VISIT TO SAKYA AND RETURN TO INDIA.
On November 30, 1882, I said farewell to Tashilhunpo, and, accompanied
by Phurchung and Gopon, my recent guide to Samye, I started for Sakya,
from which place I proposed returning to Darjiling by way of Khamba
djong and the Kongra lamo pass.
The country was now bare, the brown rocks, the gravelly soil, and the
distant snow-covered mountains, added additional bleakness to the
scene. We reached the village of Nartang the same evening, and were
kindly received by some old friends of Phurchung.
A little before daylight the next morning we set out, following the
great high-road which leads to Upper Tibet, instead of taking the
direct road which leads there by the Lang la, but which is infested by
highwaymen.
At the little hamlet of Chagri [405] we stopped to make some tea, and
had to pay three annas for a little water, as the people have to bring
all they use from a very considerable distance.
The wind was blowing violently when we resumed our journey, and the
dust was so thick that we had to stop at Ge-chung, a little village to
the west of the Singma la.
At daybreak we set out again, and after crossing the Re chu (here
called Shab chu), along whose banks are numerous hamlets, we came to
Lhimpotse, near which is a large lamasery built on a rocky eminence.
[406]
We stopped for the night at Samdong, just beyond which village is a
long wooden bridge. We got accommodation in the house of a rich
villager, the younger of the two husbands (and they not brothers) of
the woman of the house. The other husband was the headman, or Sa-yong,
and when he appeared, he obligingly sold us very good chang, mutton,
onions, and other vegetables.
December 3.—After drinking a cup of steaming chang [407] we set out,
and following the course of the Shab chu, came to where the Tsarong chu
empties into it, when we took up the course of this stream and followed
it to its source.
Several miles above the village of Sikya, where cultivation practically
ceases, we came to the large Dokpa village of Jig-kyong, where we
stopped for the night. In all the villages small-pox was raging, and
where the people were free from it, they showed great apprehension
about letting us in, lest we should introduce the dreaded disease among
them.
The next day (December 4) we crossed the Shong la, [408] which, though
quite high, was of easy ascent, and traversed the Tao valley. After
taking lunch at the Kham-yol we came to the Aton la, from whose summit
Sakya is visible, with all its red-walled buildings and gilded spires,
[409] bearing in a north-westerly direction.
We secured lodgings in a house in the town, near the bridge over the
Tom chu, and from the window of my room, which opened to the south, I
had a gorgeous view of the town by which the river gently flows; also
of the great temple, and beyond these, of the snow-covered peaks of
Tinki (Tingri) and Pherrug.
In the evening I strolled about the clean, though narrow streets, where
the market people were still busy selling their wares.
Sakya is built on the eastern flank of Ponpoi ri, along whose base
flows the Tom chu. Facing the town, but on the other side of the river,
is the Lha-khang chenpo with its famous library and temple.
The appearance of Sakya is different from that of most Tibetan towns.
The walls of almost all the public buildings, temples, and
dwelling-houses are painted red with a clay obtained from the
neighbouring hills. Black and blue stripes about nine inches broad cut
the walls perpendicularly. [410]
The four Labrang [411] temples, built with Chinese roofs and gilded
spires, are especially noticeable. They are called Labrang-shar (or
“eastern”), Labrang-nub (or “western”), Labrang khung, and Khansar
chenpo, and in their general arrangement they do not differ from the
temples I had seen at Tashilhunpo and elsewhere.
In the palmy days of the Sakya hierarchy there were four abbots under
the hierarch who ruled these four Labrang. The rank was hereditary in
their families, and all those abbots, the hierarch included, were
allowed to marry. This system of hereditary hierarchy was known as
dun-gyu. At the present time the abbots are Tantrik lamas from Khams. I
was told that neither the lamas nor the nuns of Sakya are held by the
people to be exceptionally virtuous, and, to tell the truth, the laity
of Sakya has a similar unsavoury reputation in Tibet.
