According to an old arrangement between Lhassa and Leh, they carry
brick tea free for the Lhassa merchants. They are Buddhists, and
practise polyandry, but their young men do not become lamas, and
owing to the scarcity of fuel, instead of burning their dead, they
expose them with religious rites face upwards in desolate places, to
be made away with by the birds of the air. All their tents have a
god-shelf, on which are placed small images and sacred emblems. They
dress as the Ladakis, except that the men wear shoes with very high
turned-up points, and that the women, in addition to the perak, the
usual ornament, place on the top of the head a large silver coronet
with three tassels. In physiognomy they resemble the Ladakis, but
the Mongolian type is purer, the eyes are more oblique, and the
eyelids have a greater droop, the chins project more, and the mouths
are handsomer. Many of the men, including the headman, were quite
good-looking, but the upper lips of the women were apt to be 'tucked
up,' displaying very square teeth, as we have shown in the preceding
chapter.
The roofs of the Tsala tents are nearly flat, and the middle has an
opening six inches wide along its whole length.
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