harmonies so successfully produced remains [completely
beyond the power of European reproduction.
In the general arrangement for the internal decoration
of an important room in a good house, Gautama
will always be found in one form or another, seated either
as a statue or in paint. The upper wall is sometimes
furnished on either side with the close rows of pigeonholes,
which serve the Tibetan for library shelves. At
times a more realistic form of ornamentation is
attempted, and here the limitations of the artist
are plain indeed. The religious subjects have, in
the course of centuries, had their treatment crystallised
into a purely national style of representation, and
the moment the artist strays beyond this preserve he
leans heavily upon the Chinese for support. Chinese
perspective is used by them ; Chinese landscape, Chinese
dresses and faces are helplessly copied by Tibetan
artists, careless of the fact that neither in feature, robes
nor surroundings are the two races alike. Once or twice
I have seen a Tibetan attempt to represent some well-
known natural feature in the country. In these cases
it is necessary to read the description which generally
accompanies the object to be perfectly certain what it is
intended to represent.
The Sinchen Lama, as has been said, caused an able
artist to record upon the walls of his room the incidents
in the lives of preceding reincarnations, and the story
has been told of the strange way in which he thereby
foretold his own death and of a pleasant proof thereby of
his affection for his little dog. The picture is difficult to
photograph, and the only picture I was able to take is
marred, not only by the reflected light from the windows
behind, but by the fact that it is partially concealed by
v o l . 1. 24*