THE WORLD WIDE

Hokitika Guardian, 10 December 1932, Page 6

THE WORLD WIDE

PRESENT ECONOMIC DEPRESSION

TRAVELS IN PRIMITIVE TIBET,

The depression is not world-wide. It Ladakh (or Little Tibet) tney h..\ never heal'd of it. Depressions a’Jd th complexities that go with them are th prerogative of a civilised state, and th • metans are still in a primitive condi tion that precludes any such influences Professor Arnold Wall, who has r<. turned to Christchurch after a tri, that took him into .some of the littleknown piac'ji of the world, places thstage reached by the Tibetans in cu. tu-re ae about the same as that of th early Britons at the time of the Saxo conquest. With tent and camera, Pi' r fessor Wall penetrated fa r beyond th borders of Cashmere., spending much o ihis time at great altitudes in territor ie,s -{hat for ■ the most part were con pletely barren.- He leaned much ° ,tho little-known botany of this I'egion .and has brought back with him «' splendid collection of pictures.

Professor Wall left Christchurch las' March, and most of his time since thehas -been spent in Cashmere. The mos iintero'ting part of his trip was th expedition he made into Ladakh, th n'-arest approach that may be made t forbidden Tibet. The collection, o' botanical specimens was his principal concern during this trip, though: h” camera was always in use. ,He securea- large number of -plants, which have been sent to K-ew. The people ar< Tibetan and speak the Tibetan laiigu age. They are Buddhvts. very simple and extremely dirty. /Professor Wal travelled about 250 milps east o Srinagar, the capital of Cashmere, rra 1jrg the journey on foot- during Jel and ’ August, with a caravan of -fiyr ponies and three m-n. He walked r total -distance of 507'miles. He speu ten days at Leh, the capital of Ladakh The first fifty m'> s of fb long vT took him up the Sind Valley, when there is a plentiful rainfall and beaut' ful veretation and alpino scenery. T-h' route led them acre’s the Zoii La a -am altitude of 11,500 feet, afte r which there were 150 miles, of practically desert country, treeless and barren. Th f 1 "st five stages’ traversed the Indus 'Valiev, two R'vh passes, each about 13,000 feet, ndmittW to the final stag' to .Leh, which k itself at an elevation of about 12,000 feet. During the ten daws in which ho rn-'l fl Leh hL he"- l auarters, Professor Wall made his expedition up the Khardung Pass, on the way to Yarkand, ip Chineee Turkestan. Hi s greatest elevation was 18.500 feet, where he securer a number of botanical .specimens ano took a number ,of photographs. The lower part of the valley is desert, with nothing but gravel and boulders, bu over 15,000--fe e t there is pleiitiful -r.ltW'cvegetation. On the summit, at 18,000 -feet,. ProfessQr Wail, secured dour or five specie, s of plants. He camped ia tent ae high as 15.500 fe e t.

The average length of th? marcher on the kout-f* to Leh is from 16 t-o If miles. There are two long marches of about <23 fir,’©.?, chart mwKe*-; There ar e many villaees in th e river. Mai leys, , where the inhabitants grov wheat, barley and other foodstuffs. The village.-, are planted with wUlow-s, Lombardy poplar and apricot- t-> - ee»s, th r fruit °f which was ripe when professor Wall was there. The road to Leh doe.* not admit of wheeled traffic, though it is possible to ride. Th e barren road wav is marked by the skeleton s o' countless ponies and other beasts cl burden that have perioh-ed on the way. Among the natives the yak is largeb used in place of the pony, and the zo. a cross between a yak and a cow,,- i also commonly employed as a beast of burden.

Professor Wall e.nul that though thf people were so primitive their monas teries were very fine. A curious featurof the was the chorten, or shrine, of which there were 10. round every village. They po sessf a religious significance, though it ha' become very obscure. There were alst to be met witli heaps of inscribe, boulder,j, some of them’ stretching for a mile. The= e also -had a religou-' significance, the native believing that he acquired some religious virtue by inscribing a st-onc and adding it to the heap. The mails are carried by run nors, whose stages are marked by huts, every four miles, arid even in winter these men carry the mails through tc Leh, unless the are exceptionally bad. Leh, however, enjoys telegraphic communication with the outer world.

There ar? only three white people i” Leh, Bishop Peter, a missionary, and his wife and a, girl who is a missionary doc-tbr. They r?ee no other white people, and spend their lives in complete isolation. From the t-ime he .set out from Cashmere till his return, Pro. fessor Wall was “* x wqek s on the journey into Little Tibet. He sp-nt much of ’ his time in a complete wilderness but for thtf greater part of it amid magnificent scenery, which he hr* -preserved in the excellent photograph? tha t he has brought back with him. He P vp or ienc"d little p’-ysic-sl discomfort through his protracted stays at great •elevations. He found it necessary to move slowly, but as he was not forced t-o stop h» was able to cover a lot of ground. .Since returmng to->’«"' inland h t > has had about forty slide s prepared from photographs which he t-ook on his trip.