s t THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE 2_jrr IC 2 ^^ X ,. {^C<^< ^ -) (<^ — 8 52 TIBET, TARTARY without much cause on the ground of antiquity or of civilization, for the Manchoos had no written character until 1641, nor was the language re- duced to rule, and arranged in dictionaries and grammars, until the reign of Kien-long, that is towards the end of the eighteenth century. Mok- den is the native capital of the Manchoos. The Emperor has a palace there, and it is a handsome city, one quarter of which is appropriated to the " Yellow Belts," that is, to the members of the Im- perial family. In the northern districts, near the Sagalien, a very productive kind of cotton is said to grow, yielding, says M. Hue, in a square of fifteen feet, French, as much as two thousand pounds of cotton. Losing themselves in the muddy streets of Koko- Khoton, the travellers were exposed to the villany of a sharper, who reckoned upon selling them as Tartar simpletons, but they extricated themselves adroitly by taking refuge in the very respectable Chinese hotel of " three perfections." Here estab- blishedjthey prepared for the coming winter by the purchase of sheep-skin cloaks and clothing. There is no coined money in China, except the brass pieces with a hole in the centre, of which every one will have seen specimens. Silver is sold by the weight, and an ounce is the equivalent of from 1700 to 1800 of these brass coins, which are called AND MONGOLIA. 53 sapeks by Europeans, by the Chinese Tien, and by Tartars Deboy. In taking change for some ounces of silver to make these purchases, the Chinese money-changer, thinking he was dealing with simple Tartar Lamas, allowed a high rate, and gave fall weight, but endeavoured to cheat in the calculation; the missionaries, however, with their arithmetic, were too much for the Chinese money-changer, with his saopan, and got their full change. Their means compelled them to put up with second-hand sheep-skin cloaks, and fox-skin caps; they took, however, the precaution to treat them with a mercurial process to get rid of the vermin, a necessary operation before they could venture to wear them. At Koko-Khoton there are five great Lamase- rais, in each of which there are more than 2000 Lamas, besides fifteen smaller ones ; 20,000 is thus a low estimate for the number of Lamas in this famous city. The chief of the whole is a " Hobil- gan," established at the Five Towers; that is, a Lama, who, having by abstraction and study, ob- tained Boodhism, has been transmitted since by regeneration. In the reign of Kanghi,the *Geesoo- * M. Timkowski says " Koutouktou, in Mongol, and Goussee (G-eesoo) in Tibetan, is the name of the highest class of the priests of Boudha ; the one resident at Ourga is called by the Mongols, Gheghen Koutoukton." 54 TIBET, TARTARY Tamba resided at Koko-Klioton ; and that empe- ror paid him a visit when on an expedition against the Ooloo, or Hi tribes. The insolent hierarch received him without rising or taking the least notice, whereupon a military mandarin in atten- dance, drew his sword and slew him on the spot. The city was immediately in emeiite, and the Em- peror's person was for some time in great danger : most of those with him were sacrificed, and amongst them the perpetrator of the violence on the Geesoo Tamba. The Khalkhas tribe of Mon- golia took up the cause, and declaring that the Geesoo Tamba had re-appeared in their country, established a grand Lama with that title at Grand Kouren. Everything was ripe for an insurrection; but Kang-hi proved equal to the occasion. He immediately courted the Delai Lama, of Lassa, and through him gained over all the Lamas of Tibet and Tartary not already compromised in the quarrel. Thus he restored tranquillity without farther collision or violence. The Lamas of Grand Kouren, however, wear to this day a black border on the collar of their yellow dress, in memory and in mourning for this slaughtered Geesoo Tamba. It was settled on this occasion that the Geesoo Tamba should remain at Grand Kouren, and an Hobilgan replace him at Koko-Khoton, and that AXD MONGOLIA. 55 the regeneration of the Geesoo Taniba should always take place hereafter in Tibet, by which means the local influence and attachments of this hierarch are much diminished. Koko-Khoton is an university in which Lamas from all parts come to study and take degrees, returning afterwards to theii- provincial establish- ments. Lamas are of three kinds — the religious, whe devote themselves to study and abstraction, and become teachers, and eventually saints; the domestic, who live in families, or attach themselves to tribes and localities; and the itinerant, who are always moving from convent to convent, and tra- velling for travel's sake, often without aim, not knowing at all where they are going. There is no country that some of these have not visited, and when they have a religious or partisan feeling they must be the best spies in the world. In the monasteries of Mongolia there is a strict religious discipline, but each Lama has generally his cows and sheep, as well as a horse. Almost every establishment is nobly endowed, and the funds are distributed on fixed days in the year, in proportions regulated by the rank attained by the members. But each Lama is free to seek other emoluments, such as by practising as a phy- sician, or by performing domestic religious ser- 56 TIBET, TARTARY vices, or by casting horoscopes, or in any similar manner, not inconsistent with the profession of a Lama. Some attain wcahh, which, having no families, they generally spend prodigally. The number of Lamas in Tartary is extreme ; almost all the younger sons are devoted from infancy to this destiny ; the eldest only being brought up as laymen, to tend the flocks and keep up the family. The younger brothers have no choice, but have their heads shaven from childhood. It is said to be the policy of the court of Pekin to encourage this multiplication of Lamas among the Tartars, in the idea that it checks the increase of popula- tion. The shaven are the most intelligent and influential, if not the most numerous body of these sons of the desert, and the Chinese pay court to them assiduously in consequence. In China Proper the corresponding class of Bonzes is quite neglected by the government, and has sunk into the most abject poverty. The reason is obvious. A regenerated Boodh of Tibet or Tartary can at any time call round him thousands of de- voted Lama followers, ready to sacrifice their lives at his bidding ; and* these no less than the lay * It is curious to observe in De Gruigne's History of the Hnns, how many of the generals and lieutenants of Jungeez Khan bore the title of Kotooktoo. AND MONGOLIA. 