Three Years in Tibet

Lhasa was at that time in a state of such intense excitement over the festivities that the people hardly seemed to know what they were doing. The police force of the city is not...

Before proceeding to give an account, necessarily imperfect, of Tibetan diplomacy, I must explain what is the public opinion of the country as to patriotism. I am sorry to say t...

_Monlam_ literally means supplication, but in practice it is the name of the great Tibetan festival performed for the benefit of the reigning Emperor of China, the offering of p...

The Tibetans are very foul in their habits, some of which I may mention here. In the house in which I stayed there were some twenty servants, and they brought me a cup of tea ev...

One day early in October I left my residence in Lhasa and strolled toward the Parkor. Parkor is the name of one of the principal streets in that city, as I have already mentione...

I shall begin with an interesting incident that occurred to me in November, 1901, when I was enabled to send home letters for the first time after my arrival in the country. Tha...

I was still in the company of the party of pilgrims I have already referred to. It appeared that some of the party had come to form a rather high opinion of me as a person of re...

Phari is a large castle standing on a hill, in form like the Dalai Lama’s palace in Lhasa, but not so elegant. All the houses standing at the foot of it looked somewhat black. P...

No one would take me into his tent, and I was thus quite at my wit’s end. I retired to a distance of some dozen yards and, looking at the four or five tents which appeared to be...

Early in the morning of the nuptial day the father and mother give a farewell banquet in the house of the bride. At the same time the priests of the Old School, generally known...

That evening it transpired that the pilgrims could not perform the pilgrimage in company, for every one of them declared his or her intention of performing as many circuits as p...

This healing made me an object of much talk, and I soon found myself surrounded by many patients. I now began to fear that I should thus be prevented from studying, and so fail...

As I was lodging at the house of the Minister of Finance, I had the good fortune to become acquainted with and occasionally to call on the other Ministers of State, among whom w...

Education is not widely diffused in Tibet. In the neighborhood of Shigatze children are taught comparatively well the three subjects of writing, arithmetic and reading, but in o...

During the first decade of November, 1901, I returned to Lhasa to enjoy as before the hospitality of the ex-Minister. At that time the Finance Minister of the day was somewhat l...

The Tibetans are on the whole a hospitable people, and the unfavorable discrimination made against England is mainly attributable to mutual misunderstanding. On the part of Engl...

More than four centuries ago there lived a priest named Gendun Tub who was a disciple of the founder of the New Sect. It was this priest who first originated the practice of inv...

Why did I write the appeal? you may ask. At that time I could not tell how the matter would turn out, and unless some measures were taken beforehand, incurable evil might be the...

I spent the whole of November 2nd, 1900, at the temple seeing its treasures and images. The place was just sixty miles north of Tsarang in the province of Lo in the Himālayas, a...

During my second and short stay in Calcutta I had the good luck of being introduced to a Nepālese named Jibbahaḍur, who was then a Secretary of the Nepāl Government, but who is...

In the month of May, 1897, I was ready to embark on my journey, which promised nought but danger and uncertainty. I went about taking leave of my friends and relatives in Tokyo....

When I heard them speak so kindly I was heartily pleased, and so touched that I could not restrain my tears. Though their advice was so reasonable and pleasing I was not incline...

Since I had arrived in Tsarang early in May, 1899, nearly eight months had sped by, and I found myself on the threshold of a New Year, whose advent I observed with my usual cere...

Everything went well with me, for I had earned much money, and besides everything needed for my livelihood was to be given to me by the Ex-Minister. So at last, leaving a young...

The next day, September 14th, snow again fell, and so we had to stay in the same place. The hunting-dogs went out of their own accord on a rabbit-hunting expedition, and came ba...

We lodged at a neighboring inn which placed a cicerone at our service, and proceeded to pay a visit to the celebrated monastery. Going through the front gate and past several sm...

The next day, December 5th, I proceeded for about eight miles across a plain in a south-easterly direction, when the gold-colored roof of a palatial building, with many white-pa...

On the 30th of April 1901, Tsa Rong-ba, who had left for India in the preceding year, came back. He was a Tibetan merchant, to whom I had entrusted the letters to my teacher Sar...

It was just previous to the grand monthly catechising contest that I returned to the Sera monastery. While I was busy with preparation, and in eager expectation of taking part i...

At the foot of the mountain out of which we had emerged, and where the plain began, we came upon a stone-turreted gate about twenty-four feet in height. Standing by itself and e...

The plain was nothing but a swamp, and I was obliged to wade across shallow streams alternating with mud flats. At one place I came to a bog which, when I tried it with my stick...

After leaving Malba my route lay north-west, up a gradual ascent along the banks of the river Kālīgaṅgā. We walked, however, only two and a half miles on the day of our departur...

Turning about to see what it could be, I caught sight of two stout fellows armed with Tibetan swords. On their approach, I asked them what they wanted. Abruptly picking up a sto...

The whole distance through which I had passed from Darjeeling to Lhasa was about two thousand four hundred and ninety miles. In the first place, I started from Darjeeling on the...

The next day I arrived in the rain at Kalenpong, a distance of fifteen miles. Kalenpong is a thriving town situated some thirty miles east of Darjeeling, across a large valley a...

