Journey to Lhasa and central Tibet / by Sarat Chandra Das ; edited by W.W. Rockhill.

  • Sarat Chandra Das
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Journey to Lhasa and central Tibet / by Sarat Chandra Das ; edited by W.W. Rockhill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that they have hardly a dozen matchlocks among them all. Nepalese settlers are numerous here, and 1 noticed some Brahmans and Chetris who live chiefly by selling milk and butter. We passed several paddy fields made on terraces along the hillsides, where ploughs drawn by bullocks were used; but the Bhutias neither terrace the hillsides nor do they use ploughs, but keep to their time-honoured implements, hoes and clubs (in) of oak, by which they get but scanty returns. The Limbus * till the ground for three consecutive years, and then leave it fallow for three, when the weeds are cut and burnt, and it is again put under cultivation. After ascending several hills by steep paths, we came to the top of a ridge marked by a mendong and a chorten,f and from whence a picturesque view of the valley of Dhuramdien, dotted with numerous houses, and of the surrounding country is obtained. This spot is called Mani-dctra by the Pahirias, and Chorten-gang by the Bhutias, both names meaning “ the ridge of the sacred stupa” Here we halted by the side of a rill, and purchased two bottles of mumva beer { and vegetables from some Limbus. November 9.™Our way led along an easy path by Limbu houses with sheepfolds and pigsties in front of them, and around which a few goats and cows were also seen. The Limbu fowls, by the way, are not so large as those of the Bhutias. As I journeyed on we talked of some of the Limbu § customs, the most remarkable of which is that * Called Chung by the Lepclias. Though not divided into castes, they belong to several tribes. All consider themselves as the earliest inhabitants of the Tambur valley, thougli they have a tradition of having originally emigrated from Tibet. See Hooker, op. cit., i. 137. f It would, perhaps, be better to transcribe this mangdong (from Tibetan mang, “many;’’and dong, “stones”). Chorten is mchod, “ offeringrten, “ receptacle.” It is usually pronounced chiirten. See infra, 37, 40.—(W, R.) X Made from half-fermented millet. Munva is Eleusine coracana. See Hooker, op. cit., i. 133, 175.—(W. R.) § The country between the Arun and Tambur is called Limbudu by the Nepali natives, and the aboriginal people who have dwelt there from time immemorial are designated by the name of Limbu, though they call themselves by the name of Yak- thanga. In the same manner the tribes inhabiting Kiranta, or the regions between Dudkosi and the Arun, are called Kirat, which name is as old as that of the great Hindu deity Maliadeva. The Kirat of the north and the Limbu of the south were known to the ancients by the name of Kirata, on account of their living by hunting and carrying on trade with the natives of the plains in musk, yak-tails, shellac, cardamoms, etc., from the earliest Hindu periods. See also infra, p. 26. The Tibetans and the Bhutias of Nepal and Sikkim call the Limbus by the name of Tsang, probably on account of their having emigrated from the Tsang province of Tibet. Both tradition and written Limbu works relate that the Limbu people partly
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