It is a fine building in the midst of a grove of trees, through which flows a brook.
From this point we retraced our steps to Tse-tang, which we readied the same day, recrossing the Yarlung chu by a long stone bridge near the monastery of Tse-chog-pa, where we saw a number of the monks bathing in the river.
The Yarlung valley appeared to me to be a most prosperous one, the people gentle and good-natured. The soil produces grain and fruit in greater abundance than any other part of Tibet; chang, butter, meat, oil, barley, wheat, and fuel were everywhere plentiful.
On November 10 we left Tse-tang, on the return journey to Tashilhunpo.
We forded the Yarlung river, in which there was but little water, nearly all of it having been drawn off by irrigation ditches higher up the valley, and passing to the villages of Yangta and Gyerpal, we came to the old sanctuary of Yarlung, called the Chyasa lha-khang, or "the resting-place-of-birds temple," for the vast flocks of birds[1] which pass here in their migrations make it a resting-place. It is situated on the banks of the Tsang-po, and is a finely built and well-kept edifice, with a courtyard and beautifully frescoed walls. The image of Sakya Buddha in the temple is said to be made with an alloy of gold, silver, copper, and iron.
Following the bank of the Tsang-po, through heavy sands or over low hills, we came towards evening to Chincho-ling, a secluded and desolate little hamlet, the houses surrounded by low walls of stone to keep off the drifting sands, and here we put up for the night.
The next morning there was a heavy fog—quite a rare phenomenon in these parts—when we started. We breakfasted at the little fisher village of Dong-sho,[2] and a mile or so beyond this entered a well-cultivated valley containing numerous villages and fine trees. Near the first village we came to stands the monastery of Chongdu-chog.[3] We reached, before evening, the famous Nying-ma lamasery of Mindol ling, in a dale opening on the west side of the valley; a little below it is a very large village, where we found, after some difficulty, accommodation in the house of a well-to-do man.
