Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/423

 ;

BHUTAN. Ph3'sically the Bhutias are a fine race,

and high cheekbones, but

skins

413

hardy and vigorous, with dark

dirty in

their

and persons.

habits

Their food consists of meat, chiefly pork, turnips, rice, barley-meal, and Their favourite drink is chotig, tea made from the brick-tea of China. distilled from rice or barley and millet, and marud, beer made from

fermented millet



all

intoxicating liquors.

bound round

classes are very

A

made

a cap

habiliment

and

men

a legging of broadcloth



is

attached to a

no Bhutia ever travels during and feet against the effects of the

generally of buffalo hide;

the winter without protecting his legs

snow

addicted to the use of

the waist by a thick fold of cotton cloth, or a leather belt,

forms the costume of the

shoe

much

loose woollen coat reaching to the knees,



made

of fur or

the women’s dress

is

coarse woollen cloth, completes the

a long cloak with loose sleeves.

houses of the Bhutias are of three and four stories

all



The

the floors are

and on two sides of the house is a verandah ornamented with carved work, generally painted. The Bhutias are neat joiners, and their doors, windows, and panelling are perfect in their way. No iron -work is used; the doors open on ingenious neatly boarded with deal

wooden

hinges.



The appearance

picturesque and comfortable

of the houses

— the

chimneys, which the Bhutias do not

The people nominally

is

that of Swiss chalets,

only drawback

know how

being a want of

to construct.

profess the Buddhist religion, but in reality

their religious exercises are confined to the propitiation of evil spirits,

and the mechanical recital of a few sacred sentences in their religious observances, the most remarkable circumstance is the noise with which they are accompanied. The instruments used are clarionets, sometimes formed of silver and brass, but generally of wood with reed pipes, horns, Around the cottages in the shells, cymbals, drums, and gongs. mountains the land is cleared for cultivation, and produces fair crops

of barley, wheat, buckwheat, millet, mustard,

chillies, etc. Turnips of grown they are free from fibre and remarkably sweet. The wheat and barley have a full round grain, and the climate is well adapted to the production of both European and The Bhutias lay Asiatic vegetables. Potatoes have been introduced.

excellent quality are extensively



out their fields in a series of terraces cut out of the sides of the

hills

each terrace is riveted and supported by stone embankments, someEvery field is carefully fenced with pine branches, times 20 feet high.

A complete system of irrigation protected by a stone wall. permeates the whole cultivated area of a village, the water being often brought from a long distance through stone aqueducts. The Bhutias or

do not care

to extend their cultivation, as an increased revenue is exacted in proportion to the land cultivated, but devote their whole energies to make the land yield twice what it is estimated to produce.

The language spoken by

the Bhutias

is

said to be a dialect of the