Re: The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism With Its Mystic Cults
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 4:02 am
HIGHLIGHTS OF BOOK CONT'D FROM TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Part 2:
THE DOCTRINE AND ITS ETHICS.
The Yoga doctrine of ecstatic union of the individual with the Universal Spirit had been introduced into Hinduism about 150 B.C. by Patanjali... It taught spiritual advancement by means of a self-hypnotizing to be learned by rules. By moral consecration of the individual to Isvara or the Supreme Soul, and mental concentration upon one point with a view to annihilate thought, there resulted the eight great Siddhi or magical powers, namely (1) "the ability to make one's body lighter, or (2) heavier, or (3) smaller, (4) or larger than anything in the world, and (5) to reach any place, or (6) to assume any shape, and (7) control all natural laws, and (8) to make everything depend upon oneself, all at pleasure of will — Iddhi or Riddi." On this basis Asanga, importing Patanjali's doctrine into Buddhism and abusing it, taught that by means of mystic formulas — dharanis (extracts from Mahayana sutras and other scriptures) and mantra (short prayers to deities) — as spells, "the reciting of which should be accompanied by music and certain distortion of the fingers (mudra), a state of mental fixity (samadhi) might be reached characterized by neither thought nor annihilation of thoughts, and consisting of six-fold bodily and mental happiness (Yogi), whence would result endowment with supernatural miracle-working power." These miraculous powers were alleged to be far more efficacious than mere moral virtue, and may be used for exorcism and sorcery, and for purely secular and selfish objects. Those who mastered these practices were called Yogacarya.
But even in early Buddhism mantras seem to have been used as charms, and southern Buddhism still so uses them in Paritta service for the sick, and also resorts to mechanical contrivances for attaining Samadhi, somewhat similar to those of the Yogacarya. And many mystic spells for the supernatural power of exorcism are given in that first or second century A.D. work, Saddharma Pundarika.
In the mystic nihilist sense, as the name of a thing was as real as the thing itself, the written spell was equally potent with the spoken, and for sacerdotal purposes even more so on account of the sacred character of letters, as expressing speech and so exciting the intense veneration of barbarians. No Tibetan will wantonly destroy any paper or other object bearing written characters...
The mere recital of mystic words and sentences (mantra or dharani [T., Z'un]), and their essential syllable (the germs or seed, so-called vija) is held to be equivalent to the practice of the Paramitas, and subdues and coerces the gods and genii, and procures long life and other temporal blessings, and obtains the assistance of the Buddhas and Bodhisats. Although these Dharanis were likely introduced to supply the need for incantations their use is alleged to be based upon the doctrine of unreality of things. As existence is ideal, the name of a thing is equivalent to the thing itself, and of a like efficacy are the attitudes (mudra) of the fingers, symbolic of the attributes of the gods. Thus Om is an acceptable offering to the Buddhas, Hri dispels sorrow, and by uttering Ho, samadhi is entered. Of such an ideal nature also were the paper horses of Huc's amusing story, which the Lamas with easy charity bestowed on belated and helpless travellers...
THE MYSTIC FORMULAS FOR THE ROSARIES...
Even the purest of all the Lamaist sects — the Ge-lug-pa — are thorough-paced devil-worshippers, and value Buddhism chiefly because it gives them the whip-hand over the devils which everywhere vex humanity with disease and disaster, and whose ferocity weighs heavily upon all. The purest Ge-lug-pa Lama on awaking every morning, and before venturing outside his room, fortifies himself against assault by the demons by first of all assuming the spiritual guise of his fearful tutelary, the king of the demons, named Vajrabhairava or Samvara, as figured in the chapter on the pantheon. The Lama, by uttering certain mantras culled from the legendary sayings of Buddha in the Mahayana Tantras, coerces this demon-king into investing the Lama's person with his own awful aspect. Thus when the Lama emerges from his room in the morning, and wherever he travels during the day, he presents spiritually the appearance of the demon-king, and the smaller malignant demons, his would-be assailants, ever on the outlook to harm humanity, being deluded into the belief that the Lama is indeed their own vindictive king, they flee from his presence, leaving the Lama unharmed....
THE SCRIPTURES AND LITERATURE...
Books now abound in Tibet, and nearly all are religious. The literature, however, is for the most part a dreary wilderness of words and antiquated rubbish, but the Lamas conceitedly believe that all knowledge is locked up in their musty classics, outside which nothing is worthy of serious notice...
The Do (Skt., Sutra), or Sermons (of the Buddhas), compiled by Ananda in sixty-six volumes inclusive of Tantras. As these discourses profess to be the narrative of the disciple Ananda, who is believed to have been present at the originals as uttered by Buddha, most of these Sutras commence with the formula: Evam maya srutam, "Thus was it heard by me;" but this formula now is almost regarded by many European scholars as indicating a fictitious sutra, so frequently is it prefixed to spurious sutras, e.g., the Amitabha, which could not have been spoken by Buddha or recited by Ananda. The Lamas, like the southern Buddhists, naively believe that when Buddha spoke, each individual of the assembled hosts of gods, demons, and men, as well as the various kinds of lower animals, heard himself addressed in his own vernacular...
