The Old Blue Town--Quarter of the Tanners--Knavery of the Chinese
Traders--Hotel of the Three Perfections--Spoliation of the Tartars by the
Chinese--Money Changer's Office--Tartar Coiner--Purchase of two
Sheep-skin Robes--Camel Market--Customs of the Cameleers--Assassination
of a Grand Lama of the Blue Town--Insurrection of the
Lamaseries--Negociation between the Court of Peking and that of
Lha-Ssa--Domestic Lamas--Wandering Lamas--Lamas in Community--Policy of
the Mantchou Dynasty with reference to the Lamaseries--Interview with a
Thibetian Lama--Departure from the Blue Town.
From the Mantchou town to the Old Blue Town is not more than half an
hour's walk, along a broad road, constructed through the large market,
which narrowed the town. With the exception of the Lamaseries, which
rise above the other buildings, you see before you merely an immense mass
of houses and shops huddled confusedly together, without any order or
arrangement whatever. The ramparts of the old town still exist in all
their integrity; but the increase of the population has compelled the
people by degrees to pass this barrier. Houses have risen outside the
walls one after another until large suburbs have been formed, and now the
extra-mural city is larger than the intra-mural.
We entered the city by a broad street, which exhibited nothing remarkable
except the large Lamasery, called, in common with the more celebrated
establishment in the province of Chan-Si, the Lamasery of the Five
Towers. It derives this appellation from a handsome square tower with
five turrets, one, very lofty, in the centre and one at each angle.
Just beyond this the broad street terminated, and there was no exit but a
narrow lane running right and left. We turned down what seemed the least
dirty of these, but soon found ourselves in a liquid slough of mud and
filth, black, and of suffocating stench--we had got into the Street of
the Tanners. We advanced slowly and shudderingly, for beneath the mire
lay hid, now a great stone, over which we stumbled, now a hole, into
which we sank. To complete our misfortune, we all at once heard before
us deafening cries and shouts, indicating that along the tortuosities of
the lane in which we were horsemen and carts were about to meet us. To
draw back, or to stand aside, were equally impossible, so that our only
resource was to bawl on our own account, and, advancing, take our chance.
At the next turning we met the cavalcade, and something extremely
disagreeable seemed threatening us, when, upon sight of our camels, the
horses of the other party took fright, and, turning right round, galloped
off in utter confusion, leaving the way clear before us. Thus, thanks to
our beasts of burden, we were enabled to continue our journey without
giving the way to any one, and we at last arrived, without any serious
accident, in a spacious street, adorned on each side with fine shops.
We looked about for an inn, but fruitlessly; we saw several inns, indeed,
but these were not of the kind we sought. In the great towns of Northern
China and Tartary each inn is devoted to a particular class of
travellers, and will receive no other. "The Corndealers' Arms" inn, for
example, will not admit a horse dealer, and so on. The inns which devote
themselves to the entertainment of mere travellers are called the taverns
of the Transitory Guests. We were pausing, anxiously looking about for
one of these, when a young man, hastening from an adjacent shop, came up
to us: "You seek an inn, gentlemen travellers," said he; "suffer me to
guide you to one; yet I scarcely know one in the Blue City worthy of you.
Men are innumerable here, my Lords Lamas; a few good, but, alas! most
bad. I speak it from my heart. In the Blue City you would with
difficulty find one man who is guided by his conscience; yet conscience
is a treasure! You Tartars, you, indeed, know well what conscience is.
Ah! I know the Tartars well! excellent people, right-hearted souls! We
Chinese are altogether different--rascals, rogues. Not one Chinaman in
ten thousand heeds conscience. Here, in this Blue City, everybody, with
the merest exceptions, makes it his business to cheat the worthy Tartars,
and rob them of their goods. Oh! it's shameful!"
And the excellent creature threw up his eyes as he denounced the knavery
of his townsmen. We saw very clearly, however, that the direction taken
by the eyes thus thrown up was the camel's back, whereon were two large
cases, which our disinterested adviser no doubt took to contain precious
merchandise. However, we let him lead us on and chatter as he pleased.
When we had been wandering about under his escort for a full hour, and
yet had reached no inn, we said to him: "We cannot think of troubling you
further, since you yourself seem not to know where we may find that which
we need." "Be perfectly easy, my lords," replied he; "I am guiding you
to an excellent, a superexcellent hotel. Don't mention a word as to
troubling me; you pain me by the idea. What! are we not all brothers?
