I have seen in Tibet, the plan of it approaching rather that of a modern public building in Bengal. I noticed here eighteen beautiful silver and copper chorten, the finest specimens of such metal work I have seen. Six tablets of gold, each six feet long and six inches broad, hung from the ceiling, besides six piles of similar but smaller tablets in a corner.
Of all the monasteries in Tibet, this is perhaps the richest in religious treasures,[1] and the Government of Lhasa takes particular care of it. Among the curious objects placed before the images of the gods in the principal temple, I saw some bowls filled with various kinds of seed and some fossils, among which some grains of barley.
The next day we resumed our journey. The road at first led through a forest said to have sprung from the hairs of Je Phagmodu, the founder of the Densa-til lamasery.[2]
All the way to Samdub phodang, the capital of the Phagmodu kings, was a gentle descent over gravel and mica-schist rock. Crossing a fine wooden bridge about fifty yards long, with railings running along either side, we found ourselves in the principal street of the town, in which a large number of Dokpa traders were camped under some walnut trees.
The three-storied castle, once a royal residence, is now occupied by the Djongpon and the two Tsedung from Lhasa. Samdub phodang is now a gon-shi, or "Crown Demesne" of Lhasa.
A few miles beyond this town we came to the Sangri khamar lamasery,[3] situated on a beautiful eminence overlooking the Tsang-po, whose surface is broken here by huge masses of rock. Around the great lamasery stretched broad fields of barley, now ripe for the sickle, and the beauty of the crops surpassed anything I have ever seen in Tibet,
Here at Sangri khamar once lived Saint Machig labdon,[4] an
- ↑ Quoting from the Dsamling yeshe, our author says elsewhere that there are here eighteen silver tombs of the successive Phagmondu lama rinpoche.
- ↑ Trees sprung from the hair of saints or deities are frequently found in Tibet and in other Buddhist countries. The most famous is the "white sandalwood tree" of Kumbum, described by Hue and other travellers. Chandra Das tells us (supra, p. 117) of a juniper within the walls of Tashilhunpo, which had sprung from the hair of Gedun-dub, the first Panchen rinpoche. Explorer Ugyen-gyatso ('Report on Explor. from 1856 to 1886,' p. 28) refers also to the Densatil forest. Csoma, 'Tib. Gram.,' p. 185, says the Dän-sa tel (gdan-sa tel) monastery was founded in A.D. 1156.—(W. K.)
- ↑ The Dsamling yeshe calls it Zangri khang mar.—(S. C. D.)
- ↑ Elsewhere called Labkyi Donma.—(S. C. D.)
