The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 11

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

11

ferred from the fact that the three immediate prede-
cessors died mysteriously at the early age of eighteen
years and were in each case succeeded by regents,
who performed the duties of the Dalai Lama till a
new one could be found and inducted into his office
as priest-god.

The finding of a new Dalai Lama is connected
with considerable trouble. First of all, upon the
death of the reincarnate Buddha a search is made
for a boy baby who was born at the time when the
Dalai Lama died. Such a baby must be found
within two years, and when found, he and his par-
ents are removed to Lhasa. The mother’s work is
soon over, but the father of the new priest-god is
given a palace and is created a “duke.” The child
is carefully trained till he is eighteen years old, at
which time he is inducted into his office as the head
of the Buddha cult in Tibet. The present Dalai
Lama, who is now over fifty years old, looked for-
ward with dread to the time when he would be
eighteen years old; and when that time came, he
fled to China, and in this manner no doubt saved his
life. Four years later he returned to Lhasa and took
over the control of affairs. He found two parties
among the priests, and as a wise man he decided to
ally himself with the stronger party.

When the expedition of Colonel Younghusband
visited Lhasa, the Dalai Lama was twenty-eight
years old; but he was not in Lhasa upon the arrival
of the foreign visitors, for he had taken flight to
China. In his absence the Chinese Amban, the
actual head of the Tibetan government, entered
upon a treaty with the representative of Great
Britain, establishing friendly relations and guaran-
teeing fair treatment in future to all British
subjects. :

Lhasa is beautifully situated in a fertile plain.
Mountains of considerable height surround it on all
sides. The plain around the city has a number of
fine groves of trees. The city itself has not a few
public buildings of considerable size and of preten-
tious appearance. On Potola Hill is the palace of
the Dalai Lama. This great building covers the
east side of the hill from top to bottom, while the
center of the structure crowns the summit of the
hill. Golden pavilions have been erected on the flat
roof of the palace. A great stairway leads from the
main entrance below to the very summit of the hill.
The palace measures almost a mile in circumference,
and in it dwell 500 monks. ‘There is a spacious
promenade on the highest part of the palace, from
which the Dalai Lama can look down upon the up-

ye

turned faces of his worshipers five hundred feet
below. ;

The city of Lhasa itself is not very large, pos-
sibly no more than a half mile from end to end.
The streets are very narrow and unpaved. The flat-
roofed houses are all of brick or stone and generally
quite low, the highest not exceeding three stories.
The exteriors of these houses are usually white-
washed; the interiors, however, are very filthy and
malodorous. In every house may be found a shrine
and a prayer-wheel. ‘These prayer-wheels have on
them written and printed prayers, and he that turns
these wheels is supposed to get credit for saying the
prayers printed on them. Charms, such as bits of
turquoise attached to the wheels, are supposed to
make the prayers more effective. :

In Lhasa there is also the cathedral, the greatest
and most sacred of all the shrines of Tibet. Pil-
grims from China and Mongolia generally may be
met within its walls. The size and majesty of the
cathedral is greatly hidden by being buried in the
narrow streets of Lhasa. Near the city is situated
what is said to be the largest monastery in the world.
Depung — such is its Tibetan name — is five hun-
dred years old and harbors no less than 8,000 Bud-
dhist monks within its walls. The Dalai Lama lives
at Depung for a short time every year. It may be
said in passing that the whole country is dotted with
monasteries, nearly every hill of prominence in that

‘mountainous country being crowned with such a

home for monks.

There are four orders of lamas, — the red; the
yellow, the white, and the black. The red are the
oldest and most numerous, and the yellow come next.
The white and black monks are the workers in the
monasteries, the painters, printers, potters, masons,
and the like. They do the cooking for the upper two
orders, carry the water and serve as shepherds. Of
the 30,000 persons living in Lhasa 20,000 are monks
or the servants of monks. The rest of the inhabi-
tants are women. Only a few filthy children are to
be seen on the streets, and old people are also very
seldom seen. It is claimed that most people die
before middle age because of the insanitary condi-
tion in which they live. ;

Lamas are reputed to be great extortioners.
They succeed in getting money from the ignorant
people under almost every conceivable pretense.
They are noted money-lenders and usurers, and their
debtors are made the slaves of the monastery if they
are unable to pay. The superior of every monastery
is a so-called Grand Lama, who has supreme power