Note 58 — Chapter I · JOURNEY FROM DARJILING TO TASHILHUNPO.

Proceeding onward, we met other parties of swarthy Tibetans, in which the women were conspicuous by their headdress (patug). Their dirt-covered faces, their white teeth and eyeballs, made them look exceedingly wild. Crossing the rivulet by a bridge made of two stone slabs, the valley broadened as we advanced, till we found ourselves on a plateau several miles broad, where the rivulet turned to the west, to empty probably farther on into the great Arun. Phurchung here pointed out a place where there is a large underground monastery,58 the chief temple (tsugla khang) of which is cut out of the massive rock. There are twenty inmates to this lamasery, and the church furniture and images are said to be of great antiquity.