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meditation and of magic. Immediately beyond the
trees the dull, unclad rock half enclosed this jewel
of a temple,. and the faint rustle of the little stream
was hushed. We finished our meal and went down
again into the courtyard between the two painted lions
which guard the five steps. That on the dexter is
blue, his sinister companion is green. Nothing seems
to have escaped the brush of the painter here. A tour
of inspection round the galleries of the cloisters revealed
a little plate armour— which is a somewhat
remarkable thing— and a large number of shao horns
heavily whitewashed, in some cases trophied with
dorje-handled swords. Then we were invited to look
at the other rooms of the gompa, and we went up the
usual slippery ladders to an upper portico as beautifully
painted as every other part of the building and
so up again on to the topmost storey protected by the
great golden roof.
This was the first golden Lhasan roof I had an
opportunity of studying carefully. It is always claimed
that one at least of the golden canopies of the Jo-kang
is really made of plates of goldB-and after a
close examination I am half inclined to think that
the central one is actually made throughout of the
precious metal, extraordinary though it seems—
but in general the gold is coated heavily upon
sheets of copper, after the copper has been embossed
or cast, or repousseed, as the fancy of the artist suggests.
It is, I believe, laid on in an amalgam of
mercury, but of this I could not get any very certain
information. These golden roofs are unquestionably
the most striking ornaments of Lhasa. One can see
them for miles, for, in this light clean air, no distance