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0235 Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1
Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1 / Page 235 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000231
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considered, Turkestan, Mongolia proper, and Tibet,
may be broadly put down as desert, save for a few
oases (chiefly artificial) and the narrow valleys, in
which there is some natural grazing, but which yield
valuable crops only to irrigation. There are some
regions of good natural grazing, considerable in ex-
tent in north-eastern Mongolia. But no important
concentrations of population are found except in
Turkestan and in the Tsang-po valley of Tibet.
Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan, which you have
patiently traversed with me, are the three big
towns. Lhasa, largest of Tibetan cities, is now
well understood to contain not more than twenty
thousand souls. The present inhabitants of all this
almost empty empire are much better fitted to the
physical conditions than any European race. And
for commerce, the Chinese and Hindus will un-
doubtedly hold all the trumps as against possible
white competitors. Yet, despite all these frowning
facts, Tibet is to-day the scene of a great and bloody
political drama, in which the white man plays the
rôle of—hero or villain—which shall it be? And
to-morrow, the Turkestan theatre will probably open
a rival show, changing the dramatis personæ and
the stage setting, but closely copying the plot that
unwinds itself in Lhasa.¹