These directions are given orally when the Lama who issues them is one of secondary position, but when he is one of exalted rank the directions are written by one of his attendants and the sheet is authenticated by the mark of his own seal.
The Tibetans put implicit faith in the directions issued by such high Lamas, and follow them literally. For instance, when the Lama directs them not to seek the aid of medicine, say for the first five days, and orders the patient only to perform the rites of exorcism during that period, they are sure to do so. A patient, who might have recovered had the aid of medicine been at once invoked, may then die, but his family will never blame the Lama for it. They will rather hold him in greater respect than before, attributing to him an extraordinary power of foresight. They will say that he had foreseen the hopelessness of the patient’s case, and therefore told them not to take the unnecessary trouble of calling in the aid of a doctor until after the lapse of five days. The reverend priest knew, they think, that the patient would die by that time. Anybody who should dare to hold the Lama responsible for the death of the patient would run a serious risk of being denounced by the faithful believers as a heretic and as a person of depraved mind. Even those who at heart condemn the mischievous and fatal meddling of the priests in the case of diseases prudently keep silence, for fear of calling down upon themselves the wrath of the fanatical populace.
To speak the truth, the Tibetan doctors hardly deserve to be trusted. The word ‘doctor’ as applied to them is a gross outrage on the noble science, for they possess merely the knowledge (and this too of a very shallow kind) of the primitive medicine of ancient India. As even that knowledge is the result of oral instruction transmitted from father to son for many generations, and not acquired from studying medical works or from investigation, the Tibetan ‘doctors’ are utterly incompetent for the important function assigned to them.
The doctors practically possess only one stock medicine, which is the root of a certain poisonous herb called tsa-tuk in Tibet. Being a strong stimulant it is fatal in a large dose, and even a limited quantity causes a temporary paralysis of the different parts of the body and sometimes violent diarrhœa. A change of any kind is likely to be taken as a hopeful sign by patients, and so the Tibetan doctors always use more or less of this drug for all kinds of illness, just as the Japanese doctors were accustomed to use liquorice-root in olden days.
Knowing as I do how untrustworthy and even dangerous the prescriptions of Tibetan doctors are, I sometimes thought that if the choice between the two evils had to be made I should rather recommend to sick people an exclusive reliance on prayers and faith-cure instead of on the risky medicines prepared by these quacks.
[CHAPTER LXX.]
Outdoor Amusements.
There are various methods of feasting in Tibet, but the one which appeals most strongly to the fancy of the people and is, I think, the most refined, is the Lingka. This is a sort of garden party held in woody places situated in the outskirts of the city of Lhasa.
The Tibetans seldom behave respectably and with courtesy when they meet in a social reunion; too frequently on such occasions disputes or even quarrels are liable to occur. But in a Lingka party all those who participate in it behave with decorum, and even people who are generally regarded as quarrelsome characters appear genteel and affable in deference to the best tradition of the country. A Lingka carried out by a party of warrior-priests is sufficiently animated, but very seldom do they mar the occasion with unseemly quarrels.
The places where this refined amusement is held are, as before mentioned, situated very close to the city, and are found in all directions except the south, where flows a river. In the remainder of the circuit woods and groves are scattered here and there, and also patches of velvety lawns. Some of the groves are enclosed and are attached to the private villas of wealthy people, but there are plenty of groves and lawns which are left open to the public.