When I got up the next morning I found that some fuel had been collected during the night, so I boiled water and made some tea, and at the same time we ate parched wheat-flour, and then departed. That day, as we thought it might be impossible to get parched wheat-flour on the way, we ate plenty of it before starting, and commenced to climb up the mountain. The rain ceased, and the weather was very fine; we climbed up three miles and came to a place covered with bushes of various kinds. Ascending half a mile further, there was a lonely house. It is placed there to detain men of suspicious character coming from Darjeeling, while word is sent to the castle of Nyatong. In that house there was a man and also an old woman. I was told that he went backwards and forwards between the place and Kalenpong on some sort of commercial business. I drank tea there, and as after ascending the high and steep mountain I was somewhat hungry, I ate parched wheat-flour, and again resumed the climb. After ascending about a mile among very short dwarf trees, the path came out upon a snow-mountain called by the name of Jelep-la or Jela. Before advancing over the snow, looking towards the north-eastern sky, across the wide, dark plain appearing and disappearing in the clouds, where stands Lhasa from which I had departed, I bade farewell to Tibet. There is a lake there the water of which was completely frozen over. While ascending, I looked down and saw an immense volume of cloud rising from a vast wide plain moving to and fro in a wide forest, and it was indeed beautiful. On the upper part of it, rhododendron flowers in full bloom were to be seen. Walking for a mile over the snow, I reached the summit which forms the real boundary of Tibet and British India; a step on the other side of the mountain, the people are not governed by Tibetan law.
ON THE WAY TO THE SNOWY JELA-PEAK.
Since I had reached the boundary of Tibet, or Tsarang, in the Himalayan range, three years had elapsed, and at last I had safely arrived in a country where free communications are possible. The feeling that my safe arrival in this country is entirely owing to the protecting power of the Lord Buḍḍha was further deepened, and I worshipped Him with zeal and earnestness. Then I composed utas, as follows:
O Shakyamuni, Thou, my refuge dear!
Till now Thy guardian shield has guarded me
Through many devious dangerous paths and wilds
And snowy plateaux threatening instant deaths.
My grateful, fervent heart shall ever thrill