[1] I fancy our author refers to the hsiang pien cha usually drunk by Chinese in Peking and elsewhere in the north. Jasmine flowers are dried with the tea, and impart to it a strong and agreeable perfume.—(W. R.) [↑]
[2] It is strange that our author tells us nothing of this famous lamasery of Chagpori. We know, however, that it is one of the oldest in Tibet, that the medical school is attended by some 300 students, and that it supplies with medicines, most of which are simples collected by the lamas themselves, not only Lhasa, but remote parts of Tibet and Mongolia. I have seen remedies bought at Chagpori used in the Tsaidam, the Koko Nor, and all over Eastern Tibet.—(W. R.) [↑]
[3] Amdo being used here in its broadest sense as including all North-east Tibet. These Golok (or Golog) trade with Kumbum, Sungpan (in North-west Sze-chuen), and with the Lhasa country. “At Pherchode (near Namdjong in Takpo) many traders called [[197]]‘Golokpas’ come with large herds of yaks to trade, and annually visit this place in the months of October and November with merchandise, chiefly consisting of salt and wool.” ‘Report on the Exploration, from 1856 to 1886,’ p. 8. [↑]
[4] This is at all events a good story, but I doubt whether the Golok, any more than the Chinese, Mongols, or other Tibetan tribes, kiss in public.—(W. R.) [↑]
[5] I have never heard of any district of this name. This mode of saluting is a Mohammedan one.—(W. R.) [↑]
[6] Tsongkhapa, the great lama reformer in the 14th century, instituted these annual prayer meetings. The most important one is the “great prayer meeting” (mon-lam chen-po) in the early part of the year.—(W. R.) [↑]
[7] Chinese authors make mention of a similar festival, held at Lhasa yearly, beginning on the latter part of the second moon (middle March), and lasting for a month. Another of like description is held in the sixth moon. See Jour. Roy. Asiat. Soc., xxiii. pp. 212, 213. [↑]
[9] This game is one of the very few national games of Tibet, but is probably of foreign origin. I have never seen it played in Northern or Eastern Tibet. In Bhutan the people appear to be specially skilful at it.—(W. R.) [↑]
[10] Seng chen is a Chinese title, meaning “the Monk Minister.”—(W. R.) [↑]