[22] Behor must be Bihar gyalpo, one of the five great patron saints or Chu-gyong, of Tibet. Noijinhamara may be the god of wealth.—(W. R.) [↑]
[23] Wu-khang would appear to mean “central room or house.” I have never heard of bottling up the breath or spirit of the dead among any Buddhist people. This must be a survival of some pre-Buddhist superstition.—(W. R.) [↑]
[24] Tibetan historians inform us that Padma Sambhava (Peme chyung-nas) was called to Tibet from Kafiristan (O-rgyan) by Santa Rakshita (Dji-wa tso), who could not withstand the onslaught of the Bonbos. See Emil Schlagintweit, ‘Die Könige von Tibet,’ p. 52 et sqq. [↑]
[25] Written Bsam-yas. I do not believe that this interpretation of the word Samye is correct. San yang, it is true, means “three styles” in Chinese, but Chinese yang would never be pronounced ye in Tibetan. Waddell, op. cit., 266, translates the name, “the academy for obtaining the heap of unchanging meditation.” Nain Singh visited Samye (he calls it Sama-ye Gomba) in 1873. “It is surrounded by a very high circular wall, 1½ mile in circumference, with gates facing the four points of the compass. On the top [[225]]of this wall the Pundit counted 1030 chhartans (chorten) made of burnt bricks.… The interiors of the (stone) walls of these temples are covered with very beautiful writing in enormous Hindi (Sanscrit) characters.…” Jour. Roy. Geog. Soc., xlvii. p. 114. Sarat Chandra says that a work, entitled ‘Pama Kahthang’ (‘Peme Katang’?), contains a full description of this famous lamasery. See also Waddell, op. cit., 266–268. [↑]
[26] This iconoclast, who appears to have been born in A.D. 861, interdicted the Buddhist religion in Tibet in 899, and was murdered in 900. See Csoma, ‘Tib. Grammar,’ p. 183. Cf. Emil Schlagintweit, op. cit., p. 59, and I. J. Schmidt, ‘Geschichte der Ost Mongolen,’ pp. 49, 362, et sqq. In the last work is the history of the murder of the king by the hermit, Lha-lung palgyi dorje. It agrees with what our author has told us supra, p. 153, when describing the origin of the “black hat” dance.—(W. R.) [↑]
[27] Our author says, only “in the year fire-tiger of the thirteenth cycle,” and “again, after a period of ten years, in the month of May (fire-tiger of the fourteenth cycle).” This is impossible, as fire-tiger is the third year in the cycle of sixty years. Assuming the first date to be correct, the second must be A.D. 1808. Waddell, op. cit., 267, says the library was destroyed about 1816.—(W. R.) [↑]
[28] Nain Singh speaks of a town called Sawe, where the Tibetan treasury is kept. See Markham’s ‘Tibet,’ p. cxiii. This is Samye. Explorer A. K. passed here in October, [[226]]1882, but his notes contain nothing about this celebrated place. Ugyen-gyatso visited it in October, 1883, but his report also contains little of interest. See ‘Report on Exploration from 1856 to 1886,’ pp. 28, 29. Csoma, ‘Tib. Grammar,’ p. 183, says it was founded A.D. 749. Cf. Emil Schlagintweit, ‘Die Könige von Tibet,’ p. 53. Ssanang Ssetsen (I. J. Schmidt, ‘Geschichte der Ost Mongolen’), p. 41, says the building of the temple was begun in A.D. 811, and finished in 823. The date given by Csoma is probably correct, as King Tisrong detsan’s father was a contemporary of the Tang Emperor Chang-tsung, who reigned in 684. Tisrong reigned from 740 to 786. He was born, according to Csoma, A.D. 728.—(W. R.) [↑]
[29] Ugyen-gyatso also speaks of the woods and gardens, and especially the walnut trees of this section of country. He refers also to the excellent roads. See ‘Report on the Explor. from 1856 to 1886,’ p. 28. A. K. speaks of the village of Do as Dushio. Tso (shio) means village, and is an abbreviation from grong-tso (pr. drong-tso).—(W. R.) [↑]
[30] There is a Reting gomba on the big broad between Lhasa and Hsi-ning, not far from Nagchukha. The party referred to may have come from this neighbourhood, though the Dokpa of that region are not Horba.—(W. R.) [↑]