In every Djong there are two store-houses—the kar-gya, or reserve store, and the djong-dso, or repository of the Djong. The keys of the former are kept by the Kalon, and it is opened only once or twice a year. The Government sends annually a revenue officer to check the accounts of the Djongpon and tax-collectors (Khraldupa), and to take over the revenue collected by them. The Djongpon have, like the Kalon, their jagirs or djong-shi for their maintenance, in lieu of salary.
The following citation, taken from a work entitled 'Sherab dongbu,' or 'Bits of Wisdom,' may prove of interest:—
"Whenever petitions or requests are made, they should be carefully examined. Impartiality should be shown to all classes alike, to great and small, to lamas and to laymen. Uninfluenced by gratuities or the fear of criticism, the Djongpon should administer perfect justice. Questions of jurisdiction, of taxes due by the misser, and of forced labour, should be settled by the rules (tsa-tsig) of each Djong. The villages, houses, and inhabitants should be counted and inspected yearly, and the numbers compared with those of preceding years. He should have returned to their houses those who have left them, particularly misser who have been absent from their houses for not more than five years. Servants and labourers of the Djong should not be employed by him at his private work; the number of servants allowed him is fixed by the tsa-tsig. He should be kind to the misser, and not without a good cause have disputes with neighbouring Djongpon, as the Government’s interests would thereby suffer. He should not allow the public lands to be encroached upon, nor should tenants on them be taken away by landholders (gerpas).
"No women should be allowed to loiter about the Djong, and the Djongpon should carefully refrain from any flirtation. He should see to facilitating the courier service, and he should see that no one receives supplies for their journey unless they are bearers of passports (lam-yig). Frontier or foreign traders who cannot show a passport should be held, and any information he may obtain of affairs in other quarters should be transmitted to Lhasa."[1]
As previously mentioned, the Kalon and Djongpon exercise judicial functions. In the case of the Sera and Dabung lamaseries,
- ↑ Of course most of the Djongpon only attend to a very few of these duties. They squeeze the people under them, exact as much service as possible, and, together with the lamas, get everything they can out of them, and only stop when their exactions appear likely to cause serious trouble.—(W. R.)