Transcendental Wisdom ("Ses-rab kyi p'a-rol-tu p'yin-pa" or curtly, "Ser-ch'in" (Skt., Prajna-paramita), in twenty-one volumes. They contain, in addition to the metaphysical terminology, those extravagantly speculative doctrines entitled Prajna-paramita, which the Mahayana school attributes to Buddha's latest revelations in his mythical discourses mostly to supernatural hearers at the Vultures' Peak at Rajgriha. There is no historical matter, all is speculation, and a profusion of abstraction...
From this (Do) division of the Kah-gyur are culled out the Indian mystic formulas, mostly in unintelligible gibberish, which are deemed most potent as charms, and these form the volume named mDo-man gzun bsdus, or curtly, Do-man or "assorted aphorisms" — literally "many Sutras." These formulas are not used in the worship of the Buddhas and superior gods, but only as priestly incantations in the treatment of disease and ill-fortune. And as these spells enter into the worship of which the laity have most experience, small pocket editions of one or other of these mystic Sutras are to be found in the possession of all literate laymen, as the mere act of reading these charms suffices to ward off the demon-bred disease and misfortune...
Tantra (rgyud), in twenty-two volumes. "These volumes in general contain mystical theology. There are descriptions of several gods and goddesses. Instruction for preparing mandalas or circles for the reception of those divinities. Offerings or sacrifices presented to them for obtaining their favour. Prayers, hymns, charms, etc., addressed to them. There are also some works on astronomy, astrology, chronology, medicine, and natural philosophy."
In the first volume (K) are found the Kalacakra doctrine and Sambara. In the third the history of the divine mothers Varahi, etc. In the seventeenth volume (M) the expelling of devils and Naga-worship. The Tathagata-guhyaka contains a summary of the Sivaic esoteric doctrine.
The word "Tantra" according to its Tibetan etymology, literally means "treatise or dissertation," but in Buddhism as in Hinduism, it is restricted to the necromantic books of the later Sivaic or Sakti mysticism...
THE COMMENTARIES (TAN-GYUR).
The Buddhist commentators, like those of the Talmud, overlay a line or two with an enormous excrescence of exegesis...
THE INDIGENOUS TIBETAN LITERATURE...
But most of the autobiographies so-called (rNam-t'ar) and records (Yig-tsan or deb-t'er) are legendary, especially of the earlier Lamas and Indian monks are transparently fictitious, not only on account of their prophetic tone, though always "discovered" after the occurrence of the events prophesied, but their almost total absence of any personal or historic details. Some of the later ones dealing with modern personages are of a somewhat more historical character, but are so overloaded by legends as to repel even enthusiastic enquirers...
THE LAMAIST LIBRARY...
An enormous mass of Lamaist literature is now available in Europe in the collections at St. Petersburg, mainly obtained from Pekin, Siberia, and Mongolia; at Paris, and at the India Office, and Royal Asiatic Society in London, and at Oxford, mostly gifted by Mr. Hodgson...
THE LAMAIST ORDER AND PRIESTHOOD...
Preliminary Examination — Physical. — When the boy-candidate for admission is brought to the monastery his parentage is enquired into, as many monasteries admit only the more respectable and wealthier class. The boy is then physically examined to ascertain that he is free from deformity or defect in his limbs and faculties. If he stammers, or is a cripple in any way, or bent in body, he is rejected...
THE NOVICIATE
The tutor-Lama of the applicant for the noviciateship addresses the head monk (spyi-rgan) of his section for permission to admit the applicant, and at the same time offers a ceremonial scarf and the fee of ten rupees. Then, if the applicant be found free from bodily defects and otherwise eligible, a written agreement is made out in the presence of the head monk and sealed by the thumb.
To get his name registered in the books of that particular school of the monastery to which he is to be attached, the pupil and his tutor go to the abbot or principal of that school and proffer their request through the butler or cup-bearer, who conducts them to the abbot, before whom they offer a scarf and a silver coin (preferably an Indian rupee), and bowing thrice before him, pray for admission.
Amongst the questions now put are: Does this boy come of his free will? Is he a slave, debtor, or soldier? Does anyone oppose his entry? Is he free from deformity, contagious disease, or fits? Has he neglected the first three commandments? Has he committed theft, or thrown poison into water, or stones from a hillside so as to destroy animal life, etc.? What is his family? and what their occupation? and where their residence? On giving satisfactory replies, he is then required to recite by heart the texts he has learned; and if approved, then the names of the pupil and his tutor are written down and duly sealed by the thumbs, and a scarf is thrown around their necks, and the boy, who has been dressed in princely finery, has his dress exchanged for the yellow or red robe in imitation of Sakya Muni's renunciation of the world; while, if he is rejected, he is ejected from the monastery, and his tutor receives a few strokes from a cane, and is fined several pounds of butter for the temple lamps.
