The Jong Pen's statements regarding me--Sects of
Lamas--Lamaseries--Government allowance--Ignorance of the
crowds--How Lamas are recruited--Lamas, novices, and
menials--Dances and hypnotism--Infallibility--Celibacy and
vice--Sculptors--Prayer-wheels and revolving
instruments--Nunneries--Human bones for eating vessels and
musical instruments--Blood-drinking.
BEFORE I left the monastery, the Lamas, who had now become more or less
accustomed to me, asked me many questions regarding India and concerning
medicine. These seemed to be subjects of great interest to them. They
also questioned me as to whether I had heard that a young sahib had
crossed over the frontier with a large army, which the Jong Pen of
Taklakot had defeated, beheading the sahib and the principal members of
the expedition.
I professed to be ignorant of these facts, and so I really was, though I
naturally felt much amused at the casual way in which the Jong Pen of
Taklakot had disposed of the bearskin before he had even caught the bear
himself. The Lamas took me for a Hindoo doctor, owing to the colour of my
face, which was sunburnt and had long remained unwashed, and they thought
that I was on a pilgrimage of circumambulation round the Mansarowar Lake.
They appeared anxious to know whether illnesses were cured by occult
sciences in India, or by medicines only. I, who, on the other hand, was
more interested in getting information than in giving it, turned the
conversation on the Lamas themselves.
Of course I knew that there are sects of red, yellow, white and black
Lamas, the red ones being the older and more numerous throughout the
country; next to them come the yellow Lamas, the _Gelupkas_, equally
powerful in political and religious matters, but not quite so numerous;
and, lastly, the white Lamas and the black Lamas, the _Julinba_, who are
the craftsmen in the monasteries, working at painting, printing, pottery
and ornamentation, besides attending on the other Lamas and making
themselves useful all round in the capacities of cooks, shepherds,
water-carriers, writers, and last, but not least, executioners. The
lamaseries are usually very rich, for the Tibetans are a deeply devout
race, and the Lamas are not backward in learning how to extort money from
the ignorant worshippers under pretences of all kinds. Besides attending
to their religious functions, the Lamas are traders at large, carrying on
a smart money-lending business, and charging a very high interest, which
falls due every month. If this should remain unpaid, all the property of
the borrower is confiscated, and if this prove insufficient to repay the
loan the debtor himself becomes a slave to the monastery. It is evident,
from the well-fed countenances of the Lamas, that, notwithstanding their
occasional bodily privations, they as a rule do not allow themselves to
suffer in any way, and no doubt can be entertained as to their leading a
smooth and comfortable existence of comparative luxury--a condition which
frequently degenerates into vice and depravity.
The larger lamaseries receive a yearly Government allowance, and
considerable sums are collected from the oblations of the faithful, while
other moneys are obtained by all sorts of devices which, in any country
less religious than Tibet, would be considered hardly honourable and
often even altogether criminal. To any one acquainted with Tibet, it is a
well-known fact that, except in the larger towns, nearly all people
besides brigands and Lamas are absolutely poor, while the monks
themselves and their agents live and prosper on the fat of the land. The
masses are maintained in complete ignorance, and seldom is a layman found
who can write or even read. Thus everything has to go through the Lamas'
hands before it can be sanctioned.
[Illustration: TUCKER VILLAGE AND GOMBA]
The lamaseries and the Lamas, and the land and property belonging to
them, are absolutely free from all taxes and dues, and each Lama or
novice is supported for life by an allowance of _tsamba_, bricks of tea,
and salt. They are recruited from all ranks, and whether honest folks or
murderers, thieves or swindlers, all are eagerly welcomed on joining the
brotherhood. One or two male members of each family in Tibet take
monastic orders, and by these means the monks obtain a great hold over
each house- or tent-hold. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that in
Tibet half the male population are Lamas.
In each monastery are found Lamas, Chibbis, and a lower grade of ignorant
and depraved Lamas, slaves, as it were, of the higher order. They dress,
and have clean-shaven heads like their superiors, and do all the
handiwork of the monastery; but they are mere servants, and take no
direct, active part in the politics of the Lama Government. The Chibbis
are novices. They enter the lamasery when very young, and remain students
for many years. They are constantly under the teaching and supervision of
the older ones, and confession is practised from inferior to superior.
After undergoing, successfully, several examinations they become
effective Lamas, which word translated means "high priest." These Chibbis
take minor parts in the strange religious ceremonies in which the Lamas,
disguised in skins and ghastly masks, sing and dance with extraordinary
contortions to the accompaniment of weird music made by bells, horns,
flutes, cymbals and drums.
Each large monastery has at its head a Grand Lama, not to be confounded
with the Dalai Lama of Lhassa, who is believed, or rather supposed, to
have an immortal soul transmigrating successively from one body into
another.
The Lamas eat, drink and sleep together in the monastery, with the
exception of the Grand Lama, who has a room to himself. For one moon in
every twelve they observe a strict seclusion, which they devote to
praying, and during which time they are not allowed to speak. They fast
for twenty-four hours at a time, with only water and butter-tea, eating
on fast-days sufficient food only to remain alive, and depriving
themselves of everything else, including snuff and spitting, the two most
common habits among Tibetan men.
The Lamas have great pretensions to infallibility, and on account of this
they claim, and obtain, the veneration of the people, by whom they are
supported, fed and clothed. I found them, as a rule, very intelligent,
but inhuman, barbarously cruel and dishonourable, and this was not my own
experience alone: I heard the same from the overridden natives, who wish
for nothing better than a chance to shake off their yoke.
