The vast mountainous country north of the Nag-chu-ka district of Tibet is known under the name of Hor, and the nomad tribes which inhabit it are called Hor-pas. In order to distinguish it from the Five Hor Principalities (Tib. Hor-sde-lnga) on the Szu-ch'uan border, the region north of Nag-chu-ka is called Nup-hor (Tib. Nub-hor) or western Hor.

The region of the eastern Hor has been visited and described by the French explorer M. Jacques Bacot during his remarkable voyage of 1909.

The boundary lines of the vast province are ill-defined. The frontier lines usually run along a mountain ridge, but in many cases the Hor tribes are found to graze their cattle on both sides of the frontier. The southern boundary of the province runs along the mountain chain in which the Ta-sang La (altitude 16,570 feet) is situated, although the narrow mountain valley immediately south of the pass is still a part of the Paöro tribal territory.

To the west, the Hor region borders upon the tribal territory of Amdo tsho-nak, inhabited by emigrants from Amdo and governed by the Joint-Governors of Nag-chu. The northern boundary of the region is the Dri-chu or the Yang-tze, north of which lie the uninhabited Tibetan highlands, the chang-thang proper. The country round Dri-chu or Dri-chu-ka has a population of some twenty tents, occupied mostly by militia outposts and their families, who graze their herds of domestic yaks on the southern banks of the river.

To the east and the northeast, the Hor region stretches far toward Tashi gompa and the Nang-chen Province, which is governed by the Chinese authorities of Sining.

I shall give here only a very general description of the physical aspect of the country; detailed descriptions have already been given in the previous chapters on the passage of the expedition.

The Hor-sde or the Hor region is a country of rolling grass-covered hills, broad valleys with marshy ground and several important snow ranges, which mostly run from west to east. To the east, the country is more intersected and its landscape, with narrow and deeply cut valleys and towering cliffs, reminds the traveler of the peripheral regions of eastern Tibet.

The chief orographical feature is the high latitudinal range of the Thang La, the watershed between the upper course of the Dri-chu (Yang-tze), the Dza-chu (Mekong) and the Salween (Nag-chu?). Three great rivers of Asia have their source within the boundaries of this region, Yang-tze, the Salween and the Mekong. The mountain land between the upper course of the Mekong and the Salween is as yet unexplored. No American or European traveler has so far crossed the eastern offshoots of the mighty Thang La. The region abounds in hot sulphur springs and subsoil springs of fresh water. Its flat-bottomed valleys are covered with a kind of coarse sedge, which affords ample grazing to the herds of horned cattle and flocks of sheep. The grass country of the Hor is one of the largest cattle-producing districts of Tibet and is one of the coveted possessions of the Lhasa Government.

The climate is severe and terrific western winds sweep across undulating hills and uplands. A long and bitterly cold winter of six months freezes the country and renders it desolate and inhospitable. A snowy winter often causes a terrible murrain of cattle and many wealthy families are frequently reduced to poverty after several stormy weeks that bury the country under four or five feet of snow.

Spring starts only in late April or May, when the rivers open up and the ground, saturated by melting snow, turns green with fresh grass. The spring is followed by a short summer of some two months during which period the region receives most of its rain, which begins to fall by the end of July and continues through the whole of August. Clear, sunny days are rare during summer and the summits of the mountains are hidden between thick, rainy clouds. Then comes the cool and clear autumn with its bracing windless days and cold but clear nights—the best traveling season throughout the highlands of Tibet. I have already written about the tremendous variations in temperature within twenty-four hours which are characteristic of Tibet and other desert regions of inner Asia. This amplitude of temperature and the hurricane winds that blow in late autumn and early spring, have greatly contributed in the formation of the present relief of the region.

Geographically speaking, the same grass upland stretches as far as the snow range of the Shang-shung kang-ri, which forms the southern buttress of the northern Tibetan upland. The neighboring administrative district of Nag-chu is only an administrative division and represents no geographical unit. The same is true of other neighboring districts, such as Nam-ru, Nag-tshang, Chö-khor.

During the long period of Chinese domination, the present Hor district formed part of the vast Jya-de (rJya-sde) Province which stretched as far east as Ri-wo-che, and was governed by a special Chinese Commissioner residing in Lhasa. Since the Chinese Revolution of 1911, and the proclamation of independence by the present Tibetan Government, the Hor region has been incorporated into the territory of the Lama Kingdom of Lhasa and made a province administered by a Frontier High Commissioner, known by the title of Hor-chyi-chyap (Tib. Hor-spyi-khyab) or the High Commissioner of Hor.

Recent authors seem to have a tendency to erase the name of Hor from the map of Tibet. Dr. Sven Hedin says in his great work, Southern Tibet: "The Tibetans call the Turks Hor or Hor-pa and the Mongolians Sok or Sok-pa (Sok-po). There are no Turks until you come to the northern side of the Kwen-lun Mountains. But in spite of almost all modern maps, there is no single Turk in the heart of the Tibetan Plateau land. And there is nobody else either, for the part of Tibet which is generally called Hor on our maps is not inhabited."

Della Penna and Nain Singh, one of the ablest native surveyors of the Indian Trigonometrical Survey, called "Hor" the whole of the highland region west of the Nga-ri kor-sum Province, and the country north of the thirty-second latitude has been marked "Hor" on European maps. In reality, the name belongs only to the district of Jya-de, northeast of the Tengri-nor, and west of the Amdo tsho-nak. In Tibetan historical annals, the name "Hor" or "Jya-hor" commonly designates tribes of Mongol or central Asian origin, which, since the eighth to ninth centuries A.D. continuously overran Tibet and especially the northeastern border.

In the modern colloquial language, the word "Hor" represents a Tibetan ethnic name for nomad tribes of mixed origin that dwell between the Panag-Golok tribes and the Chang-pas of the Great Lake region. The admixture of foreign blood in them is prominent, and we easily discern Mongolian, Turkish, and even Homo alpinus types, the last probably due to an admixture of Iranian or Scythian blood. They have preserved dim recollections of their remote central Asian origin and even now look more toward Peking and the great lands of central Asia, than toward Lhasa. For them Lhasa is only a temporary ruler, who severed their century-old connection with China.

I shall base my account of the Hor-pas on my personal observations made during a five months' stay among the five Hor tribes, which dwell north and south of the Thang La Range. They form five shorka or tribal divisions, which are designated by the names of Tse-mar, Atak-Memar, Atak-Thomi, Kömora, and Páöro.

By far the most important of the five is the Tse-mar shorka ruled by a pön-po or chief with the title of de-pön (sde-dpon) or district chief, who is considered to be the eldest among the five Hor chiefs. All of these five tribal divisions are of unequal size. Whereas the Tse-mar shorka has about a thousand tents with a population of some forty-five hundred to five thousand individuals, the Kömora and Páöro tribal divisions have only about four hundred tents each. More populous tribes inhabit the upper course of the Mekong and the lower valleys of the Salween, but as I have already told, the vast mountainous region between the upper course of the Mekong and the Salween is still unexplored and it is impossible to give approximate figures of its population.

The Hor tribes have so far preserved their tribal organization and enjoy a certain amount of autonomy, which is, however, rapidly passing away. There can be no doubt that the Lhasa Government intends to create a firm administration in the outlying provinces. The High Commissioner is always an official of the fourth grade and is the chief representative of the central government in the region. He tries cases of inter-tribal feuds, supervises the collection of taxes, and insures the safety of trade routes crossing the territory of the region. During the cold winter months he usually resides somewhere in the eastern districts of the region, sometimes at Byi-ru gompa or some other monastery or town. The heavy expenditures incurred by the local population which is obliged to supply foodstuffs, fodder, and fuel for the High Commissioner, his troops and retainers, necessitate frequent changes in official residences. During the summer months the High Commissioner is often found touring in the district. This touring is a source of much trouble to the local population. The tribes have to furnish pack animals, riding horses for the numerous retainers of the Commissioner, organize relay stages at convenient points along the Commissioner's route and depute hundreds of men and women to attend to the needs of the party. Small officials use these occasions to enrich themselves by taking bribes in money and cattle. If a case is to be tried the court clerks, who record the evidence, have to be bribed before the case goes for final decision to the High Commissioner. In the performance of his official duties, the High Commissioner of Hor is assisted by two officials of the fifth grade, who act as his advisors.

The only occupation of the country is cattle breeding and the tax that the region pays to the Government of Lhasa since 1912, consists solely of butter, wool, hides, and other produce of cattle breeding. Cattle breeding has always been the national occupation of the Hor-pas. It is even nowadays conducted along very primitive lines, as a result of which the breeds of horned cattle and horses are rapidly deteriorating. The Hor-pas collect no hay for the winter, believing it to be harmful to the deities of earth. The cattle subsist solely on grass, and in winter have to find their food by scratching the snow with their hoofs. In this search for fodder, the horses often spend their last forces and die from want of feeding and complete exhaustion. All winter, the herds of cattle and horses have to stay in the open, without any shelter to protect them from the cold winter nights. Only the strongest survive this severe test of endurance.

Notwithstanding the poor conditions of cattle breeding, the region is still comparatively rich in herds of yaks and flocks of sheep, but old inhabitants assured us that in their younger days, some thirty years ago, the region owned immense herds of domestic yaks and flocks of sheep and that for the past thirty or forty years the number of heads in the herds have rapidly diminished. This is especially noticeable with flocks of sheep. It is a well-known fact that the number of sheep is decreasing throughout central Asia.

Yaks furnish the chief products of the region—hides, yak hair, yak tails, butter, and other milk products. The yak is also the chief beast of burden throughout the district. The flocks of sheep furnish wool, which is either taken by the Government or sold to private trading establishments which transport wool to Lhasa and from there by the Gyangtse-Chumbi trade route to India. Horses are found only in small numbers. They are used almost exclusively as riding animals and one family seldom has more than three to five horses. The region does not export horses, and most of the animals are employed locally. The Hor breed of horses is small but hardy. A great defect is a rather heavy head, hard mouth and general clumsiness on the move. It is not a horse for fast riding—an animal bred in a vast steppe country; it is merely a caravan animal well suited to stony trails. These horses are never shod and this makes them extremely sure footed and invaluable on bad mountain tracks.

