SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
think of an old baronial hall in bygone English days. To add to this impression, the reception room was large and handsomely decorated, and the walls hung with arms of all descriptions, shields, spears, matchlocks, guns, bows and arrows of every imaginable kind, all well kept and ready for use.
The Penlop received us in a large bay window looking down the valley, but the visit was dull and uninteresting, as he seemed to know little of the history of his country, and what information we did extract was vague and inaccurate. I made him some presents, including a rifle and ammunition, and gave his son a knife, binoculars, and a magnifying glass, with which the lad was immensely pleased, and shortly after took my leave, receiving permission to inspect the fort, and to pay a visit to his wives in the house across the valley.
The fort is said to have been built in the time of the first Shabdung Rimpochi, and does not seem to have suffered from the earthquakes that shattered part of Tashi-cho-jong and Poonakha. On the first floor is the temple, the gompa, or public chapel, a very finely proportioned hall, well lighted, and with two galleries running round the main building. It is a much larger room than the one in the Potala at Lhasa where the Tibetan Treaty was signed, and all its decorations are good, a hanging latticework of pierced brass in front of the altar especially being very effective and unusual. At the other end of the west verandah is the private chapel of the Ta-tshangs, the State monks, where we were received by their head, Lama Kun-yang Namgyal, who went to Lhasa with the Tibet Mission and exercised a good influence amongst the monks there. We were pleased to meet again, and he gladly showed us all there was to be seen. The larger of the two citadels is in the centre of the western courtyard, at the north-west angle of the building, and while I was going round I noticed old catapults for throwing large stones carefully stored in the rafters of the verandah. In the
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