57 Tartars, whom they lead by their religious in- fluence, have a high military spirit, and the recol- lection of the past glories of their race in the days of Jungeez and of Tymoor, to excite them to great enterprises. It is hence the study of the Chinese, and a recognised part of their policy, to associate this influence with the State, just as the Church in Europe is made by most governments an engine of order and of civil government. To effect this, the government of Pekin contributes largely to all the monastic institutions of Mongolia, Tibet and Tartary, and supports the hierarchy and even the theocracies established by aspiring priests in various parts, as at Lassa, and at the Grand Kouren of Oorga, using these institutions to control the no- bility as well as to lead the mob. But there is at each seat of theocratic government a skiKul Chinese di- plomatist, who advises, and even controls, the deified Lama ; and who, upon occasions for political action of any kind, is the prompter and director of all affairs, holding the strings and wires that move the puppet, while he is treated with all outward re- spect and reverence. On the fourth day of the ninth moon the mis- sionaries left Koko-Khoton, but found the utmost difficulty in leading their camels through the narrow, ever-muddy streets. The country they D 3 58 TIBET, TARTAR Y now passed througli was rich and highly cultivated On the second day they put up at an inn, where they met a singular character, who called himself a " Tartar-devourer," and who was an agent to re- cover debts owing to Chinese. The next day they arrived at Chagan-Kouren, or the " White En- closiu'e." As they reached it, they fell in with a caravan of camels laden with merchandize of the west, which extended for fifteen lis, or five miles. It had been ti'avelling for five months across the desert, and came probably from Kashghar, whence there is a large import of jade stones and western products. They arrived at the town late at night, and found a lodging with difficulty at a hospitable Mongol's. They were now approaching the Hoang-Ho, or Yellow River, and learned here that the inundations were out, and the passage across nearly impossible. They determined, nevertheless, to attempt it. Chagan-Kouren is a new town, built with great regularity, having broad streets and open squares ; but the inundation reached to its suburbs, and the camels after leaving them had to proceetl on muddy embankments, or through fields with the water up to their knees ; while the whole plain before them had the appearance of a great lake. At a village which they reached, after AND MONGOLIA, 59 a laborious but short march, they bargained with some boatmen for the passage, and were asked two thousand sapeks to carry them over the first channel. They reduced the charge to eight hun- dred, and were so conveyed to a station on the bank of the main stream, which was rapid but not very broad. Here they bargained again to be carried across this channel for another thousand sapeks, making an ounce of silver for the whole passage. Then* camels were taken into the boat at the second passage, an enterprise effected with ex- treme difficulty. They had forded the first stream under bad guidance and were nearly lost. The missionaries, after crossing this main stream, had yet a third branch, the Paga-Gol, to get over, and a march across muddy inundated fields to make before they could reach its bank. That march effected, they remained some days on the northern bank of the Paga-Gol, disputing about the terms of transport. At last they affected the transit by the favour of a fisherman, who having been bitten by a fierce dog, came to them for medical treat- ment. When the styptic they administered had been applied with success, the fisherman, being- ashamed of his inability to pay the usual fee, un- dertook for the passage of the party on reasonable terms. The right of ferry, it may be observed, is 60 TIBET, TARTAR Y a monopoly enjoyed under a royal grant by a family, whose exorbitant demand was beyond the travellers' means, and this was the cause of their long detention at this point. Beyond the Paga-Gol lies the country of the Ortoos, which extends a hundred leagvies from east to west, and sixty-six from north to south. In A.D. 1635, the tribes of this region sided with the Manchoos, in their contest with the last of the Ming dynasty, and thus came into great favour with Kanghi, who declared them the most honest and intelligent of his subjects, and the best cattle breeders of all the Mongol Tartars. But the country is a sandy desert throughout, producing nothing except wild hemp, the dried remains of which formed a fuel much superior to the argols, or camel's and bullock's dung, which our travellers usually depended upon for their meal. But the great want of this countr}' is water, and owing to the sterility in consequence, the Ortoos are in the greatest misery, and beggars are here more numer- ous than in Ireland. In crossing the Ortoos ter- ritory, the travellers encountered a storm of wind, and rain and snow, that reduced them to the greatest possible state of distress and difficulty. But they found by good fortune, some caves and deserted rock habitations, which gave them AXD MONGOLIA. 61 shelter, and aiFordcd the means of di-ying their clothes and refitting the caravan. They met here a Tartar, who told them that the caves had been thus prepared by a party of Chinese who had settled there to cultivate the adjacent lands. When they grew rich and insolent, the Tartars resolved to expel them, and accordingly drove cattle into their ripe fields, destroying 'the entire crop, which had led to the Chinese decamp- ing in a body about two years before. After leaving these caves, the missionaries experienced the extreme cold of one of those winds of Tartary, which are described as so terrible. The cold was too severe to allow of their continuing the march, and it gave them full employment to collect fuel for a good fire. After a halt of tAvo days, the wind becoming more moderate, they resumed their march, but could not draw their tent pins without first heating them several times with hot water poured round them. They had, however, no sooner commenced the march than they felt the heat quite oppressive ; such are the alternations of tem- perature in that terrible climate. On the 15th day of the Ninth jNIoon, the missionaries fell in with pilgrims on their way to Rash-chooren, to see a Lama, who had vowed there to cut open his bowels in public. For this the devotee prepares 62 TIBET, TARTARY by long penance, prayer and abstraction : on the day appointed he sits on an altar, and deliberately ripping open his belly, lays the bowels before him, and so falling into a kind of trance, answers oracularly all questions put by the pilgrims. The operation finished, he gathers his bowels up again, and reciting a long prayer, readjusts his girdle as if nothing had happened. We commend this miracle to the Magician of the North. The missionaries resolved to go a little out of their road to witness the exhibition, but lost their way, and passed a miserable night in the desert. Beyond the mo- nastery of Rash-chooren, they came to the salt lakes of Dabsoon-noor, which, though nearly dry, required great care in the crossing, owing to the multitude of quicksands, and general treachery of the soil. Round these lakes are rich pastures for cattle, and especially for camels. Two days' journey beyond them, the travellers halted, still amid rich pastures, and purchased a sheep for a feast from a Lama, who procured them also an accomplished butcher, and brought his family to partake of the dainty meal. The description of these festivities will well repay the reader ; but we refrain from entering into the details. On the next day, after a long march, the water had to be drawn from a deep well, the mouth of which was closed with a AND MONGOLIA. 