MY FIRST MISSION TO BHUTAN
shape of a piece of silk for myself and rations for the whole party. The arrangements were so good they augured well for the future welfare of our Mission.
After a comfortable night we started in the morning along a very good road, which soon brought us into an open valley, leading through most magnificent scenery, with often a small gompa, or chapel, perched high above us, in accordance with the practice, more or less universal here, of planting one on every commanding promontory. The first village of note was Ke-chuka, which possessed a good chuten, built by a former Hah Jongpen, and fine water-mills. We went into the village gompa, and found a curious custom prevailed, which I have not come across elsewhere, namely, that most travellers offered a small copper coin, and then tried their luck with three dice kept in the alms-bowl.
At Kyengsa a road leads up through a thickly wooded side valley, through Talong and over the Saga-la, and so down to Dug-gye-jong, on the main road between Paro and Phari. It was here the horse-dealer Aphe formerly lived, who supplied some years ago a batch of ponies to the Assam Government, which was then commencing a tonga service between Gowhati and Shillong. He later died in Lhasa, and this shows how widely ramified is the trade between India and Lhasa.
On a beautiful flat, called Gyang Karthang, an annual dance and fair is held in December and January, and a more suitable site could hardly be imagined. Yangthang, a large village, is situated on the left bank of the stream at the broadest part of the valley, and as the Hah-chhu runs where the irrigation channels lead, a great deal of stony, barren land which would otherwise be the bed of the river is exposed. The road ran across a bridge through the village, and out again over another bridge, but as these bridges were said to be dangerous we continued our journey along a temporary path on the right bank, and at every village we passed the inhabitants turned out to receive
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