# George Roerich. Trails to the Inmost Asia

## XVI. The Hor-pas and Their Country

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The vast mountainous country north of the Nag-chu-ka district of Tibet is known under
the name of Hor, and the nomad tribes which inhabit it are called Hor-pas. In order to
distinguish it from the Five Hor Principalities (Tib. Hor-sde-lnga) on the
Szu-ch'uan border, the region north of Nag-chu-ka is called Nup-hor (Tib. Nub-hor)
or western Hor.

The region of the eastern Hor has been visited and described by the French explorer M.
Jacques Bacot during his remarkable voyage of 1909.

The boundary lines of the vast province are ill-defined. The frontier lines usually run
along a mountain ridge, but in many cases the Hor tribes are found to graze their cattle
on both sides of the frontier. The southern boundary of the province runs along the
mountain chain in which the Ta-sang La (altitude 16,570 feet) is situated, although the
narrow mountain valley immediately south of the pass is still a part of the Paöro tribal
territory.

To the west, the Hor region borders upon the tribal territory of Amdo tsho-nak,
inhabited by emigrants from Amdo and governed by the Joint-Governors of Nag-chu. The
northern boundary of the region is the Dri-chu or the Yang-tze, north of which lie the
uninhabited Tibetan highlands, the chang-thang proper. The country round Dri-chu or
Dri-chu-ka has a population of some twenty tents, occupied mostly by militia outposts
and their families, who graze their herds of domestic yaks on the southern banks of the
river.

To the east and the northeast, the Hor region stretches far toward Tashi gompa and the
Nang-chen Province, which is governed by the Chinese authorities of Sining.

I shall give here only a very general description of the physical aspect of the country;
detailed descriptions have already been given in the previous chapters on the passage of
the expedition.

The Hor-sde or the Hor region is a country of rolling grass-covered hills, broad valleys
with marshy ground and several important snow ranges, which mostly run from west to
east. To the east, the country is more intersected and its landscape, with narrow and
deeply cut valleys and towering cliffs, reminds the traveler of the peripheral regions
of eastern Tibet.

The chief orographical feature is the high latitudinal range of the Thang La, the
watershed between the upper course of the Dri-chu (Yang-tze), the Dza-chu (Mekong) and
the Salween (Nag-chu?). Three great rivers of Asia have their source within the
boundaries of this region, Yang-tze, the Salween and the Mekong. The mountain land
between the upper course of the Mekong and the Salween is as yet unexplored. No American
or European traveler has so far crossed the eastern offshoots of the mighty Thang La.
The region abounds in hot sulphur springs and subsoil springs of fresh water. Its
flat-bottomed valleys are covered with a kind of coarse sedge, which affords ample
grazing to the herds of horned cattle and flocks of sheep. The grass country of the Hor
is one of the largest cattle-producing districts of Tibet and is one of the coveted
possessions of the Lhasa Government.

The climate is severe and terrific western winds sweep across undulating hills and
uplands. A long and bitterly cold winter of six months freezes the country and renders
it desolate and inhospitable. A snowy winter often causes a terrible murrain of cattle
and many wealthy families are frequently reduced to poverty after several stormy weeks
that bury the country under four or five feet of snow.

Spring starts only in late April or May, when the rivers open up and the ground,
saturated by melting snow, turns green with fresh grass. The spring is followed by a
short summer of some two months during which period the region receives most of its
rain, which begins to fall by the end of July and continues through the whole of August.
Clear, sunny days are rare during summer and the summits of the mountains are hidden
between thick, rainy clouds. Then comes the cool and clear autumn with its bracing
windless days and cold but clear nights—the best traveling season throughout the
highlands of Tibet. I have already written about the tremendous variations in
temperature within twenty-four hours which are characteristic of Tibet and other desert
regions of inner Asia. This amplitude of temperature and the hurricane winds that blow
in late autumn and early spring, have greatly contributed in the formation of the
present relief of the region.

Geographically speaking, the same grass upland stretches as far as the snow range of the
Shang-shung kang-ri, which forms the southern buttress of the northern Tibetan upland.
The neighboring administrative district of Nag-chu is only an administrative division
and represents no geographical unit. The same is true of other neighboring districts,
such as Nam-ru, Nag-tshang, Chö-khor.

During the long period of Chinese domination, the present Hor district formed part of
the vast Jya-de (rJya-sde) Province which stretched as far east as Ri-wo-che, and was
governed by a special Chinese Commissioner residing in Lhasa. Since the Chinese
Revolution of 1911, and the proclamation of independence by the present Tibetan
Government, the Hor region has been incorporated into the territory of the Lama Kingdom
of Lhasa and made a province administered by a Frontier High Commissioner, known by the
title of Hor-chyi-chyap (Tib. Hor-spyi-khyab) or the High Commissioner of Hor.

Recent authors seem to have a tendency to erase the name of Hor from the map of Tibet.
Dr. Sven Hedin says in his great work, *Southern Tibet*: "The Tibetans call
the Turks Hor or Hor-pa and the Mongolians Sok or Sok-pa (Sok-po). There are no Turks
until you come to the northern side of the Kwen-lun Mountains. But in spite of almost
all modern maps, there is no single Turk in the heart of the Tibetan Plateau land. And
there is nobody else either, for the part of Tibet which is generally called Hor on our
maps is not inhabited."

Della Penna and Nain Singh, one of the ablest native surveyors of the Indian
Trigonometrical Survey, called "Hor" the whole of the highland region west of
the Nga-ri kor-sum Province, and the country north of the thirty-second latitude has
been marked "Hor" on European maps. In reality, the name belongs only to the
district of Jya-de, northeast of the Tengri-nor, and west of the Amdo tsho-nak. In
Tibetan historical annals, the name "Hor" or "Jya-hor" commonly
designates tribes of Mongol or central Asian origin, which, since the eighth to ninth
centuries A.D. continuously overran Tibet and especially the northeastern border.

In the modern colloquial language, the word "Hor" represents a Tibetan ethnic
name for nomad tribes of mixed origin that dwell between the Panag-Golok tribes and the
Chang-pas of the Great Lake region. The admixture of foreign blood in them is prominent,
and we easily discern Mongolian, Turkish, and even *Homo alpinus* types, the last
probably due to an admixture of Iranian or Scythian blood. They have preserved dim
recollections of their remote central Asian origin and even now look more toward Peking
and the great lands of central Asia, than toward Lhasa. For them Lhasa is only a
temporary ruler, who severed their century-old connection with China.

I shall base my account of the Hor-pas on my personal observations made during a five
months' stay among the five Hor tribes, which dwell north and south of the Thang La
Range. They form five *shorka* or tribal divisions, which are designated by the
names of Tse-mar, Atak-Memar, Atak-Thomi, Kömora, and Páöro.

By far the most important of the five is the Tse-mar *shorka* ruled by a
*pön-po* or chief with the title of *de-pön* (*sde-dpon*) or
district chief, who is considered to be the eldest among the five Hor chiefs. All of
these five tribal divisions are of unequal size. Whereas the Tse-mar *shorka* has
about a thousand tents with a population of some forty-five hundred to five thousand
individuals, the Kömora and Páöro tribal divisions have only about four hundred tents
each. More populous tribes inhabit the upper course of the Mekong and the lower valleys
of the Salween, but as I have already told, the vast mountainous region between the
upper course of the Mekong and the Salween is still unexplored and it is impossible to
give approximate figures of its population.

The Hor tribes have so far preserved their tribal organization and enjoy a certain
amount of autonomy, which is, however, rapidly passing away. There can be no doubt that
the Lhasa Government intends to create a firm administration in the outlying provinces.
The High Commissioner is always an official of the fourth grade and is the chief
representative of the central government in the region. He tries cases of inter-tribal
feuds, supervises the collection of taxes, and insures the safety of trade routes
crossing the territory of the region. During the cold winter months he usually resides
somewhere in the eastern districts of the region, sometimes at Byi-ru gompa or some
other monastery or town. The heavy expenditures incurred by the local population which
is obliged to supply foodstuffs, fodder, and fuel for the High Commissioner, his troops
and retainers, necessitate frequent changes in official residences. During the summer
months the High Commissioner is often found touring in the district. This touring is a
source of much trouble to the local population. The tribes have to furnish pack animals,
riding horses for the numerous retainers of the Commissioner, organize relay stages at
convenient points along the Commissioner's route and depute hundreds of men and
women to attend to the needs of the party. Small officials use these occasions to enrich
themselves by taking bribes in money and cattle. If a case is to be tried the court
clerks, who record the evidence, have to be bribed before the case goes for final
decision to the High Commissioner. In the performance of his official duties, the High
Commissioner of Hor is assisted by two officials of the fifth grade, who act as his
advisors.

The only occupation of the country is cattle breeding and the tax that the region pays
to the Government of Lhasa since 1912, consists solely of butter, wool, hides, and other
produce of cattle breeding. Cattle breeding has always been the national occupation of
the Hor-pas. It is even nowadays conducted along very primitive lines, as a result of
which the breeds of horned cattle and horses are rapidly deteriorating. The Hor-pas
collect no hay for the winter, believing it to be harmful to the deities of earth. The
cattle subsist solely on grass, and in winter have to find their food by scratching the
snow with their hoofs. In this search for fodder, the horses often spend their last
forces and die from want of feeding and complete exhaustion. All winter, the herds of
cattle and horses have to stay in the open, without any shelter to protect them from the
cold winter nights. Only the strongest survive this severe test of endurance.

Notwithstanding the poor conditions of cattle breeding, the region is still
comparatively rich in herds of yaks and flocks of sheep, but old inhabitants assured us
that in their younger days, some thirty years ago, the region owned immense herds of
domestic yaks and flocks of sheep and that for the past thirty or forty years the number
of heads in the herds have rapidly diminished. This is especially noticeable with flocks
of sheep. It is a well-known fact that the number of sheep is decreasing throughout
central Asia.

Yaks furnish the chief products of the region—hides, yak hair, yak tails, butter, and
other milk products. The yak is also the chief beast of burden throughout the district.
The flocks of sheep furnish wool, which is either taken by the Government or sold to
private trading establishments which transport wool to Lhasa and from there by the
Gyangtse-Chumbi trade route to India. Horses are found only in small numbers. They are
used almost exclusively as riding animals and one family seldom has more than three to
five horses. The region does not export horses, and most of the animals are employed
locally. The Hor breed of horses is small but hardy. A great defect is a rather heavy
head, hard mouth and general clumsiness on the move. It is not a horse for fast
riding—an animal bred in a vast steppe country; it is merely a caravan animal well
suited to stony trails. These horses are never shod and this makes them extremely sure
footed and invaluable on bad mountain tracks.