The Emperor Kublai made the hierarch Phagpa ruler of Tibet, [412] and
it was the latter’s deputy (or Panchen [413]), Kunga zangbo, who began
building the Lha-khang chenpo of Sakya, which was completed by one of
his successors in office, Anglen tashi. This latter proved himself an
able and vigorous administrator, and annexed Tagpo to the Sakya
principality. Zangpo-pal, the then reigning hierarch, sent him on a
mission to the Emperor of China, Buyantu, [414] who granted to him and
his heirs in perpetuity the Yamdo lake country. The Sakya Panchen have,
down to the present time, been taken from this family. The last Sakya
Panchen, Kunga nyingpo, died on June 20, 1882; his tomb, at the time of
my visit to Sakya, was almost finished, and his wife was still wearing
mourning.
It is told of the late Sakya Panchen that, some sixteen years ago,
after the death of the two famous Dayan khanpo, the treasurer of the
Gadan gomba of Lhasa, when his wicked spirit was causing various dire
calamities to Tibet, every endeavour to expel it from the country
proved abortive. So finally the Government of Lhasa, at the suggestion
of the oracles, requested the Sakya Panchen to visit Lhasa to drive the
fiend away. At the foot of Mount Potala he had lighted a great fire,
and, by the potency of his charms, drove the evil spirit into a lay
figure prepared for the occasion, whereupon it fell straight-way into
the fire. Then the Panchen drove his charmed phurbu [415] into the
image, but while so doing the flames of the pyre surrounded him, and
all thought he was dead; but lo! after an hour or so he came out of the
flames dressed in rich satins, and with not even so much as a hair of
his head scorched.
Panchen Jimed wang-gyal, or one of the other sons of the late Panchen,
will succeed him as ruler of Sakya. One son is an incarnate lama and
superior of the Tanag Donphug lamasery, [416] but he is obliged to
reside continually at Sakya on account of a rule which prescribes that
when the re-embodiment of a lama takes place in Sakya, the
reincarnation cannot return to the locality he occupied in his
preceding existence. The names of the four other sons of the deceased
Panchen will shortly be sent to Lhasa, and the Nachung oracle will
decide who shall become the ruler of the principality.
These princely lamas wear long hair, ordinarily plaited in two queues
hanging down their backs and tied at the ends with white cotton
handkerchiefs. Over their ears they wear covers of gold studded with
turquoises and emeralds, and almost reaching to their shoulders. To the
lower part of these are appended earrings. [417]
In the Lhakhang chenpo (or great temple) are five seats of equal
height, on which the princes take their places when conducting
religious services; the one reserved to the hierarch remains vacant so
long as the successor to the title has not been chosen.
Under the hierarch there is a Shape, or minister, who attends to all
the temporal affairs of Sakya. The monks are divided into two orders,
according to the locality of their birth; those from Tibet proper
forming one set ruled by a Gekor, and having their cells near the great
temple, and those from Khams (or Eastern Tibet), also with a Gekor over
them, who live in the town.
As to the great library of Sakya, it is on shelves along the walls of
the great hall of the Lhakhang chen-po. There are preserved here many
volumes written in gold letters; the pages are six feet long by
eighteen inches in breadth. On the margin of each page are
illuminations, and the first four volumes have in them pictures of the
thousand Buddhas. These books are bound with iron. They were prepared
under orders of the Emperor Kublai, and presented to Phag-pa on his
second visit to Peking.
There is also preserved in this temple a conch shell with whorls
turning from left to right, a present of Kublai to Phagpa. It is only
blown by the lamas when the request is accompanied by a present of
seven ounces of silver; but to blow it, or have it blown, is held to be
an act of great merit. [418]
On December 5 I left Sakya, and passing by the Choskhor-lhunpo
monastery, entered the broad Yalung valley, in which stands the big
village of Lora and numerous scattered hamlets. We stopped at Lora to
eat our breakfast, but so intense was the fear of the people of
small-pox, of which there were several cases in the village, that they
would have absolutely nothing to do with us, not even to sell us
firewood. [419]
After crossing the Yalung river we ascended the Dong la, from whose
summit we saw the Chomo kankar (Mt. Everest), and the endless ranges of
mountains which jut out from it westward. At the Dong la the Arun and
the Kosi have their sources.
