A Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet/Chapter 10

by Sarat Chandra Das

CHAPTER X.

VISIT TO SAKYA AND RETURN TO INDIA.

On November 30, 1882, I said farewell to Tashilhunpo, and, accompanied by Phurchung and Gopon, my recent guide to Samye, I started for Sakya, from which place I proposed returning to Darjiling by way of Khamba djong and the Kongra lamo pass.

The country was now bare, the brown rocks, the gravelly soil, and the distant snow-covered mountains, added additional bleakness to the scene. We reached the village of Nartang the same evening, and were kindly received by some old friends of Phurchung.

A little before daylight the next morning we set out, following the great high-road which leads to Upper Tibet, instead of taking the direct road which leads there by the Lang la, but which is infested by highwaymen.

At the little hamlet of Chagri^[1] we stopped to make some tea, and had to pay three annas for a little water, as the people have to bring all they use from a very considerable distance.

The wind was blowing violently when we resumed our journey, and the dust was so thick that we had to stop at Ge-chung, a little village to the west of the Singma la.

At daybreak we set out again, and after crossing the Re chu (here called Shab chu), along whose banks are numerous hamlets, we came to Lhimpotse, near which is a large lamasery built on a rocky eminence.^[2]

We stopped for the night at Samdong, just beyond which village is a long wooden bridge. We got accommodation in the house of a rich villager, the younger of the two husbands (and they not brothers) of the woman of the house. The other husband was the headman, or Sa-yong, and when he appeared, he obligingly sold us very good chang, mutton, onions, and other vegetables.

December 3.—After drinking a cup of steaming chang^[3] we set out, and following the course of the Shab chu, came to where the Tsarong chu empties into it, when we took up the course of this stream and followed it to its source.

Several miles above the village of Sikya, where cultivation practically ceases, we came to the large Dokpa village of Jig-kyong, where we stopped for the night. In all the villages small-pox was raging, and where the people were free from it, they showed great apprehension about letting us in, lest we should introduce the dreaded disease among them.

The next day (December 4) we crossed the Shong la,^[4] which, though quite high, was of easy ascent, and traversed the Tao valley. After taking lunch at the Kham-yol we came to the Aton la, from whose summit Sakya is visible, with all its red-walled buildings and gilded spires,^[5] bearing in a north-westerly direction.

We secured lodgings in a house in the town, near the bridge over the Tom chu, and from the window of my room, which opened to the south, I had a gorgeous view of the town by which the river gently flows; also of the great temple, and beyond these, of the snow-covered peaks of Tinki (Tingri) and Pherrug.

In the evening I strolled about the clean, though narrow streets, where the market people were still busy selling their wares.

Sakya is built on the eastern flank of Ponpoi ri, along whose base flows the Tom chu. Facing the town, but on the other side of the river, is the Lha-khang chenpo with its famous library and temple.

The appearance of Sakya is different from that of most Tibetan towns. The walls of almost all the public buildings, temples, and dwelling-houses are painted red with a clay obtained from the neighbouring hills. Black and blue stripes about nine inches broad cut the walls perpendicularly.^[6]

The four Labrang^[7] temples, built with Chinese roofs and gilded spires, are especially noticeable. They are called Labrang-shar (or "eastern"), Labrang-nub (or "western"), Labrang khung, and Khansar chenpo, and in their general arrangement they do not differ from the temples I had seen at Tashilhunpo and elsewhere.

WATERFALL ABOVE TALUNG MONASTERY ON THE WAY TO YUMPTSO LA.

In the palmy days of the Sakya hierarchy there were four abbots under the hierarch who ruled these four Labrang. The rank was hereditary in their families, and all those abbots, the hierarch included, were allowed to marry. This system of hereditary hierarchy was known as dun-gyu. At the present time the abbots are Tantrik lamas from Khams. I was told that neither the lamas nor the nuns of Sakya are held by the people to be exceptionally virtuous, and, to tell the truth, the laity of Sakya has a similar unsavoury reputation in Tibet.

