Leaving Taga-sho the next morning, we passed by the ruins of Tagkar-sho, probably at one time the residence of the kings of the Phag-modu dynasty, who derive their name probably from a village near by still called Phagmodu.[31] Near this place, in a commanding position, is the lamasery of Nari ta-tsang, founded by the Dalai lama Gedun-gyatso.
At the village of Jong[32] we began the ascent of the steep hill on whose summit is the old lamasery of Densa-til, the principal building nestled amidst frowning crags, on which grow here and there a few firs and juniper trees. In the adjacent cliffs were numerous caves for recluses.
This temple differs somewhat from all other buildings of this kind [[227]]I have seen in Tibet, the plan of it approaching rather that of a modern public building in Bengal. I noticed here eighteen beautiful silver and copper chorten, the finest specimens of such metal work I have seen. Six tablets of gold, each six feet long and six inches broad, hung from the ceiling, besides six piles of similar but smaller tablets in a corner.
Of all the monasteries in Tibet, this is perhaps the richest in religious treasures,[33] and the Government of Lhasa takes particular care of it. Among the curious objects placed before the images of the gods in the principal temple, I saw some bowls filled with various kinds of seed and some fossils, among which some grains of barley.
The next day we resumed our journey. The road at first led through a forest said to have sprung from the hairs of Je Phagmodu, the founder of the Densa-til lamasery.[34]
All the way to Samdub phodang, the capital of the Phagmodu kings, was a gentle descent over gravel and mica-schist rock. Crossing a fine wooden bridge about fifty yards long, with railings running along either side, we found ourselves in the principal street of the town, in which a large number of Dokpa traders were camped under some walnut trees.
The three-storied castle, once a royal residence, is now occupied by the Djongpon and the two Tsedung from Lhasa. Samdub phodang is now a gon-shi, or “Crown Demesne” of Lhasa.
A few miles beyond this town we came to the Sangri khamar lamasery,[35] situated on a beautiful eminence overlooking the Tsang-po, whose surface is broken here by huge masses of rock. Around the great lamasery stretched broad fields of barley, now ripe for the sickle, and the beauty of the crops surpassed anything I have ever seen in Tibet.
Here at Sangri khamar once lived Saint Machig labdron,[36] an [[228]]incarnation of Arya Tara. I visited the cell she lived in, and saw her tomb and an image of her. There are now two ascetics living here, who have made vows never to come out nor to speak a word so long as they live. When I approached them they smiled and seemed pleased with the little present I made them. The beadle who accompanied me said they had been immured in their cells for ten years.
Resuming our journey, we passed by Sangri Jong, and following a narrow path, scarcely a yard wide, overhanging the eddying river, reached Logang ferry;[37] but, though we shouted for an hour to the boatmen on the other side, we could not get them to come over for us, so we had to return to the village of Jong at the western base of the Densa-til mountain. Here we got lodgings for the night in the house of the headman.