Of
Course I At Once Accepted An Offer So Full Of Advantages, And The
Performance Was Better Even Than The Promise.
Two days were occupied in making preparations, but afterwards I spent
a fortnight in my tent at Leh, a
City by no means to be passed over
without remark, for, though it and the region of which it is the
capital are very remote from the thoughts of most readers, it is one
of the centres of Central Asian commerce. There all traders from
India, Kashmir, and Afghanistan must halt for animals and supplies on
their way to Yarkand and Khotan, and there also merchants from the
mysterious city of Lhassa do a great business in brick tea and in
Lhassa wares, chiefly ecclesiastical.
The situation of Leh is a grand one, the great Kailas range, with its
glaciers and snowfields, rising just behind it to the north, its
passes alone reaching an altitude of nearly 18,000 feet; while to the
south, across a gravelly descent and the Indus Valley, rise great red
ranges dominated by snow-peaks exceeding 21,000 feet in altitude.
The centre of Leh is a wide bazaar, where much polo is played in the
afternoons; and above this the irregular, flat-roofed, many-balconied
houses of the town cluster round the palace and a gigantic chod-ten
alongside it. The rugged crest of the rock on a spur of which the
palace stands is crowned by the fantastic buildings of an ancient
gonpo. Beyond the crops and plantations which surround the town lies
a flaming desert of gravel or rock. The architectural features of
Leh, except of the palace, are mean. A new mosque glaring with
vulgar colour, a treasury and court of justice, the wazir's bungalow,
a Moslem cemetery, and Buddhist cremation grounds, in which each
family has its separate burning place, are all that is noteworthy.
The narrow alleys, which would be abominably dirty if dirt were
possible in a climate of such intense dryness, house a very mixed
population, in which the Moslem element is always increasing, partly
owing to the renewal of that proselytising energy which is making
itself felt throughout Asia, and partly to the marriages of Moslem
traders with Ladaki women, who embrace the faith of their husbands
and bring up their families in the same.
On my arrival few of the shops in the great place, or bazaar, were
open, and there was no business; but a few weeks later the little
desert capital nearly doubled its population, and during August the
din and stir of trade and amusements ceased not by day or night, and
the shifting scenes were as gay in colouring and as full of variety
as could be desired.
Great caravans en route for Khotan, Yarkand, and even Chinese Tibet
arrived daily from Kashmir, the Panjab, and Afghanistan, and stacked
their bales of goods in the place; the Lhassa traders opened shops in
which the specialties were brick tea and instruments of worship;
merchants from Amritsar, Cabul, Bokhara, and Yarkand, stately in
costume and gait, thronged the bazaar and opened bales of costly
goods in tantalising fashion; mules, asses, horses, and yaks kicked,
squealed, and bellowed; the dissonance of bargaining tongues rose
high; there were mendicant monks, Indian fakirs, Moslem dervishes,
Mecca pilgrims, itinerant musicians, and Buddhist ballad howlers;
bold-faced women with creels on their backs brought in lucerne;
Ladakis, Baltis, and Lahulis tended the beasts, and the wazir's
jemadar and gay spahis moved about among the throngs.
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