WHITE WOMAN TRAVELS IN TIBET

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 306, 17 March 1928, Page 27

WHITE WOMAN TRAVELS IN TIBET

TURQUOISE “BANKS”

Map showing the route followed by Colonel S. Gordon Johnson and Mrs. Johnson on the' expedition into Tibet. ■NE of the most remarkable shooting expeditions in which a woman has taken part has just been safely accomplished by LieutenantColonel S. Gordon Johnson, late of the South Staffordshire Regiment, and his wife. They have returned to London after a journey of 1,200 miles from Kashmir to Tibet and back across the Himalayas and other mountain ranges. Colonel and Mrs. Johnson, who were, accompanied by 6 native servants, 10 transport men with 15 yaks, a herd of sheep for food, and a her.d of goats to provide milk, secured a Tibetan antelope at a height of 21,000 feet. Colonel Johnson said to a newspaper man: My wife and 1 made the journey, which totalled 2,000 miles from when we left Kashmir on May 4 till we returned on November 4, because we are both enthusiastic shots. Leaving Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, we crossed the Himalayas at Zogi Pass (11,500 feet). We went 240 miles without seeing a village, and arrived at Leh, the chief village in the Ladak Range. Leh, which sees perhaps 25 Europeans in a year, is a market of barter between India and Kashmir on the one hand and Chinese Turkestan on the other. Dance of the Black Hat Thirty miles from Leh is the monastery of Hemis, where we attended the annual festival which attracts people from all over Central Asia. Grotesque and brilliantly clad figures wearing great masks or huge black hats dance “the dance of death” or “the dance of the black hat,” or other eerie steps to dismal one-note music. During the festival you could go to see the Shushak, who might be called the Archbishop. He is supposed to be the reincarnation of Buddha. When dying the Shushak has to call them lamas, the high priests, and tell them where to find the newly born Infant whom he knows, on the inspiration of Buddha, must be his successor. When the baby is found it is placed in the monastery. The women wear head-dresses that go down their backs and bear turquoises. Mrs. Johnson, who bought splendid specimens of turquoises for less than a pound in rupees, pointed out that these stones, carried on the headdress, were the banking accounts of the women. The journey continued across the Chang Chen Mo River to Tibet. Colonel Johnson said: We encountered a snow field at 18,000 feet into which my wife sank almost to the shoulders. When I went to help her I sank just as deep, and soon all our transport was In. It took us from 8.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. to get out of the snow field, in which we moved less than half a mile.