SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
no water ever comes into contact with any part of their person; they scarcely ever change their clothes, especially the woollen ones.”
Eden formed much the same opinion in 1864, and I cannot help thinking both writers were prejudiced against the Bhutanese by the treatment they received, for it is not possible for a whole race to so completely change in so short a time; and in addition Bogle and Turner’s accounts of their experiences coincide exactly with mine.
When I visited Bhutan in 1905, I certainly had more and better opportunities of judging, and I found no signs of such a state of things. My experience of the people was that they were universally polite, civil, and clean, and during the whole time I spent in the country, I only saw one drunken man. I had every opportunity of judging, as I entered numerous houses and temples in all parts of the country, and invariably found them clean and tidy; in many of the houses, the floors were washed and polished, and the refreshments they hospitably pressed on me were served in spotlessly clean dishes.
The clothes of the higher officials were always immaculate, their brocades and silks fresh and unstained in any way, and even the coolies were a great contrast to the usual Tibetan or Darjeeling coolie. Therefore I cannot help thinking Messrs. Griffiths and Eden have exaggerated what they saw, and as we know with what discourtesy they were treated, it is perhaps not altogether unreasonable for them to have seen, only the worst side of the people.
Neither do I consider the Bhutanese an excessively idle people, the amount of labour expended on their irrigation channels alone dispels that idea, and, their houses are all large and substantially built. And as in the case of Dug-gye-jong, in the courtyards we found retainers busily occupied in various trades, while the women of the household spin and weave and make clothes for the men-folk in addition to their ordinary duties. A great part of the country is
12
