This was on the 12th of 
 April, 1893, seven months and ten days since I had set out 
 from the Chinese town Tau-chow, in the province Kan-suh. 
 
MISS TAYLOR READING TO PONTSO AND SIGJU. 
 
fll>? i£ypcnencc5 in Zibet 
 
 WAS privileged some time since to read the fol- 
 lowing paper at Meetings of the Royal Scottish 
 Geographical Society in Edinburgh and Glasgow. 
 
 Ill addressing the members of a learned Society, 
 as I have the honour and pleasure of doing this 
 afternoon, I feel much regret that, owing to my lack of 
 scientific knowledge and the w^ant of instruments, I was 
 unable, during my late journey through Tibet, to make 
 any of those observations which I know are valued by 
 such a body. Tibet is, however, so little known, and 
 information so scarce regarding its accessibility by travellers, 
 that I feel that a short relation of my experiences, and 
 a statement of facts, the knowledge of which I reaped in my 
 late journey in that country and during my residence at 
 various times on its frontiers, will not be uninteresting. I 
 will deal especially with Eastern Tibet, of which I have the 
 most experience. 
 
 There are three high-roads from the Chinese borders to 
 the Tibetan capital, Lhassa. Two start at the south-east of 
 Tibet, from Ta-chien-lu, the border-town in the Chinese 
 province of Sze-chuen. Of these one is the official, or 
 Ba-li-tang-Lam {/am is Tibetan for road), and is used by 
 the Mandarins, and by official couriers ; the other is the 
 Tea Road or Ga-Lam, the route of the tea caravans. The 
 third high-road starts from Si-ning (north-east of Tibet) in 
 the Chinese province of Kan-su, and is called the Si-ning 
 Lam. In the centre of the Nag-chu-ka district of Tibet 
 
38 
 
 illTJ (Experiences in t^ibct. 
 
 bAKLY MORNING 
 
 Miss Taylor visiting Encawpinent in the Mountains of Gnatong. 
 Mission Hut in the distance. 
 
 proper, and but a few days' journey from Lhassa, the Si-ning 
 Road converges into the Tea Road. 
 
 Of these three routes the official is the shortest. Another 
 advantage it has consists in the rest-houses at intervals by 
 the roadside, where travellers can stay, and fresh horses be 
 hired. It is, however, the most mountainous of the roads, 
 and consequently the most expensive to travel by. Nor 
 is it freer from marauders and robbers than any other 
 road. 
 
 The Tea Road traverses a country dotted over with 
 numerous villages, and has rest-houses at intervals of long 
 stages, as far as the town of Ke-gu, the centre of the tea 
 trade, and the half-way halting-place between the Chinese 
 frontier and the Tibetan capital. From Ke-gu onwards 
 there are on either side of the Tea Road numerous black-tent 
 
liring ^ak. 39 
 
 encampments, at which meat can be bought and tired- 
 out horses exchanged for fresh ones. In the early part 
 of the year mules can be hired for travelling by this route, 
 but they are generally only taken as far as Ke-gu, at a hire 
 of ten to twelve rupees each for the journey. Thence to 
 Lhassa : the Tibetan ox, or yak, the Bos grimiens^ is 
 employed, at the hire of four bricks of tea the animal. The 
 conditions upon hiring yak are : that if they die on the 
 road, or are carried off by brigands other than the Golok 
 tribes, the hirer bears the loss. With regard to the formid- 
 able Golok tribes just referred to, their attacks are so 
 irresistible, that if they are the marauders, the hirer of the 
 yak need not make good the loss — the merchant loses his 
 merchandise, the drog-pa his yak. Should, however, the 
 drog-pa (or cattle-owner) accompany the travellers, he has 
 to be kept during the journey ; but, on the other hand, no 
 compensation is made for animals dying or lost on the road. 
 The Tea Road is not difficult to travel along, comparatively 
 speaking. Although the mountains are high, their ascent 
 and descent are mostly gradual. The water supply is plen- 
 tiful, but the grass is in some places very scarce, by reason 
 of the large herds of cattle, belonging to the black-tent 
 settlements before referred to, which graze by the roadside. 
 
 The Si-ning Road, the direction of which, as you see, is 
 south-west, passes for the most part through uninhabited 
 country. The pasturage is good, but water at times is scarce. 
 This is the least mountainous of all the roads. 
 
 From every town on the Chinese borders a road starts to 
 Lhassa, but they all eventually merge into one of the three 
 high-roads above mentioned. I set out in my late journey 
 from the town of Tao-chow, known to the Tibetans as 
 Wa-tze, on the Chinese borders of the province of Kan-su, 
 by a road, which, after a few days' journey, joins the road 
 running between the huge monastery La-ber-long (Tibetan 
 
40 itt^ (B^pcrtenccs in ^xbct. 
 
 name, Am-do Ta-shi gumpa) — to which are attached five 
 thousand lamas — and the important town of Ke-gu. 
 
 Tao-chow Hes some Httle distance from the river Tao, and 
 the old city, at which I lived, is the centre of trade with 
 Tibet and that part of Kan-su. This district is separated 
 from Tibet by a range of hills, traversable by three passes, 
 at which there are gates, guarded by Chinese soldiers, where 
 custom dues are levied. 
 
 Between the years 1 887-1 892 I had made sojourns of 
 some length on the Tibetan borders, two on the Indian 
 frontier, two on the Chinese. My last stay on the Indian 
 side had been especially fruitful, for I had learnt the 
 language as spoken at Lhassa. And it was on this border, 
 when living in a hut among the Tibetans of Sikkim, that 
 I came across my faithful little Tibetan man-servant, 
 Pontso, now with me. A native of Lhassa, he had run 
 away from a cruel master to take refuge in India, where 
 he arrived in a pitiable condition. He was sent by some 
 Tibetan neighbours to me to doctor him, and, with the 
 blessing of God, I brought him back to health and strength. 
 Becoming attached to me on this account, he entered my 
 service, to accompany me, in 1891, via Calcutta to 
 Shanghai, and thence for many long miles through China, 
 till we again reached the Tibetan frontier. Here I settled 
 in the old city of Tao-chow (there is a modern Tao-chow a 
 few miles off). to await an opportunity of penetrating into 
 the interior of Tibet. This opportunity came at last. 
 
 Among my acquaintances in the old Chinese town I 
 counted a Chinese Mohammedan, Noga by name, married 
 to a Lhassa woman called Erminie. Noga had been to 
 Lhassa several times, and on his last expedition had brought 
 away Erminie, who was given him to wife by her mother 
 for the term of three years. That time was now fully up, 
 and Erminie was anxious to return home. They were 
 
Mattticnn0 iltitatrians. 
 
 4t 
 
 accordingly thinking over ways and means of making the 
 journey, and, knowing my desires, proposed that I should 
 engage Noga as guide and head servant, and accompany 
 them on the expedition. My idea was to make some stay 
 at the capital, and thence to travel on across the Himalayan 
 passes to Darjeeling, thus traversing the country and 
 getting a general knowledge of the people, with a view to 
 prepare the way for mission work. Noga agreed to conduct 
 me the whole way ; and we finally concluded a bargain by 
 which he was to make all necessary preparations, receiving 
 money from me for the expenses. 
 
 It was on the 2nd of September, 1892, that I set out on 
 my long-wished-for journey. My party consisted of myself 
 and five Asiatics : Noga, the Chinese Mohammedan guide 
 and my head servant ; Erminie, the Tibetan woman. 
 
 TIBETAN WANDERING MUSICIANS. 
 
42 IHu (Bx^ct'unuz in ^ibzt, 
 
 Noga's wife, who was to travel with us as far as Lhassa ; 
 I.eucotze, a young Chinese Mohammedan servant ; Pontso, 
 my faithful Tibetan, who had become a Christian ; and 
 Nobgey, a fellow-traveller, a Tibetan borderman, bound 
 for Lhassa. Our cavalcade numbered sixteen horses : 
 Nobgey and Erminie rode their own ; the others were mine, 
 and consisted of mounts for myself and three servants, and 
 of six pack-horses, laden with our two tents, bedding, cloths 
 for barter, presents for chiefs, and food for two months. 
 The brigands relieved me of a good part of this luggage, 
 together with two of my horses, a few days after crossing 
 the border; while poor Nobgey w^as bereft of nearly all his 
 belongings, and took a sad leave of us, to retrace his steps 
 to the Chinese border. 
 
 Our road lay at first through the district inhabited by the 
 agricultural tribes on the frontier. Fertile fields, populous 
 villages, temples surrounded by trees, met our eyes ; while 
 the picturesque natives in their bright cotton jackets and 
 sheepskin gowns, bordered with cloths of various colours — 
 with their smiling faces and animated looks, singing or 
 chatting while working in the fields, struck me by the vivid 
 contrast to the sober looks and apathetic appearance of the 
 Chinese on the other side. 
 
