Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 106 (Color Image)

0106	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

76 PEKING TO LHASA

temple and curious high square Tibetan towers.

On the corners at the top of the houses were

white stones, perhaps the same as the sacred

white stones worshipped by the aborigines farther

north near Li-fan T'ung.

Changing his transport to carriers, both men

and women, he travelled the next day to Tung-ku, 8730 feet. The going was very rocky and stony

and the stream flowed through a deep, narrow

gorge in a succession of cascades. Tung-ku was

a mixed village of Chinese and Tibetans. The

Tibetan storied buildings with towers, some in the

village and some perched high on the hill-side,

give it a picturesque appearance. The Tibetans

Pereira found to be quite friendly. They came

out to meet him, and went down on their knees

bowing low ; and an interested but quiet crowd

watched him writing in his room.

Continuing down the Tung-ku valley, which

was mostly stony and deep cut, he passed more

small villages and houses, and reached Tanpa, 7450 feet and 107 miles from Ta-chien-lu, on

January 13 and put up in a small Chinese inn.

It is a Hsien city of 150 Chinese families—a

straggling little town shut in on all sides by bare

mountains. The Tibetans live on the hills outside.

There are over three hundred Catholics in and near

Tanpa. They were under the charge of Père

Hsiung Te-lung, whom Pereira believed to be the

only Tibetan priest (Catholic) in the world. He

had been a priest for over thirty years and was

a nice old man of sixty-six. He had a very bad

opinion of Lamas.

Leaving Tanpa on January 15 Pereira followed

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