THE FORTRESS OF NYATONG.
The Nyatong castle, as shown in the picture, is strong and solid in structure, yet also magnificent in appearance. Leaving the post-town Nyatong and descending a little there is a river across which is a bridge two yards in width. After passing the small bridge and going on a little, there is a solitary house near which are stationed a number of Chinese soldiers. I handed over the passport written in Chinese, which I had received at Pimbithang. One of the soldiers examined it carefully and permitted us to pass through. As we gradually ascended the mountain, the rain fell furiously and the ascent became very steep. The road hereabouts is pretty good, though the place forms the boundary of Tibet, and does not belong to the British dominion. Most Englishmen who are at present in Nyatong live on land rented from Tibet.
Ascending about two miles up the steep slope thickly grown with trees, it became dark, and then the servant commenced to complain.
“There are a great many lodging houses,” he grumbled “besides the supervisor’s. Can we not lodge somewhere to get out of such rain? I can’t move a step on account of the heavy luggage.”
“I will carry half of your burden,” said I, somewhat moved by his difficulties. I consoled him with great trouble and made him move on till eight o’clock in the evening; even then the distance to the solitary house was two miles more and he told me that he was unable to move even a step. Just at that point a small tent was pitched, and someone had a fire inside. Around the tent many mules were grazing, for mules are used by the people of Tomo-Rinchen-gang to convey wool to Kalenpong. I stepped into the tent and asked the man inside to lodge us. He declined my request, saying that the five of his party could hardly sleep in the small tent and no space was left for us too. But as my servant sat down on the ground and would not move, we at last succeeded in getting into the small tent.
It was so small in extent that we could not lie down and I was obliged to sit upright the whole night. While thus meditating I was almost overwhelmed by my feelings.
To pass through that succession of five strict and vigilant guard-houses in only three days must have been miraculous. Even a Tibetan merchant accustomed to travel through there many times is obliged to spend at least seven or eight days in passing them. In spite of the rain, too, to pass through them safely in three days and come to that place—it seemed indeed miraculous. No chief of any guard-house had had any suspicion about me; even that shrewd and penetrating supervisor who had lived in India for twenty years of toil and hardship, not only did not suspect my mind and motive, but refrained from argument, bowed his head low, and sent me out the same day I arrived. This must have been entirely owing to the grace of the protection of our Holy Lord Buḍḍha; shedding tears of gratitude on account of it, I read the sacred books and passed the whole night without sleeping.
[CHAPTER LXXXIX.]
Good-bye, Tibet!
The whole distance through which I had passed from Darjeeling to Lhasa was about two thousand four hundred and ninety miles. In the first place, I started from Darjeeling on the 5th of January, in the 32nd year of Meiji, and passing through Calcutta by railway, came to Segauli; hence also I travelled on foot, and on the 5th of February arrived at Kātmāndu. The distance between Segauli and Kātmāndu was about a hundred and fifteen miles. Leaving there on the 7th of March, on the 11th of the same month I came to Pokhra. I left there on the 14th of the same month and on the 16th of April reached Lo Tsarang at the distance of about eighteen miles from the boundary of Tibet. From Kātmāndu to here, I walked about two hundred and sixty miles. Staying a year there, on the 6th of April of the next year, I left there and for the convenience of entering Tibet, returning a little, I came to a mountain village Malba, situated on the eastern valley of Mount Dhavalagiri. I started from this village on the 12th of June, and passing half way up north of Mount Dhavalagiri at the height of nineteen thousand feet, I proceeded to the north-western plain; and on July 4th I reached the mountain gorge of the province of Hor-to-sho in the north-western plain of Tibet. The distance from Tsarang to Malba is about seventy miles, and that from Malba to the Province of Hor-to-sho one hundred and fifty-five miles. In these places, as I had to pass through thickets and round gorges, I walked more than the actual distance. On December 5th I came to the temple of Tashi Lhunpo, and after staying there a few days, departed. On the 21st of March, in the 34th year of Meiji, just two years and three months after the departure from Darjeeling, I arrived at the Temple of Sera in Lhasa. As I took roundabout roads now and then from Hor-tosho to Lhasa I walked about one thousand two hundred and fifty miles.