 But the country inhabited by the Drog-pa, or black-tent, 
 people is soon reached ; and here the aspect of the country 
 changes. At first shrubs are to be seen ; but these gra- 
 dually disappear, and the country becomes a cheerless 
 waste. These Drog-pa are divided into various tribes ; and 
 the tribes into numerous encampments. A head chief is 
 acknowledged by the tribe ; while a minor one rules over 
 each encampment. The Mongol tribes who have settled, 
 in this district — namely, the Koko-Nor, between whom and 
 their Tibetan neighbours there is continual strife — speak 
 the Mongolian as well as the Tibetan languages. On 
 
OEljc iHontjoIs. 43 
 
 account of their pillaging propensities, they are forbidden 
 to cross the Chinese border ; but Chinese merchants come 
 to them. They prefer, however, to trade with the lamas of 
 the monastery of La-ber-long. The Mongol women em- 
 broider artistically with gold thread and coloured silks. 
 They also make eye-protectors of horse-hair, worn by the 
 natives as a protection against snow-blindness ; and manu- 
 facture large quantities of felt. This they use for tents, 
 as also for rain-cloaks and other coverings. Their tents 
 are different from those of the Tibetans ; their dress and 
 mode of life are very similar. The women milk, churn, 
 and tend the young cattle ; the boys and old men watch 
 the flocks and herds. The young men spend their time 
 in practising the arts of warfare, in waylaying and attacking 
 travellers, and in fighting other tribes in the surrounding 
 country. The Upper Yellow River, or Ma-chu, forms the 
 boundary of the district inhabited by this people. This 
 river we crossed on a pontoon, made by four inflated 
 bullock-skins — one at each corner of a hurdle-like raft of 
 interwoven branches. This was pulled across the river by 
 two horses swimming, guided by two men, who floated on 
 the water with a foot on the hurdle. 
 
 The Golok people on the other side of the river are very 
 different from the Mongols in appearance, but much the 
 same in their love of plunder and pillage. Gold is to be 
 found in this district, both in the mountains and in the 
 sands of the rivers ; but brigandage is the chief occupation. 
 Nevertheless, I was hospitably entertained in their settle- 
 ments — notably by a Golok chieftainess, who, upon my 
 leaving their country, gave me an escort of two men ta 
 accompany me into a safer region. 
 
 We next came into the Sa-chu-ka country, which is rocky 
 and stony. The tribes here also live by brigandage, though 
 they are so far civilized as to pay taxes to China. Then 
 
44 iHu (S^pcriences in l^iijct. 
 
 we reached the monastery Sha-e-gumpa, and traversed a 
 more smiling landscape, past monasteries, villages, and 
 fertile crops of barley, peas, and turnips. The Tibetan 
 monasteries that I saw did not consist, like the European, 
 of one or more huge blocks of buildings ; but, on the con- 
 trary, of many small gaily-painted houses of various shapes, 
 grouped round the big square temple. Sha-e-gumpa, 
 situated high on a hill, was a most fantastic conglomeration 
 of odd shapes and many bright colours. The next day we 
 crossed the Di-chu (the Yang-tse-Kiang of China) and 
 came to the picturesque little town of Gala, built, like 
 most Tibetan towns, into the side of the hill. In the 
 summer-time the Chinese find their way here to buy the 
 gold washed by the Tibetans from the sand of the river. 
 These latter exchange it for fifteen times its weight of not 
 very pure silver ; while the buyers get eighteen times its 
 weight on Chinese soil. The rocks at Gala are of a peculiar 
 green shade, indicating the presence of copper. In appear- 
 ance the inhabitants of Gala bear a strong resemblance 
 to portraits of the time of Charles the First. They have 
 long, narrow faces, aquiline noses, pointed chins, and big 
 lips ; cut their hair in a fringe over the forehead, and wear 
 it in long locks — men and women alike. Their gowns are 
 of red, blue, or white cloth, woven at Lhassa. They drink 
 freely of a spirit distilled from barley ; love singing and 
 dancing ; and, like most Tibetans, are full of fun. Our 
 Tibetan host, by name Pategn, with whose wife and little 
 children I became very intimate, consented to join my 
 little train, to replace Leucotze, my young Chinese Moham- 
 medan servant, who had died from exposure as we were 
 leaving the Golok country. 
 
 We next crossed the Rab-la, one of the most formidable 
 passes of Tibet, and leaving behind us the large town, 
 Ma-ni-tang, we came to the town Ke-gu, the half-way 
 
dljititsc antr Wtbctan ffltvchmts. 
 
 45 
 
 halting-place on the Tea Road, and the centre of the tea 
 trade. This town is the residence of numerous tea-mer- 
 chants, whose interests are guarded by a mandarin from 
 Si-ning and another from Lan-chow. It is the Chinese 
 who chiefly bring the tea here, to sell it to the Tibetan 
 merchants, who forward it to Lhassa. The currency in 
 
 this trade is the Indian rupee, 
 which, however, is often dis- 
 pensed with, and then the tea 
 is bartered by the Chinese for 
 wool, hides, and furs, gold dust,, 
 mercury, and other Tibetan 
 products, for importation into 
 China. The tea, branches as 
 well as leaves, is packed in 
 compressed bricks, about four- 
 teen inches long, ten wide,, 
 and four thick. This tea is- 
 literally the sweepings of the 
 plantations, and the dried 
 leaves and branches of other 
 plants are mixed with it. Eight 
 of these bricks are sewed in a skin, and a yak carries two- 
 skins. All Tibetans drink tea. They boil it, branches and 
 all, in water, with a little soda and salt, and before drinking 
 add butter, barley flour (which is called tsanipd), and dried 
 native cheese. The solid part of this mixture, when merely 
 moistened with a Httle liquid tea and made into hard balls, 
 is called ba^ and forms the staple food of Tibet. The chief 
 meat consumed is mutton, upon which the black-tent 
 people almost live.' Sheep are cheap. In the interior of 
 the country they cost from one rupee to two rupees. For 
 winter consumption they are killed early in the cold season, 
 and are frozen. 
 
 LHASSA WOMAN AND SON. 
 
 {For7)ierly Landlady of Mission Hut at 
 
 Gnatong. ) 
 
46 iEij (Bx^tvicnctz in tlTtbct. 
 
 Turning our backs on Ke-gu, we followed the Tea Road 
 through the midst of numerous nomad tribes. These do 
 not follow the freebooting profession, but are adepts at the 
 less honourable one of petty thieving (these are Tibetan 
 sentiments !). Mercury is found in this district. It is called 
 by the Tibetans white earth poison, and is one of the exports 
 to China. Salt and mineral soda are also to be obtained? 
 and find ready sale at Lhassa and other parts of Tibet, 
 being important items in Tibetan tea-making. 
 
 We left the high or Tea Road at the Pangan monastery 
 for a mountainous route, which brought us to Tash-e-gumpa 
 (^/('w/^ = monastery), which is situated on the river Tsa-chu, 
 and is the half-way halt between Ke-gu and Lhassa. We 
 then continued our way along the valley of the river Tsa-chu. 
 Here volcanic energy had evidently been at work. The 
 variegated soil — red, pink, grey, brown, and white — was a 
 novel sight. I especially admired the red earth, which cast 
 a pretty pink glov>^ on the sheep and horses grazing by the 
 roadside. We passed a mineral spring, which threw a jet a 
 foot above the ground. Our horses, though very thirsty, the 
 rivers being frozen over, w^ould not touch the waters from 
 this spring, for they were bitter. 
 
 Upon crossing the Dam-jan-er-la, one of the most dreaded 
 passes (though its ascent is gradual), we reached a greater 
 elevation than any we had yet surmounted. The cold here 
 is generally so intense that travellers often freeze by the 
 wayside. Stopping to attend frost-bitten men would only 
 ^ mean destruction to the rest of the party. Breathing was 
 very difficult, and I awoke in the night gasping for breath. 
 I also suffered much from palpitation of the heart. It is 
 probably known to you that the average elevation of Great 
 Tibet is some 15,000 feet (the greatest altitude in the world, 
 Mount Everest, is 29,000 feet). I was unable to make any 
 scientific observations beyond noticing that on this pass our 
 
^alahcnn0 toitb^ Ifljassa Cljicfs. 47 
 
 water boiled at so low a point that it was little more than 
 tepid. We had to drink our tea very quickly to prevent a 
 crust of ice forming on the top. And we took good care to 
 touch no steel or iron for the sake of our epidermis. We 
 came unscathed through this redoubtable pass, and crossed 
 the Long-er-tsa-ke-la. On our descent we found the valleys 
 thickly populated with the black-tent tribes, rich in large 
 herds of cattle and horses. 
 