An average nomad household in the region of Hor possesses from twenty to fifty yaks and
from a hundred to three hundred sheep. Horses are owned by the wealthy men, who
sometimes have big droves of them. The largest herds of yaks and horses which we saw
during our passage, belonged to monasteries or rich merchants from Nag-chu and Lhasa.
The great monastery of Dre-pung has large herds of domestic yaks and flocks of sheep in
the neighboring Nag-chu and Nag-tshang districts. North of Thang La we met a herd of
some five hundred yaks owned by a wealthy trader from Nag-chu. This herd was in charge
of a local nomad who was responsible for the animals and had to supply the fixed amount
of yak hair, tails, hides, butter, and other milk products.

The chief economic wealth of Tibet lies in these nomad cattle-breeding districts.
Deprive Tibet of its cattle-breeding regions and the country would starve.

The agricultural districts of Tibet are unable to feed the whole of the country's
population and produce almost nothing for export, except a certain yearly output of
cloth and sacred objects manufactured by the monasteries. All the valuable products of
Tibetan export to China, India, and Mongolia, such as wool, hides, woolen cloth, yak
tails and furs are produced by the nomad districts. It is the poor, ragged nomad, living
at an altitude of some fifteen thousand feet, who enriches the Government and furnishes
its articles of export. This nomad population is a powerful economic factor. A severe,
snowy winter which destroys vast numbers of cattle is a calamity for the entire country.
For the past few years, the northern Tibetan uplands north and south of the Thang La
Range experienced a succession of winters of exceptional severity and snowfall. The
whole countryside was covered with snow and cattle and sheep perished by thousands. As a
result of these unhappy years, the cattle breeding in the nomad districts north of Tibet
proper suffered a heavy blow.

A considerable portion of the region's yearly produce goes to the Government as a
tax. The tax that is collected in the name of the Lhasa Government is in proportion to
the wealth of the individual taxpayer, and varies in amount according to the needs of
the Government. An extraordinary tax is sometimes imposed on a district as a fine. The
tax is sometimes abolished when a district has suffered badly from snowfalls, previous
drafts of cattle, or an epizoötic disease. During the lengthy period of Chinese rule,
the Hor region was exempt from payment of regular taxes and was only expected to present
tribute to the Imperial Court of China once in four years. The yearly tax imposed on the
western Hor tribes by the Tibetan Government is one of the chief causes for a certain
amount of dissatisfaction noticeable in the region. The former connection with China is
still apparent in the region and is well demonstrated by the fact that the nomad
population prefers Chinese currency to that of Lhasa.

The universally accepted form of trade is barter. Most of the trade goes to Sining and
the eastern districts of Tibet. The Hor region has the advantage of being situated in
the vicinity of several important trade routes of Tibet—the Mongol-Tsaidam route, the
Sining route, the Tachienlu route, and the northern Ladak route. All of these routes
lead to Nag-chu, the chief Tibetan *entrepôt* of frontier trade. The Lhasan
merchants, who had established trading stations throughout the region, are constantly
endeavoring to turn the local trade southward and make the Hor tribes dependent on
Lhasan produce. Undoubtedly with the practical closing of the Sino-Tibetan border, and
the existing support of the Tibetan Government, their activities will be greatly
facilitated. Besides government trade agencies, the country is swarming with petty
tradesmen, representing private interest or big monastery concerns. In the temporary
camp of the High Commissioner of Hor at Chu-na-khe we found beside government trade
agents and customs officials, a whole army of private traders and *do-nyers* or
representatives of important Lhasan firms. All of them were carefully watching the
Sining-Lhasa trade route and it is a miracle that their interests did not clash and that
all of them seemed to make sufficient profit to warrant the establishment of permanent
trading stations.

In exchange for the land products, the Lhasan and Sining merchants offer miscellaneous
articles of Chinese and foreign manufacture. The Sining and Tachienlu traders bring into
the country Chinese silks, brick tea and other articles specially manufactured by
Chinese firms for Tibetan trade. The Lhasan merchant displays in his tent haberdashery,
foreign-made cloth, Chinese- and Japanese-made medicines and enameled wares which have
recently become the fashion in remote districts of inner Asia.

A Tibetan trader usually spends his days sitting in his tent among bales and cases of
merchandise, receiving visits from local headmen and nomads. All squat on the floor
round the fire, drink endless cups of butter-tea and smoke the long-stemmed Chinese
pipes. Business is discussed and the assistants of the *tshong-pön* or merchant
take down the quantity and quality of local products offered in exchange for articles of
foreign manufacture. Haberdashery is in great demand and small, cheap articles command
exorbitant prices. A very brisk trade is done in brass army buttons, which are imported
chiefly from India. A wealthy nomad is immensely proud of his buttons with the English
inscription *Nepal*.

A large trade is done in firearms and ammunition. Modern magazine rifles, mostly of
military patterns, are brought into the country from China, Mongolia, and India. Berdane
rifles, Martinis, Russian service rifles, Lee-Enfield rifles, Mausers, Mannlichers, and
Japanese Arisaka rifles are commonly seen slung on the back of Hor-pa riders, who
possess a good knowledge of modern firearms. All throughout the Hor region modern
firearms are prominent. Rifle butts are manufactured at Nag-chu and the execution of the
butt and the adjusting of the shank to the barrel are quite remarkable. In constant
demand are the Mauser automatic pistols, the favorite firearm of Tibetan and Mongol
officers. A good Mauser pistol with a hundred cartridges is sold for four hundred
*ngü-sangs* or approximately two hundred dollars.

A man with a Mauser pistol can safely travel through a robber-infested region and no one
will think of attacking him. This safety enjoyed by travelers armed with Mauser pistols
led to the manufacture of Mauser-shaped wooden holsters for revolvers of different
patterns. At present many of the brigands know about the trick and usually manage to
find out the truth.

One of the members of the expedition had a Belgian revolver which he carried in a
leather Mauser holster. A Panag brigand who once paid a visit to our camp and evinced a
great interest in our firearms, quickly discovered the pattern of the revolver and
taking our assistant by the arm, asked him with a sly smile, "Do you think yours is
a real Mauser?"

Such is the economic life of the region and its place among the fifty-four
administrative districts of Tibet. Let us now describe the people themselves, their life
and religion in the dreary uplands of Nup-hor.

The Hor-pas are found in considerable numbers only south of the Thang La Range. To the
north of this range, their encampments are scattered at great distances from each other.
As the result of recent upheavals and successive famines brought about by several snowy
winters, the nomad population has diminished. Many left their native highlands to seek
their fortune in the fertile districts of eastern Tibet. Others haunt the vicinity of
the trade routes as beggars and robbers, ready to attack lonely travelers or small
parties of pilgrims.

When crossing the wind-swept uplands of northern Tibet with its almost terrifying
barrenness, one wonders where one could possibly meet human beings. Only utter
misfortune could force men to live on these desolate mountains and plains. Sometimes,
after many days of hard traveling, when almost every day some of the caravan animals
succumb to the hardships and have to be abandoned, one sees a square stone wall and
heaps of dung. This was probably an encampment of nomads. Dead carcasses of domestic
yaks confirm the supposition. After these first traces of human activity, one travels
again for several days more without seeing even a sign of nomads or their herds. The
blizzard sweeps the countryside, and the surrounding mountains are hidden behind a
thick, white mist. The traveler rides with his head bent forward, his shoulders and
chest covered with a thick layer of wet snow. It is hardly possible to look ahead and
only the hardy yaks are able to find the right direction in this snow-bound region.
Suddenly one hears bells in the distance, an almost uncanny sound amid the howling of
the storm. Then something dark is seen ahead. Strange looking riders with long
matchlocks swung on their backs and riding small shaggy horses, emerge from the mist.
They stop and some of them dismount, this being a sign that they are peaceful travelers,
intending no harm. Their faces are covered by crudely made masks, and their heads are
protected by large fur bonnets that completely cover the head and ears and are held by a
string tied under the chin. Long unkempt tresses of black hair hang on both sides of the
face. Dirty gray sheepskin coats and high boots made of thick Tibetan cotton cloth
protect the men from the bitter cold. All are armed with long swords and matchlocks,
sometimes even modern rifles. Large ornamented cartridge belts are worn crosswise over
the fur coats. Occasionally a woman accompanies the men, dressed exactly like them, only
her sheepskin coat is longer and she carries no arms. This is probably a party of nomads
on a hunting expedition after wild yaks. During such hunting tours, they live on the raw
meat of the animals they kill and on small portions of *tsam-pa*—the national
meal of Tibet. They carry no tents but spend the night under the open sky, sleeping in a
strange crouching attitude, and are often completely buried in snow. M. Jacques Bacot
says in his book on eastern Tibet, "Non seulement les hommes de cette race dorment
accroupis, mais c'est encore dans cette posture qu'ils sont malades et
qu'ils meurent." Their horses, these hardy little animals, that live on dry
meat, *tsam-pa*, and tea leaves, stand beside their sleeping masters, their backs
turned to the raging wind. Such is the sight of a temporary nomad camp in the wilderness
of the Tibetan upland. One tries to speak to these nomads and hears strange guttural
sounds, so unlike the fluent and soft speech of Lhasan Tibetans.

After this first encounter, the traveler again journeys for several days without finding
even a trace of human beings. Then one day, he may see a huge herd of black and brown
domestic yaks coming down the mountain slope. Wild looking men in gray sheepskin coats
drive the herd. They circle about their animals, sometimes whistling, sometimes making
peculiar shrill sounds that cut the rarefied atmosphere. These men wear no head covering
and their long unkempt tresses play in the wind. All of the men are busy making strings
out of sheep wool, which they roll between the palms of the hands and then twirl on a
small piece of wood. This is the favorite occupation of nomads while driving their herds
or squatting at camp fires. The presence of a herd of domestic yaks indicates that a
nomad encampment is somewhere near.

After a short ride, the traveler notices several large black tents in a side valley,
sheltered from the winds. Big, black dogs with large red and blue collars rush toward
the road and bark fiercely. Tibet has a peculiar breed of enormous dogs, known to
Europeans under the name of Tibetan mastiffs. They sometimes almost reach the size of a
small donkey, with thick black fur, broad and powerful chest, and a huge head with
powerful jaws. They are known to attack wolves, and I myself knew of one which
successfully tackled a snow leopard. To render these animals less dangerous, the nomads
tie up one of the dog's front legs to its collar, making it impossible for him to
attack and harm travelers. At night the dogs are let loose.