I shall next describe the system of the Hierarchical Government, and other matters relative to it based on the information I incidentally obtained on those subjects during my st...

It requires the erudition and investigations of experts to write with any adequacy about the earlier relations between China and Tibet. I must therefore confine myself here only...

On the 7th of April I went to see a great service of prayer for the Chinese Emperor in connexion with the “Boxer” war. It was held not only at Sera, but at every temple in Tibet...

As the position of women bears a vital relation to the prosperity and greatness of a country, I shall devote a chapter to this subject. Of the women of Tibet those residing in L...

I shall next briefly describe the finance of the Tibetan Government. It must be remembered, however, that this subject is extremely complicated and hardly admits of accurate exp...

This station serves as a place for the transmission of letters between Phari castle and the castle of Choeten Karpo; that is, a station where the letters received from one place...

So the days passed and with these days I came to know more or less of the different characteristics of my two servants; I found one to be a rather impatient fellow, but prompt o...

I spent some pleasant days here and was perfectly cured of my illness. At the instance of Alchu Lama I decided to pay another visit to Gelong Rinpoche. Our party, including the...

I did not see as much of the festival as I might have done, because I had to go through my formal entrance examinations before the festival was entirely over, and I devoted all...

In Tibet there are two classes of priests, scholar-priests and warrior-priests, who in Tibetan are called Lob-nyer and Thab-to respectively. The former class of priests come to...

To go back a little in my story, my prosperity as a doctor obliged me to buy much medicine, and I often went to Thien-ho-thang, a drug store which was kept by Li Tsu-shu, a Chin...

I learned that a month had hardly passed after my escape from Lhasa, when many of my acquaintances were arrested and imprisoned. According to this information, the ex-Minister o...

At Nethang there is a temple of the Mothers of Salvation, who are most devoutly worshipped in Tibet, and it is said that it was founded by an Indian hermit, Shrī Aṭīsha by name,...

The tormenting thirst which I experienced after my second disappointment simply beggars description. To say that I felt as if my entire internal system were becoming parched is...

First, to speak of the nationalities of the aspirants; the students in the three great colleges are not solely natives of Tibet; they comprise Mongols proper, and also Khams, wh...

The origin of the four rivers is given in the story just as I have related it; but in reality there is not one of them that actually flows directly out of the Lake. They have th...

My call was responded to by an old woman who, coming out of the tent and finding a tattered and tired wayfarer, said more to herself than to me: “Why, it is a pilgrim, poor, poo...

The village that surrounds the great Kāṣyapa tower is generally known by the name of Boḍḍha. Lama Buḍḍha Vajra, I found, was the Headman of that village as well as the Superior...

On June 9th we were as usual early on horseback, and on our road towards the south. Tenba seemed to fall back into his old suspicious mood. We were due to reach the first Challe...

The soldier, whose company proved not altogether unwelcome in a travel like mine, happened to be one of the Legation Guards of the Minister of Nepāl at Lhasa. His love of his mo...

To give one of Lama Shabdung’s favourite recitals about Tibet: my host, while there, studied Buḍḍhism under a high Lama of great virtues and the most profound learning, called S...

Some hours after leaving the grey cliff I reached a river about 180 yards wide. Before plunging into it to wade across, I took my noon-meal of baked flour: it was then about ele...

On November 6th, 1900, we took our way to the south-east, and marched up and down several rolling hills, till after walking more than twenty miles we reached the foot of a great...

Commodities are either bartered or bought with regular coins. I should more strictly say _the coin_, there being only one kind of coin, and that is a twenty-four _sen_ silver pi...

The Tibetans are essentially a religious people. Foreigners call them superstitious, and indeed my own observation also testifies that their faith is veritably a mass of superst...

Owing to the cold season I could not observe the condition of the wheat actually growing in the fields, but I learned at the above village that in that locality the wheat crop w...

Apart from these fancies, I really felt as if I had entered a civilised region, for beyond I espied a main building and priests’ quarters, and also what looked like a stone tower.

That day I returned to the Treasury Minister’s with a determination to tell the secret to him. But it was the 22nd of May and the Pope was to come back to Lhasa from his country...

On February 9th at two o’clock, accompanied again by Buḍḍha Vajra, I presented myself at the palatial residence of His Highness Chanḍra Shamsher, Prime Minister or King _de fact...

The tending of sick persons is a task assigned to women in Tibet, and the peculiar notions prevailing about the treatment of patients makes this task doubly onerous. Tibetan doc...

I must here give a brief description of the Tibetan religion, for without it any intelligent explanation of the political system is impossible, while some notice, however cursor...

The standing army of Tibet is said to consist of five thousand men, but from my own observation I think this number somewhat exaggerated. In any case, it is hardly sufficient to...

Leaving the village and walking about a mile, I climbed up step by step alongside a broad river among the south-western mountains. There were no tall trees, only here and there...

It was on the 9th of February that I had had such an unpleasant interview with the Nepālese Prime Minister, and was told to wait on him again two days after. On the way back to...

