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Sometimes water power is made to turn the wheels, but most of them are made of a size convenient to be carried about and operated by hand. The capital of Tibet and seat of the Dalai Lama is Lasa, situated in a plain nearly twelve thousand feet above sea level. The city is surrounded by a marsh and is reached by a causeway raised above the morass.
The stable population resides chiefly in the few cities and villages. For nearly a thousand years a veil of religious mystery has shrouded this section of the world; and the sacred city of Lasa with its holy places has been doubly guarded against the visits of foreigners.
Because the Tibetans for many years had insulted the government of India and had seized territory claimed by it, English troops under Colonel Younghusband were sent against the invaders in 1903, and after several severe battles reached the forbidden city of Lasa, where a forced treaty was negotiated and signed.
The country is under the suzerainty of China, which has a representative called an amaban and several thousand troops at Lasa to maintain its claim. Though an extremely trying climate prevails on these highlands, the hermit-like, priest-ridden people know no better home and are contented with their lot.
The town is situated about a league from the coast, and two leagues farther inland are eight small villages inhabited by Battas, the inhabitants of which purchase the camphor and benzoin from the people of the Diri mountains, extending from the southward of Singkel to the hill of Lasa, behind Barus, where the Tobat district commences.
Professor Anderssen, Mayet, Lange, and Von der Lasa, in Germany, Dubois and Centurini, at Rome, St. Amant, Laroche, and Lecrivain, of Paris, Loewenthal, Perigal, Kipping, Owen, Mengredien, etc., of London, are all players of the heroic sort, and the games recently played by some of them with Morphy are perhaps the finest on record.
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