emphasise their patrol except for the envelope
 

were
very class conscious and the story that I had brought "only
one case!" apparently put me outside the range of human
society. Because I did not conform to the snobbish norm I
was as lonely as if I had been in a prison cell, but with the
great difference that I could move about. It was amusing
to see other passengers call a steward to have their deck-
chairs moved a little further away from me.
We sailed from the port of New York to the Straits of
Gibraltar. Across the Mediterranean Sea we steamed,
calling at Alexandria, and then going on to Port Said,
steaming along the Suez Canal to enter the Red Sea. The
heat affected me badly, the Red Sea was almost steaming,
but at last it came to an end, and we crossed the Arabian
Sea to finally dock at Bombay. I had a few friends in that
city, Buddhist priests and others, and I spent a week in
their company before continuing my journey across India
to Kalimpong. Kalimpong was full of Communist spies and
newspaper men. New arrivals found their life was made a
misery by the endless, senseless questioning, questions
which I never answered but continued what I was doing.
This penchant of Western people to pry into the affairs
of others was a complete mystery to me, I really did not
understand it.
I was glad to get out of Kalimpong and move into my
own country, Tibet. I had been expected, and was met
by a party of high lamas disguised as mendicant monks
and traders. My health was deteriorating rapidly, and
necessitated frequent stops and rest. At long last, some ten
weeks later, we reached a secluded lamasery high in the

153

Himalayas, overlooking the Valley of Lhasa, a lamasery so
small and so inaccessible that Chinese Communists would
not bother about it.
For some days I rested, trying to regain a little of my
strength, rested, and meditated. I was home now, and
happy for the