While I was taking rest in that helpless condition, I was fortunate enough to see a Tibetan coming along my way leading a yak. When he came to where I was sitting I greeted him,...

left some twenty minutes to cool, though in winter no more than five or six minutes are needed, during which time those at table will talk to one another, or read from the Scrip...

On January 4th, 1902, that is to say, on November 25th of the lunar calendar, the festival of Sang-joe commenced, this being the anniversary day of the death of Je Tsong-kha-pa...

It was just after the great earthquake in Assam, India, that I arrived in Darjeeling, and, as I could see from a large number of entirely collapsed and partly destroyed houses,...

Tibet may be said to be menaced by three countries--England, Russia and Nepāl, for China is at present a negligible quantity as a factor in determining its future. The question...

I arrived at Calcutta and lodged at the Mahāboḍhi Society’s rooms, where I found many priests from Ceylon and Burma as my fellow-lodgers and conversational companions. One or tw...

It was now August 4th. After proceeding about ten miles over an undulating range of mountains we came in sight of Man-ri, a peak of perpetual snow, which has an altitude of 25,6...

“Take the note to Tomo-Rinchen-gang,” said I to the servant privately; “you must get two notes there instead; but in Pimbithang, if it requires a long time to get one, go to the...

But I must continue my journey. I crossed the iron bridge over the Tista river, and found a good and wide road on the other side. This time it was an ascent of seventeen miles a...

“_Gelong lobzang gonpo la kyabs su chio._” This is, as I was told and as I observed myself, what the followers of the dweller in the white cave--and that included natives living...

It was in the beginning of the month of March, 1899, that, followed by a retinue of three men and one old dame, I bade farewell to my kind host and, seated on a snow-white pony,...

Boys enjoy better treatment in Tibet than their sisters, this discrimination beginning soon after their birth. Thus the naming ceremony is almost always performed for boys and v...

After procuring my passport, escorted by the policeman, I came back to a village called Simla where I had left my carrier and carriage. I found that the carriage and its driver...

There are various methods of feasting in Tibet, but the one which appeals most strongly to the fancy of the people and is, I think, the most refined, is the _Lingka_. This is a...

On the day I left Karma’s, about three o’clock in the afternoon I was overtaken by a party of men, the leader of whom happened to be, as I afterwards found, the chief of the dis...

I had now walked about six miles to the north-west after the singular proceedings which I described in the last chapter, and I emerged upon a well-trodden road, which on consult...

While I was engaged in the pleasant work of warding off the dogs, a woman, apparently roused by the loud barking of the animals, put her head out of the tent. Hers was a beautif...

At the appointed hour on the following day, I repaired to the Government building, and the guards refused me admittance until about five o’clock. When finally I was admitted to...

I was now wandering in a dream-land, if I may so describe the mental condition of a man half-way on the road of being frozen to death. Regret, resignation, and the hope of re-bi...

On the 14th of July I bade adieu to Alchu Lama, and, riding on a horse he lent to me and in the company of the Ladak trader, I resumed my journey, now heading due north. My lugg...

Having made up my mind as to what I was going to do, I took a train back to Calcutta a few nights after. Money has its power in India, as elsewhere, and soon afterwards I was on...

I rose early on the New Year’s day of 1898, and spent the greater part of the morning, as was usual with me, in reading the sacred Text in honor of the day, and also in praying...

Shortly after I had the conversation recorded in the last chapter with the Finance Minister, I went out with the ex-Minister and his attendants for a walk round the _lingkor_ (c...

I had asked my host Buḍḍha Vajra to make a translation of my petition to the Dalai Lama into Nepālese. He had finished the translation, taken both copies to the palace and hande...

According to the stock of information I had gathered, I was always to head north until I came to Lake Mānasarovara, and the point I had now to decide was how I might make the sh...

After leaving the sandy beach of the Brahmapuṭra behind, about a quarter of a mile’s trudging brought me to the outer edge of another expanse of undulating plain, the elevations...

I walked about five miles over the sand and then reached a piece of grass-land. Beyond this I came to a plain of stones of curious shapes, in the centre of which a solitary moun...

A few days after my arrival at the Tower, I met many Tibetans who had come to worship at the holy places in Nepāl. They told me positively that the ex-Minister of Finance had be...

Something more than two years had elapsed since my return to Japan, and in all that time the worry of my mind had kept on increasing, instead of abating; in fact, every day that...

The sun shone out brightly the next morning, and I dried my clothing and the collection I then had of the sacred Scriptures. The latter I still have in my possession, and every...

After parting with the Kham bonze, I had not proceeded far before I began to feel a shortness of breath which increased in intensity as I went along, and was followed by nausea...

Heading in a south-easterly direction as before, we proceeded about four miles, now over hills and then across moorland, and arrived at the base of a mountain, where there stood...

Following the _de facto_ King into a royal apartment, I saw His Highness take his seat first, followed by another who sat by him and whom I took for a Minister of State. I subse...

“Because not only your natural scenery, trees and plants, but even your people look very much like those of my own country, and I cannot help feeling quite at home here--a feeli...

What happened was this. It became a matter of hot discussion among the priests of our dormitory Pituk Khamtsan whether they should leave me to stay there or not, because I was b...