numbed or frost-bitten, whose faces were pinched from
hunger and their fingers shrivelled with cold, who
had lost their way hopelessly in these grim mountains,
where the country is unknown, the objective unrecognisable,
and the barren, stony wastes show no trace
of road or track. But yet they had clothes to cover
them, while these naked devotees expose their ash-
begrimed bodies in all their nudity to the cruel cold and
the pitiless blast, and ever there hangs over them the
certainty of hunger if compassionate charity does not
pity their estate. The monasteries round these lakes are
under the government of different ecclesiastical chiefs;
for instance, Gozul is under the Taklakot Shivling, Jaikep
(Jenkhab of the maps) under the Ruler of Bhutan,
Jiu is a Dokpa Gompa, and the head lama comes from
Lhasa, &c. The word Gompa literally means a “ soli-
tary place ” and hence came to mean a monastery.
The Dokpas are quite the dirtiest of all the dirty
tribes who live in Tibet, and their Gompa at Jiu,
which we visited, built by excavating the rocks, was
the filthiest place conceivable, while the attendants
were begrimed with a coating of black that plainly
showed they had never in their lives come into contact
with soap or water. At the doorway of many of
these monasteries there is a little soap-powder placed
in a box for the use of the inmates, which is really a very
humorous custom, for in theory it is excellent, but in
practice ablutions are more honoured in the breach
than the observance. Although there is a great sameness
in these shrines yet it is always interesting to
visit each one, for many of them undoubtedly go
back to a great antiquity,' and there is generally some
incident about each which one carries away in the mind j
for instance, at Thokar (Thui of the maps) there was
quite a good antler of the Sikkim stag lying outside,
and we were told that the leading dacoit of the whole
country with his gang of forty men was going to arrive
Bags full ¡of borax ready for trans- Doorway of the Dokpa
port by sheep and goats Thokap^monastery man
Dokpa men selling borax Monks
DOKPA WOMEN AND MEN
The hair of the women is plaited into strings, which are^fastened on to long
ribbons of cloth ornamented with white beads and reaching to the ground
there the next day to levy blackmail, and we were
particularly asked to interview this chief and persuade
him of the error of his ways. At Gozul there is a beautiful
view of the lake of Mansarowar, as the Gompa is
on a fine eminence; at Jiu is the famous channel
connecting the two sacred lakes.
There has been much discussion at times as to whether