The Tibetan nomad tent, usually called *ba-nag* or "black tent" has
often been compared to a gigantic spider. It is made of black yak wool, and consists of
two halves connected by narrow strips at the places in its roof where the two tent poles
are fixed. A hole in the roof is thus left open to let out the smoke. The tent is kept
erect by two vertical poles and numerous ropes, which are usually very long, for a long
rope holds the tent better during the frequent windstorms. No iron or wooden pegs are
used, the ropes being mostly tied to bowlders. Occasionally yak horns are used as tent
pegs. Such tents have always two entrances, one at the front and one at the back. In the
case of a chief's dwelling, several tents may be pitched together so as to form one
long, large room. These tents are usually very spacious and permit several families to
quarter together.

The furniture is extremely primitive. Rugs or felts are seldom used as floor covering
except in wealthy households. The middle of the tent is occupied by one or more
fireplaces. It is the duty of the infirm and aged to look after the fire. Neither
altars, nor Tibetan low tables are found in the usual nomad tent. Such luxuries are seen
only in the tents of the tribal chiefs or wealthy traders and lamas. The tent of the
common man is filled with riding and packsaddles, bags of butter and *tsam-pa*,
hides, and wooden tea churns.

Newly born lambs and young sheep share the tent with their masters. The family bed is a
dirty heap of sheepskins, thrown in a corner by day and spread out around the fireplace
at night. From the outside the tent is protected by low walls of stones or more often of
dry dung. Such a wall protects it from wind and dust, which otherwise would easily
penetrate beneath. The summer tents of chieftains, often used as guest tents for
important officials and travelers, are made of white cloth with blue and dark red
designs sewn on their roofs. The designs represent the eight happy signs of the Buddhist
ornamentation, sometimes the Wheel of Law or figures of lions artfully combined with
floral ornaments. We have already seen that similar tents are used by Tsaidam Mongols
during their travels. These guest tents are sometimes of huge dimensions, and the
palatial tent erected for the Dalai Lama while His Holiness is on tour, is said to
accommodate about three hundred persons. The inside of such guest tents is always
furnished with costly Chinese and Tibetan rugs, white felts, mattresses, and low tables
on which stand the Tibetan teacups with their silver supports and covers.

Most of the household work is done by women, who milk the cows, prepare butter and
Tibetan dry-cheese or *chu-ra*, tan skins, and spin the Tibetan homespun cloth.
Men are usually away with caravans, which start in the summer months for inner Tibet to
pay tribute to the Government in butter, wool, and homespun cloth, and return in late
autumn before the snow has blocked the passes, with loads of barley and
*tsam-pa* for winter consumption. When at home, the men guard the herds of yaks
and sheep, by no means an easy duty at those altitudes.

Accustomed to hard work round the camp, the woman is often stronger physically than the
man and extremely industrious. The Tibetan woman has a well-founded reputation over the
whole of Tibet and the Himalayan States of India for hard work. She rises early and
lights the fires, brings in water, if a brook or stream is near by, but usually uses
snow from the neighboring ravines. While the water for tea is being boiled, the
housewife goes out to look after the herds of yaks and flocks of sheep. Sheep are set
free from the stone inclosures in which they are kept during the cold night, protected
by Tibetan dogs. Meanwhile the head of the family, if he happens to be at home, gets up,
throws on his bare shoulders his sheepskin and takes his place at the fire. The whole
family, which may be several families living together, or several brothers having one
common wife, gets up and squats at the fireplace. The tent fills with the loud murmur of
recited morning prayers. After the return of the housewife, tea is drunk, large lumps of
butter being thrown into wooden teacups filled with tea. Tea drinking continues for some
time. *Tsam-pa* is mixed with tea and then rolled into small balls which are
swallowed. A rather savory dish is prepared from dry *tsam-pa* mixed with good
quality butter and Tibetan cheese. It is seldom that one finds fresh butter, for the
nomad's butter is usually several months old and emits an unpleasant odor that
permeates the tent and the clothing of its occupants.

After the morning tea, everyone starts the daily work. The housewife and her women
proceed to milk the cows and the men go to perform various outdoor duties. Some hunt,
others keep watch over the large herds of domestic yaks and horses. In regions infested
with brigands, shepherds are seen armed and mounted, ready to resist any attempt on the
part of the robbers to drive off the herd. In the afternoon, the women of the camp busy
themselves with spinning, tanning of skins, and other domestic work. In the evening
toward sunset the whole family assembles once more. The women bring in the fresh milk
and the family partake of an evening meal consisting of the same tea, *tsam-pa*,
and sometimes dry raw mutton. The consumption of raw meat is considered very wholesome.
Each member of the family produces a sheep bone and cleanly cuts the meat from it with a
knife.

After the meal is over evening prayers are murmured and occasionally incense imported
from Lhasa is burned. The men squat on the floor by the fire, telling each other stories
and local news brought in by passing caravans. Some smoke the long Chinese pipes, which
are imported from Tachienlu and Sining. If one of the family members knows how to sing
he may chant the ancient ballad of Kesar, the mighty warrior king, who conquered Tibet
in the past and is expected to reappear in this world to establish the kingdom of
righteousness. I remember these squatting figures with faces lit by the reflection of
fire, talking late into the night about the heroic deeds of King Kesar and his seven
warrior friends. The usual dull expression of the nomad suddenly lights with an inner
flame that conveys to you better than words, that the ancient martial spirit is still
glimmering. The fire burns out and crouching figures of men with heads bent low to the
knees and tresses of long black hair hanging about them, fade into the darkness.

The hard life led by these nomads strikes one by its total absence of elementary
comfort. It seems at times that they were born to suffer for some past sins, and
patiently endure the torture of their present existence on the bleak uplands of Tibet. A
nomad tribesman will never think of lying down at night and stretching out his weary
limbs. On the contrary, he will subject himself to the trial of sleeping in a crouching
posture on the cold, frozen ground of the tent. Comfort does not exist for him. I
remember having seen a wounded Hor-pa militiaman carried into a tent and deposited on
the ground, his head resting on the sharp edge of a brass caldron. I tried to move his
head and place it on a mattress, but the wounded man moved his head back on the
caldron's edge. It seemed that he was unable to conceive of even a moment of
relative comfort. A remarkable psychology is this, full of negation of one's own
body.

The nomads, who form a large portion of Tibet's population, present a very
degenerate type. This is particularly true of the western part of the nomad country and
the higher mountain valleys of the Trans-Himalayas. The arctic climate of the Tibetan
uplands and life in higher mountain valleys, often at an altitude of sixteen thousand to
seventeen thousand feet, have checked their mental and physical development. Scurvy is
common among them. The men and women of the tribes living around Nag-chu and the
neighboring district of the Great Lakes are short and fleshy, with prominent cheek bones
and curly hair.

The nomad tribes of northeastern Tibet and the Hor-pas have a stronger and finer
physique. Among them we often find tall men with long, refined features. The women, with
rare exceptions, are short in stature, having broad faces and prominent cheek bones. It
is an interesting and inexplainable fact that whereas the type of men varies according
to tribe and locality, the type of women remains the same throughout the nomad regions
of Tibet.

The foreign origin of the Hor-pas is manifested in their appearance. Whereas the
Chang-pas of the Lake region and the mountain tribes of the Trans-Himalayas are mostly
all brachycephals, the Hor-pas commonly show dolichocephalic indexes. Types with
aquiline noses, Caucasoid eyes, medium lips, and straight or medium-waved hair are often
found.

Generally speaking, two distinct types are observed among the Hor-pas: the Hor-pas north
of the Thang La Range, and the Hor-pas south of that range. Among the first we
frequently meet the Caucasian type, and some of the males look curiously like Europeans.
Among the women the Mongoloid type with the Mongoloid eyefold is much more prominent.

The Hor-pas south of the Thang La Range represent a transitory type between the Hor-pas
north of the range and the round-headed Tibetans of the central provinces. South of the
Thang La we seldom meet Caucasian types. The eyes mostly have the Mongoloid fold, the
lips are thick, the cheek bones prominent and the hair woolly. The color of the skin of
the northern Hor-pas is lighter than that of the Hor-pas south of the Thang La and is
usually light brown. In stature, the Hor-pas north and northeast of Thang La are taller
than those of the uplands south of the great range. The Hor-pas south of the Thang La
are of weaker physique. The chest is sunken in most cases and the extremities are often
underdeveloped.

Curiously enough the same difference is observed in the language. The Hor-pas of the
north speak a dialect of their own, closely related to the archaic nomad dialects of
Tibet and hardly understood by the Lhasan Tibetans. In a recent paper on Tibetan
phonology, I have shown some of the distinctive traits of these nomad dialects, their
archaic form, and many characteristic peculiarities, the most striking of which are the
pronunciation of some of the prefixes, and the voiced pronunciation of the ancient
sonants, which have become voiceless in modern central Tibetan. In vocabulary also, the
Hor dialect differs greatly from the central Tibetan. The subdialect spoken by the
Hor-pas on the Nag-chu-ka border is already strongly tinted by the central Tibetan
dialect, and although it has lost the pronunciation of most of the prefixes, it still
retains the voiced pronunciation of ancient sonants. In vocabulary too, it is closer to
the central Tibetan. One gains the impression that the Hor-pas north of the Thang La
Range preserved the purer type of Hor-pas, and that the infusion of foreign non-Tibetan
blood in them is greater than in their countrymen to the south, who have become
thoroughly Tibetanized.

The present state of our knowledge permits no conclusions to be made about the ethnic
affinities of the tribes that wander along the northern border of Tibet proper. The
famous Russian explorer of Tibet and central Asia, Prjevalski, quoted his native
interpreter who stated that the language of local Tibetans north of Nag-chu (Hor-pas)
was similar to that of Lhasa and very different from that of the Tibetans in the
Koko-nor region. The great Russian explorer adds that he was unable to make any
linguistic researches during his stay on the Tibetan frontier. As a matter of fact, the
Hor dialect north of the Thang La has quite a number of striking similarities with that
of the Panags of the Koko-nor region and the Nya-rong-was of northeastern Tibet.