An average nomad household in the region of Hor possesses from twenty to fifty yaks and from a hundred to three hundred sheep. Horses are owned by the wealthy men, who sometimes have big droves of them. The largest herds of yaks and horses which we saw during our passage, belonged to monasteries or rich merchants from Nag-chu and Lhasa. The great monastery of Dre-pung has large herds of domestic yaks and flocks of sheep in the neighboring Nag-chu and Nag-tshang districts. North of Thang La we met a herd of some five hundred yaks owned by a wealthy trader from Nag-chu. This herd was in charge of a local nomad who was responsible for the animals and had to supply the fixed amount of yak hair, tails, hides, butter, and other milk products.

The chief economic wealth of Tibet lies in these nomad cattle-breeding districts. Deprive Tibet of its cattle-breeding regions and the country would starve.

The agricultural districts of Tibet are unable to feed the whole of the country's population and produce almost nothing for export, except a certain yearly output of cloth and sacred objects manufactured by the monasteries. All the valuable products of Tibetan export to China, India, and Mongolia, such as wool, hides, woolen cloth, yak tails and furs are produced by the nomad districts. It is the poor, ragged nomad, living at an altitude of some fifteen thousand feet, who enriches the Government and furnishes its articles of export. This nomad population is a powerful economic factor. A severe, snowy winter which destroys vast numbers of cattle is a calamity for the entire country. For the past few years, the northern Tibetan uplands north and south of the Thang La Range experienced a succession of winters of exceptional severity and snowfall. The whole countryside was covered with snow and cattle and sheep perished by thousands. As a result of these unhappy years, the cattle breeding in the nomad districts north of Tibet proper suffered a heavy blow.

A considerable portion of the region's yearly produce goes to the Government as a tax. The tax that is collected in the name of the Lhasa Government is in proportion to the wealth of the individual taxpayer, and varies in amount according to the needs of the Government. An extraordinary tax is sometimes imposed on a district as a fine. The tax is sometimes abolished when a district has suffered badly from snowfalls, previous drafts of cattle, or an epizoötic disease. During the lengthy period of Chinese rule, the Hor region was exempt from payment of regular taxes and was only expected to present tribute to the Imperial Court of China once in four years. The yearly tax imposed on the western Hor tribes by the Tibetan Government is one of the chief causes for a certain amount of dissatisfaction noticeable in the region. The former connection with China is still apparent in the region and is well demonstrated by the fact that the nomad population prefers Chinese currency to that of Lhasa.

The universally accepted form of trade is barter. Most of the trade goes to Sining and the eastern districts of Tibet. The Hor region has the advantage of being situated in the vicinity of several important trade routes of Tibet—the Mongol-Tsaidam route, the Sining route, the Tachienlu route, and the northern Ladak route. All of these routes lead to Nag-chu, the chief Tibetan entrepôt of frontier trade. The Lhasan merchants, who had established trading stations throughout the region, are constantly endeavoring to turn the local trade southward and make the Hor tribes dependent on Lhasan produce. Undoubtedly with the practical closing of the Sino-Tibetan border, and the existing support of the Tibetan Government, their activities will be greatly facilitated. Besides government trade agencies, the country is swarming with petty tradesmen, representing private interest or big monastery concerns. In the temporary camp of the High Commissioner of Hor at Chu-na-khe we found beside government trade agents and customs officials, a whole army of private traders and do-nyers or representatives of important Lhasan firms. All of them were carefully watching the Sining-Lhasa trade route and it is a miracle that their interests did not clash and that all of them seemed to make sufficient profit to warrant the establishment of permanent trading stations.

In exchange for the land products, the Lhasan and Sining merchants offer miscellaneous articles of Chinese and foreign manufacture. The Sining and Tachienlu traders bring into the country Chinese silks, brick tea and other articles specially manufactured by Chinese firms for Tibetan trade. The Lhasan merchant displays in his tent haberdashery, foreign-made cloth, Chinese- and Japanese-made medicines and enameled wares which have recently become the fashion in remote districts of inner Asia.

A Tibetan trader usually spends his days sitting in his tent among bales and cases of merchandise, receiving visits from local headmen and nomads. All squat on the floor round the fire, drink endless cups of butter-tea and smoke the long-stemmed Chinese pipes. Business is discussed and the assistants of the tshong-pön or merchant take down the quantity and quality of local products offered in exchange for articles of foreign manufacture. Haberdashery is in great demand and small, cheap articles command exorbitant prices. A very brisk trade is done in brass army buttons, which are imported chiefly from India. A wealthy nomad is immensely proud of his buttons with the English inscription Nepal.

A large trade is done in firearms and ammunition. Modern magazine rifles, mostly of military patterns, are brought into the country from China, Mongolia, and India. Berdane rifles, Martinis, Russian service rifles, Lee-Enfield rifles, Mausers, Mannlichers, and Japanese Arisaka rifles are commonly seen slung on the back of Hor-pa riders, who possess a good knowledge of modern firearms. All throughout the Hor region modern firearms are prominent. Rifle butts are manufactured at Nag-chu and the execution of the butt and the adjusting of the shank to the barrel are quite remarkable. In constant demand are the Mauser automatic pistols, the favorite firearm of Tibetan and Mongol officers. A good Mauser pistol with a hundred cartridges is sold for four hundred ngü-sangs or approximately two hundred dollars.

A man with a Mauser pistol can safely travel through a robber-infested region and no one will think of attacking him. This safety enjoyed by travelers armed with Mauser pistols led to the manufacture of Mauser-shaped wooden holsters for revolvers of different patterns. At present many of the brigands know about the trick and usually manage to find out the truth.

One of the members of the expedition had a Belgian revolver which he carried in a leather Mauser holster. A Panag brigand who once paid a visit to our camp and evinced a great interest in our firearms, quickly discovered the pattern of the revolver and taking our assistant by the arm, asked him with a sly smile, "Do you think yours is a real Mauser?"

Such is the economic life of the region and its place among the fifty-four administrative districts of Tibet. Let us now describe the people themselves, their life and religion in the dreary uplands of Nup-hor.

The Hor-pas are found in considerable numbers only south of the Thang La Range. To the north of this range, their encampments are scattered at great distances from each other. As the result of recent upheavals and successive famines brought about by several snowy winters, the nomad population has diminished. Many left their native highlands to seek their fortune in the fertile districts of eastern Tibet. Others haunt the vicinity of the trade routes as beggars and robbers, ready to attack lonely travelers or small parties of pilgrims.

When crossing the wind-swept uplands of northern Tibet with its almost terrifying barrenness, one wonders where one could possibly meet human beings. Only utter misfortune could force men to live on these desolate mountains and plains. Sometimes, after many days of hard traveling, when almost every day some of the caravan animals succumb to the hardships and have to be abandoned, one sees a square stone wall and heaps of dung. This was probably an encampment of nomads. Dead carcasses of domestic yaks confirm the supposition. After these first traces of human activity, one travels again for several days more without seeing even a sign of nomads or their herds. The blizzard sweeps the countryside, and the surrounding mountains are hidden behind a thick, white mist. The traveler rides with his head bent forward, his shoulders and chest covered with a thick layer of wet snow. It is hardly possible to look ahead and only the hardy yaks are able to find the right direction in this snow-bound region. Suddenly one hears bells in the distance, an almost uncanny sound amid the howling of the storm. Then something dark is seen ahead. Strange looking riders with long matchlocks swung on their backs and riding small shaggy horses, emerge from the mist. They stop and some of them dismount, this being a sign that they are peaceful travelers, intending no harm. Their faces are covered by crudely made masks, and their heads are protected by large fur bonnets that completely cover the head and ears and are held by a string tied under the chin. Long unkempt tresses of black hair hang on both sides of the face. Dirty gray sheepskin coats and high boots made of thick Tibetan cotton cloth protect the men from the bitter cold. All are armed with long swords and matchlocks, sometimes even modern rifles. Large ornamented cartridge belts are worn crosswise over the fur coats. Occasionally a woman accompanies the men, dressed exactly like them, only her sheepskin coat is longer and she carries no arms. This is probably a party of nomads on a hunting expedition after wild yaks. During such hunting tours, they live on the raw meat of the animals they kill and on small portions of tsam-pa—the national meal of Tibet. They carry no tents but spend the night under the open sky, sleeping in a strange crouching attitude, and are often completely buried in snow. M. Jacques Bacot says in his book on eastern Tibet, "Non seulement les hommes de cette race dorment accroupis, mais c'est encore dans cette posture qu'ils sont malades et qu'ils meurent." Their horses, these hardy little animals, that live on dry meat, tsam-pa, and tea leaves, stand beside their sleeping masters, their backs turned to the raging wind. Such is the sight of a temporary nomad camp in the wilderness of the Tibetan upland. One tries to speak to these nomads and hears strange guttural sounds, so unlike the fluent and soft speech of Lhasan Tibetans.

After this first encounter, the traveler again journeys for several days without finding even a trace of human beings. Then one day, he may see a huge herd of black and brown domestic yaks coming down the mountain slope. Wild looking men in gray sheepskin coats drive the herd. They circle about their animals, sometimes whistling, sometimes making peculiar shrill sounds that cut the rarefied atmosphere. These men wear no head covering and their long unkempt tresses play in the wind. All of the men are busy making strings out of sheep wool, which they roll between the palms of the hands and then twirl on a small piece of wood. This is the favorite occupation of nomads while driving their herds or squatting at camp fires. The presence of a herd of domestic yaks indicates that a nomad encampment is somewhere near.

After a short ride, the traveler notices several large black tents in a side valley, sheltered from the winds. Big, black dogs with large red and blue collars rush toward the road and bark fiercely. Tibet has a peculiar breed of enormous dogs, known to Europeans under the name of Tibetan mastiffs. They sometimes almost reach the size of a small donkey, with thick black fur, broad and powerful chest, and a huge head with powerful jaws. They are known to attack wolves, and I myself knew of one which successfully tackled a snow leopard. To render these animals less dangerous, the nomads tie up one of the dog's front legs to its collar, making it impossible for him to attack and harm travelers. At night the dogs are let loose.

