sistent. »My age is now upwards of seventy years, and the only blessing I can enjoy before I quit this life will be to see you and join in acts of devotion with the divine Teshoo Lama », says the emperor. He even wrote to the DALAI LAMA to persuade the TASHI LAMA to come.
On the 15th July 1779 the TASHI LAMA also left Tashi-lhunpo, accompanied by a large suite of high dignitaries and monks, and an escort of fifteen hundred men. With him he took valuable presents for the emperor.' At different places along the road he was met by high Manchu dignitaries or close relatives of the emperor with thousands and thousands of soldiers, and given invaluable presents.
The day after the TASHI LAMA had made his solemn entry into the Hsin-kung monastery at Jehol the emperor received his guest. The following day the em-
1 In his following there was a Brahmin priest named PORUNGHEER, whom HASTINGS had often used as a go-between, interpreter and spy in Tibet and Bhutan. This man left a very valuable account of the journey of the TASHI LAMA, which is to be found in Captain SAMUEL, TURNER'S book Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet (London 1800) as an appendix with the title Narrative of the Particulars of the Journey of the Teshoo Lama and his Suite from Tibet to China, from the verbal report of Porungheer Gosein.
IIIF Color HighRes
