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Updated: May 29, 2025
Many wore the ancient Chinese double-winged cap, and were placed in recesses in the wall decorated with stuffs, wood-carvings, and rough paintings of images. At the foot of these images was a long shelf, on which, in bright brass vessels of all sizes, were oblations of tsamba, dried fruit, chura, wheat, and rice, offered, through the Lamas, by devotees to the different saints.
We were told that our execution was only postponed till the next day, in order that we might be tortured until the time came for us to be put to death. A number of Lamas and soldiers stood round jeering at us. I seized this opportunity to hail a swaggering Lama and ask him for some refreshment. "Orcheh, orcheh nga dappa tugu duh, chuen deh, dang, yak, guram, tcha, tsamba pin!"
The wooden cups or bowls used by the Tibetans are called pu-ku, fruh, or cariel. In them tsamba is eaten after tea has been poured on it, and the mixture worked into a paste by more or less dirty fingers. The Tibetans are fond of meat, but few can afford to eat it. Wild game, yak, and sheep are considered excellent food.
Several Lamas, who had been most brutal, including one who had the previous day taken part in Chanden Sing's flogging, now became quite polite and treated us with a surprising amount of deference. Two Lamas were dispatched to the monastery, and returned after some time with bags of tsamba and a large raksang of boiling tea.
It was really touching to see how, moved to kindness, the soldiers imitated his example, and, one after the other, produced handfuls of tsamba and chura, and deposited them in my mouth. Their hands were not over-clean, but on such occasions it does not do to be too particular. I was so hungry that the food they gave me seemed delicious.
After the black fluid had boiled vigorously for ten minutes each one filled his wooden eating bowl, put in a great chunk of rancid butter, and then a quantity of finely-ground meal. This is what the Tibetans call tsamba, and the buttered tea was prepared exactly as we had seen the Tibetans make it.
They would shower upon us all the luxuries that human mind could conceive. These luxuries were found to consist of presents of chura, cheese, butter, yak milk, and tsamba. They said they would sell us ponies if we required them. The description was too glowing.
He collapsed, while I administered another blow in the right temple of another man who held his matchlock between his legs, and was on the point of striking his flint and steel in order to set the tinder on fire. He, too, staggered and fell clumsily. "Chakzal, chakzal! Chakzal wortzié!" "Chakzal!" "Middù, middù!" I purchased from these men about thirty pounds of tsamba and eight pounds of butter.
During the evening several persons visited my tent, bringing gifts of flour, butter, and tsamba, accompanied by katas, the veils of friendship. I made a point of invariably giving the Tibetans, in return for their gifts, silver money to an amount three or four times the value of the articles they presented us with. They professed to be very grateful.
I began the conversation, attempting flattery, to put the chieftain at his ease. His answer was sufficient to show me that the man considered me his superior. Had he thought me an equal or inferior he would have said lasso without the leh. "Kiula tuku taka zando?" "Chuwen bogpe, tsamba, chon won ì?"
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