The costume is universal for all the nomad districts of Tibet. The usual costume of
Hor-pa men and women of the poorer class consists of the sheepskin coat. Sometimes a
shirt is worn, but most of the nomads wear their sheepskins on the naked body. When
working, the heavy and cumbersome coat is thrown down from the right shoulder, which is
left bare. Large homespun trousers are often worn by the men. The footgear consists of
high boots, kept by a garter under the knee. The leg of such a boot is commonly made of
coarse woolen homespun; the sole is made from raw yak hide and its edge is trimmed with
yak hair. Sometimes in men's boots the leg is of red leather. Leather boots are
imported from Chien-ch'ang in southwestern Szu-ch'uan Province. Wealthy headmen
and lamas are sometimes seen wearing black cowhide boots of Chinese make and pattern.
The Mongol boots of black, yellow, or red leather (mostly imported from Russia) with
sewn designs of colored leather, are greatly valued and form one of the successful
articles of Tibetan import. Among the lamas the legs of the boots are invariably red and
the uppers are always of white cotton. The sheepskin coats of the Hor-pas frequently
have colored pieces of cloth sewn on the back and round the edges of the coat. Black,
blue, dark green, and purple are favorite colors. The laymen prefer black and dark
ultramarine blue, the lamas have in most cases dark red pieces of cloth sewn on their
fur coats.

The richer class wear coats made of *puru*—a Tibetan cotton cloth of high
quality, usually colored purple or dark violet, and greatly prized in Tibet and
Mongolia. Such cloth is prepared by villagers or nomads, who are obliged by law to hand
over the whole of the produced quantity to local government officials, the Government
selling the cloth at fixed prices afterward, and exporting it to foreign countries. In
winter time the men wear heavy sheepskin trousers. Chinese silk leggings
(*tao-ku*) are also worn by the wealthy. The Chinese waistcoats
(*kan-chien*) adopted by the town people of central Tibet, are never worn by the
nomads, who adhere strictly to the Tibetan broad and long-sleeved *chu-was* or
coats. The women of the richer households have adopted the Tibetan dress and wear skirts
of striped *puru* and large blouses made of *terma* or silk.

Most of the men and women go about bareheaded. Only while traveling or during storms
they wear a fur bonnet covered with blue or green cloth and trimmed with fox skin or
sheepskin. Some of these caps are of unusual dimensions and from a distance remind one
of the large fur caps or *papaha* used by Siberian Cossacks. During blizzards the
fur-trimmed flaps of the cap are lowered and buttoned in front, leaving only the eyes
free and covering the rest of the face. This gives an excellent protection on the
gale-swept uplands of northern Tibet. During the coldest part of the winter of 1927 I
was fortunate in having a Tibetan fur cap, which saved me from blisters. The fur caps of
the lamas are lined with yellow silk.

The summer hat is made of straw and is covered with cotton cloth, the rim being faced
with red and blue cloth. The top is rather high and the hat is kept on the head by a
string worn under the chin. Many wear the usual Tibetan fur cap with fur flaps and felt
top, ornamented with pieces of brocade. European-made Homburger hats and service hats,
used in the Gurkha Battalions of the Indian army, are also commonly worn by traders who
have visited the trade marts on the Indian border.

It is in the hairdresses that we notice the greatest differences. The women have their
hair plaited in numerous small braids that hang down the back and are kept together by a
broad piece of red cloth on which silver ornaments are sewn, consisting mostly of silver
Indian rupees, Chinese dollars, and Tibetan silver coins. The girls in the Hor region
wear small brass bells hanging from their hair and belts, and their movements are
accompanied by the soft jingling of these bells.

Women's headdresses vary a great deal according to locality and tribe. In the region
of Nag-tshang in the district of the Great Lakes, a peculiar oval frontlet is worn by
the women, somewhat reminding one of the ancient headdress worn by Russian women. It is
ornamented with turquoise and silver. In other places, conch shells are plaited into the
hair. Large, oval earrings and numerous necklaces of coral, turquoise and silver are
commonly worn by women and girls. A nomad woman wears all her wealth on her person and
by the profusion of silver and turquoise one can judge her family's standing.

The men generally have long, matted hair, sometimes arranged in two long braids that
hang down on both sides of the forehead. Over the eyes, the hair is often cut in a
fringe. The tribal chiefs and wealthy herd owners wear pigtails often reaching well
below the knee. The pigtails, into which horsehair is often plaited to make them longer
and thicker, are frequently adorned with broad rings of red cloth upon which are fixed
coral, turquoise and silver ornaments and sometimes heavy charm boxes or *ga-u*.

The Bön-po lamas of the Hor region have their heads shaved. Tantric lamas or
*ngag-pas* of the Yellow Hat sect, who live and practice among the Hor-pas, wear
their hair in braids similar to those of the laymen. The wealthy class wear coats girded
with a narrow leather belt, ornamented with silver or brass. On the chatelaines of the
belts hang knives, flint pouches, needlecases, and silver ornamented sheaths containing
chopsticks.

The armament of the Hor-pas consists of Tibetan swords, lances, and modern magazine
rifles. The old Tibetan matchlocks are very seldom seen and so far as I know, are only
used in New Year ceremonies to drive off devils. The nomads always go armed. The
difficult and dangerous life on the Tibetan highlands makes it a necessity. All the men
carry long swords, which remind us of the blank weapons of the European early Middle
Ages. The best swords come from the Province of Kham in eastern Tibet, and high prices
are offered for famous swords that have killed the greatest number of enemies, on the
blades of which stains of blood can still be seen, for a sword is never cleaned after
battle and is returned bloodstained to the scabbard. According to a Tibetan Bön-po
legend, the sidearms and shields were also introduced into Tibet during the spread of
the Bön religion from the land of Shang-shung and Bru-sha.

As in the epics of our Middle Ages, the swords of Tibetan heroes possess names. Famous
swords come from the so-called Kesar lha-khang, or Temple of Kesar, situated near
Jyekundo in northeastern Tibet. It is said that after completing his campaigns, King
Kesar deposited all his arms in this temple. The ceiling of the temple is made of long
swords and lances instead of beams. During the recent Sino-Tibetan war, a number of
these swords were stolen by Tibetan soldiery and are now offered for fabulous prices.
The swords are of three varieties. The long, straight Tibetan sword with broad blade,
made of iron, can be considered the national arm of Tibet. The hilt of the sword has no
handguard, and curiously reminds one of the European swords of the early Middle Ages.
The scabbard is usually ornamented with silver or brass nails, turquoise, and corals. It
is made of wood and is covered with black leather. The edge of the scabbard is often
handsomely decorated with floral designs combined with animal *motifs*. The hilts
are often covered with fish skin, sometimes with thin yellow or red leather. It would be
interesting to study the origins of these long and broad-bladed Tibetan swords. A study
of the question points toward the long and straight Sarmatian swords, that were
introduced into China during the First Han Dynasty.

Besides these long swords, the Tibetan nomads carry short, dagger-like swords in richly
ornamented scabbards. The best daggers are said to come from Bhutan. Their hilts are
covered with a coat of mail.

To the third variety belongs the heavy, slightly curved saber, or
*sho-lang* carried in Chinese fashion attached to the left side of the saddle
under the rider's leg. This saber is most likely an importation from China, and is
used only by military and civil officers.

Another favorite blank arm is the spear. Two kinds of spears are used, the long spear
and the dart. The long and heavy spear, some three meters in length, is used by mounted
men in a cavalry charge. The spearheads are made of iron and sometimes ornamented with a
geometrical design which is painted red. Among the nomad tribes of northeast Tibet, and
the Hor-pas, the long spear is a sign of war. When a tribe intends to begin war against
another tribe, the long spear is carried out of the tent.

The Tibetan dart is made of hard wood imported from east Tibet or Szu-ch'uan. The
spear staff is wound with an iron braid. A large metal ring is fixed at the end of the
staff and another ring slides loosely along the staff. When in action a string is tied
to both rings. The rider keeps the string and staff in his raised hand, then lets loose
the staff, and throws the dart, keeping the end of the string in his hand. The dart
flies with a rattling noise made by the loose ring on the iron braid of the staff. After
the ring reaches the end of the spear staff, the spear drops and the rider pulls it back
into the saddle. Great strength and good horsemanship are needed in throwing such a
dart. This weapon is used by the nomads of north and northeastern Tibet.

Another commonly used arm is the sling made of plaited yarn. It is useful in war and
peace. In everyday life, the Hor-pas use the sling to drive their herds and caravans of
yaks. A single man can drive a big herd or caravan of yaks by throwing stones with his
sling at the animals. The Tibetan word for yak driver is *lakpo* (Tib.
*lag-rdo*) which literally means "a hand with a stone."

Archery is almost never practiced and during our stay among the Hor tribes and other
nomads of Tibet, we did not see a single bow in the possession of tribesmen. Arrowheads
sometimes discovered in the ground are said to be petrified lightning and to possess
magical powers.

The lasso, favored by Kirghiz tribesmen on the Russo-Turkestan border, is unknown among
the Hor-pa tribes. In order to catch a horse, they proceed with a very strange maneuver,
which invariably proves successful. A man crawls toward the horse with his hand
stretched out toward the right front leg of the animal. Then he gently touches the right
leg and rubs it, gradually going higher until he has reached the horse's neck and
seized the bridle. This curious way of catching a bad horse is commonly practiced
throughout Mongolia and Tibet. With a Mongol or Tibetan horse this is the only way to
approach and get hold of the animal.

A common scourge of all the nomad districts of Tibet are the bands of brigands who roam
in the vicinity of trade routes and wealthy encampments. Sometimes there are bands of
professional robber tribes from northeastern Tibet. A band of armed robbers consists of
some twenty or thirty mounted and well-armed men, with light baggage carried on pack
ponies, that are led by horsemen. A party can cover long distances daily and make
surprise attacks on caravans and camps. Brigand horses are said to be the best in the
country. They are trained to obey strange, shrill sounds emitted by the rider. The rider
whistles and the horse doubles its pace. A shrill, rising sound will make the horse leap
in full gallop. Such horses cannot be ridden by ordinary riders, who have no knowledge
of the sounds that guide them.

When a band of robbers has been sighted in the neighborhood, all the nomad encampments
move in haste into the mountains to some remote valley and the tribal chiefs summon all
the available men of their militia to fight the intruders. Our expedition often met
large parties of mounted men, riding at great speed. Some robbers had been sighted in
the vicinity and these men were hastening to fight the band.

During such fights prisoners are seldom taken and wounded men are never abandoned on the
battlefield. The robbers even manage to carry away their dead. In famine years that
follow a cold and snowy winter, or an epizoötic of cattle, whole districts turn to
brigandage. It is then the turn of government troops to suppress the evil.

