Note 29 — Chapter III · JOURNEY TO DONGTSE.

At 5 o’clock we arrived at Dongtse.29 The monastery where the minister was residing was on a rocky eminence some 300 feet above the village. After walking up several flights of stone steps, we reached the gateway in the now partly ruined wall of the monastery. Near this I was welcomed by the minister’s page, and led to the eastern room of his master’s apartments, which had been set apart for my use. Before we had finished drinking tea a message came calling me to the minister’s presence. With two scarves and a couple of rupees in our hands, we proceeded to the drawing-room, and approached his holiness with profound salutations. He touched our heads with his hand, and returned us the scarves we had in the first place presented him, tying them around our necks. His holiness graciously inquired after our health, and asked if we had not suffered great privations and hardships on the way. We gave a brief account of our troubles in the snows and of our miraculous escape at Tashi-rabka. “By the grace of the Three Holies,”30 I added, “we have overcome all difficulties, and now our delight is boundless in being able to present ourselves at last at your Holiness’s feet.” The minister expressed his regrets at our sufferings and his pleasure on our safe arrival after an absence of three years. He had to go to prayers, but before leaving he gave orders that all proper attentions be shown us. Large dishes of biscuits, bread, fruit, and meat were then placed before us, and tea was poured into our cups from the minister’s own pot, as a mark of his special favour.