d, that the inhabitants of Lha-Ssa consume an immense
quantity of beef and mutton; their horn-houses incontestably demonstrate
the fact.

The Buddhist temples are the most remarkable edifices in Lha-Ssa. We
need not here describe them, for they all closely resemble those which we
have already had occasion to portray. We will only remark, therefore,
that the temples of Lha-Ssa are larger, richer, and more profusely gilt
than those of other towns.

The palace of the Tale-Lama merits, in every respect, the celebrity which
it enjoys throughout the world. North of the town, at the distance of
about a mile, there rises a rugged mountain, of slight elevation and of
conical form, which, amid the plain, resembles an islet on the bosom of a
lake. This mountain is entitled Buddha-La (mountain of Buddha, divine
mountain), and upon this grand pedestal, the work of nature, the adorers
of the Tale-Lama have raised the magnificent palace wherein their Living
Divinity resides in the flesh. This palace is an aggregation of several
temples, of various size and decoration; that which occupies the centre
is four stories high, and overlooks all the rest; it terminates in a
dome, entirely covered with plates of gold, and surrounded with a
peristyle, the columns of which are, in like manner, all covered with
gold. It is here that the Tale-Lama has set up his abode. From the
summit of this lofty sanctuary he can contemplate, at the great
solemnities, his innumerable adorers advancing along the plain or
prostrate at the foot of the divine mountain. The secondary palaces,
grouped round the great temple, serve as residences for numerous Lamas,
of every order, whose continual occupation it is to serve and do honour
to the Living Buddha. Two fine avenues of magnificent trees lead from
Lha-Ssa to the Buddha-La, and there you always find crowds of foreign
pilgrims, telling the beads of their long Buddhist chaplets, and Lamas of
the court, attired in rich costume, and mounted on horses splendidly
caparisoned. Around the Buddha-La there is constant motion; but there
is, at the same time, almost uninterrupted silence, religious meditations
appearing to occupy all men's minds.

In the town itself the aspect of the population is quite different; there
all is excitement, and noise, and pushing, and competition, every single
soul in the place being ardently occupied in the grand business of buying
and selling. Commerce and devotion incessantly a