An Explorer's Adventures in TibetLandor, Arnold Henry Savage
History
An Explorer's Adventures in Tibet
Landor, Arnold Henry Savage
Tibet Autonomous Region (China) -- Description and travel
My name is Chanden Sing; my father's name is Bije Singh; I am by caste
Thatola; thirty-two years of age; by occupation _kheti_; my home is at
That, police station Bisot, district Almora.
I took service as a bearer with Mr. Landor at Almora on the 27th or 28th
of April last. I accompanied him on his trip to Tibet. We went along
through the wilds, encountering many hardships and reached Toxem. There
I insisted on my master buying ponies to take us to Darjeeling. This
resulted in our capture, for up to then we had vigilantly kept away from
the people. The people who brought us ponies to buy played us false.
They informed the authorities, who sent soldiers, who lay in ambush
behind the sand-hills until the crowd of horse-dealers and lookers-on,
whom we did not suspect of treachery, surrounded and seized us. We were
bound with cords by the arms (at back) and legs. My master was more
cruelly tied than we two servants. We were taken to the Raja,[19] who
accused me of having brought my master into the country. I was then
stretched out and two strong men with whips inflicted two hundred
stripes on me. I was questioned as to the maps. My master called out
that he, not I, alone understood them, and asked that I should not be
beaten. Thereupon a Lama struck him across the head and removed him to a
distance, so that I could not communicate with him. They took all our
property. Then we were kept separate for the night. I was put in a room
and my hands tied to a pole. I could not sleep with the pain I was in.
Next day my master, with his hands tied behind his back, was put on a
spiked saddle and tied by a long rope held by a horseman. He went at a
gallop surrounded by about fifty horsemen armed with guns and swords.
Man Sing, our coolie, was also taken with him. My guards informed me my
master was to be decapitated at Galshio, and that I was to be beheaded
where I was. On the fourth or fifth day my master returned. Meanwhile I
was a close prisoner, bound up, without food. When I saw my master he
was in a pitiful state. He was handcuffed with enormous cuffs, clothes
torn to rags, bleeding from his waist, feet and hands swollen. Next day
a guard on horseback took us back, bound as we were, on yaks' backs,
toward Mansarowar. There I had my cords unloosed. My master was kept
bound until we got to Tangchim. We were eventually taken to Taklakot,
where the Rev. Harkua Wilson met us and saw our condition. He attended
to our wants. My master was well-nigh at death's door. The Tibetans
returned some of my master's property, but they have kept about 475
rupees in cash, two rifles, revolver, two files, a lot of soap,
medicine, a butterfly dodger, matches, a box of mathematical
instruments, a quantity (400) cartridges, a large box of photographic
plates and negatives, three bags. We did not molest any one, and paid
more than four times the value for any food we bought.
Read over to witness.
J. LARKIN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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