An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

BOOT AN. 137US, we left Wandipore ; but not till we had visited and taken leaveof the Raja, who proposed, when we leftPunukka, that we shouldmeet him midway at a place called Telagong, and that we shouldproceed together to Tassisudon ; to which end, he promised to giveus notice of the day fixed for his departure.It was about seven o'clock when we descended the hillof Wandipore,passing by a sortof barn, where a tame elephant was kept, theonly one I had met with in Bootan. The steep and narrow roadspreclude the use of them hej'e ;and though they are so very abundantimmediately on the southern fi"ontier, yet is this animal, at but ashort distance from his native woods, shut up, and treated as an objectmerely of curiosity.We were fortunate in our day :the weather was serene, the atmosphereclear, and the sun shone full upon the distant mountains. Inthe rear of all, swelling high above the rest, the mountains of Ghassawere distinctly visible, clothed with perpetual snow, whose smoothunsullied surface was nobly contrasted by the deeply shaded rockyeminences in the lore-ground. A few luminous and fleecy cloudshung on the border of the horizon, which, asthey verged towards thesnow, assumed a darker and thicker appearance, adding much to theeffect of thisbeautiful view.Ghassa is the capital of a district, and the station of a Zoompoon,or provincial governor.The highest mountain in its neighbourhood,whose head is eternally crowned with snow, sends forth a spring, ofwater at its base, of so great a degree of heat, that few are Ibundcapable of bearing, even for a short time, any part of the body