Amongst a hundred women (at most) one khando!
Amongst a hundred men (at most) one sorcerer!
That is—khando being here used in the good sense of fairy—: Amongst many women there is scarcely one extremely good, but amongst many men there is scarcely one extremely bad. In fact, in Tibet, all women are suspected of having just a little seed of evil (of the witch) in them. And so the term of reproach is not as in Europe ‘Old Adam’ but rather ‘Old Eve.’
As far as the above story is concerned, it should not be forgotten that it is only a popular version of an interesting phase of religious practice, but Tibetan casuistry and theology are as a rule so subtle and well-systematised that a more [[81]]theoretical exposition of the doctrines and practices alluded to might throw considerably more, if not other and new, light on the subject.
To p. 25. The quotation, s.v. ཁྲེལ་༌, l. 16: ཆོས་, etc., is from a little tract, a prayer to Padmasambhava, entitled བསམ་, ‘the quick mind-fulfiller.’
To p. 25. Cf. Lewin, pp. 133–134, no. 97–10, གཞད་ (རྒྱུ་), ridiculous; zhed-ked, laughter, ridicule.
To p. 26. ངོ་ Bell, voc., to blush; Lewin, p. 77 (64–5), ridiculous. See his example.
To p. 30. S. Ch. D., Dict., has ཀོ་ (hidden on p. 34, out of alphabetical order) as ‘a Tibetan of mixed breed, i.e. born of a Chinese father and a Tibetan mother.’ Waddell, Lhasa and its Mysteries, p. 214, the same explanation. A special enquiry into this point, however, yielded a different result. One of my informants was a Tibetan woman from Lhasa who had herself married a Chinaman there, and so ought to know. The half-breeds referred to by S. Ch. D. and Waddell are called ‘baizhin,’ spelling uncertain, given as བལ་ and བའི་, said to be a Chinese word. However, another explanation of that same word was given, as a man not in the pay of, not taking wages from, another. Not necessarily rich or of high position, but independent. Perhaps something like crofter. This latter explanation is, however, contradicted by Karma who has relations amongst the baizhins in Tibet.
In a Tibetan mixed marriage such as we are here considering the custom is to call the elder son ཀོ་ after the Chinese manner, instead of using the Tibetan word. This is ཨ་ in Tsang and ཇོ་ in Lhasa. The latter is pronounced, and sometimes written, ཅོ་ and even sometimes pronounced chö-cho, as if written ཅོས་. But in the above case ཀོ་ means really ‘elder brother.’ A girl, born in such a marriage, is similarly called མི་, Chinese, instead of ཨ་, Tibetan. [[82]]These terms do not mean half-blood. Whether མི་ is used for the eldest daughter alone or for all the daughters of the marriage I could not ascertain.
It is said that every Chinaman, however humble, becomes at once a personage of importance when in Tibet, and demands to be addressed at least as དཔོན་, Mister, Sir (as every European becomes automatically a Sahib in India), and feels quite insulted if addressed by the more familiar ཀོ་ as a liberty taken with his dignity. A Chinaman from Tibet, however, denied this. I remember once travelling in the Sunda country with my Javanese writer who met several people on the road whom he knew and whom he saluted as ‘little brother’ or ‘elder brother.’ I was puzzled at his belonging to so big a family, but found the solution of the riddle when I understood that this fraternity was not one of consanguinity at all. So ‘elder sister’ amongst Tibetans means only Madam, Lady, or a polite word of address to any woman of more than low status in life. In German Mütterchen for any old woman of simple status.