After a moment's discussion they ushered us into the temple or chapel, which was evidently also their communal council-room and place of deliberation.

We entered, trembling.

We had no great certainty that we would ever get out of it alive again.
The temple was a large, oblong hall, with a great figure of Buddha, cross-legged, imperturbable, enthroned in a niche at its further end, like the apse or recess in a church in Italy.

Before it stood an altar.
The Buddha sat and smiled on us with his eternal smile.

A complacent deity, carved out of white stone, and gaudily painted; a yellow robe, like the Lamas', dangled across his shoulders.