Away with the distinction between Tartar and Chinese! True, the language
is not the same, nor the dress; but men have but one heart, one
conscience, one invariable rule of justice. Just wait one moment for me,
my lords; I will be with you again before you can look round," and so
saying he dived into a shop on the left. He was soon back with us,
making a thousand apologies for having detained us. "You must be very
tired, my lords; one cannot be otherwise when one is travelling. 'Tis
quite different from being with one's own family." As he spoke, we were
accosted by another Chinese, a ludicrous contrast with our first friend,
whose round shining smiling face was perfectly intense in its aspect of
benevolence. The other fellow was meagre and lanky, with thin, pinched
lips and little black eyes, half buried in the head, that gave to the
whole physiognomy a character of the most thorough knavery. "My Lords
Lamas," said he, "I see you have just arrived! Excellent! And you have
journeyed safely. Well, well! Your camels are magnificent; 'tis no
wonder you travel fast and securely upon such animals. Well, you have
arrived: that's a great happiness. Se-Eul," he continued, addressing the
Chinese who had first got hold of us, "you are guiding these noble
Tartars to an hotel. 'Tis well! Take care that the hotel is a good one,
worthy of the distinguished strangers. What think you of the 'Tavern of
Eternal Equity?'" "The very hotel whither I was leading the Lords
Lamas." "There is none better in the empire. By the way, the host is an
acquaintance of mine. I cannot do better than accompany you and
recommend these noble Tartars to his best care. In fact, if I were not
to go with you, I should have a weight upon my heart. When we are
fortunate enough to meet brothers who need our aid, how can we do too
much for them, for we are all brothers! My lords, you see this young man
and myself; well, we two are clerks in the same establishment, and we
make it our pride to serve our brothers the Tartars; for, alas! in this
dreadful city there is but too little virtue."
Any one, hearing their professions of devoted zeal, would have imagined
these two personages to have been the friends of our childhood; but we
were sufficiently acquainted with Chinese manners to perceive at once
that we were the mark of a couple of swindlers. Accordingly, when we saw
inscribed on a door, "Hotel of the Three Perfections; transitory guests
on horse and camel entertained, and their affairs transacted with
infallible success," we at once directed our course up the gateway,
despite the vehement remonstrances of our worthy guides, and rode down a
long avenue to the great square court of the hotel. The little blue cap
worn by the attendants indicated that we were in a Turkish establishment.
This proceeding of ours was not at all what the two Chinese desired; but
they still followed us, and, without appearing disconcerted, continued to
act their parts. "Where are the people of the hotel," cried they, with
an immense air; "let them prepare a large apartment, a fine, clean
apartment? Their Excellencies have arrived, and must be suitably
accommodated." One of the principal waiters presented himself, holding
by his teeth a key, in one hand a broom, and in the other a watering-pot.
Our two protectors immediately took possession of these articles. "Leave
everything to us," said they; "it is we who claim the honour of
personally waiting upon our illustrious friends; you, attendants of the
hotel, you only do things by halves, actuated as you are merely by
mercenary considerations." And thereupon they set to work sprinkling,
sweeping, and cleaning the room to which the waiter guided us. When this
operation was concluded, we seated ourselves on the khang; the two
Chinese "knew themselves better than to sit by the side of our Eminent
Distinctions," and they accordingly squatted on the floor. As tea was
being served, a young man, well attired and of exceedingly elegant
address, came into the room, carrying by the four corners a silk
handkerchief. "Gentlemen Lamas," said the elder of our previous
companions, "this young man is the son of our principal, and doubtless
has been sent by his father to inquire after your health, and whether you
have so far journeyed in peace." The young man placed his handkerchief
upon the table that stood before us. "Here are some cakes my father has
sent to be eaten with your tea. When you have finished that meal, he
entreats you will come and partake of an humble repast in our poor
dwelling." "But why wear your hearts out thus for us mere strangers?"
"Oh!" exclaimed all three in chorus, "the words you utter cover us with
blushes! What! can we do anything in excess for brothers who have thus
honoured us with their presence in our poor city!" "Poor Tartars!" said
I in French to my colleague, "how thoroughly eaten up they must be when
they fall into such hands as these!" These words, in an unknown tongue,
excited considerable surprise in our worthy friends. "In which of the
illustrious kingdoms of Tartary dwell your Excellencies?" asked one of
them. "We are not Tartars at all," was the reply. "Ah! we saw that at
once; the Tartars have no such majesty of aspect as yours; their mien has
no grandeur about it! May we ask what is the noble country whence you
come?" "We are from the West; our native land is far hence." "Quite
so," replied the eldest of the three knaves. "I knew it, and I said so
to these young men, but they are ignorant; they know nothing about
physiognomy. Ah! you are from the West. I know your country well; I
have been there more than once." "We are delighted to hear this:
doubtless, then, you are acquainted with our language?" "Why, I cannot
say I know it thoroughly; but there are some few words I understand. I
can't speak them, indeed; but that does not matter. You western people
are so clever, you know everything, the Chinese language, the Tartarian,
the western--you can speak them all. I have always been closely mixed up
with your countrymen, and have invariably been selected to manage their
affairs for them whenever they come to the Blue Town. It is always I who
make their purchases for them."
We had by this time finished our tea; our three friends rose, and with a
simultaneous bow, invited us to accompany them. "My lords, the repast is
by this time prepared, and our chief awaits you." "Listen," said we,
gravely, "while we utter words full of reason. You have taken the
trouble to guide us to an inn, which shows you to be men of warm hearts;
you have here swept for us and prepared our room; again, in proof of your
excellent dispositions, your master has sent us pastry, which manifests
in him a benevolence incapable of exhaustion towards the wayfaring
stranger. You now invite us to go and dine with you: we cannot possibly
trespass so grossly upon your kindness. No, dear friends, you must
excuse us; if we desire to make some purchases in your establishment, you
may rely upon us. For the present we will not detain you. We are going
to dine at the Turkish Eating House." So saying, we rose and ushered our
excellent friends to the door.
