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

TIBET. 223journey had lately lain, till turning to the left, it opened at once intoa spacious amphitheatrCj formed by the receding hills :in the centre ofthe arch, was seen a very handsome village, situated at the foot of arock, called Nainee, belonging to Teshoo Loomboo. The buildingswere regular and clean, some of them bordered, others striped withred, and being partly hid by branches of willows, had to us a new andextremely neat appearance.The country now opened and improved, beginning to appear betterpeopled ; and the view of trees and houses, afforded a very gratefulchange from the dreariness of our late prospects, which I have notseen equalled, in any tract of country through which I ever travelledbefore.The greatest part of the space from Phari to this spot, upwardsof fifty miles, is certainly very little removed, either in aspect, population,or culture, from a perfect desert. The hills were still bare, ofa stiff, dry, unkindly composition : some of them were crowned withhigh perpendicular steeps like ramparts ;whence the mouldering rock,split and detached, had sloped their sides with a loose gravelly soildown to the plain.Observing the manner in which many of them seemshivered by the frost, one would conclude, that not many ages arenecessary to reduce them to a level with the ground below.On passing round a projecting point, the castle of Jhansu-jeung camein view, at the distance of five or six miles, standing upon a rock,which from its perpendicular height, and the irregularity of its cliffs,if not impregnable, must at least be extremely difficult to be subduedby the assaults of any Tartar enemy.