[127]Dr. Schlagintweit (p. 73) identifies this with the sect which wear red dresses, but this must surely be an error for yellow.
[128]Through the Mongols Tibet gradually came under the power of China from 1255 to 1720. The dynasty in China is now Manchu.
[129]It is remarkable that the expression ὁ καταβάς is said of Christ in the New Testament.
[130]According to the Times Correspondent Lhāssa stands in no closer relation to China than the least dependent of Indian States to the British Empire; history, however, proves that China can, when her interests demand it, assume a very different position. The military power of China is not great, but that of the Lāma Government is nearly nil. The expulsion of the missionaries Huc and Gabet proves this.
[131]It is said by some that even his excreta are held sacred. They are dried, ground to powder, and either swallowed or made use of as charms. Others deny this.
[132]In the Times newspaper for June 15, 1888, is the following: ‘How the Grand Lāma of Tibet is appointed.—A recent number of the Peking Gazette contains a memorial to the Emperor from the Chinese Resident at Lhāssa, stating that a certain Tibetan official called the Nominhan (see [p. 286] of this volume) had reported to him that he had found three young boys of remarkable intelligence and acuteness, into one of whom beyond a doubt the spirit of the late Lāma of Tashi Lunpo (one of the two supreme pontiffs) had passed. Thereupon the Chinese Resident sent a report to Peking, asking that the ceremony of selecting one of these three children might be permitted. By the time the authority arrived, the Nominhan with the children had reached Lhāssa, and a lucky day was chosen for the ceremony. The golden vase in which the lots are cast was brought and placed before the image of the Emperor. Prayers were chanted before the assembled Lāmas, and the children were conducted into the presence of the Resident and Tibetan authorities in order that their intelligence and difference from other persons might be tested.’
[133]‘Cloven-headed’ seems a misprint for eleven-headed; but the account of the creation of Avalokiteṡvara at [p. 487] of this volume justifies ‘cloven-headed.’—Corr.
[134]Article on Japan in the last edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
[135]According to one of my Japanese informants Butsu should he Bhutsu, and the formula should be translated, ‘Reverence to the Infinite Being.’
[136]My quotations from the travels of Huc and Gabet have been made from excellent translations by Mrs. Percy Sinnet and W. Hazlitt, but I have been compelled to abbreviate the extracts.