The commercial intercourse between the Tartars and the Chinese is
revoltingly iniquitous on the part of the latter. So soon as Mongols,
simple, ingenuous men, if such there be at all in the world, arrive in a
trading town, they are snapped up by some Chinese, who carry them off, as
it were, by main force, to their houses, give them tea for themselves and
forage for their animals, and cajole them in every conceivable way. The
Mongols, themselves without guile and incapable of conceiving guile in
others, take all they hear to be perfectly genuine, and congratulate
themselves, conscious as they are of their inaptitude for business, upon
their good fortune in thus meeting with brothers, _Ahatou_, as they say,
in whom they can place full confidence, and who will undertake to manage
their whole business for them. A good dinner provided gratis in the back
shop, completes the illusion. "If these people wanted to rob me," says
the Tartar to himself, "they would not go to all this expense in giving
me a dinner for nothing." When once the Chinese has got hold of the
Tartar, he employs over him all the resources of the skilful and utterly
unprincipled knavery of the Chinese character. He keeps him in his
house, eating, drinking, and smoking, one day after another, until his
subordinates have sold all the poor man's cattle, or whatever else he has
to sell, and bought for him, in return, the commodities he requires, at
prices double and triple the market value. But so plausible is the
Chinese, and so simple is the Tartar, that the latter invariably departs
with the most entire conviction of the immense philanthropy of the
former, and with a promise to return, when he has other goods to sell, to
the establishment where he has been treated so fraternally.
The next morning we went out to purchase some winter clothing, the want
of which began to make itself sensibly felt. But first, in order to
facilitate our dealings, we had to sell some ounces of silver. The money
of the Chinese consists entirely of small round copper coins, of the size
of our halfpenny, with a square hole in the centre, through which the
people string them, so that they may be more conveniently carried. These
coins the Chinese call, tsien; the Tartars, dehos; and the Europeans,
sapeks. Gold and silver are not coined at all; they are melted into
ingots of various sizes, and thus put into circulation. Gold-dust and
gold leaf are also current in commerce, and they also possess bank notes.
The ordinary value of the ounce of silver is 1,700 or 1,800 sapeks,
according to the scarcity or abundance of silver in the country.
The money changers have two irregular modes of making a profit by their
traffic: if they state the fair price of silver to the customer, they
cheat him in the weight; if their scales and their method of weighing are
accurate, they diminish the price of the silver accordingly. But when
they have to do with Tartars, they employ neither of these methods of
fraud; on the contrary, they weigh the silver scrupulously, and sometimes
allow a little overweight, and even they pay them above the market price;
in fact, they appear to be quite losers by the transaction, and so they
would be, if the weight and the price of the silver alone were
considered; their advantage is derived, in these cases, from their manner
of calculating the amount. When they come to reduce the silver into
sapeks, they do indeed reduce it, making the most flagrant
miscalculations, which the Tartars, who can count nothing beyond their
beads, are quite incapable of detecting, and which they, accordingly,
adopt implicitly, and even with satisfaction, always considering they
have sold their bullion well, since they know the full weight has been
allowed, and that the full market price has been given.
At the money changers in the Blue Town, to which we went to sell some
silver, the Chinese dealers essayed, according to custom, to apply this
fraud to us, but they were disconcerted. The weight shown by their
scales was perfectly correct, and the price they offered us was rather
above the ordinary course of exchange, and the bargain between us was so
far concluded. The chief clerk took the souan-pan, the calculation table
used by the Chinese, and after calculating with an appearance of intense
nicety, announced the result of his operation. "This is an
exchange-office," said we; "you are the buyers, we the sellers; you have
made your calculation, we will make ours: give us a pencil and a piece of
paper."--"Nothing can be more just; you have enunciated a fundamental law
of commerce," and so saying, they handed us a writing-case. We took the
pencil, and a very short calculation exhibited a difference in our favour
of a thousand sapeks. "Superintendent of the bank," said we, "your
souan-pan is in error by a thousand sapeks."--"Impossible! Do you think
that all of a sudden I've forgotten my souan-pan? Let me go over it
again;" and he proceeded with an air of great anxiety to appear correct,
to set his calculating machine once more in operation, the other
customers by our side looking on with great amazement at all this. When
he had done: "Yes," said he, "I knew I was right; see, brother;" and he
passed the machine to a colleague behind the counter, who went over his
calculation; the result of their operations was exactly the same to a
fraction. "You see," said the principal, "there is no error. How is it
that our calculation does not agree with that which you have written down
there?"--"It is unimportant to inquire why your calculation does not
agree with ours; this is certain, that your calculation is wrong and ours
right. You see these little characters that we have traced on this
paper; they are a very different thing from your souan-pan; it is
impossible for them to be wrong. Were all the calculators in the world
to work the whole of their lives upon this operation, they could arrive
at no other result than this; that your statement is wrong by a thousand
sapeks."
