Report on a Visit to Sikhim and the Thibetan Frontier in October, November, and December, 1873 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874 Excerpt: ...the exclusion possible. It is an almost incredible fact that Chinese tea is imported through Thibet into Darjeeling for the consumption of the native inhabitants of the district, who are practically unable to obtain the tea grown on the spot. European goods are mainly imported into Thibet, through Nepal and Ladakh, by Cashmeree and Nepalese (Newar) traders who reside at the great marts. The imports by those routes are chiefly broadcloth, cottons of various kinds, pearls, coral, turquoise and some other precious stones, gold-embroidered stuffs, hookah tobacco, and opium. Of these articles, the most important is broadcloth, the demand for which in Thibet is very great. The woollen cloths manufactured in the country, though warm, are coarse and heavy, and those obtained from China are immeasurably inferior to broadcloth. As warm clothing is one of the first necessaries of life in Thibet, it will be easily understood that, practically for some time to come, the only limit to the demand for broadcloth in Thibet will be the want of means of purchasing it. The chief exports from Thibet by the Nepal and Ladakh channels are blankets, musk, yaks' tails, borax, ponies, gold, and silver. The Cashmeree merchants are said to send gold and silver to India, in payment for the article imported by them, in preference to exporting any of the bulkier products of Thibet. Gold, the amount of which exported is comparatively insignificant, is almost always the produce of that it has for the most part been imported I was told rupees, and And with Bhootan and Darjeeling. from Assam by the Towang route, the Thibetans who trade on that frontier as a rule taking money in exchange for their goods. The chief articles imported into Thibet from Bhootan and Darjeeling are rice, goor, and su...