The approved pupil and his tutor then proceed to the head Lama (z'al-no) of the great cathedral (common to the colleges of the university), and, offering a scarf and a rupee, repeat their requests to him, and the names of the pupil and tutor and his sectional college or residentiary club are registered, so that should the pupil misconduct himself in the cathedral, his teachers, as well as himself, shall be fined.
The neophyte is now a registered student (da-pa), and on returning to his club, he is, if rich, expected to entertain all the residents of the club to three cups of tea. If he has no relatives to cook for him, he is supplied from the club stores; and any allowance he gets from his people is divided into three parts, one-third being appropriated by his club for messing expenses. Then he gets the following monkish robes and utensils, viz., a sTod-'gag, bs'am-t'abs, gzan, zla-gam, z'wa-ser, sgro-lugs, a cup, a bag for wheaten flour, and a rosary.
Until his formal initiation as an ascetic, "the going forth from home" (pravrajya-vrata), by which he becomes a novice (Ge-ts'ul, Skt., Sramana), the candidate is not allowed to join in the religious services in the monastery. So he now addresses a request to the presiding Grand Lama to become a novice, accompanying his request with a scarf and as much money as he can offer...
My friend, Mr. A. von Rosthorn, informs me that the Lamas of eastern Tibet usually pass through an ordeal of initiation in which six marks are seared in their crown with an iron lamp, and called Dipamkara, or "the burning lamp."...
The ceremony concludes with the presentation of a scarf and ten silver coins.
At the next mass, the boy is brought into the great assembly hall, carrying a bundle of incense sticks; and is chaperoned by a monk named the "bride-companion" (ba-grags), as this ceremony is regarded as a marriage with the church. He sits down on an appointed seat by the side of the "bride-companion," who instructs him in the rules and etiquette (sGris) of the monkish manner of sitting, walking, etc...
The novice now undergoes a severe course of instruction, during which corporal punishment is still, as heretofore, freely inflicted...
Those who disgracefully fail to pass this examination are taken outside and chastized by the provost. And repeated failure up to a limit of three years necessitates the rejection of the candidate from the order. Should, however, the boy be rich and wish re-entry, he may be re-admitted on paying presents and money on a higher scale than formerly, without which no re-admission is possible. If the rejected candidate be poor and he wishes to continue a religious life, he can only do so as a lay-devotee, doing drudgery about the monastery buildings. Or he may set up in some village as an unorthodox Lama-priest.
The majority fail to pass at the first attempt. And failure on the part of the candidate attaches a stigma to his teacher, while in the event of the boy chanting the exercises correctly and with pleasing voice in the orthodox oratorical manner, his teacher is highly complimented...
ORDINATION AND DEGREES...
The degree of Rab-jam-pa, "verbally overflowing, endlessly," a doctor universalis, corresponds with our Doctor of Theology, or D.D., and is, it seems, the highest academical title of honour which can be earned in the Lamaist universities, and after a disputation over the whole doctrine of the church and faith. The diploma which he receives entitles him to teach the law publicly, and authorizes him to the highest church offices not specially reserved for the incarnate Lamas. And he is given a distinctive hat, as seen in the foregoing figure, at the head of this chapter. It is said that in Tibet there are only twelve cloisters who have the right to bestow this degree, and it is even more honourable than the titles bestowed by the Dalai Lama himself. But this is, as a matter of course, a very expensive affair...
OFFICIALS AND DISCIPLINE...
The service of general-tea (Man-ja) is given three times daily from the stock supplied by the Chinese emperor as a subsidy amounting to about half-a-million bricks...
The size of the tea-boilers of the larger monastery and at the Lhasa temple is said to be enormous, as can be well imagined when it is remembered that several thousands have to be catered for. The cauldron at the great Lhasa cathedral is said to hold about 1,200 gallons.
A very vigorous discipline is enforced. It is incumbent on every member of the monastery to report misdemeanours which come under his notice, and these are punished according to the Pratimoksha rules. Minor offences are met at first by simple remonstrance, but if persisted in are severely punished with sentences up to actual banishment...
A member of De-pung who commits any of the ten kinds of "indulgence" cannot be tried except in the cathedral. The elder provost calls on the breaker of the rules to stand up in the presence of the assembled students, and the transgressor rises with bent head and is censured by the younger provost and sentenced to a particular number of strokes. Then the two water-men bring in the dGe-rgan of the club and the tutor of the offending student. The dGe-rgan rises up to receive his censure, and so also the tutors. Then the offending pupil is seized by the head and feet, and soundly beaten by the lictors (T'ab-gyog).
The punishment by cane or rod is fifty strokes for a small offence, one hundred for a middling, and one hundred and fifty for a grave offence. In the cathedral no more than one hundred and fifty strokes can be given, and no further punishment follows.
For breach of etiquette in sitting, walking, eating, or drinking, the penalty is to bow down and apologize, or suffer ten strokes.
