Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 249 (Color Image)

0249	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

CHAMDO TO LHASA 183

roofs of gold. It impressed me like the great ruins

of Ankhor Wat in Cambodia, St. Peter's, the

Mosque Omar and the Taj Mahal—all, of course, in

different ways. The Dalai Lama no longer lives

there, but resides in a country place near by, and

a fine broad modern road has been constructed to

it, along which, at about 100 yards intervals, are

small columns like milestones, on which incense is

burnt when the Dalai Lama passes by."

A very nice villa, surrounded by a park or

garden full of trees, had been provided for Pereira

by the Tsarong Shapé, the Commander-in-Chief.

In it was a big painted room which took up more

than half the house. It had six continuous

windows on one side and two rows of columns

down the centre, and a roof of rafters painted blue.

The furniture included a substantial wooden table.

Sir Charles Bell, Sir Henry Hayden and other

Englishmen had stayed there.

Some news of the outer world, which had been

a closed book to him for over six months, he now

learned from the telegraph officer, Rosemeier-

the troubles in Ireland (the same old story), the

utter rout of Greece by Turkey, the death of

Lord Northcliffe, etc.

And then he sat down and reflected reflected

as only a man can who has set his whole heart

on a great task and has done it.

" After all the worries, anxieties and hardships

it seems like a dream that the great trek is really

over. I look back on the rather heart-breaking

preparations at Tangar when everything seemed

against me and only the fiery Père Schram stood

behind me with a helping hand. Then the odds

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