RUDOK  , a small

town on the Ladakh frontier of Tibet, through which all the trade of Tibet passes to Leh, and at which is maintained the Chinese'outpost that for many years persistently interfered with European exploration . Rudok is picturesquely situated on the side of a hill standing isolated in the plain near the E. end of Lake Pangong, across which the official boundary between Tibet and Kashmir runs . The houses are built in tiers, whitewashed and walled in . At the top of the hill are a large palace and several monasteries painted red . About a mile away from the foot of the hill is another monastery . Rudok is about 13,300 ft. above sea-level, and the greatest altitude on the route connecting it with Lhasa at the pass of Mariom la (the water-parting between the Brahmaputra and the Sutlej) is 15,500 ft . The winter climate of Rudok and of all the towns of the Tsangpo basin, owing to the intense dryness of the air and the light fall of snow, seems to be bracing and exhilarating rather than severe . The thermometer never approaches the minimum record of Puetra (in the same latitude and at half the absolute elevation), according to the observations of native surveyors .