The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-06-26

apologies to the pig. Nothing ever has
/ been cleaned at Phatri since 1t was built,
and IL Is estimated that the fort is 100
years old. 1t the best quarters of the
town, where the houses are two stored,
the accumulated filth rises to the first
floor withdows. and trenches have to be
dub in the malodorous mess to reach
the doors.
In the middle of the street between
the two banks of filth and offal,n writes
a correspondent, runs sinking channel
which thaws daily. In 1t horns. bones,
and skulls of various beasts eaten by the
Tibetans lie till the dogs and ravens have
picked them clean enough to be used in
the mortared walls and thresholds The
stencil Is fearful. Half deeayed corpses
OF dogs lie cuddled up with their NANCY
but surviving brothers and sisters, who
do not resent the ravens. A curdled and
filthy torrent flows through the market
place, and half breed yaks shove the
sore-eyed and mouth-uleered children
aside to drink at it. The men and women.
clothes and faces alike, are as black as
the peat walls that form background to
every scene. They have never washed
themselves. They never intend to wash
themselves. Ingrained dirt, to an extent
that 1t would be impossible to describe,
reduces what would otherwise be clear
sallow-skinned. but good-complexioned
race to a collection of foul and grotesque
negroes
Phari is 1900 feet above sea level. and
the fearful cold. accentuated often by an
icy, grIt-laden north wind. furnishes some
palliation for this state of affairs. Water
is obtained only when the snow melts.
The only available fuel is dried yak-dung.
The aprfd of
coat the interiors of the squat novels with
layers of SCOT which are never removed,
and blaeken the faces and garments of
the inmates. The married women of Tibet
are compelled to dsfgure their brows and
cheeks with kutch. a preparation resem-
bling dried blood, and it is probable they
rather welcome the dirt which conceals
the signs of matrimonial bondage.
Assassination Decreed.
If the Dalai Lama cannot be induced in
any other way to give heed to the British
demands, the expedition ultimately will
push on to Lassa itself, where he re-
sides In the Red Palace, which tops
long, white precipice of monastic walls
ten sheer stories high. Then the veil of
mystery which has long enshrouded this
supreme head of Northern Buddhism will
be torn aside.
He is the first of a long line of child
Dalai Lamas who has been allowed to
attain to maturity, and nominally, at
least, assume the reigns of government.
Most of his predecessors, If they did not
OPPORTUNITY die a natural death, were
assassinated. Eight years it is estima-
ted, represents the average survival in
office of these unhappy children who have
had greatness so strangely thrust upon
them During the minority of the Dalai
Lama, affairs We're managed by a desi,
or regent to whose appointment the
sanction of China was necessary. The
policy of assassination. therefore. assur-
ed the continued predominance of Chinese
influence.
1t was to aid in attaining complete in
dependence of China that the Lammasa-
RE hierarchy granted a natural lease of
life to the present Grand Lama when he
became of age In 1888. Thereby they got
rid of the desi. But 1t has also afforded
the Indian government an excuse for in
slsting on direct negotiations with the
Dalai Lama.
At Shigate some two hundred miles
from the City of Mystery, there resides
another Tibetan pontiff, the Grand Lama
of Tashe-Lhunpo, who In former gener-
ations was supposed to represent the
highest reincarnaton of Buddha. He still
has considerable following, and it Is
darlSly limited that if other means of
bringing the Dalai Lama to terms fail.
this rival pope will be played against
him, and perhaps elevated by British
bayonets to supreme power.