MY FIRST MISSION TO BHUTAN
close under the walls on the west is a large basin of water, the only reservoir I had seen in Bhutan.
“The castle of Dug-gye-jong is a very substantial stone building, with high walls, but so irregular is its figure that it is evident no other design was followed in its construction than to cover all the level space on the top of the hill on which it stands. Having ascended to the gateway at the foot of the walls, we had still to mount about a dozen steps through a narrow passage, after which we landed upon a semicircular platform edged with a strong wall pierced with loopholes. Turning to the right, we passed through a second gateway, and went along a wide lane with stables for horses on each side. The third gateway conducted us to the interior of the fortress, being a large square, the angles of which had three suites of rooms. In the centre of the square was a temple dedicated to Mahamoonie and his concomitant idols.”
I found the whole of the premises very clean; the Jongpen, who was appointed by, and is a staunch adherent of, the Tongsa Penlop, and who had been to Lhasa in his suite, received us most cordially, and entertained us with a Bhutanese lunch of scrambled eggs and sweet rice coloured with saffron, accompanied by murwah (beer) and chang (spirit), also coloured with saffron, fresh milk, and a dessert of walnuts and dried fruits. His wife, who prepared the meal, was one of the cleanest and best-looking women I have seen in Bhutan, and her little boy, wearing an exact copy, in miniature, of his father’s dress, was a nice little chap.
The Dug-gye armoury is said to be the best in the country, and is contained in a fine room with a large bow window facing south and looking down the valley—in the Tongsa Penlop’s opinion, the best balcony in Bhutan. In the outer courtyard men were making gunpowder. A silversmith and a wood-turner were also at work, and in the inner courtyard were piles of shingles (pieces of flat wood) ready for re-roofing the castle, which has to be entirely
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