From ‘Heart of Asia’ by Nicholas Roerich

The Pemayangtse monastery is the official center of religion in Sikkim …….Every traveler should visit this remarkable place, despite the difficult path by a bamboo bridge over a wild torrent.

As in Sikkim, the Ladaki lamas turned out to be kind, tolerant of other faiths and hospitable to travelers, as Buddhists should be.

Often we saw bales of goods, left behind, unguarded, by unknown owners. Perhaps the animals fell or became too fatigued to carry the goods, which were left for another occasion. And nobody would touch this property. Nobody would dare to transgress this ethic of the caravan. …….Nobody knows exactly where is the frontier between Ladak and Chinese Turkestan. It is there, somewhere between Karakorum and Kurul! In Kurul is the first Chinese outpost……….The most dissimilar and varied people meet in this way: Ladaki, Kashmiris, Afghans, Tibetans, Astoris, Baltis, Dards, Mongols, Sarts, Chinese, and everyone has their own tale ………………Kurul is the first Chinese outpost on the Yarungkashdarya, the river of black nephrite.

Old Khotan was about six miles away, where the village Yotkan, stands to-day. The old Buddhist sites have now been covered by mosques, mazars and Moslem dwellings, so that further excavations in these places are quite out of question.

One often has cause to resent the actions of European explorers, who have removed whole parts of architectural ensembles to museums………Of course, there is this consideration: The majority of Buddhist monuments on Moslem lands have been and still are, exposed to iconoclastic fanaticism. In order to destroy the images, fires are built in the caves, and as high as the hand can reach, the faces of the images have been scratched with knives. We have seen traces of such destruction. The labors of such distinguished scholars as Sir Aurel Stein, Pelliot, Le Coq, Oldenburg, have safeguarded many of the monuments, which otherwise would have suffered the greatest danger of destruction, because of the carelessness of the Chinese administration.

………is it not possible that the word “Shaman” is a depraved form of the Sanskrit “Shraman”, just as “Bokhara” is nothing but the altered Buddhist word “Vihara”?

Mentioning the Mongols, it is necessary to point out some signs of an ancient physical bond between America and Asia. In 1921, when I became acquainted with the Red Indian Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona, I was forced to exclaim repeatedly: “But those are real Mongols!” Their features, details of their dress, their way of riding, and the character of some of their songs, all carried me away in imagination across the ocean. And now, having the opportunity to study the Mongols of outer and inner Mongolia, I was involuntarily reminded of the Pueblo Indian. Something inexplicable, fundamental, beyond all superficial theories, unites these nations.

Changthang – the northern upland of Tibet – truly deserves its fame as the coldest spot in Asia. Terrific storms increase to a tremendous degree the effect of the frost, and the rare atmosphere at fifteen to sixteen thousand feet, make the conditions exceptionally severe.

Tibet offers the most astonishing combination of contradictions.

On one side, we saw profound knowledge and remarkably developed psychic energy. On the other, complete ignorance and limitless darkness.

On one side, there is devotion to religion, even in its limited form. On the other side, we noticed how the money donated to monasteries was concealed and how false oaths were given …….We saw neither gold nor silver, either in the dzongs, or in the hands of the people. ……..We saw ancient dzongs, monasteries and villages. If from afar, the silhouettes at times looked good, on approach we were grieved to see the poverty and shoddiness of Tibetan structures. …….It is prohibited to kill animals. This is splendid. But the storerooms of the monasteries are filled with carcasses of mutton and yak. We were told of the sinless method of killing cattle, - driving the animals to the edge of steep cliffs, where they fall down and kill themselves. …….Not far from Lhasa is a place where corpses are hacked apart and thrown to vultures, dogs and pigs to be devoured. It is customary to roll naked on these remains to preserve one’s good health. The Buriat Tsibikoff, in his book on Tibet, assures his readers that His Holiness the Dalai-Lama has himself performed this absurd ritual. ……. “Why do our people lie so much?” worries a Tibetan on the banks of the Brahmaputra ……….

In general the Tibetan dialects are a problem, for besides the basic Lhasa dialect, every region retains its own dialect, and these are so different that the Tibetans of Lhasa at times cannot understand their own people.

Tibet has presumed for itself spiritual supremacy over its neighbors. The Tibetans look aloofly on Sikkimese, Ladakis, Kalmucks and call the Mongols their own bondsmen.