3-065-894 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Mission to Yarkund and Kashgar: travellers' smoking-divan in a Kirghiz tent, 1874. 'Besides the tent in which they lodged at each day's encampment, they had the akoe of their Kirghiz followers, in which the gentlemen would sit to smoke a quiet pipe, after dinner or supper. This akoe...is something between a tent and a hut. It is round, with a low domed roof, having a hole at top for the chimney. The wall is of willow wands, so interlaced that they can be opened as wicker-framework or folded together for carriage. The roof is of long rods, which are laid upon the top of the wall, meeting a hoop in the middle above. The whole is covered with thick white felt. It is portable, easily set up, and a comfortable shelter. Two yaks conveyed it on the road; it was erected in ten minutes, and a dozen persons could find room in it, reclining on carpets and cushions. A hole dug in the ground, beneath the central opening in the roof, was the fireplace to warm the dwelling...The remote and secluded country of Eastern Turkestan...has lately been put in diplomatic communication with the British Indian Government. The mission of Mr. T. Douglas Forsyth...is of some political and commercial importance'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.