with Jyekundo as one of the most important centres of Eastern Tibet. It was formerly the capital of the lama-ruled Tibetan State of the same name, and was the residence of the lama ruler, locally known as the Tsangdruha[1]. The small Chinese commissariat official stationed here in those days with a few Chinese soldiers kept very much to himself and was careful not to interfere with the lama rulers[2]. Chao Erh-feng seized Chamdo in 1909, expelled the Tibetan officials, and set up a Chinese magistrate. During the troubles of 1912-13 the Chinese attacked and destroyed the monastery, reducing the huge buildings to heaps of rubble. The Tibetans have never forgotten or forgiven this act of sacrilege.
Five main roads meet at and near Chamdo, namely those leading west to Lhasa[3], north to Jyekundo, east to De-ge Gönchen and Kanze, south-east to Batang, and south to Yunnan. The Ngom Chu and Dza Chu are each spanned by fine cantilever bridges, probably the largest of their kind in existence, called the Yunnan and Szechuan Bridges, because they lead to Yunnan and Szechuan respectively, and were built at the expense of Yunnanese and Szechuanese merchants many years ago.
We were accommodated in a dilapidated old yamen, formerly the residence of the Chinese commissariat officer who used to be stationed at Chamdo under the Manchu Dynasty. More recently it had been the residence of the
- ↑ A kind of Treasurer, or Prime Minister, to the nominal Ruler, the principal Reincarnation.
- ↑ General Bower, writing in 1894 (Across Tibet) refers to this officer as an Amban, which is inaccurate. The Abbé Huc writes of him more correctly as a commissary in charge of a magazine of provisions, his Chinese title being that of Liang-tai. The French traveller, M. Grenard (Tibet and the Tibetans), refers to the Chinese officials at Chamdo and Jyekundo as Consular Agents, that is to say, Chinese officials with jurisdiction over their own Chinese nationals but not over the Tibetans. This appears to have been an accurate definition of their position in those days.
- ↑ Chamdo is reckoned nearly a month's journey from Lhasa for ordinary travellers (being about half-way between Lhasa and Tachienlu) but the distance is covered by official Tibetan couriers in ten days. These official courier services in Tibet are somewhat remarkable, as the same messenger is supposed to ride right through night and day, changing ponies at the stages ; his belt is stamped with an official seal (apparently to ensure that he does not loosen his robe to rest en route) ; and when the belt is unsealed at the end of the journey the man is naturally in a very exhausted state, having spent (between Chamdo and Lhasa) some ten consecutive days and nights in the saddle on one of the most arduous roads in the world. Perhaps only a Tibetan could accomplish the feat.
