Immediately facing this was the usual frescoed arcade
and overhead a great siris tree, a species of acacia,
which the Tibetans call yom-bor* Inlaid in the courtyard
in front of the temple was a boldly designed
swastika. The bosses and ring-plates of the doors
of the gompa were of the finest filagree work, and the
design and finish of the great key of iron and inlaid
silver was remarkably good ; it was about 18 inches
in length. Inside the temple one noticed particularly
the profusion of hanging ka tags and gyan-tsen. The
place resembled an alley in a Chinese market, so obscured
was it with hanging cloths. Among them I
noticed a singularly fine tang-ka, the finest in workmanship
that I had seen, t In a wide and high dark
court behind it, divided in two by a half-floor, was
sitting a gigantic Buddha. He was probably made of
clay, but the surface was finely finished and gilded
as successfully as if it had been made of copper. Over
the huge shoulders costly silks were thrown, and it
was singularly effective to encounter the impassive
gaze of those inscrutable eyes gleaming out in sharp
relief against the surrounding darkness; the entire
image was, perhaps, thirty feet in height; in some
respects it resembled the enclosed Buddhas of Japan,
and, perhaps, by sheer contrast, reminded one of that
* The last syllable of this name contains an unusual sound in Tibetan
speech ; it is a deep and prolonged note, and is found again in such words as
Jo, the great goiden idol of Lhasa, and in Towo, meaning “ terrible.” I have,
perhaps, been inconsistent in rendering the sound in the former word b y a single
letter and doubling it in the latter, but “ towo ” is so constantly used b y writers
upon Tibetan ecclesiology that I have preferred not to alter it.
t The size of these tang-kas varies greatly, but few are more than eight
feet in len g th ; they are generally protected b y one, two, or even three curtains
of thin tussore silk, the outer one being of curious but characteristic
colouring. In rainbow tints, merging imperceptibly one into another, some of
the “ eight sacred emblems ” are mistily indicated.