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Updated: May 28, 2025
Left Ladak about four P.M. and halted for the night on the confines of the desert-plain at Pitok. On the road I succeeded much to my astonishment in getting a necklace of bits of amber, and a turquoise, from an old lady, whom I found at her cottage-door weaving goat's-hair cloth. For the first time during our travels, the retainers turned a little rusty to-day.
Among other statistics he gave us the height of Ladak, as 11,000 feet, and that of the recently discovered monarch of the mountains, now set at rest as belonging to the Himalayan range, as being 29,003 feet above the level of the sea.
We crossed the plain, and slowly wended our way up the pass. Near the top we came to a track, the highway from Ladak to Lhassa via Gartok, along the northern side of the Rakastal, Mansarowar, and Gunkyo lakes. On the pass itself were planted several poles connected by ropes, from which flying-prayers waved gayly in the breeze. Obos, or mounds of stones, had been erected.
Having thus ended the struggle between our duty and our feelings, we turned our attention to the exploration of the surrounding country. The town of Ladak, although in a commercial point of view by no means a flourishing-looking settlement, was, as far as picturesqueness was concerned, everything that could be desired.
Fronting the central square is a vast building, two stories in height, the residence of the governor of Ladak, the Vizier Souradjbal a very amiable and universally popular Pendjaban, who has received in London the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Thence I directed my peregrinations as my curiosity impelled me, until I arrived in Ladak, whence I intended returning to Russia by way of Karakoroum and Chinese Turkestan.
After noon I went and selected a lot of papier maché articles, and gave monograms to be painted upon them. Their papier maché is fairly made, elaborately painted and moderate in price. At this shop they prepared some ladâk tea for me, a most delicious beverage possessing a delicate flavour such as I have never before tasted in any tea.
During my sojourn at Leh, capital of Ladak, I visited the great convent Himis, situated near the city, the chief lama of which informed me that their monastic library contained copies of the manuscripts in question.
In spite of the cold, we astonished the entire swaddled population by taking off our clothes, and bathing in a little crystal stream close by: two operations, in all probability, which they themselves had never perpetrated within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, This feat accomplished, we were much astonished by the arrival of a RARA AVIS, in the shape of a British traveller, from the direction of Ladak.
We have orders not to return till we have captured the Plenki. And you," asked he, inquisitively "how long have you taken to come from Ladak?" He said he could see by my face that I was a native of Kashmere. I was probably so burnt and dirty that it was hard to distinguish me from a native. He over and over again inquired whether I was not one of the Plenki's party. "Keran ga naddo ung?"
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