The tribal militia is maintained by the orders of the Lhasan Government. In case of war,
each tent has to equip one rider, and give him sufficient provisions to last for one
month's campaigning. The arms, ammunition, and horses all belong to the men. A
mobilization order is sent on a piece of red cloth attached to an arrow. The arrow is
dispatched by a special rider who gallops to the nearest headman and hands it over to
him. The headman takes notice of the contents of the order and immediately dispatches a
fresh rider to another headman. In a few days the whole of the countryside swarms with
men-at-arms. The troops from northern and northeastern Tibet are said to be the bravest
in the whole of Tibet, and there is a belief, that a warrior from eastern and northern
Tibet, whenever he goes to battle, has to die in the fight. In the recent fights on the
Sino-Tibetan border units composed of tribesmen from northern and east Tibet made their
name dreaded by the enemy, but sustained the heaviest casualties.

Besides military duties in time of national danger, the tribal militia has another
important duty to perform—the guarding of the long Tibetan boundary line. All along the
northern Tibetan border, that roughly passes along the Marco Polo or Angar Dakchin
Mountains, stand outposts of militia which watch the caravan routes leading from
Mongolia and China. Such a post usually consists of six to ten men who live in the black
tent of the nomads. It is their duty to scout the neighborhood and to report to the
nearest frontier authorities any approaching caravans. One can imagine life on such
outposts, situated sometimes hundreds of miles from the nearest inhabited point of Tibet
and on an elevation of some fifteen to sixteen thousand feet. The men are obliged to
live on *tsam-pa* and hunt wild yaks and *kyangs*. In winter such outposts
are sometimes completely cut off. Many riders sent to reëstablish communication perish
on the way and are devoured by wolves and bears.

The nomad tribes of the northeast, north and some of the tribes in western Tibet,
practice the ancient religion of Tibet, the so-called Bön religion of nature worship and
necromancy. Weird rituals are performed by wild looking, errant priests attired in black
robes. Bön is prominent in the region of western Hor and holds undisputed sway over all
the Hor tribes. With the advent and establishment of Buddhism during the reign of the
Tibetan King Ti-srong de'u tsen (Khrisrong sde'u-btsan) in the eighth century
A.D. the Bön religion was relegated to the distant frontier districts of Tibet.

At present most of the Bön-po colonies, besides the Hor-de, are found in the northeast
of Tibet in the region lying between Derge and the grazing grounds of the Golok, in
easternmost Kham, in the forest country of Kong-po. Along the northern route to western
Tibet, Nain Singh mentions the Bön-po colony of Wang-po (dbang-po) on the north shore of
the Lake Dangra yum-tsho. Western and southern Tibet also have important colonies of
Bön-pos. The Tsang Province of central Tibet is rich in Bön-po monasteries, which are
also found on the Nepalese border. The Bön-po monastery nearest to Lhasa is situated in
the upper part of the Phem-po ('phan-po) Valley, north of the Tibetan capital.

During the reign of King Lang-dar-ma (ninth century A.D.) the Bön doctrine returned to
power for a brief interval, for after the violent death of the king, the Bön doctrine
was again persecuted and Buddhism gained the upper hand. The Bön-po priests were
banished and many Bön practices suppressed. Since that time, the Bön religion has become
the doctrine of the minority, relegated to distant uplands and preserved in a few
families, as is often the case in the Tsang Province. Our knowledge of the Bön religion
is still very imperfect. Only a very limited number of texts has been edited and
translated. The rest of the voluminous literature still remains a closed book. The
Bön-po terminology presents insurmountable difficulties, for it is hard to obtain the
services of a well-read Bön-po priest who will agree to part with his knowledge of the
doctrine. To collect information about this primitive religion, relic of a remote past,
is much more difficult than to gather information about the Tibetan form of Buddhism.
First of all, the Bön fraternities are found in places difficult of access, and
secondly, the Bön-po adepts are recalcitrant in giving information to foreigners. They
usually profess utter ignorance about the tenets of their faith and deny the existence
of manuscripts or printed texts.

During the expedition's stay in the Hor region, information about Bön-po books was
only occasionally obtained, mostly from travelers who had visited Bön-po monasteries or
seen sacred texts in the tents of wealthy Bön-pos. Only after three months' stay was
I able to gain the confidence of some of the Bön-po priests and gain access to their
libraries.

The pages which follow contain some of the results obtained during this stay. A detailed
study of the Bön doctrine will be appended to the translation of the
*Ye-shes ñi-ma lha'i rgyud* or the "Tantras of the Gods of the Sun of
Wisdom," an extensive Bön-po text which is in the course of preparation.

Bön is a composite doctrine in which ancient forms of the shamanistic ideas of higher
Asia are blended with beliefs and practices of a nature religion of the primitive
population of northwestern India. Whether this primitive cult goes back to an
Indo-European antiquity, or, as I am inclined to believe, to a pre-Aryan stratum of
population, is still impossible to decide definitely.

There exist two forms of Bön: One the primitive nature worship, full of shamanistic and
necromantic rituals, and sometimes bloody sacrifices (in former times human sacrifices
were commonly made, nowadays only animals, sheep, goats, or their substitute clay images
are sacrificed); the other the reformed Bön, or Bön adapted to Buddhism. Dr. J. van
Manen has rightly pointed out the link that exists between the ancient Bön and the old
school of Padmasambhava. He says: "This statement has to be interpreted in the
sense that the compromise effected by Padmasambhava has resulted in mutual concessions
and adaptations which make it difficult to say where, in present practice, the purely
native and the Buddhist foreign elements begin and end."

In the first form of Bön, we meet gods of heaven and earth, of sun and moon, of stars
and of the four quarters. To this form of Bön belongs the circle of legends about King
Kesar, and Dr. A. H. Francke has shown in his valuable monograph on the Tibetan marriage
songs the mythological character of Kesar and his consort, 'Bru-gu-ma, who have a
close affinity to the old deities of earth. The primitive Bön doctrine is still
represented by errant exorcists, who never belong to settled fraternities. Their holy
places are not marked by monasteries or chapels, but are represented by crude stone
altars, or stone monuments in the form of menhirs or cromlechs. Sometimes the stone
altars are situated on the summits of mountains, sometimes in secluded caves amid rocks
and towering cliffs. I am convinced that the megalithic monuments discovered by the
expedition all along the pilgrim route to Mount Kailasa are such sacred places of nature
worship. A detailed description of these monuments will be given in the chapter devoted
to the description of the Great Lake region of Tibet. These megalithic monuments,
menhirs, cromlechs, and alinements, first discovered by the expedition, undoubtedly
belong to the pre-Buddhistic period of Tibetan history, when primitive Bön was the
accepted faith of the country.

The reformed Bön is highly complex. It not only possesses all the deities of the
Vajrayana—or the Tantric form of Buddhism elaborated by Padmasambhava—but has its own
arrangement of the deities.

From my conversations with the Bön-po lamas it appears that the Bön form of
Samantabhadra or Bön-sku Kun-tu bzang-po is regarded to be the supreme deity of the
Bön-po. He occupies in the sect a position analogical to that of Samantabhadra in the
Tantric sects of unreformed Buddhism and the Adi-Buddha in the Kalacakra doctrine of the
ninth to eleventh centuries A.D. We have reason to suppose that the Kun-tu bzang-po or
"All good" of the reformed Bön represents the ancient Father Heaven of
primitive Bön. In Bön the Kun-tu bzang-po is associated with Ma-btsun-pa—Mother Nature
or Mother Earth, a deity, who still preserves much of her primitive character of
all-potent Mother Earth. Her images are often found in charm boxes or *ga-u* worn
by Bön-pos.

Besides these supreme deities we hear of a host of other divine beings, most of which
are personified nature forces and malignant ghosts. An old deity is Garuda or Cha-khyung
(Bya-khyung) which figures on many Bön images and paintings, and probably belongs to the
ancient Indo-Tibetan stock of Bön. It would be highly interesting to study the origins
of the cult of Garuda in connection with the numerous representations of the eagle and
the griffin in the nomad art of central Asia and southern Russia. On Bön frescos we meet
an endless host of *dkar-phyogs lha*, "Gods of the White Quarter" (or
"benevolent gods") and *nag-phyogs lha* or "Gods of the Dark
Quarter" (malignant deities). The belief in nature forces, personified by divine
beings or *lha*, is common to both forms of Bön. Each place possesses its own
countryside god or *yul-lha*, and *'dre* or demon. The *lha* is
usually benevolent, but sometimes of a difficult nature and the people of the place have
a hard time keeping the deity satisfied.

In one of the Bön-po villages in the upper Tsang Province we saw a fine field on the
river bank, uncultivated but carefully fenced. Considering the relative scarcity of
arable land, I was much surprised to see that fine piece of land left uncultivated and
inquired for the reason. The reason was that a local *lha*, domiciled in a cliff
rising over the field, took a strange liking to this field and every time the peasants
tried to plough it, a hailstorm would destroy the crops. A local Bön-po priest explained
the will of the deity, and since then the field has been left alone and a stone wall
built around it. Such is the influence of this religion, that men will renounce the best
of their fields and consecrate them to the local deity.

Each mountain pass possesses a *lha* of its own and some of these deities are
known for their fierce character. Some of them object to rifle firing, and will send
hail and storm if a shot is fired in the vicinity, others are antagonistic to travelers
in general.

The *düd* or *'dre* are malignant spirits always bent upon mischief.
They will drive away horses at night and thus cause a delay to travelers. Some of the
localities along the great caravan routes are famous for the activity of demons or
*tong-dre* and the caravan men take special precautions to prevent the stampede
of their horses and mules.

All these Bön divinities, who rule the destinies of men, are designated by the general
name of *gYung-drung lha rnams* or the "Gods of the Svastika." The word
*gYung-drung* or "Svastika" is not only synonymous with Bön, but often
stands for *Byang-chub* or *Bodhi*, which is enlightenment in Bön
terminology. The will and teachings of these gods were delivered to mankind by the
teacher Shen-rap or Shen-rap mi-wo "the man Shen-rap." We have seen several
Bön-po texts on the life of this teacher. His legendary life has been strongly
influenced by the Buddha legend. Take for example the scene of the lament of the old
Brahman gSal-khyab-'od-ldan, as related in the *gSer-myig*, who is too old to
hear the future teaching of the newly born Redeemer, and the analogical episode in the
life of Buddha,—the visit of the *rishi* Asita to the newly born Bodhisattva.

