ARTS AND INDUSTRIES
in Chumbi had not come to maturity before the evacuation of the valley and the trees will probably be cut down for firewood.
I also tried to introduce amongst the people butter and cheese making, which should have been profitable to the gwallahs, or cowkeepers; but without Europeans to place in charge it was difficult to achieve any success. The cheese-making was never taken up, although for a whole winter I had milk brought to the Residency, the cheese made in my own dairy, and then sold amongst my friends in India, to demonstrate to them the practicability of the scheme. They thought the trouble and care required in keeping the utensils clean was much too great for their easy-going ways. Hence that scheme was a failure, and, beyond what I myself attempted, was never tried. It seems extraordinary that the neighbouring town of Darjeeling, not to speak of Calcutta and other stations in the plains of Bengal, should get their supply of butter from Aligarh, in the United Provinces, while at Gangtak day after day throughout the year we made the finest possible butter, equal, if not superior, to the best English butter, and that from the milk of cows not stall-fed or cared for in any but the ordinary way of the country, turned out each morning to graze on the hillsides. It shows what would be possible were the business taken up by any practical and energetic person.
Into Bhutan, Nepalese influence has hardly penetrated at all. The craftsmen are all Bhutanese, and the designs follow more closely the Chinese model. They excel in bronze castings and fine metal-work of all kinds. In practice they follow the same methods as in Sikhim, backing the metal on which they are employed with lac, and hammering out the patterns with blunt chisels after the manner of old alto-relievo work. One of the most exquisite specimens of workmanship in silver and silver-gilt I have ever seen was produced in Bhutan—a pan-box about 8 inches in diameter and 2½ inches deep, of a purely
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