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POWELL MILLINGTON
POWELL MILLINGTON
AUTHOR OF 'IN CANTONMENTS' 'IN AND BEYOND CANTONMENTS' ETC. WITH A FRONTISPIECE SECOND EDITION LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1905 [ All rights reserved ] TO CAPTAIN S. H. SHEPPARD, D.S.O. R.E. A COMRADE IN TIBET AND ELSEWHERE THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR November 1904...
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PREFACE
PREFACE
When the Sikkim-Tibet Mission Force marched to Lhassa, it carried along with it, besides fighting men and diplomatists, a strong contingent that represented literature and the deeper sciences. We were full of brains in that Lhassa column. There were men in it who had made the subject of Tibet their own before they had set foot in the country, and were already qualified to discourse upon it, whether in its political, its topographical, its ethnological, or its archæological aspect. There was a ma
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CHAPTER I THE WRITING ON THE WALL
CHAPTER I THE WRITING ON THE WALL
'Ain't this ripping?' said I to my wife. 'Yes, delightful,' she said. It really was rather nice. It had been quite hot in the plains, and was pleasantly cool up here. My wife and family had preceded me and had been settled for some weeks in the house which we had taken in the hills for the hot weather, and now I had just arrived on two months' leave. We were sitting over the fire in the drawing-room after dinner, a cosy little room made homelike by a careful selection of draperies and ornaments
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CHAPTER II PRELIMINARIES
CHAPTER II PRELIMINARIES
The next day was Sunday—not a good day on which to start preparations. I had a great many things to do. The first was to visit the civil surgeon, and be examined for fitness for residing in high altitudes. He lived at the top of a steep hill himself, and as I arrived there on foot but alive, he passed me without difficulty. Then my pony who had come with me had to be despatched with the syce on two double marches to the railway terminus. Then I had to procure free railway passes from the station
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CHAPTER III THE BASE
CHAPTER III THE BASE
I have been too long describing the preliminaries that were necessary before joining the Expedition, but there is some excuse for doing so. For after all those preliminaries, with their suddenness and their hurry and rush, were distinctly typical of the Indian Frontier Expedition. When soldiers serving the Imperial Government are ordered on a campaign, they generally have some warning. Foreign politics have generally been simmering in the pot for some time before the pot overboils. But on the In
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CHAPTER IV TO GNATONG
CHAPTER IV TO GNATONG
I marched to Gnatong as a passenger—that is to say, though I accompanied troops, I yet did no duty with them. The camping grounds en route were small clearings in the jungle, so small that not more than two or three hundred men and two or three hundred animals could be encamped at any one spot on a given day. Hence the reinforcements were marching up in very small columns. It was one of these which I accompanied as far as Gnatong. About two or three days' marching takes you out of India into Sik
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CHAPTER V MOUNTAIN SICKNESS: GNATONG: WAYSIDE WITTICISMS
CHAPTER V MOUNTAIN SICKNESS: GNATONG: WAYSIDE WITTICISMS
Those ailments which are described by the word sickness, joined to a prefix, are of two kinds. Either the prefix is the cause of the disease, as in the case of sea sickness, or the expression is a lucus a non lucendo , as in the case of 'home sickness,' the cause of the sickness being in the latter case the exact contradictory of the prefix. Sometimes the two kinds are combined, as in the case of love sickness, when both love itself and also the lack of love are the simultaneous cause of the dis
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CHAPTER VI OVER THE JALAP-LÀ: CHUMBI: BEARDS
CHAPTER VI OVER THE JALAP-LÀ: CHUMBI: BEARDS
After a week of Gnatong I was ordered to Chumbi, where the reinforcements and a portion of the old force had been concentrating preparatory to what is officially described as 'the second advance to Gyantse.' My way lay through Kapap over the Jalap-Là, and down through Langram and Rinchingong, and thence to Chumbi. The pièce de résistance was the part between Kapap and Langram. There is an easy uninteresting pass between Gnatong and Kapap. Kapap itself looked a bleak dismal spot, lying all in the
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CHAPTER VII TO PHARI
CHAPTER VII TO PHARI
The 'second advance' began in due course. The first few camping grounds were small, so that we had to proceed on the three days' march to Phari in several columns, two columns a day leaving Chumbi together, but halting at separate camping grounds on the way up, and meeting again at Phari. This march to Phari was, until we actually reached the Phari plain, quite the wettest I have known. It rained incessantly. The first day we climbed a few miles up to Lingmatam. (How like one another the names o
