Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 174 (Color Image)

0174	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

CHAPTER XIII

JYE-KUNDO TO CHAMDO

JYE-KUNDO or Chieh-ku in Chinese is officially

called Yü-shu-hsien, pronounced locally Yü-fu.

Yü-shu, meaning " jade tree ", is evidently taken

from a Tibetan name. The Tibetans in these

parts are of the Gaba tribe and appear to be a

very mixed race, unlike the Mongols or the fine

types of Aryan and Lolo at Ta-chien-lu. They

are short, about 5 feet 6 inches in height, with

almond eyes, sunken cheeks, long unkempt hair,

snub, hooked or aquiline noses, long moustaches

at the end but no hair under the nose and hairless

lips. They dress usually in long cloth coats with

trousers tucked into long cloth boots, the upper

part usually red or red and blue ; and wear no

head covering.

The Monastery of Jye-kundo stands on the

saddle of a 200-feet spur, about half a mile to the

north end of the city. Three hundred lamas and

" huo-sheng " of the red sect live here and are

presided over by an abbot (khem-po), who is sent

from the Sakya Monastery south-west of Shigatse

in Tibet and changed every two or three years.

All houses in Sakya monasteries, as at Hsiu-

Gomba, are painted in slate colour, with red

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