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

TIBET.^01heavy and continued rains fill the rivers to tlieir brim, which run offfrom hence with rapidity, to assist in inundating Bengal.From Octoberto March, a clear and uniform sky succeeds, seldom obscured eitherby fogs or clouds. For three months of this season, a degree of coldis felt, far greater perhaps than is knoAvn to prevail in Europe. Itsextreme severity is more particularly confined to the southern boundaryof Tibet, near that elevated range of mountains which divides itfrom Assam, Bootan, and Nipal.The summits of these are covered allthe year with snow, and theirvicinity is remarkable, at all seasons, for the dryness of the winds.The range is confined between the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventhdegrees of northern latitude. During the winter, a practice is adoptedin the neighbourhood of these mountains, similar to that in use in thecoldest parts of North America, but insome respects more complete.I mean, that of preparing meat and fish for carriage, by the action ofextreme cold ; a mode more particularly adopted by the Indians,who convey to their markets, at many hundred miles distance, theirpoultry, game, and fish, in a frozen state. But in Tibet, the practiceis confined, as far as came to my knowledge, to the preservation ofmutton alone, and the process is extremely simple. They kill, clean,and strip the animal of his skin ; he is then placed upon his legs, in acommodious place, and leftexposed to a free access of frosty air, untilall the juices in his body are completely dried up, and the wholebecomes one uniformly stiffened substance. It is then in a fit state forcarriage, to any part of Tibet, and for keeping 4o any season of theyear. No salt is used in the preparation. I had supplies of this