The Tibetan nomad tent, usually called ba-nag or "black tent" has often been compared to a gigantic spider. It is made of black yak wool, and consists of two halves connected by narrow strips at the places in its roof where the two tent poles are fixed. A hole in the roof is thus left open to let out the smoke. The tent is kept erect by two vertical poles and numerous ropes, which are usually very long, for a long rope holds the tent better during the frequent windstorms. No iron or wooden pegs are used, the ropes being mostly tied to bowlders. Occasionally yak horns are used as tent pegs. Such tents have always two entrances, one at the front and one at the back. In the case of a chief's dwelling, several tents may be pitched together so as to form one long, large room. These tents are usually very spacious and permit several families to quarter together.

The furniture is extremely primitive. Rugs or felts are seldom used as floor covering except in wealthy households. The middle of the tent is occupied by one or more fireplaces. It is the duty of the infirm and aged to look after the fire. Neither altars, nor Tibetan low tables are found in the usual nomad tent. Such luxuries are seen only in the tents of the tribal chiefs or wealthy traders and lamas. The tent of the common man is filled with riding and packsaddles, bags of butter and tsam-pa, hides, and wooden tea churns.

Newly born lambs and young sheep share the tent with their masters. The family bed is a dirty heap of sheepskins, thrown in a corner by day and spread out around the fireplace at night. From the outside the tent is protected by low walls of stones or more often of dry dung. Such a wall protects it from wind and dust, which otherwise would easily penetrate beneath. The summer tents of chieftains, often used as guest tents for important officials and travelers, are made of white cloth with blue and dark red designs sewn on their roofs. The designs represent the eight happy signs of the Buddhist ornamentation, sometimes the Wheel of Law or figures of lions artfully combined with floral ornaments. We have already seen that similar tents are used by Tsaidam Mongols during their travels. These guest tents are sometimes of huge dimensions, and the palatial tent erected for the Dalai Lama while His Holiness is on tour, is said to accommodate about three hundred persons. The inside of such guest tents is always furnished with costly Chinese and Tibetan rugs, white felts, mattresses, and low tables on which stand the Tibetan teacups with their silver supports and covers.

Most of the household work is done by women, who milk the cows, prepare butter and Tibetan dry-cheese or chu-ra, tan skins, and spin the Tibetan homespun cloth. Men are usually away with caravans, which start in the summer months for inner Tibet to pay tribute to the Government in butter, wool, and homespun cloth, and return in late autumn before the snow has blocked the passes, with loads of barley and tsam-pa for winter consumption. When at home, the men guard the herds of yaks and sheep, by no means an easy duty at those altitudes.

Accustomed to hard work round the camp, the woman is often stronger physically than the man and extremely industrious. The Tibetan woman has a well-founded reputation over the whole of Tibet and the Himalayan States of India for hard work. She rises early and lights the fires, brings in water, if a brook or stream is near by, but usually uses snow from the neighboring ravines. While the water for tea is being boiled, the housewife goes out to look after the herds of yaks and flocks of sheep. Sheep are set free from the stone inclosures in which they are kept during the cold night, protected by Tibetan dogs. Meanwhile the head of the family, if he happens to be at home, gets up, throws on his bare shoulders his sheepskin and takes his place at the fire. The whole family, which may be several families living together, or several brothers having one common wife, gets up and squats at the fireplace. The tent fills with the loud murmur of recited morning prayers. After the return of the housewife, tea is drunk, large lumps of butter being thrown into wooden teacups filled with tea. Tea drinking continues for some time. Tsam-pa is mixed with tea and then rolled into small balls which are swallowed. A rather savory dish is prepared from dry tsam-pa mixed with good quality butter and Tibetan cheese. It is seldom that one finds fresh butter, for the nomad's butter is usually several months old and emits an unpleasant odor that permeates the tent and the clothing of its occupants.

After the morning tea, everyone starts the daily work. The housewife and her women proceed to milk the cows and the men go to perform various outdoor duties. Some hunt, others keep watch over the large herds of domestic yaks and horses. In regions infested with brigands, shepherds are seen armed and mounted, ready to resist any attempt on the part of the robbers to drive off the herd. In the afternoon, the women of the camp busy themselves with spinning, tanning of skins, and other domestic work. In the evening toward sunset the whole family assembles once more. The women bring in the fresh milk and the family partake of an evening meal consisting of the same tea, tsam-pa, and sometimes dry raw mutton. The consumption of raw meat is considered very wholesome. Each member of the family produces a sheep bone and cleanly cuts the meat from it with a knife.

After the meal is over evening prayers are murmured and occasionally incense imported from Lhasa is burned. The men squat on the floor by the fire, telling each other stories and local news brought in by passing caravans. Some smoke the long Chinese pipes, which are imported from Tachienlu and Sining. If one of the family members knows how to sing he may chant the ancient ballad of Kesar, the mighty warrior king, who conquered Tibet in the past and is expected to reappear in this world to establish the kingdom of righteousness. I remember these squatting figures with faces lit by the reflection of fire, talking late into the night about the heroic deeds of King Kesar and his seven warrior friends. The usual dull expression of the nomad suddenly lights with an inner flame that conveys to you better than words, that the ancient martial spirit is still glimmering. The fire burns out and crouching figures of men with heads bent low to the knees and tresses of long black hair hanging about them, fade into the darkness.

The hard life led by these nomads strikes one by its total absence of elementary comfort. It seems at times that they were born to suffer for some past sins, and patiently endure the torture of their present existence on the bleak uplands of Tibet. A nomad tribesman will never think of lying down at night and stretching out his weary limbs. On the contrary, he will subject himself to the trial of sleeping in a crouching posture on the cold, frozen ground of the tent. Comfort does not exist for him. I remember having seen a wounded Hor-pa militiaman carried into a tent and deposited on the ground, his head resting on the sharp edge of a brass caldron. I tried to move his head and place it on a mattress, but the wounded man moved his head back on the caldron's edge. It seemed that he was unable to conceive of even a moment of relative comfort. A remarkable psychology is this, full of negation of one's own body.

The nomads, who form a large portion of Tibet's population, present a very degenerate type. This is particularly true of the western part of the nomad country and the higher mountain valleys of the Trans-Himalayas. The arctic climate of the Tibetan uplands and life in higher mountain valleys, often at an altitude of sixteen thousand to seventeen thousand feet, have checked their mental and physical development. Scurvy is common among them. The men and women of the tribes living around Nag-chu and the neighboring district of the Great Lakes are short and fleshy, with prominent cheek bones and curly hair.

The nomad tribes of northeastern Tibet and the Hor-pas have a stronger and finer physique. Among them we often find tall men with long, refined features. The women, with rare exceptions, are short in stature, having broad faces and prominent cheek bones. It is an interesting and inexplainable fact that whereas the type of men varies according to tribe and locality, the type of women remains the same throughout the nomad regions of Tibet.

The foreign origin of the Hor-pas is manifested in their appearance. Whereas the Chang-pas of the Lake region and the mountain tribes of the Trans-Himalayas are mostly all brachycephals, the Hor-pas commonly show dolichocephalic indexes. Types with aquiline noses, Caucasoid eyes, medium lips, and straight or medium-waved hair are often found.

Generally speaking, two distinct types are observed among the Hor-pas: the Hor-pas north of the Thang La Range, and the Hor-pas south of that range. Among the first we frequently meet the Caucasian type, and some of the males look curiously like Europeans. Among the women the Mongoloid type with the Mongoloid eyefold is much more prominent.

The Hor-pas south of the Thang La Range represent a transitory type between the Hor-pas north of the range and the round-headed Tibetans of the central provinces. South of the Thang La we seldom meet Caucasian types. The eyes mostly have the Mongoloid fold, the lips are thick, the cheek bones prominent and the hair woolly. The color of the skin of the northern Hor-pas is lighter than that of the Hor-pas south of the Thang La and is usually light brown. In stature, the Hor-pas north and northeast of Thang La are taller than those of the uplands south of the great range. The Hor-pas south of the Thang La are of weaker physique. The chest is sunken in most cases and the extremities are often underdeveloped.

Curiously enough the same difference is observed in the language. The Hor-pas of the north speak a dialect of their own, closely related to the archaic nomad dialects of Tibet and hardly understood by the Lhasan Tibetans. In a recent paper on Tibetan phonology, I have shown some of the distinctive traits of these nomad dialects, their archaic form, and many characteristic peculiarities, the most striking of which are the pronunciation of some of the prefixes, and the voiced pronunciation of the ancient sonants, which have become voiceless in modern central Tibetan. In vocabulary also, the Hor dialect differs greatly from the central Tibetan. The subdialect spoken by the Hor-pas on the Nag-chu-ka border is already strongly tinted by the central Tibetan dialect, and although it has lost the pronunciation of most of the prefixes, it still retains the voiced pronunciation of ancient sonants. In vocabulary too, it is closer to the central Tibetan. One gains the impression that the Hor-pas north of the Thang La Range preserved the purer type of Hor-pas, and that the infusion of foreign non-Tibetan blood in them is greater than in their countrymen to the south, who have become thoroughly Tibetanized.

The present state of our knowledge permits no conclusions to be made about the ethnic affinities of the tribes that wander along the northern border of Tibet proper. The famous Russian explorer of Tibet and central Asia, Prjevalski, quoted his native interpreter who stated that the language of local Tibetans north of Nag-chu (Hor-pas) was similar to that of Lhasa and very different from that of the Tibetans in the Koko-nor region. The great Russian explorer adds that he was unable to make any linguistic researches during his stay on the Tibetan frontier. As a matter of fact, the Hor dialect north of the Thang La has quite a number of striking similarities with that of the Panags of the Koko-nor region and the Nya-rong-was of northeastern Tibet.

