Everest, Mount (China and Nepal); Mount Everest Expedition (1922); Mountaineering expeditions--Everest, Mount (China and Nepal)
On arrival at Richengong, which is at the foot of the valley which forms
the junction between the Jelep Valley and the valley of the Ammu Chu,
which is the Chumbi Valley, we were met by Mr. Macdonald, the British
Trade Agent, who lives at Chumbi, and his wonderfully dressed
chuprassis, and also by a guard of honour of 90 Panjabis, who supplied a
small guard both at Yatung, in Chumbi, and also at the British post in
Gyantse, on the road to Lhasa. We had a very pleasant ride by the Chumbi
Valley to Yatung. I had previously supplied myself in Darjeeling with a
treasure of a pony, Gyamda by name, who was locally very well known in
Darjeeling. He was only 12½ hands, but had the go and the stamina of a
very much bigger animal. He was attended by a sais who was nearly twice
as big as himself, and was one of the finest-built Tibetans I saw the
whole time. Gyamda himself hailed from the town of Gyamda, which is
about 12 miles South of Lhasa. His enormous sais hailed from Lhasa
itself, and, unfortunately, could hardly speak a word of anything but
Tibetan. However, he improved by degrees, and very soon we got on very
well. He adored the pony Gyamda, but had the habit of giving it, unless
looked after, at least a dozen eggs mixed with its grain. When we
stopped him doing this, he was caught hugging the pony round the neck
and saying to it, “Now they have cut your eggs, you will die, and what
shall I do?” Gyamda carried me right through the Expedition, and could
go over any ground, and came back as well as he left, never sick or
sorry, and always pleased with life.
We marched from Chumbi on April 5, accompanied by Mr. Macdonald and his
son, who had come to help us make all our transport arrangements when we
should arrive in Phari. Mr. Macdonald helped us on all occasions, and we
cannot thank him enough for all the trouble he took from now on and
during the whole time the Expedition was in Tibet. It was owing very
largely to his help that we were able in Phari to get our Expedition on
so soon, for he warned the two Dzongpens of Phari Dzong beforehand to
obtain adequate transport for us.
Again, the march from Yatung to Phari has been described on many
occasions, but it is quite impossible to march through it without
mentioning its character. It is, especially at the time of year we went
through, one of the darkest and blackest and most impressive forested
gorges that I have ever seen, and almost equally impressive is the
debouchment on to the Phari Plain at the head of the gorge, dominated as
it is by our old friend Chomolhari.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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