63 large stone. Another long march brought them to the " Hundred Wells ;" and on the day after, they met the Prince or King of Alishan, on his way to Pekin to render homage. Three Tartars of this prince's suite passed the night"svith the missionaries, and explained the relations which subsisted between Alishan, and the court of Pekin. The tributes paid by all these Tartar chiefs are little more than nominal, — a camel, or a horse of particular breed, or any special rarity the country may produce of the vegetable or animal kingdom, forms the tribute. One of the chiefs of the Chakar tribes, for instance, pays tribute in pheasants' eggs, which are used to give lustre to the hair of the imperial concubines. But all such tributes must be offered in person by the head of the principality, and the visit is re- quired to be annual, unless in consequence of the distance the period is extended to thi'ee years as a great favour. Arrived at Pekin, the tributaries are treated very unceremoniously ; they have no separate audiences, but on great days, like that of the New Year, or the Emperor's birthday, they stand round, and see the Imperial countenance ap- proach from a distance. Immediately on his ap- pearance, they must all fall on their knees, and perform the Kotou, never rising till the Emperor has passed. On the other hand, all these petty 64 TIBET, TARTARY chiefs are pensioned, some receiving as much as £2,000 per annum, and others less. The stipends are paid in hard silver, at the time of presenting the tribute, but occasionally the tributaries receive plated ingots instead of genuine ones. The information given by these Tartars of the character of the Alishan country, and of its recent sufferings from drought, decided the missionaries to take a more eastern route through Chinese ter- ritory to the Koko-noor valley, crossing again the Hoang-ho, or Yellow river, for the purpose. By this route, they would pass withm two days' march of the native country of their servant, Sambda Chamba, which was to him a source of great satis- faction, as he had not seen his family for eighteen years. From due west, the travellers now turned a little to the south, and were directed on their march by a Tartar, whose information confirmed their map : but the water at their next stage was very putrid, and required to be purified by char- coal. They passed here through mountains of schist, which had the appearance of having been heretofore washed by an ocean wave, and presented the most grotesque forms, besides being covered with shells and marine fossils, and being worn into caves evidently by water action. After crossing this range, the Yellow River was AND MONGOLIA. 65 seen at its foot, still a magnificent stream, and was passed to the little town of She Tsui Dze at a reasonable ferry charge. The missionaries now found themselves upon Chinese ground, at the end of two months from the date of theu' departure from the "Valley of Black Waters." At She Tsui Dze, they put up at the hotel of " Justice and Com- passion." From the day of their leavmg Koko- Khoton, they had not seen the interior of a habited house. They were here in comparative comfort, and theii' host was a communicative person, from whom they obtained much intelligence as to their future route After two days' rest, the travellers proceeded, and crossed the Great Wall, which sur- mounted the rismg ground beyond the river. It was here a barrier of little strength and rough workmanship. Works of irrigation, and other evi- dences of Chinese skill and enterprise, were ap- parent on their line of march ; and the contrast of the province of Kan-sou with the arid desert of the Ortoos was remarkable. The fii'st halt in Kan- sou was at Wang-ho-po, where they fell in with a Chinese caravan, bound like themselves to Ning- Hia. On the road to this last city, they found guard-houses at every half league, consisting of square towers, built for the protection of travel- lers. Arrived at Ning-Hia, a demand was made 66 TIBET, TARTARY for passports by three pretended public officers, for purposes of extortion. In the night, their camels made free with some fresh oziers on a cart within reach of their long necks. A tumult arose in consequence, which ended in a demand upon the missionaries to make good the damage. But a jury of bystanders, a tribunal always available in China, adjudged the reparation to be made by the hotel-keeper, as he had been forewarned. Re- sistance to anything unjust or unreasonable is al- ways the best course even for strangers. Ning-Hia is a city of the first rank, but it be- trayed unmistakeable signs of decadence. A mag- nificent road carried them to Hia-ho-po, at the hotel of which, named " the Hotel of Five Feli- cities," a white -buttoned official impudently re- quired them to make way for his master, a manda- rin of high rank, with a large suite. But here also the travellers stood on their right, as being the first arrived, and thus shared fairly the accommodation. Two more days carried them to Chong-Wei, a for- tified town on the banks of the Yellow River, which contrasted favourably with the misery of Ning-Hia; but to their wonder, the river was here without boats. At Chong-Wei, the Great Wall was again passed, and the travellers found themselves once more amid the sandy mountains of Alishan, show- AND MONGOLIA. 67 ing no signs anywhere of vegetation, and moving with every breath of wind. It is from these sands that the Yellow River acquires the tint whence it derives its name. The camels sank in the loose sand to theu* knees at every step, and the travel- lers were compelled to dismount, in order to pur- sue their laborious journey. These sands seem to be blown up by the western winds of the great Shamo desert, and are piled up in hills on the bank of the river, but are there arrested. An oasis in the middle of these sands, called Chang Lieon-Choui (Ever Flowing Waters), was their next resting- place, a delightful spot, where their only com- plaint was of overcharge for their night's accom- modation. From this village, they followed for some distance the high road to Hi, the penal settle- ment of Cliina in the extreme north-west. The stations on this road are maintained by convicts, whose banishment to Hi is remitted on the condi- tion of their providing water and provisions to public travellers, who else would find none. Along this road they proceeded till they again crossed the Great Wall, and soon after an interior barrier, called that of San yen Tsin, at the resting-place beyond which they were again importuned for passports, as a plea for extortion, but again suc- cessfully resisted. They were now in the province 68 TIBET, TARTARY of Kan-Sou, a well cultivated wheat and pasture country; but they encountered here a dry tornado of a most formidable character, which, if it had fallen upon them while amid the sands of Alishan, must infallibly have destroyed the whole party. After a day's rest at a respectable farm, they reached Choang Long, or Ping-Fang, the hotel of which was kept by a Chinese, who at once asked them if they were not Ing-kilee (English). This they denied, and a bystander relieved them from the embarrassing question by saying, " Don't you know that those English have all blue eyes and red hair." " True," said the master of the hotel, " I did not think of that ; besides those Ing-kilee never leave the sea, and can't ride, but shake like little fish out of water when they mount on horseback." At this hotel they met a grand Lama, who was a regenerated Boodh of the Khalkas tribe, returning from Tibet. All but our travellers prostrated themselves before him. The saints' curiosity brought him, however, to terms of famili- arity with them, notwithstanding this want of re- spect, and he asked if they were Russians, or Eng- lish (Peling)* from the Ganges and Calcutta. He had travelled between Tibet and the country of * Peling is the Tibetan corruption of the word Feringi, itself a corruption of Frank, the Oriental word for European. AND MONGOLIA. 