The costume is universal for all the nomad districts of Tibet. The usual costume of Hor-pa men and women of the poorer class consists of the sheepskin coat. Sometimes a shirt is worn, but most of the nomads wear their sheepskins on the naked body. When working, the heavy and cumbersome coat is thrown down from the right shoulder, which is left bare. Large homespun trousers are often worn by the men. The footgear consists of high boots, kept by a garter under the knee. The leg of such a boot is commonly made of coarse woolen homespun; the sole is made from raw yak hide and its edge is trimmed with yak hair. Sometimes in men's boots the leg is of red leather. Leather boots are imported from Chien-ch'ang in southwestern Szu-ch'uan Province. Wealthy headmen and lamas are sometimes seen wearing black cowhide boots of Chinese make and pattern. The Mongol boots of black, yellow, or red leather (mostly imported from Russia) with sewn designs of colored leather, are greatly valued and form one of the successful articles of Tibetan import. Among the lamas the legs of the boots are invariably red and the uppers are always of white cotton. The sheepskin coats of the Hor-pas frequently have colored pieces of cloth sewn on the back and round the edges of the coat. Black, blue, dark green, and purple are favorite colors. The laymen prefer black and dark ultramarine blue, the lamas have in most cases dark red pieces of cloth sewn on their fur coats.

The richer class wear coats made of puru—a Tibetan cotton cloth of high quality, usually colored purple or dark violet, and greatly prized in Tibet and Mongolia. Such cloth is prepared by villagers or nomads, who are obliged by law to hand over the whole of the produced quantity to local government officials, the Government selling the cloth at fixed prices afterward, and exporting it to foreign countries. In winter time the men wear heavy sheepskin trousers. Chinese silk leggings (tao-ku) are also worn by the wealthy. The Chinese waistcoats (kan-chien) adopted by the town people of central Tibet, are never worn by the nomads, who adhere strictly to the Tibetan broad and long-sleeved chu-was or coats. The women of the richer households have adopted the Tibetan dress and wear skirts of striped puru and large blouses made of terma or silk.

Most of the men and women go about bareheaded. Only while traveling or during storms they wear a fur bonnet covered with blue or green cloth and trimmed with fox skin or sheepskin. Some of these caps are of unusual dimensions and from a distance remind one of the large fur caps or papaha used by Siberian Cossacks. During blizzards the fur-trimmed flaps of the cap are lowered and buttoned in front, leaving only the eyes free and covering the rest of the face. This gives an excellent protection on the gale-swept uplands of northern Tibet. During the coldest part of the winter of 1927 I was fortunate in having a Tibetan fur cap, which saved me from blisters. The fur caps of the lamas are lined with yellow silk.

The summer hat is made of straw and is covered with cotton cloth, the rim being faced with red and blue cloth. The top is rather high and the hat is kept on the head by a string worn under the chin. Many wear the usual Tibetan fur cap with fur flaps and felt top, ornamented with pieces of brocade. European-made Homburger hats and service hats, used in the Gurkha Battalions of the Indian army, are also commonly worn by traders who have visited the trade marts on the Indian border.

It is in the hairdresses that we notice the greatest differences. The women have their hair plaited in numerous small braids that hang down the back and are kept together by a broad piece of red cloth on which silver ornaments are sewn, consisting mostly of silver Indian rupees, Chinese dollars, and Tibetan silver coins. The girls in the Hor region wear small brass bells hanging from their hair and belts, and their movements are accompanied by the soft jingling of these bells.

Women's headdresses vary a great deal according to locality and tribe. In the region of Nag-tshang in the district of the Great Lakes, a peculiar oval frontlet is worn by the women, somewhat reminding one of the ancient headdress worn by Russian women. It is ornamented with turquoise and silver. In other places, conch shells are plaited into the hair. Large, oval earrings and numerous necklaces of coral, turquoise and silver are commonly worn by women and girls. A nomad woman wears all her wealth on her person and by the profusion of silver and turquoise one can judge her family's standing.

The men generally have long, matted hair, sometimes arranged in two long braids that hang down on both sides of the forehead. Over the eyes, the hair is often cut in a fringe. The tribal chiefs and wealthy herd owners wear pigtails often reaching well below the knee. The pigtails, into which horsehair is often plaited to make them longer and thicker, are frequently adorned with broad rings of red cloth upon which are fixed coral, turquoise and silver ornaments and sometimes heavy charm boxes or ga-u.

The Bön-po lamas of the Hor region have their heads shaved. Tantric lamas or ngag-pas of the Yellow Hat sect, who live and practice among the Hor-pas, wear their hair in braids similar to those of the laymen. The wealthy class wear coats girded with a narrow leather belt, ornamented with silver or brass. On the chatelaines of the belts hang knives, flint pouches, needlecases, and silver ornamented sheaths containing chopsticks.

The armament of the Hor-pas consists of Tibetan swords, lances, and modern magazine rifles. The old Tibetan matchlocks are very seldom seen and so far as I know, are only used in New Year ceremonies to drive off devils. The nomads always go armed. The difficult and dangerous life on the Tibetan highlands makes it a necessity. All the men carry long swords, which remind us of the blank weapons of the European early Middle Ages. The best swords come from the Province of Kham in eastern Tibet, and high prices are offered for famous swords that have killed the greatest number of enemies, on the blades of which stains of blood can still be seen, for a sword is never cleaned after battle and is returned bloodstained to the scabbard. According to a Tibetan Bön-po legend, the sidearms and shields were also introduced into Tibet during the spread of the Bön religion from the land of Shang-shung and Bru-sha.

As in the epics of our Middle Ages, the swords of Tibetan heroes possess names. Famous swords come from the so-called Kesar lha-khang, or Temple of Kesar, situated near Jyekundo in northeastern Tibet. It is said that after completing his campaigns, King Kesar deposited all his arms in this temple. The ceiling of the temple is made of long swords and lances instead of beams. During the recent Sino-Tibetan war, a number of these swords were stolen by Tibetan soldiery and are now offered for fabulous prices. The swords are of three varieties. The long, straight Tibetan sword with broad blade, made of iron, can be considered the national arm of Tibet. The hilt of the sword has no handguard, and curiously reminds one of the European swords of the early Middle Ages. The scabbard is usually ornamented with silver or brass nails, turquoise, and corals. It is made of wood and is covered with black leather. The edge of the scabbard is often handsomely decorated with floral designs combined with animal motifs. The hilts are often covered with fish skin, sometimes with thin yellow or red leather. It would be interesting to study the origins of these long and broad-bladed Tibetan swords. A study of the question points toward the long and straight Sarmatian swords, that were introduced into China during the First Han Dynasty.

Besides these long swords, the Tibetan nomads carry short, dagger-like swords in richly ornamented scabbards. The best daggers are said to come from Bhutan. Their hilts are covered with a coat of mail.

To the third variety belongs the heavy, slightly curved saber, or sho-lang carried in Chinese fashion attached to the left side of the saddle under the rider's leg. This saber is most likely an importation from China, and is used only by military and civil officers.

Another favorite blank arm is the spear. Two kinds of spears are used, the long spear and the dart. The long and heavy spear, some three meters in length, is used by mounted men in a cavalry charge. The spearheads are made of iron and sometimes ornamented with a geometrical design which is painted red. Among the nomad tribes of northeast Tibet, and the Hor-pas, the long spear is a sign of war. When a tribe intends to begin war against another tribe, the long spear is carried out of the tent.

The Tibetan dart is made of hard wood imported from east Tibet or Szu-ch'uan. The spear staff is wound with an iron braid. A large metal ring is fixed at the end of the staff and another ring slides loosely along the staff. When in action a string is tied to both rings. The rider keeps the string and staff in his raised hand, then lets loose the staff, and throws the dart, keeping the end of the string in his hand. The dart flies with a rattling noise made by the loose ring on the iron braid of the staff. After the ring reaches the end of the spear staff, the spear drops and the rider pulls it back into the saddle. Great strength and good horsemanship are needed in throwing such a dart. This weapon is used by the nomads of north and northeastern Tibet.

Another commonly used arm is the sling made of plaited yarn. It is useful in war and peace. In everyday life, the Hor-pas use the sling to drive their herds and caravans of yaks. A single man can drive a big herd or caravan of yaks by throwing stones with his sling at the animals. The Tibetan word for yak driver is lakpo (Tib. lag-rdo) which literally means "a hand with a stone."

Archery is almost never practiced and during our stay among the Hor tribes and other nomads of Tibet, we did not see a single bow in the possession of tribesmen. Arrowheads sometimes discovered in the ground are said to be petrified lightning and to possess magical powers.

The lasso, favored by Kirghiz tribesmen on the Russo-Turkestan border, is unknown among the Hor-pa tribes. In order to catch a horse, they proceed with a very strange maneuver, which invariably proves successful. A man crawls toward the horse with his hand stretched out toward the right front leg of the animal. Then he gently touches the right leg and rubs it, gradually going higher until he has reached the horse's neck and seized the bridle. This curious way of catching a bad horse is commonly practiced throughout Mongolia and Tibet. With a Mongol or Tibetan horse this is the only way to approach and get hold of the animal.

A common scourge of all the nomad districts of Tibet are the bands of brigands who roam in the vicinity of trade routes and wealthy encampments. Sometimes there are bands of professional robber tribes from northeastern Tibet. A band of armed robbers consists of some twenty or thirty mounted and well-armed men, with light baggage carried on pack ponies, that are led by horsemen. A party can cover long distances daily and make surprise attacks on caravans and camps. Brigand horses are said to be the best in the country. They are trained to obey strange, shrill sounds emitted by the rider. The rider whistles and the horse doubles its pace. A shrill, rising sound will make the horse leap in full gallop. Such horses cannot be ridden by ordinary riders, who have no knowledge of the sounds that guide them.

When a band of robbers has been sighted in the neighborhood, all the nomad encampments move in haste into the mountains to some remote valley and the tribal chiefs summon all the available men of their militia to fight the intruders. Our expedition often met large parties of mounted men, riding at great speed. Some robbers had been sighted in the vicinity and these men were hastening to fight the band.

