Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Lama-Miau

LAMA-MIAU, or Dolanor, one of the chief cities of Inner Mongolia, is situated 150 miles north of Peking, in a barren sandy plain watered by the Urtingol, a tributary of the Shandugol. The town proper, almost exclusively occupied by Chinese, is about a mile in length by half a mile in breadth, has narrow and dirty streets, and contains a large population for its extent. Unlike the ordinary Chinese town of the same rank, it is not walled. A busy trade is carried on between the Chinese and the Mongolians, who bring in their cattle, sheep, camels, hides, and wool to barter for tea, tobacco, cotton, and silk. At some distance from the Chinese town lies the Mongolian quarter, with two groups of lama temples and villages occupied by 2300 priests. Dr Williamson (Journeys in North China) describes the chief temple as a huge oblong building with an interior not unlike a Gothic church. Lama-miau is the seat of a manufactory of bronze idols and other articles of ritual, which find their way to all parts of Mongolia and Tibet. The craftsmen work in their own houses. See Prejevalsky, Mongolia, 1876.