Volume 1

Lhasa : an account of the country and people of central Tibet and of the progress of the mission sent there by the English government in the year 1903-4 / written, with the help of all the principal persons of the mission, by Perceval Landon.

  • Perceval Landon
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Lhasa : an account of the country and people of central Tibet and of the progress of the mission sent there by the English government in the year 1903-4 / written, with the help of all the principal persons of the mission, by Perceval Landon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    APPENDIX C AN|account given to the Prince of Tuscany of a conversation held with a Father of the Order of the Jesuits (Grueher), who had come to Florence from China, January 31st, 1665. [Br. Mus. Add. MS. 16,506, f. 277 et seq.'] Then advancing further into the country of Tangut, he arrived at Retink, a district fairly well populated in the realm of Baran- tola, and finally in the real kingdom of Barantola, the royal town of Lassa. The present king is called Tena, and is descended by very ancient,origin from the Tartars of Tangut. His resi- dence is in a castle built according to European ideas, on a very high hill ; it is the royal palace, and is called Butala. It has four stories, and the architecture is fair. The court is very large, and there is an incredible luxury in the dresses of cottons and gold brocades. Except for this the nation is extremely dirty, as they have a law, for men as well as for women, not to wear shirts, to sleep on the ground, to eat raw meat, and never to wash either hands or face. They are, however, pleasant and friendly to strangers. One sees the women in the town just as other Tartar women, and contrary to the Chinese custom. The king’s brother is called Lama Congiu. This is the Mufti, or, we may say, the High Priest of the Tartars, who worship him as God. They believe that he is the brother of the first king, although they call him successively the brother of all the kings, and hold that occa- sionally he must die and be born again, and they say that this is the seventh time that he has come to life again since the creation of the world.