69 the Khalkas more than once, and had there heard of these two nations, but he knew nothing of France. The next stage, after leaving Choang-Long, was Ho Kiao-y, which also has another name, Tai-tong- Fou, which is less used. Here they put up at the hotel of " Temperate Climates," where they rested for eight days for the sake of their cattle, whose backs were chafed by the long travel. Being near the country of their Chiaour servant, Sambda Chambda, they gave him leave to visit his family, which he found in much distress, and relieved at the expense of his own wardrobe. Leaving Ho- Kiao-y, they crossed a high range called Ping-Kiou, the summit of which they reached only at mid-day, beginning the ascent at sunrise. It snowed as they passed ; but in the descent on the other side, they felt inconvenienced from the heat. The pathway was so steep, as to compel the travellers to dis- mount ; and one of their camels t"wice rolled over, but without suffering much injury. There is coal in this range of hills : much of it was met under conveyance to the river on bullocks, mules, and other animals. On the further side of the Ping- Kiou range they came to a village of stocking- knitters, called Lao-Ya-Pou, five days' journey beyond which ie the city of Sining-Fou, situated 70 TIBET, TARTARY in a well cultivated country, abounding in tobacco ; but the road of the last day was amid rocks, and along the line of a torrent presenting many dan- gers. The route of the missionaries Grueber and Dorville fell in here with that of our travellers, but they had come across China proper by Singanfoo. At Sining, strangers are not received into the hotels ; but there are separate lodging-houses, called Sie-Kia, where they are boarded as well as lodged for nothing, the keepers of the houses drawing their profit from the agency of purchases and sales for these strangers, which is proportion- ately extortionate. The missionaries having con- tributed nothing in this way, paid for their accom- modation. The route after this was rocky, and crossed several torrents, and the Great Wall was passed twice before they reached Tong-Keou-ool, a small but thriving commercial town, in the valley of the Koko-noor, full of inhabitants of all races, from all quarters, and speaking all languages. The missionaries were here also received at a free lodgmg-house, kept by a Mussulman. It was now the month of January, and consultation was held upon their further proceedings. To pass the moun- tains into Tibet at this season was full of hardships, and dangerous in many respects. Yet they could not think of abandoning the object of their long AND MONGOLIA. 71 journey, and in summer, the torrents and melting snows would present even greater difficulties. After a stay of six days, wliile they were yet deliberating, a party of Khalkhas Tartars arrived on theii* way from Grand Koiu'en (Oorga) to Lassa, to do ho- mage to a new Geesoo Tamba, declared to be rege- nerated in a family of that country. There were but eight men of the party, but each had more than one horse, besides forty camels for the bag- gage of the whole. The missionaries rejoiced at first in the oppor- tunity of continuing their journey in such com- pany, but upon enquu-ing they gave up the idea, finding that these Tartars travelled fifty or sixty miles a-day, which, with their own small supply of cattle, was impossible, and they had not the money to purchase more. These Tartars were all nobles of the royal race, and were visited by the young prince of the Koko-noor VaUey, who advised the missionaries to wait for the return, in spring, of the Tibetan mission, then at Pekin, which advice they determined to follow. At eleven leagues dis- tance from Tang-Kiou-ool, in the Sifan pasture district, and not far from the lake of Koko-noor, is the famous monastery of Koon-boom, contain- ing near four thousand Lamas of aU nations. Thither M. Gabet went to seek a Lama preceptor 73 TIBET, TARTARY to teach them Tibetan, while they waited for the caravan of the mission then at Pekin. He found and engaged a cousin of their servant Sambda Chamba, a Chiaour Lama, named Sandara, thirty- two years of age, who had lived for ten years in a Lamaserai of Lassa, and who understood most of the languages of China. He was extremely in- telligent, and had passed through strange adven- tures, having at one time been an actor in a travelling Chinese company ; but he was cunning, and not the best tempered of preceptors : how- ever, he was most useful in the menage, and arranged for their removal to the Koon-boom monastery at the begining of the Chinese year, after about a month's residence at Tang-Kiou-ool. At Koon-boom they obtained lodgings from a generous priest, whose liberality had ruined him, and who cordd take no rent consistently with the rules of his order. Opposite to them, in the same court, lived a niggardly Chinese Lama, of great reputed wealth. On one side was a medical prac- titioner, who stuttered to a degree almost destroy- ing his respiration when he attempted to speak, a defect which the Chinese Lama's apprentice took mischievous delight in mimicking. These neigh- bours and their host they met daily in the court, but very seldom visited or received each other in AXD MONGOLIA. tS their apartments. The Lamaserai of Koon-boom, with its 4,000 Lamas, covers the two sides of a mountain ravine, and consists of a number of white mansions built upon either side, with Boodhist temples interspersed. At every step you meet Lamas with yellow mitre-shaped caps, and red cloaks, walking gravely, as though absorbed in thought. At the time of the arrival of the mission- aries, they were preparing for the feast of flowers, which was expected this year to be held with un- usual magnificence. On the 15th of the first month of the year this festival recurs ; but in lieu of flowers, there are figures of all kinds prepared of frozen butter, which twenty chosen Lamas work upon for weeks before, wetting their hands in cold water to prevent the butter from being melted as they model. Strangers from all quarters flock to the festival, and the missionaries were most agree- ably surprised by the exhibition. The accuracy with which the features and dress of all types of the human race were represented in bas relief, especially the skin-dress of many, exceeded any- thing they had yet seen in art, and all this was in butter, destroyed and cast into the ravine, to be- come food for crows, the day after the festival. While the missionaries were examining these dis- plays of art, the Grand Lama of Koon-boom came B .74 TIBET, TARTARY with mucli ceromony and state to see the festival ; he was a very ordinary-looking person of forty years of age, but his costume struck them as cor- responding exactly with that of their own bishops, even to the violet chape. The Koon-boom monastery is situated in the Amdo district, south of Koko-noor, and is sur- rounded by barren red and yellow mountains. It is the birth-place of Tsong-Kaba, whose name is spelt by Csoma Korosi, Tson-Kha-pa and of whose miraculous conception and infancy strange legends are current. He was born a.d. 1347, and, devot- ing himself when quite young to a life of privation and abstract study, became, according to these legends, the pupil of a stranger of the west, de- scribed as of great learning, and of peculiar phy- siognomy, being remarkable for the length of his nose. This stranger, after teaching all his learn- ing to Tson-Kha-pa, laid himself down on the top of a mountain and slept the sleep of death, never to awake, being very probably frozen to death. Upon this Tson-Kha-pa, resolved to travel and went first south into Yunan, whence he made his way after a time to Lassa. There a superna- tural injunction bade him fix his residence. He accordingly preached his new doctrine there, and introduced new prayers and forms of ritual, and AND MONGOLIA. 