Western Tibet and the British borderland : the sacred country of Hindus and Buddhists, with an account of the government, religion, and customs of its peoples / by Charles A. Sherring ; with a chapter by T.G. Longstaff describing an attempt to climb Gurla Mandhata. With illustrations and maps.

  • Sherring, Charles A. (Charles Atmore)
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Western Tibet and the British borderland : the sacred country of Hindus and Buddhists, with an account of the government, religion, and customs of its peoples / by Charles A. Sherring ; with a chapter by T.G. Longstaff describing an attempt to climb Gurla Mandhata. With illustrations and maps. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/406 (page 9)
    ASKOT AND THE ABORIGINAL RAJ IS The most picturesque, as well as the most interesting, spot, from which to commence this narrative, is Askot, distant some seventy miles from Almora and ninety miles from Taklakot, the latter being the first large town one meets on entering Tibet, where there is the seat of a Jongpen and a large monastery ruled by a powerful lama. The most direct approach to Askot from the plains of India is along a fairly good road running parallel to the frontier of Nepal, the large mart of Tanakpur, which is at the foot of the Himalayas, being only some eighty miles distant; should at any time the forty miles intervening between Tanakpur and the railway at Pilibhit be linked up, Tibet would be directly brought into close contact with some of the large cities and manufacturing centres of India, such as Delhi, Cawnpore, and Lucknow, and indirectly with Calcutta and Bombay. In the afternoon after our arrival the Raj bar of Askot paid us a formal visit accompanied by his two eldest sons. He is a fine specimen of a native gentleman, and has always received the greatest con- sideration at the hands of Government. He claims descent from the Kings of Katyur, who ruled from Kabul to Nepal, and who have left a memento of their name in that portion of the Almora District which is known as Katyur. Askot, as I have said, commands the roads leading to the principal passes into Tibet, while, from its