Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1891 — Married Life in Tibet. [ARTICLE]

Married Life in Tibet.

Century Magazine. Among the Tibetans a man marries only one wife whom he purchases from her parents, a belle often costing as much as ten ponies and thirty yaks. The price to be paid for the wife is arranged by a relative or a friend, who acts as go-between, and the only marriage ceremony is a grand spree lasting as long as the bridegroom can afford to keep it up. The life of a Tibetan woman in this part of the country can not be deemed a hard one. She makes the tea, it is true, but with that the housekeeping ends; for no one ever dreams of cleaning the kettle afterwards, and every one nas to mix his own tsamba and lick his bowl clean when he has finished. Every four or five years she may have to sew a new sheepskin town for herself or for some one of er family, but certainly not oftener. She can not herd the cattle or sheep; men must do that, as there is danger from marauders. She passes her time spinning yarn, weaving a coarse kind of cloth out of which bags are made, turning a prayer wheel, and — destroying too voracious vermin. Her toilet requires rearranging only four or five times a year—wher She visits Kumbum or some other fair; she never washes herself or her garments, and her children can not outgrow their clothes; they have only to let out a Tittle the folds of the gown, their unique garment tucked up around the waist, and will fit them until they are grown up.