 We still marched on with slow pace and sorry exterior 
 along the Tea Road, which took us on over the So-ba-ner-Ia, 
 and on the 28th of December across the Sok-chu, the river 
 followed by Captain Bower on his late expedition, till we 
 came at last within sight of the boundary of our promised 
 land, the waters of the Bo-chu, which here separate the 
 province of Amdo from the sacred province of U. We were 
 prepared for this, for we had been meeting large caravans 
 returning from the capital. On the last day of the old year 
 {1892) we crossed the river, and found ourselves within the 
 Lhassa district. 
 
 Had I been strong enough, it would have been wise to 
 have left our horses here, and continued the journey on 
 foot, following up the course of the frozen river, as it winds 
 in and out among the mountains, until we had reached a 
 point near Lhassa. The natives say that this is some- 
 times done. But the road is long, and the tribes dwelling 
 on the banks of the river share the freebooting propensities 
 of the eastern tribes : I therefore resolved to follow the 
 usual route. After twice crossing the river, and passing a 
 small lake called Ang-nga, our horses picked their way over 
 a very stony course and down a steep descent till we came 
 to the Da-chu, flowing through a deep gorge. Two days 
 after crossing this river I was taken prisoner, to be con- 
 ducted later on by military escort a very long day's journey 
 nearer to Lhassa, within an hour or so of Nag-chuko-kang. 
 
48 itt^j (Bipcricnrca in i^ibct. 
 
 I was then within three stages of Lhassa, and at the junc- 
 tion of the Si-ning and the Tea Roads. 
 
 After much palavering with the Lhassa chiefs who came 
 to interview me, I finally had to give up Lhassa for this 
 time, and with my Tibetan servants, Pontso and Pategn, 
 set out on my return journey to Ke-gu, varying the route 
 by not always keeping to the high road. 
 
 After a long stay at Ke-gu, where I mixed much with the 
 natives, we started for China in a south-easterly direction, 
 with some muledrivers returning to Oganze, which is on the 
 Tea Road, half-way to Ta-chien-lu. We soon entered the 
 province of Kham, which with Amdo are the two principal 
 Tibetan provinces that pay tribute to China. The taxes 
 and customs levied in U are paid to the royal lama at 
 Lhassa. But it v/ere a difficult task to detail the relation 
 of the various parts of Tibet, either to the Tibetan or the 
 Chinese Government ; still more to define exactly the nature 
 of this relationship. We passed numerous small towns 
 and villages, and the country, though mountainous, is,, 
 unlike the other mountainous districts we had traversed^ 
 well wooded and with occasional fertile districts. Hot 
 sulphur springs abound as well as other springs of mineral 
 waters, much valued by the Tibetans for their medicinal 
 properties. I saw rocks of slate ; and coal is found in 
 abundance. It is used by the natives as fuel, but is not 
 in great demand until the Chinese border is reached. 
 
 My Tibetan trip was now drawing to a close, and on 
 the 1 2th of April, 1893, I arrived at the town of Ta- 
 chien-lu, in the Chinese province of Sze-chuen. 
 
 This journey, which lasted seven months and ten days 
 from the date I left Tao-chow in Kan-su to my arrival in 
 Ta-chien-lu, cost me about ^100, including the value of 
 everything — horses, luggage, and provisions — stolen on the 
 way. The vicissitudes of my property, owing to the attack 
 
^iniiness of t|je Jtljaasa Cljicfs. 49 
 
 of the brigands, and the brigand-Hke propensities of my 
 ostensible guide and guardian, the Chinaman Noga, are 
 too many to be enumerated. Suffice it to say, my caval- 
 cade and luggage diminished visibly and grew beautifull) 
 less day by day. Noga, after several attempts upon my life, 
 abandoned me (to my great relief) at Tash-e-gumpa, taking 
 with him his wife Erminie and the greater part of my 
 belongings. 
 
 Hurrying after us by double stages, and passing us when 
 out of sight behind some hills, he carried information to 
 the Lhassa chiefs about the foreign lady-traveller, and it 
 is to him I owe my failure in reaching Lhassa and carrying 
 out my idea of journeying thence over the Himalayan 
 passes to Darjeeling. I was, when arrested in the Lhassa 
 district, so destitute of money, and even of the necessities 
 of life, that the Lhassa chiefs gave me the wherewithal to 
 retrace my steps to the half-way town Ke-gu, where I had 
 to leave my tents; and then for many a night I slept in 
 the open air. My bed was either on the ground in the 
 lee of a pile of luggage, or, if I chanced to find one, a hole, 
 the sides of which protected me from the fierce icy blasts 
 which blow over these great altitudes. A piece of felt to 
 cover the ice at the bottom of the hole made my couch, 
 and a warm sleeping bag into which I crept formed my 
 sleeping clothes. Caves now and then proved a welcome 
 luxury. I was in Tibetan dress, but this was only to avoid 
 the gaze of too curious eyes. With regard to my servants, 
 Noga, as you have heard, proved faithless ; Leucotze, the 
 other Chinaman, died ; the two Tibetans — my faithful 
 Pontso, and Pategn, who entered my service at Gala — 
 alone stuck to me through thick and thin. The latter, 
 Pategn, took leave of me upon our return to Ke-gu, and 
 wended his way northwards to his home and wife and chil- 
 dren at Gala. Pontso has never left me. 
 
so ffl^ CSipericnas in i^ibet. 
 
 I have nothing but praise to give the Tibetans for their 
 chivalry and kindness. Setting aside their raiding prochv- 
 ities (of which, after all, in earlier times, we have had lively 
 examples on our own borders), they are hospitable, friendly, 
 trustworthy, and by no means averse to intercourse with 
 Europeans. In simplicity, and naiveness more especially 
 those people form a striking contrast to most Asiatic races. 
 Although the lamas, for political reasons, do not wish to see 
 us in their country, it is the Chinese who force Tibet, 
 though this country is only partly tributary to them, to so 
 jealously guard her frontiers ; and this principally for their 
 own trade interests ; nor do they hesitate to do all they can 
 to impede any intercourse between the Tibetans and 
 Europeans, and to raise bad blood. 
 
 Should I be asked my opinion as to what is of most 
 importance to Tibetan travellers, I should emphasise the 
 necessity of the Tibetan language being mastered by all 
 intending explorers ; one is so peculiarly liable to be misled 
 and deceived by Eastern interpreters. As this tongue is 
 much easier to acquire than most Oriental languages, as for 
 instance, Arabic or Chinese, it is not too formidable a task. 
 
 I shall trespass on your time for a little longer in order 
 to reply to a frequent question regarding what I saw of the 
 fauna and flora of Tibet. The following animals actually 
 came under my personal observation : — 
 
 The yak {Bos gnm/ens), both tame and in herds of wild 
 ones. This curious black-coated and maned animal, in 
 some points like a buffalo, in others like a horse, but which, 
 clumsy as it looks, climbs precipitous ascents with a truly 
 astonishing ease and celerity, and which grunts like a pig, 
 has often been described. Not so an animal of the horse 
 tribe, herds of which I came across on the lofty mountain 
 ranges. This animal strongly resembles the quagga of 
 
^ht JTauna antr JFlora oi f:b£t. 51 
 
 South Africa. It is shaped hke a zebra, but with a stripe- 
 less fawn-coloured coat, of a paler shade on the belly, and 
 is, so the natives told me, untameable. One whole day's 
 journey through snow-drifts and over snow-covered holes 
 my little party safely followed in the wake of a herd of 
 these animals, so unerring was their instinct in finding a 
 safe footpath. Herds of deer were countless. We also 
 came across flocks of v/ild sheep and goats, wolves, foxes, 
 hares, marmots, and rats devastating whole acres. Among 
 birds, the black and white eagles and the beautiful golden 
 eagle were conspicuous. Vultures were innumerable, and 
 play an economic part in the consumption of dead bodies, 
 which are cut up in small pieces for their repast, the 
 Tibetans objecting, from a feeling of sentiment, to the 
 bodies of their friends being torn to pieces by the birds. 
 Huge, impertinent, thievish crows would attack, our provi- 
 sions on the very backs of our pack-horses. Teal, and a 
 little bird called Z/V in Tibetan, were common. 
 
 When speaking of the flora I must remind you that a 
 snow-covered ground does not offer much temptation to 
 botanise. Except in Kham and on the borders, trees 
 were conspicuous by their absence. A few fir stumps, 
 juniper bushes, briers overhung with snow, and a sweet 
 edible root given me by some natives claimed my attention 
 in the interior. Edelweiss and other Alpine flowers grew 
 on the borders. 
 
