Note 32 — Chapter VII · GOVERNMENT OF LHASA—CUSTOMS, FESTIVALS, ETC.
Reading edition
Nothing can be more horrible and loathsome than a Tibetan jail. There are some dungeons in an obscure village two days’ journey up the river from Tashilhunpo, where life convicts are sent for confinement. The prisoner having been placed in a cell, the door is removed and the opening filled up with stone masonry, only one small aperture, about six inches in diameter, being left, through which the unhappy creature is supplied with his daily food. There are also a few small holes left open on the roof, through which the guards and the jailor empty every kind of filth into the cell. Some prisoners have lived for two years under this horrible treatment, while others, more fortunate, die in a few months.32