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CHAPTER VIII TO KANGMA
CHAPTER VIII TO KANGMA
All our little columns concentrated at Phari. Our camp was just outside the 'jong' or fort. Phari-jong was quite typical of the genus 'jong,' looking from the outside like the sort of mediæval castle that sometimes adorns the foreground of a drop-scene in a theatre. On the inside it was rather extra-typical, being even more rambling, darker, and dirtier than most jongs. A grim humorist had selected the topmost garret as the post-office. This selection gave the local postmaster, who was also poss
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CHAPTER IX NAINI: TIBETAN WARFARE
CHAPTER IX NAINI: TIBETAN WARFARE
We were all halted a day or two at Kangma. There was some truth after all in the yarn of the first two mounted infantrymen whom we had met on the road, for some of the enemy had been located not far away, and a flying column had gone out after them. The enemy evaded the column successfully, and the latter returned after no other incident except the death of a man and one or two mules from the effects of drinking water which the brave enemy, ignorant of such Western vagaries as the Geneva Convent
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CHAPTER X AT GYANTSE: FIGHTING: FORAGING: TIBETAN RELIGIOUS ART
CHAPTER X AT GYANTSE: FIGHTING: FORAGING: TIBETAN RELIGIOUS ART
The ten days or so spent at Gyantse were occupied in fighting, in waiting, through periodical armistices, for the result of negotiations which came to nothing, in sightseeing and in foraging for our present needs, and for the advance to Lhassa. The two fights here alluded to were the taking of Tsechin and the taking of Gyantse-jong. At the former I again had a front seat in the stalls, watching the show in company with the headquarters' Staff, but had to leave, with some aggravating message to c
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CHAPTER XI THE START FOR LHASSA: A DIGRESSION ON SUPPLY AND TRANSPORT
CHAPTER XI THE START FOR LHASSA: A DIGRESSION ON SUPPLY AND TRANSPORT
Suddenly the order came that we were to march to Lhassa forthwith. Who should and who should not form the Lhassa column must have been a difficult question to settle. To perform invidious tasks of this sort must be the most trying feature of generalship. It would be hard to find an occasion on any expedition when, to the individual soldier, going on seemed to mean so much, and staying behind so little. Forbidden cities are so fascinating, and the idea of assisting in drawing aside a pardah so ap
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CHAPTER XII TO RALUNG: MORE SUPPLY MATTERS: A VISIT TO A MONASTERY
CHAPTER XII TO RALUNG: MORE SUPPLY MATTERS: A VISIT TO A MONASTERY
From Gyantse to Ralung is a steady upward incline, and took us three days. It rained most of the time, both day and night; it was difficult to get dry again when once you were wet, and there was a good deal of discomfort experienced in all quarters. One camping ground was particularly unpleasant, which for the most part consisted of ploughed land that was not only soaking with the rain, but had recently been irrigated. As we had risen considerably higher than the Gyantse plain, the crops on this
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CHAPTER XIII THE KARO-LÀ
CHAPTER XIII THE KARO-LÀ
The next day brought us just under the Karo-Là pass, and we camped at a height of 16,600 feet, with a great mass of snow so near us on the hillside that, while the sun was still up, it quite hurt our eyes to look in that direction. Avalanches of snow kept falling from the mass, coming down with a great thud that was almost startling. There was a little mountain sickness that night; but, considering the height and the fatigue that had been involved in reaching it, there was remarkably little. A v
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CHAPTER XIV NAGARTSE: ENVOYS: DEMOLITIONS: BATHS: BOILING WATER
CHAPTER XIV NAGARTSE: ENVOYS: DEMOLITIONS: BATHS: BOILING WATER
Next day we reached Nagartse. This is a village surmounted by a jong which is perched at the end of a rocky ridge which runs from higher hills close down to a corner of the Lake Palti. There is one monastery inside the jong itself, and another on the hillside close by. There was a belt of standing crops close to the jong which were more advanced than those on the other side of the Karo-Là. On the whole we appeared to have reached something of an oasis. If the enemy had decided to make a stand ag
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CHAPTER XV LAKE PALTI: DRAWING BLANK: PETE-JONG
CHAPTER XV LAKE PALTI: DRAWING BLANK: PETE-JONG
We left Nagartse in very wretched weather, and for the next few days marched in rain and camped in rain. A spell of bad weather like this, bad enough as it is for every one, man or beast, is perhaps worst of all for the mules who carry the tents, for a thoroughly soaked tent is literally twice its normal weight; and ours on this occasion, after the initial soaking, got no drier for several days in succession. We were now marching alongside the Lake Palti. Once or twice the clouds broke for an ho
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CHAPTER XVI OVER THE KAMBA-LÀ: THE LAND OF PROMISE