The Emperor Kublai made the hierarch Phagpa ruler of Tibet,^[8] and it was the latter’s deputy (or Panchen^[9]), Kunga zangbo, who began building the Lha-khang chenpo of Sakya, which was completed by one of his successors in office, Anglen tashi. This latter proved himself an able and vigorous administrator, and annexed Tagpo to the Sakya principality. Zangpo-pal, the then reigning hierarch, sent him on a mission to the Emperor of China, Buyantu,^[10] who granted to him and his heirs in perpetuity the Yamdo lake country. The Sakya Panchen have, down to the present time, been taken from this family. The last Sakya Panchen, Kunga nyingpo, died on June 20, 1882; his tomb, at the time of my visit to Sakya, was almost finished, and his wife was still wearing mourning.

It is told of the late Sakya Panchen that, some sixteen years ago, after the death of the two famous Dayan khanpo, the treasurer of the Gadan gomba of Lhasa, when his wicked spirit was causing various dire calamities to Tibet, every endeavour to expel it from the country proved abortive. So finally the Government of Lhasa, at the suggestion of the oracles, requested the Sakya Panchen to visit Lhasa to drive the fiend away. At the foot of Mount Potala he had lighted a great fire, and, by the potency of his charms, drove the evil spirit into a lay figure prepared for the occasion, whereupon it fell straight-way into the fire. Then the Panchen drove his charmed phurbu^[11] into the image, but while so doing the flames of the pyre surrounded him, and all thought he was dead; but lo! after an hour or so he came out of the flames dressed in rich satins, and with not even so much as a hair of his head scorched.

Panchen Jimed wang-gyal, or one of the other sons of the late Panchen, will succeed him as ruler of Sakya. One son is an incarnate lama and superior of the Tanag Donphug lamasery,^[12] but he is obliged to reside continually at Sakya on account of a rule which prescribes that when the re-embodiment of a lama takes place in Sakya, the reincarnation cannot return to the locality he occupied in his preceding existence. The names of the four other sons of the deceased Panchen will shortly be sent to Lhasa, and the Nachung oracle will decide who shall become the ruler of the principality.

These princely lamas wear long hair, ordinarily plaited in two queues hanging down their backs and tied at the ends with white cotton handkerchiefs. Over their ears they wear covers of gold studded with turquoises and emeralds, and almost reaching to their shoulders. To the lower part of these are appended earrings.^[13]

In the Lhakhang chenpo (or great temple) are five seats of equal height, on which the princes take their places when conducting religious services; the one reserved to the hierarch remains vacant so long as the successor to the title has not been chosen.

Under the hierarch there is a Shape, or minister, who attends to all the temporal affairs of Sakya. The monks are divided into two orders, according to the locality of their birth; those from Tibet proper forming one set ruled by a Gekor, and having their cells near the great temple, and those from Khams (or Eastern Tibet), also with a Gekor over them, who live in the town.

As to the great library of Sakya, it is on shelves along the walls of the great hall of the Lhakhang chen-po. There are preserved here many volumes written in gold letters; the pages are six feet long by eighteen inches in breadth. On the margin of each page are illuminations, and the first four volumes have in them pictures of the thousand Buddhas. These books are bound with iron. They were prepared under orders of the Emperor Kublai, and presented to Phag-pa on his second visit to Peking.

There is also preserved in this temple a conch shell with whorls turning from left to right, a present of Kublai to Phagpa. It is only blown by the lamas when the request is accompanied by a present of seven ounces of silver; but to blow it, or have it blown, is held to be an act of great merit.^[14]

On December 5 I left Sakya, and passing by the Choskhor-lhunpo monastery, entered the broad Yalung valley, in which stands the big village of Lora and numerous scattered hamlets. We stopped at Lora to eat our breakfast, but so intense was the fear of the people of small-pox, of which there were several cases in the village, that they would have absolutely nothing to do with us, not even to sell us firewood.^[15]

After crossing the Yalung river we ascended the Dong la, from whose summit we saw the Chomo kankar (Mt. Everest), and the endless ranges of mountains which jut out from it westward. At the Dong la the Arun and the Kosi have their sources.

