Tibet and North China.
On the 7th of April I went to see a great service of prayer for the
Chinese Emperor in connexion with the “Boxer” war. It was held not only
at Sera, but at every temple in Tibet. At the monastery where I lived
they held a secret meeting for seven days, during which time special
priests offered secret prayers. They were then to perform something
secret for the victory of China. On enquiry I was told that Peking
was invaded by the troops of several foreign countries, and that the
Chinese seemed to have been beaten. They might be too late, they said,
but they prayed for the safety of the Emperor of China. I was quite
anxious to know more particulars, but they were all kept secret, and no
one would tell me any more.
The prayer service was held in the Tsochen Hall at Sera, and
commenced with a long warlike procession. First came the players on
lyres, flageolets, drums, and large flutes, followed by men carrying
incense-burners. Then came ten nice looking Tibetan boys, still in
their teens, all dressed in fine Buḍḍhist robes ornamented with colored
Chinese crape, and each burning incense. Next followed fifty spear-like
objects on each side of the road, each surmounted with a movable blade
like that of a Chinese spear. These blades had hilt guards, under which
hung gold brocade or fine colored Chinese crape, sixteen feet long,
thus making the spear twenty-five feet long altogether. The spear, the
handle of which was either of gold or gilt, seemed rather heavy, for
two strong warrior-priests carried each of them. Then came a triangular
board about six feet high, with various figures made of butter on it,
and after it another triangular board, four feet high, with some red
figure made of a mixture of baked flour, butter and honey. These boards
were borne by seven or eight men. After them came some two hundred
priests, dressed in handsome robes and scarfs quite dazzling to the
eye. Half of these beat drums, while the other half carried cymbals.
After these priests came the chief Lama, who was to offer the secret
prayer. He had dressed himself in the splendid robes of his high rank.
Last of all his disciples followed.
Thus the procession presented a grand sight, and the people of Lhasa
came out in great crowds to see it. It marched out about two hundred
yards from the great hall to an open yard outside the stone fence,
where the view opened as far as Lhasa. Another two hundred yards
further, the procession came before a grass-roofed shed, built of
bamboo, wood and straw. There the chief Lama recited something in front
of the triangular figures of butter and of baked wheat, and of the
spear-shaped objects, while the two hundred priests around him chanted
verses from the Buḍḍhist Scriptures, and beat drums and cymbals. A
priest with a pair of cymbals walked through the lines of the priests;
he seemed to be a sort of band-master, for he marched through their
ranks beating time. His steps and gait were very odd and different
from any dancings that I had ever seen. Soon the chief Lama was seen
pretending to throw away his rosary, at which signal the spear-bearers
threw their spears at the shed and then the triangular board of baked
flour was thrown at it also. They then set fire to the shed, at the
burning of which the priests as well as the spectators clapped their
hands, crying out “_Lha-kyallo! Lha-kyallo!_” This is a Tibetan word,
meaning “surely the Gods will triumph.” Thus was the ceremony over,
one of the most splendid I had ever seen in Buḍḍhism. On the following
day all the priests of the monastery were invited to Lhasa to attend
the _Cho-en Joe_ service, which lasted a month, to pray that the Dalai
Lama of Tibet might be kept from all evil during the year. This was a
celebration said to be only second in importance to the other. I also
went to Lhasa, and took lodging in the house of a Palpo merchant.
In the capital I got more definite information about the Boxer trouble.
Perhaps some merchants who had returned from China, or some who had
came from Nepāl or some who had been to India, might have brought the
news; but it was all very laughable and unreliable. Some would say the
Emperor of China had bequeathed his throne to the Crown Prince and
absconded, while others told me that the Emperor was defeated and was
then in Sin-an. The trouble was brought about, some said, by a wicked
minister, who married an English lady to the Emperor, while others
asserted that there was a country called Japan, which was so strong
that her troops took possession of Peking. Another said that a famine
prevailed in China and people were all famished; indeed, every sort of
rumor was abroad in the Tibetan capital.
I was especially pleased to hear something about Japan, even the very
name of which had not yet been heard in Tibet, and some merchants told
me that Japan was so powerful and so chivalrous that even when her army
had taken possession of Peking, she had sent shiploads of rice, wheat
and clothing to the Chinese capital to relieve tens of thousands of
natives who were suffering from famine. But others would say against
Japan that she could not be such a friendly country, but must have done
what she had done merely out of her crafty “land-grabbing diplomacy,”
as the British nation did. Rumor after rumor was making its way through
Tibet, and I did not know what to believe. Only I was pretty sure that
a war had broken out between China and other Powers. In the meantime
the Palpo merchant with whom I was staying was going to Nepāl. I
utilised the occasion and through his kindness sent two letters, one
to Rai Saraṭ Chanḍra Ḍās in India, and the other to Mr. I. Hige of my
native province. I was glad to find afterwards that they reached their
destination, but it was very difficult to send a letter in that way;
one must first see that the man by whom it is to be sent is honest
and not likely to betray one’s secret, and one cannot easily trust a
Tibetan. But my Tibetan had more than once been shown to be true to his
trust.
