Beyond Norbu khyung-djin we saw, as we rode along, afar off on a slope of rock, incised in gigantic characters, the sacred formulæ, Om vajra pani hum, om wagishvari hum, om ah hum, etc.
The next day, at 3 p.m., just as we reached the house of the Deba Shika, there was quite a heavy fall of snow. On the 25th we arrived at Tashilhunpo, and I once more took up my interrupted historical studies. [[122]]
[1] On July 31, 1879, the thirteenth incarnation of the Dalai lama was placed on the throne of Lhasa. Chandra Das speaks of this event in the following terms: “The princely infant, into whose person the spirit of the late Dalai had passed, had been brought up till now in a small palace of Gyal-kup, near Lhasa. Last year the Tashi lama, at the invitation of the Emperor of China and the high officials of Tibet, had gone to Lhasa to examine the infant Dalai, and report if the spirit of the last Dalai had really passed into his person. For several days oracles were consulted, the result being to establish beyond doubt that the infant was the incarnate Shenrazig, the patron of Tibet. On the day when he pronounced the infant’s claim to the pontifical throne to be good and valid, a magnificent rainbow is said to have appeared over the palace of Potala. The Tashi lama had fixed July 31 for the Dalai’s accession to the throne” (see ‘Narrative of a Journey to Tashilhunpo,’ p. 25). [↑]
[2] The Khamba are much dreaded throughout Tibet; frequent mentions are made in the narratives of the Indian explorers of their lawless ways. For fuller particulars regarding them and their country, I must refer the reader to my ‘Land of the Lamas’ and to the narrative of A. K.’s journey.—(W. R.) [↑]
[4] De-le of our maps.—(W. R.) [↑]
[5] Speaking of the dances of Tibet, our author says elsewhere that Padma Sambhava, in the eighth century, A.D., is the reputed originator of religious dances in Tibet. He introduced the war-dance and the famous masqued dance, or bag chams (hbag hchams), the former being but a modification of the latter. At present the great religious dance of Tibet is the black-hat dance (Dza nag cham), which was introduced in the eleventh century, A.D., to commemorate the assassination of the iconoclast King Langdarma by Lama Lhalun Paldor, the murderer having disguised himself in black when seeking to approach the king. The ordinary dance of Tibet (dzabs bro) is performed by men and women on all or any occasion of rejoicing. Sometimes they dance in pairs, sometimes in a ring, and at others the women hand-in-hand on one side, the men in like fashion on the other. (S. C. D.) Cf. Markham, ‘Tibet,’ p. 92; E. F. Knight, ‘Where Three Empires Meet,’ p. 202 et sqq.; Waddell, ‘Buddhism of Tibet,’ pp. 34, 477, 515 et sqq. [↑]
[7] The office here mentioned is well known in Sikkim. See the Sikhim Gazetteer, p. 304, vi. The amged, as colloquially pronounced, is the active ruler of the monastery, and often a very important person. [↑]