The descent of the Dong la was very gradual, the country extremely bare, not a single tree was to be seen anywhere. We reached Chu-sho, at the foot of the pass, at about five o'clock, and it was only after much persuasion that we gained admittance to a poor hut occupied by an old woman and her son.

The next day we followed for a while the course of a little stream, called the Chu-shu, and then came upon a broad, barren plain, on either side of which rose bleak and lofty mountains.

Leaving the village of Map-ja, in which there are about one hundred houses, we breakfasted at Donkar, and then made our way towards the Shong-pa la, following up the course of the Shong chu. The ground in many places was riddled with holes made by a burrowing animal called srimong,^[16] and our ponies had many tumbles by putting their feet in them.

On descending from the Shong-pa la we found ourselves in the broad Chib-lung valley,^[17] and towards six o’clock we reached the village of Dogang, and found shelter for the night in the hut of some poor people.

The following morning we passed through Tashigong and breakfasted at Gure, a village belonging to my friend the minister. Leaving
VIEW IN LHONAK, CHOMUMO IN DISTANCE. this place, we began the ascent of a high range which separated us from lake Tel-tung, or "Mule's Drink."^[18] This pass is known as the Dobta Lachan la, and one commands from it a most gorgeous view of a wide expanse of country, the Nepalese and Sikkimese Himalayas,

with lake Tel-tung and Dobta djong, belonging to the Sikkim Rajah, on a hillock beside the lake in the foreground.

We stopped for the night at Chorka, a part of Dobta, where a villager gave us the use of a yak-hair tent standing in his courtyard. We only remained here a short while, leaving before daylight, as we wanted to reach Khamba djong the same day. The cold was intense, and the violent wind which blew made it more piercing. Our way led along the margin of lake Tel-tung, now completely dried up and more resembling a broad pasture land than a lake. The country was alive with game; wild sheep, goats, and asses were specially numerous.

Leaving this broad plain, we entered the valley of the Che chu by a low col between the Dobta and Yaru la ranges. Crossing the river, we stopped for a while at Targye,^[19] while Phurchung went on ahead to Khamba djong to secure lodgings for us.

At five o’clock we reached the village of Khamba, and were received most kindly by Phurchung’s friend, Wang-gyal, who, together with his wife, did everything in their power to make us comfortable.

After tea I went with Phurchung, who had put on his best clothes for the occasion, to visit the Djongpon. The Djong stands on a hillock, the ascent of which is rather steep, and is made by flights of stone steps. The fort is a spacious two-storied building, and is supplied with water brought there through clay pipes from the mountains to the north, a piece of work of which the people are not a little proud.^[20]

The Djongpon were reading religious books when I entered their presence, and the lama one asked me questions about myself and the object of my journey, all of which I managed to answer satisfactorily. I showed my passport, to which they put their seals, retaining a copy of the document. When I left they presented me with a dried sheep's carcass, ten pounds of rice, and a rug, and expressed the hope that they would see me again the following year.

On returning to our lodgings I hired two ponies and a yak-hair tent for our use as far as Gen-pang tang.

We left early in the morning, after saying farewell to our faithful guide Gopon, who left us here to return to his home at Gyantse, and breakfasted at Geru. On the way we saw several flocks of wild sheep and some foxes. Leaving Geru, we ascended, one after the other, the foothills of the Kongra lamo pass, through a wild but beautiful country, till we finally reached the snow-covered summit, near which we camped on a bare rock. Thanks to the yak-hair tent and the good fire of argols which Phurchung kept burning, we did not suffer from the intense cold and piercing wind.

The following morning (December 10) we reached, at an early hour, Gen-gang, which forms the boundary between the territories of the Grand Lama and the Rajah of Sikkim, a vassal of the British Raj. From this point my way lay through Sikkim by a route followed by various European travellers, and concerning which I need say nothing here. I reached Darjiling and my home on December 27, after an absence of over a year.

