Page:Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet.djvu/257

 and groves of trees, and in nearly every window and doorway flowers were growing in pots. Two Nyerpa are stationed here, who administer the town and supervise the manufacture of serge and cloth for the Dalai lama and Panchen rinpoche.

The next morning we passed through two miles of soft sand, and finally came to the mighty Tsang-po, and after much shouting to the boatmen on the farther side to bring over their junk (shanpa), and

after a couple of hours waiting in the cold and fog, it came slowly across, rowed by three women and two men, who sang lustily as they pulled.

The river is here about half a mile broad, very deep, but with a sluggish current. We were soon landed at the Dorje-tag ghat, where we paid a tanka for each of our ponies, and five karma (or two