Page:Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet.djvu/220

 and the latter in kind. The family-tax may be paid at any time of the year.

Apart from the lands held by chiefs and nobles, there are, as already stated, altogether fifty-three Djong, or districts, under Djongpon, and a hundred and twenty-three sub-districts under Djongnyer. These constitute what are called shung shi, or State lands. Each djong contains, on an average, five hundred families of misser, or farmers. A misser family consists of one wife, with all her husbands, children, and servants. Each family, on an average, possesses two or three kang of arable soil. If one khal (50 lb.) yields nine or ten khal, it is considered a good harvest; six to eight is a tolerable crop, four to six a bad one. The Government revenue for each kang is, on an average, fifty srang (125 rupees), or about one hundred and fifty khal of grain. The Crown revenue, if taken entirely in kind, would therefore amount to 2,625,000 khal, which would be equivalent in money to 2,000,000 rupees. This is partially expended by the State for the Church, and in distributing alms to the whole body of lamas belonging to the monasteries of Potala, Sera, Dabung, Gadan, etc. In every Djong are kept registers, in which are entered the collections in previous years and the quality of the land under cultivation. The collector, after examining these, inspects the crops, and estimates the quantity of the yield, and by comparison with that of the five preceding years he fixes the tax for the current year. In very prosperous years the State takes two-fifths of the crop (the maximum allowed it).

Ulag consists in supplying to all those bearing a Government order for ulag, in which the number of animals, etc., is enumerated, beasts of burden — ponies, mules, yaks, and donkeys. If the misser have no ponies, they have to furnish yaks or donkeys instead. For stages along which neither yaks nor ponies can pass, porters must be supplied for carrying the traveller's goods. In default of these, the misser are required to pay a certain sum for carriage or conveyance. Misser, and all those who own more than one kang of land, must supply ulag and ta-u, consisting of either one coolie or pony, free of charge when the traveller produces his Government pass. The system of levying ulag is a kind of indirect taxation, accounts of which are kept by the village headmen. Some families supply a hundred ulag in a year, others only five or ten. If a misser fail to supply ulag once in a year, he is required to supply double the amount