As we were eating our meal several pilgrims chanting sacred hymns entered the chapel of the Lhakhang, and added some spoonfuls of butter to the lamps. Some of them stared at Ugyen and me, observing to one another that we were strangers from beyond the Himalayas, taking Ugyen for a Sikkimese, but not being able to decide whether I was from Ladak or Besahir.
Ugyen told me of his movements since leaving me at Dongtse on December 31.
He had left Dongtse at noon on December 31, riding one of the Tung-chen’s ponies. On the road he met some of the muleteers of the Dongtse Dahpon Phala, who were proceeding to Lhasa with barley, butter, and meat for the use of Bangye-shag, Phala’s residence.
Ugyen inquired of them about the state of the road to Lhasa, and the best time to make the journey there. They told him that winter was the best season to travel to Lhasa, for then there was no rain, and one could easily ford the streams and get across the Tsang-po; moreover, feed was cheap, and meat, barley, and wine obtainable everywhere.
The following day (January 1, 1882) Ugyen visited the Gyantse tom. This market and the town generally are inferior to Shigatse in importance and in the variety of articles for sale. There were people selling Calcutta and Chinese goods of very inferior quality. He saw fifteen or twenty Nepalese shops and half a dozen pastry shops kept by Chinese. The tom (or market-place) is the property of the Palkhor choide, the great monastery of Gyantse, and contributes largely to its maintenance. The monastic authorities also collect rents from the shops in the vicinity of the tom, which do not belong to either the Government or landholders (gerpas). The barley for sale was inferior to that of Shigatse, as was also the chang, which was, however, cheaper than there; and butter and mutton were in larger quantities than at the latter place.
The market only lasts for three hours daily, opening at 10 a.m. Ugyen here saw, for the first time, women selling fresh meat and dried carcasses of sheep and yaks. At Shigatse they never take part with the men in this business.[1] Some of these women have amassed much wealth by this profession, and wear rich headdresses (patug) thickly studded with pearls, amber, and turquoises.
- ↑ But women throughout Tibet do most of the selling in the shops and the markets.—(W. R.)