75 gained many converts. His sect were distinguished by yellow capes, — red being the former coloui*. Gaining ultimately the ascendant, Tson-Kha-pa founded the Kaldan monastery, nine miles from Lassa, in a.d. 1409, being then sixty-two years old. This monastery still exists, and numbers more than 8,000 Lamas. In 1419, the reforming saint quitted this world for the celestial. Tson-Kha-pa, besides reforming the ritual, revised and published a new version of the doctrinal scriptures of Sakhya-Muni, the great founder of the religion, under the name of the " graduated road of perfection." The mission- aries saw reason, in the conformity of ritual, as well as of costume, especially in this sect of Lamas, for believing that the preceptor of Tson-Kha-pa must have been a stray member of the Romish Church, who found his way into these regions a century after Rubruquis and Marco Polo. His doctrine and ritual are now the prevailing forms of worship in all Tibet, Mongolia and Tartary, and have been adopted in many Chinese monasteries. That of Koon-boom was built some time after his decease at his bu'thplace, and there is a miraculous tree shown, which is said to have grown on the spot where his hair was shorn on his becoming a Lama, on every leaf of which tree there is a letter of the Tibetan alphabet distinctly marked. The mission- E 2 76 TIBET, TARTARY aries saw the tree. It was old, with a stem that three men could scarcely circle in the girth, but was not more than eight feet high ; the Tibetan letters were well formed, and seemed engrained in the leaf as it grew. They testify to the miracle, but could not at all account for it. We presume the letters to be written upon the young leaves with some substance that affects their growth and texture, and so remains indelible. The tree, they say, is of a species that no one has seen else- where. The Emperor Kang-hi, when he made a pilgrimage to Koon-boom, covered the tree with a silver dome, and gave an endowment for the perpetual support of three hundred and fifty Lamas, which the monastery still enjoys. The missionaries speak highly of its discipline and management, and testify to its well-merited cele- brity as an university for the instruction of Lamas. There are four great classes, with separate pro- fessors for each. First and highest, the faculty of mystical doctrines, and of the life of contempla- tion which leads to sanctification ; Second, the faculty of the liturgy, including the study of all religious ceremonies ; Third, the faculty of medi- cine, including botany and pharmacy ; Fourth, the faculty of prayer, which is obligatory on all, and consequently is the best filled. There are thirteen AND MONGOLIA. 77 classes in this branch of study only, the books of prayer being most numerous, and very voluminous, and the students being graduated according to their progress in these books. No one is advanced for age or length of study ; very young persons, even boys, take often the very highest places in the hierarchy. The place is given after strict examination, but a handsome present to the insti- tution, or to the examiners, mitigates much of its severity. The lectures are given at all seasons in the open air, and the lessons having been recited, one of the pupils is called upon generally to main- tain a thesis upon any subject. He must answer all opponents, and if victorious, is carried round the school-yard on the shoulders of the van- quished. The whole disputation is conducted in the Tibetan language, no other being taught or admitted in the schools. Discipline and attention are strictly enforced by censors, who carry iron rods with which they punish summarily any delin- quents. The proctors and their bull-dogs are dis- tinguished by a grey dress and black mitre. They have great power in the streets of the town, as well as in the courts of the monastery, and there are Lama judges for more serious offences. For any petty theft, the culprit is marked on the fore- head and cheek by a hot iron, and expelled. IQ TIBET, TARTARY Our two missionaries, with the aid of their pre- ceptor " Sandara," prepared a Tibetan abstract of the Scriptures, and a summary of the principal doctrines of their own faith. The report of their employment spread in the monastery, and excited many anxious enquiries ; so much so, that they began to hope for extensive success in winning converts to their faith ; but their preceptor was a confirmed sceptic. The stuttering student of medicine was much better disposed, though full of superstitions. He proposed to them one day, to assist in a charitable ceremony for the benefit of lost and forlorn travellers. It consisted of the very simple process of stamping the figure of a horse, caparisoned, on little pieces of light paper, and giving these to the strong winds on a moun- tain top, with certain prayers. The young student had the most perfect faith that many a poor wanderer would be relieved by this charitable sending of horses in all quarters. The missionaries had resided three months at Koon-boom, when they received a civil message, that the time had expired when they could live as stranger guests, dressing and comporting them- selves as they pleased. If they remained longer, they must wear the mitre and costume of the monastery, and matriculate. They objected on AND MONGOLIA. 79 the score of religious scruples, and were accord- ingly advised to remove to a less strict monastery at Chogortan, especially devoted to medical stu- dents. This advice they readily followed, and had no reason to repent the change of their residence. Before taking leave of Koon-boom, M. Hue de- votes a chapter to the precepts of Boodh, and to the introduction of this religion into China. What he cites, and the facts he mentions, are curious and highly interesting ; but through the writings of the late Mr. Csoma Korosi, and Mr. G. Turnour of Ceylon, we have much more fidl details on the subject of this religion, derived directly from Tibetan and Pali sources. The Chinese give the year, b. c. 1029, as the date of the birth of Sakhya-Muni, or Boodh, and the year, B.C. 951, for that of his death ; but they admit that the religion was not introduced into China iintil 1,000 years later. They state the book of the Forty -two Precepts, from which the missionaries give extracts, to have been translated into the language of China, in the year a. d. 68. A comparison of many epochs has established in India the date, B.C. 628, for the year of the birth of Boodh; and B.C. 543, for that of his decease. We ask not for him greater antiquity than this, but shall reserve the examination of this question, and 80 TIBET, TARTARY especially the discussion of the claim of the Bood- hist sacred books to greater antiquity than our own, until we have carried our missionaries to their journey's end. The climate in the elevated region of the Koko- noor, wherein the missionaries made this long sojourn, is so severe, that snow falls nearly through- out the year, though the latitude is only 36° north. In July, however, there is a sudden change, and vegetation proceeds as if the earth were in a state of fermentation. The mountains are suddenly covered with verdure, and flowers show their bright colours on all sides. At this season the camels of our travellers lost their long hair, and were for some days quite uncomfortable, but it grew fast again, and the coat thus shed proved a valuable acquisition, being converted into cords for fastening the loads. Chogortan is the Rich- mond, or the Brighton, to which the Lamas of Koon-boom resort for recreation in summer ; and here especially came, at this season, the whole fa- culty of medicine, to collect simples for their pharmacy. In the plains round about were rich pastures, from which the monastery was sui3plied with argols for winter fuel. The missionaries have a special dissertation in this place, upon the merit of the argol of different animals ; that of goats and AND MONGOLIA. 