Page:Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet.djvu/242

 account of the discourtesy of the Dalai lama in not inviting him to his consecration.

At Dongtse, where I was, the minister was having performed as a termination to the ceremonies attending the consecration of the new building, a grand religious dance in the courtyard of the Choide. A great crowd, all in their holiday attire, was assembled on the roofs and balconies of the temple. The dance had but commenced; the minister’s page, who impersonated the herald of the gods, had twice fired off a gun, and had proclaimed the arrival of the four guardian deities of the world; the devils and goblins had gone through their part of the performance, when the news of the death of the Grand Lama was made known to the minister. At once the dance was stopped, and the dancers and the crowd rapidly dispersed.

On September 3 it was reported to me that the Chinese commander of Shigatse had flogged several of the Grand Lama’s servants for not having told him of the gravity of their master’s illness. One of the physicians of the Panchen had been severely beaten, and the other medical attendant was found dead shortly after the Grand Lama had breathed his last. I thanked God I had not consented to the minister’s proposal to go and attend the Grand Lama!

On the 6th Ugyen returned to Dongtse from his trip to Sakya, and from his journal I take the following facts, which may be of interest:—

He had started, as previously stated, on July 21, and on the 23rd crossed to the left bank of the Tsang-po near Tashi-gang, and camped in the valley of Tang-pe. Thence he and his companion, a Mongol lama by the name of Chos-tashi, went to the Tanag district, where a fine quality of pottery is manufactured. They could not get lodgings anywhere, so afraid were the people that they might introduce small-pox among them, coming as they did from the infected city of Shigatse.

On July 26 they crossed the Tanag Tong chu by an iron suspension bridge, and, travelling westward, stopped for the night in the lamasery of Tubdan. Leaving Tubdan on the 28th, the travellers reached, after a march of twelve miles in a northerly direction, the famous hot springs of Burchu-tsan. A circular wall of stone encloses a portion of the springs, and here the Grand Lama takes his baths. The place where he camps is surrounded by a low turf wall. The