Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 316 (Color Image)

0316	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

CHAPTER XIX

THE END

A-TUN-TZU is a town of four hundred families, half

Chinese and half Tibetan, at an elevation of 10,310

feet. The country is nominally under Tibetan

princes to whom the Chinese have granted the rank

of t'u-ssu. But they have no power. The northern

prince rules the country from Yakalo to Dong,

the next stage north. According to Monsieur Per-

ronne, a French musk merchant who had lived here

for twenty years, the Tibetans of these parts prefer

Chinese to Tibetan rule, as the Chinese at any rate

pay something, whilst the Lamas pay nothing.

Also the Lamas are constantly fighting among

themselves, and there is a vendetta between the

chiefs, whilst the Chinese do keep some sort of

order. The southern prince rules some way south

down the Mekong. A third t'u-ssu is a Mosu who

resides at Yeh-chih.

Trade was very bad. The Chinese were gam-

bling and letting things go. Chinese rupees were

current here. Pereira found among the rupees

one of the East India Company of William IV.,

1835. There was a bad habit here of cutting the

rupees in half, and often people would not take

what they considered the smaller half.

Monsieur Perronne said that the Mekong and

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