Page:Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet.djvu/168

 that they keep the keys of heaven. In a palace of crystal in the deep recesses of the lake lives their king, and the people think that by throwing their dead into the lake there is a chance for them of reaching heaven by serving the king of the Lu during the period intervening between death and regeneration. Bardo this time is called.

Passing through cultivated fields, where the ponies sank up to their knees in mud, we came to a broad steppe where wild goats and sheep and a few musk deer were grazing. Dorje Phagmo is their special patron, and no wild animals may be killed in the Yamdo district.

At about 2 o'clock we reached Nangartse, and, passing by the town, proceeded northward along the bank of the far-famed Yamdo (Palti) lake, also called Yum tso, or "turquoise lake"—a name which the deep blue waters of the lake amply justify.

Travelling along the lake-side by the villages of Hailo, Dab-lung, and Dephu, where the fishermen’s hide boats (kudru) were drying