December 23.—To-day the Shape Lhalu and 100 followers, all on horseback, left for Lhasa. The ponies and the men who have to accompany them on the ula are treated with great hardship. They have to carry their food with them, as well as provender for their beasts. In the present case they had received but short notice, and are ill prepared for the long journey. This forced service is, however, patiently borne by the people, as it is a recognized custom of the country.
The market to-day received a large supply of pottery from the village of Tanag and Lholing, on the Tsang-po, a few miles north-west of Shigatse. In these localities excellent potter's clay is obtainable, and the people carry on a profitable trade in earthenware with the surrounding districts. The Tanag pottery has not only an extensive sale in Tibet, but in the cis-Himalayan countries as well, where most utensils are of untinned copper, and the Sikkim and Darjiling people use them exclusively in preference to the earthenware made by the Nepalese inhabiting the Lower Himalayas. The Tanag earthenware is carried to the banks of the Tsang-po on donkeys, and there transferred to hide-boats (kodru), in which it is brought down to the Patama ferry, about four miles to the north-east of Shigatse. The Patama dealers, who, by the way, raise fine crops on the alluvial soil along the river banks, and make a good deal of money by fishing and ferrying, carry the earthenware to Shigatse on donkeys that jog slowly along the road to the jingle of big bells fastened around their necks. The Lholing pottery is brought to Shigatse viâ Tanag; this locality manufactures very large vessels for keeping wine or water in, and so heavy that two men can hardly lift them. The Tanag pottery is so highly glazed that it compares favourably with the Chinese and European earthenware sold in the Calcutta shops.[1]
There were on the market-place many wildly dressed Dokpas of the Chang province. The women wore such heavy and fantastic
- ↑ I have never seen pottery made in Tibet, but know that no wheel is used. Capt. R. B. Pemberton, in his 'Report on Bootan' (in 'Political Missions to Bootan,' p. 74), gives a minute description of the mode of making pottery among the Butia. He remarks that "a lump of the compost was placed on a flat board, supported on the top of three sticks, and was kneaded from the centre outwards, until an opening had been effected through the mass; the orifice thus made was gradually enlarged by the person who preserved its circular form by walking round the board on which the mass rested. . . . The mass thus prepared formed the upper section of the vessel; and the lower half being wrought by a similar process, the two parts were united together, and the vessel completed." The whole paragraph is very interesting.—(W. R.)
