TO THE BANK OF THE BRAHMAPUTRA
The Sham valley narrows like a pear, and at the entrance of this funnel
huts stand at three different spots, and large herds graze on the
mountain slopes. A _mani_, 148 feet long by 5 feet high, was covered
with clods to protect the upright stones sculptured with prayers. At
length the Sham valley enters a large valley coming from the east, which
occupies a prominent place in this river system. It is traversed by the
Bup-chu-tsangpo, the largest river we have yet seen. Immediately below
the place where the two valleys unite is the confluence of a third
river, which is called Dangbe-chu and flows from the south-east. Thus
three considerable streams meet in this small expansion of the valley.
The explanations of my guide made this complicated river system of the
My-chu-tsangpo clear to me. The sources of the Bup-chu-tsangpo lie two
long days' march to the east, and are of course to be found in the great
offshoot of the Pabla which forms on the east the watershed of the
My-chu-tsangpo. From the confluence where we now stood the
Bup-chu-tsangpo continues its course for two short days' journey
south-westwards, and then at the monastery Linga-gompa enters the
My-chu-tsangpo, which has its source in the main range of the Pabla.
The Bup-chu-tsangpo was at this season converted into a huge sheet of
ice, but had an open water channel. We crossed dry-footed at a place
where the ice formed a bridge all across the bed of the stream, and then
marched in a south-easterly direction through the narrow Dangbe valley.
At camp No. 121, on February 3, we left Tundup Sonam and Tashi behind
with our own yaks, which were so exhausted that they could be driven
only very slowly. The men were given money for their keep, and were
ordered to move on towards Shigatse at a very slow pace. The rest of the
caravan set out early, in good weather and at a minimum temperature of
only 11.3°.
Our course is south-south-east and afterwards east. All the valleys are
full of ice, which we strew with sand as the caravan passes. The pass
to-day is the Dangbe-la, decorated, as usual, with a cairn and
streamers; its height is 17,224 feet, or much less than that of the
preceding pass. It is interesting, as lying on the watershed between the
Bup-chu (My-chu) and the Rung-chu. The latter river does not unite with
the My-chu, but takes its own course direct to the upper Brahmaputra.
When I asked why we could not descend the Rung valley to avoid the two
passes in front of us, I was told that the valley is very narrow, is
confined by precipitous mountains, and is filled with ice. There is,
however, a path used in summer which runs sometimes along the slopes,
sometimes over the valley bottom, but is hard to follow after rain, for
then large volumes of water pour down the valley, thundering over falls
and rapids.
We bivouacked in a locality called Ngartang in the Rung valley, where
twelve tents remain standing all through the year. The valley is
considered cold, whereas the Sham is reputed warm. Indeed, we had found
there some juniper bushes, and were so delighted at seeing them that we
had adorned the inside of our tents with branches. It never snows in
summer in the Sham valley, but it does in the Rung valley. In many years
there is much rain in both valleys.
As though to prove the truth of the Tibetans' assertions, the
thermometer again fell in the night to -19.1°. We were prepared for a
long day's journey and a difficult pass, and therefore it was still dark
when I heard the yaks being driven into the camp. After we have left the
Ma-lung river behind us we ride up hills consisting of firm soil
overgrown with moss, and an inextricable entanglement of mountains is
displayed to our view. We ride steeply upwards along the valley coming
down from the pass, passing over detritus and among boulders, with
votive cairns here and there. A stretch of almost level ground follows,
and then at last the path rises steeply to the pass, which is strewn
with innumerable blocks of grey granite. This is the Ta-la or "Horse
Pass," and its absolute height is 17,835 feet.
If the ascent among the boulders is troublesome, and both horse and
rider have to twist their bodies in all kinds of acrobatic feats, the
pilgrim is richly rewarded when he stands at the top of the Ta-la beside
the streamer-decked cairn; for anything grander and more overpowering I
have never yet seen, unless it were on the top of the Chang-lung-yogma.
