At the foot of the ladder in the courtyard a white pony, with handsome housings of embroidered cloth and a Tartar saddle, awaited the Lhacham. With her pearl-studded headdress, her gold and ruby charm-boxes, her necklaces of coral and amber, and her clothes of satin and kinkab, she looked like a heroine of romance or a goddess.
On the following day I went with the minister and the Kusho Ane, and took up my residence in the Dongtse Choide. Here
TIBETAN NOBLEMAN.
I witnessed the opening ceremonies connected with the Kalachakra mandala worship. The Om-dse,[1] or high priest of the Choide, with the help of two assistants, had described with coloured tsamba a circle about 20 feet in diameter on the floor of the northern room on the third floor of the Tsug-la khang. Within this mandala were drawn the entrance, spires, doors, and domes of the Kalachakra mansion. The presiding deity was tall, many-armed, and had several heads; his attendants were of the tantrik order of deities, and all these
- ↑ See note 1, p. 115.