The story of the youth of Shen-rap has much in common with the respective episodes of
the Buddha legend. The work of the Redeemer Shen-rap was continued on earth by a
succession of teachers, who are usually represented on frescoes attired in the monastic
costume of the Nying-ma-pas, or unreformed Buddhists. We are as yet unable to say much
about this line of Bön-po teachers. It seems likely that the establishment of Bön
monastic fraternities was started only during the Buddhist period. The primitive Bön
religion had no monasteries. The Bön monastery is an adaptation of a Buddhist model and
the monastic rules are largely taken from Buddhist sources. Large Bön-po monasteries
exist in the Jya-de Province and northeastern Kham. The region of Nup-hor counts at
least three monastic establishments.

The Tsang Province is known for its Bön-po monasteries. At Chatu gompa, a large village
in western Tsang, there are three large Bön-po monasteries. Several famed Bön
monasteries and hermitages or *ri-tö* (*ri-khrod*) are reported to exist
on the Nepalo-Tibetan border. Sarat Chandra Das in his
*Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet* gives a brief description of a well-known
Bön-po monastery, Ri-jyal chen-tar (Ri-rgyal gchan-dar), visited by his companion Lama
Urgyen. Unfortunately the author does not describe in detail the images and frescoes
seen by Lama Urgyen in the monastery. We possess only scant information about the
literature of the Bön-pos. The literary monuments of the Bön-pos can be conveniently
described under the following four headings: (1) The two great Bön collections of sacred
texts, in all some three hundred volumes; (2) national epics, heroic songs and some
*rnam-thar* or legendary history; (3) popular songs; (4) incantation books,
manuals on magic rituals.

The codification of the Bön doctrine and the creation of the voluminous religious
literature dates from the Buddhist period, that is, it is posterior to the ninth century
A.D. So far we had no knowledge of the existence of a Bön *Känjür* and
*Tänjür*. We only surmised that large Bön-po monasteries undoubtedly possessed
large libraries of Bön-po literature. It was the good fortune of our expedition to
discover two complete collections of Bön-po scriptures at the Bön-po monastery of
Sharugön, four days northeast of Nag-chu dzong. The Bön *Känjür* or Translated
Commandments consists of one hundred and forty large volumes. The collection is
evidently an imitation of the Buddhist *Tripitaka*. It not only has the threefold
division of the *Tripitaka* (*Bön-sde-gsum*) but imitates the Buddhist
*Känjür* in the external arrangement of the volumes and their contents. The title
of each text is given in two languages. Sometimes it is the *Shang-shung skad* or
"language of Shang-shung," sometimes it is the
*gYung-drung lha'i skad* or "language of the Svastika gods." All
these languages are unintelligible and are probably artificial.

The Tibetan language is invariably called "the language of men" (*gang-zag mi-wo'i skad*
or *mi-wo'i skad*). Most of the texts are designated by the name
*rgyud* or *tantra*, which seems to stand for the Buddhist *mdo* or
*sutra*. A great number of texts included in the Bön-po *Känjür* were
composed in the Golok territory of northeastern Tibet. Many were written in the Bön
hermitages southwest of Shigatse, reputed to be one of the sacred countries of the Bön.
In the lifetime of the famous Tibetan monk-poet, Milarepa (XI A.D.) the Bön-pos were
numerous and powerful on the Nepalese borderland and there exists a large cycle of
legends telling of the religious disputes held by Milarepa and Naro Bön-chung, the Bön
teacher.

The Bön *Tänjür* or Translated Commentaries, consists of one hundred and sixty
volumes. It contains commentaries written by various Bön-po teachers on the Tantras of
the Bön *Känjür*, said to have been revealed by Shen-rap, the Redeemer. A number
of texts explain the intricate points of the essence of the Bön doctrine
(*Bön-ñid*), a notion which has its counterpart in the *stong-pa ñid* of
the Mahayana Buddhism.

These treatises are almost untranslatable because of their terminology. I was told by
the abbot of the Sharugön Monastery that no printed copies of the Bön scriptures exist,
and that all existing copies are manuscript. This particular copy of the Sharugön
Monastery was executed in the Golok territory and had an exceptionally beautiful cursive
script. The orthography of such manuscripts is as a rule antiquated and reveals many of
the peculiarities common in Tibetan manuscripts discovered by Sir Aurel Stein and Paul
Pelliot in the walled-up library of Tun-huang. The Bön-po manuscripts are often written
in gold and silver on thick black paper, but usually in black or red ink. In the
Sharugön copy the front pages bearing the title of the text were invariably painted
black and written in gold. Such manuscripts written in gold are costly and take years to
complete. Only very few Bön monasteries can boast of possessing sets of the two
collections.

The second class of Bön literature is represented by the great nomad epic of King Kesar,
the mighty warrior, whose deeds are chanted in sixteen volumes. All copies of this
important work are in manuscript form. So far as it is known it has never been printed
and the existing copies are jealously preserved in the families. For the nomad of
eastern and northern Tibet, the legend of Kesar is not a mere epic, it is his religion,
his embodied hope for a better future which is framed on the model of the glorious past.

The modern epic of Kesar is a composite production, which consists of ancient nature
worship in which the cults of the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and the Seasons, are blended
with an epic of the great warrior king, who once ruled somewhere in northeastern Tibet.

Grünwedel and Potanin endeavored to prove that the saga of Kesar was influenced by the
legends about Alexander the Great, so popular in the East, and that the name Kesar was
nothing but a Tibetan rendering of Kaiser—Caesar. In my opinion the ballad is an
autochthonous creation of nomad central Asia and I believe Dr. N. Poppe is right in
presuming that the greater part of the ballad originated among the nomad tribes of
Tibet.

The historical background of the legend takes us far back into the past of the great
nomad empires of central Asia. The Kesar epic sings of the deeds of King Kesar, his
prowess and feats of strength during his youth and his several victorious campaigns
against the King of Hor and other nomad chiefs. The east Tibetan origin of the epic is
shown in the story about its origin. The story probably began among the Yellow sect
lamas, for it exhibits a certain amount of contempt toward the ballad. It is related
that the Kesar ballad has nothing historical in itself. It was composed by a famous
Tantric lama (*ngag-pa*) who was at the same time a great bard. Once, in a moment
of intoxication, he began to sing and sang the whole of the Kesar ballad. The native
place of this Tantric was northeastern Kham and the ballad was composed by him there.

The nomads of Kham and Hor understand the ballad differently. According to them it is
not a production of a single bard, largely due to the imagination of the singer, but is
a poetical record of ancient wars that were fought in the past. According to some
authors and the collection of heroic songs, entitled *rGyal-drung*, King Kesar
lived in the eighth century A.D. According to still another tradition, King Kesar was a
mighty nomad warrior, who lived in the time of King Srong-btsan sgam-po and Khri-srong
lde'u-btsan in the border country of Mongolia and China, in the territory now
incorporated in the modern Province of Shan-hsi.

The seventh and eighth centuries A.D. were a period of great unrest among Tibetan nomads
and an epoch of the greatest expansion of Tibetan power outside the frontier of Tibet
proper. My own researches in the field have convinced me that the kernel of the ballad
originated during this period and that in it were incorporated episodes from ancient
tribal epics, going back to remote antiquity, probably pre-Mongolian and pre-Tibetan in
their origin. In its present form the Kesar ballad is probably of a comparatively late
date. It is an ancient monument of nomadic poetry, produced by the creative efforts of
several nomad nations. In its present form the ballad is extremely popular in Mongolia
and even among the Turkish tribes of central Asia. Dr. N. Poppe says that the Mongol
version of the Kesar ballad originated in southern Mongolia. According to him the many
Tibetan names in the Mongol text seem to indicate that the Mongol version is a
translation from a Tibetan original. The Mongol version was published in Peking in 1716
A.D. in the reign of K'ang-hsi and has been translated by I. J. Schmidt.

During the Manchu rule, King Kesar was proclaimed under the name of Huang-ti, the divine
protector of the Manchu Dynasty. In Tibet all temples dedicated to Huang-ti are said to
be Kesar lha-khangs or temples of Kesar.

The Asiatic Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences, possesses a Tibetan Kesar ballad
in two large volumes. During the expedition's stay in the Hor region, I discovered a
Kesar ballad in sixteen manuscript volumes—each chapter of the epic having a separate
volume.

In Tibet and Mongolia, the epic of Kesar is still constantly enriching itself with new
songs and episodes. New episodes are added to the old groundwork of the ballad and
messianic ideas attached to the figure of Kesar Khan. Kesar is said to return again to
earth and lead the nomad tribes against a powerful enemy who will arise to establish the
Kingdom of Evil.

During the lengthy stay among the nomads of Hor, the expedition succeeded in collecting
additional data, which clearly establishes the important fact that a new chapter in the
voluminous epic of Kesar is about to be written. In Mongolia also, a new chapter on the
future exploits of Kesar is in process of creation. These new additions have the
character of prophetic songs.

The well-known Mongol scholar Ts. J. Jamtsarano points to the fact that the verbal
version of the Kesar ballad is considerably larger than the written one. It seems as if
the nomad tribes of Mongolia and Tibet, agitated by some hidden unrest, seek inspiration
in the ancient lore of their past.

Besides the great epic of Kesar, several *rnam-thar* or legendary histories are
said to exist among the Bön-po population. None of them is printed. If they are found,
they will furnish important data on the religious, cultural, and historical evolution of
the Bön doctrine. A large number of popular songs exist among the Bön-pos. Dr. A. H.
Francke collected a good many of them during his long stay in Ladak and Lahul. Properly
studied and analyzed, they too may furnish important facts.

Many incantation books and magic manuals exist in manuscript form. Some of them are
utterly untranslatable, others necessitate a vast, detailed knowledge of the Bön-po
Pantheon. A knowledge of the Bön-po *mandalas* or mystic spheres of influence is
essential for a proper understanding of these texts.

Then for the study of the reformed Bön, the Bön *Känjür* and *Tänjür* are
of the utmost significance. The remaining three sections chiefly contain material for
the reconstruction of the primitive form of Bön. The only historical Bön-po text so far
known is the rGyal-rabs Bön-gyi-byung-gnas, by Sarat Chandra Das, but I am told that
other historical works in the form of *chos-byung* or church histories exist. So
far none of such works has come to light.

The Bön-po monastery of Sharugön was built some twenty years ago. The necessary funds
were raised by popular subscription among the five nomad tribes of the western Hor. It
is situated in a narrow gorge of granite rocks on the banks of the river Chu-na-khe at
the foot of a picturesque granite mountain that shelters the monastery from the
prevailing southwest winds of the Tibetan upland.