During such fights prisoners are seldom taken and wounded men are never abandoned on the battlefield. The robbers even manage to carry away their dead. In famine years that follow a cold and snowy winter, or an epizoötic of cattle, whole districts turn to brigandage. It is then the turn of government troops to suppress the evil.

The tribal militia is maintained by the orders of the Lhasan Government. In case of war, each tent has to equip one rider, and give him sufficient provisions to last for one month's campaigning. The arms, ammunition, and horses all belong to the men. A mobilization order is sent on a piece of red cloth attached to an arrow. The arrow is dispatched by a special rider who gallops to the nearest headman and hands it over to him. The headman takes notice of the contents of the order and immediately dispatches a fresh rider to another headman. In a few days the whole of the countryside swarms with men-at-arms. The troops from northern and northeastern Tibet are said to be the bravest in the whole of Tibet, and there is a belief, that a warrior from eastern and northern Tibet, whenever he goes to battle, has to die in the fight. In the recent fights on the Sino-Tibetan border units composed of tribesmen from northern and east Tibet made their name dreaded by the enemy, but sustained the heaviest casualties.

Besides military duties in time of national danger, the tribal militia has another important duty to perform—the guarding of the long Tibetan boundary line. All along the northern Tibetan border, that roughly passes along the Marco Polo or Angar Dakchin Mountains, stand outposts of militia which watch the caravan routes leading from Mongolia and China. Such a post usually consists of six to ten men who live in the black tent of the nomads. It is their duty to scout the neighborhood and to report to the nearest frontier authorities any approaching caravans. One can imagine life on such outposts, situated sometimes hundreds of miles from the nearest inhabited point of Tibet and on an elevation of some fifteen to sixteen thousand feet. The men are obliged to live on tsam-pa and hunt wild yaks and kyangs. In winter such outposts are sometimes completely cut off. Many riders sent to reëstablish communication perish on the way and are devoured by wolves and bears.

The nomad tribes of the northeast, north and some of the tribes in western Tibet, practice the ancient religion of Tibet, the so-called Bön religion of nature worship and necromancy. Weird rituals are performed by wild looking, errant priests attired in black robes. Bön is prominent in the region of western Hor and holds undisputed sway over all the Hor tribes. With the advent and establishment of Buddhism during the reign of the Tibetan King Ti-srong de'u tsen (Khrisrong sde'u-btsan) in the eighth century A.D. the Bön religion was relegated to the distant frontier districts of Tibet.

At present most of the Bön-po colonies, besides the Hor-de, are found in the northeast of Tibet in the region lying between Derge and the grazing grounds of the Golok, in easternmost Kham, in the forest country of Kong-po. Along the northern route to western Tibet, Nain Singh mentions the Bön-po colony of Wang-po (dbang-po) on the north shore of the Lake Dangra yum-tsho. Western and southern Tibet also have important colonies of Bön-pos. The Tsang Province of central Tibet is rich in Bön-po monasteries, which are also found on the Nepalese border. The Bön-po monastery nearest to Lhasa is situated in the upper part of the Phem-po ('phan-po) Valley, north of the Tibetan capital.

During the reign of King Lang-dar-ma (ninth century A.D.) the Bön doctrine returned to power for a brief interval, for after the violent death of the king, the Bön doctrine was again persecuted and Buddhism gained the upper hand. The Bön-po priests were banished and many Bön practices suppressed. Since that time, the Bön religion has become the doctrine of the minority, relegated to distant uplands and preserved in a few families, as is often the case in the Tsang Province. Our knowledge of the Bön religion is still very imperfect. Only a very limited number of texts has been edited and translated. The rest of the voluminous literature still remains a closed book. The Bön-po terminology presents insurmountable difficulties, for it is hard to obtain the services of a well-read Bön-po priest who will agree to part with his knowledge of the doctrine. To collect information about this primitive religion, relic of a remote past, is much more difficult than to gather information about the Tibetan form of Buddhism. First of all, the Bön fraternities are found in places difficult of access, and secondly, the Bön-po adepts are recalcitrant in giving information to foreigners. They usually profess utter ignorance about the tenets of their faith and deny the existence of manuscripts or printed texts.

During the expedition's stay in the Hor region, information about Bön-po books was only occasionally obtained, mostly from travelers who had visited Bön-po monasteries or seen sacred texts in the tents of wealthy Bön-pos. Only after three months' stay was I able to gain the confidence of some of the Bön-po priests and gain access to their libraries.

The pages which follow contain some of the results obtained during this stay. A detailed study of the Bön doctrine will be appended to the translation of the Ye-shes ñi-ma lha'i rgyud or the "Tantras of the Gods of the Sun of Wisdom," an extensive Bön-po text which is in the course of preparation.

Bön is a composite doctrine in which ancient forms of the shamanistic ideas of higher Asia are blended with beliefs and practices of a nature religion of the primitive population of northwestern India. Whether this primitive cult goes back to an Indo-European antiquity, or, as I am inclined to believe, to a pre-Aryan stratum of population, is still impossible to decide definitely.

There exist two forms of Bön: One the primitive nature worship, full of shamanistic and necromantic rituals, and sometimes bloody sacrifices (in former times human sacrifices were commonly made, nowadays only animals, sheep, goats, or their substitute clay images are sacrificed); the other the reformed Bön, or Bön adapted to Buddhism. Dr. J. van Manen has rightly pointed out the link that exists between the ancient Bön and the old school of Padmasambhava. He says: "This statement has to be interpreted in the sense that the compromise effected by Padmasambhava has resulted in mutual concessions and adaptations which make it difficult to say where, in present practice, the purely native and the Buddhist foreign elements begin and end."

In the first form of Bön, we meet gods of heaven and earth, of sun and moon, of stars and of the four quarters. To this form of Bön belongs the circle of legends about King Kesar, and Dr. A. H. Francke has shown in his valuable monograph on the Tibetan marriage songs the mythological character of Kesar and his consort, 'Bru-gu-ma, who have a close affinity to the old deities of earth. The primitive Bön doctrine is still represented by errant exorcists, who never belong to settled fraternities. Their holy places are not marked by monasteries or chapels, but are represented by crude stone altars, or stone monuments in the form of menhirs or cromlechs. Sometimes the stone altars are situated on the summits of mountains, sometimes in secluded caves amid rocks and towering cliffs. I am convinced that the megalithic monuments discovered by the expedition all along the pilgrim route to Mount Kailasa are such sacred places of nature worship. A detailed description of these monuments will be given in the chapter devoted to the description of the Great Lake region of Tibet. These megalithic monuments, menhirs, cromlechs, and alinements, first discovered by the expedition, undoubtedly belong to the pre-Buddhistic period of Tibetan history, when primitive Bön was the accepted faith of the country.

The reformed Bön is highly complex. It not only possesses all the deities of the Vajrayana—or the Tantric form of Buddhism elaborated by Padmasambhava—but has its own arrangement of the deities.

From my conversations with the Bön-po lamas it appears that the Bön form of Samantabhadra or Bön-sku Kun-tu bzang-po is regarded to be the supreme deity of the Bön-po. He occupies in the sect a position analogical to that of Samantabhadra in the Tantric sects of unreformed Buddhism and the Adi-Buddha in the Kalacakra doctrine of the ninth to eleventh centuries A.D. We have reason to suppose that the Kun-tu bzang-po or "All good" of the reformed Bön represents the ancient Father Heaven of primitive Bön. In Bön the Kun-tu bzang-po is associated with Ma-btsun-pa—Mother Nature or Mother Earth, a deity, who still preserves much of her primitive character of all-potent Mother Earth. Her images are often found in charm boxes or ga-u worn by Bön-pos.

Besides these supreme deities we hear of a host of other divine beings, most of which are personified nature forces and malignant ghosts. An old deity is Garuda or Cha-khyung (Bya-khyung) which figures on many Bön images and paintings, and probably belongs to the ancient Indo-Tibetan stock of Bön. It would be highly interesting to study the origins of the cult of Garuda in connection with the numerous representations of the eagle and the griffin in the nomad art of central Asia and southern Russia. On Bön frescos we meet an endless host of dkar-phyogs lha, "Gods of the White Quarter" (or "benevolent gods") and nag-phyogs lha or "Gods of the Dark Quarter" (malignant deities). The belief in nature forces, personified by divine beings or lha, is common to both forms of Bön. Each place possesses its own countryside god or yul-lha, and 'dre or demon. The lha is usually benevolent, but sometimes of a difficult nature and the people of the place have a hard time keeping the deity satisfied.

In one of the Bön-po villages in the upper Tsang Province we saw a fine field on the river bank, uncultivated but carefully fenced. Considering the relative scarcity of arable land, I was much surprised to see that fine piece of land left uncultivated and inquired for the reason. The reason was that a local lha, domiciled in a cliff rising over the field, took a strange liking to this field and every time the peasants tried to plough it, a hailstorm would destroy the crops. A local Bön-po priest explained the will of the deity, and since then the field has been left alone and a stone wall built around it. Such is the influence of this religion, that men will renounce the best of their fields and consecrate them to the local deity.

Each mountain pass possesses a lha of its own and some of these deities are known for their fierce character. Some of them object to rifle firing, and will send hail and storm if a shot is fired in the vicinity, others are antagonistic to travelers in general.

The düd or 'dre are malignant spirits always bent upon mischief. They will drive away horses at night and thus cause a delay to travelers. Some of the localities along the great caravan routes are famous for the activity of demons or tong-dre and the caravan men take special precautions to prevent the stampede of their horses and mules.

All these Bön divinities, who rule the destinies of men, are designated by the general name of gYung-drung lha rnams or the "Gods of the Svastika." The word gYung-drung or "Svastika" is not only synonymous with Bön, but often stands for Byang-chub or Bodhi, which is enlightenment in Bön terminology. The will and teachings of these gods were delivered to mankind by the teacher Shen-rap or Shen-rap mi-wo "the man Shen-rap." We have seen several Bön-po texts on the life of this teacher. His legendary life has been strongly influenced by the Buddha legend. Take for example the scene of the lament of the old Brahman gSal-khyab-'od-ldan, as related in the gSer-myig, who is too old to hear the future teaching of the newly born Redeemer, and the analogical episode in the life of Buddha,—the visit of the rishi Asita to the newly born Bodhisattva.

