Lamas gabbled liturgies at railroad speed, beating drums and clashing
cymbals as an accompaniment, while others blew occasional blasts on
the colossal silver horns or trumpets, which probably resemble those
with which Jericho was encompassed. The music, the discordant and
high-pitched monotones, and the revolting odours of stale smoke of
juniper chips, of rancid butter, and of unwashed woollen clothes
which drifted through the doorway, were over-powering. Attempted
fights among the horses woke me often during the night, and the sound
of worship was always borne over the still air.
Dr. Marx left on the third day, after we had visited the monastery of
Hemis, the richest in Ladak, holding large landed property and
possessing much metallic wealth, including a chod-ten of silver and
gold, thirty feet high, in one of its many halls, approached by gold-
plated silver steps and incrusted with precious stones; there is also
much fine work in brass and bronze. Hemis abounds in decorated
buildings most picturesquely placed, it has three hundred lamas, and
is regarded as 'the sight' of Ladak.
At Upschi, after a day's march over blazing gravel, I left the
rushing olive-green Indus, which I had followed from the bridge of
Khalsi, where a turbulent torrent, the Upshi water, joins it,
descending through a gorge so narrow that the track, which at all
times is blasted on the face of the precipice, is occasionally
scaffolded.
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