CHAPTER XVI OVER THE KAMBA-LÀ: THE LAND OF PROMISE
About a thousand feet of zig-zag climbing were to bring us to the top of the pass, where we would again for the moment stand over 16,000 feet. The morning was fairly fine, and the clouds high. It took hours, of course, before our five-mile-long column had reached the top. We toiled up slowly, many of us with sad misgivings, for that supply column in the rear was grievously light, and its further depletion would mean much to all of us. To any one whose thoughts were for official reasons specially
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CHAPTER XVII THE CROSSING OF THE TSANGPO: A SAD ACCIDENT
CHAPTER XVII THE CROSSING OF THE TSANGPO: A SAD ACCIDENT
The following day we marched down the Tsangpo or Brahmaputra to Chaksam Ferry. A small column of mounted infantry had ridden ahead of us and captured the local flotilla, which consisted of two large rectangular ferry boats, capable each of holding about twenty mules, a hundred men, or two hundred maunds of stores. Each boat was decorated with a roughly carved figure-head representing a horse. One horse had lost one of its ears, which rather detracted from its otherwise imposing appearance. The p
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CHAPTER XVIII THE END OF THE CROSSING: THE 'CHIT' IN TIBET
CHAPTER XVIII THE END OF THE CROSSING: THE 'CHIT' IN TIBET
The Sappers and Miners, the coolis, the boatmen, the various units employed on fatigue, and the mule drivers must have been heartily glad when the crossing was all over. We were leaving both yaks and donkeys behind here (to work with convoys between Gyantse and Chaksam), so that we did not have to accomplish the feat of embarking and disembarking these somewhat clumsy animals; but even so, the amount of labour that had been involved was immense. I am told that, at any rate in Indian frontier war
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CHAPTER XIX MONASTERIES: FORAGING IN MONASTERIES: A DREAM
CHAPTER XIX MONASTERIES: FORAGING IN MONASTERIES: A DREAM
There were at least two fair-sized monasteries which during the next few days we visited to obtain supplies. Monasteries seem to vary in character as they vary in size. Buddhism seems, in fact, to have left its mark upon Tibet in the manner of some great flood. Here on a lone hilltop stands a tiny monastery stagnant, like some small pool left by the flood, the monks few in number, their persons sordid, their minds vacant, and what remains of their religion stale or even polluted; while elsewhere
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CHAPTER XX REACHING LHASSA: SUPPLIES: MESSING: THE LHASSA BAZAAR
CHAPTER XX REACHING LHASSA: SUPPLIES: MESSING: THE LHASSA BAZAAR
The mode of our arrival in the environs of Lhassa was something of an anti-climax. We had marched four hundred miles, fought a few fights, and provided ourselves throughout our journey with the necessaries of life, much against the will of the enemy, and here we were at Lhassa, where an exciting climax to our march, such as a good fight in the Lhassa plain, would have been highly artistic. Here stood the Debun monastery, and there further on the Sara monastery, full of monks who at that time hat
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CHAPTER XXI ENOUGH OF LHASSA: A TRIP DOWN COUNTRY: LIFE IN A POST: TRUE HOSPITALITY: A BHUTYA PONY
CHAPTER XXI ENOUGH OF LHASSA: A TRIP DOWN COUNTRY: LIFE IN A POST: TRUE HOSPITALITY: A BHUTYA PONY
Since I reached India, I have been told that every moment I spent in the romantic environs of Lhassa must have been intensely interesting, and that to have been to Lhassa is the envy of the world. I suppose, like the brute one is, one got blasé and indifferent to one's good fortune, but it is certain that those 'crowded hours of glorious life' began to pall. We did the best we could to while away the time. An energetic race committee provided gymkhanas and a 'sky meeting' (just, says the intelli
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CHAPTER XXII THE SIGNING OF THE TREATY
CHAPTER XXII THE SIGNING OF THE TREATY
A day or two after—that is to say, on the seventh day of September 1904—the treaty was signed. If our peaceful arrival at Lhassa had been the anti-climax of the Expedition, this—the signing of the treaty—though peaceful also, was its true climax. One certainly did have a feeling that day that one was witness of an event of imperial importance. The escort left camp at 1.30 P.M. Over the assembling of the troops outside camp one of those typical—and to the onlooker highly entertaining—muddles aros
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CHAPTER XXIII BACK TO INDIA
CHAPTER XXIII BACK TO INDIA
Thereafter, like the man in the sycamore tree, we made haste to come down. Sixteen days later the column left Lhassa. A few functions intervened, such as the formal release of our prisoners and the bestowal of money in charity on the poor of Lhassa. I missed these functions, having been sent on ahead to the Tsangpo, where preparations for the return crossing were now afoot. The column at length arrived at the river. We crossed this time at Parte, where a certain single channel of moderate breadt
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