81 sheep stands in the first class ; camels in the second ; kine of all kinds in the third ; horses, and animals of that genus, in the last, because the dung of these animals burns too quick, and gives a dis- agreeable smoke. The Chogortan Valley, in consequence of its favoured pasture-grounds, is subject to the attacks of brigands, not plundering as individuals, but in organized bodies and tribes. The Lamas of Koon- boom take to arms immediately on hearing of the approach of these banditti, but not with any ef- fective organization, so that the valley is some- times swept before any succour can arrive ; and the missionaries were witness to the confusion re- sulting from an incursion of this kind during their stay. It was the end of September, 1845, before the Tibetan mission made its appearance in the valley of the Koko-noor, on its return to Lassa from Pekin. Immediately, on hearing of its approach, our travellers made their preparations so as to be ready to accompany the caravan. The supplies they laid in were, three bricks of tea, two sheep's stomachs of butter, two sacks of flour, and eight sacks of Tsamba, that is, of roasted barley meal, to be mixed with the tea, which is the universal food of Tibetans, without being satisfied with E 3 82 TIBET, TARTARY which, there is no passing by this route into Tibet. The above supplies were for the two missionaries, with two servants, four camels, two horses and a mule, a condition of baggage and commissariat for such an expedition, that would satisfy even Sir Charles Napier. A good supply of garlic, a specific recommended by the people of the country to prevent ill consequences from bad atmosphere and nauseous vapours, was the only further article provided. For the conveyance of these extra supplies a horse and camel were added to the original establishment with which the missionaries had reached Koon-boom, and a young Lama was hired as helpmate to Sambda Chamba, in tending the cattle. With this preparation, the missionaries made a march of four days to meet the Tibetan mission on the banks of the Koko-noor lake or rather inland sea. They passed on their way to the lake the Lamaserai of Tansan, having about 200 Lamas, and found magnificent pastures on the plains near the lake. These travellers are the first Euro- peans from whom we have any trustworthy notice of this lake from personal examination. They de- scribe it as about one hundred leagues in circum- ference, and as salt as the ocean. They state it also to be subject to some kind of tide, but this AND MONGOLIA. 83 we think must be a mistake. Towards the south end of the lake there is a rocky island, where a few Lamas have established a temple with some huts for residences. There is no communication with them except in winter over the ice, for on the whole lake there is not a single boat. The Lamas, however, are liberally supplied in that season by the shepherds. There are twenty-nine banners of subject princes who divide the pasture- plains of Koko-noor amongst them, paying tribute to China. The plundering tribes are Eastern Tibetans, of the Sifan race, who live in the Bayen Kharat mountains, near the sources of the Yellow River. They are called Kolo, and are Boodhists, but have added to their mythology a special God of plunder. The missionaries remained near a month on the banks of the Koko-noor, waiting for the Tibetan envoy's caravan from Pekin. It arrived towards the end of October. It used to be the custom for the Tibetan mission to travel yearly to Pekin, but in 1840 the caravan was attacked by the Kolo robbers, whom they beat off, but found next day that the Chanak-Kampo, or Lama ambassador, had disappeared in the night attack, whether slain or not, was never thoroughly ascertained. Again, in 1841, a second officer of the same rank received 84 TIBET, TARTAR Y a severe wound, of which, he died shortly after. In consequence of these casualties, the Emperor made the mission triennial, instead of annual, and it was the return of that of 1844 that formed the present caravan. It consisted, by our traveller's estimate, of 15,000 yaks, 12,000 horses, and as many camels, and about 2,000 human beings of whom all the mounted were well armed. The Chanak-Kampo rode in a litter carried by two mules ; and the caravan had an escort of 300 Chinese soldiers, from the province of Kansou, and 200 mounted Tartars, who were to conduct it to the frontier of Tibet, but no further. The caravan generally started three hours before sun- rise, so as to come to the new ground by noon, and so afford the cattle grazing time ; two guns gave the signal of preparation and departure, and the march was a general move without much order. After a journey of six days, the Pouhain- Gol, a river that falls into the Koko-noor, had to be crossed ; it ran in twelve channels, not very deep, but the frozen edges made the passage diffi- cult and disagreeable. Our travellers made acquaintance, in this journey, with three Lamas, who had travelled over the whole of Mongolia, to collect subscriptions for the erection of a grand temple near Lassa. They AND MONGOLIA. 85 had been eminently successful, and were bringing back means sufficient for their grand design, but at Koon-boom were overtaken by an order from Pekin, and the principal emissary was sent on to Lassa for trial, on the charge of fraud and forgery, and his treasure was placed at the disposal of the Delai Lama to abide the result. Five days' march beyond the Pouhain-Gol, the caravan came to a small river, on the other side of which was a deserted Lamaserai, which had been besieged and ravaged by the terrible Kolo plunderers. Here the Chinese escort left them. On the 15th No- vember, they entered the Tsaidam district, oc- cupied by Mongols, and crossed the river of that name. The soil is dry and rocky, and produces borax, which is collected in pits, where it crys- tallizes freely. On the further side of this valley was the dreaded Boorhan-boota Mountain. On the eastern and northern side of this range the air is so impregnated with carbonic-acid gas, that unless there is a wind to sweep it off, animals can scarcely pass without suffocation. It is like the valley of the Upas, in Java, which is fatal from a similar cause. Our travellers passing at a time of calm, experienced severely the effects of the cor- rupted atmosphere. But this difficulty was trivial in comparison with the passage of the Chuga 86 TIBET, TARTARY mountains some days after. The ascent from the north-east was easy, but the summit was no sooner reached than a wind met them in the face, in the midst of deep snow, that made the descent dangerous in the highest degree. They could not venture to face this wind, and sat with their faces to the horses tails. Monsieur Gabet reached the bottom with his nose and ears frozen, and suffered so severely in other respects, that his recovery was at one time despaired of. At the halting-place they had to scrape away the snow in search of argol fuel, to make a miserable fire, the heat of which was insufficient to boil their tea. The miseries of a Tibetan journey had now fairly commenced ; all the travellers marched in mourn- ful silence amid snows that proved every day fatal to many of the cattle, and the road was strewed with the bones of men as well as of animals, to remind them of the perils by which they were sur- rounded. Monsieur Gabet fell sick, to a degree that made him quite helpless, in consequence of his sufferings in the passage of the Chuga ; yet there were still two months of journey before them to Lassa, and no possibility of halt, no comforts, no medicines. In the beginning of December, they reached the famous Bayen Kharat chain of mountains, which stretches, from south-east to AND MONGOLIA. 