The money-changers were extremely embarrassed, and began to turn very
red, when a bystander, who perceived that the affair was assuming an
awkward aspect, presented himself as umpire. "I'll reckon it up for
you," said he, and taking the souan-pan, his calculation agreed with
ours. The superintendent of the bank hereupon made us a profound bow:
"Sirs Lamas," said he, "your mathematics are better than mine." "Oh, not
at all," replied we, with a bow equally profound; "your souan-pan is
excellent, but who ever heard of a calculator always exempt from error?
People like you may very well be mistaken once and a way, whereas poor
simple folks like us make blunders ten thousand times. Now, however, we
have fortunately concurred in our reckoning, thanks to the pains you have
taken." These phrases were rigorously required under the circumstances,
by Chinese politeness. Whenever any person in China is compromised by
any awkward incident, those present always carefully refrain from any
observation which may make him blush, or as the Chinese phrase it, take
away his face.
After our conciliatory address had restored self-possession to all
present, everybody drew round the piece of paper on which we had cast up
our sum in Arabic numerals. "That is a fine souan-pan," said one to
another; "simple, sure, and speedy."--"Sirs Lamas," asked the principal,
"what do these characters mean? What souan-pan is this?" "This
souan-pan is infallible," returned we; "the characters are those which
the Mandarins of Celestial Literature use in calculating eclipses, and
the course of the seasons." {116} After a brief conversation on the
merits of the Arabic numerals, the cashier handed us the full amount of
sapeks, and we parted good friends.
The Chinese are sometimes victims to their own knavery, and we have known
even Tartars catch them in a snare. One day a Mongol presented himself
at the counter of a Chinese moneychanger, with a youen-pao carefully
packed and sealed. A youen-pao is an ingot of silver weighing three
pounds--in China there are sixteen ounces to the pound; the three pounds
are never very rigorously exacted; there being generally four or five
ounces over, so that the usual weight of an ingot of silver is fifty-two
ounces. The Tartar had no sooner unpacked his youen-pao than the Chinese
clerk resolved to defraud him of an ounce or two, and weighing it, he
pronounced it to be fifty ounces. "My youen-pao weighs fifty-two
ounces," exclaimed the Tartar. "I weighed it before I left home." "Oh,
your Tartar scales are all very well for sheep; but they don't do for
weighing bullion." After much haggling, the bargain was concluded, the
youen-pao was purchased as weighing fifty ounces, and the Tartar, having
first required and obtained a certificate of the stated weight and value
of the ingot, returned to his tent with a good provision of sapeks and
bank notes.
In the evening the principal of the establishment received the usual
report from each clerk of the business done in the course of the day.
"I," said one of them with a triumphant air, "bought a youen-pao of
silver, and made two ounces by it." He produced the ingot, which the
chief received with a smile, soon changing into a frown. "What have you
got here?" cried he. "This is not silver!" The ingot was handed round,
and all the clerks saw that indeed it was base bullion. "I know the
Tartar," said the clerk who had purchased it, "and will have him up
before the Mandarin."
The satellites of justice were forthwith dispatched after the roguish
Tartar, whose offence, proved against him, was matter of capital
punishment. It was obvious that the ingot was base bullion, and on the
face of the affair there was clear proof that the Tartar had sold it.
The Tartar, however, stoutly repudiated the imputation. "The humblest of
the humble," said he, "craves that he may be allowed to put forth a word
in his defence." "Speak," said the Mandarin, "but beware how you say
aught other than the exact truth." "It is true," proceeded the Tartar,
"that I sold a youen-pao at this person's shop, but it was all pure
silver. I am a Tartar, a poor, simple man, and these people, seeking to
take advantage of me, have substituted a false for my genuine ingot. I
cannot command many words, but I pray our father and mother, (_i.e._ the
Mandarin), to have this false youen-pao weighed." The ingot was weighed,
and was found to contain fifty-two ounces. The Tartar now drew from one
of his boots a small parcel, containing, wrapped in rags, a piece of
paper, which he held up to the Mandarin. "Here is a certificate" cried
he, "which I received at the shop, and which attests the value and weight
of the youen-pao that I sold." The Mandarin looked over the paper with a
roguish smile, and then said: "According to the testimony of the clerk
himself who wrote this certificate, this Mongol sold to him a youen-pao
weighing fifty ounces; this youen-pao of base bullion weighs fifty-two
ounces; this, therefore, cannot be the Mongol's youen-pao; but now comes
the question, whose is it? Who are really the persons that have false
bullion in their possession?" Every body present, the Mandarin included,
knew perfectly well how the case stood; but the Chinese magistrate,
tickled with the Tartar's ingenuity, gave him the benefit of the clerk's
dull roguery, and dismissed the charge; but not so the accusers, who were
well bastinadoed, and would have been put to death as coiners, had they
not found means to appease justice by the present of some ingots of purer
metal. It is only, however, upon very rare and extraordinary occasions
that the Mongols get the better of the Chinese. In the ordinary course
of things, they are everywhere, and always, and in every way, the dupes
of their neighbours who by dint of cunning and unprincipled machinations,
reduce them to poverty.
