The Lighter Side of the Experiences.
On the 14th of July I bade adieu to Alchu Lama, and, riding on a horse
he lent to me and in the company of the Ladak trader, I resumed my
journey, now heading due north. My luggage was taken care of by my
companion, who had six men under him and some ponies. First, we went
through an undulating land where snow remained here and there, and
grasses were struggling to grow. A ride of about fourteen miles brought
us to the river Kyang-chu, whence, about fifty miles to the north-west,
I saw a great snow-covered mountain. It was in that mountain that the
river had its rise, and, following its course with my eye, I saw it
flow into and disappear in the upper part of another elevation on the
south-east. The Kyang-chu was about four hundred and fifty yards wide
at places, while it narrowed to sixty yards or so at others, where its
waters shot between walls of huge rocks. Before crossing the river we
took our noon-meal. I was now a guest of my companion, and the latter’s
men went about gathering fuel and getting things ready, while I sat
down and read the Scriptures, and I had altogether an easy time of it.
Before our parting, Alchu Lama had given me about five _go_, or about
the fiftieth part of a peck of rice. I had this cooked, and invited my
companion and all his men to partake of it. It was a grand treat; I
had not tasted rice for a long time. Rice, by the way, comes to these
regions from Nepāl, and costs about seventy sen per _sho_, or ten _go_.
The river had a sandy bed of considerable depth, and it was judged
dangerous to make the ponies wade across it laden. All the baggage was
therefore taken from their backs, and carried across the stream piece
by piece by the men, who had stripped themselves naked. My companion
and I also divested ourselves of all our clothing, and began to cross
the icy stream. Where we forded it, the breadth must have been more
than four hundred yards. The depth of the water was from three to four
feet, and another danger was from the blocks of ice floating down from
the upper reaches, which we had to take good care to escape, for fear
of receiving serious cuts. After hard efforts we reached the opposite
shore, where, in the warm sun, I had time enough to recover myself from
the effects of the cold water while the men repacked the baggage on the
ponies.
Once more in the saddle, we turned north-west along the river, and
after a jog of about fifteen miles we came upon a nomad station, where
seven or eight tents were visible. We were lodged in the largest tent,
the owner of which was an elderly man named Karma. The intimation
that I had come from Alchu Lama at once secured me most hospitable
treatment from Karma. In the Karma family I observed a very singular
type of married life, almost unique even in the wondrous land of Tibet,
where (as I will tell more in detail later on) nothing is more common
than three or five brothers with one communal wife. In Karma’s case
it was quite the opposite, for he was about fifty years old and had
three wives, all living. The eldest Mrs. Karma was about forty-seven
years of age, and blind; the next about thirty-five, and the third
about twenty-five. Mr. Karma had a single child by his youngest wife.
Polygamy is only very rarely practised in Tibet, though there are
instances of two or three sisters taking, or marrying, one common
husband for economy’s sake. Karma’s was the only instance I came across
in Tibet in which one man deliberately indulged in the luxury of three
wives.
Mr. Karma asked me to read the Sacred Books for his family, and I
readily consented, for a couple of days’ rest was not disagreeable
to me. While staying with him I bought an extra pair of boots, a
precaution which I had foolishly omitted to take before, to my great
inconvenience. I also purchased a sheep, to make it a beast of burden
for me.
On July 18th I left Karma’s, with about fifty pounds of luggage on my
back and twenty-five more on that of the sheep. I led the sheep with
a yak’s tail rope tied to its neck. The animal proved docile enough
for a couple of hundred yards, but not further. It wanted to go home,
and tried to assert its right to do so with tremendous force. For my
part, I stood on my own right, and there ensued a tug of war between
the sheep and its master, and a very lively one it was. I argued with
the animal, adducing various proofs of my determination, among which I
may mention a rather free use of one of my staves. But the sheep showed
that he had a stronger determination than mine, and I began to be
dragged backward. My severe exertions even threatened to cause me some
serious injury, and I finally gave in and allowed myself to be led back
to Karma’s, as I had a mind to find out the best way of managing the
animal. On my second call on him, Karma expressed his opinion that my
sheep was not yet broken sufficiently for travelling purposes, and that
the purchase of a better-trained one as its companion might induce the
refractory animal to obey my will. I followed the suggestion and paid
one yen twenty-five sen for an additional sheep; seventy sen would have
bought me a younger one, but I wanted a fully grown and fully broken
one, and I was obliged to stay there that night, for all his sheep had
gone to the plains. On that very evening I bought another, and tried
putting on his back one half of my share of the burden of the morning;
this one proved to be a very good companion to my first sheep, and
things went splendidly on the trial.