AN EXPLORATION OF EASTERN BHUTAN
mules and ponies waiting for me, sent by Sir Ugyen and the Tibetans, and also a message asking me to delay my arrival at Lhakhang until my camp there was prepared, so a few miles further on I pitched my tents in a beautiful glade in the midst of pines, larches, and aspens. The valley we passed through was a fine one, and the walk beautiful, with magnificent cliffs on the north side for the whole distance, nearly, if not quite, as high as those on the route above Tashi-cho-jong which I had traversed the year before on my way through Bhutan. After descending some thousands of feet we came into forests of black juniper, and below that silver pine and larch. The climate, too, was drier. The view looking down the valley across into Tibet was very fine, the hills there showing up rugged and bare, without a tree, although distant only about three miles as the crow flies, so sharp is the line dividing the wet and the dry zones.
The orderlies in charge of the yaks the Tongsa had sent took the greatest care of me whilst going over the bad places on the road, holding me on as though they were afraid I might fall off. In camp I got a letter from Sir Ugyen to say he had arrived in Lhakhang that day, and hoped to meet me in the morning.
While making my way to the Jong the following day the Jongpen met me with eggs and milk and the headman of the village with chang. At the Jong itself Sir Ugyen was waiting, and I found my camp pitched in a grove of poplars and willows, while the Jongpen had pitched his own tent for me and made all preparations for my comfort. It was a very great pleasure to meet Sir Ugyen again, and we had much to talk over and discuss.
I had hardly expected to receive such a hearty reception in Tibet, but every one vied with one another in trying to make me comfortable and in doing everything they could for me. It was most gratifying, and proved beyond dispute that the Tibetans bore no ill-will on account of the Lhasa Expedition, and also that they were genuinely
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