as those of the water-meadows of Lha-lu. You can
roam about among them at the back of the house for
half a mile, and then you will strike a little wooded
track, for all the world like a hazel-canopied lane in
Devonshire. Kitchen gardens adjoin Lha-lu house to
the east, and the little hovels in which the gardeners
live are pressed up against the walls of the lane which
divides the house from these grounds, but in every
other direction there is a water-sodden stretch of plain
or plantation across which artificial roads alone give
one a dry-shod passage.
Sera monastery lies due north of the town and Debung,
not three miles distant, lies west-north-west.
There was an interesting morning spent outside the
latter place. The monks who had undertaken to supply
us with tsamba failed utterly to keep their promise
within the given time, and it became necessary to
enforce our demands. The little column therefore
moved out of camp one day with the guns and made
ready to occupy the wide-stretching waste of white
monastery. After waiting for two or three hours,
however, the monks thought it wiser to comply, and,
in the General’s opinion, enough was given on the spot
as earnest of a future delivery to justify him in abandoning
his intentions. On this occasion I made first
acquaintance with a temple to which I have previously
referred as, of all the buildings of Lhasa, second only
in interest to the Jo-kang. This is the exquisite temple
and house belonging to the Chief Magician of the country.
Half a mile short of De-bung, it lies almost concealed
in the lower trees of a deep ravine running up into the
hills, the only part of it which is visible from a distance
being the golden roof.