Page:Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet.djvu/239

 flowers in the garden which surrounded it filled the air with their fragrance; the tall poplars, the widespread willows, the fragrant junipers, the graceful cedars, all contributed to make this place the most favoured of all the neighbourhood.

My health rapidly improved in these pleasant surroundings and genial temperature, and I worked diligently at transcribing works of great interest into the nagari character which had, though written in Sanskrit, been preserved in the (Wu-chan) script of Tibet. Ugyen

devoted himself to botanizing, extending his excursions to considerable distances. Finally, to facilitate bringing in his collections, he bought a donkey and a pony for himself to ride.

July 19 was kept as a great holiday, it being the day on which the Buddha first turned the Wheel of the Law. The people of Shigatse and neighbourhood visited the different chapels and sanctuaries and thronged in every corner of Tashilhunpo.

Two days later the Deba Shikha, of whom I have had so often to speak, gave a garden-party to a number of his friends in the garden surrounding the house in which I was living at Gyatsoshar. There were a dozen men and women; the former amused themselves the