Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-29
SPRINGTIME IN HASA
FASCINATING SCENES ON ROAD
TO SACRED CITY.
Edmund Gambler Describes the Coun
try Around Chumbi in the
Unknown Land.

Chumbi Correspondence Of the London Mail.
Before entering the bare, unsheltered
plateau of Tibet the road to Lhasa winds
through seven miles of pine forest, which
recalls some of the most beautiful valleys
of Switzerland.
The wood line ends abruptly. After that
there is nothing but barrenness and desc
lation. The country around Chumbi is not
very thickly forested. There are long strips
of arabic land on each side of the road and
villages every two or three miles. The
fields. are terraced and inclosed within stone
walls. Scattered on the hillside are stone
built houses. with low, overhanging caves
and long wooden tiles, each weighed down
with a gray boulder. One might imagine
ones self In Kandersteg or Lauterbrunnen,
only lofty praying flags and mani-walis
brightly painted with Buddhistic pictures
and Inscriptions dispel the illusion.
There Is no lack Of color. In the winter
months briar with large red berries and
a low, foxey-brown thornbush like young
osier in March lend russell hue to the
landscape. Higher on the hills the with
cred grass is yellow, and the blending Of
these quiet tints-russet brown and yellow
gives the valley a restful beauty. But in
cloud 1t is somber enough When spring
comes there is profusion Of color. Every
stunted rhod0dendron bush blossoms Iuxu-
riantly.
GaTIu'S IlOWcr 0dTueu.
Two years ago was in the Yatung valley
at the same elevation as the gorge below
Gautsa, which I am now describing. and
not days march from it. The ground was
carpeted with flowers. Besides the priIn-
ulas-I counted eight different kinds of
them-and gentians and anemones and ce-
alndines and wild strawberries and irises,
there were the rhododendrons glowing like
Goals through the pine forest. The rocks
were coated with green and yellow moss,
which formed a bed for the dwarf rhodo-
dendron bushes. then in full flower, white
and crimson and green, and every hue be-
tween dark reddish brown and a light
sulphur yellow, not here and there, but
everywhere, jostling one another for hooks
and crannies in the rock.
These delicate flowers are very different
from their dowdy cousin, the coarse red
rhododendron of the English shrubbery. At
little distance they are more like hot
house azaleas, and equal to them in wealth
of blossom.
Even now, in February, I can detect a
few salmon-colored leaf buds which re-
mind me that the month Of May will be
revelation to the mission force when their
veins are auickened by an unfamiliar
warmth and their eyes dazzled by this I'M
expected treasure which Is now germinat-
ing In the brown earth.
Deceptive Approach.
Soon after this letter reaches England the
Transformation will have begun. The pres
ent cherries conditions will have ceased.
Instead Of icy winds and a wintry landscape
there will be warmth and spring sunshine.
Yet families at home will be forming their
Impressions Of the valley from letters writ
ten now by their friends in the force. To
disillusion them I cannot do better than to
recall my Impressions of the valley as en-
tered it in May two years ago. The valley
= fnfa x,rrfl>I RoeA sv 1DHA
scribable because 1t was Illogical. Certainly
the light that played on all these colors
seemed to me softer than everyday sun
shine, and the opening foliage of birch and
larch seemed to me more delicate and va
ried than on common ground. Perhaps 1t
was that / was approaching the forbidden
land. But what irony that this seductive
valley should be the approach to the most
bare and unsheltered land in Asia!
Four miles from Chumbi the road passes
through the second military wall at the
Chinese village of Gobsorg. Chubby little
children run out and salute one with the
in their infant vocabulary. The women of
the valley wear a distinctive fiat green cap
with red patch in front. which harmon
ICES with their complexion, a coarse brick
dirt and Clutch, enormously called pigs
blood, and the natural ruddiness OF a
healthy outdoor life in a cold climate. A
procession of these sirens Is comely and
picturesque-at a hundred yards. little
further on the road Is Calling kha, large
Tibetan village where the praying fags are
as thick as masts in dockyard. Here one
sees unwieldly wooden frames hanging from
poles fifty or sixty feet high. They are
used, we were told, for Nominations In
festival time, but the general impression OF
the force after good deal of conjecture
was that they were cradles of correction
for refractory children. mile further a
sudden turn in the valley brings one to a
level plain-a phenomenally fiat piece of
ground. where one can race two miles along
the straight. No one passes it without re-
marking that It Is the best site for hill
station in northern India. Where else can
one find a race course, polo ground. fish
ing and shooting, and q rainfall that Is
little more than g third OF that Of Darjeei-