Upon receiving our sapeks, we proceeded to buy the winter clothing we
needed. Upon a consideration of the meagreness of our exchequer, we came
to the resolution that it would be better to purchase what we required at
some secondhand shop. In China and Tartary no one has the smallest
repugnance to wear other people's clothes; he who has not himself the
attire wherein to pay a visit or make a holiday, goes without ceremony to
a neighbour and borrows a hat, or a pair of trousers, or boots, or shoes,
or whatever else he wants, and nobody is at all surprised at these
borrowings, which are quite a custom. The only hesitation any one has in
lending his clothes to a neighbour, is, lest the borrower should sell
them in payment of some debt, or, after using them, pawn them. People
who buy clothes buy them indifferently, new or secondhand. The question
of price is alone taken into consideration, for there is no more delicacy
felt about putting on another man's hat or trousers, than there is about
living in a house that some one else has occupied before you.
This custom of wearing other people's things was by no means to our
taste, and all the less so, that, ever since our arrival at the mission
of Si-Wang, we had not been under the necessity of departing from our old
habits in this respect. Now, however, the slenderness of our purse
compelled us to waive our repugnance. We went out, therefore, in search
of a secondhand clothes shop, of which, in every town here, there are a
greater or less number, for the most part in connection with pawnshops,
called in these countries Tang-Pou. Those who borrow upon pledges, are
seldom able to redeem the articles they have deposited, which they
accordingly leave to die, as the Tartars and Chinese express it; or in
other words, they allow the period of redemption to pass, and the
articles pass altogether from them. The old clothes shops of the Blue
Town were filled in this way with Tartar spoils, so that we had the
opportunity of selecting exactly the sort of things we required, to suit
the new costume we had adopted.
At the first shop we visited they showed us a quantity of wretched
garments turned up with sheep-skin; but though these rags were
exceedingly old, and so covered with grease that it was impossible to
guess at their original colour, the price asked for them was exorbitant.
After a protracted haggling, we found it impossible to come to terms, and
we gave up this first attempt; and we gave it up, be it added, with a
certain degree of satisfaction, for our self-respect was somewhat wounded
at finding ourselves reduced even to the proposition of wearing such
filthy rags. We visited another shop, and another, a third, and a
fourth, and still several more. We were shown magnificent garments,
handsome garments, fair garments, endurable garments, but the
consideration of expense was, in each instance, an impracticable
stumbling-block. The journey we had undertaken might endure for several
years, and extreme economy, at all events in the outset, was
indispensable. After going about the whole day, after making the
acquaintance of all the rag-merchants in the Blue Town, after turning
over and over all their old clothes, we were fain to return to the
secondhand dealer whom we had first visited, and to make the best bargain
we could with him. We purchased from him, at last, two ancient robes of
sheepskin, covered with some material, the nature of which it was
impossible to identify, and the original colour of which we suspected to
have been yellow. We proceeded to try them on, and it was at once
evident that the tailor in making them had by no means had us in his eye.
M. Gabet's robe was too short, M. Huc's too long; but a friendly exchange
was impracticable, the difference in height between the two missionaries
being altogether too disproportionate. We at first thought of cutting
the excess from the one, in order to make up the deficiency of the other;
but then we should have had to call in the aid of a tailor, and this
would have involved another drain upon our purse; the pecuniary
consideration decided the question, and we determined to wear the clothes
as they were, M. Huc adopting the expedient of holding up, by means of a
girdle, the surplus of his robe, and M. Gabet resigning himself to the
exposure to the public gaze of a portion of his legs; the main
inconvenience, after all, being the manifestation to all who saw us that
we could not attire ourselves in exact proportion to our size.
Provided with our sheep-skin coats, we next asked the dealer to show us
his collection of secondhand winter hats. We examined several of these,
and at last selected two caps of fox-skin, the elegant form of which
reminded us of the schakos of our sappers. These purchases completed,
each of us put under his arm his packet of old clothes, and we returned
to the hotel of the "Three Perfections."
We remained two days longer at Koukou-Khoton; for, besides that we needed
repose, we were glad of the opportunity of seeing this great town, and of
becoming acquainted with the numerous and celebrated Lamaseries
established there.
The Blue Town enjoys considerable commercial importance, which it has
acquired chiefly through its Lamaseries, the reputation of which attracts
thither Mongols from the most distant parts of the empire. The Mongols
bring hither large herds of oxen, camels, horses, sheep, and loads of
furs, mushrooms, and salt, the only produce of the deserts of Tartary.
They receive, in return, brick-tea, linen, saddlery, odoriferous sticks
to burn before their idols, oatmeal, millet, and kitchen utensils.
The Blue Town is especially noted for its great trade in camels. The
camel market is a large square in the centre of the town; the animals are
ranged here in long rows, their front feet raised upon a mud elevation
constructed for that purpose, the object being to show off the size and
height of the creatures. It is impossible to describe the uproar and
confusion of this market, what with the incessant bawling of the buyers
and sellers as they dispute, their noisy chattering after they have
agreed, and the horrible shrieking of the camels at having their noses
pulled, for the purpose of making them show their agility in kneeling and
rising. In order to test the strength of the camel, and the burden it is
capable of bearing, they make it kneel, and then pile one thing after
another upon its back, causing it to rise under each addition, until it
can rise no longer. They sometimes use the following expedient: While
the camel is kneeling, a man gets upon its hind heels, and holds on by
the long hair of its hump; if the camel can rise then, it is considered
an animal of superior power.
