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TOPOGEAPHY. 51
here is the temporary capital of the south-western province of Tibet, Gartok, on the
Gartung. The name means " High Market," and the place probably contains the
most elevated hay market in the world. In August and September the little clay
or adobe houses become the centre of a town consisting of tents, each by its shape
betraying the origin of the trader occupying it. The dwellings of the Tibetans,
covered with long black-haired yak hides, contrast with the white pavilions of the
Hindus, while the Yurts of the Kashgarian and other Tatars are distinguished by
the bright colours of their felt awnings. But in winter Gartok is left to the winds
and snow-sleighs, the traders returning to their distant homes, and the few residents
retiring to Gargitnza, a more sheltered village on the Gartung, above the junction
of this river with the Indus. Radokh, near Lake Mognalari, is a mere heap of
hovels grouped round a fort and monastery.
The plateau lying east of the Upper Indus valley has from the remotest times
been known by the name of Sarthol, or " Land of Gold," and here are still grouped
a few communities of gold-seekers.
The workings had long been abandoned, owing
to the severity of the climate, but were reopened at the beginning of this century
by the Tibetan Government. Here Tok-yalung is probably the highest place on
the globe inhabited throughout the year, standing as it does some 16,900 feet above
the sea, or nearly 650 feet above Mont Blanc, in an atmosphere scarcely half as
dense as that on the surface of the ocean. Yet it is chiefly frequented in winter,
when as many as six hundred tents of miners are hidden away in deep hollows,
above which nothing is visible except their cones of black hair. In summer their
number is reduced by one-half, because the neighbouring springs then become so
saline that the water is unpotable until purified by the freezing process. In this
part of the plateau salt and borax are everywhere found by merely digging up the
surface. The other gold-workings are less productive than those of Tok-yalung,
and according to Nain Singh none of them, except Tok-daurakpa, lying much
farther east, possess any economic importance. The annual yield of all the mines
in West Tibet is only about 8,000, which is forwarded to India through Gartok.
In the Tsangbo valley the highest inhabited points are either the convents or
the postal stations. Here the cold is too intense to allow any permanently
occupied villages to be formed. Yet real towns begin to appear in the valley at
more than double the elevation of the Simplon and Gothard. Tculiim, capital ol
the Dogthol district, is 14,000, and Jang/ac/ich, at the junction of the two Nepal
routes from Kirong and Nilam, 13,850 feet above the sea. Shigaizt, or Digarchi,
capital of the province of Tsang, lies at a relatively
lower altitude in the side
valley of the Penang-chu, 11,730 feet high. Above it are the houses and temples
of Tashi-lumpo, or " Exalted Glory," residence of the Tashi-lama, Teshu-lama, or
Panchcn-rimWhch ; that is, the " Jewel of Intelligence." The walls of the holy
city have a circuit of nearly a mile and a quarter, and enclose over three hundred
edifices grouped round the palace and sacred monuments. From 3,000 to 4,000
lamas occupy the monastery, whose gilded belfries and red walls tower above the
mean houses of the lower town.
Most of the other towns in this region also consist of low dwellings commanded