been spread. His holiness said that since last I had been to Tibet he had composed two large volumes on the history of the philosophical schools of Tibet, and that they were now being stereotyped at the Namring monastery. He showed us the manuscript of the second volume, and read us extracts from it.
December 30. — After breakfast Ugyen-gyatso ami I went to make obeisance to the deities (choi jal), carrying with us a bundle of incense-sticks, two tankas' worth of clarified butter, and about a dozen khatag, to present as offerings to the gods. Descending a steep ladder we came to the lobby of the congregation hall (du-khang) of the Tsug-la-khang. The portico faced eastward; its painted wooden pillars had capitals most fantastically and picturesquely carved, the walls painted in fresco, with relief images of the sixteen Staviras (Naten chudug [1]) gorgeously coloured, but of a much lower style of work than what is seen in India, though the thick coat of varnish which covered them hid their defects, when not examined too closely.
The most remarkable part of the building was the floor made of pebbles, nicely set and smoothly beaten to make a glossy surface.[2] The du-khang is about 25 feet long and 20 broad ; the images of the gods were arranged on a beautifully carved wooden and metal altar along the north and south-west side of the building, the principal ones occupying niches. Most of the images were very old, and of gilt-copper, called ser-zang ("gilt-copper"), and had been made with much skill. The image of the Lord (Joro) Buddha had been made, the Tung-chen told me, by a great Indian Buddhist in imita- tion of the great image of Shakya tuba at Lhasa.[3] The founder of tlie monastery, Je Lha-tsun, once prayed that the gods might send him a skilful artist to make images for the newly built lamasery; and shortly afterwards an Indian visited Dongtse, made this image,
- ↑ Gnas-brtan behu-drug, the sixteen highest disciples of the Buddha Gautama.— (W. R.)
- ↑ Cf. Captain Sam. Turner, op. cit., 236, and Geo. Bogle (in C. R. Markham's 'Narrative of the Mission, etc.,' 97). Bogle there says, "The floor is of a chalky clay, mixed with small pebbles, and formed into a smooth and very beautiful terrace, which, by the labours of a young gylang, who every morning gets his feet upon two woollen cloths, and exercises himself for three or four hours in skating about the room, will, in the course of fiteen or twenty years, acquire a polish equal to the other floors in the palace, which are not inferior to the finest variegated marble."—(W. R.)
- ↑ This image is called the Jo-vo. It is in the Lhasa Jokhang, in the centre of the city. See my 'Land of the Lamas,' p. 105, note 2. See also chap. vi. p. 151 of the present narrative.— (W. R.)
