Part 109 - Sanga Choling halts and visits, 23–24 September

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SUMMARY:
The diarists halt at Sanga Choling, receiving hospitality from a local mother and later sending mail via a young lama to Chague. The head lama visits and speaks of a recent scare in Lhasa involving Russians or Chinese Communists; Tsongpen returns with seeds from Karpo and the Trakan la, though the sought red Primula nivalis was not found.

CONTENT:
Sanga Choling
23rd Sept. Halt. Some rain, mostly fine and sunny. The old woman who is mother to the two girls we always see here, gave us lunch of guatu in camp, and came herself. She is a most delightful lady, full of life and talk, and her great desire was to be given some embroidery silk, a selection of which she went off with. We could get no man for the mail; all are off cutting grass and so on.

Sanga Choling
24th Sept. Halt. Got a man for the mail, through the mother's good offices, and sent him off this morning via Chague. He is a young lama and seems a nice youth. Rained in the night again. After lunch the head lama called, and was very pleasant. He has just returned from Lhasa, where he told us of scare of Russians, which may be real Soviet or Chinese Communists. However R.B. Norbu had gone to Lhasa, and the scare had quietened down. Nearly all S. Choling seems to be inter-related, and it is most complicated. We gave him some fruit salad and cake to eat, many cigarettes and four glasses of Cointreau, all of which he took with relish, a most un-lama like performance. It rained off and on all evening, and was overclouded all day. Tsongpen arrived back with a few seeds from Karpo and the Trakan la. He failed to find the red Primula nivalis, but got another one, and the P.