The panorama to the south-east and east-south-east is so fascinating
that we almost forget to dismount. We command a somewhat limited portion
of the horizon, for two peaks of the Ta-la crest, like the portal of a
great temple, close in the landscape in front of us. Below is a zone of
reddish-brown, dome-shaped hills, behind them a nearly black spur,
intersected by numerous short transverse valleys, and farther in the
background a dark grey ramification. All seem to run westwards and from
the watershed, which we have supposed to lie to the east of our route
since we crossed the Sela-la. Such scenery as this we had gazed upon
time after time. But high above the dark-grey ridge rises a world of
mountains which seems to belong to the heavens rather than the earth, so
lightly and airily is it poised above the rest of the earth under a
canopy of white clouds. It is so far from us that the individual
contours are indistinguishable, and it rises like a wall of a universal
light blue hue, which, however, is a little deeper than the colour of
the sky. The boundary between the two expanses of blue is sharply marked
by an irregular bright white line; for what we see before us is the
snow-covered crest of the Himalayas, and behind it lies India with its
eternal summer. These are the most northern chains of the Himalayas, on
the frontier between Tibet and Bhotan. Between them and the dark grey
crest, comparatively near to us, yawns an abyss, a huge fissure on the
earth's crust, the valley of the Brahmaputra or Tsangpo. The river
itself is not visible, but we feel that we are now not far from our
destination. Ah, you fearful ranges and passes which we have surmounted
in the Chang-tang, where dead horses mark the miles and show in which
direction we travelled, at last we have you behind us, and only a single
mountain system, the Himalayan, separates us from India! This view
strikes us dumb, and it seems wonderful to me that I have succeeded in
forcing my way so far.
Tsering and Bolu now reach the pass with the small caravan. They fall on
their knees before the heap of stones and recite their prayers, and
Tsering tears a strip off his ragged coat to tie as an offering on to
one of the strings. We all feel as though we were on a pilgrimage. The
Tibetans who let their yaks on hire see after the loading and unloading,
gather fuel, and relieve the Ladakis of many of their duties. The older
men of our own people are allowed to ride. They have easier work in
every way, but still they are pilgrims on the way to one of the greatest
centres of Lamaism. Old Tsering holds his cap in his hand as he goes
over the pass, and cannot turn his eyes aside from the dreamy light-blue
mountains which gleam in the distance among the clouds. He reminds
himself that they rise far beyond Tashi-lunpo and that we have not to
cross them to reach our longed-for destination.
But we must leave this grand pass, the never-to-be-forgotten Ta-la. Down
we go on a break-neck descent among boulders, between steep cliffs, over
landslips and spurs, and the Himalayas gradually vanish from sight. Now
we see only the line of the crest tipped with eternal snow; after we
have descended a couple of slopes, it also is concealed by the dark grey
ridge, and our horizon is bounded by its sharp outline. Kabbalo is a
village of two tiny stone cabins in the Permanakbo-tang valley where we
encamp. Several Tibetans are out of doors and stare at us; for dinner I
have butter and radishes, and see no more of the perpetual mutton.
On February 5 we made a short march down the same valley, which is
called Dokang, where we set up our camp No. 124. Forty Tibetans stood
at the camp-fire. When I rode up they all thrust out their tongues as
far as they would go, and their bright red colour formed a strong
contrast to the dirty faces. Those who wore caps took them off with the
left hand and scratched their heads with the right--another form of
salutation. When we spoke with them they repeatedly shot out their
tongues, but only from politeness and friendliness; they could not do
enough to show their goodwill. Near the camp are the ruins of a _dzong_,
or fort, which is called Dokang-pe, and a deserted village called
Arung-kampa testifies that the valley was formerly more densely
populated than now.
The march on the 6th is one I shall never forget; for now we rode down
the gigantic staircase, the edge of the Chang-tang, into the Ginunga gap
which we had seen from the Ta-la, and in the depths of which flows the
upper Brahmaputra. From the camp we marched towards the
south-south-east, leaving our river on the right, which, cutting through
the mountains in a deep ravine, flows to the Rung-chu. At the entrance
of the narrow valley stands a small temple, the Chega-gompa. A pack of
wolves howled dismally in a gorge. The ascent to the pass La-rock
(14,567 feet) is short and easy, and before we were aware we were up at
a great cairn amid smaller heaps of stones, where the _tarpoche_ (votive
pole) stands grey and cracked, and much worn by wind and weather
(Illustration 100). Several blocks of stone lying in heaps on the east
side of the pass were white-washed on their upright sides. We had to
cross over two more smaller ridges before we had a free and
uninterrupted view. The scene is grand, and reminds one of the landscape
seen from the palace at Leh. The northern ranges of the Himalayas were
distinctly visible, but heavy clouds rested like a canopy on their
peaks. Mount Everest, therefore, the highest mountain of the world,
could not be seen. The Tsangpo appeared as a very small bright riband,
still at a considerable distance. Below us flowed the Rung-chu, which we
could see from the place where it emerges from the mountains. Most
imposing are the colossal offshoots and ramifications of the mountains
lying to the east and west of our position, which fall suddenly to the
valley of the Brahmaputra like an endless row of tiger's claws.
