AN EXPLORATION OF EASTERN BHUTAN
summer it spreads rapidly over all the branches, and the crop is gathered in the autumn. With the present want of system there are no plantations for the purpose, and the cultivator has to depend on any trees he may find growing wild in the jungles, which is, of course, a hopeless method, whereas if proper plantations were made it would facilitate not only the collection and save time and labour, but also increase the output. It is a paying crop, but can only be grown in these hot, dry valleys.
It was my original intention to follow the route viâ Tawang and the Dozam-la to Lhakhang, but the Government of India did not wish me to enter that part of Tibet. I therefore had to abandon it and go round by a longer and more difficult route. Another route, the direct one, along a road running from Tashigong along the right bank of the river, and said to be fit for mules and ponies, is a very easy one, and by it I could, I believe, have reached Lhakhang in five or six days; but this also took me into prohibited country, and had to be abandoned.
From Tashigong a very steep descent of about 1100 feet took us down to the iron suspension bridge over the Dongma-chhu. These suspension bridges in Bhutan are very interesting, and merit description. They consist of four or five chains of wrought iron, made of welded links, each fifteen to eighteen inches in length. The three lower chains are tightened up to one level, and on them a bamboo or plank roadway is placed. The remaining chains, hanging higher up and further apart, act as side supports, and between them and the roadway there is generally a latticework of bamboo, or sometimes grass, in order that animals crossing may not put their legs over the side. The roadway is never more than three or four feet wide. Many of the chains on these bridges are extremely old—many hundreds of years—and appear to be of Chinese workmanship. The links are in excellent order, and very little pitted with rust. The other and newer chain bridges have been made in Bhutan.
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