to a road much encumbered with huge blocks of broken
rock. The river had a considerable fall. On either side
rose huge rocks, perpendicular and bare, vast impending
crags.”
The Tibetan name of this place is Zam-trang.
The Chinese name is Hong-pusa, and it is from this last,
of course, that the name “ Red Idol Gorge ” is taken.
The approach to the actual gorge has an interest of its
own. Leaving the plain on which Lamda is built, the
first thing that a traveller notices halfway up the cliff
on the left-hand side is a deep recess in the cliff before
which altar-like stones, deeply raddled with red-crimson
and marked all round with prayer flags, indicate a more
than usually sacred spot. The road descends still. As
the descent becomes steeper the bald red spurs of the
perpendicular cliffs close inwards more and more ; and
the river turns sharply just where a projecting spur on
the right bank hides the actual entrance to the gorge.
Immediately in front the road curves on at the foot of
a frowning cliff to the left a huge promontory halts
abruptly over the foaming waters of the stream ; and
an interlocking slant of rock hides the further progress
both of road and river. The column moved on till the
spur was reached. It was then clear that the Tibetans
intended to defend what would have been an almost
impregnable position had they been armed with firearms
of any pattern later than those of the end of the
seventeenth century. They had mounted on the top
of the high left-hand cliff six or eight jingals, and they
continually used - those antiquated cannon, of which
the weakly-thrown ball was scarcely more effective than
the deep-throated roar with which the explosion filled
the ravines and curtains of the canon.