Later on in the day the Tung-chen’s men came and told us of the arrangements made for our journey to Dongtse, and that we were to be ready to start on the following morning. As we would only remain at Dongtse a very short while—for the minister was expected to return in a few days to Tashilhunpo—we were told not to take many things with us, and were not to hire donkeys, as we had intended, to carry our luggage. I passed the evening writing letters to send home by Phurchung, who was to start at the same time as we did for the Sikkim frontier. [[69]]
[1] “If the magnificence of the place was to be increased by any external cause, none could more superbly have adorned its numerous gilded canopies and turrets than the sun rising in full splendour directly opposite. It presented a view wonderfully beautiful and brilliant; the effect was little short of magic, and it made an impression which no time will ever efface from my mind.”—Captain Samuel Turner, ‘Embassy to the Court of the Teshu Lama,’ 230. [↑]
[2] This word is colloquially used to designate the cook of any dignitary or official.—(W. R.) [↑]
[3] Or rather, “Please walk in, Mr. Pundit.”—(W. R.) [↑]
[4] Or Nyer-pa (gnyer-pa); this word is generally used to designate the procurator or manager of the temporal affairs of a lamasery.—(W. R.) [↑]
[5] Called ma-hua by the Chinese; made of thin strips of dough thrown into boiling grease for a minute or two. They are eaten all over China, Mongolia, and Tibet. I do not know the Tibetan name; Mongols call them by the Chinese term of ma-hua-erh.—(W. R.) [↑]
[6] This appears to be the Chinese ping, meaning “cake or pastry.” In North-West China and Szechuan this word designates a thin cake of wheat-flour the size of a plate, cooked on a hot iron or in a shallow dish. In Tibetan it is called palé.—(W. R.) [↑]
[7] Kusho is the Tibetan equivalent of “Mr.”; Tung-chen is Drung (yig) chen-po, “chief secretary,” not a name, as one might suppose by the way it is used in this narrative. The minister’s residence, S. C. D. says elsewhere, was at the northern end of the town. It is a stone building three stories high, the exterior painted yellow.—(W. R.) [↑]