Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 123 (Color Image)

0123	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

TO LAN-CHOW 89

The going was good all the next day, February 22.

The hill-sides were covered with grass and scrub.

At Pai-ku-ssu is a temple with 150 Tibetan monks.

It is situated on the highest ground on the western

side. The mud walls of the houses are painted

with broad vertical red and white stripes. At

121- miles Pereira reached Ra-chih-ssu, where

there is a temple with 100 monks. It is situated

at an altitude, of 8410 feet. Here was stationed

a solitary Chinese from Choni. He is director

(ch'ih-hui) under the Prince of Choni, of the

district which extends from the Yang-pu Shan

to the T'ai-li-ho. He had been there a year and

was feeling very lonely, and he put Pereira up in a

nice clean room. The lamas in the temple belong

to the yellow sect, and their rooms were clean and

comfortable. The Tibetan women in the village

wear shorts and overcoats. They dress their hair

in a pigtail and oil it well. Their head-dress is a

fur cap like an astrakan cap.

Pereira continued for 10 miles down the Tu-

erh-kou valley on February 23. The ranges on

either side rose about 2000 feet above the valley

and were covered with fir and scrub and in places

with cultivation. At 10 miles the path led up a

stiff rise of some 1600 feet to Ku-ya, 9210 feet,

a village of 30 Tibetan families, where Pereira

again lodged in a clean but chilly temple. Every-

where round the hills were cut by deep valleys.

The general trend of the ranges, which are about

10,000 or 11,000 feet above sea-level, is from west

to east, or W.N.W. to E.S.E.

Chien-tsang, 271 miles distant, was reached on

February 24. First there was a steep climb of

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books