Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 194 (Color Image)

0194	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

146 PEKING TO LHASA

and there might be delay at Lhasa itself, Pereira

would have to possess his soul in patience for some

time and assume, in the face of the Tibetans, that

of course the reply would be favourable.

Chamdo is a remote spot in which to have to ro

wait for several weeks, but it is not entirely

unknown to Europeans. Three British Consuls,

Teichman, Coates and King, had visited it, and

perhaps other travellers as well. And dirty as

was the town the surroundings were by no means

without beauty : the lights and shades„ on the

mountains were often very beautiful ; and the

weather was warm sometimes even hot.

The population of Chamdo, when it was under

the Chinese, used to be about three hundred

families. But in the fighting the village was partly

destroyed, and now there were only 180 families.

These were nearly all Tibetan, though a few were

Chinese with Tibetan wives. The shops were

evidently very poor, and a few pounds would

have bought up the whole contents.

The monastery is situated on high ground on

the narrow peninsula between the two branches

of the river. Formerly there were three thousand

monks attached to it, but after the Chinese burnt

it in the fighting of 1912 there were only four

hundred. And from the number which Pereira

saw when he visited it he judged there were even

fewer. A steep climb of 80 to 100 feet brought

him to the higher ground of the monastery. It

had been partly restored, but many ruined mud

and stone walls still remained. Pereira thought

it had not the curious attraction and novelty of

most Tibetan temple buildings, and the new

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