The most severe punishment, called "Good or Bad Luck" (sKyid-sdug), so called it is said from its chance of proving fatal according to the luck of the sufferer, is inflicted in cases of murder and in expulsion from the order for persistent intemperance, or theft. After the congregation is over the teacher and club-master of the accused are called to the court, and the provost of the cathedral censures them. Then the accused is taken outside the temple and his feet are fastened by ropes, and two men, standing on his right and left, beat him to the number of about a thousand times, after which he is drawn, by a rope, outside the boundary wall (lchags-ri) and there abandoned; while his teacher and club-master are each fined one scarf and three silver Srangs...
As the Lama is comfortably clothed and housed, and fed on the best of food, he cannot be called a mendicant monk like the Buddhist monks of old, nor is the vow of poverty strictly interpreted; yet this character is not quite absent. For the order, as a body, is entirely dependent on the lay population for its support; and the enormous proportion which the Lamas bear to the laity renders the tax for the support of the clergy a heavy burden on the people...
Large numbers of Lamas are deputed at the harvest-time to beg and collect grain and other donations for their monasteries. Most of the contributions, even for sacerdotal services, are in kind, — grain, bricks of tea, butter, salt, meat, and live stock, — for money is not much used in Tibet. Other sources of revenue are the charms, pictures, images, which the Lamas manufacture, and which are in great demand; as well as the numerous horoscopes, supplied by the Lamas for births, marriages, sickness, death, accident, etc., and in which most extensive devil-worship is prescribed, entailing the employment of many Lamas. Of the less intellectually gifted Lamas, some are employed in menial duties, and others are engaged in mercantile traffic for the general benefit of their mother monastery. Most of the monasteries of the established church grow rich by trading and usury. Indeed, Lamas are the chief traders and capitalists of the country...
Counters.
Affixed to the rosary are small odds and ends, such as a metal toothpick, tweezer, small keys, etc...
The rosary has proved a useful instrument in the hands of our Lama surveying spies. Thus we find it reported with reference to Gyantse town, that a stone wall nearly two-and-a-half miles goes round the town, and the Lama estimated its length by means of his rosary at 4,500 paces. At each pace he dropped a bead and uttered the mystic "Om mam padm hm," while the good people who accompanied him in his Lin-k'or or religious perambulations little suspected the nature of the work he was really doing...
Material of the Beads.
The abbot of a large and wealthy monastery may have rosaries of pearl and other precious stones, and even of gold. Turner relates2 that the Grand Tashi Lama possessed rosaries of pearls, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, coral, amber, crystal and lapis-lazuli...
The human skull (discs) rosary...
IN HERMITAGE.
Buddhism in common with most religions had its hermits who retired like John the Baptist into the wilderness. And such periodical retirement for a time, corresponding to the Buddhist Lent (the rainy season of India, or Varsha, colloq. "barsat"), when travelling was difficult and unhealthy, was an essential part of the routine of the Indian Buddhist. Tson K'apa enforced the observance of this practice, but it has now fallen much into abeyance...
Theoretically it is part of the training of every young Lama to spend in hermitage a period of three years, three months, and three days, in order to accustom himself to ascetic rites. But this practice is very rarely observed for any period, and when it is observed, a period of three months and three days is considered sufficient...
TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS.
Like western friars, the Lamas have a considerable proportion of their number engaged in trades and handicrafts. The monks are practically divided into what may be called the spiritual and the temporal. The more intelligent are relieved of the drudgery of worldly work and devote themselves to ritual and meditation. The less intellectual labour diligently in field or farm and in trading for the benefit of their monastery; or they collect the rents and travel from village to village begging for their parent monastery, or as tailors, cobblers, printers, etc. Others again of the more intellectual members are engaged as astrologers in casting-horoscopes, as painters or in image-making, and in other pursuits contributing to the general funds and comfort of the monastery...
THE DIET...
The fully-ordained monks, the Ge-longs, are supposed to eat abstemiously and abstain totally from meat; though even the Grand Lama of Tashi-lhunpo appears to eat flesh-food.
Neither the monks of the established church nor the holier Lamas of the other sects may drink any spirituous liquor. Yet they offer it as libations to the devils...
THE HIERARCHY AND RE-INCARNATE LAMAS.
The first Grand Lama, Ge-'dun-dub, was born near Sas-kya, and not far from the site whereon he afterwards founded Tashi-lhunpo. His successors, up to and inclusive of the fifth, have already been referred to in some detail.
On the deposition and death of the sixth Grand Lama for licentious living, the Tartar king, Gingkir Khan, appointed to Potala the Lama of C'ag-poh-ri, named Nagwan Yeshe Gya-mts'o, into whom the sorcerers alleged that, not the soul but the breath of the former Grand Lama had passed. It was soon announced, however, that the sixth Grand Lama was re-born in the town of Lithang as Kal-zan, the son of a quondam monk of De-pung monastery. This child was imprisoned by the Chinese emperor, who had confirmed the nominee of the Tartar king, until the war of 1720, when he invested him with spiritual rule at Lhasa; but again, in 1728, deposed him, as he was privy to the murder of the king of Tibet. So he set in his place the Lama "Kiesri" Rimpoch'e, of the Chotin monastery, four days' journey from Lhasa. He seems latterly to have returned to power, and during his reign in 1749, the Chinese put his temporal vice-regent to death, when the people flew to arms and massacred the Chinese.
