rampa. This underground grass acquires, in some places, a length of five or six feet, and in the early spring, when vegetables and forage are scarce, it is dug up. The people know where to dig for it by the little shoots which rise above the ground.[1]
We were detained at Chyang-chu all day, waiting for Tsering-tashi, who had been obliged to stop over at Tashi-gyantse to make some purchases.
In the evening tea was served by Po-ka-chan, a grey-haired monk who works on the estates of the minister at Tanag. He had travelled much in Kongpo, Naga, and among the Mishmis, and in Tsari. He related how the savage Lhokabra[2] harassed the Tibetan pilgrims, and how the Tsang-po river entered the country of defiles in Eastern Bhutan, rushing in a tremendous waterfall over the top of a gigantic precipice called the "Lion's Face," or Sing-dong.
April 28.—The villagers had all assembled to bid us farewell, and the Tung-chen's sister presented me with a "scarf for good luck" (tashi khatag). We saw as we rode along numerous flocks of cranes (tontong), and brown ducks with red necks were swimming in the river and the irrigation ditches. We stopped for the night at Pishi Mani lhakhang, where Angputti received us with the same kindness she had shown us on my former visits. Snow fell during the night, but our hostess's servants watched over our ponies, and stabled them under the roof of the okhang,[3] or godown, on the ground floor.
We reached Dongtse at 4 p.m. on the 29th, and took up our lodgings in the Choide; but in the evening the Deba Chola came and invited us to put up at the castle, where the minister was still staying.
- ↑ I think our author was misinformed. Rampa (Polygonum viviparum, L.) does not grow as described here. Rampa seed is eaten, after being parched and ground, mixed with tsamba. Choma (Potentilla anserina), also eaten all over Tibet wherever it occurs, is dug out of the ground; it is not a grain, however, but a small root. I think Chandra Das must refer to choma, though it is a small tuber not over 112 inches long.—(W. R.)
- ↑ Lama Serap gyatsho says there are three different kinds of Lobas, viz. Lo Karpo, Lo Nagpo, and Lo Tawa, or Lo Khabta. The Lo Karpo means "white, and little civilized." The Lo Nagpo means "black, and little civilized." The Lo Tawas, or stripped Lobas, meaning "quite barbarous Lobas," live on the lower part of the Tsangpo, on the east bank. They are said to kill the mother of the bride in performing their marriage ceremony, when they do not find any wild men, and eat her flesh. Report on Explorations, etc., p. 7. See also ibid., pp. 16, 17; and Pundit Nain Singh's Journey, in Jour. Roy. Geo. Soc., vol. xlvii. p. 120.
- ↑ Og khang means "lower house," as opposed to Gong khang, "upper house, or story."—(W. R.)
