ba – the sound made by the sheep + Tibetan tang which means a plain or steppe). It is warmer here than most of Tibet (because of the lower altitude) and is reported to be a friendly, easy-going place, surrounded by barley fields. The plain surrounding the town is unusually fertile and produces two harvests a year. The main products include: rice, maize, barley, wheat, peas, cabbages, turnips, onions, grapes, pomegranates, peaches, apricots, water melons and honey. There are also cinnabar (mercury sulphide) mines from which mercury is extracted. The Abbé Auguste Desgodins, who was on a mission to Tibet from 1855 to 1870, wrote: "gold dust is found in all the rivers and even the streams of eastern Tibet". He says that in the town of Bathan or Batan, with which he was personally acquainted, there were about 20 people regularly involved in washing for gold in spite of the severe laws against it. Chöde Gaden Pendeling Monastery In the southwest of the town is the large Gelugpa Chöde Gaden Pendeling Monastery (Kangning Si 康宁寺) which now has some 500 monks. Colourful cham dances are held outside the town each year on the 26th of the ninth Tibetan month. 'The Batang lamasery, which stands in the west of the plain near the left bank of the Batang River just above its junction with the small river, is a very large and imposing group of buildings surrounded by a high white wall encircled by a row of cypress and willow trees. It has two golden roofs and numerous pinnacles, like the monastery at Litang. It accommodates lamas or priests; variously estimated to number from 1,300 to 1,700, but it must not be supposed that this number is always resident, for lamas have the privilege of coming and going and apparently living as they please. I was here the spectator of a performance somewhat similar to that given at Ta-chien-lu. The scene was the grassy right bank of the Batang River below its junction with the small river, to reach which the former had to be crossed by a wooden bridge near the lamasery. Here tents were pitched in the form of a square, with an audience of lamas on two sides, while the other two sides were given up to the lama performers and the spectators from the town respectively. Round the square were smaller tents pitched by the well-to-do,