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Diary entry by Gertrude Bell

Reference code
GB/2/8/2/2/17
Creator
Bell, Gertrude Margaret Lowthian
Creation Date
Extent and medium
1 entry, paper
Language
English
Location
Coordinates

27.0410218, 88.2662745

Tues 17. [17 February 1903] Up at dawn - Kinchinjunga
[Kanchenjunga] wonderfully close, a lurid low red[?] light on it.
Everest clear behind 27,000 ft, whatever it's name is, but a cloud soon
formed on its NE side. Very cold. We breakfasted and went up to the
top of the rocky knoll behind the DB. Frightfully cold but view superb.
There's a most lovely twin peak to the left of Kinchinjunga, and
beneath the big mountain another twin peak, the S face a sheet of ice,
but I believe the N face is a snow field and the mountain flat at the top.
Knobby ground to the right of K. but this is not eternal snow. The line
is 18 to 19000 ft. In some places you can ride up to 20,000. The pines
(pinus webbia, at least) begin at about 11,500, the rhododendron go
up to 15,500. The wood we burnt[?] was rhododendron wood.
There's a quite white peak far behind appearing through the V
shaped cut of a pass- this is {Chemelphu} Chumulhasu, the sacred
mountain of Thibet [Tibet]. Kinchinjunga means the 5 treasuries of
snow - the crest has 5 peaks. There are Rip Van Winkel treasure
hunting stories told about it. [Added at at top of page: No, Buddhist .....
tales]. One can't see Everest from Tanglu. We left at 8 and walked
down through the pines, everything furred with a thick hoar frost after
yesterday's mist. Wonderful views through the pines to the snows
across great wooded valleys. The pines are so blasted because the
peasants burn them, setting the brushwood alight to burn it away and
let the grass grow. They are pinus webbia. Those round Darjeeling
[Darjiling] are cryptomeria, imported from Japan, they do excellently.
To our right we had a great view all across Nepal. The reason this bit
of the road twists so is to avoid running into Nepal - the short cut
actually crosses the forbidden land. Lower down we got into exquisite
bamboo thickets weighed down by snow like a Jap drawing, the path
through them quite deep in snow, much more here than above. From
Mr Paul: Chumulhasu, a very white mountain on the main road to
Lhasa. It sticks up through the Chola Pass (La means Pass) this way
[sketch] to the right of Kinchinjunga. Also to the right, a very little, is
Chim'omo which seems perfectly flat, she is the wife of Kinchin Jhau
which is very much serrated, this way [sketch] Between them lies the
easiest road to Tashe Chunpo which is the seat of the most holy of all
the Lamas. The Dalai has the temporal power from China, but the
Tashe Lama is all the more holy for having nothing but spiritual power.
The 5th Tash Lama was the 1st Dalai. The late Tashe Lama had a
mother who used to trouble him very much by selling dispensations
and things, trading on her son's holiness. So he prophesied that in his
next incarnation he wd be born of a mother that wd give him no
trouble. Accordingly the present Tashe Lama's mother is blind, deaf
and dumb from her birth. The present Dalai is an[?] .... man[?],
contrary to habit. At the time he was growing up, they were so busy
making spells to destroy Mr Paul, they forgot all about the Dalai Lama
till he grew too old and strong for them. This was at the time of the war
with Thibet [Tibet]. Mr Paul went in with our troops. Thibetan
Buddhism is mixed up with a tremendous lot of legend, fairy tale and
mythology of pre-Buddhist Thibet. The exquisite white Matterhorn like
peak in the Sikkim range is Siniolcha. The twin peak just below and
to the left of Kinchinjunga is Kabru and the next to the left, an exquisite
peak is Jannoo. NB (Get Capt Harman's panorama of the Darjeeling
snows.) We did the stage to Tanglu in under 4 hours, getting in before
12. Our tiffin gnome came in 10 minutes later and we made tea and
had a big lunch. Here clouds blew up. Started at 12.45. H [Hugo]'s
new pony very fresh and refused to allow him to mount. We had to
throw a cloth over it. Went a rattling pace. Got to Johrpukri at 3
through heavy rain and hail. Changed ponies and rode in to
Darjeeling where we arrived at 4.50, dry for the rain stopped and we
had lovely views down the railway valley. Met the Birds coming down
the hill to the hotel. NB Stagshorn moss, a lovely cerum seed, scarlet
clusters, women rolling their cigarettes as they walked. We had a
bath and tea, dressed and read till dinner and early to bed. Jitman.
[Written at top of third page of entry:] Sir John Edgar began the Nepal
Frontier road - it was a famine road. Mr Paul continued it - he built
Sandakphu.

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