SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
Mart perfectly useless for the purpose, and that the articles agreed to in the Treaty Regulations had not been carried out in any way. The Chinese had built a wall across the valley about one-third of a mile lower down, and posted sentries on the gate and no one was allowed to come to the “Mart” to buy or sell any goods whatever. Extortionate rents were charged for “shops,” which were nothing more than hovels, and to crown all the Tibetans refused to acknowledge the Treaty which had been signed on their behalf by the Chinese.
I sent in a report to Government and stayed on in Yatung for about ten weeks, waiting for a reply, and during that time I saw a good deal of both Chinese and Tibetans. The Chinese are well-known sticklers for etiquette and it was a curious commentary on the position that, as their officials lived just beyond Pema in the Chumbi Valley, within Tibet, I was not allowed to return their ceremonial visits. No person, save Tibetans or Chinese, not even Mr. Taylor, himself a Chinese official, was allowed to pass the gateway in the wall. Even the Amban, when he paid his official call on me, waived his right to a return visit. The position of the Chinese in Tibet was certainly a very curious one, or at any rate made to appear so.
I was not sorry when my stay came to an end. There was very little to do; I was not allowed to go beyond the wall, and in any other direction it meant a climb of thousands of feet. There was a little Monal (pheasant) shooting to be had, but that was all. There was no house for Taylor to live in, so on my departure I arranged he should have the use of the one built for me, and for many years after it remained in the hands of the Chinese Customs Officer.
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