Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-10-03

The first American to penetrate Thibet is now
living quietly at his home in this city and has
given a New York Herald correspondent an en-
pertaining account of his journey. He is Mr..
W. Woodhill Rockhill, who was for number
of years secretary to Mr.. John Russell Young
when he was minister to China, who acquired
there q thorough knowledge of the Chinese
language and If that of the people Of Thibet.
Mr.. Rockhill conceived the idea of visiting the
strange land upon reading the book of the
Able Hue, who made some investigations
there number of years ago. He started from
Pekin, and, going through the north of China,
crossed the Mongol country with ponies to ex-
plore eastern Thibet From the time he left
China until he got back he wore the native
dress and he had four Chinese with
him. Crossing tremendous desert a good
many of his horses died of starvation. He
then crossed the Keen Lun mountains. The
passes are between 5000 and $1,000 feet high
and he suffered greatly with the ratification of
the air called sirochee. Jykeundo was the
first big town he came to in Thlbet. There
were about $500 lamas (priests) there, and
they would not let him buy anything for his
horses. He got away from there, leaving most
of his horses and all his luggage, and finally got
to Kanze, another big Thlbetan town, where
the lamas tried to pull down the house he
~
people we're very kind. After various adven-
lures he got down to Tsa Chin Lu, the most
western town of China, took sedan chair and
for nine days went over mountainous country
to place called Yachow. There he took a
little bamboo raft and went to Kiatingfu, and
from there went down the river until he
reached Suifu, on the Yang Sing. From there
he was able to pursue his journey safely to
Shanghai. Throughout China he met with
courtesy everywhere.
UNDER PRIEsTLY CONTROL.
He says: The Thibetan people are we'll dis
posed and kind, but they are under the control
of the lamas. They have all the riches of the
country in their hands, SO that no matter how
we'll people are disposed toward you word
from the lamas Is enough to set them against
you. The objection OF the lamas to the entry
of foreigners that they would seek the
treasures of the country. The Chinese govern
ment, which exercises a nominal sovereignty
over Thibet, will not issue passports to travel
there because they cannot afford sufficient pro-
lection for foreigners. They say that the peo-
pie are easily excited and they cannot be re-
sponsibe for them. The Thibetans are very
independent. and the few Chinese soldiers are
widely scattered. There are localities where
the Chinese cannot get any hold, although the
province is nominally theirs. The soldiers are
in fear and trembling themselves. They do
not have their horses or their arms with them,
but go up to Tsa Chin Lu once year. when
they are allowed to take their bows and arrows
and practice with them.
Lamaism is the prevailing religion. They
have q tremendous literature, and reading
prayers is their constant employment. They
have prayer wheels, some run by water and
some by wind, on the tops Of the houses
These are filed with prayers and the fact that
they are turned from left to right is the same
as reading them, for the words pass before the
eyes. If they are turned the other way, how
ba IL haa
The people engage the lamas to come and
read prayers for them. They pay about ten
cents a day and they give them tea and food
The rich people will give large sums of money
for the reading Of prayers. As a matter of
fact, under the cloak of sanctity the lamas are
engaged in all kinds of trading at Tsa Chin
Lu. There are no pawnbrokers' shops. which
are such an institution in China. The bust
ness is in the hands of the lamas. and bands of
them scour the country, collecting everything
they can.
PoLYANDRY.
Thibet is, believe, almost the only country
where polyandry prevails; that is. where one
woman has several husbands, Just the opposite
from the Mormon system. The custom pre-
walls in eastern Thibet in the agricultural
regions. The explanation is that the arabic
land is very small in amount, and if the sons
divided up the estate there would not be enough
for them. Accordingly they share it and several
brothers are usually married to one woman
Being great traders one or two Of them are
usually away. The children call one of the men
father and the others they call uncle.
proof that it is the scarcity Of arabic lands
that causes the practice is found in the fact
that 1T does not exist among the nomadic
Thibetans. All the villages are perched upon
some inaccessible rock, simply because they do
can be cultivated. The people live on the
barley, which they call somba. They mix it
with tea. They have no regular time for meals
Whenever they feel hungry the pot is ready
and they make a little of this mixture. Now
aud then they have sheep 1t is miserably
poor country and they do not kill much game
because they have not the improved firearms
The people have rather clear-cut features
and thin, aquiline noses are quite common.
saw many with curly hair, although some of
them wore false queue. 1t is quite an item
with the Chinese to sell them different colore
silks to make these queues.
THIBETAN WOMEN.
The girls are extremely pretty, of good color.
tolerably tall and straight. and well developed
They are gay, jolly and laughing, and their
dress is picturesque. When dressed with all
their jewelry on they present a very pleasing
appearance. Many OF them wear a sort OF sill
yer plaque on their heads. The Ihibetan
woman invests her spare cash in jewelry. She
will buy all the silver jewelry she can and then
when she can afford 1t exchanges 1t for gold.
My theory was to get in on the northern or
desert side, where the information that was
coming should not go ahead of me- To go with
a small army did not believe would result in
success. An Englishman, Coleman MacAulay
secretary of the governor of Bengal attempted
to so in with seven hundred or eight hundred
men, and the result was that the Thibetans
tried to cut him off aud a war followed, which
England has had to keep up for the past
two years. Prjevalsky had a lot of cossacks
and plenty of money. / had only few hun
dred dollars and few men. If I'D gone with
anything larger should not have got through
My journey through Thibet covered a route
over thousand miles long, but counting my
digressions it probably reached fifteen or
eighteen hundred miles.
The journey from Pekin clear around to
Shanghai would probably count up 1900 miles,
1t was an interesting experience and I may
embody the results of my work in q report to
the British or Russian geographical society
The government of this country will not lend
the assistance in such work in preparing maps
and working out the surveys which the British
government would do, SO that while as an
American should like to give the result of
my work to my own country, I may not be
able to do it.