1. Chiakri on the maps.—(W. R.)
2. Called Lingbo chen on the maps. Our author’s narrative is not at all clear in this part. If, as he states, the Re chu (Shab chu) flows by Samdong, the maps are wrong, for they make this river to flow seven miles east of that village (San chong on the map). It is probable that the brook (?) which flows by Samdong is an affluent of the Shab chu, but the maps do not show any watercourse at this point.—(W. R.)
3. Usually Tibetans drink their chang cold. Heating it is the Chinese fashion.—(W. R.)
4. Chong la on the maps.—(W. R.)
5. I am unable to follow on the maps our author’s route from the Chong la to Sakya. He appears to have taken a very roundabout way.—(W. R.)
6. This, our author has told us elsewhere, is a distinguishing sign of all Nyingma religious and lay buildings.—(W. R.)
7. Labrang means literally "dwelling of a lama dignitary." Phodrang is a palace or residence of a secular officer.—(W. R.)
8. Phagpa (or Dro-gon Phagpa) is said to have been born A.D. 1233, and became ruler of Tibet in 1251. Csoma, 'Tib. grammar,' p. 186. The latter date is, however, inconsistent with facts, as Kublai only mounted the throne in 1260, and became actually seated on the throne of China in 1280, and it was he who made him Kuo shih, or "Preceptor of the realm." H. H. Howorth, 'History of the Mongols,' i. p. 506 et sqq., makes no mention of Kublai raising Phagpa to be ruler of Tibet.
9. Abbreviation of Ponbo chenpo, or "great officer." The Sakya monastery was founded in A.D. 1071, according to Csoma, op. cit., p. 197. Phagpa was a nephew of the famous Sakya Pandita, the author of many standard works of Tibetan literature.
10. Buyantu reigned from 1312 to 1320. Ssanang Ssetsen says that the lama Sakya Sribadra was head of the church under him. I. J. Schmidt, op. cit., p. 121. The Saskya-pa sect was, prior to the rising of the present Gelugpa sect, the most powerful of the reformed schools of Tibetan Buddhism.—(W. R.)
11. A spike of iron or bronze with a triangular section. The top of it terminates in a dorje. It is used in exorcisms. Emil Schlagintweit, 'Buddhism in Tibet,' p. 257 et sqq., and Waddell, op. cit., pp. 341, 483, and 488.—(W. R.)
12. On this lamasery, see supra, p. 66.
13. Apparently the earrings are attached to the ear-covers of gold, not to the ear itself.—(W. R.)
14. Called in Tibetan, Ya chyil dung-kar; and in Chinese, Yu hsuan pai-lei. Both nations consider such shells as treasures of inestimable value. There is one in China, kept at Fu chu by the Ti-tuh. See Peking Gazette, February 23, 1867, and one at Lhasa. 'The Land of the Lamas,' p. 110.—(W. R.)
15. "In 1794 the Tale lama, under orders from the Emperor, erected special hospitals for small-pox patients, in which they were supplied with food and every necessary, and which were in care of a special officer. . . . The same plan has been adopted by the authorities of Tashilhunpo and Chamdo" (Jour. Roy. Asiat. Soc., n.s. xxiii. p. 235). I am not aware that these hospitals are kept up at the present day.—(W. R.)
16. The marmot is called Chyi (phyi)-wa. Mong I am unable to explain; perhaps it is the same animal which our author calls elsewhere the sremong (sri), and which is smaller than a cat, with tawny hair. The skin, he adds, is much used in witchcraft. The skin is blown up after putting inside it a slip with the name of the person it is desired to injure on it. The victim dies of an inflated body within seven days.—(W. R.)
17. The Chiblung tsangpo, the Upper Arun, flows through this valley.—(W. R.)
18. On this lake, see supra, p. 211.
19. At this point our author’s route joined that which he had taken when coming into Tibet.—(W. R.) The Che chu is the Arun, see supra, p. 42.
20. Certainly not of their own invention or manufacture.—(W. R.)