PROCESSION OF THE PANCHEN OR TASHI LAMA IN LHASA.
The 13th of May (the 4th of April by the Tibetan calendar) was a grand day for Lhasa, for on that day the Grand Lama Panchen Rinpoche, or the second Pope of Tashi Lhunpo in the city of Shigatze in the Tsan Province was to come up to Lhasa. He had completed his twentieth year and was qualified to receive what in Tibetan is called the Nyen-zok, which means investiture or ‘the deliverance of the Commands’. He was now coming to the capital to receive the ceremony from the Pope Tubten Gyam Tso in Lhasa. The ceremony is regarded as one of great importance, in nowise second to the “Nyen-zok” day of the investiture or ‘the Deliverance of the Commands of the Order’ of the Pope himself. The citizens, men and women, young and old, all went out to welcome the young prelate to Lhasa and I was also present in the crowd, accompanied by Li Tsu-shu, a Chinese apothecary, and his children. The procession of the day was magnificent and as splendid as was expected, but was not much different from that which I saw at Shigatze. On our way back I met Tsa Rong-ba, who invited me to tea at his house. I accepted, and was sitting comfortably in his house, when a Tibetan gentleman came in. The man was introduced to me as the Chief of the Pope’s caravan, by the name of Takbo Tunbai Choen Joe. He also worked (as I learned afterward) as an agent of the Government for buying iron and other articles as Tsa Rong-ba did, and they were old acquaintances. As soon as he entered the house he stared at me with his sharp eyes for a long time. As I looked at him I judged him to be a black-hearted man, but at the same time I recognised the presence of great smartness.
Presently he came close to me. In the room were Tsa Rong-ba and his wife, and I saw that the greatest danger was brewing. But here I must diverge to tell a long story. Tsa Rong-ba had looked upon me with great hope, as my influence increased, because he thought if I became a family doctor of the Pope he would derive therefrom great benefit and profit, and when he returned from India he found my fame as a doctor greatly increased. Some people had exaggerated my reputation; if I cured only three patients they would call it fifty, and went even so far as to say that none could compete with me in the art of medicine. Besides, he knew that I lodged with the Minister of the treasury, and that I had also several friends among the higher officials and priests. These considerations made him think me quite reliable. While he was in Calcutta he heard much of the just and brave actions of the Japanese, also that in the war between Japan and China, the Japanese were not selfish, but had in view the benefit of China; at least I heard him often say so. Thus his confidence in the Japanese in general and in myself had been still more increased.
Next, to speak of the intruder Takbo Tunbai Choen Joe, he was the clerk of a great merchant named Takbo Tunba, and had often been to Peking, sometimes in charge of the Pope’s caravan. At the time of the Boxer Trouble he was in China and once unfortunately all his goods had been captured by some Japanese soldiers. He explained to them that the goods captured did not belong to the Chinese Government—on which suspicion they had been seized—and begged to have them returned, but all in vain. They were going to carry everything away. Then he hastened to the Japanese general at headquarters, and complained that he was a Tibetan and the goods had neither been brought for, nor were being carried for the Chinese Government, and besought the general that they should be given back. The general, seeing that he was a Tibetan, immediately wrote a note in Chinese and in some peculiar characters (undoubtedly Japanese) signed his name and handed it to him telling him to take it to the soldiers. He did as he was told, and the goods which had been seized were returned with no loss whatever. This event and other experiences made him think that the Japanese were in the habit of acting justly and righteously. At any rate he had spoken highly of the Japanese when he told the above story to Tsa Rong-ba. When Tsa Rong-ba heard the story and knew that the Choen Joe was an admirer of the Japanese as he himself was, he thought it might do no harm to discover to him the person of the Japanese Lama; he even thought it would be profitable for himself to do so, but I never dreamed that such a fancy had taken possession of his mind.
The Choen Joe, who was keenly gazing at me, suddenly cried out: “You are very strange,” to which I did not reply a word. Then he continued: “At first I thought you were a Mongolian, but I found my judgment mistaken. Nor are you to be taken for a Chinaman. Of course, you are not a European. Of what nationality in the world are you then?” I was about to reply to this impertinent question, when I was interrupted by Tsa Rong-ba who spoke in a knowing way: “This gentleman is a Japanese.” Just a few words, and all was over. It was the first time my nationality had been mentioned in Lhasa. A very annoying truth had been uttered, but I could not deny the impeachment, so continued silently looking into the chief’s face, and wondering what would be the next word I should hear from him. Then with a look as if relieved from some uneasiness he turned to the host and said: “I see, I see, I thought he must be a Japanese, but then I thought it was impossible for a Japanese to penetrate into this country, and I hesitated to say so. Now that I hear you say so, I doubt it not, for I have seen many Japanese at Peking.”
The sentence was given by these judges before the defendant could speak a word, and thus the secret which had been kept for so long was brought to light in a moment. The Choen Joe now turned to me and said:
“This is very good news for me. I once thought that if I went to Japan and brought strange goods to Lhasa I could make a great deal of money. But I have heard that the Chinese language, which is the only foreign language I can speak, is not used in Japan except among a few Chinamen at the seaport towns. Besides, I know that foreign travellers are liable to be deceived by bad people, who abound everywhere, and Japan, I suppose, is not an exception. So I have abandoned my intention. But I am glad to find here such a good Japanese as you. I have heard of the fame of the Serai Amchi (doctor of Sera) and am very satisfied to find the noted doctor in this house. As you are so good a man will you not take me with you to Japan?”
The prospect was not so bad as I had expected. I told him that as I intended to go back to Japan once more, I would take him, and spoke many things about Japan. The caravan chief talked of his hard experiences in China, of the recovery of his goods by the favor of the general, and of the superiority of the Japanese soldiers in valor to those of the West. He spoke very highly of Japan, but did not seem to mean to flatter me; it was most likely that the words came from his real heart. Then I said:
“You and Tsa Rong-ba are the only men that know that I am a Japanese, but if you tell it to anyone else, I am afraid it may cause you both some trouble. So you must be very careful about it.”