Note 34 — Chapter VI · RESIDENCE AT LHASA.

Returning to the Lhacham’s room, dinner was served me at noon, and while I ate she asked me many questions concerning the marriage laws of India and Europe. When I told her that in India a husband had several wives, and that among the Phyling34 a man had but one wife, she stared at me with undisguised astonishment. “One wife with one husband!” she exclaimed. “Don’t you think we Tibetan women are better off? The Indian wife has but a portion of her husband’s affections and property, but in Tibet the housewife is the real lady of all the joint earnings and inheritance of all the brothers sprung from the same mother, who are all of the same flesh and blood. The brothers are but one, though their souls are several. In India a man marries well several women who are strangers to each other.” “Am I to understand that your ladyship would like to see several sisters marry one husband?” I asked. “That is not the point,” replied the Lhacham. “What I contend is that Tibetan women are happier than Indian ones, for they enjoy the privileges conceded in the latter country to the men.”35