Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1933-09-05 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
1 page
Context area
Name of creator
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
SUMMARY:
Describes the route from a pass down to a bridge and onward via Lala to Towa Dzong, with camping near the river. Notes long delays when changing transport at villages, including a 13-hour day and a 1¾-hour wait at Lala, with locals, coolies (mostly women), and various pack animals involved.
CONTENT:
The drop from the pass to the bridge is over 2000'. Over the bridge the path climbs up the R bank by very steep zig zags for 1600' to m 8½. A village is passed at m 9½, thence the path is nearly level round the hillside to the west, reaching the village of Lala at m 12. Here transport is changed. From Lala the path descends gently to the Towa villages cultivation at m 15, and thence proceeds through cultivation to Towa Dzong and a very good camping ground ½ mile beyond the Dzong, close to the river at m 17. Water and fuel ample - 11.
Changing transport is proving a perfect curse. Yesterday we took 13 hours to reach here: started at 6:00 am and arrived 7:00 pm. Luckily it was a good day. The changing is really rather amusing: it would be very funny were it not for the awful delay. Everyone in the village turns out. They look at and examine all our things; then there is endless talk, which seems to lead nowhere at all. People shout to others miles away for horses. Somehow or other there eventually turn up, with some coolies, donkeys, cattle, yaks, and horses off we eventually go again. Yesterday at Lala it took 1¾ hours for this to be done: otherwise we should have been here in daylight. The coolies are mostly women, and they get on with the work pretty well. Everyone seems happy and they all joke and laugh