The approach to the monastery is guarded by a high *stupa* or
*mchod-rten* crowned with a pair of yak horns. (It is known that the custom of
setting animal skulls and horns on *mani*-walls, stone cairns, and
*stupas* is Bön-po in origin.) The *stupa* is painted white and has
yellow, red, and blue stripes on its steeple, symbolizing the three spheres of the
Universe: *stan-lha*, the region of gods, *bar-btsan*, the middle region,
and *gyog-klu*, the abode of *Nagas*.

The monastery consists of two assembly halls or *du-khangs*, situated in a small
inclosed courtyard paved with large slabs of flat stones. The old *du-khang* is
situated to the right of the entrance gate and is a two-storied building. The assembly
hall proper occupies the first floor, on the second floor there is a small
*lha-khang* or temple, which contains most of the monastery's collection of
images.

The new *du-khang* is a stately stone building, erected some six years ago. It is
not yet completely furnished. The walls are adorned with frescoes, which although new,
present a great interest for a student of iconography. The rest of the courtyard is
occupied by monastery store-rooms and cells for the monks. During the expedition's
visit the monastery had five resident monks. Some of the wealthy monks belonging to the
monastery lived with their families in the vicinity. The head lama or *khan-po*,
the only fully ordained monk of the monastery, did not live in the convent itself but in
a hermitage or *ri-tö* belonging to the monastery and situated behind the
mountain range that shelters the monastery from the northeast. Both the
*du-khangs* or assembly halls are ornamented in the usual Tibetan style, and
there is very little difference between the ornamentation used in the orthodox Yellow
Hat or Nying-ma-pa monasteries and the Bön-po sanctuaries. The carved wooden columns at
the entrances and inside the halls are ornamented with the traditional dragons and
floral designs and painted in bright colors. Both of the *du-khangs* contain
paintings representing the legendary life of the founder of the Bön religion, Shen-rap
ton-pa, and images of the divine beings of the Bön-po Pantheon. So complete is the
similarity of symbols, that one could imagine himself in an orthodox Buddhist monastery.
The Buddhists maintain that the Bön-pos imitated Buddhist images and symbols, but the
Bön-pos are of the opinion that the early teachers of Tibetan Buddhism took over many
Bön-po deities and symbols. At present we are not in a position to decide which of the
statements is true.

The similarity of Bön and Buddhist paintings is due to some extent to the fact that
temples are often decorated by laymen artists, who paint Buddhist symbols and Bön-po
images alike and involuntarily transfer Buddhist symbols to a Bön-po painting and
*vice versa*. Such was the case with the wall paintings in the Sharugön
monastery. All of the paintings were executed by a layman-artist, Buddhist by religion,
who painted the frescos under the guidance of the monastery's head lama.

The Bön scriptures are imperfectly known and very few Bön images have been studied and
described. So far no Bön-po iconographical manual has been found, and the iconographical
knowledge of the sect seems to rest with a limited number of priests and artists.

The chief place on these wall paintings is occupied by the Bön-po Redeemer, Shen-rap
mi-wo. He is usually represented in the aspect of a fully enlightened Buddha, attired in
purple monastic robes, austere and somber and devoid of ornaments. His left hand reposes
in the sign (*mudra*) of meditation (*dhyani-mudra*) and supports the
monastic bowl or *patra*. His right hand is lowered making the sign of
attestation (*bhumisparsha mudra*) and is holding the Bön scepter. The scepter is
similar to the Buddhist *vajra* or *dorje*, but instead of having a crown
on each end, it has a cube with images of the Svastika on the five sides of the cube.
The color of the body is yellow ochre and the robe is red and purple, sometimes
ornamented with gold or yellow color designs. The similarity to the images of Sakyamuni
is evident, the only difference being the Bön-po scepter. To the left of the Founder is
usually represented the future teacher of the Bön-pos. He is depicted in the attire of a
Buddhist bodhisattva with golden diadem on his head and gold ornaments inlaid with
precious stones on his shoulders, arms, and legs. Both the hands repose in the posture
of meditation and support the *amrita vase* or *tse-bum* filled with
*amrita* or *bdüd-rtsi*, with the letter "A" on it, which is the
Bön-po counterpart of *om*. The color of the face and body is yellow ochre,
sometimes golden. It is the color of the Bodhisattva Maitreya. To the right is often
seen the Bön form of the Buddha of Medicine, called by the Bön-pos, Sangs-rgyas
sman-bla. The color of the body, instead of being dark ultramarine blue, as in the
Buddhist images, is light yellow. The Bön-po "god of medicine" does not have
the aspect of a Buddha, but is attired as a bodhisattva. His hands repose in the sign of
meditation and support the monastic bowl, with the *udumbara* flower emerging
from it.

Another common image on the wall paintings is the Bön counterpart of the white Tara, the
goddess Ma-btsün-pa, Mother Nature. Her raised right hand holds the stalk of the
*kumuda* flower. In all other respects the Bön-po and Buddhist images of the
goddess are identical. The Bön-po form of the All-Merciful One or Avalokitesvara with
eleven heads and innumerable arms is identical to the lamaist form. Only one of the
hands is seen holding a Bön *vajra* with the image of the Svastika.

Another frequent representation is the image of the goddess Sitatapatraparajita. Her Bön
form has a yellow body, instead of the white coloring of the Buddhist image. The symbols
held by the deity in her numerous hands are similar to those on Buddhist images, except
for one hand, which is holding the Bön *vajra* with the image of the Svastika on
it. A pair of hands is folded at the breast and holds the image of fruit, putting forth
a flower. (The Buddhist goddess holds the sacred stone or *cintamani*.)

Another popular deity of the Bön-po Pantheon is the black Garuda or Khyung-nag,
represented holding a serpent in his beak. This form of Garuda is also known in Lamaism
but probably is of Bön-po origin. One of the walls of the principal hall in the new
*du-khang* is adorned by a large image of the Bön-po form of Vajrapani, holding
the Garuda and *vajra*. The abbot or *khan-po* of the Sharugön monastery
called it Bön-gyi phyag-rdor or Bön-po Vajrapani. He could not tell me the Bön-po name
of the divinity. It is difficult to say whether we have to do with ignorance on the part
of the Bön-po priesthood, or that the Bön divinities are called by the same names, as in
Lamaism. The relative frequency of the name *phyag-rdor* in Bön texts seems to
indicate the fact that the name belongs to Bön-po terminology or has been taken over by
the Bön-pos.

The rest of the walls of the principal hall are covered with frescoes representing Bön
forms of Vajradhara, Vajrakila, Yamantaka, Demchog, Palden Lhamo, and even a Bön form of
Kalacakra represented on the walls both in its mild and fierce forms. The head lama of
the monastery told me that there exist a number of texts on Bön-po Kalacakra. It would
be interesting to compare them to the Kalacakra system of Buddhism. All these deities
are seen holding the Bön *vajra* with the Svastika symbol and the fruit with the
emerging flower. Some of the divinities are depicted with garlands of flowers on their
heads. All of them are represented seated, or standing on low thrones or
*asanas*, with images of a lion, an eagle, and an elephant.

The second floor is occupied by several big rooms, which are always used in Tibetan
monasteries as abbot's quarters. The rooms have also a number of frescoes
representing the legendary life of Shen-rap mi-wo. It is easy to identify the scenes of
his life, which are, as I have already told, influenced by the Buddha legend. A fresco,
occupying an entire wall, depicts different Bön teachers—all sitting in rows and attired
in the robes of the Red sect lamas. Some of the represented personages wear white
mantles over their dark purple lama coats. As yet we are unable to tell the story of the
line of Bön teachers.

Another interesting fresco represented a Bön *tshok-chin* or Assemblage of Bön
divinities, with Bön *sku kung-tu bzang-po*, occupying the upper portion of the
frescoes, and the Shen-rap mi-wo in the center, assisted by a host of Bön divinities and
saints. Another fresco probably represented the seven saints or heroes, called
*Pa-wo rap-dün* (*dpa-wo rab-bdun*). These are probably identical with the
seven *a-khu* or "uncles," assistants of King Kesar. The Bön
*Tänjür* is preserved in the new *du-khang*, where a special room is
fitted as a library.

The old *du-khang* on the opposite side of the courtyard has an altar, a painted
wooden glass case in which stand clay images of Shen-rap mi-wo and the lama
"Promulgator of the Bön faith," as the Bön priest called him, represented with
his right hand holding the stalk of a lotus flower supporting the religious book or
*legs-bam*—a purely Buddhist symbol taken over by the Bön-pos. The similarity of
the image to that of the Buddhist reformer, rGyal-wa Tsong-kha-pa, is apparent. Before
the images burn large offering lamps (*chos-me*) made of massive silver and there
stand the usual eight happy offerings. In other respects the arrangement of the altar is
identical to that of the Buddhist temples. All of the other walls are occupied by
shelves or *kün-ra* containing the hundred and forty volumes of the Bön
*Känjür*.

Above the bookshelves hang a number of masks used in religious dances that take place in
summer. An opening in the roof gives access to the flat roof of the *du-khang*. A
tree trunk with incised steps serves as a ladder. Every morning at sunrise, a lama
ascends to the roof and sounds the conch inviting the monks to the morning service.
During one month's residence at the monastery, we seldom saw religious services held
there. The head lama was always absent at his hermitage and the rest of the monks
attended to their own domestic occupations.

In December, 1923, the monastery was used as soldiers' quarters for a detachment of
Tibetan troops sent in search of the Tashi Lama, who had just left Shigatse for China.

Outside the inclosure are found numerous stone images of Shen-rap ton-pa, attired as a
Bön bodhisattva or gYung-drung sems-pa, holding a magic scepter, and several
inscriptions on stone of the Bön-po formula *Om-ma-ni-hri-mu-ye-sa-lendu*.
Corresponding to each group of letters is one of the eight happy signs or
bkra-shis rtags-brgyad, which are represented under the
inscription.

The present Bön-po population is not very strict in the observance of Bön rites and one
often sees Tantric lamas or *ngag-pas* from the Sera Monastery of Lhasa,
practicing among a Bön-po population. There is, however, a certain amount of antagonism
between the Buddhist and Bön-po monasteries. The Bön-po lamas are credited with
possessing a dangerous knowledge of hidden things and a night spent in a Bön-po
monastery might bring misfortune. In our case, the death of the Major's wife from
pneumonia, was popularly considered to have been caused by the anger of the titular
deity of the monastery. The head lama of the monastery, an old man with curly hair and
almost negroid features, once asked me: "You are a student of the doctrine of
Buddha, how can you interest yourself in our Bön scriptures? The two doctrines do not go
well together, for the one excludes the other." Lamaist Mongols have a great
aversion for the Bön-po faith, which is commonly known to them by the name of
*Khara-nom* or "Black Faith."