The ninth is the only Grand Lama of Lhasa ever seen by an Englishman. He was seen by Manning in 1811, while still a child of six years old. Manning relates that: "The Lama's beautiful and interesting face and manner engrossed almost all my attention. He was at that time about seven years old; had the simple and unaffected manners of a well-educated princely child. His face was, I thought, poetically and affectingly beautiful. He was of a gay and cheerful disposition, his beautiful mouth perpetually unbending into a graceful smile, which illuminated his whole countenance. Sometimes, particularly when he looked at me, his smile almost approached to a gentle laugh. No doubt my grim beard and spectacles somewhat excited his risibility. . . . He enquired whether I had not met with molestations and difficulties on the road," etc. This child died a few years afterwards, assassinated, it is believed, by the regent, named Si-Fan.
The tenth Grand Lama also dying during his minority, and suspicions being aroused of foul play on the part of the regent, the latter was deposed and banished by the Chinese in 1844, at the instance of the Grand Lama of Tashi-lhunpo, and a rising of his confederates of the Sera monastery was suppressed.
The eleventh also died prematurely before attaining his majority, and is believed to have been poisoned by the regent, the Lama of Ten-gye-ling. A young Lama of De-pung, named Ra-deng, was appointed regent, and he banished his predecessor "Pe-chi," who had befriended Huc; but proving unpopular, he had eventually to retire to Pekin, where he died. Pe-chi died about 1869, and was succeeded by the abbot of Gah-ldan.
The twelfth Grand Lama was seen in 1866 by one of our Indian secret surveyors, who styles him a child of about thirteen, and describes him as a fair and handsome boy, who, at the reception, was seated on a throne six feet high, attended on either side by two high rank officials, each swaying over the child's head bundles of peacock feathers. The Grand Lama himself put three questions to the spy and to each of the other devotees, namely: "Is your king well?" "Does your country prosper?" "Are you yourself in good health?" He died in 1874, and his death is ascribed to poison administered by the regent, the Tengye-ling head Lama.
The thirteenth is still (1894) alive. He was seen in 1882 by Sarat Candra Das, whose account of him is given elsewhere...
The country swarms with beggars...
Interesting details of the ceremonies as well as of the prominent part played by China in regulating the pontifical succession, have been supplied by Mr. Mayers from the original Chinese document of Meng Pao, the senior Amban at Lhasa, and from which the following historic extract is made by way of illustration...[O]n the previous occasion, when the embodiment of the tenth Dalai Lama entered the world, three children were discovered [whose names] were placed in the urn for decision by lot. As the chancellor now writes that each of the four children discovered by the Khan-pu on this occasion has been attended by auspicious and encouraging omens, we do not presume to arrogate to ourselves the choice of any one of their number, but, as regards the whole four, have on the one hand communicated in a Tibetan dispatch with the chancellor respecting the two children born within the territory of Tibet, and as regards the two children born within the jurisdiction of the province of Sze-ch'wan, have addressed a communication to the viceroy of that province calling upon them respectively to require the parents and tutors of the children in question to bring the latter to Anterior Tibet. On this being done, your majesty's servants, in accordance with the existing rules, will institute a careful examination in person, conjointly with the Panshen Erdeni and the chancellor, and will call upon the children to recognize articles heretofore in use by the Dalai Lama; after which your servants will proceed with scrupulous care to take measures for inscribing their names on slips to be placed in the urn, and for the celebration of mass and drawing the lots in public. So soon as the individual shall have been ascertained by lot, your servants will forward a further report for your majesty's information and commands...
Detailed statement of the miraculous signs attending upon four children, drawn up for his majesty's perusal from the despatch of the chancellor reporting the same: —
I. A-chu-cho-ma, the wife of the Tibetan named Kung-pu-tan-tseng, living at the Pan-je-chung post-station in Sang-ang-k'iuh-tsung, gave birth to a son on the 13th day of the 11th month of the year Ki-hai (19th December, 1839), upon a report concerning which having been received from the local headmen, the chancellor despatched Tsze-feng-cho-ni-'rh and others to make inquiry. It was thereupon ascertained that on the night before the said female gave birth to her child, a brilliant radiance of many colours was manifested in the air, subsequently to which the spring-water in the well of the temple court-yard changed to a milk-white colour. Seven days afterwards, there suddenly appeared upon the rock, behind the post-station, the light of a flame, which shone for a length of time. Crowds of people hastened to witness it, when, however, no single trace of fire remained, but upon the rock there was manifested an image of Kwan Yin (Avalokita) and the characters of Na-mo O-mi-to-Fo (Amitabha), together with the imprint of footsteps. On the night when the child was born, the sound of music was heard, and milk dropped upon the pillars of the house. When the commissioners instituted their inquiry, they found the child sitting cross-legged in a dignified attitude, seeming able to recognize them, and showing not the slightest timidity. They placed a rosary in the child's hands, whereupon he appeared as though reciting sentences from the Sutra of Amita Buddha. In addressing his mother he pronounced the word A-ma with perfect distinctness. His features were comely and well-formed, and his expression bright and intellectual, in a degree superior to that of ordinary children. In addition to the foregoing report, certificates by the local headmen and members of the priesthood and laity, solemnly attesting personal knowledge of the facts therein set forth, were appended, and were transmitted after authentication by the chancellor to ourselves, etc., etc...
