Himalayan Journals — Volume 1: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
History
Himalayan Journals — Volume 1: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton
Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Himalaya Mountains
Return from Wallanchoon pass -- Procure a bazaar at village -- Dance
of Lamas -- Blacking face, Tibetan custom of -- Temple and convent --
Leave for Kanglachem pass -- Send part of party back to Dorjiling --
Yangma Guola -- Drunken Tibetans -- Guobah of Wallanchoon -- Camp at
foot of Great Moraine -- View from top -- Geological speculations --
Height of moraines -- Cross dry lake-bed -- Glaciers -- More moraines
-- Terraces -- Yangma temples -- Jos, books and furniture -- Peak of
Nango -- Lake -- Arrive at village -- Cultivation -- Scenery --
Potatos -- State of my provisions -- Pass through village -- Gigantic
boulders Terraces -- Wild sheep -- Lake-beds -- Sun's power -- Piles
of gravel and detritus -- Glaciers and moraines -- Pabuk, elevation
of -- Moonlight scene -- Return to Yangma -- Temperature, etc. --
Geological causes of phenomena in valley -- Scenery of valley
on descent.
I returned to the village of Wallanchoon, after collecting all the
plants I could around my camp; amongst them a common-looking dock
abounded in the spots which the yaks had frequented.
The ground was covered, as with heather, with abundance of creeping
dwarf juniper, _Andromeda,_ and dwarf rhododendron. On arriving at
the village, I refused to receive the Guobah, unless he opened a
bazaar at daylight on the following morning, where my people might
purchase food; and threatened to bring charges against him before his
Rajah. At the same time I arranged for sending the main body of my
party down the Tambur, and so back to Sikkim, whilst I should, with
as few as possible, visit the Kanglachem (Tibetan) pass in the
adjacent valley to the eastward, and then, crossing the Nango,
Kambachen and Kanglanamo passes, reach Jongri in Sikkim, on the south
flank of Kinchinjunga.
Strolling out in the afternoon I saw a dance of Lamas; they were
disfigured with black paint* [I shall elsewhere have to refer to the
Tibetan custom of daubing the face with black pigment to protect the
skin from the excessive cold and dryness of these lofty regions; and
to the ludicrous imposition that was passed on the credulity of MM.
Huc and Gabet.] and covered with rags, feathers, and scarlet cloth,
and they carried long poles with bells and banners attached; thus
equipped, they marched through the village, every now and then
halting, when they danced and gesticulated to the rude music of
cymbals and horns, the bystanders applauding with shouts, crackers,
and alms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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