then fluffed out on either side and fall down over the
shoulders. It is one of the most becoming ways of doing
the hair that I have ever seen, and for a certain type
the entire dress of a woman of Lhasa would be a not
unbecoming costume for a fancy dress ball at home.
The dress of both men and women is very similar ;
In Lhasa.
there is a single undergarment and one heavy native
cloth robe, dun or crimson in colour and usually patched,
which both sexes pull in round the waist with a girdle—
the men pouching it at the waist to form the only pocket
that they use. Into this fold of his over-garment the
Tibetan slips everything which he will need throughout
the day, the little wooden bowls in which he eats his
meals, a brass pot with which to do his cooking, a pair of
shoes perhaps, and certainly one or two gau os or charm
boxes. These last are at Lhasa larger than elsewhere,
and are often finished with extreme delicacy ; the silver
front of the better class of gau-o is often beautifully
chased in a design which strongly resembles good Italian
work of the seventeenth century. A good specimen will
sometimes measure five inches by four by two, and it
will contain a heterogeneous mass of paper prayers and
charms and objects specially blessed, such as grain, or
pills containing the remains of the body of deceased
lamas, just as in other parts of Tibet. The high officials
of state add gold and brocade to their dress in an increasing
amount until the position of sha-pe is reached,
when tlie entire robe is of vivid orange yellow brocaded
silk, lined with blue ; the hat of the sha-pe is a! Chinese
cap of yellow silk turned up with black velvet, and the
coral or second-class Chinese button is almost invariably
worn upon it.*
The variety of hats at Lhasa is extraordinary. Almost
every conceivable form of headgear is to be found there,
from a yellow woollen Britannia’s helmet to a varnished
and gilded wooden pot with a wide circular brim. One
shape suggests an inverted flower-pot bearing upon the
top a much larger flower-pot the right way up ; others
* In China itself the use of these buttons is carefully regulated, though every
man is permitted b y custom, to wear the button of one higher class than his
own ; this, however, does not apply to the use of the first-class button, a transparent
red colour, which is used b y the royal family alone. The second-class is
of opaque pink, the third of transparent blue, the fourth opaque blue, the fifth
of transparent crystal, the sixth opaque white. Below this comes the gold button,
which may be worn b y anyone, and is, therefore, hardly worn a t all. The use
of these buttonsf in Tibet b y officials of different classes is very clearly laid down,
but no attention whatever is paid to the rules. The coral button, which is the
highest permitted to anyone in the land, is apparently used b y any and every one
who cares to buy it. These remarks do not, of course, apply to the Chinese
Viceroy and his staff, who naturally keep to the stricter rules of their own
country.