The cutting up and distributing of a corpse is a practical illustration of the Tibetan belief that charity is the highest of all the moral virtues. That man is said to be most virtuous whose funeral is attended by the largest number of vultures, while if his corpse attracts but a small company, the very dogs not deigning to touch his defiled remains, he is judged to have led a sinful life.
The dead bodies of pregnant and barren women, and also of lepers, are packed in leather bags and thrown into the waters of the great Tsang-po. A Tibetan proverb says, “She whose son dies after birth is white barren (rab-cha karpo); she whose daughter dies after birth is partly barren (rab-cha tavo); she who has borne no children [[256]]is black barren (rab-cha nagpo).” The corpses of such and of lepers are considered particularly unclean, and should not be kept within the limits of the country, but must either be thrown beyond nine hills and dales, or packed in horse’s or ox’s skins and thrown into the river.
The dead bodies of incarnate lamas are occasionally burnt, and their ashes and bones deposited in chorten. The remains of saintly personages, such as pretend to have emanated from Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, are preserved like the Egyptian mummies, being embalmed or salted and placed within gold, silver, or copper chorten, where they are seated in a meditative posture, like the conventional image of Buddha. These incarnate lamas, at the time of death, mention the time when and the place and the family where their souls will subsequently find re-embodiment, and also the name and race of the family, and instruct their friends to perform rites and ceremonies for their well-being after death.
On the demise of the Dalai and Tashi lamas, the work in all the public and private offices, all business, and market gatherings are suspended for seven days. For thirty days women are forbidden to put on their jewellery, and men or women may not wear new apparel. Lamas and monks must, on such occasions, mourn for ten days, during which they must not shave their heads, or wear their church head-dresses during services, All classes of people refrain from amusements and festivities, and from going into groves for pleasure, sports, or love-making. It is only in honour of the death of these two great hierarchs of Tibet that the whole country goes into mourning. The mourning for abbots of other monasteries and heads of families is confined to the friends and monks who are near to them. Rich and respectable men do not, within a year after the death of their parents, take part in marriage ceremonies and festivities; and do not undertake journeys to a distance.
Among the Sikkim Buddhists, dead bodies are burnt. On the fourth day after cremation, a lama performs the tusol, or washing ceremony, which consists in removing the relics, ashes, etc., and washing the place of burning with water. The relics are placed in an urn and deposited in a chorten. The ashes are thrown into a mountain stream, such as the Tista or Rungit.[11] The relics of [[257]]lamas and important men, after being pulverized, are mixed with clay and cast in moulds into miniature chorten. These relic chorten are deposited in sacred places, such as monasteries, temples, caverns, etc. On the seventh day the funeral ceremony, called Ten-zung, is performed. All relations and neighbours are invited to this funeral feast. At dusk all the evil spirits which are believed to have been invited to the departure of the deceased, are expelled by a Tantrik priest, assisted by the deafening yells of the guests.[12]
The physicians of High Asia have, I am told, discovered such remarkable properties of vegetable drugs, and of the flesh and bile of certain animals, and of some sorts of excrements in healing different kinds of sores, that if the statements of my informant be true, the surgeons of civilized countries would be struck with wonder at their marvellous performances. For this remarkable success, the Tibetans do not appear to be indebted to their Chinese or Indian neighbours.[13] Their medicines are mostly indigenous, and their discoveries in surgery have resulted from their own experience. They supply the greater number of physicians and surgeons to the Mongols and other neighbouring peoples.
The treatment of small-pox is very little understood by Tibetan doctors. Inoculation is, however, resorted to, and a new method of performing this operation has been discovered by the Northern Chinese physicians. It consists in selecting the best lymph from the light white pox pustules of a healthy child, which, mixed with camphor powder, is blown with a pipe into the nostril of the person to be inoculated.[14] Great care and experience are required in selecting the lymph, on which alone depends the safety of the patients. Chicken-pox occurs only in a mild form, and is generally left to take its course.
Hydrophobia is very prevalent in Tibet, Mongolia, and China, and its effects are considered to manifest themselves, according to the colour of the dog, at periods varying from seven days to eighteen months, and also according to the time of day at which the bite was received. The remedies are, however, sufficiently practical. As soon [[258]]as possible tie a ligature four fingers above the wound; draw out the poison by means of the sucking apparatus, called rnyabs-ras, similar to the cupping-glasses of the Indians, and then bleed the wounded part. If the patient presents himself to the physician a day after having been bitten, the latter should only cauterize the wound, and then apply an ointment made of butter, turmeric, a poisonous bulb called bon-nya, and musk.
In Lower Kongbo, Pobo, Pemakyod, and other mountainous districts of Southern Tibet, and in Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan on this side of the Himalayas, goitre is the most prevalent disease. It owes its origin to the calcareous nature of the water drunk by the natives. Six varieties of goitre are recognized by Tibetan physicians, which are variously treated by cauterization, bleeding the jugular vein behind the ear, and also the swollen muscle of the goitre, and the administration of nostrums composed of the dried gullet of the yak or sheep, dried fish, different kinds of salts, Piper longum and pepper, and powdered conch-shell, burnt in a hermetically closed vessel.
Snake-bite is of rare occurrence in Higher Tibet, but in the lower valley of the great Tsang-po, great numbers of snakes are found, and also on the western frontier of China bordering Tibet.[15] Snake-bites are treated like hydrophobia, by tying a ligature above the part bitten and cupping. The wound is then washed with curd or milk, camel’s milk being the most efficacious.[16] It is believed in High Asia that if a snake bite a camel, the snake dies immediately without injuring the camel. If there be no burning heat as a consequence of the bite, the wound should be cauterized. Internal remedies are also taken, consisting of cardamom, musk, pepper, and other native drugs. The Glak-los (wild people) of Pemakyod[17] immediately cut off the bitten portion, or the bitten limb, if possible, after which they apply musk and bear’s bile (gall?) to the wound and bind it up. The Lalos eat snakes, of which, however, they reject the head and tail as injurious. [[259]]