4 
 
 Eytracts from Xctters. 
 
 Gnaioiig, 1895. 
 
 Y work at present lies chiefly amongst the 
 numerous parties of Tibetans that nearly 
 every evening, for seven months in the year, 
 encamp here on the mountain sides. Gna- 
 tong is situated on tlie high trade-road to and 
 from Tibet, for wool and other produce. 
 Every evening there are from four to fourteen fresh en- 
 campments, with an average of six Tibetans to each camp. 
 I go out and bid them welcome, and they invite me to 
 sit with them around the fires, which I do ; and then after 
 giving each of them one of Mrs. Grimke's text-cards, I tell 
 them the old, old story of Jesus and His love for poor 
 lost sinners. 
 
 They generally listen most attentively, and as they come 
 from all parts of Tibet with the wool, the message is carried 
 on far and wide into Tibet. I have given nearly three 
 thousand of Mrs. Grimke's texts, and they are much appre- 
 ciated. But the more thoughtful of them want something 
 more. One man, a lama, said to me lately, when I gave 
 him a card with John xvii. 3, ^'' Life eternal means so much, 
 I want to know more about it ; can you not give me a 
 book ? " So I gave him a copy of one of the Gospels ; for 
 through the kindness of Mrs. Robertson, Honorary Sec- 
 retary of the Association for the Free Distribution of the 
 Scriptures, I have been able to give away over five hundred 
 

 gkssin0 at (Snaton0. 53 I 
 
 copies of the Gospels in Tibetan, which I hear are being ■_ 
 read by the lamas in various monasteries, even at Lhassa. j|\ 
 
 There is now a great demand for them, and I frequently 
 get requests brought by the merchants from chiefs over the 
 border to send them one of the Gospels in Tibetan. Thus 
 making friends with the Tibetans and distributing God's 
 Word in their midst is all helping on the cause we have at 
 heart. In the summer months, when the wool trade ceases, 
 the Tibetans of Sikkim bring up from the valleys their 
 herds and flocks for pasture, and so we shall ever have 
 fresh numbers amongst whom to spread the Gospel. 
 
 There is also work to do amongst the British troops 
 stationed here. Some of the men come down every 
 evening. On Sunday and Thursday I have Gospel / 
 Meetings, on Tuesday a Bible Reading, and on Saturday a 
 Prayer Meeting. The Lord is blessing the word, and some ; 
 of the men have decided for Christ. 
 
 Mr. John T. Collier — who as a lance-corporal of the 
 Manchester Regiment was stationed at Gnatong, and whilst 
 there, received Jesus as his Saviour, and became my right- 
 hand helper in the w^ork amongst the soldiers then stationed 
 there — has now left the army and is accepted by Dr. H. 
 Guinness as a Missionary student. He is studying at Cliff 
 College, Curbar, Derbyshire, and when his course is com- 
 pleted is expecting to join the Tibetan Pioneer Mission. 
 He writes, " I do hope that the Lord will help me in my 
 studies, for I feel my utter need and dependence upon 
 Him ; of myself I can do nothing, but through Christ 
 Jesus who strengtheneth me I can rise victorious over 
 all things." 
 
 December ■^ist, 1896. 
 
 Since my first arrival here we have distributed about 1 
 one thousand copies of the Gospels in Tibetan, as well 
 
54 ^itrarts from ^ztUvs. 
 
 as many in Chinese. These have been scattered far and 
 wide in Tibet. 
 
 On Christmas Day we had over two hundred Tibetans 
 and Chinese to tea, cake, bread and jam. No sooner 
 were our guests seated on the floor of a shed lent us for 
 the occasion, and I was standing up to give thanks, when 
 the floor gave way, and we went down about three feet. 
 Praise the Lord, no one was hurt, and only a few frightened. 
 Then part of our guests had tea in another shed, and part 
 in the open air — which we did not find too cold, as we are 
 used to the frost. After tea the tree was lighted, and 
 owing to the kindness of friends in England we were able 
 to give gifts to all who came. Some warm woollen cuffs 
 were much appreciated, but the dolls were the most sought 
 after. All wanted them, the chiefs and men and boys as 
 well as the women and girls. We gave one each to the 
 chiefs present, and it was most amusing to see them 
 nursing their coveted gift as they took possession of it. 
 Only having a few dolls, it was difficult to decide who 
 were to get them. After the tree we had the lantern, one 
 of the lamas present who stood just behind me as I 
 showed it, was much interested in the picture of "Christ 
 on the Cross," and asked me if He was not a great sinner, 
 and listened with wonder as I told them that Jesus, God's 
 Son, who had no sin, took the sinner's place and bore the 
 punishment due to our sins. 
 
 In conclusion we sang " Jesus loves me " in Tibetan, 
 which we have printed on a slide. We rejoiced that some 
 of the Tibetans should have a gift on the Anniversary of 
 the Birth of our Lord ; but oh, how we long for them to 
 know Jesus as their Saviour, and thus receive the gift of 
 Eternal Life ! Some of our guests came from the villages 
 lower down the valley, Rinchingong, Galling, Chumbi, 
 Gallingka, and Pepetang. A few came from the black 
 
Cljnstmas in i^ib^t. 55 
 
 tents on the mountain side. The lamas were from the 
 monasteries near by. Many of the women belong to 
 Lhassa, their husbands being Chinese, and the Tibetan 
 soldiers here now are from Shigatze. I think that the tree 
 and lantern were new to all except those present last year, 
 and one the year before at Gnatong. Mr. H. E. Hobson, a 
 Commissioner of the Chinese Imperial Customs, the only 
 European residing here, kindly helped us with the tree. 
 
l^atung, or J^atong^ 
 
 >UR home in Tibet is situated in the Chumbi 
 valley, and is a few miles over the Tibetan 
 border. It was at one time governed by local 
 chiefs subject to the Lhassa Government ; but 
 now there is a resident Tibetan chief, and the 
 " Mart " is directly under the Lhassa rule. We 
 pay the rent of the mission premises to him, and he 
 forwards it to Lhassa. 
 
 The local chiefs share with the Chinese the monopoly of 
 the trade between Tibet and India as compensation. At 
 present, as the treaty stands, it is necessary that we should 
 engage in trade, though it does not yet yield any profit, but 
 rather the contrary. 
 
 The following is an extract from the Regulation regarding 
 trade, communications, and pasturage, to be appended to 
 the Si kkwi- Tibet Convention ^/i893 : — 
 
 " (i) A trade-mart shall be established at Yatung, on the 
 Tibetan side of the frontier, and shall be open to all British 
 subjects for the purposes of trade from the first day of 
 May, 1894." 
 
 The funds of the Mission and those used for trading 
 purposes are distinct ; the drugs I generally dispense free. 
 The trading is not a hardship. If Paul could make tents 
 for Christ, surely we can do this for our Master. So those 
 who are " called " to work for Tibet must be prepared for 
 the present to sell goods to the Tibetans or attend to their 
 ailments, as well as preach the Gospel to them. We are, 
 
^vabin^ \xsith Tibetans. 
 
 57 
 
 first of all, Missionaries ; and this is well understood by the 
 Tibetans and Chinese. The Tibetans would rather trade 
 with us than with the Chinese, and willingly listen to the 
 Gospel message. Naturally the Chinese do not welcome 
 us ; for it is to their own interest to keep all Europeans out 
 of Tibet, so as to secure the trade of Tibet for themselves 
 as far as possible. 
 
 The Tibetans are a trustful, simple people ; and in the 
 past the Chinese 
 officials have in- 
 fluenced them 
 against us — but 
 lately their suspi- 
 cions have been 
 raised against the 
 Chinese, because 
 Narong, a large 
 district of Tibet, 
 has been annexed 
 to the Chinese 
 province of Sze- 
 chuen, and it is 
 now ruled by 
 Chinese officials. 
 
 The Grand La- ^^^^^ ^'^'^ ^^ distance. 
 
 ma is now of age, and has taken the temporal government 
 of Tibet into his own hands. The Chinese Emperor only 
 acted as his guardian during his minority. 
 
 I have no doubt that Tibet will shortly be opened up 
 without war, and that free intercourse will be established 
 between Tibet and all other nations. 
 
 As regards my own personal expenses, I have now a 
 small income of my own which meets them. 
 . As the work and workers of the Tibetan Pioneer Mission 
 
 MISSION HOUSE. 
 
 CHIEF S HOUSE. 
 
5 8 ^atutt0. 
 
 increase, so do the expenses ; but I feel sure that God, who 
 has so abundantly supplied all our need in the past through 
 His servants, will continue to do so in the future, and will 
 not suffer His daughters whom He has sent forth into that 
 cold, dark land of Tibet to suffer want. 
 Brethren, pray for us ! 
 
