are not, but the illusion is perfect, in colour, growth, and
size alike. Near them tall fresh-looking docks have
found a wet stratum deep below the dusty irrigation cut,
and away in a sopping water meadow by the river
stunted Himalayan primulas make a cloudy carpet of
pink.
L o o k in g westwards from Gyantse jong. T h e Shigatse road lies across th e p la in to the
r ig h t beyond th e monastery wall.
Late in the afternoon the change begins. Details of
flowers and fields and trees vanish— and surely one is
content to lose them in the scene that follows. First,
the light pall of pure blue which has all day gauzed over
the end of the valley towards Dongtse deepens into
ultramarine ash. Then, in a few minutes as it seems,
the fleeces of white and silver in the west have gathered
The Iris Wood at Gyantse.
T H IS P IC T U R E E X P L A IN S IT S E L F . N O T IC E , H OW E V E R , T H E
EN O RM O U S K IT E S IN T H E B R A N C H E S O F T H E D IS T A N T
T R E E S . Dark green, . flowers lavender and lemon, trunk
/ black, hard blue sky. \