Part 129 - To Kap and Chayul Dzong with handling of dog Tumshu and plant observations

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SUMMARY:
Travel to Kap and then Chayul Dzong, including difficulty lowering the Tibetan mastiff Tumshu down a stone ladder, with Pinto assisting. Notes children peeling rhododendron leaf indumentum to sell as Bané for lamp wicks and observes currants, irises, and early paraquilegia and rhododendrons; an outing up the nala SE of Kap with Tsongpen and Tendup found few flowers fully out.

CONTENT:
have found. He shows it below Lung on the way to the Chupung La, whereas it is above Dotrang on the way to the Kashong La.

4th May. To Kap. 7 miles. Fine. Some difficulty in getting the dog Tumshu—the Tibetan mastiff, a useless beast really (G.)—down the stone ladder today. He was eventually carried on one man's shoulders, while Pinto came down next, holding a rope round Tumshu's neck, to keep his head up, so that he could not bite the carrier. Currants in flower and pretty numerous. The irises here are lovely, every spare inch covered with them. We noticed the children yesterday pulling the thick indumentum off the underside of a rhododendron leaf. They do this when the leaf is more or less dry, then roll up the indumentum, which comes off in one piece, and sell it to the treasury. It is extensively used as a wick in an oil lamp, and goes by the name of Bané.

5th May. Chayul Dzong. 6 miles. Tsongpen, Tendup and I went up the nala SE of Kap, leaving at 5.0 am. I was disappointed to find flowers had hardly come on at all. Paraquilegia, however, is everywhere just on the point of flowering. One or two rhododendrons were just out, but nothing new. Camped