The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 142

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142

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

books gives added interest to the procession. But
the most conspicuous part is the carrying of the clay
figures by a number of dirty, ragged beggars. The
dress and demeanor of these beggars make them
unable to appreciate the religious significance of the
occasion and therefore deprive it of much of its
solemnity. They are paid to carry the clay figures
and other impedimenta of the procession, the re-
ligious interest of which is no concern of theirs.

On arrival outside the North Gate the priests
form a semicircle, in the center of which they place
the clay figures. After some more blowing of
trumpets, beating of gongs, and reading of prayers
a lama lifts the clay figures above his head, pro-
nounces the doom of the evil spirit, and then dashes
them to the ground. A number of small boys,
ignorant of the sacredness of the performance, rush
in, pick up the head-gear and dress of the figures,
and scramble for the most-coveted parts, while the
priests rend the air with the shooting of their guns
as well as with their gongs and trumpets. This re-
ligious procession is known in Chinese as song kuei,
1. €., escorting the evil spirits.

The draba is a lesser Buddhist light than the
lama. Not having made the pilgrimage to Lassa,
he has neither the power nor the influence of his
superior in the religious order. His services, none
the less, are very much in demand. As the draba
gives his humble services for the modest sum of 100
cash (six cents) a day, he is therefore much in de-
mand among the poorer classes of people. Whoever
invited him to read prayers, feeds him; his 100 cash
he spends for wine. For his night’s shelter he trusts
to some friendly poor who may be indebted to him
for prayers read, but unpaid for. The draba is an
easy-going, good-natured being, whom nothing dis-
turbs and nothing perplexes. His life motto seems
to be: “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Like every Tibetan, his dress is quite protean and
therefore very serviceable. It is his wearing apparel
by day, his priestly garment when reading prayers,
and his bedding by night.

: The amcho is the lowest order in the Buddhist
rank. In Tachienlu at least he is a most dis-
reputable and irreformable character. In habits he
is lazy and dirty, in manners insolent and truculent,
in appearance shabby and penurious. The ethical
teaching of Buddha, with its corresponding standard
of life and thought, are things unknown to him.

He has no wish-beyond a single meal and no desire .

above a bowl of wine. The amcho is an indis-
pensable adjunct in any Tibetan home. He lights
_ the fire; he sweeps the floor; he feeds the lamp.

When the a-ya goes out visiting, he follows her as
a personal attendant. His peculiar care is the
family gods, before whom morning and night he
reads family prayers. He receives no pay and eats
only what is set before him.

The last and perhaps most interesting of the
Tachienlu lamaistic population is a person who re-
ceives the appellation of chang-cha-ba. This devotee
of Lamaism performs his pilgrimage to Lassa in
a somewhat peculiar manner. Te lies flat on his
body and while thus prostrate puts marks on the
ground with his hand. He then rises, takes three
steps to this mark, and then prostrates himself
again. This he does every step of the way between
his home and Lassa, so that it takes him three years
to make the journey. To accomplish such a feat,
great physical endurance is necessary. Three reasons
are given for such an extraordinary pilgrimage:
first, to atone for some great sin committed in the
past; secondly, to obtain great merit and influence
as a lama; thirdly, to make the obtaining of the
Buddhistic heaven with all its joys an absolute cer-
tainty.

The difficulties of doing mission-work among
Tibetan lamas are great and many. Lamaism is
a domestic religion. Every home has its represen-
tative in the lamasery, and every lamasery has its
representative in the home. Should the lama em-
brace the Christian religion, he is ostracized, ex-
pelled not only from his lamasery, but also from his
home. Such an experience in a sparsely populated
country like Tibet is almost inconceivable. To be
a Christian and remain in a lamasery is impossible.
The Roman Catholic religion, after more than fifty
years of arduous mission-work on the Tibetan
border, is unable to record the name of one lama
converted to the Christian faith.

Striking Facts about China.

Put the people in China in rank, joining hands,
and they will girdle the globe ten times at the
equator with living, beating human hearts.

Every third child born into the world looks into
the face of a Chinese mother; every third pair
given in marriage plights each other troth in a
Chinese cup of wine; every third orphan weeping
through the day, every third widow wailing through
the watches of the night is in China; every third
person who dies is in China.

Of the 3,033 walled cities of China 1,557 have
as yet no resident missionary. Tens of thousands of