The story of the youth of Shen-rap has much in common with the respective episodes of the Buddha legend. The work of the Redeemer Shen-rap was continued on earth by a succession of teachers, who are usually represented on frescoes attired in the monastic costume of the Nying-ma-pas, or unreformed Buddhists. We are as yet unable to say much about this line of Bön-po teachers. It seems likely that the establishment of Bön monastic fraternities was started only during the Buddhist period. The primitive Bön religion had no monasteries. The Bön monastery is an adaptation of a Buddhist model and the monastic rules are largely taken from Buddhist sources. Large Bön-po monasteries exist in the Jya-de Province and northeastern Kham. The region of Nup-hor counts at least three monastic establishments.

The Tsang Province is known for its Bön-po monasteries. At Chatu gompa, a large village in western Tsang, there are three large Bön-po monasteries. Several famed Bön monasteries and hermitages or ri-tö (ri-khrod) are reported to exist on the Nepalo-Tibetan border. Sarat Chandra Das in his Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet gives a brief description of a well-known Bön-po monastery, Ri-jyal chen-tar (Ri-rgyal gchan-dar), visited by his companion Lama Urgyen. Unfortunately the author does not describe in detail the images and frescoes seen by Lama Urgyen in the monastery. We possess only scant information about the literature of the Bön-pos. The literary monuments of the Bön-pos can be conveniently described under the following four headings: (1) The two great Bön collections of sacred texts, in all some three hundred volumes; (2) national epics, heroic songs and some rnam-thar or legendary history; (3) popular songs; (4) incantation books, manuals on magic rituals.

The codification of the Bön doctrine and the creation of the voluminous religious literature dates from the Buddhist period, that is, it is posterior to the ninth century A.D. So far we had no knowledge of the existence of a Bön Känjür and Tänjür. We only surmised that large Bön-po monasteries undoubtedly possessed large libraries of Bön-po literature. It was the good fortune of our expedition to discover two complete collections of Bön-po scriptures at the Bön-po monastery of Sharugön, four days northeast of Nag-chu dzong. The Bön Känjür or Translated Commandments consists of one hundred and forty large volumes. The collection is evidently an imitation of the Buddhist Tripitaka. It not only has the threefold division of the Tripitaka (Bön-sde-gsum) but imitates the Buddhist Känjür in the external arrangement of the volumes and their contents. The title of each text is given in two languages. Sometimes it is the Shang-shung skad or "language of Shang-shung," sometimes it is the gYung-drung lha'i skad or "language of the Svastika gods." All these languages are unintelligible and are probably artificial.

The Tibetan language is invariably called "the language of men" (gang-zag mi-wo'i skad or mi-wo'i skad). Most of the texts are designated by the name rgyud or tantra, which seems to stand for the Buddhist mdo or sutra. A great number of texts included in the Bön-po Känjür were composed in the Golok territory of northeastern Tibet. Many were written in the Bön hermitages southwest of Shigatse, reputed to be one of the sacred countries of the Bön. In the lifetime of the famous Tibetan monk-poet, Milarepa (XI A.D.) the Bön-pos were numerous and powerful on the Nepalese borderland and there exists a large cycle of legends telling of the religious disputes held by Milarepa and Naro Bön-chung, the Bön teacher.

The Bön Tänjür or Translated Commentaries, consists of one hundred and sixty volumes. It contains commentaries written by various Bön-po teachers on the Tantras of the Bön Känjür, said to have been revealed by Shen-rap, the Redeemer. A number of texts explain the intricate points of the essence of the Bön doctrine (Bön-ñid), a notion which has its counterpart in the stong-pa ñid of the Mahayana Buddhism.

These treatises are almost untranslatable because of their terminology. I was told by the abbot of the Sharugön Monastery that no printed copies of the Bön scriptures exist, and that all existing copies are manuscript. This particular copy of the Sharugön Monastery was executed in the Golok territory and had an exceptionally beautiful cursive script. The orthography of such manuscripts is as a rule antiquated and reveals many of the peculiarities common in Tibetan manuscripts discovered by Sir Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot in the walled-up library of Tun-huang. The Bön-po manuscripts are often written in gold and silver on thick black paper, but usually in black or red ink. In the Sharugön copy the front pages bearing the title of the text were invariably painted black and written in gold. Such manuscripts written in gold are costly and take years to complete. Only very few Bön monasteries can boast of possessing sets of the two collections.

The second class of Bön literature is represented by the great nomad epic of King Kesar, the mighty warrior, whose deeds are chanted in sixteen volumes. All copies of this important work are in manuscript form. So far as it is known it has never been printed and the existing copies are jealously preserved in the families. For the nomad of eastern and northern Tibet, the legend of Kesar is not a mere epic, it is his religion, his embodied hope for a better future which is framed on the model of the glorious past.

The modern epic of Kesar is a composite production, which consists of ancient nature worship in which the cults of the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and the Seasons, are blended with an epic of the great warrior king, who once ruled somewhere in northeastern Tibet.

Grünwedel and Potanin endeavored to prove that the saga of Kesar was influenced by the legends about Alexander the Great, so popular in the East, and that the name Kesar was nothing but a Tibetan rendering of Kaiser—Caesar. In my opinion the ballad is an autochthonous creation of nomad central Asia and I believe Dr. N. Poppe is right in presuming that the greater part of the ballad originated among the nomad tribes of Tibet.

The historical background of the legend takes us far back into the past of the great nomad empires of central Asia. The Kesar epic sings of the deeds of King Kesar, his prowess and feats of strength during his youth and his several victorious campaigns against the King of Hor and other nomad chiefs. The east Tibetan origin of the epic is shown in the story about its origin. The story probably began among the Yellow sect lamas, for it exhibits a certain amount of contempt toward the ballad. It is related that the Kesar ballad has nothing historical in itself. It was composed by a famous Tantric lama (ngag-pa) who was at the same time a great bard. Once, in a moment of intoxication, he began to sing and sang the whole of the Kesar ballad. The native place of this Tantric was northeastern Kham and the ballad was composed by him there.

The nomads of Kham and Hor understand the ballad differently. According to them it is not a production of a single bard, largely due to the imagination of the singer, but is a poetical record of ancient wars that were fought in the past. According to some authors and the collection of heroic songs, entitled rGyal-drung, King Kesar lived in the eighth century A.D. According to still another tradition, King Kesar was a mighty nomad warrior, who lived in the time of King Srong-btsan sgam-po and Khri-srong lde'u-btsan in the border country of Mongolia and China, in the territory now incorporated in the modern Province of Shan-hsi.

The seventh and eighth centuries A.D. were a period of great unrest among Tibetan nomads and an epoch of the greatest expansion of Tibetan power outside the frontier of Tibet proper. My own researches in the field have convinced me that the kernel of the ballad originated during this period and that in it were incorporated episodes from ancient tribal epics, going back to remote antiquity, probably pre-Mongolian and pre-Tibetan in their origin. In its present form the Kesar ballad is probably of a comparatively late date. It is an ancient monument of nomadic poetry, produced by the creative efforts of several nomad nations. In its present form the ballad is extremely popular in Mongolia and even among the Turkish tribes of central Asia. Dr. N. Poppe says that the Mongol version of the Kesar ballad originated in southern Mongolia. According to him the many Tibetan names in the Mongol text seem to indicate that the Mongol version is a translation from a Tibetan original. The Mongol version was published in Peking in 1716 A.D. in the reign of K'ang-hsi and has been translated by I. J. Schmidt.

During the Manchu rule, King Kesar was proclaimed under the name of Huang-ti, the divine protector of the Manchu Dynasty. In Tibet all temples dedicated to Huang-ti are said to be Kesar lha-khangs or temples of Kesar.

The Asiatic Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences, possesses a Tibetan Kesar ballad in two large volumes. During the expedition's stay in the Hor region, I discovered a Kesar ballad in sixteen manuscript volumes—each chapter of the epic having a separate volume.

In Tibet and Mongolia, the epic of Kesar is still constantly enriching itself with new songs and episodes. New episodes are added to the old groundwork of the ballad and messianic ideas attached to the figure of Kesar Khan. Kesar is said to return again to earth and lead the nomad tribes against a powerful enemy who will arise to establish the Kingdom of Evil.

During the lengthy stay among the nomads of Hor, the expedition succeeded in collecting additional data, which clearly establishes the important fact that a new chapter in the voluminous epic of Kesar is about to be written. In Mongolia also, a new chapter on the future exploits of Kesar is in process of creation. These new additions have the character of prophetic songs.

The well-known Mongol scholar Ts. J. Jamtsarano points to the fact that the verbal version of the Kesar ballad is considerably larger than the written one. It seems as if the nomad tribes of Mongolia and Tibet, agitated by some hidden unrest, seek inspiration in the ancient lore of their past.

Besides the great epic of Kesar, several rnam-thar or legendary histories are said to exist among the Bön-po population. None of them is printed. If they are found, they will furnish important data on the religious, cultural, and historical evolution of the Bön doctrine. A large number of popular songs exist among the Bön-pos. Dr. A. H. Francke collected a good many of them during his long stay in Ladak and Lahul. Properly studied and analyzed, they too may furnish important facts.

Many incantation books and magic manuals exist in manuscript form. Some of them are utterly untranslatable, others necessitate a vast, detailed knowledge of the Bön-po Pantheon. A knowledge of the Bön-po mandalas or mystic spheres of influence is essential for a proper understanding of these texts.

Then for the study of the reformed Bön, the Bön Känjür and Tänjür are of the utmost significance. The remaining three sections chiefly contain material for the reconstruction of the primitive form of Bön. The only historical Bön-po text so far known is the rGyal-rabs Bön-gyi-byung-gnas, by Sarat Chandra Das, but I am told that other historical works in the form of chos-byung or church histories exist. So far none of such works has come to light.

