CHAPTER X
TIBETAN ADMINISTRATION IN WESTERN
TIBET, OR NARI
Up to the time when the recent Mission was launched
on its eventful advance into Tibet, there was the very
greatest ignorance amongst even the well educated
as to the country which that expedition was setting
out to visit. To the man in the street, Tibet was a
vast and dreary plateau, fenced about with the loftiest
mountains, and the only place of which he had
heard was Lhasa, 390 miles from Darjeeling. Since
then we have become quite familiar with many names,
such as Gyantse, Shigatse, the Karola and scores of
others, but the whole of the knowledge that has been
reaped has been confined, speaking broadly, to Central
Tibet; Gartok' and Western Tibet are to many
still a sealed book. Lhasa is situated in Central
Tibet, and the country further east is known as
Eastern Tibet, while Nari, or Western Tjbet, is the
territory west of the Mariam or Mayum Pass, 16,900
ft. high^ where the Sanpoor Brahmaputra river rises.
Yet the concessions that have been obtained by means
of the treaty at Lhasa in regard to Gartok are of
greater importance to the native subjects of His
Majesty than the whole of the concessions in Eastern
Tibet. By far the larger part of the population of
India is composed of Hindus, who are not traders
or miners, to whom wool and borax do not appeal,
Pass