 The following description of Yatung is from the pen of 
 Miss P^erguson, a member of the Mission : — 
 
 On arrival (April 3rd, 1896) it looked as if all the inhabi- 
 tants were out to greet us, we being the first European 
 ladies to arrive here in English dress. Almost immediately 
 after the chief came to pay his respects and to present a 
 Khata (scarf of blessing) and a basket of eggs. 
 
 Yatung is built in a lovely valley at an elevation of 
 ' 10,500 feet. Looking back towards the Jelap Pass, the 
 mountains are covered with dark forests of fir, above which 
 the snow peaks glitter, clearly defined against the deep blue 
 sky. Before us, in the distance, is the mountain range 
 lying to the north of the Chumbi Valley. The mountains 
 to the left are covered with grass and shrubs, and capped by 
 forests, on the crest of which a temple stands out con- 
 spicuously, surrounded by a number of quaint little houses 
 where the lamas live. To the right the mountains are 
 more precipitous and the forests are of birch, pine, and 
 other trees. The two mountain torrents, named Natui and 
 Langrang, which flow past Yatung on either side, join a few 
 paces below, and it is then called the Yatung River. 
 ^ When in 1893 the Sikkim-Tibet Convention decided 
 that a trade mart should be established at Yatung, there 
 were no buildings here. Now they consist of the house 
 ostensibly built for the officer who might be appointed 
 by the Government of India to reside here, but occupied by 
 
guilMng tlje '' .^Ijops." 59 
 
 ji Commissioner of the Chinese Imperial Customs, and 
 called the Custom House. This is a pretty two-storied 
 house surrounded by a verandah. Two native houses, one 
 occupied by the Tibetan Chief with his wife and a few 
 soldiers, the other by the Ropun (a Tibetan Chief of 250 
 soldiers who are scattered over the Chumbi Valley) his wife 
 and twelve soldiers, the Tibetan Clerk to the Chinese 
 Customs, and others. There are also one or two native 
 huts, and the sheds meant to serve as shops for British 
 traders, eighteen in number, which are joined together in 
 the shape of an oblong square. These have neither 
 doors nor windows, but are square sheds, with some of 
 the boards removed in the floor for a fire-place, and no 
 chimneys. The boards in front can be removed for 
 entrance. The gaping cracks let in the daylight. The 
 roofs are of wooden shingles held down by stones. These 
 are mostly occupied by Chinese, Tibetans, and Bhutanese. 
 
 Three of the sheds have been made by Miss Taylor, 
 with the help of her old Tibetan woodcutter, into a 
 shop (the only one in the so-called mart) and store-room, 
 a cosy little sitting-room, which I sometimes by mistake 
 call the kitchen, with a bedroom at each side, a kitchen, 
 larder, and small room occupied by Pontso (Miss Taylor's 
 faithful servant) and his wife. There are three small glass 
 windows in the sitting-room, and one in each of our tiny 
 bedrooms, which borrow their light from the sitting-room. 
 The only piece of furniture in each bedroom is a small bed- 
 stead, boxes serve for dressing table and washing stand. 
 The partitions between them and the sitting-room are of 
 half-inch planks, with gaps between, which allow of 
 ventilation. 
 
 Less than two hundred yards from Yatung the Chinese 
 have built a picturesque gate and stone wall, with battle- 
 ments and loop-holes, with an erection behind for the 
 
6o 
 
 ^ahin0. 
 
 defenders to stand on. The wall stretches, across the 
 valley and a short distance up the hills on either side. 
 In a cluster of houses behind lives the Chinese military 
 official in charge of the gate, and his twenty-five Chinese 
 soldiers with their Tibetan wives and children. This barri- 
 cade, beyond which no British subject is at present allowed 
 to pass, along with the Custom House here, was built at 
 the expense of the Chinese Government, whilst the sheds 
 and other buildings in the mart were built at the expense 
 of the Tibetan Government. And yet the Chinese would 
 like us to believe that it is the Tibetans who keep us out, 
 and go the length of saying in bland tones, how much they 
 would like us to visit them further down the valley, 
 were it not for " these ignorant Tibetans." I have often 
 heard and read of the persistent effort on the part of the 
 Chinese to keep the Europeans out of Tibet — now I see 
 it. But we know that our God who is Almighty, and who 
 has opened the door thus far, and given us a place in 
 the hearts of the Tibetans, will ere long lead us 
 forward. 
 
 In the Chumbi Valley there are twenty villages and 
 over 3,000 inhabitants, many of whom find their way to 
 Yatung for gospels and medicine. 
 
 Visitors and Present Surroundings. 
 
 The day after our arrival 1 put on the native dress, 
 at which the Tibetans were delighted, and named me 
 Anni Saba, or the new Anni. Miss Taylor is called Anni 
 La. The literal translation of Anni is aunt, and is used 
 as a term of respect for single women, as well as being the 
 name given to Buddhist nuns. 
 
 We had a number of visitors, first the Tibetan chief 
 of Yatung, who is very friendly. He was much interested 
 in some photos which we had brought with us of our 
 
62 
 
 ^ahxn0. 
 
 Queen and Royal family. Then, the Tibetan Clerk to the 
 Chinese Customs, who is engaged to be my teacher, for I 
 am to begin the study of the language on Monday. After- 
 wards, the Ropun, a Tibetan military official, and a number 
 of soldiers. He is in charge of two hundred and fifty sol- 
 diers scattered over the valley. He and his men are from 
 Shigatze and expect soon to return home, when an officer 
 and men from Giangtse will take their places. 'J'he Ropun 
 is an old man, with a short thin tapered beard, which 
 is done up in a plait at his chin and tied at the end with 
 a tiny cord and tassel. In one ear he wears a single tur- 
 quoise stone, and in the other a pendant earring four 
 inches long, composed of turquoise, pearl, and gold. He 
 is usually dressed in silk, and carries a large silver prayer- 
 wheel which he incessantly turns. Some of the soldiers 
 wore coarse woollen gowns, and others the sheepskin so 
 common in Tibet. They seem quite at home in our 
 little sitting-room, and are evidently unconscious of the 
 strong odour which emanates from their filthy persons and 
 clothes. They are told the sweet story of the cross, and 
 invited to come to Jesus ; and it is cheering to hear from 
 a Tibetan that the children were singing the hymn, " Yes, 
 Jesus loves me," in Tibetan, in the streets of Shigatze. The 
 soldiers had picked it up while here, and taught it to the 
 little ones on their return. 
 
 The children of our little Mission day-school came as 
 usual on Sunday, and Miss Taylor gave them a lesson from 
 the picture of Christ blessing little children. They are so 
 ' taken up with the news that He cares for little children. 
 
 A number of Tibetan women came to see us from down 
 the valley. They carried their babies on their backs, tied 
 on by shawls, Tibetan fashion. Some of them were natives 
 of Lhassa, and had their hair dressed in two long plaits, 
 and wore a coronet covered with red cloth, on which 
 
^ht ^atiitz gress. 63 
 
 turquoise, coral, and strings of small pearls are sewn. 
 Others have one long plait down the back, finished by a 
 heavy tassel which reaches to the ground ; and a few 
 have from forty to over a hundred tiny plaits spread 
 across the back of the shoulders. Most of them had 
 their faces smeared with a kind of dark varnish, which is 
 looked upon as a mark of chastity. The native dress is a 
 long loose gown, crossed in front and caught up by a 
 girdle round the waist. Underneath is a cotton or silk 
 jacket, which shows at the neck and folds outside the 
 w^de sleeve at the wrist to form a deep cuff: or is left 
 loose and falls beyond the tips of the fingers. The boots 
 are made of a variety of bright coloured cloths — blue, 
 scarlet, green, etc. — and are long and tied up under the 
 knee. The jewellery worn by the w^omen consists of mas- 
 sive silver or gold earrings, set wdth turquoise or coral. 
 Large silver or gold amulets, studded with turquoise, are 
 suspended round the neck on a string of beads. vSilver 
 chatelaines are hung from the shoulders, and bands of 
 silver encircle the waist, while numerous rings cover the 
 fingers. These dear women listened in wonder on hearing 
 of a present salvation and the enjoyments of heaven for 
 them, and said, " It might be for you, but how can it be 
 for us ? " 
 
 An intelligent-looking lama from Cho-ni, near Miss 
 Taylor's old station on the Chinese border, came to see 
 us. He seemed much interested in the old, old story, and 
 delighted to get a gospel and some texts to take away 
 with him. 
 