The descent of the Dong la was very gradual, the country extremely
bare, not a single tree was to be seen anywhere. We reached Chu-sho, at
the foot of the pass, at about five o’clock, and it was only after much
persuasion that we gained admittance to a poor hut occupied by an old
woman and her son.
The next day we followed for a while the course of a little stream,
called the Chu-shu, and then came upon a broad, barren plain, on either
side of which rose bleak and lofty mountains.
Leaving the village of Map-ja, in which there are about one hundred
houses, we breakfasted at Donkar, and then made our way towards the
Shong-pa la, following up the course of the Shong chu. The ground in
many places was riddled with holes made by a burrowing animal called
srimong, [420] and our ponies had many tumbles by putting their feet in
them.
On descending from the Shong-pa la we found ourselves in the broad
Chib-lung valley, [421] and towards six o’clock we reached the village
of Dogang, and found shelter for the night in the hut of some poor
people.
The following morning we passed through Tashigong and breakfasted at
Gure, a village belonging to my friend the minister. Leaving this
place, we began the ascent of a high range which separated us from lake
Tel-tung, or “Mule’s Drink.” [422] This pass is known as the Dobta
Lachan la, and one commands from it a most gorgeous view of a wide
expanse of country, the Nepalese and Sikkimese Himalayas, with lake
Tel-tung and Dobta djong, belonging to the Sikkim Rajah, on a hillock
beside the lake in the foreground.
We stopped for the night at Chorka, a part of Dobta, where a villager
gave us the use of a yak-hair tent standing in his courtyard. We only
remained here a short while, leaving before daylight, as we wanted to
reach Khamba djong the same day. The cold was intense, and the violent
wind which blew made it more piercing. Our way led along the margin of
lake Tel-tung, now completely dried up and more resembling a broad
pasture land than a lake. The country was alive with game; wild sheep,
goats, and asses were specially numerous.
Leaving this broad plain, we entered the valley of the Che chu by a low
col between the Dobta and Yaru la ranges. Crossing the river, we
stopped for a while at Targye, [423] while Phurchung went on ahead to
Khamba djong to secure lodgings for us.
At five o’clock we reached the village of Khamba, and were received
most kindly by Phurchung’s friend, Wang-gyal, who, together with his
wife, did everything in their power to make us comfortable.
After tea I went with Phurchung, who had put on his best clothes for
the occasion, to visit the Djongpon. The Djong stands on a hillock, the
ascent of which is rather steep, and is made by flights of stone steps.
The fort is a spacious two-storied building, and is supplied with water
brought there through clay pipes from the mountains to the north, a
piece of work of which the people are not a little proud. [424]
The Djongpon were reading religious books when I entered their
presence, and the lama one asked me questions about myself and the
object of my journey, all of which I managed to answer satisfactorily.
I showed my passport, to which they put their seals, retaining a copy
of the document. When I left they presented me with a dried sheep’s
carcass, ten pounds of rice, and a rug, and expressed the hope that
they would see me again the following year.
On returning to our lodgings I hired two ponies and a yak-hair tent for
our use as far as Gen-pang tang.
We left early in the morning, after saying farewell to our faithful
guide Gopon, who left us here to return to his home at Gyantse, and
breakfasted at Geru. On the way we saw several flocks of wild sheep and
some foxes. Leaving Geru, we ascended, one after the other, the
foothills of the Kongra lamo pass, through a wild but beautiful
country, till we finally reached the snow-covered summit, near which we
camped on a bare rock. Thanks to the yak-hair tent and the good fire of
argols which Phurchung kept burning, we did not suffer from the intense
cold and piercing wind.
The following morning (December 10) we reached, at an early hour,
Gen-gang, which forms the boundary between the territories of the Grand
Lama and the Rajah of Sikkim, a vassal of the British Raj. From this
point my way lay through Sikkim by a route followed by various European
travellers, and concerning which I need say nothing here. I reached
Darjiling and my home on December 27, after an absence of over a year.