Note 31 — Chapter II · RESIDENCE AT TASHILHUNPO.

I have never seen pottery made in Tibet, but know that no wheel is used. Capt. R. B. Pemberton, in his ‘Report on Bootan’ (in ‘Political Missions to Bootan,’ p. 74), gives a minute description of the mode of making pottery among the Butia. He remarks that “a lump of the compost was placed on a flat board, supported on the top of three sticks, and was kneaded from the centre outwards, until an opening had been effected through the mass; the orifice thus made was gradually enlarged by the person who preserved its circular form by walking round the board on which the mass rested.… The mass thus prepared formed the upper section of the vessel; and the lower half being wrought by a similar process, the two parts were united together, and the vessel completed.” The whole paragraph is very interesting.—(W. R.) ↑