Beyond the Pir Panjal; life among the mountains and valleys of Kashmir . corated with tufts ofyaks tails on poles. In such a monastery there are usuallytwo temples. One of these contains numerous small imagesof incarnations and founders, and is provided with shelvesfor manuscripts, brass vessels and musical instruments usedin worship. In the other temple there is usually a colossalimage of Buddha or Chunrezig and the walls are covered withpaintings representing victories of Buddha and the de-struction of his enemies. Prayer cylinders abound and themonks religiously turn them as they pass. Thes
Beyond the Pir Panjal; life among the mountains and valleys of Kashmir . corated with tufts ofyaks tails on poles. In such a monastery there are usuallytwo temples. One of these contains numerous small imagesof incarnations and founders, and is provided with shelvesfor manuscripts, brass vessels and musical instruments usedin worship. In the other temple there is usually a colossalimage of Buddha or Chunrezig and the walls are covered withpaintings representing victories of Buddha and the de-struction of his enemies. Prayer cylinders abound and themonks religiously turn them as they pass. These monasteriesare always interesting places to visit. But neither in them nor in the villages and towns ofLadakh does one meet with the Buddhism of romance. 184 BEYOND THE PIR PANJAL Along with much that is quaint and weird and fascinatingfrom an artistic standpoint, there appears to be only too muchthat is gross, sensual and depraved. Ignorance and prideas usual go hand in hand. There is no Light of Asia here. It appears to be passing scarce even in CHAPTER XIVTHE UPPER INDUS VALLEY Khalatze Fort and Bridge—An Ancient Inscription—Ruined Castles— The Moravian Mission — Tsongkapa, the Reformer — Rirdzon^Monastery—Potted Lamas—Alchi Monastery—Bazgoo—The MongolWar—Leh, a Town in the Desert—Dogra Conquest—Moravian MissionWork—Buddhist Chortens and Rock-Carving—The Hemis DemonDance—Evangelization of Tibet. Leaving Lamoyoro we descend into a narrow valley, passingon the way some very remarkable lacustrine deposits on ourright. These cover an area of several square miles and pre-sent very much the appearance of a large glacier, only, insteadof ice or snow, there is a crevassed surface of hard and smoothclay. The height above sea-level is about n,ooo a deep gorge, with precipitous sides, for abouttwo hours, we emerge in the relatively broad Indus Valley,just below Khalatze, where there is an interesting old fortguarding a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmountai, bookyear1912
