Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 320 (Color Image)

0320	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

236 PEKING TO LHASA

hills with shrub. At 2f miles there is a steep

descent to cross a side valley at 8700 feet. Just

beyond a rock marks the Yunnan-Szechwan

boundary. The path then again ascends to about

10,000 feet at 9 miles, and soon after is a steep

descent to Yakalo on the small fertile Yen-ching

plateau.

This is a town of about seventy scattered

families. Its elevation is 8655 feet. Pereira

made it 841 miles from A-tun-tzu and 7151 miles

from Yunnan-fu. It is the residence of a magis-

trate, and there is a salt industry here, the wells

being about half a mile off on both banks of

the Mekong. The Tibetan name is Tsa-ka (place

or wells of salt), to which is sometimes added the

Mosu name, Pei-ting, which is also used by itself.

Yen-ching is 2 miles south of Yakalo, and the

two places are separated by a ravine 50 feet deep.

Père Gorè entertained Pereira during his stay

at Yakalo. He has three hundred Christians

all Tibetans, except five or six Chinese.

The heaps of stones with Tibetan prayers en-

graved on them which are frequently passed by

the road-side are called, according to Père Gorè,

Dobourg, meaning a hundred thousand stones.

Pereira's boy pronounced it Mbembong. This

word is also used for the stone piles, with prayer

flags stuck in, on the top of every pass in Tibet.

But as they are somewhat different it is best to

keep the Mongol word " obo " used by Huc for

these. The small mud white-painted pyramids

on the roofs of Tibetan houses are for burning

incense and not to ward off sickness.

The Mosu are called Diong by the Tibetans.

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