The trade in camels is entirely conducted by proxy: the seller and the
buyer never settle the matter between themselves. They select
indifferent persons to sell their goods, who propose, discuss, and fix
the price; the one looking to the interests of the seller, the other to
those of the purchaser. These "sale-speakers" exercise no other trade;
they go from market to market to promote business, as they say. They
have generally a great knowledge of cattle, have much fluency of tongue,
and are, above all, endowed with a knavery beyond all shame. They
dispute, by turns, furiously and argumentatively, as to the merits and
defects of the animal; but as soon as it comes to a question of price,
the tongue is laid aside as a medium, and the conversation proceeds
altogether in signs. They seize each other by the wrist, and beneath the
long wide sleeve of their jackets, indicate with their fingers the
progress of the bargain. After the affair is concluded they partake of
the dinner, which is always given by the purchaser, and then receive a
certain number of sapeks, according to the custom of different places.
[Picture: The Camel Market]
In the Blue Town there exist five great Lamaseries, each inhabited by
more than 2,000 Lamas; besides these, they reckon fifteen less
considerable establishments--branches, as it were, of the former. The
number of regular Lamas resident in this city may fairly be stated at
20,000. As to those who inhabit the different quarters of the town,
engaged in commerce and horse-dealing, they are innumerable. The
Lamasery of the Five Towers is the finest and the most famous: here it is
that the Hobilgan lives--that is, a Grand Lama--who, after having been
identified with the substance of Buddha, has already undergone several
times the process of transmigration. He sits here upon the altar once
occupied by the Guison-Tamba, having ascended it after a tragical event,
which very nearly brought about a revolution in the empire.
The Emperor Khang-Hi, during the great military expedition which he made
in the West against the Oelets, one day, in traversing the Blue Town,
expressed a wish to pay a visit to the Guison-Tamba, at that time the
Grand Lama of the Five Towers. The latter received the Emperor without
rising from the throne, or manifesting any kind of respect. Just as
Khang-Hi drew near to speak to him, a Kian-Kan, or high military
Mandarin, indignant at this unceremonious treatment of his master, drew
his sabre, fell upon the Guison-Tamba, and laid him dead on the steps of
his throne. This terrible event roused the whole Lamasery, and
indignation quickly communicated itself to all the Lamas of the Blue
Town.
They ran to arms in every quarter, and the life of the Emperor, who had
but a small retinue, was exposed to the greatest danger. In order to
calm the irritation of the Lamas, he publicly reproached the Kian-Kan
with his violence. "If the Guison-Tamba," answered the Kian-Kan, "was
not a living Buddha, why did he not rise in the presence of the master of
the universe? If he was a living Buddha, how was it he did not know I
was going to kill him?" Meanwhile the danger to the life of the Emperor
became every moment more imminent; he had no other means of escape than
that of taking off his imperial robes, and attiring himself in the dress
of a private soldier. Under favour of this disguise, and the general
confusion, he was enabled to rejoin his army, which was near at hand.
The greater part of the men who had accompanied the Emperor into the Blue
Town were massacred, and among the rest, the murderer of the
Guison-Tamba.
The Mongols sought to profit by this movement. Shortly afterwards it was
announced that the Guison-Tamba had re-appeared, and that he had
transmigrated to the country of the Khalkhas, who had taken him under
their protection, and had sworn to avenge his murder. The Lamas of the
Great Kouren set actively to the work of organization. They stripped off
their red and yellow robes, clothed themselves in black, in memory of the
disastrous event of the Blue Town, and allowed the hair and beard to
grow, in sign of grief. Everything seemed to presage a grand rising of
the Tartar tribes. The great energy and rare diplomatic talents of the
Emperor Khang-Hi alone sufficed to arrest its progress. He immediately
opened negotiations with the Tale-Lama, Sovereign of Thibet, who was
induced to use all his influence with the Lamas for the re-establishment
of order, whilst Khang-Hi was intimidating the Khalkha kings by means of
his troops. Gradually peace was restored; the Lamas resumed their red
and yellow robes; but, as a memorial of their coalition in favour of the
Guison-Tamba, they retained a narrow border of black on the collar of
their robes. Khalkha Lamas alone bear this badge of distinction.
Ever since that period, a Hobilgan has taken the place in the Blue Town
of the Guison-Tamba, who himself is resident at the great Kouren, in the
district of the Khalkhas. Meanwhile, the Emperor Khang-Hi, whose
penetrating genius was always occupied with the future, was not entirely
satisfied with these arrangements. He did not believe in all these
doctrines of transmigration, and clearly saw that the Khalkhas, in
pretending that the Guison-Tamba had re-appeared among them, had no other
end than that of keeping at their disposal a power capable of contending,
upon occasion, with that of the Chinese Emperor. To abolish the office
of Guison-Tamba would have been a desperate affair; the only course was,
whilst tolerating him, to neutralise his influence. It was decreed, with
the concurrence of the Court of Lha-Ssa, that the Guison-Tamba should be
recognised legitimate sovereign of the great Kouren; but that after his
successive deaths, he should always be bound to make his transmigration
to Thibet. Khang-Hi had good reason to believe that a Thibetian by
origin, would espouse with reluctance the resentments of the Khalkhas
against the Court of Peking.