87 north-west, between the Hoang-Ho and Kin-Cha- Kiang rivers. They were now close to the sources of the former, which lay two day's journey to the East, but could not be visited. Here they held council how best to effect the passage of the dividing range. It lay before them, covered with deep fresh snow. The day was calm, but much of it had passed when they reached the foot of the ridge. On the other hand, there was a probability of a wind arising by the morrow, which would be fatal in the then condition of the snow. The caravan was divided in opinion ; but our travellers were of the party for proceeding, and they scrambled over the fresh snow without accident. Luckily, the next day also was fine, and those who had stopped came over likewise, without any one being lost in an avalanche or a snow-wreath, which was looked upon as extreme good fortune. They rested on the side of a frozen lake, depending on the argols of previous caravans for fuel, and moved, next day, to the bank of the Mouroui-Oossoo, the name here given to the river called below the Kin-Cha-Kiang, and in the plains of China, the mighty Yang-Tse-Kiang, or Blue River. They passed it over ice, and witnessed a strange spectacle in the passage. A string of more than fifty wild yaks had been frozen up at the very moment of swimming across, and remained there 88 TIBET, TARTARY fixed in death, their eyes having been pecked out by crows and eagles. Wild yaks and wild asses are common in the most elevated regions of Tibet, and are seen wandering in herds, seeking fresh pastures. The caravan here separated, the camels pre- ceding, because capable of making longer marches, and of moving more rapidly than the loaded yaks. By a gradual fvirther ascent, our travel- lers now reached, at last, the dividing land be- tween the waters of China and Tibet, the highest elevated region, perhaps, in the whole world. It was mid- winter, and for fifteen days the wind blew over the plain with murderous severity. During the whole of this time the cold was so intense, that though they wore flannel shirts, and over that a coat of fox-skin, and over that a lamb-skin jacket or spencer, and a large cloak of sheep-skin over all, and carried their Tsamba paste for refreshment on the day's journey next to their skin, yet they never took it out to eat, during the march in this elevated region, without finding it frozen. It is wonderful that the human frame should endure this conse- cutively for days together. The cattle required to be enveloped in felt wrapcrs, but were neverthe- less decimated in the terrible march. And here we must be permitted to complain of our travellers AND MONGOLIA. 89 for starting on such a journey without even a com- pass, a barometer, or a thermometer. A solar microscope it seems they had with them, but a compass to give the bearings of remarkable peaks, and a thermometer to show the degree of cold, and the boiling point of water, would have given scien- tific results of the highest possible interest and value. Lieutenant Strachey, the officer of the Indian government, who wintered at Ladaq, and penetrated in the spring and summer of 1848, to the sources of the Shayek, and to the Pangong Salt Lake, in order to determine the boundary of the Chinese territory towards the Indus, crossed several passes of 18,000 and 19,000 feet of well ascertained height ; and we expect shortly from the brother of this officer some curious scientific par- ticulars, the result of a careful survey and exami- nation of a considerable area of territory at the sources of the Sutlej. These French missionaries give us no means of comparing observations made at the sources of the great rivers of China, with those of these western explorers, and we may wait long for another journey into the regions crossed by the perilous route we are here tracing. More than forty men of the caravan were left on the road frozen during the fifteen days of painful march over this table-land, and no one could stop 90 TIBET, TARTARY to relieve, or even to bury, those overtaken by the frost. M. Gabet's illness and sufferings increased to such a degree at this period of the journey, that he could neither ride nor walk ; he was conse- quently sewed up in his cloaks and blankets, and so carried, like a bale of goods, on a camel. But he recovered when the extreme cold was somewhat mitigated, and the cutting wind had ceased. In the midst of this march, the travellers fell in with a party of Kolo brigands, who, however, showed great respect for the Lamas of the west, and de- clared that they had no wish to plunder what the caravan was carrying back to the Delai Lama; but would never suffer the wealth of Tibet to be carried to Pekin, in order to be laid at the feet of a Chinese emperor. Soon after this rencontre, the caravan approached the Tant-La* pass, the summit of which they reached, after six days of continual further ascent. At the top was another table-land, along which they travelled for twelve days ; but the wind had ceased to blow, and the sun was now radiant and reviving, and M. Gabet recovered wonderfully under its influence. After thus crossing this high dividing ridge of Tartary, the descent was from * Throughout Tibet, as far west as Ladaq, a mountainous pass is called La. This is the first on the road from Pekin to Lassa, that bears this name. It is in evidence of the commencement of the use of the Tibetan language as the vernacular. AND MONGOLIA, 91 mountain to mountain, in steps each day of reduced elevation. In the valleys, hot springs were very frequent. After some days of rough travel, the missionaries reached a plain of good pasture, where they gave their worn-out cattle a halt of two days, during which shepherds brought them fresh meat, a luxury they purchased with such articles of Pekin manufacture as they could spare ; but just as they were on the point of sitting down to a lux- urious meal of roasted mutton, so procured, the cry of fire ! fire ! arose, and they found that some injudicious members of the caravan had ignited the grass to windward, and the flames were coming down fast upon their encampment. The tents were saved with extreme difficulty, but the long- haired camels would not move out of the way of the flames, and one of them was so dreadfully burnt as to be rendered quite unserviceable. Fol- lowing down a valley, the travellers came now to the first Tibetan village, called Na-Pchu, or Kara-oossoo, both meaning, one in Tibetan, and the other in Mongolian, Black Waters. The vil- lage is inhabited by Tartar shepherds. The mis- sionaries sold here their three serviceable camels for fifteen ounces of silver, and gave the poor