The Bön-po monastery of Sharugön was built some twenty years ago. The necessary funds were raised by popular subscription among the five nomad tribes of the western Hor. It is situated in a narrow gorge of granite rocks on the banks of the river Chu-na-khe at the foot of a picturesque granite mountain that shelters the monastery from the prevailing southwest winds of the Tibetan upland.

The approach to the monastery is guarded by a high stupa or mchod-rten crowned with a pair of yak horns. (It is known that the custom of setting animal skulls and horns on mani-walls, stone cairns, and stupas is Bön-po in origin.) The stupa is painted white and has yellow, red, and blue stripes on its steeple, symbolizing the three spheres of the Universe: stan-lha, the region of gods, bar-btsan, the middle region, and gyog-klu, the abode of Nagas.

The monastery consists of two assembly halls or du-khangs, situated in a small inclosed courtyard paved with large slabs of flat stones. The old du-khang is situated to the right of the entrance gate and is a two-storied building. The assembly hall proper occupies the first floor, on the second floor there is a small lha-khang or temple, which contains most of the monastery's collection of images.

The new du-khang is a stately stone building, erected some six years ago. It is not yet completely furnished. The walls are adorned with frescoes, which although new, present a great interest for a student of iconography. The rest of the courtyard is occupied by monastery store-rooms and cells for the monks. During the expedition's visit the monastery had five resident monks. Some of the wealthy monks belonging to the monastery lived with their families in the vicinity. The head lama or khan-po, the only fully ordained monk of the monastery, did not live in the convent itself but in a hermitage or ri-tö belonging to the monastery and situated behind the mountain range that shelters the monastery from the northeast. Both the du-khangs or assembly halls are ornamented in the usual Tibetan style, and there is very little difference between the ornamentation used in the orthodox Yellow Hat or Nying-ma-pa monasteries and the Bön-po sanctuaries. The carved wooden columns at the entrances and inside the halls are ornamented with the traditional dragons and floral designs and painted in bright colors. Both of the du-khangs contain paintings representing the legendary life of the founder of the Bön religion, Shen-rap ton-pa, and images of the divine beings of the Bön-po Pantheon. So complete is the similarity of symbols, that one could imagine himself in an orthodox Buddhist monastery. The Buddhists maintain that the Bön-pos imitated Buddhist images and symbols, but the Bön-pos are of the opinion that the early teachers of Tibetan Buddhism took over many Bön-po deities and symbols. At present we are not in a position to decide which of the statements is true.

The similarity of Bön and Buddhist paintings is due to some extent to the fact that temples are often decorated by laymen artists, who paint Buddhist symbols and Bön-po images alike and involuntarily transfer Buddhist symbols to a Bön-po painting and vice versa. Such was the case with the wall paintings in the Sharugön monastery. All of the paintings were executed by a layman-artist, Buddhist by religion, who painted the frescos under the guidance of the monastery's head lama.

The Bön scriptures are imperfectly known and very few Bön images have been studied and described. So far no Bön-po iconographical manual has been found, and the iconographical knowledge of the sect seems to rest with a limited number of priests and artists.

The chief place on these wall paintings is occupied by the Bön-po Redeemer, Shen-rap mi-wo. He is usually represented in the aspect of a fully enlightened Buddha, attired in purple monastic robes, austere and somber and devoid of ornaments. His left hand reposes in the sign (mudra) of meditation (dhyani-mudra) and supports the monastic bowl or patra. His right hand is lowered making the sign of attestation (bhumisparsha mudra) and is holding the Bön scepter. The scepter is similar to the Buddhist vajra or dorje, but instead of having a crown on each end, it has a cube with images of the Svastika on the five sides of the cube. The color of the body is yellow ochre and the robe is red and purple, sometimes ornamented with gold or yellow color designs. The similarity to the images of Sakyamuni is evident, the only difference being the Bön-po scepter. To the left of the Founder is usually represented the future teacher of the Bön-pos. He is depicted in the attire of a Buddhist bodhisattva with golden diadem on his head and gold ornaments inlaid with precious stones on his shoulders, arms, and legs. Both the hands repose in the posture of meditation and support the amrita vase or tse-bum filled with amrita or bdüd-rtsi, with the letter "A" on it, which is the Bön-po counterpart of om. The color of the face and body is yellow ochre, sometimes golden. It is the color of the Bodhisattva Maitreya. To the right is often seen the Bön form of the Buddha of Medicine, called by the Bön-pos, Sangs-rgyas sman-bla. The color of the body, instead of being dark ultramarine blue, as in the Buddhist images, is light yellow. The Bön-po "god of medicine" does not have the aspect of a Buddha, but is attired as a bodhisattva. His hands repose in the sign of meditation and support the monastic bowl, with the udumbara flower emerging from it.

Another common image on the wall paintings is the Bön counterpart of the white Tara, the goddess Ma-btsün-pa, Mother Nature. Her raised right hand holds the stalk of the kumuda flower. In all other respects the Bön-po and Buddhist images of the goddess are identical. The Bön-po form of the All-Merciful One or Avalokitesvara with eleven heads and innumerable arms is identical to the lamaist form. Only one of the hands is seen holding a Bön vajra with the image of the Svastika.

Another frequent representation is the image of the goddess Sitatapatraparajita. Her Bön form has a yellow body, instead of the white coloring of the Buddhist image. The symbols held by the deity in her numerous hands are similar to those on Buddhist images, except for one hand, which is holding the Bön vajra with the image of the Svastika on it. A pair of hands is folded at the breast and holds the image of fruit, putting forth a flower. (The Buddhist goddess holds the sacred stone or cintamani.)

Another popular deity of the Bön-po Pantheon is the black Garuda or Khyung-nag, represented holding a serpent in his beak. This form of Garuda is also known in Lamaism but probably is of Bön-po origin. One of the walls of the principal hall in the new du-khang is adorned by a large image of the Bön-po form of Vajrapani, holding the Garuda and vajra. The abbot or khan-po of the Sharugön monastery called it Bön-gyi phyag-rdor or Bön-po Vajrapani. He could not tell me the Bön-po name of the divinity. It is difficult to say whether we have to do with ignorance on the part of the Bön-po priesthood, or that the Bön divinities are called by the same names, as in Lamaism. The relative frequency of the name phyag-rdor in Bön texts seems to indicate the fact that the name belongs to Bön-po terminology or has been taken over by the Bön-pos.

The rest of the walls of the principal hall are covered with frescoes representing Bön forms of Vajradhara, Vajrakila, Yamantaka, Demchog, Palden Lhamo, and even a Bön form of Kalacakra represented on the walls both in its mild and fierce forms. The head lama of the monastery told me that there exist a number of texts on Bön-po Kalacakra. It would be interesting to compare them to the Kalacakra system of Buddhism. All these deities are seen holding the Bön vajra with the Svastika symbol and the fruit with the emerging flower. Some of the divinities are depicted with garlands of flowers on their heads. All of them are represented seated, or standing on low thrones or asanas, with images of a lion, an eagle, and an elephant.

The second floor is occupied by several big rooms, which are always used in Tibetan monasteries as abbot's quarters. The rooms have also a number of frescoes representing the legendary life of Shen-rap mi-wo. It is easy to identify the scenes of his life, which are, as I have already told, influenced by the Buddha legend. A fresco, occupying an entire wall, depicts different Bön teachers—all sitting in rows and attired in the robes of the Red sect lamas. Some of the represented personages wear white mantles over their dark purple lama coats. As yet we are unable to tell the story of the line of Bön teachers.

Another interesting fresco represented a Bön tshok-chin or Assemblage of Bön divinities, with Bön sku kung-tu bzang-po, occupying the upper portion of the frescoes, and the Shen-rap mi-wo in the center, assisted by a host of Bön divinities and saints. Another fresco probably represented the seven saints or heroes, called Pa-wo rap-dün (dpa-wo rab-bdun). These are probably identical with the seven a-khu or "uncles," assistants of King Kesar. The Bön Tänjür is preserved in the new du-khang, where a special room is fitted as a library.

The old du-khang on the opposite side of the courtyard has an altar, a painted wooden glass case in which stand clay images of Shen-rap mi-wo and the lama "Promulgator of the Bön faith," as the Bön priest called him, represented with his right hand holding the stalk of a lotus flower supporting the religious book or legs-bam—a purely Buddhist symbol taken over by the Bön-pos. The similarity of the image to that of the Buddhist reformer, rGyal-wa Tsong-kha-pa, is apparent. Before the images burn large offering lamps (chos-me) made of massive silver and there stand the usual eight happy offerings. In other respects the arrangement of the altar is identical to that of the Buddhist temples. All of the other walls are occupied by shelves or kün-ra containing the hundred and forty volumes of the Bön Känjür.

Above the bookshelves hang a number of masks used in religious dances that take place in summer. An opening in the roof gives access to the flat roof of the du-khang. A tree trunk with incised steps serves as a ladder. Every morning at sunrise, a lama ascends to the roof and sounds the conch inviting the monks to the morning service. During one month's residence at the monastery, we seldom saw religious services held there. The head lama was always absent at his hermitage and the rest of the monks attended to their own domestic occupations.

In December, 1923, the monastery was used as soldiers' quarters for a detachment of Tibetan troops sent in search of the Tashi Lama, who had just left Shigatse for China.

Outside the inclosure are found numerous stone images of Shen-rap ton-pa, attired as a Bön bodhisattva or gYung-drung sems-pa, holding a magic scepter, and several inscriptions on stone of the Bön-po formula Om-ma-ni-hri-mu-ye-sa-lendu. Corresponding to each group of letters is one of the eight happy signs or bkra-shis rtags-brgyad, which are represented under the inscription.

The present Bön-po population is not very strict in the observance of Bön rites and one often sees Tantric lamas or ngag-pas from the Sera Monastery of Lhasa, practicing among a Bön-po population. There is, however, a certain amount of antagonism between the Buddhist and Bön-po monasteries. The Bön-po lamas are credited with possessing a dangerous knowledge of hidden things and a night spent in a Bön-po monastery might bring misfortune. In our case, the death of the Major's wife from pneumonia, was popularly considered to have been caused by the anger of the titular deity of the monastery. The head lama of the monastery, an old man with curly hair and almost negroid features, once asked me: "You are a student of the doctrine of Buddha, how can you interest yourself in our Bön scriptures? The two doctrines do not go well together, for the one excludes the other." Lamaist Mongols have a great aversion for the Bön-po faith, which is commonly known to them by the name of Khara-nom or "Black Faith."

