(each traveller should cast a stone on the crest according
to universal custom) and sees the monuments (Chor-
tens) erected by pious hands which mark the top of the
pass, and the view bursts upon the sight, prayers and
ejaculations break forth on all sides from the weary
travellers, giving place later to a feeling of absolute
contentment that they have now been blessed to see
“ what kings and many mighty men have desired to
see and not seen.” Our camp was pitched by the very
edge of the water, and thus we were able to enjoy to
the full the delightful romance and poetry of the scene.
The first feeling is that the deserts of Tibet have given
place to most luxuriant pasture-lands, which for richness
and extent are a perpetual marvel in this barren
wilderness. These lands stretch for miles and miles,
as far as the eye can see, round the lakes and into the
far beyond, and thousands of sheep and cattle can be
seen grazing on all sides and continuing into the Him
distance. The air is so clear that one scarcely realises
the enormous distances, and it is only when one attempts
to reach some neighbouring hillock for a more extensive
view, or when the glasses are used to watch some
apparently near obj ect, that one discovers the immensity
of the distances and the deceptive ness of the atmosphere.
These grazing-grounds extend for untold miles to the
east of the Mansarowar Lake and along the Sanpo, or
Brahmaputra river, and also to the north of the Kailas
mountains, and to a certain extent, with diminished
fertility, to the west of the holy lakes; but there is no
question that Mansarowar is the spot round which
the whole of the wool trade of Western Tibet centres.
Whether the wool goes to Ladakh or Nepal, to Simla or
to Kumaon, the whole practically comes from this
part and the country to the east, and in every question
relating to the further extension of this trade this principal
fact must not be forgotten. Salt also and borax
come from the north of the Kailas Range from mines
a few days journey in the same latitude as the holy lakes,
and, as the cost of carriage on all these articles is the
principle item for consideration, there can be little doubt
THE GURLA PASS (16,200 FT) FROM WHICH THE HOLY LAKES ARE
FIRST SEEN
Note the large pile of stones and the small piles of stones (chortens), also
the prayer-flags.
that, with the improvement of communications, Taklakot,
which is only 170 miles from the plains, 210 miles from
a railway, and two days from Mansarowar, will outdistance
all its rivals which are not so favourably situated.
The first Europeans to explore the holy lakes were
William Moorcroft, whose name will ever be remembered
in connection with the tragic fate of the Mission
to Bokhara in 1825, and Hyder Hearsey, whose wife
was a daughter of the Mogul Emperor Akbar II.