Some of the Bön-po lamas in the Hor region are quite wealthy, possessing large herds of
yaks, flocks of sheep, and well-furnished, private libraries. They all live in tents.
Sometimes two or three tents are put together to form one tent long enough to quarter
all the family and some of the servants. Many of such lama householders are successful
traders and sell tea bricks to the population, which they receive from Ssu-ch'uan,
and other commodities. The local nomads profess great respect toward them and invariably
address them as *Kusho rimpoche* or *lama-la*, Precious Sir, or Venerable
Teacher. All the Bön-po laymen wear charm boxes or *ga-u* on their necks and
across the shoulder, and turn prayer wheels in an opposite direction. Close to their
tents stand big poles with prayer flags and one sometimes sees yak and horse tails fixed
to the poles.

One of the important results of the expedition was the discovery of the "animal
style" among the nomad tribes of northern Tibet. This "animal style"
consists of decorative *motifs*, composed of animal figures, which are sometimes
combined to form most striking ornamental compositions. Some of these
*motifs* are highly stylized and have a long development behind them. The artists
who produced them were keen observers of nature, and knew well the character and habits
of the animals they were depicting. The style spread over immense regions and was common
to all nomad tribes of higher Asia. The center of this great nomadic culture that so
powerfully influenced the art of its more civilized neighbors was in the Altai
Mountains, a region which abounds in gold and metal ore and in forest fauna often
portrayed on objects in "animal style."

It is difficult to say whether the "animal style" was associated with any
particular physical type of men. I am inclined to think that it originated among nomad
and hunting tribes of great ethnic variety, but living in similar surroundings, for only
in this way we are able to explain the immense spread of the "animal style"
from the steppes of South Russia to the very confines of China, and from the Siberian
forest country to the mighty heights of the Trans-Himalayas in Tibet.

Tibet has always been open to tribal migrations from the northeast. The forefathers of
modern Tibetans invaded the country from the northeast. The high table-lands of the
Koko-nor with an average elevation of some ten thousand feet and the surrounding
mountain country afforded sufficient grazing for the moving hordes and their cattle. It
is from this gigantic *place d'armes* that the hordes of ancient Tibetans,
displaced by some other mighty human avalanche, were forced to seek new pastures,
overrunning the valleys and plateaus of Tibet.

In historic times Tibetan tribes have had a good deal of intercourse with Iranian and
paleo-Asiatic tribes that roamed over the vast expanses of the Chinese borderland.
Modern research has established the fact that Iranian tribes were the carriers of the
"animal style." During the Han epoch (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) Iranian military
equipment was introduced into China, and with it came the rich ornamentation in the
neo-animal style, so-called to distinguish it from the Scythian animal style of south
Russian steppes.

The earliest known account of a penetration of foreign central Asian elements into the
country populated by Tibetan tribes (K'iang of the Chinese Annals) is found in the
*Shi-ki*, by the famous historian Ssi-ma ts'ien: "Up to the time when
Lao-shang, shan-yü of the Hiung-nu, killed the king of the Yue-chi (Iranians) and made a
drinking vessel out of his skull, the Yue-chi had lived between Tun-huang (now Sha-chou)
and the K'i-lien (a mountain southwest of Kan-chou fu) but when they were beaten by
the Hiung-nu, they fled to a distant country and crossed to the west of Yüan (Ferghana),
attacked Ta-hia (Bactria) and conquered it. Subsequently they had their capital in the
north of the K'ui-shui (Oxus) and made it the court of their king. The minority
which were left behind and were not able to follow them, took refuge among the
K'iang (Tibetans) of the Nan Shan and were called Siao-Yue-chi (small
Yue-chi)."

We are concerned here only with the end of the above passage. A section of the Yue-chi,
an Iranian tribe of central Asia inhabiting the modern Kansu Province and southern
Alashan (whether the Yue-chi were a homogeneous tribe of Scythian origin, or an
agglomeration of kindred tribes of similar habits of living, we are totally unable to
decide at present), had wandered into the mountain country south of the present Kansu
Province of China, and became gradually amalgamated with the autochthonous Tibetan
population of the mountains. These riding nomad tribes brought with them their nomad
culture and tribal epics. They also brought that highly conventionalized art of nomad
central Asia, distinguished by animal ornamentation and the long and heavy swords, which
are still the favorite arm of Tibetan nomads. Important finds of textiles and metal
objects in "neo-animal style" have been discovered by General P. K. Kozlov in
the Noin ula Mountains, north of Urga in Mongolia, but nothing was known about the
existence of this art in Tibet. From the discoveries of the Roerich Expedition, it
appears that the very same style was in vogue in the metal-working region of Derge, one
of the best art provinces of Tibet, and among the tribes of north and northeastern
Tibet. Among the Hor-pas it is still cultivated and the accompanying illustrations show
several objects in Tibetan "animal style."

(1) *Tinder and Flint Pouch*. The pouch comes from the western Hor region. It is
made of black towed leather, ornamented with brass figures of animals. It is distinctly
central Asian, and belongs to the "animal style." The animal figures represent
female deer with their young.

The execution of the animal figures and their decorative treatment attest the close
affinity of this object to the central Asian nomad art. In the center of the pouch is a
brass plate with representations of the eight happy signs (*ta-shi tag-gye*).

(2) *Tinder and Flint Pouch*. The pouch comes from the same region. It is made of
black towed leather, ornamented with brass figures of animals. We see on it two
conventionalized figures of foxes picking fruit from a tree. The treatment of the two
figures and the presence of the tree between them—are frequent on Scythian and Siberian
antiques.

(3) *A brass buckle representing a two-headed eagle inside a circle*. The buckle
comes from Ching-kar, a place west of Nag-chu. Plaques
representing two-headed eagles have been discovered in the Kuban barrows of northern
Caucasus. The two-headed eagle *motif* can be traced back even to the Hittite art
of Asia Minor.

Such flint pouches and buckles in "animal style" were found by us only among
the Hor-pas. The Chang-pas of the Great Lake region already have the ordinary Tibetan
flint pouches, ornamented with coral, turquoise and metal nails of silver, brass, but
seldom with gold.

(4) *Running Deer*. This figure of a running deer has been taken from a brass
charm box coming from Derge, now in the collection of Mr. S. N. Roerich. The eight happy
signs of Tibetan ornamentation are combined with the figures of running deer. The
deer's figure unmistakably belongs to the nomad art characterized by the
"animal style." The head of the deer is turned backward, and this is a
characteristic and frequently seen *motif* in Scythian and Siberian antiquities.
The treatment of the animal's muzzle and eyes—all have their analogies in the
antiquities found in the barrows of south Russian steppes and southern Siberia.

(5 and 6) Two of the illustrations shown have been taken from a silvered iron pen case
from Derge. On this pen case made of massive iron, among ordinary floral ornamentation
we see a stylized figure of a sitting deer and a swan. The *motif* of the sitting
deer, elks, or stags is well known in Scythian and Siberian antiquities. The figure of
the swan is already under the strong influence of Chinese ornamental art. This figure is
a product of a Chinese workshop producing art objects for the use of border tribes. It
is interesting to note that the swan on our pen case corresponds almost in every detail
to the figure of a long necked bird (a swan?) with spread wings, found on a piece of
embroidery, discovered by General P. K. Kozlov in the Noin ula Mountains. The pose of
the bird and the treatment of the wings are similar in both cases. The left wing is
raised, the right one is lowered and forms a sharp angle. There can be no doubt that the
two figures came from one common central Asian source, and represent some mythological
figures.

(7) *Lion plaque in S. N. Roerich Collection*. Another remarkable example of
central Asian nomad art in the "animal style" is found in the collection of S.
N. Roerich. He drew my attention to an iron silvered plaque in relief coming from Derge
in northeastern Tibet. This unique object represents a lion with his head turned to the
left toward the onlooker. The animal's mane hangs about its head in thick tufts. The
treatment of the animal's body is unusually powerful. It is represented sitting on
its hind legs with its tail raised as if attracted by some noise and ready to jump. The
background is formed by two stylized trees. Under the lion's figure one sees a hilly
country, with highly stylized hills.

It is difficult to determine what was the use of the plaque. The two square openings on
both sides seem to be made for a piece of leather, which was passed under the plaque.
The plaque could be used as a breast ornament or as a buckle for a belt. Among the
objects discovered by the Kozlov Expedition in the tumuli of the Noin ula Mountains, is
found a metal plaque in relief representing a standing bull with his head lowered and
turned to the left.

In comparing the two plaques, one can readily see the similarity of composition. On both
plaques the principal figure is that of an animal standing from right to left with head
turned toward the onlooker. It is difficult to say whether the Kozlov plaque represents
a yak. I am inclined to think that it represents an aurochs. The treatment of the
animal's fur in both cases is analogical. Both plaques have a background of two
stylized trees. The plaque in the S. N. Roerich Collection has as its background two
trees branching out over the lion's head. These trees suggest a country with a
warmer climate, whereas the Kozlov plaque has two pine trees that speak of the northern
origin of the object. It seems that the two objects depict an animal
*motif* current in the southern parts of this artistic province and the aurochs
plaque on its northern border. Both plaques depict highly stylized mountains, probably
covered by forest.

Mr. Percival Yetts, in his article on the Kozlov finds, gives the opinion that the
Kozlov plaque served as a *phalara* or harness ornament. He draws attention to
certain features that recall the Sassanian silver plate found around the upper course of
the Kama.

The ancient plaque in the S. N. Roerich Collection is a striking example of the nomad
art, as it is found among the tribes of northern Tibet and the great metal-working
region of Derge and Amdo.

All these objects irrefutably attest the existence of the ancient central Asian nomad
art in Tibet. The mountainous character of the country with its inaccessible valleys,
helped to preserve many reminiscences of a remote antiquity, and its nomad population
treasures much of its central Asian past. So far attention has been paid only to the
religious art of Tibet, its colorful painted banners and fine bronzes. Now a new
province of Tibetan popular art has been opened, that is the pre-Buddhistic art of
Tibetan nomad tribes, relic of a remote past.