Availing themselves of the absolute ignorance in which they succeed in
keeping the people, the Lamas practise to a great extent occult arts, by
which they profess to cure illnesses, discover murders and thefts, stop
rivers from flowing, and bring storms about at a moment's notice.
Certain exorcisms, they say, drive away the evil spirits that cause
disease. It is certain that the Lamas are adepts at hypnotic experiments,
by which means they contrive to let the subjects under their influence
see many things and objects that are not there in reality. To this power
are due the frequent reports of apparitions of Buddha, seen generally by
single individuals, and the visions of demons, the accounts of which
alone terrify the simple-minded folk, and cause them to pay all their
spare cash in donations to the monastery.
Mesmerism plays an important part in their weird dances, during which
extraordinary contortions are performed, and strange positions assumed,
the body of the dancer being eventually reduced to a cataleptic state, in
which it remains for a great length of time.
The Lamas swear to celibacy when they enter a lamasery; but they do not
always keep these vows, and they are besides addicted to the most
disgusting of all vices in its very worst forms, which accounts for the
repulsive appearance of far-gone depravity so common among the
middle-aged Lamas.
All the larger lamaseries support one or more Lama sculptors, who travel
all over the district, and go to the most inaccessible spots to carve on
rocks, stones, or pieces of horn, the everlasting inscription, "_Omne
mani padme hun_," which one sees all over the country. Unseen, I once
succeeded, after much difficulty and discomfort, in carrying away two of
these very heavy inscribed stones, which are still in my possession, and
of which reproductions are here given.
Weird and picturesque places, such as the highest points on mountain
passes, gigantic boulders, rocks near the sources of rivers, or any spot
where a _mani_ wall exists, are the places most generally selected by
these artists to engrave the magic formula alluding to the reincarnation
of Buddha from a lotus flower.
The famous prayer-wheels, those mechanical contrivances by which the
Tibetans pray to their god by means of water, wind and hand-power, are
also manufactured by Lama artists. The larger ones, moved by water, are
constructed by the side of, or over, a stream, and the huge cylinders on
which the entire Tibetan prayer-book is inscribed are revolved by the
flowing water. The wheels moved by wind-power are similar to those used
by the Shokas, which I have already described, but the Tibetans often
have prayers printed on the slips of cloth. The smaller prayer-wheels,
revolved by hand, are of two different kinds, and are made either of
silver or copper. Those for home use are cylinders, about six inches
high. Inside these revolve on pivots, on the principle of a spinning top,
the rolls of prayers which, by means of a projecting knob above the
machine, the worshipper sets in motion. The prayers can be seen revolving
inside through a square opening in the cylinder. The more universal
prayer-wheel in everyday use in Tibet is, however, of the pattern shown
in the illustration. It is usually constructed of copper, sometimes of
brass, and frequently entirely or partly of silver. The cylinder has two
movable lids, between which the prayer-roll fits tightly. A handle with
an iron rod is passed through the centre of the cylinder and roll, and is
kept in its place by means of a knob. A ring, encircling the cylinder,
attaches it to a short chain and weight; this serves, when started by a
jerk of the hand, to give a rotatory movement, which must, according to
rule, be from left to right, and which is kept up indefinitely, the words
"_Omne mani padme hun_," or simply "_Mani, mani_," being repeated all the
time.
[Illustration: STONE WITH INSCRIPTION]
The more ancient wheels have the prayers written by hand instead of
printed, and are contained in a small black bag. Charms, such as rings of
malachite, jade, bone, or silver, are often attached to the weight and
chain by which the rotary movement is given to the wheel. These
praying-machines are found in every Tibetan family, and nearly every
Lama possesses one. They keep them jealously, and it is very difficult to
get the real ones. I was particularly fortunate, and during my journey in
Tibet I was able to purchase as many as twelve, two of which were
extremely old.
[Illustration: PRAYER-WHEELS--ANCIENT AND MODERN. SHOWING ROLLS OF
PRAYERS TO GO INSIDE]
Besides the rosary, which the Lamas always use in a similar way to the
Roman Catholics, they have a brass instrument which they twist between
the palms of their hands while saying prayers, and this is used
exclusively by Lamas. It is from 2½ to 3 inches in length, and is rounded
so as to be easily held in the hollow of the two hands.
In Tibet, as in other Buddhist countries, there are nunneries besides
lamaseries. The nuns, most unattractive in themselves, shave their heads
and practise witchcraft and magic, just as the Lamas do. They are looked
down upon by the masses. In some of these nunneries strict _clausura_ is
enforced, but in most of them the Lamas are allowed free access, with the
usual result, that the nuns become the concubines of the Lamas. Even
apart from this, the women of the nunneries are quite as immoral as their
brethren of the lamaseries, and at their best they are but a low type of
humanity.
The Lamas who, at certain periods of the year, are allowed an unusual
amount of freedom with women, are those who practise the art of making
musical instruments and eating-vessels out of human bones. The skull is
used for making drinking-cups, _tsamba_ bowls, and single and double
drums, and the humerus, femur, and tibia bones are turned into trumpets
and pipes. These particular Lamas are said to relish human blood, which
they drink out of the cups made from men's skulls.
[Illustration: STONE WITH INSCRIPTION]