At about 2 o’clock we reached Nangartse, and, passing by the town, proceeded northward along the bank of the far-famed Yamdo (Palti) lake, also called Yum tso, or “turquoise lake”—a name which the deep blue waters of the lake amply justify.
Travelling along the lake-side by the villages of Hailo,[30] Dab-lung, and Dephu, where the fishermen’s hide boats (kudru) were drying [[141]]against the houses, and near which are a few fields where a little barley is raised, we came to the Kal-zang zamba, where we rested a while and drank some tea. Though this place is called “bridge” (zamba), it is in reality an embankment about 300 to 400 feet long dividing a narrow arm of the lake into two parts.
A little beyond the Kal-zang zamba, at a place where a string of coloured rags, inscribed with prayers, stretched between two crags on either side the narrow path, Tsing-ta made me dismount. He climbed on to a large rock, and scattered a few pinches of tsamba, and, striking a light, lit an incense-stick, which he fixed in a cleft in the rocks. This place is called Sharui teng, and is the haunt of evil spirits; should any traveller neglect to make these offerings, he would incur their anger.
On reaching Palti djong,[31] we put up at a house where the Lhacham had stopped when on her way to Lhasa, and were most hospitably received. We bought some milk, a few eggs, and some chang from the hostess, who supplied us also with water, firewood, and two earthen cooking-pots. I was offered some fish, but I forbore buying any, as it would have been incompatible with my character of a pious pilgrim, such indulgence being forbidden by the Dalai lama. The Grand Lama, I must mention, having lately taken the vows of monkhood, had issued an edict prohibiting his subjects killing or eating fish for the space of one year.
From ancient times the town of Palti has been a famous seat of the Nyingma sect, and the lake was popularly known by its name. The name of the town as applied to the lake by foreigners probably originated with the Catholic missionaries who visited Tibet in the eighteenth century.
When, in the eighteenth century, the Jungars invaded Tibet, their wrath was especially turned against the lamaseries and monks of the Nyingma sect. There then lived in Palti djong a learned and saintly lama, called Palti Shabdung, well versed in all the sacred literature, and proficient in magic arts. Hearing that the invaders had crossed the Nabso la and were marching on Palti, he, by his art, propitiated [[142]]the deities of the lake who caused the waters of the lake to appear to the Jungar troops like a plain of verdure, so that they marched into the lake and were drowned, to the number of several thousands. Another corps which had advanced by the Khamba la, not finding the troops which had gone by the Nabso la, retraced their steps, and so the town of Palti was saved.
May 28.—We left by daylight, and followed along the shore of the lake till we reached the foot of the Khamba la. The ascent was comparatively easy; on the rocks by the wayside were painted in many places images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. From Tamalung,[32] a small village halfway up the mountain, a trail led eastward along the cliffs overhanging the lake, and the sinuosities of the shore could be followed with the eye to the remote horizon.
On the summit of the pass are two large cairns, to which each of my companions added a stone; they also tied a rag to the brush sticking out above the heaps, and already covered with such offerings. Then they made an offering of a little tsamba and some dust, instead of wine, to the mountain god, reciting a prayer the while, which they brought to an end by shouting—
“Lha sol-lo, Lha sol-lo!
Lha gyal lo, lha gyal lo!