A Commotion--The arrival of an army--Elected
General-in-chief--How we were to slaughter the Jong Pen's
soldiers--My men lay down their arms--Towards Taklakot--Delaling
and Sibling--Taklakot at last.
DURING the night there was a great commotion in the place, the people
running about and shouting, and a large number of ponies with their
riders arriving.
Tibet is farmed out, so to speak, to officials who have become small
feudal kings, and these are generally at logger-heads among themselves.
To this regal jealousy, and to disputes over the rights of the road, was
due the appearance of this new army. There were altogether some hundred
and fifty men armed with matchlocks and swords. The chieftain of this
band came to me with eight or ten other officers, and spoke so excitedly
that I feared there was trouble in store for us. There was indeed. These
new arrivals were officers and soldiers from Gyanema, Kardam, and Barca,
and they had come with strict orders from the Barca Tarjum that we were
on no account to traverse his province or to cross by the Lumpiya Pass.
This was very amusing and tantalising, for we had now no way across the
frontier open to us. Our guard and some of the Jong Pen's men who had
remained behind, finding they were in the minority, thought it prudent to
eclipse themselves; and I, anxious as I naturally was to get out of the
country as quickly as possible, approved of all that the Gyanema men
said, and urged them to fight in case the Jong Pen still insisted on my
going through the Tarjum's province. All ways out of the country were
barred to us, and unless we resorted to force, I felt we would never
escape at all.
The Gyanema men asked me whether I would lead them in case of a fight
with the Jong Pen's soldiers; and I, though not very confident of their
courage, accepted the post of General-in-chief _pro tem._, Chanden Sing
and Mansing being promoted there and then to be my aides-de-camp. We
spent the greater part of the night in arranging our plan of attack on
the Jong Pen's troops, and when all was properly settled, the Tibetans,
to show their gratitude, brought me a leg of mutton, some _tsamba_, and
two bricks of tea.
[Illustration: JUMLI TRADER AND HIS WIFE IN TIBET]
The morning came, and I was given a fine pony to ride, as were also
Chanden Sing and Mansing. Then, followed by my Tibetan troops--a grand
cavalcade--we started gaily towards Taklakot. We had been informed that
the Jong Pen was concentrating his men at a certain point on the road to
bar our way: and it was this point that we must force. My Tibetans said
that they hated the Jong Pen's men, and swore they would slaughter them
all if they made any stand.
"But they are such cowards," declared one of the Tibetan officers, "that
they will run away."
[Illustration: CLIFF HABITATIONS]
All this talk stopped suddenly when we heard the distant tinkling of our
enemies' horse-bells, and though I encouraged my men as best I could, a
panic began to spread among them. The Jong Pen's men came in sight, and
presently I witnessed the strange spectacle of two armies face to face,
each in mortal terror of the other.
Notwithstanding my remonstrances, matchlocks and swords were deposited on
the ground with anxious eagerness by both parties, to show that only
peaceful intentions prevailed. Then a conference was held, in which
everybody seemed ready to oblige everybody else except me.
While this was still proceeding, a horseman arrived with a message from
the Jong Pen, and at last, to everybody's satisfaction, permission was
granted for us to proceed into Taklakot.
[Illustration: CHOKDENS NEAR TAKLAKOT]
My army retraced its steps towards the North-west, and, deposed from my
high military post, which I had occupied only a few hours, I became again
a private individual and a prisoner. With a large escort we were taken
along the Gakkon, by barren cliffs and on a rocky road. We passed
hundreds of _Chokdens_ large and small, mostly painted red, and _mani_
walls. Then, having descended by a precipitous track on whitish
clay-soil, we reached a thickly inhabited district, where stone houses
were scattered all over the landscape. We saw on our left the large
monastery of Delaling and, a little way off, the Gomba of Sibling; then,
describing a sweeping curve among stones and boulders, we rounded the
high graceful cliff, on the top of which towered the fort and monasteries
of Taklakot.
[Illustration: TAKLAKOT FORT]