The Guison-Tamba, full of submission and respect for the orders of
Khang-Hi and of the Tale-Lama, has never failed since that to go and
accomplish his metempsychosis in Thibet. Still, as they fetch him whilst
he is yet an infant, he must necessarily be influenced by those about
him; and it is said, that as he grows up, he imbibes sentiments little
favourable to the reigning dynasty. In 1839, when the Guison-Tamba made
that journey to Peking, of which we have spoken, the alarm manifested by
the Court arose from the recollection of these events. The Lamas who
flock from all the districts of Tartary to the Lamaseries of the Blue
Town, rarely remain there permanently. After taking their degrees, as it
were, in these quasi universities, they return, one class of them, to
their own countries, where they either settle in the small Lamaseries,
wherein they can be more independent, or live at home with their
families; retaining of their order little more than its red and yellow
habit.
Another class consists of those Lamas who live neither in Lamaseries nor
at home with their families, but spend their time vagabondizing about
like birds of passage, travelling all over their own and the adjacent
countries, and subsisting upon the rude hospitality which, in Lamasery
and in tent they are sure to receive, throughout their wandering way.
Lamasery or tent, they enter without ceremony, seat themselves, and while
the tea is preparing for their refreshment, give their hosts an account
of the places they have visited in their rambles. If they think fit to
sleep where they are, they stretch themselves on the floor and repose
until the morning. After breakfast, they stand at the entrance of the
tent, and watch the clouds for a while, and see whence the wind blows;
then they take their way, no matter whither, by this path or that, east
or west, north or south, as their fancy or a smoother turf suggests, and
lounge tranquilly on, sure at least, if no other shelter presents itself
by-and-by, of the shelter of the cover, as they express it, of that great
tent, the world; and sure, moreover, having no destination before them,
never to lose their way.
[Picture: Vagabond Lamas]
The wandering Lamas visit all the countries readily accessible to
them:--China, Mantchouria, the Khalkhas, the various kingdoms of Southern
Mongolia, the Ourianghai, the Koukou-Noor, the northern and southern
slopes of the Celestial Mountains, Thibet, India, and sometimes even
Turkestan. There is no stream which they have not crossed, no mountains
they have not climbed, no Grand Lama before whom they have not prostrated
themselves, no people with whom they have not associated, and whose
customs and language are unknown to them. Travelling without any end in
view, the places they reach are always those they sought. The story of
the Wandering Jew, who is for ever a wanderer, is exactly realised in
these Lamas. They seem influenced by some secret power, which makes them
wander unceasingly from place to place. God seems to have infused into
the blood which flows in their veins, something of that motive power
which propels them on their way, without allowing them to stop.
The Lamas living in community are those who compose the third class. A
Lamasery is a collection of small houses built around one or more Buddhic
temples. These dwellings are more or less large and beautiful, according
to the means of the proprietor. The Lamas who live thus in community,
are generally more regular than the others; they pay more attention to
prayer and study. They are allowed to keep a few animals; some cows to
afford them milk and butter, the principal materials of their daily food;
horses; and some sheep to be killed on festivals.
Generally speaking, the Lamaseries have endowments, either royal or
imperial. At certain periods of the year, the revenues are distributed
to the Lamas according to the station which they have obtained in the
hierarchy. Those who have the reputation of being learned physicians, or
able fortune-tellers, have often the opportunity of acquiring possession
of the property of strangers; yet they seldom seem to become rich. A
childish and heedless race, they cannot make a moderate use of the riches
they acquire; their money goes as quickly as it comes. The same Lama
whom you saw yesterday in dirty, torn rags, to-day rivals in the
magnificence of his attire the grandeur of the highest dignitaries of the
Lamasery. So soon as animals or money are placed within his disposition,
he starts off to the next trading town, sells what he has to sell, and
clothes himself in the richest attire he can purchase. For a month or
two he plays the elegant idler, and then, his money all gone, he repairs
once more to the Chinese town, this time to pawn his fine clothes for
what he can get, and with the certainty that once in the Tang-Pou, he
will never, except by some chance, redeem them. All the pawnbrokers
shops in the Tartar Chinese towns are full of these Lama relics. The
Lamas are very numerous in Tartary; we think we may affirm, without
exaggeration, that they compose at least a third of the population. In
almost all families, with the exception of the eldest son, who remains a
layman, the male children become Lamas.
The Tartars embrace this profession compulsorily, not of their own free
will; they are Lamas or laymen from their birth, according to the will of
the parents. But as they grow up, they grow accustomed to this life;
and, in the end, religious exaltation attaches them strongly to it.