The plain stretched out before us is a very large expansion of the
Brahmaputra valley, and is named Ye, or Yeshung, while the river is here
called the Yere-tsangpo. It is densely peopled; the great number of dark
specks are all villages. To the right, at the foot of a mountain spur,
stands the large monastery Tashi-gembe, which with its numerous
white-washed houses has the appearance of an Italian coast town. Thence
a road runs to the famous monastery Sekya. A fine line meandering
towards the south-east is the great highway to Shigatse, Tashi-lunpo,
and Lhasa.
From the last platform the path plunges down headlong, so we descend on
foot these steep slopes of grey granite rounded by wind and weather.
Where loose material fills up the interstices the path is sunk in to the
depth of a yard. Many pilgrims, horses, and yaks have passed here before
the path became so small. Sometimes we have abysses beside us, sometimes
we slide down over the sheets of granite, sometimes we step down as on a
staircase, but down we go, ever downwards, and we rejoice to think that
every step brings us nearer to warmer, denser air, where we can breathe
more easily. Here and there tower up great round granite blocks on a
pedestal of loose rubbish, like glacier tables; rain and wind have
sculptured out these singular forms.
At last we are down on the great plain into which all the valleys open.
We ride past barley-fields, poplar groves, farms and villages with white
houses, where blue and red pennants and flags decorate the roofs. We
leave the monastery Tugden on our left; a little farther, at the foot of
a mountain spur, Muhamed Isa had made a halt. About a hundred Tibetans
of all ages and both sexes, exceedingly black and dirty, but very
friendly, surrounded the tents. They sold us sheep, fowls, milk,
radishes, and malt beer (_chang_), and our tired animals were supplied
with plenty of hay and barley. Women with a round arch on their necks by
way of ornament, carried wicker baskets of dung to the fires, and were
never tired of sitting with us, astonished at us and our wonderful
occupations. Here Ngurbu Tundup presented himself and gave me the
welcome information that his master, Kung Gushuk, would forward my
correspondence. He received only a part of his reward at present, and
the remainder would be paid him as soon as I had news that the letters
had actually reached Gyangtse. He handed me a _kadakh_, or cloth of
welcome, from his master, and said that he was ordered to accompany us
and assist us on the way to Shigatse. This was most important news. It
signified that we should meet with no obstructions.
Here the absolute height was 12,956 feet, and the air was warm and
pleasant. At nine o'clock we had only 5½ degrees of frost, and therefore
the tent flap was left open. I held a long consultation with Robert and
Muhamed Isa. Should we spend ten days instead of only one in this
delightful locality, where there was all we wanted and where the animals
could recover their strength, while I visited the curious monasteries
perched like storks' nests on rocky promontories, or glittering white at
the mouths of valleys? No; we knew nothing definite about the reception
that awaited us; it was only eleven days' journey to Lhasa, and we could
reach our destination, Shigatse, in three days. We had heard nothing
from the Government, but we were expected in Shigatse. Any moment might
bring a change unfavourable to us. We would not therefore lose a single
precious day, but would start early in the morning, and hurry on as long
as the road was open to us.
Our excitement was becoming acute. After all the severe trials and
adventures we had experienced should we succeed in reaching our goal? At
night the Ladakis sang their Tashi-lunpo hymn more softly and earnestly
than ever. At midnight they were singing still, and I listened
attentively, though I had so frequently heard the song on the
Chang-tang.
[Illustration: 102. THE TSANGPO WITH FLOATING ICE.]
[Illustration: 103. THE VALLEY OF THE TSANGPO ABOVE SHIGATSE.]
