CHAPTER VI.
LHASA :
THE CITY AND THE LING-KOR.
T h e r e was a light rain in the eariy hours of the morn-
ing of the 3rd of August. All round the amphitheatre
of hills a light-grey Scotch mist was draining itself
imperceptibly into the plain, and it was not until just
before the start that the rain stopped, and the lower
edge of these clouds became a clean-cut white line
slowly receding up the mountain-side as the morning
passed. Our course was almost due east. We crossed
the bridge and made our way by the well-defined though
somewhat weed-grown road between high fields of peas
and barley to the spur which ran out from the north and
hid from our sight the monastery of De-bung. It was to
be in all a march of about, seven miles, and after the
first three had been passed without incident a halt was
called just on the western side of the town and ruined
fort of Shing-donkar. This is a picturesque little place
nestling at the foot of a high precipitous spur, of which
the almost horizontal and razor-like summit is supported
on a roughly columnar edge of granite. Even from
Lhasa itself it stands out boldly against the sunset,
and its jagged edge is a small feature in the scenery of
which I am somewhat sorry to have taken no photograph.
The road passes between Shing-donkar and the
first of the many “ lings,” or thickly-planted enclosures,
no