Page:1903 Lhasa and Central Tibet by G. Ts. Tsybikoff.pdf/4

 in squalls and large drops, and in May and June were frequently accompanied with hail. The clouds generally moved from west to east.

Temperature observations were recorded at dawn, 1 p. m., and 9 p. m. for two hundred and thirty-five days. The average morning temperature was 41.45° F.; 1 p. m., 58.33° F.; 9 p. m., 48.65° F. December was the coldest month, with an average morning temperature of 18.3° F.; noon, 34.5° F., and evening, 26.8° F; and June was the warmest month, with average morning temperature 58.6° F.; noon, 73° F., and evening 63.3° F. The large rivers are entirely free of ice in winter, but the small ones are covered by a thin crust. The soil freezes only at the surface.

The total population of Tibet has been estimated from the fantastic 33,000,000 down to 3,600,000, or even 2,500,000. The most reliable evidence indicates that Central Tibet has not more than about 1,000,000 inhabitants. Reliable statistics of the whole population were not obtainable, but it is certainly not very great, for the many narrow river valleys between high, rocky mountains are unfit for agriculture and could not sustain many inhabitants. Besides, the numerous unmarried ascetic ecclesiastics of both sexes, and epidemics of smallpox and other fatal diseases against which the Tibetans are almost defenseless, not only retard an increase, but would appear to gradually decrease the country's growth. More than 10 per cent of the population of Lhasa and neighboring monasteries died of smallpox in 1900. Further evidence of the limited Tibetan population appears from the fact that only about 20,000 monks from all the monasteries in the vicinity gather at the so-called "great Monlam of Lhasa." This, remember, in the center of Lamaism, where the principal sanctuaries and the higher Tszanite schools are located, which to a considerable extent are supported by the government! The native Tibetans call themselves Bo(d)-pa, and it is also customary to refer to people according to the names of particular regions. Thus the inhabitants of Tsang are called "Tsang-pa," etc. The floating population of the cities is composed of Chinamen, Nepalese, Kashmiris, and Mongols.

Most of the Chinamen, especially the emigrants from Ssŭ-ch'uan, are employed in the garrison camps of the large cities, while those engaged in commerce transact their small trade with the local inhabitants, principaly the women *  *  *.

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