Then the fires went out in our first camp in the valley of the
Brahmaputra. The crowd collected before the tents on the morning of the
7th was a very mixed one. Horses, mules, and cows were to carry the
luggage, for there were no yaks here. A south-west storm blew when I
started fully an hour later, and the whole population of the
neighbourhood collected to witness our departure. Just as I was mounting
into the saddle three emissaries appeared from a certain Cheppa Deva, a
friend of Kung Gushuk. They brought me a present from him consisting of
a whole slaughtered sheep, a thick sweet cake, with figures in relief
and preserved fruits on the top, three large lumps of butter, and thirty
eggs. I could not send any present in return, for the caravan was
already gone on, but I gave them 15 bright rupees and begged them to
convey my hearty greeting to the unknown Cheppa Deva. Then the chief of
the three said: "We must hand over this money to our master, and
therefore it would be well if the Bombo Chimbo would give us an extra
tip." This was a cute, sensible speech; they received an additional sum
of money and went away contented.
A number of other people accompanied us, giggling and chattering, as far
as the highroad to Shigatse. The attractive monasteries on the right and
left of the road passed out of sight, and we rode through part of the
village Dzundi, inhabited by smiths, and past a warm medicinal spring,
over which a bath-house is erected--unfortunately it was just then
occupied by a patient, and we could not enter; white clouds of steam
issued through the roof, windows, and doors. And further proceeds our
picturesque party, through more villages and barley-fields, past fresh
monasteries, rocky cliffs and valley openings, till the road winds over
a barren plain more and more to the south, towards the Brahmaputra, just
as one approaches the Indus from Leh, and, as there, loose stones have
been removed from the road and lie along the sides.
Where the valley contracts we have the large monastery Tarting-gompa on
its rock to the left, and on the right or southern bank of the river the
village Rokdso with its ferry; and now we reach the first granitic spur,
which extends to the neighbourhood of the river. Beyond the village Karu
with its cornfields and small gardens we ride through a hollow way 13
feet deep, a corridor in the yellow löss; here and there the banks are
broken through by rain gutters, and through the gaps, as from the
windows of a gallery, we have a glimpse of the great side valley So,
which drains from the south into the Tsangpo. The rain has modelled the
loam into pyramids, sometimes as much as a yard high, like a forest of
gigantic mushrooms. We meet dark bare-headed peasants, driving before
them laden horses and mules, and women and children with baskets on
their backs, containing fuel or roots. An old woman sat astride on her
mule and rose in her saddle with the step of the animal; a man of higher
position, on horseback, accompanied his wife; some country people
whistled as they followed their cows laden with hay; a party of men and
women in picturesque costumes of blue, red, and yellow were making a
pilgrimage to the New Year's festivities in Tashi-lunpo, which my
Ladakis had long hoped to attend. All the traffic was making eastwards,
and we met only men who were going on business from one village to
another.
The road now runs over low land which is flooded in summer, so that
those who pass this way are then obliged to travel along the flanks of
the mountains. Even now the Tsangpo is an imposing stream, and we rest
for a while on its bank, which our road touches for the first time. For
the first time in my life I drink of the holy water of the Brahmaputra.
Bluish-green and almost perfectly transparent, it flows slowly and
noiselessly in a single bed to the east, while here and there fishes are
seen rising. Only a very thin crust of ice confines the water at the
margin, but a bright clump of ice, like a mountain crystal, frequently
sweeps past us. A raft laden with barley floats down on the way to the
great market in Shigatse, and soon vanishes round the next corner, where
the steersmen with their long poles must keep a good look-out--a sight
reminding me vividly of my voyage on the Tarim in the year 1899.
To the east of this point the soil is sandy and rises into barren dunes
6 feet high. One can tell at the first glance how they are formed,
especially on a day like this, when the westerly storm sweeps the
drift-sand before it in clouds, often hiding completely the steep rocky
walls on the right bank of the river. During high-water the river
deposits quantities of mud and sand on the shallows, which are exposed
and dry up in winter. The west wind carries away the silted material to
pile up dunes farther east; where these lie low enough, the next
high-water clears them away, and when it has fallen the process is
repeated. Thus in the valley of the Tsangpo a continuous displacement of
solid matter from west to east is going on. It is not alone that the
river excavates the bed with its own weight, and loads its water with
masses of mud; but also the material deposited at the banks is borne
away by the wind which comes to the help of the water. Wind and flowing
water work together in harmony to the same end, washing out this
gigantic drainage channel deeper and deeper. They have laboured at the
work for untold thousands of years, and the result is the Tsangpo valley
as we see it to-day.