The infant is taken to Lhasa at such an early age that his mother, who may belong to the poorest peasant class, necessarily accompanies him in order to suckle him, but being debarred from the sacred precincts of Potala on account of her sex, she is lodged in the lay town in the vicinity, and her son temporarily at the monastic palace of Ri-gyal Phodan, where she is permitted to visit her son only between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. She, together with her husband, is given an official residence for life in a palace about a mile to the west of Potala and on the way to De-pung, and the father usually receives the rank of Kung, said to be the highest of the five ranks of Chinese nobility.
At the age of four the child assumes the monkish garb and tonsure, and receives a religious name, and is duly enthroned at Potala in great state and under Chinese auspices...
The Dalai Lama is, as regards temporal rule, a minor till he reaches the age of eighteen, and during his minority a regent carries on the duties of temporal government. And the frequency with which the Dalai Lama has died before attaining his majority gives some support to the belief that the regents are privy to his premature death; and the Chinese government are usually credited with supporting such proceedings for political purposes.
On the death of a re-incarnate Lama, his body is preserved. The tombs of the Dalai, and Pan-ch'en Lamas form conspicuous gilt monuments, sometimes as many as seven storeys high, named Ku-tun, at Potala and Tashi-lhunpo. The holiness of such a Lama is estimated in proportion to the shrinkage of his body after death...
[Re-embodied Lama in western Tibet, Sen-c'en-Rin-po-ch'e] The last re-incarnate Lama bearing this title, and the tutor of the Tashi Grand Lama, was beheaded about 1886 for harbouring surreptitiously Sarat C. Das, who is regarded as an English spy; and although the bodies of his predecessors were considered divine and are preserved in golden domes at Tashi-lhunpo, his headless trunk was thrown ignominiously into a river to the S.W. of Lhasa, near the fort where he had been imprisoned. On account of his violent death, and under such circumstances, this re-incarnation is said to have ceased. From the glimpse got of him in Sarat's narrative and in his great popularity, he seems to have been a most amiable man...
MONASTERIES...
Sam-yas, which as the first monastery founded in Tibet, deserves first mention...
In a temple close by among the sand is a celebrated chamber of horrors, built of large boulders, and containing gigantic figures of the twenty-five Gon-po demons. The images are made of incense, and are about twenty feet high, of the fiercest expression, and represented as dancing upon mangled human corpses, which they are also devouring. And great stains of blood are pointed out by the attendants as the fresh stains of bodies which the demons have dragged to the place during the previous night...
Gah-ldan, the monastery founded by Tson-K'a-pa, is one of the four great Ge-lug-pa or established church monasteries, the others being De-pung, Sera and Tashi-lhunpo...
A very old statue of S'inje, the lord of Death, is much reverenced here; every visitor presenting gifts and doing it infinite obeisance...
Ser-ra, or "The Merciful Hail." It is said to have been so named out of rivalry to its neighbour, "The rice-heap" (De-pung), as hail is destructive of rice, and the two monasteries have frequent feuds...
Its monks number nominally 5,500, and have frequently engaged in bloody feuds against their more powerful rivals of De-pung...
The monastery of Pemiongchi was designed, if not actually built, by Lha-tsun as a high-class monastery for orthodox celibate monks of relatively pure Tibetan race. Pemiongchi still retains this reputation for the professedly celibate character and good family of its monks; and its monks alone in Sikhim enjoy the title of ta-san or "pure monk," and to its Lama is reserved the honour of anointing with holy water the reigning sovereign...
Nuns are admitted to a few monasteries in Sikhim, but their number is extremely small, and individually they are illiterate...
TEMPLES AND CATHEDRALS.
In primitive Buddhism the temple had, of course, no place. It is the outcome of the theistic development with its relic-worship and idolatry, and dates from the later and impurer stage of Buddhism...
Entering the vestibule, we find its gateway guarded by several fearful figures. These usually are...
A pair of hideous imps, one on either side, of a red and bluish-black colour, named S'em-ba Marnak who butcher their victims...
Here also are sometimes portrayed the twelve Tan-ma — the aerial fiendesses of Tibet, already figured, who sow disease ...
Ranged on either side of this triad are the other large images of the temple. Though in the larger fanes the more demoniacal images, especially the fiendish "lords" and protectors of Lamaism, are relegated to a separate building, where they are worshipped with bloody sacrifices and oblations of wine and other demoniacal rites inadmissible in the more orthodox Buddhist building. Some of such idol-rooms are chambers of horrors, and represent some of the tortures supposed to be employed in hell...
