A Journey to Katmandu (the Capital of Napaul), with the Camp of Jung Bahadoor: Including a Sketch of the Nepaulese Ambassador at HomeOliphant, Laurence
History
A Journey to Katmandu (the Capital of Napaul), with the Camp of Jung Bahadoor: Including a Sketch of the Nepaulese Ambassador at Home
Oliphant, Laurence
Nepal -- Description and travel
Nor will the idea of a direct communication between Nepaul and Pekin seem
either so improbable or impossible when we consider that an embassy now
makes the journey once every five years. It occupies no less than two
years, including a residence of less than two months in the capital of
the Celestial Empire. I met two or three Nepaulese who had accomplished
the enterprise, and who spoke in glowing terms of Pekin, and of the
magnificence displayed throughout those portions of the Chinese Empire
which they traversed, as well as of the great city of Lassa, and the
terrible mountains to be crossed and the incredible dangers to be
overcome.
The mission is composed of twenty-seven persons, and would not be
admitted across the frontier of China if it consisted of one more or less
than the stated number. It must arrive on the frontier on a certain day,
and is subject to various rules and regulations: at the same time every
provision is made by the Chinese for the comfort of the members of the
embassy while on their journey. The journey from Pekin to Lassa has
lately been made by Messrs. Huc and Gabet, two French missionaries, and
has been graphically described by them.
The Nepaulese look with the greatest awe upon their wealthy and highly-
civilized neighbours; but the Minister, having now lived amongst people
more warlike and accomplished than even the Chinese, regards them with
great contempt; and I should not be surprised if, before long, accounts
reach us of the invasion, by the Nepaulese, of the northern provinces of
China, when the Minister would bring to bear his recently acquired
knowledge, and would doubtless prove more than a match for the rudely-
equipped forces of his Celestial Majesty.
The Tartar race, however, who would oppose the progress of a Nepaul army,
are a very different set from their tea-drinking countrymen on the
southern coast.
But to return from Chinese Tartars to the country we had just quitted.
The kingdom of Nepaul extends for upwards of three hundred miles along
the southern slopes of the Himalayas, and is said to contain a population
of about five millions. Of these four hundred thousand inhabit the
valley of Nepaul proper. The lands are divided into four classes of
tenures--first, crown lands; secondly, Kroos or Soona Birtha, belonging
to Brahmins or Newars; thirdly, Kohriya or Bari, barren lands granted for
cultivation; and, lastly (and this is the most extensive class of the
four), Kaith, in which the proprietor is at all charges of tillage,
dividing the produce with the cultivator.
The silver coinage of Nepaul is somewhat similar to that in use
throughout British India; in all the northern provinces of which,
adjoining Nepaul, it passes current: the copper coinage is most
extensive, and consists of shapeless lumps of copper, eighteen or twenty
of which go to a halfpenny; they are used by the natives of India in
preference to their own pice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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