Coming to the street to the south of Kyil-khording,[1] we found on either side of it Nepalese shops several stories high, also Chinese ones, where silk fabrics, porcelain, and various kinds of brick-tea were exposed for sale.
A lama guided us from this street to the Bangye-shag, a castle-like building three stories high, the residence of Sawang Phala, the husband of my protectress, the Lhacham. Leaving me at the postern gate, my two companions went in and presented the lady with a khatag, and she directed them to take me to Paljor rabtan, a building belonging to the Tashi lama, where all officers and monks from Tashilhunpo find lodgings when in Lhasa, and where we would be given accommodations.
The gateway of Paljor rabtan was about eight or nine feet high and five feet broad, and from the lintels fluttered fringes about a foot and a half broad.[2] Two stout flag-poles 20 to 25 feet high, carrying inscribed banners, stood on either side of it. Ascending a steep staircase, or rather a ladder, we came to a verandah, opposite which was a pretty glazed house, the dwelling of the khang-nyer (or "house-keeper"), and were soon given by him a room to lodge in, and served with tea and chang by an old woman. From the window of our room we could see the damra, or grove of poplars and willows in a marshy bit of land adjacent to the Tangye-ling monastery, and further west shone the lofty gilt spires of Potala.
May 31.—The heavy shower which had fallen last evening cleared up the atmosphere, and the gilt domes and spires glittering in the morning sun filled me with delight, and I had difficulty in subduing my impatience to visit all the monuments now before me, and of which I had dreamed of for so many years. At 7 o'clock Pador brought me a pot of tea prepared in the house of the water-carrier; but, instead of butter, tallow had been used in its preparation, and I
- ↑ Better known by its popular name of Cho or Jo khang, or Lhasa Jo-wo khang. A. K. calls it Jhio. He also mentions Azimabad (Patna) merchants as having shops in Lhasa.—'Report on the Explorations,' p. 32. See also Waddell, op. cit., 300 et sqq.
- ↑ These "fringes" are cotton strips on which are printed charms (mantras). Usually the figure of a horse occupies the middle of the strip. They are called lung-ta, or "wind-horse." E. Schlagintweit, 'Buddhism in Tibet,' p. 253, and plate xi. The "inscribed banners" belong to the same class of objects, and have also prayers or passages from the scriptures printed on them. Georgi, 'Alph. Tibet,' p. 509, refers to these "flag-poles" as being called Tarpo che (tar-pai shing?), "Arbor salutaris, depulsoria mali." See also Waddell, op. cit., 468 et sqq.