After a ride of eight hours we came to a small village composed of
thirty houses, called Rungma (Illustration 104), where the tents were
set up in a garden among poplars and willows. How pleasant it seemed to
us, who had passed a whole half-year on the desolate Chang-tang plateau,
to hear the wind soughing again through the leafless branches of the
trees! Now the fires were no longer fed with dried dung; dry faggots
crackled between the tents and threw a bright light on the trees and the
Tibetans.
On February 8 we had another long ride. Ngurbu Tundup complained that
his mule had run away, so that he must stay behind, and begged me to pay
him the remainder of the reward I had promised. But this trick was too
transparent.
We suspected that the letters had not reached Gyangtse after all.
However, we were not far from the village when Ngurbu came riding after
us on a borrowed horse with jingling bells. When we had pitched our
camp, Ngurbu was immediately sent off as a punishment to Shigatse, to
inform Kung Gushuk that we should arrive the next day, and that I wished
to have a good house prepared for me. That was a thoughtless step, for
if Kung Gushuk had told what he knew to a Chinaman, we should have been
stopped at the last moment before reaching the town.
The winding highway runs further and further eastwards along the
northern bank of the Tsangpo, past fields laid out in terraces and
watered by the river. It is astonishing to find in Tibet so much
cultivable land, and such a number of inhabited villages with solid
stone houses and gardens.
At Lamo-tang the river washes the mountainous foot of the left bank, and
here a narrow break-neck path runs in zigzags up the slopes. But it need
not be used except when the water is high. Now we travel along the
embankment beside the river. The river has quite a different appearance
to-day: its surface is half covered with porous ice-blocks, but then at
night there were 33.8 degrees of frost. Leaping and clattering they
drive downstream and graze the fringe of ice attached to the bank,
piling up on it small white walls of ice. They keep in the line of the
strongest current, and often remain stranded on sandbanks which show a
reddish-brown tinge amid the clear green water. A grand landscape under
a blue sky and among ponderous fissured mountain masses! In the
afternoon the drift-ice had decreased in quantity, and in the evening,
before our camp, had disappeared altogether (Illustration 101).
Upwards over the extreme point of a rocky projection by a stony
staircase where we prefer to go on foot. Then we descend again to the
level valley-bottom, past more villages and monasteries, always
surrounded by _chhortens_ and _manis_, and often, like the Tikze-gompa
in Ladak, perched on rocks. Tanak-puchu is a great valley coming down
from the north, and its river irrigates the fields in Tanak. I could not
obtain a clear description of this valley: all I heard was that it came
from a pass to the north; so I do not know whether it comes from the
Trans-Himalaya, like the My-chu and Shang-chu valleys. If such is the
case, however, then the eastern watershed of the My-chu is a
hydrographic boundary between it and the Tanak-puchu, not the Shang-chu.
The question can only be solved by future investigations on the spot.
[Illustration: 104. HOUSE IN THE VILLAGE OF RUNGMA.]
[Illustration: 105. GARDEN OF THE TASHI LAMA IN THE VILLAGE OF TANAK.]
In the Tanak ("The Black Horse") valley we encamped in a pretty garden
(Illustration 105), where a small house with a gaily painted verandah is
occupied by the Tashi Lama, when the prelate pays his annual visit to
the temple Tashi-gembe. The garden is situated on a terrace of
detritus, which descends sheer down to the river and affords a
magnificent view of the Tsangpo. The river is here called Sangchen, or
sometimes Tsangpo-Chimbo, that is, the great river. The Tsangpo is the
river of Tibet _par excellence_. According to Waddell this name is
sometimes so written that it is a strict translation of the name
Brahmaputra, which means "Son of Brahma." We have already mentioned the
name Yere-tsangpo, and farther westwards we shall meet with other names.
In the lower part of its passage through the Himalayas it is called
Dihong, and it assumes the name of Brahmaputra only when it emerges from
the mountains to water the plains of Assam.