THE ALTAR AND ITS OBJECTS...
Upon the top of the altar are also usually placed the following objects, though several of them are special to the more demoniacal worship...
Pair of human thigh-bone trumpets. These are sometimes encased in brass with a wide copper flanged extremity, on which are figured the three eyes and nose of a demon, the oval open extremity being the demon's mouth. In the preparation of these thigh-bone trumpets the bones of criminals or those who have died by violence are preferred, and an elaborate incantation is done, part of which consists in the Lama eating a portion of the skin of the bone, otherwise its blast would not be sufficiently powerful to summon the demons...
THE CATHEDRAL OF LHASA.
No women are allowed to remain within the walls during the night, a prohibition which extends to many Lamaist cloisters...
PANTHEON, SAINTS, AND IMAGES.
LAMAIST mythology is a fascinating field for exploring the primitive conceptions of life, and the way in which the great forces of nature become deified. It also shows the gradual growth of legend and idolatry, with its diagrams of the unknown and fetishes; and how Buddhism with its creative touch bodied forth in concrete shape the abstract conceptions of the learned, and, while incorporating into its pantheon the local gods of the country, it gave milder meanings to the popular myths and legends.
The pantheon is perhaps the largest in the world. It is peopled by a bizarre crowd of aboriginal gods and hydra-headed demons, who are almost jostled off the stage by their still more numerous Buddhist rivals and counterfeits. The mythology, being largely of Buddhist authorship, is full of the awkward forms of Hindu fancy and lacks much of the point, force, and picturesqueness of the myths of Europe. Yet it still contains cruder forms of many of these western myths, and a wealth of imagery...
[T]he earliest Buddhist mythology known to us gives the gods of the Hindus a very prominent place in the system. And while rendering them finite and subject to the general law of metempsychosis, yet so far accepts or tolerates the current beliefs in regard to their influence over human affairs as to render these gods objects of fear and respect, if not of actual adoration by the primitive Buddhists.
The earliest books purporting to reproduce the actual words spoken by the Buddha make frequent references to the gods and demons. And in the earliest of all authentic Indian records, the edict-pillars of Asoka, we find that model Buddhist delighting to call himself "the beloved of the gods." The earlier Buddhist monuments at Barhut, etc., also, are crowded with images of gods, Yakshas and other supernatural beings, who are there given attributes almost identical with those still accorded them by present-day Buddhists. Every Buddhist believes that the coming Buddha is at present in the Tushita heaven of the gods. And the Ceylonese Buddhists, who represent the purer form of the faith, still worship the chief Indian gods and are addicted to devil-worship and astrology.
But the theistic phase of Buddhism carried objective worship much further than this. For as Buddha himself occupied in primitive Buddhism the highest central point which in other faiths is occupied by a deity, his popular deification was only natural.
In addition to the worship of Buddha, in a variety of forms, the Mahayana school created innumerable metaphysical Buddhas and Bodhisats whom it soon reduced from ideal abstractness to idolatrous form. And it promoted to immortal rank many of the demons of the Sivaist pantheon; and others specially invented by itself as defensores fidei; and to all of these it gave characteristic forms. It also incorporated most of the local deities and demons of those new nations it sought to convert. There is, however, as already noted, reason for believing that many of the current forms of Brahmanical gods were suggested to the Brahmans by antecedent Buddhist forms. And the images have come to be of the most idolatrous kind, for the majority of the Lamas and almost all the laity worship the image as a sort of fetish, holy in itself and not merely as a diagram or symbol of the infinite or unknown.
The Lamaist pantheon, thus derived from so many different sources, is, as may be expected, extremely large and complex. Indeed, so chaotic is its crowd that even the Lamas themselves do not appear to have reduced its members to any generally recognized order, nor even to have attempted complete lists of their motley deities. Though this is probably in part owing to many gods being tacitly tolerated without being specially recognized by the more orthodox Lamas...
Many of the more celebrated idols are believed by the people and the more credulous Lamas to be altogether miraculous in origin— "self-formed," or fallen from heaven ready fashioned...
Internal organs of dough or clay are sometimes inserted into the bodies of the larger images, but the head is usually left empty...
The "Fiercest" Fiends— (Drag-po and Gon-po) closely resemble the above "Angry Deities." They have usually chaplets of skulls encircled by tongues of flames; and they tread upon writhing victims and prostrate bodies...
The vast multitude of deities forming the Lamaist pantheon is, as already mentioned, largely created by embodying under different names the different aspects of a relatively small number of divinities with changing moods. Such expressed relationship, however, seems occasionally a gratuitous device of the Lamas in order to bring some of their indigenous Tibetan deities into relationship with the earlier and more orthodox celestial Bodhisats of Indian Buddhism...
The Highest Healers and Medical Tathagatas. (T., sMan-bla-bde-gs'egs brgyad.)
