the precious bonnet is merely gold-plated—in its present state, at least. Mr. Koeppen has hardly seen the temple himself, and his statement seems to rest only on the report of Mr. Timkousky, who in 1820 had charge of the Russian caravan to Peking (vide Huc). If this bonnet were really genuine gold, when Timkousky saw it, its value must have been enormous.
This Dagaba stands in the middle of the 塔院 of the Western Yellow Temple, joining the Dalai-lou, the former residence of visiting Dalai and Tashi Lamas.
At present, this building is a complete wreck, and visitors are not even allowed to inspect the interior, for fear of falling bricks and beams. The Dagoba is no doubt one of the finest chefs d'œuvre of Buddhist architecture in China, and one cannot but regret that the bas-reliefs on its plinth, representing scenes in the life and trip of the Tashi Lama, bear conspicuous traces of the vandalism of 1900, when, troops occupied the building after the Boxer trouble. Around its base are littered rubbish, and the dung of animals who seem to have been stabled in the surrounding dependencies of the Temple, which itself stands empty and desolate, wrecked like so many other temples in 1900. The Monument has a Pai-lou in front and another at the back, both of soft white marble, which is, too, the material employed in the monument. Four little turrets of marble surround the central dagoba, which are nearly covered with inscribed prayers. A flight of marble steps leads to the platform, on which the central structure stands. The sculptured ornaments and carvings reproduce Buddhist emblems, and the general disposition of the monument crowned by the copper-gilt bonnet, is that of all chortens and dagobas.
