many ponies, which they use for making raids on the adjacent peoples. Their chiefs exact black-mail (chag tal) from all people, and rob all they fall in with, unless they have passports from the Golog chiefs.
The Gologs have a few lamaseries, the heads of which come from Tashilhunpo, and are appointed for a term of five years, after which they return to Ulterior Tibet. Not long ago one of these lamas returned to Tashilhunpo, after having enjoyed during his sojourn in Gologland the confidence of the people and chiefs. He had amassed considerable wealth, and he spent on his return several thousand rupees in entertaining all the Tashilhunpo monks, and in giving them presents of money. Two years ago the wife of the Golog chief, near whom he had lived, came to Tashilhunpo on a pilgrimage, and after visiting the temple, she expressed a desire to see their former lama, but he was nowhere to be found, though it was known that he was at Tashilhunpo. Among the Golog people it is customary to greet one another with a kiss, and whoever omits the kiss when meeting or parting with an acquaintance is considered rude and unmannerly.
The lama had kissed this lady hundreds of times in her own country, but how could he kiss her now before all the monks? and particularly as the Panchen rinpoche was present at Tashilhunpo; how could he hope to escape unpunished if he committed an act of such gross immodesty?
The lady, however, before leaving Tashilhunpo, invited him to a dinner, and as soon as she appeared in the room he shut the door and greeted her with a kiss on the mouth, and explained to her the reason of his failing to see her at first, and the embarrassment he had felt in approaching her in public.[1]
Ugyen's friend also told him that in the Bardon district of Khams,[2] when two acquaintances meet they touch each other’s foreheads together by way of salutation.
The same friend, who had imparted to Ugyen the preceding information, told him one day this fable: In times of yore, when
- ↑ This is at all events a good story, but I doubt whether the Golok, any more than the Chinese, Mongols, or other Tibetan tribes, kiss in public.—(W. R.)
- ↑ I have never heard of any district of this name. This mode of saluting is a Mohammedan one.—(W. R.)
'Golokpas' come with large herds of yaks to trade, and annually visit this place in the months of October and November with merchandise, chiefly consisting of salt and wool." 'Report on the Exploration, from 1856 to 1886,' p. 8.
