Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/334

 290 ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. BOOK II. many ancient cities will be found. Captain Dalton has given an account of the ruins of Gauhati, which was almost certainly the ancient capital of the province. " Its former importance," he says, " is well attested by the immense extent of its fortifications, and the profusion of carved stones which every excavation of the modern town brings to light. The remains of stone gateways and old stone bridges are found both within and without the old city walls." l Captain Hannay gives a view of one of these bridges. Like all the rest, it is constructed without arches, on the horizontal principle, 2 but it may be as old as the time of the Chinese Pilgrims. Besides these, other ruins have been found and described, in more or less detail, in the pages of the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.' When more fully known they will certainly be of considerable historic and ethnographic value, though they hardly can compare with the vast monuments of such provinces as Orissa or Gujarat, and other parts of India Proper. TIBET. It would be extremely interesting if, before leaving this part of the world, it were possible to compile anything like a satis- factory account of the Buddhist style in Tibet, for it is there that Buddhism exists at the present moment, in inexplicable com- bination with Saivism and demon worship as the only religion, and there only is it entirely and essentially a part of the system of the people. We would gladly, therefore, compare the exist- ing state of things in Tibet with our accounts of India in the days of the supremacy of the same religion. The jealousy of the Chinese, however, who are supreme over that nation of priests, long prevented free access to the country, and it was only by the expedition of 1903-1904, that Lhasa was reached and its mysteries made known to the public with abundance of photographic illustrations. 3 But the reported architectural results are un- important and present little that is novel. Relic worship, as an essential element in Buddhism, is evidenced by the " chortens " or stupas * everywhere met with, especially near the monasteries, and the splendid tombs of the Grand Lamas at Tashi-lhunpo, 1 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. xxiv. pp. i et seqq. 2 Ibid. vol. xx. pp. 291 et seqq. 3 Capt. Turner, it is true, who was sent to Tashi - Ihunpo by Warren Hastings, published with his interesting narrative a number of very faithful views of what he saw, but they are not selected from that class of monuments which is the subject of our present enquiry. 4 Chorten, in Tibetan wChhoof-rten "relic receptacle," is equivalent to dagaba, chaitya or stupa ; they are of the usual characters of shrines enclosing relics, cenotaphs, and symbols of the religion, and receive formal worship from the priests and people.