 We paid a visit to the Tibetan chief and his wife, who 
 seemed very pleased to see us. He holds his appointment 
 directly under the government of Lhassa, and has to watch 
 over the Tibetan interests. He is the only official in the 
 district who can send letters direct to the Dalai lama and 
 
64 
 
 latung. 
 
 government of Lhassa ; all others must send them through 
 the -Chinese Amban stationed at Lhassa. Since he rented 
 the sheds to Miss Taylor, he has been subjected to systematic 
 persecution from the Chinese officials. This has led to the 
 issue of an order from Lhassa, that all Tibetans living down 
 the valley are to protect him in case of danger. Just lately, 
 when things seemed threatening, he took refuge in our 
 
 little mission par- 
 lour till the Ru- 
 pon and some 
 soldiers arrived. 
 
 On arriving at 
 his house we 
 climbed up a rude 
 wooden ladder to 
 the upper storey,, 
 and were shown 
 into a large room 
 and invited to sit 
 on raised cushions. 
 — which we did in 
 native fash ion, with 
 our feet tucked 
 
 YATUNG MKDICAL HALL. Uudcr US. Ou a 
 
 low bench-like table before us incense was burning, and 
 china cups, with silver saucers and hds, were set. These were 
 soon filled with a concoction called tea, made from Chinese 
 brick tea, mixed by churning, with salt, soda, and butter. I 
 managed to drink it ; but not with a relish like Miss A. 
 R. Taylor. Before we left, the postman arrived from Lhassa 
 with a letter and some presents for the chief. The letter 
 was wrapped in muslin and sealed, envelopes being dispensed 
 with in Tibet. Letters are carried from Yatung to Lhassa 
 in three and a half days. Travellers without much luggage 
 
Clje ilttsston House. 
 
 65 
 
 can do the journey in a week ; heavily-laden caravans take 
 more than twice that time. The storms of snow and hail 
 which we have had since our arrival led the chief to remark 
 that Jesus had given me good weather for my journey 
 because I was coming to do God's work. 
 
 After being here a little while we paid a visit to the 
 nearest temple, where the lamas received us in a friendly 
 way ; one of them 
 threw open the 
 door of a building 
 for us to see the 
 prayer- wheels, 
 forty-four in num- 
 ber, set on cylin- 
 ders, and placed 
 so that the wor- 
 shippers can set 
 them in motion, 
 one after the 
 other, as they walk 
 along. Miss 
 
 Taylor told them 
 of the better way 
 through Jesus, as ^^^^"^ "^' '^^^^^°^' "°^^^' ''-^'^'^■-"^■^- 
 
 they walked with us round the temple ; and presently we were 
 joined by some Buddhist nuns from a Httle temple down the 
 hill, one of whom accompanied us part of the way home ; 
 and even while Miss Taylor was preaching Christ to her, 
 from force of habit, once and again she repeated in a wailing 
 tone the meaningless refrain, " Om niani padme hum.'" 
 Some of those nuns come to Yatung periodically to chant 
 prayers and to beg. Miss Taylor sometimes asks them in 
 and tells them of Jesus. They seem enchanted with the 
 playing and singing of the sweet Tibetan hymns. Lamas 
 
 E 
 
66 ^atun0. 
 
 from a monastery built on rocks high up on the mountain 
 often come between five and six in the morning and get 
 their breakfast, etc., for chanting prayers and reading their 
 Buddhist books in chorus for the supposed benefit of the 
 inhabitants. These have received Gospels and Mrs. Grimke's 
 texts in Tibetan to take away with them. Everything reminds 
 us that we are in a heathen land — such as the numerous 
 prayer-flags attached to long poles, as well as the strings of 
 flags on the houses, stretched across the valleys and rivers, 
 on the hilltops and chodtens. Chodtens are stone pyramids 
 which contain the ashes of departed lamas, sacred books, 
 and other relics. 
 
 When out for a w^alk w^e came to a shady nook by the 
 ' side of a brook where some Tibetan women and children 
 were bathing in a primitive bath, viz.^ a scooped-out log. 
 The icy water from the brook was heated by putting hot 
 ' stones into the bath. These were made hot in a fire near 
 ; by. The women lived in black tents, and one of them 
 asked us to pay her a visit next day. So Ave went. The 
 yak with their black hairy coats and manes and long bushy 
 tails were grazing on the brow of the hill, and the little 
 calves were frolicking about, grunting like pigs. The 
 barking of the fierce Tibetan dog brought out the woman 
 to welcome us into her tent, which is woven of yak's hair. 
 The smoke from the wood fire makes the cloth greasy and 
 so prevents the rain from coming through. The woman 
 told us that the Gospel Miss Taylor had given her before 
 had been begged from her by a lama. She has been to see 
 us several times since, and never seems to tire of hearing 
 about Jesus. 
 
 Sometimes our little Mission House is made quite lively 
 by a number of Chinese visitors. The Ho-pun (Chinese 
 Frontier Officer) and other Chinese officials come to Yatung 
 on business, and with them a retinue of Chinese soldiers 
 
gtatrtljutxn0 ©nspcls. 67 
 
 and servants, who visit us and hear the good news in their 
 own language from Miss Taylor, and receive Gospels and 
 calendars in Chinese to take back with them. It is cheering 
 to hear them read and discuss in animated tones the 
 Chinese tracts pasted outside our house. 
 
 When the Tibetan Frontier officer, the Chief of Phari 
 Zong, and other Tibetan and Chinese officials come to see 
 us, they are invariably dressed in bright coloured silks and 
 satins ; the former are very dignified in appearance but 
 very genial. 
 
 After I had been here about three weeks the old Rupon 
 and his soldiers left Yatung. Many of the men came in 
 to ask for Gospels to take back home with them to Shigatze. 
 One of their number had died daring their stay here, and 
 his comrades, tying up his corpse in a w^orshipping position, 
 took it down to Rinchengong and threw^ it in the river. 
 He had heard the Gospel, and was much interested ; but 
 whether he had found rest in Jesus or not we cannot tell. 
 
 The new^ Rupon, who has his wife with him, is a man 
 of rank by birth, and may in time rise to have a seat in the > 
 Tibetan Government. As such he has his hair twisted in a 
 knob on the top of his head, while other Tibetan officials 
 wear their hair in a plait hanging down the' back. He soon 
 paid us a visit, accompanied by a number of soldiers, who 
 quite crowded out our little room. They were charmed 
 with the music from the organ. We heard afterwards that 
 the Rupon and the chief had been reading and discussing 
 the Gospel of St. John together. 
 
 A Prime Minister of Bhutan took refuge here lately on 
 account of political trouble. His wife was exceedingly 
 friendly and visited us repeatedly. When w^e called on 
 them Miss Taylor took a copy of the Gospel of John and 
 told them the simple story of Jesus. He listened most 
 intelligently. The Bhutanese, both men and w^omen, wear 
 
^8 ^atun0. 
 
 their hair cut short. The men dress much hke the Tibet- 
 ans, but with a shorter robe. The women wear a shawl- 
 hke dress wound round the body and fastened on the 
 shoulder with a brass or silver skewer. A cotton girdle 
 gathers it round the waist. When we visit the Tibetans 
 and Bhutanese we see them weaving woollen and cotton 
 cloth on rough hand looms. 
 
 Twice lately Tibetan soldiers have been assaulted by the 
 Chinese. In the first case the Chinese soldiers stationed 
 at the gate beat one of the Tibetan soldiers nearly to 
 death, because one of their number had had a quarrel with 
 him. And now one of the Chinese soldiers sent up by 
 the Ho-pun to Phari Zong to bring the rations, etc., killed 
 a Tibetan and seriously wounded two others, one of whom 
 is not expected to live. He is now a prisoner, but the 
 Tibetans say that all that is done by the Chinese in such 
 cases is, to send the offender to another place, pretending 
 they get him punished there. It is surprising to see how 
 long-suffering the Tibetans are. 
 
 One of the Tibetans, said to be a tool of the Chinese, 
 stopped the postman and took from him a letter addressed 
 to the chief here, which he opened and after acquainting 
 himself with the contents did it up again. Some who saw 
 him do it, afterwards reported it to the Tibetan frontier 
 officer, who sent him up here to be punished. He was 
 made to lie flat with his face on the ground and was beaten 
 by two soldiers in turn. 
 
