After taking our lunch under a tamarisk tree, we remounted our ponies and rode on to Phodang djong, the most ancient town in Tibet. As all the kings of the dynasty which sprang from this place bore the title of Chos-gyal, or “Catholic majesty,” this town is also called Chos-gyal phodang. The present chief of this place claims descent from this very ancient line, but even his own people do not believe much in his pretended genealogy. [[231]]
A few miles over gently rising ground brought us by sunset to the top of a hill, on which is situated the Tag-tsan bumba, or “Dome of Good Omens.”[42] We were kindly received by the young monk in charge of the shrine, who presented me with a basket of splendid white potatoes, which vegetable he assured me had grown around this place from time immemorial.[43]
November 8.—We left before daylight, and, crossing the Yarlung, reached the Rachung lamasery on the top of a steep hill, where we gained admittance after a good deal of trouble, the keeper being away and the incarnate lama, Rachung, confined in a cell performing certain vows. A little below the monastery we were shown the cave in which the original Rachung, the greatest of Milaraspa’s disciples, dwelt for three years, three months, and three days.[44]
We rested here for a while, and then went to the village of Rachung at the foot of the hill, where we found good lodgings for the night in the house of an old acquaintance of our guide, Gopon.
Formerly this broad valley of Yarlung, or Gondang-tangme, was covered with innumerable populous villages, and in no other part of Tibet was there such opulence. But one day the snows melting on the Yarlha-shampo and torrential rains caused a mighty flood which submerged the whole plain for many days. The villages were utterly destroyed, and the people all perished, and when the waters had retired a deep deposit of sand covered everything. In course of time the country was reclaimed, and has now reached a certain degree of prosperity, but it has never recovered its primitive flourishing state.
The next day we rode across the northern slope of the Shetag mountains, or “Black Crystal” (Shel-tag), thus called from the glistening black rocks exposed to view along the road,[45] and after a few miles came to the great cemetery which adjoins the lamasery of Yarlung-shetag. Phurchung and Gopon rolled themselves on the [[232]]blood-stained stone slab, on which corpses are cut up, and mumbled some mantra.
In this lamasery there live forty monks and as many nuns:[46] their children are brought up to the professions of their parents. This arrangement has been sanctioned by the Nyingma church, as the lamasery was so lonely that no monks could be induced to reside in it till this privilege was conceded them.
Beyond this lamasery the trail led along the edge of a precipice where we passed a number of little cells occupied by hermits (or tsampa), who, as we passed, stretched out their hands for alms through the little opening left in the front of their dens. Some of these men had been immured five years, and many of them had also made vows of silence.
A little way beyond this point, and about 500 feet below the summit of the hill, we reached the cell of Padma Sambhava, near which is a chapel called the Upper Lha-khang of Shetag. The keeper led us to a heavy door under a huge rock; unlocking it we entered the cavern, which is held the most sacred shrine of the Nyingma sect. In it I saw a silver reliquary in which is kept a silver image of the saint, representing him as a boy of twelve. There was a plate before the image filled with rings, earrings, turquoises, pieces of amber, gold and silver coins, the offerings of pilgrims.
Passing the Shetag, we came to the village of Ze-khang shikha, and thence by a gentle descent we reached the famed temple of Tsandan-yu lha-khang, “the temple of sandal-wood and turquoise.” It was thus called, it is said, because that its founder, King Srong-btsan gambo, only used in building it sandal-wood, and that the blue tiles which covered it were glazed with melted turquoises.[47] It is a rather Chinese-looking structure, but one of the handsomest I have seen in Tibet. Every month six monks come here from Tse-tang to hold service.