Page:Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet.djvu/221

 the following year. This duty is levied on all kinds of State lands and subjects, freeholds and private property granted to sacred personages alone being exempt from this hateful tax. Lands purchased from Government are also liable to it. Under the Lhasa Government there are about a hundred and twenty landlords, out of whom about twenty are very rich and powerful. The present regent. Lama Ta-tsag Rinpoche, of Kundu ling, has upwards of 3000 misser on his estates in Kharu and Tibet Proper. The ex-regent, whose estates lie in Kongpo, has about 5000 misser, and other great lamas and laymen about 1000 misser each. The greatest noble of Tibet, Phags-pa-sha, of Chab-mdo, is lord over 10,000 misser.

When questions arise about newly reclaimed lands, the tax-collector, having no register (tsi-shi) to guide him, measures the field and superintends the harvesting, when he fixes the amount due to the State. He is forbidden fixing his assessments otherwise than by personal examination. The land-tax may be paid in three instalments—in November, December, and January, at which latter date it is remitted by the Djongpon to Lhasa or Tashilhunpo, as the case may be. The tax-gatherer has authority to remit a portion of the tax when the crops have failed for some reason or other; in fact, as a Tibetan author puts it, "as eggs are quietly taken from under a sitting-hen without disturbing the nest, so should the tax-gatherer collect the taxes without oppressing or disturbing the misser"

The great monasteries at Lhasa and its neighbourhood, such as Sera, Dabung, Gadan, Samye, etc., have large freehold estates.

Besides these, there are more than three hundred landholders, called gerpa, who pay a nominal revenue to the Government, varying from ten to thirty doche (1250 to 3750 rupees), and who are also called upon to furnish ulag, ta-u, and other indirect taxes. Cows and jomo belonging to the Government and tended by dokpa are calculated to yield at the rate of five pounds of butter per head per year. In the provinces of Kong-po and Pema-kyod numerous pigs are reared, and rich families count their pigs by the thousands. The Lhasa Government levies a tax of one 'tanka' on every pig, and derives no inconsiderable revenue from these districts from this