Some of the Bön-po lamas in the Hor region are quite wealthy, possessing large herds of yaks, flocks of sheep, and well-furnished, private libraries. They all live in tents. Sometimes two or three tents are put together to form one tent long enough to quarter all the family and some of the servants. Many of such lama householders are successful traders and sell tea bricks to the population, which they receive from Ssu-ch'uan, and other commodities. The local nomads profess great respect toward them and invariably address them as Kusho rimpoche or lama-la, Precious Sir, or Venerable Teacher. All the Bön-po laymen wear charm boxes or ga-u on their necks and across the shoulder, and turn prayer wheels in an opposite direction. Close to their tents stand big poles with prayer flags and one sometimes sees yak and horse tails fixed to the poles.

One of the important results of the expedition was the discovery of the "animal style" among the nomad tribes of northern Tibet. This "animal style" consists of decorative motifs, composed of animal figures, which are sometimes combined to form most striking ornamental compositions. Some of these motifs are highly stylized and have a long development behind them. The artists who produced them were keen observers of nature, and knew well the character and habits of the animals they were depicting. The style spread over immense regions and was common to all nomad tribes of higher Asia. The center of this great nomadic culture that so powerfully influenced the art of its more civilized neighbors was in the Altai Mountains, a region which abounds in gold and metal ore and in forest fauna often portrayed on objects in "animal style."

It is difficult to say whether the "animal style" was associated with any particular physical type of men. I am inclined to think that it originated among nomad and hunting tribes of great ethnic variety, but living in similar surroundings, for only in this way we are able to explain the immense spread of the "animal style" from the steppes of South Russia to the very confines of China, and from the Siberian forest country to the mighty heights of the Trans-Himalayas in Tibet.

Tibet has always been open to tribal migrations from the northeast. The forefathers of modern Tibetans invaded the country from the northeast. The high table-lands of the Koko-nor with an average elevation of some ten thousand feet and the surrounding mountain country afforded sufficient grazing for the moving hordes and their cattle. It is from this gigantic place d'armes that the hordes of ancient Tibetans, displaced by some other mighty human avalanche, were forced to seek new pastures, overrunning the valleys and plateaus of Tibet.

In historic times Tibetan tribes have had a good deal of intercourse with Iranian and paleo-Asiatic tribes that roamed over the vast expanses of the Chinese borderland. Modern research has established the fact that Iranian tribes were the carriers of the "animal style." During the Han epoch (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) Iranian military equipment was introduced into China, and with it came the rich ornamentation in the neo-animal style, so-called to distinguish it from the Scythian animal style of south Russian steppes.

The earliest known account of a penetration of foreign central Asian elements into the country populated by Tibetan tribes (K'iang of the Chinese Annals) is found in the Shi-ki, by the famous historian Ssi-ma ts'ien: "Up to the time when Lao-shang, shan-yü of the Hiung-nu, killed the king of the Yue-chi (Iranians) and made a drinking vessel out of his skull, the Yue-chi had lived between Tun-huang (now Sha-chou) and the K'i-lien (a mountain southwest of Kan-chou fu) but when they were beaten by the Hiung-nu, they fled to a distant country and crossed to the west of Yüan (Ferghana), attacked Ta-hia (Bactria) and conquered it. Subsequently they had their capital in the north of the K'ui-shui (Oxus) and made it the court of their king. The minority which were left behind and were not able to follow them, took refuge among the K'iang (Tibetans) of the Nan Shan and were called Siao-Yue-chi (small Yue-chi)."

We are concerned here only with the end of the above passage. A section of the Yue-chi, an Iranian tribe of central Asia inhabiting the modern Kansu Province and southern Alashan (whether the Yue-chi were a homogeneous tribe of Scythian origin, or an agglomeration of kindred tribes of similar habits of living, we are totally unable to decide at present), had wandered into the mountain country south of the present Kansu Province of China, and became gradually amalgamated with the autochthonous Tibetan population of the mountains. These riding nomad tribes brought with them their nomad culture and tribal epics. They also brought that highly conventionalized art of nomad central Asia, distinguished by animal ornamentation and the long and heavy swords, which are still the favorite arm of Tibetan nomads. Important finds of textiles and metal objects in "neo-animal style" have been discovered by General P. K. Kozlov in the Noin ula Mountains, north of Urga in Mongolia, but nothing was known about the existence of this art in Tibet. From the discoveries of the Roerich Expedition, it appears that the very same style was in vogue in the metal-working region of Derge, one of the best art provinces of Tibet, and among the tribes of north and northeastern Tibet. Among the Hor-pas it is still cultivated and the accompanying illustrations show several objects in Tibetan "animal style."

(1) Tinder and Flint Pouch. The pouch comes from the western Hor region. It is made of black towed leather, ornamented with brass figures of animals. It is distinctly central Asian, and belongs to the "animal style." The animal figures represent female deer with their young.

The execution of the animal figures and their decorative treatment attest the close affinity of this object to the central Asian nomad art. In the center of the pouch is a brass plate with representations of the eight happy signs (ta-shi tag-gye).

(2) Tinder and Flint Pouch. The pouch comes from the same region. It is made of black towed leather, ornamented with brass figures of animals. We see on it two conventionalized figures of foxes picking fruit from a tree. The treatment of the two figures and the presence of the tree between them—are frequent on Scythian and Siberian antiques.

(3) A brass buckle representing a two-headed eagle inside a circle. The buckle comes from Ching-kar, a place west of Nag-chu. Plaques representing two-headed eagles have been discovered in the Kuban barrows of northern Caucasus. The two-headed eagle motif can be traced back even to the Hittite art of Asia Minor.

Such flint pouches and buckles in "animal style" were found by us only among the Hor-pas. The Chang-pas of the Great Lake region already have the ordinary Tibetan flint pouches, ornamented with coral, turquoise and metal nails of silver, brass, but seldom with gold.

(4) Running Deer. This figure of a running deer has been taken from a brass charm box coming from Derge, now in the collection of Mr. S. N. Roerich. The eight happy signs of Tibetan ornamentation are combined with the figures of running deer. The deer's figure unmistakably belongs to the nomad art characterized by the "animal style." The head of the deer is turned backward, and this is a characteristic and frequently seen motif in Scythian and Siberian antiquities. The treatment of the animal's muzzle and eyes—all have their analogies in the antiquities found in the barrows of south Russian steppes and southern Siberia.

(5 and 6) Two of the illustrations shown have been taken from a silvered iron pen case from Derge. On this pen case made of massive iron, among ordinary floral ornamentation we see a stylized figure of a sitting deer and a swan. The motif of the sitting deer, elks, or stags is well known in Scythian and Siberian antiquities. The figure of the swan is already under the strong influence of Chinese ornamental art. This figure is a product of a Chinese workshop producing art objects for the use of border tribes. It is interesting to note that the swan on our pen case corresponds almost in every detail to the figure of a long necked bird (a swan?) with spread wings, found on a piece of embroidery, discovered by General P. K. Kozlov in the Noin ula Mountains. The pose of the bird and the treatment of the wings are similar in both cases. The left wing is raised, the right one is lowered and forms a sharp angle. There can be no doubt that the two figures came from one common central Asian source, and represent some mythological figures.

(7) Lion plaque in S. N. Roerich Collection. Another remarkable example of central Asian nomad art in the "animal style" is found in the collection of S. N. Roerich. He drew my attention to an iron silvered plaque in relief coming from Derge in northeastern Tibet. This unique object represents a lion with his head turned to the left toward the onlooker. The animal's mane hangs about its head in thick tufts. The treatment of the animal's body is unusually powerful. It is represented sitting on its hind legs with its tail raised as if attracted by some noise and ready to jump. The background is formed by two stylized trees. Under the lion's figure one sees a hilly country, with highly stylized hills.

It is difficult to determine what was the use of the plaque. The two square openings on both sides seem to be made for a piece of leather, which was passed under the plaque. The plaque could be used as a breast ornament or as a buckle for a belt. Among the objects discovered by the Kozlov Expedition in the tumuli of the Noin ula Mountains, is found a metal plaque in relief representing a standing bull with his head lowered and turned to the left.

In comparing the two plaques, one can readily see the similarity of composition. On both plaques the principal figure is that of an animal standing from right to left with head turned toward the onlooker. It is difficult to say whether the Kozlov plaque represents a yak. I am inclined to think that it represents an aurochs. The treatment of the animal's fur in both cases is analogical. Both plaques have a background of two stylized trees. The plaque in the S. N. Roerich Collection has as its background two trees branching out over the lion's head. These trees suggest a country with a warmer climate, whereas the Kozlov plaque has two pine trees that speak of the northern origin of the object. It seems that the two objects depict an animal motif current in the southern parts of this artistic province and the aurochs plaque on its northern border. Both plaques depict highly stylized mountains, probably covered by forest.

Mr. Percival Yetts, in his article on the Kozlov finds, gives the opinion that the Kozlov plaque served as a phalara or harness ornament. He draws attention to certain features that recall the Sassanian silver plate found around the upper course of the Kama.

The ancient plaque in the S. N. Roerich Collection is a striking example of the nomad art, as it is found among the tribes of northern Tibet and the great metal-working region of Derge and Amdo.

All these objects irrefutably attest the existence of the ancient central Asian nomad art in Tibet. The mountainous character of the country with its inaccessible valleys, helped to preserve many reminiscences of a remote antiquity, and its nomad population treasures much of its central Asian past. So far attention has been paid only to the religious art of Tibet, its colorful painted banners and fine bronzes. Now a new province of Tibetan popular art has been opened, that is the pre-Buddhistic art of Tibetan nomad tribes, relic of a remote past.