"The medicine-king" (Bhaisajyaraja), who figures prominently in several of the northern scriptures as the dispenser of spiritual medicine. The images are worshipped almost as fetishes, and cure by sympathetic magic...
The supplicant, after bowing and praying, rubs his finger over the eye, ear, knee, or the particular part of the image corresponding to the patient's own affected spot, and then applies the finger carrying this hallowed touch to the afflicted spot. The constant friction and rubbing of this rude worship is rather detrimental to the features of the god...
It is rather curious to note that some celebrated Europeans have come to be regarded as Buddhas. "The common dinner-plates of the Tibetans, when they use any, are of tin, stamped in the centre with an effigy of some European celebrity. In those which I examined I recognized the third Napoleon, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and Mr. Gladstone, all supposed by the natives to represent Buddhas of more or less sanctity."...
Marici, The resplendent. T., 'Od-zer 'c'an-ma.
She was originally the queen of heaven, a Buddhist Ushas, or goddess of the dawn, a metamorphosis of the sun as the centre of energy, curiously coupled with the oriental myth of the primaeval productive pig. In another aspect she is a sort of Prosperine, the spouse of Yama, the Hindu Pluto. While in her fiercest mood she is the consort of the demon-general, "The horse-necked Tamdin," a sort of demoniacal centaur. In another mode she is "The adamantine sow" (Skt., Vajra-varahi; T., rDo-rje P'ag-mo), who is believed to be incarnate in the abbess of the convent on the great Palti lake, as already described.
In her ordinary form she has three faces and eight hands, of which the left face is that of a sow. The hands hold various weapons, including an araju, axe, and snare. She sits in "the enchanting pose" upon a lotus-throne drawn by seven swine, as in the figure...
TUTELARIES.
The qualifications demanded in a tutelary are activity combined with power over the minor malignant devils. Thus most of the superior celestial Buddhas and Bodhisats may be, and are, tutelaries. But the favourite ones are the great demon-kings, and also some of the inferior fiends who have been promoted in diabolic rank for their adherence to the cause of Buddhism.
All the five celestial Jinas are tutelaries, but it is their Tantrik forms, such as Vajrasattva and Vajradhara, and Amitayus, which are especially utilized in this way; and most common of all are those who have consorts (sakti), as these are considered to be most energetic.
Of the Bodhisats, those most common as tutelaries are Avalokita and Manjusri, the demon Vajrapani, Tara, and Marici.
The demon-kings, however, are the favourite ones. They are repulsive monsters of the type of the Hindu devil Siva. These morbid creations of the later Tantrism may be considered a sort of fiendish metamorphoses of the supernatural Buddhas. Each of those demon-kings, who belong to the most popular section of Lamaist Tantrism — the Anuttara yoga — has a consort, who is even more malignant than her spouse.
There are several of these ferocious many-armed monsters, all of the fiercest fiend type already described, and all much alike in general appearance. But each sect has got its own particular tutelary-demon, whom it believes to be pre-eminently powerful...
Vajra-bhairava, or "The Fearful thunderbolt." (T., rDo-rje- 'jigs-byed). See figure on opposite page.
This is a form of Siva as the destroyer of the king of the dead, namely, as Yamantaka. Yet with truly Lamaist ingenuousness this hideous creature is believed to be a metamorphosis of the mild and merciful Avalokita. His appearance will best be understood from his picture here attached. He has several heads, of which the lowest central one is that of a bull. His arms and legs are innumerable, the former carrying weapons, and the latter trample upon the enemies of the established church.
It will be noticed that these writhing victims are represented of the four ancient classes of beings, namely, gods, men, quadrupeds, and birds...
Defenders of the Faith. (Skt., Dharmapala; T., Ch'os-skyon.
These are the demon-generals or commanders-in-chief who execute the will of the tutelaries — the demon-kings. In appearance they are almost as hideous and fierce as their fiendish masters, and each commands a horde of demons.
They are of the fiercest fiend type (the Drag-po and To-wo) already described. The females are metamorphoses of the Hindu fiendess, Kali Devi...
"The Goddess or The queen of the warring weapons." Lha-mo (or pal-ldan-Lha-mo); Skt., Devi (or Sri-Devi). And also, in Tibetan, dMagzor rgyal-mo.
This great she-devil, like her prototype the goddess Durga of Brahmanism, is, perhaps, the most malignant and powerful of all the demons, and the most dreaded. She is credited with letting loose the demons of disease, and her name is scarcely ever mentioned, and only then with bated breath, and under the title of "The great queen" — Maha-rani.
She is figured, as at page 334, surrounded by flames, and riding on a white-faced mule, upon a saddle of her own son's skin flayed by herself. She is clad in human skins and is eating human brains and blood from a skull; and she wields in her right hand a trident-rod. She has several attendant "queens" riding upon different animals.
She is publicly worshipped for seven days by the Lamas of all sects, especially at the end of the twelfth month, in connection with the prevention of disease for the incoming year. And in the cake offered to her are added amongst other ingredients the fat of a black goat, blood, wine, dough and butter, and these are placed in a bowl made from a human skull.