 It was rather interesting in visiting one of the black tent 
 to find that an old woman and her son, in charge of the 
 yak, had known Miss Taylor when she lived in the La- 
 Chen and La-Chong valleys, over six years ago. They 
 were drinking tea when we entered, and at once invited us 
 to be seated on a yak's skin. The fire was burning on 
 the ground in the centre of the tent, with three stones 
 
ajisttttt0 the §Iach fiittt. 69 
 
 supporting the pot. Round the tent were oblong baskets 
 in which all their goods and chattels are packed, and car- 
 ried by the yak when they move from pasture to pasture. 
 A blown-out goat's skin hung from the roof, in which the 
 milk is put and churned into butter by rolling it backwards 
 and forwards on the ground. The usual wooden churn 
 in which the tea is mixed was lying on one side. When 
 the old woman had finished drinking her tea, she offered 
 us some milk, and proceeded to wash out her wooden 
 bowl and dry it on a filthy woollen apron. Miss Taylor 
 suggested rinsing but not drying. This however did not 
 satisfy her, but after finishing with the apron she drew a 
 black towel from the bosom of her dress and completed 
 the drying. We enjoyed the milk in spite of all. The boy 
 had been reading a page out of one of their heathen books. 
 Miss Taylor offered to exchange it for a Gospel if he would 
 come for it, which he did next day. 
 
 When out walking we met the old woman, who told us 
 that one of their yak was missing, and she was going to 
 Yatung to ask someone whom she knew to divine for her as 
 to where it had gone. A few days ago the chief here got 
 a spiritualist to enquire for him as to whether there would 
 be war with the English or not, and as to his own future. 
 The answer was, "Not for three years," and favourable as 
 to himself. The Tibetans say that it is wrong to have 
 intercourse with spirits ; and yet, in times of uncertainty, 
 they have recourse to so-called mediums, who seem to 
 make a good thing out of it. 
 
 Wool and other caravans often encamp near here. 
 These we visit and sit with the Tibetans around their 
 camp fire. While they blow the fire with bellows made 
 of a goat's skin, and make and drink their tea — to which 
 butter of a green colour is added, that they seem to appre- 
 ciate for its age and smell — Miss Taylor tells them of Jesus 
 
7° ^atitng. 
 
 and sings to them Tibetan hymns, which they like to hear. 
 The Gospels and texts given them are taken far into 
 Tibet. Although the wool traders reside in this valley, 
 the men they employ as mule drivers, etc., for the wool 
 season, are from all parts of Tibet, a few coming even from 
 Mongolia. 
 
 And now, in closing my letter, I ask you to praise God 
 for thus thrusting me forth as another witness for Jesus 
 into the land so long closed against the Gospel, and for 
 shewing me a little of His working here. Numbers have 
 heard the Gospel for the first time, while quite a few 
 have been healed in the name of Jesus by the laying on 
 of hands in answer to prayer. And I ask you to join dear 
 Miss Taylor and me in definite prayer for the salvation of 
 those who hear, and for me that I may soon be able to 
 speak Tibetan. 
 
 With Christian love, 
 I am, 
 Yours waiting for the coming of our Lord, 
 Bella Ferguson. 
 
■':l^ 
 
 Xettcrs from flDiss ifostcr. 
 
 (A Member of the Mission.) 
 
 '^ WILL go before thee, and make the crooked places 
 ^ straight ; I will break in pieces the gates of brass, 
 and cut in sunder the bars of iron" (Isa. xlv. 2). 
 Such was the word the Lord gave me when He 
 first laid missions to the heathen on my heart, 
 long before Tibet crossed my thoughts. And 
 now, within the first of those "gates of brass," and looking 
 on in faith to those yet in front, we ask, "Who are ready to 
 enter in when they shall be opened?" True, there is a 
 cordon of devoted servants of the Lord right across the 
 Indian frontier of Tibet, and round on the Chinese frontier ; 
 but after all they are very few, compared with the mass 
 of heathenism inside ; and the days are growing short, for 
 the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. The language is 
 acknowledged by all to be a very difficult one, and is known 
 as yet to very few. And the heathenism ? I think people's 
 impressions of the Tibetan religion are gathered very much 
 from modern ideas of Theosophy and the Mahatmas. I 
 have seen something of Buddhism in Ceylon, but any ideas 
 I formed of it_ there have been rudely shattered here. As 
 I sit here, with the door open, the glorious sunshine flooding 
 the valley, the mountain slopes clothing themselves in every 
 shade of green, while away above glitters the snow, I can 
 echo again and again, 
 
 "Only man is vile." 
 
 Their only real belief seems to be a dread of evil spirits. 
 And as I write, there comes to me the wearisome tinkling 
 
72 Jetters from iltiss JFoater. 
 
 of the lama's bell, and monotonous repetition of their sense- 
 less formula, " Om majii padme huni^'' of which no one knows 
 the real meaning. All round the chief's house opposite, 
 and across the rude bridges that span our mountain torrents, 
 and on every point of vantage on these glorious mountains, 
 are strings of coloured rags — here and there white ones — 
 on which once these same characters were inscribed. For 
 what, do you ask } These Tibetans believe that w^ith every 
 flutter of the breeze these senseless rags, with their senseless, 
 washed-out inscription, lay up merit for those who hang them 
 there. And looking into the Temple, we saw a row of 
 prayer-wheels, which are whirled round with the same object. 
 Truly this seems a stronghold of Satan. 
 
 And their prejudice and exclusiveness are as high as their 
 own mountain walls. So it seems the more wonderful how 
 the Lord has in this place " cut in sunder these bars of iron." 
 The Tibetans come in and out freely, bringing all their 
 troubles, of whatsoever kind, bodily or otherwise, and take 
 with alacrity the medicine or advice given them. Such is 
 their confidence, that the chief, who is very much at home 
 in our little sitting-room, tells us all the new^s that comes to 
 him from Lhassa and other parts of Tibet. People come 
 here from great distances. Last week the presence of some 
 special lama brought quite a number, and they all come in 
 to see the foreign Annis. The women are distinguished 
 according to the district by their head-dress, and very funny 
 some of them are. Few of those who come here ever cross 
 the pass into Sikkim, which is little to be w^ondered at, con- 
 sidering it is almost as high as Mont Blanc. The little 
 organ and singing are always a delight to them, and none 
 ever come without being told of Jesus, the Mighty to save, 
 and none go without a copy of one of the Gospels, which 
 they take gladly. Then the lamas in the monastery down 
 the valley welcome us, as do the people scattered about in 
 
huts and tents. And so here, just within the threshold of 
 Tibet, there is more work than we can do. 
 
 May I ask you, dear friends, to remember in prayer and 
 effort this dark corner, and also the one now left to hold the 
 fort, practically alone, and groping as yet on the confines 
 of the language. 
 
 Yours, in hope of His coming, 
 
 M. Mary Foster. 
 
 " After the Earthquake." 
 
 June 13M, 1897. 
 
 I do not think it likely that you will see telegrams in 
 the papers, headed " Fearful earthquake in Tibet — houses 
 and temples wrecked — lives lost," &c., and yet such is the 
 case. Praise the Lord, we are all unhurt, so far ; and the 
 part of the house damaged is the least important, in a way. 
 
 The servants certainly cannot sleep in their usual places, 
 the wall is entirely gone. My duplicated text, " The 
 beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety," seems very real 
 now. Praise His name. He keeps me in perfect peace. 
 
 Of course there are all sorts of reports and prognostica- 
 tions to-day. However, there seem to be some facts. One 
 is, that about ten houses in Rinchingong have fallen. An- 
 other, that two men were killed by the falling of the barrier 
 at Galingka ; and the chief's wife says a great many were 
 killed at Chumbi, somewhere beyond Galingka. Mr. Wang 
 says, the temple that we see is utterly down, only one bit 
 of the wall left. Everything we hear only makes me praise 
 God it was no worse here. Going round again, I see it is 
 only the wood-lining that saved all beyond the sitting-room 
 door. The planks at the left side of the door are so bulged 
 by the fallen wall, that the door will not close ; and one 
 plank is held by one nail only. But for that the wall would 
 
74 fetters from |Kiss yostcr. 
 
 have collapsed across the threshold and blocked me in yes- 
 terday. I had some more long nails put in to hold it till 
 we see what is best to be done. After nine — I had break- 
 fast at 7.30, for there was no staying quiet — I went up over 
 the hill to look at the barrier. That on the right side, 
 east, is simply a heap of rubbish. The big square house 
 on the left side is unroofed ; the soldier's house by the gate 
 is a mass of ruins. Turning my glass on the monastery, 
 I saw, as Mr. Wang said, it is an utter wreck ; the "chutens" 
 are all thrown down, and the parapets are swept clean off 
 the Fort; only a low bit of wall remains. Those words 
 kept ringing in my ears, "that those things which cannot 
 be shaken may remain." There were the works that man 
 "made" shaken to pieces, while the great mountains and 
 trees, and all that God made, stood as quiet and firm as 
 ever. And, as I sat and looked at that shattered wall, the 
 thought came to me, " Does it not mean something, that 
 in a few short minutes the hand of God has thrown down 
 both the barrier walls — for they say Galingka is a more 
 complete wreck than this one — and also the temple of 
 heathenism that confronts the entrance to Tibet ? How 
 easily He has broken these ' gates of brass ' — can He not 
 as easily break the less material ones ? " 
 
 June i^th, 1897. 
 