The Cho-en Joe was a meeting of a kind I had never seen before. In
the first place there was a Sakya temple over two hundred and forty
yards square, with another and central Sakya temple, one hundred and
twenty yards square. A wide pavement ran along inside the walls, where
the ordinary priests sat. The same kind of pavement was found on the
second and third floors. No priest was admitted into the Sakya temple
but the Dalai Lama or the “greater” professors, though they did not
always attend the meetings. Some twenty thousand priests attended
that celebration, while over twenty-five thousand assembled on the
occasion of the festival held at Lhasa for the safety of the Emperor
of China. About five in the morning the sound of flutes called all the
priests in Lhasa to the place of meeting. They chanted the Scriptures
and were given butter and tea, as usual, three times, at intervals of
thirty minutes. Of the twenty thousand very few were regular priests,
the rest being either warrior-priests or loafers, who came only with
the mean object of filling their stomachs. Instead of reciting from
the Scriptures, therefore, they were openly doing all sorts of things
during the meeting, such as singing profane songs, or pushing each
other about. One could see the rowdiness of these warrior-priests, who
sat there making obscene jokes, and often quarrelling with one another.
The warrior-priests being so lawless, some guard-priests are detailed
to keep order among them. The guard-priest does not judge between
the quarrelling priests, but strikes them any time he sees them
quarrelling. So he is much feared by the other priests, who take to
their huts at the first sign of his presence. Still he often takes
them by surprise, and thrashes them most mercilessly on head, limbs
or body, so that occasionally they even die from the effects of his
rough treatment. This is not, however, considered to be murder, the
perpetrator of the deed is not punished, and the body of his victim is
simply thrown away for the birds to devour.
Warrior-priests train themselves for two hours in the morning. They
take baked flour in tea during that time, and at the end they are given
some gruel. Usually the gruel is made of rice, with much meat in it,
and is given gratis. Each priest brings a bowl which holds a pint or
more, and he takes a bowlful of gruel and three cups of tea. On their
way back to their respective lodgings, they receive _ge_, which in
Tibetan means ‘alms,’ from the officers. It is said that some believers
give as much as twenty-five sen or fifty sen per head to each of the
priests. In this respect some Tibetan merchants, landowners and high
officers are very generous, for they are sometimes known to give eight
or nine thousand yen in alms to these priests. There are many who give
that sum in that way, and much money is known to be sent for that
object from Mongolia.
There once was among these priests a Russian spy from Mongolia. He
had the degree of doctor, and held the office of _Tsan-ni Kenbo_. He
often made such donations, and his fame had spread far and wide. Such
alms-giving, without religious faith, did not improve his spiritual
condition in the least; but so many merchants give money for the sake
of their business, that this doctor was content to think his alms had
also promoted his virtue. In these ways the priests get much money, and
the festival season is the best time of the year for them. Sufficiency
begets bad conduct, and it is during such times that the priests are
most contentious and vindictive, and that duels are most frequent.
A duel is not generally fought in Lhasa itself; as a rule they only
appoint the place and time for it and fight it after they get back to
their own dormitories, because while they are in Lhasa they are under
the authority of the magistrate priest of the Rebung temple, and not
of their own temples. This magistrate is known to be so severe, strict
and exacting, that they are afraid to fight a duel before him, and they
patiently wait till they return to their own temples.
On the day that the great celebration was over, I saw a festival
procession. First came groups dressed as the four divine kings,
followed by the eight devil kings, each with a special mark. Each group
was followed by three or five hundred priests, differently dressed.
Unlike a religious procession in Japan, which is as a rule very solemn,
the Tibetan procession marched in a sportive manner, for the persons
in it played with one another while moving. They would even joke with
the spectators. They carried in the procession various treasures and
musical instruments, such as drums, lyres, pipes, flageolets and Indian
flutes, the most attractive objects being some imitations of dragons.
There were many strange figures formed, as they told me, after the
model of the treasures of the submarine dragon’s palace. Imitations
were there of every instrument, treasure, or dress found in Tibet, and
of the old costumes that are found in Tibetan history; and several
Indian tribes were to be seen in the long procession of over two and a
half miles. It is impossible to enter into details, as I saw it only
once; my memory does not serve me for other particulars.
This procession had one of the strangest of origins. It is said that
Ngak Wang Gyamtso, the fifth Pontiff of the New Sect, devised the
procession after one which he saw in a dream in the Buḍḍhist Paradise,
and it seemed quite fitting that such a curious procession should have
so vague an origin.