SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
they were to bid us good-bye. I replied in similar terms, and could honestly say that all my party fully reciprocated their feelings of regret, for one and all had done their best, and had succeeded, in making our stay at Bya-gha and Andu-choling a very pleasant one.
We had a delightful ride and walk to our old camp at Gya-tsa, which is evidently a much colder place than Bya-gha; there the wheat was in full ear, here it was only a foot high. There was much more cultivation on the slopes with a north-eastern aspect than on those with a southern one. This is probably due to the former getting the morning sun, and also to being sheltered from the southerly winds that rage up the valleys. Quail abound in all the cornfields, and apparently breed in these valleys.
A fine morning turned into heavy mist as we reached the top of the Yo-to-la, and utterly spoilt our view of the Gya-tsa Valley and the hills opposite Tongsa. The yellow giant Sikhim primula was in magnificent bloom, some specimens having as many as six tiers of flowers.
On nearing the castle we were met by a bevy of songstresses, a custom peculiar to the place, as this is the only province of Bhutan in which women take part in ceremonial processions, though, according to Pemberton, the custom was much more widespread in his time. Sir Ugyen met us in camp with the information that the castle lamas were all ready and eager to finish the dances that on our previous visit had been stopped by rain, so after a hasty lunch I went on to the castle. The dance went off very well, with the dancers in gorgeous dresses of every imaginable colour, to the accompaniment of weird tomtoms and huge trumpets, flutes, and cymbals, which produce a strange and unusual but rather fascinating music of their own. But the most interesting objects to me were the masks, which, instead of being carved out of wood, as in Sikhim, were moulded from a papier-mâché of cloth and clay; and very well moulded they were, the heads of the various animals quite recognisable, and many
170