 The remaining walls {of the Mission house) are in a dan- 
 gerous condition. I am very tired : there has been no quiet 
 from morning to night, people coming that had to be seen ; 
 besides the tension, expecting a fresh shock every moment. 
 We have had eight quite distinct ones, besides little 
 tremors — none since five last evening. 
 
Zbc Tibetan pioneer fllM^^ion. 
 
 Add 
 
 Director - Miss ANNIE R. TAYLOR. 
 
 ress in Tibet. — Yatong, Tibet, via Darjeeling, India. 
 
 Referees : 
 Dr. T. J. Barnardo, Stepney Causeway, London, E. 
 Rev. J. Elder Gumming, D.D., 14, Park Grove Terrace, Glas.s^ow. 
 Rev. H. B. Macartney, Melbourne, Victoria. 
 
 Miss Macpherson, Home of Industry, 29, Bethnal Green Rd., London, E. 
 James E. ISIathieson, Esq., 58, Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill. 
 R. C. Morgan, Esq. (Editor of (Tljf ffijjrisiiatt), 12, Paternoster Buildings, 
 
 London, E.G. 
 Pastor H. Rylands-Brown, The Manse, Darjeeling, India. 
 Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, China Inland Mission, Newington Green, London. 
 Robert Wilson, Esq., Broughton Grange, Cockermouth. 
 
 Gifts may be addressed to Messrs. Morgan & Scott, 12, Paternoster 
 Buildings, London, E.G., who will acknowledge them in OTIjfi Cljristian. 
 
 jF^7n7/HE origin of the Mission was Miss .Annie R. 
 
 Taylor's journey in 1892-93 into Tibet proper, 
 
 in the course of which she proved the possibiHty 
 
 of gaining an entrance for the Gospel into that 
 
 country so long believed to be closed to the 
 
 emissaries of Christ. 
 
 The object of the Mission is to evangelize Tibet, and so 
 
 remove one of the last barriers to the fulfilment of our 
 
 Lord's words, " This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be 
 
76 0Cljc Wtbttan J3ionccr iHissron. 
 
 preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations ; 
 and then shall the end come." 
 
 The field of operations is the country of Tibet itself, as 
 far as entrance can be obtained into it, rather than the 
 border tribes, amongst whom work is already commenced. 
 Tibet, which lies north of India and west of China, is a 
 large country, covering an area about ten times as great as 
 England and Scotland together, and as yet we are the only 
 Protestant Missionaries (so far as known) within its 
 borders. 
 
 The field is a difficult one, although there is no marked 
 hostility to the English on the part of the Tibetans. The 
 Chinese Government Officials in Tibet are bitterly opposed 
 to Europeans on account of the desire of the Chinese to 
 keep the monopoly of Tibetan trade in their own hands. 
 The climate is very cold, but dry and healthy, and any one 
 proposing to offer for the work should possess a good 
 circulation, and a constitution favourable to withstanding 
 cold. The dwellings are primitive, being mostly huts and 
 tents : and food is of the coarsest kind, except in the few 
 scattered towns. 
 
 The language to be acquired is difficult when compared 
 with Hindustani ; but the Moravians labouring in Little 
 Tibet (which is under English protection) have compiled a 
 dictionary and grammar of the Tibetan language, and trans- 
 lated into Tibetan all the New and part of the Old Testa- 
 ments, thus removing at once one of the greatest difficulties 
 generally experienced in a new country. 
 
 The principles upon which the Mission is worked are 
 those of the China Inland Mission. But the main object 
 of the Mission being to afford every Tibetan the opportunity 
 of hearing the Gospel, it is purposed that the work of the 
 Mission will be pioneering until such time as this object is 
 acccomplished. 
 
Jits llrtnciples atttr goctrmes. 77 
 
 True-hearted and humble-minded men and women of 
 God, full of the Holy Ghost and faith, experienced in Gos- 
 pel work, and who have been used of God in winning souls, 
 and holding the doctrines mentioned below, will be eligible 
 as candidates, irrespective of what branch of the Church 
 of Christ they belong to. 
 
 The Mission is supported entirely by the freewill offerings 
 of the Lord's people. The needs of the work are laid 
 before God in prayer, no personal solicitations or collec- 
 tions being authorized. No more is expended than is thus 
 received, going into debt being considered inconsistent 
 with the principle of entire dependence upon God. The 
 director therefore cannot, and does not promise or guarantee 
 any fixed amount of support to the workers. She seeks 
 faithfully to distribute the funds available, and to meet the 
 need of each worker ; but they are expected to recognise 
 that their dependence for the supply of all their need is on 
 God, who called them, and for whom they have gone to 
 labour, and not on the human organization. 
 
 It will be required that those who seek to join the 
 Mission be sound in the faith on all the main points of 
 Christian doctrine, which may be particularized as 
 follows: — (i) The divine inspiration of the Scriptures; (2) 
 The Trinity of the Godhead; (3) The fall of man and 
 his consequent need of regeneration ; (4) The atonement 
 for man's sin ; (5) Justification by faith in Christ alone ; (6) 
 The resurrection of the dead; (7) The eternity of reward 
 and punishment. They will also be asked to give their 
 personal experience of the guidance of the Holy Spirit 
 and the efficacy of prayer, as bemg points of importance 
 in relation to the life of the missionary. 
 
 Candidates for the Mission are requested to communi- 
 cate with Miss Taylor. 
 
78 llje i;ibEtan |Jionccr iltisstott. 
 
 Brethren and sisters, " The harvest truly is great, but the 
 labourers are few : pray ye therefore the Lord of the har- 
 vest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest." 
 And continue in prayer for Tibet ; for God says, " Ask of 
 Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inherit- 
 ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy posses- 
 sion." 
 
 A Photographic Group, Cabinet Size, of Miss Annie R. Taylor, Pontso 
 and his wife, may be had, Price Is. 6d., from Mr. GLANYILLE LAURENS, 
 Photographer, 189, Earl's Court Road, London, S.W. 
 
Having seen much of Miss Taylor^ and knowing that 
 she has consecrated her life to the evangelization of Tibet^ 
 and admiring as we do her faith and zeal, we trust that 
 she will soon secure two or three other devoted women as 
 helpers. 
 
 The land for which she pleads must prove one of the 
 most trying fields of Missionary labour ; but to those who 
 have the physical a?id other qualifications for the work, and 
 who are prepared to forget self, and seek only the advance- 
 ment of the Redeemer's Kingdom, there is so??iething specially 
 inspiriting in the thought of being pioneers in so hard a 
 field for the sake of Him who left heaven for the cross that 
 He might save us. They will find that Miss Taylor will 
 not ask them to etidure a?2y hardship from which she will 
 herself shrink ; and her faith, devotedjiess, and experience, 
 will be a stimulus to them. But we would especially urge 
 that any who may think of responding to her appeal will 
 carefully count the cost before-hand, try to put away all 
 romantic ideas of Amission work, and to realize that ivork 
 in Tibet means drudgery, privation, frequent disappoint me7it, 
 and patient, persevering toil. 
 
 G. H. Rouse, D.D. 
 Darjeeling, India. H. Rylands Brown (Pastor). 
 
 May, 1895. 
 
 LONDON : MORGAN AND SCOTT, 12, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS. 
 
EVERY THURSDAY. PRICE ONE PENNY. 
 
 TLbc Cbristian. 
 
 A CHRISTIAN FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
 
 Containing Accounts of Christian Work and Missionary 
 
 Enterprise in all Parts of the World. 
 
 ORIGINAL ARTICLES, NARRATIVES, POETRY, NOTES ON PASSING EVENTS, 
 AND GENERAL EVANGELISTIC INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 Wif/i Portraits and Biographical Sketches 
 
 of Eminent Christian Men and Women. 
 
 "It is eminently stimulative of Christian zeal, and is unrivalled as a medium 
 for the benevolent to distribute amongst the deserving." — Christian Age. 
 
 "The contents are varied, interesting, and pervaded by a spirit of true religious 
 zeal. It is most gratifying to read in its pages how blessedly, and by what various 
 instrumentalities, God is carrying on His great work." — King's Highway. 
 
 I On receipt of Is. 8d. STljc Cl)ristinn will be forwarded l 
 
 to any Address direct from the Publishers, post free, 
 I for 13 weeks. I 
 
 London : MORGAN AND SCOTT, 12, Paternoster Buildings, E.G. 
 
 And may be Ordered of any Bookseller. 
 
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BW7407 .T23 
 Pioneering in Tibet ... 
 
 Princeton Theological Semlnary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00039 3258 
 
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