[[149]]
Even in the case of my capture and torture on my first expedition into Tibet I never had a feeling of resentment towards the Tibetans for what they did to me. It was very exciting and interesting for me to endeavour to reach their sacred city, but I did so at my own risk and against their repeated warnings and threats, and I got nothing more for it in the end than I expected, in fact, bad as it was, considerably less. Highly amusing as it was to me to give them endless trouble, it was undoubtedly equally enjoyable to them to torture me, when once they succeeded in effecting my capture. Possibly, if I now have any feelings at all towards the Tibetans, it is a feeling of gratitude towards them for sparing my life in the end, which, by the way, they came within an ace of taking as they had promised to do.
As a punishment for what they did to me—because, after all, my men and I suffered a great deal more than the average man could stand—the Government of India practically ceded, as we have said, all the rights to Tibet of an immense district of British territory at the frontier. Can you blame the Tibetans for doing worse if they had a chance? [[150]]
CHAPTER XIV
In heart and soul the Tibetan is a sportsman; but if you look for grace in his movements you will be sorely disappointed. Indeed, more fervour and clumsiness combined are hardly to be paralleled anywhere. Perhaps the Tibetan is seen to advantage on his pony, and some of his feats on the saddle I will here describe.
A Lama Standard-Bearer
Horse races are quite a favourite form of amusement, and are run in a sensible manner. Only two ponies at a time go round the course, the final race being run between the winners of the two best heats. Praying is usually combined, in some form or other, with everything people do in Tibet, and so even races are run round the foot of an isolated hill or around an encampment of tents; for, as you know, circumambulation of any kind, if in the right direction, is equivalent to prayer, and pleases God. Thus, just as with their prayer-wheels, a rotatory [[151]]motion is kept up from left to right, so races are run in the same way from the standpoint of the spectator.
A Tibetan race would astonish an English crowd—the means adopted by the well-matched couples being very effective, if somewhat primitive. Such simple devices as seizing one’s opponent’s reins, or lashing him in the face to keep him back, or pushing or pulling him off his saddle, are considered fair and legal means in order to win the race. The last heat is usually the most exciting, especially for the spectators, for blows with the lash are exchanged in bewildering profusion by both riders taking part in it, their respective ponies sharing unsparingly in the punishment. Occasionally the race becomes a regular hippic wrestling match, when both riders, clinging tightly together, tumble over and roll to the ground. When the ponies are recaptured, the bruised horsemen remount and continue the race as if nothing had happened.