It is said that the policy of the Mantchou dynasty is to increase the
number of Lamas in Tartary; the Chinese Mandarins so assured us, and the
thing seems probable enough. It is certain that the government of
Peking, whilst it leaves to poverty and want the Chinese Bonzes, honours
and favours Lamanism in a special degree. The secret intention of the
government, in augmenting the number of the Lamas, who are bound to
celibacy, is to arrest, by this means, the progress of the population in
Tartary. The recollection of the former power of the Mongols ever fills
its mind; it knows that they were formerly masters of the empire,--and in
the fear of a new invasion, it seeks to enfeeble them by all the means in
its power. Yet, although Mongolia is scantily peopled, in comparison
with its immense extent, it could, at a day's notice, send forth a
formidable army. A high Lama, the Guison-Tamba, for instance, would have
but to raise his finger, and all the Mongols, from the frontiers of
Siberia to the extremities of Thibet, rising as one man, would
precipitate themselves like a torrent wherever their sainted leader might
direct them. The profound peace which they have enjoyed for more than
two centuries, might seem to have necessarily enervated their warlike
character; nevertheless, you may still observe that they have not
altogether lost their taste for warlike adventures. The great campaigns
of Tsing-Kis-Khan, who led them to the conquest of the world, have not
escaped their memory during the long period of leisure of their nomadic
life; they love to talk of them, and to feed their imagination with vague
projects of invasion.
During our short stay at the Blue Town we had constant conversations with
the Lamas of the most celebrated Lamaseries, endeavouring to obtain fresh
information on the state of Buddhism in Tartary and Thibet. All they
told us only served to confirm us more and more in what we had before
learnt on this subject. In the Blue Town, as at Tolon-Noor, everyone
told us that the doctrine would appear more sublime and more luminous as
we advanced towards the West. From what the Lamas said, who had visited
Thibet, Lha-Ssa was, as it were, a great focus of light, the rays of
which grew more and more feeble in proportion as they became removed from
their centre.
One day we had an opportunity of talking with a Thibetian Lama for some
time, and the things he told us about religion astounded us greatly. A
brief explanation of the Christian doctrine, which we gave to him, seemed
scarcely to surprise him; he even maintained that our views differed
little from those of the Grand Lamas of Thibet. "You must not confound,"
said he, "religious truths with the superstitions of the vulgar. The
Tartars, poor, simple people, prostrate themselves before whatever they
see; everything with them is Borhan. Lamas, prayer books, temples,
Lamaseries, stones, heaps of bones,--'tis all the same to them; down they
go on their knees, crying, Borhan! Borhan!" "But the Lamas themselves
admit innumerable Borhans?" "Let me explain," said our friend,
smilingly; "there is but one sole Sovereign of the universe, the Creator
of all things, alike without beginning and without end. In Dchagar
(India) he bears the name of Buddha, in Thibet, that of Samtche Mitcheba
(all Powerful Eternal); the Dcha-Mi (Chinese) call him Fo, and the
Sok-Po-Mi (Tartars), Borhan." "You say that Buddha is sole; in that
case, who are the Tale-Lama of Lha-Ssa, the Bandchan of Djachi-Loumbo,
the Tsong-Kaba of the Sifan, the Kaldan of Tolon-Noor, the Guison-Tamba
of the Great Kouren, the Hobilgan of Blue Town, the Hotoktou of Peking,
the Chaberon of the Tartar and Thibetian Lamaseries generally?" "They
are all equally Buddha." "Is Buddha visible?" "No, he is without a
body; he is a spiritual substance." "So, Buddha is sole, and yet there
exist innumerable Buddhas; the Tale-Lama, and so on. Buddha is
incorporeal; he cannot be seen, and yet the Tale-Lama, the Guison-Tamba,
and the rest are visible, and have bodies like our own. How do you
explain all this?" "The doctrine, I tell you, is true," said the Lama,
raising his arm, and assuming a remarkable accent of authority; "it is
the doctrine of the West, but it is of unfathomable profundity. It
cannot be sounded to the bottom."
These words of the Thibetian Lama astonished us strangely; the Unity of
God, the mystery of the Incarnation, the dogma of the Real Presence
seemed to us enveloped in his creed; yet with ideas so sound in
appearance, he admitted the metempsychosis, and a sort of pantheism of
which he could give no account.
These new indications respecting the religion of Buddha gave us hopes
that we should really find among the Lamas of Thibet symbolism more
refined and superior to the common belief, and confirmed us in the
resolution we had adopted, of keeping on our course westward.
Previous to quitting the inn we called in the landlord, to settle our
bill. We had calculated that the entertainment, during four days, of
three men and our animals, would cost us at least two ounces of silver;
we were therefore agreeably surprised to hear the landlord say, "Sirs
Lamas, there is no occasion for going into any accounts; put 300 sapeks
into the till, and that will do very well. My house," he added, "is
recently established, and I want to give it a good character. You are
come from a distant land, and I would enable you to say to your
countrymen that my establishment is worthy of their confidence." We
replied that we would everywhere mention his disinterestedness; and that
our countrymen, whenever they had occasion to visit the Blue Town, would
certainly not fail to put-up at the "Hotel of the Three Perfections."
[Picture: Tchagan-Kouren]