burnt one into the bargain. With this money they pur- chased six yaks, to convey their baggage to 92 TIBET, TARTARY Lassa, and tlie assistant camel-driver, who had proved a great rogue, was discharged. The thieves of Na-Pchu are described as expert and most au- dacious. There were yet fifteen days of march from this village to Lassa. Our missionaries travelled the remainder of their journey in company with some Mongols of Khar chin, who along with a regene- rated Boodh were on pilgrimage to the holy city. The Chaberon, so these sainted hierarchs are called, was a young man of eighteen, and was proceeding to graduate and study in one of the Lamaserais of Lassa. A prince and several nobles of Kharchin accompanied him, and he was watched, rather than attended, by two aides-de-camp, who per- mitted him no recreation, but compelled him always to sit in state, and act and talk the regenerated Boodh — a miserable state of existence ! He was, however, allowed to visit and converse with our Lamas of the West, and is described as an intelli- gent well-disposed youth, who enjoyed much the privilege of holding rational converse. The route between Na-Pchu and Lassa, is de- scribed as rocky, fatiguing and difficult, and some- times even highly dangerous, but the caravan was approaching civilization, and everything seemed now to smile. The passage of the Koiran range of AND MONGOLIA. 93 mountains presented most difficulty. On the fif- teenth day from Na-Pchu, they reached Pampoo, called on maps Panctou, a valley interspersed with farm-houses, on the banks of a considerable river- Here they had again to change then* carriage cattle, and provide asses in place of their yaks. The cold had sadly disfigured their bearded coun- tenances ; but they did their best, with their limited wardrobe and means, to make a respectable ap- pearance on their arrival at Lassa. Asses having been pro\ided, after some delay, in sufficient abun- dance for the whole party, the missionaries, with their Mongol associates, scaled the high mountain range, which stiQ lay between them and Lassa, called the Boodha-La, and so reached the city at last on the 29th January, 1846, eighteen months after their start from the Valley of Black Waters in Mongolia. The houses of Lassa are described as large, and are fresh whitewashed and painted every year, so as to present a gay appearance, but within they are filthy in the extreme, cleanliness being no cha- racteristic of a Tibetan or Tartar. They found a lodging at Lassa, in a house of entertainment, where there were fifty other lodgers, and hired an upper room, to which they were compelled to mount by a ladder of twenty-six steps. It had 94 TIBET, TAE.TARY for chimney a hole in the roof — not a comfort- able substitute in the depth of winter ; but even this was preferable to retaining the smoke of the argol fuel in the room they inhabited, which those below were compelled to submit to. The city of Lassa has no wall, but is surrounded by garden suburbs. The streets are broad, well laid out, and clean enough, but the suburbs are filthy in the extreme. There is one quarter, however, the houses of which are described as most picturesque, the walls being built of the horns of cattle and sheep, intermixed with infinity of designs, and cemented together with mortar between. We cite this description of Lassa, because the city has never, that we know, been yet described by any European traveller. Mr. Manning, who went there from Calcutta, in 1811, intending to penetrate into China by that route, was seized and sent back, and saw very little of the place ; and his Chinese companion, being handed over to Chinese courts of justice, was never afterwards heard of. Mr. Manning went then by sea to Canton, and died there, without giving to the world any result of his travels and researches. The French missionaries were assured by Ti- betans that Mr. Moorcroft had also been at Lassa, and a Kashmerian merchant introduced to them AND MONGOLIA. 95 Moosulman named Nishan, Avho declared him- self to have been Mr. Moorcroft's servant, and to have accompanied him in tours of exploration made in different directions, in quality of a Ma- hommedan cattle merchant, speaking Persian. We know that Moorcroft died of fever caught in Koondooz ; this person must, therefore, have been one of his companions, who assumed his name. The traveller, whoever he was, is said to have been murdered by robbers in the Gnari province, near the sources of the Indus. No intelligence cor- responding with these particulars has ever reached any British officer ; and on the other hand, there has been much exploration lately in the direction of Gnari, and the Chinese frontier in that quarter has been laid down by Lieutenant Strachey, before alluded to ; so that such an event, if it were really true, could scarcely have escaped them. "VVe must admit, however, that the motives for concealment were of the strongest on the part of the Chinese frontier officers. The palace of the Delai Lama at Lassa, called the Lassa Morou, is built on an isolated rocky hill, at a short distance to the north of the city. It is of stone, and of large dimensions, with a high gilt dome, exhibiting, say our travellers, much architectural beauty. We presume the 96 TIBET, TARTARY style and character of the edifice not to be very diiFerent from those described, and of which we have drawings, in Turner's Embassy to Tibet. Round the palace are a multitude of Lamas' edi- fices of all sizes. The Delai Lama is the Pope of Tibet ; but as he is supposed to be always in the state of abstract meditation for the benefit of mankind, his temporal authority is exercised through a deputy, called the Nome-Khan, who is also a sanctified Lama, enjoying the relative posi- tion towards the hierarch of a Romish cardinal. About two hundred years ago, the women of Tibet, being much given to dress and libertinage, corrupted the Lamas to a degree to bring their holy order into bad repute. The then Nome-Khan accordingly issued an edict, that the women should never appear in public without first smearing their faces with a black disfiguring paste. Strange to say, this order was obeyed, and the practice is still observed, but without much benefit to morals. Father Grueber notices this habit of smearing the face to have prevailed in his time, wliich was one hundred and eighty years before the visit of our travellers. The women are described as active, industrious, and managing persons, like those of France, and not at all likely to be content with the place assigned to women in the social system AND MONGOLIA. 97 of India and of Western Asia, nor do they submit to seraglio discipline. The position of the Chinese at Lassa is peculiar. In the beginning of the eighteenth century Tibet was conquered by the Sifan Tartars, who though Boodhists, and therefore in spiritual matters sub- ject to the great Lamas, ruled nevertheless with great cruelty and were hateful as an intrusive race. The Tibetans looked to China for the means of expelling them, and in 1720 the Emperor Kanghi sent a force into Tibet, which being favoured by the native population, overpowered and drove out the Sifans. Kanghi then established four Tibetan chiefs as temporal sovereigns, but, as we have be- fore mentioned, they quarrelled, and one of them, named Pholonai, prevailing over the rest, was recognised at first by the court of Pekin as a Tai-tse and afterwards as a Kiun-wang. On his death his son Ghiur-medh Namghial succeeded to the same title and authority ; but in 1750 he re- 7^ volted, and, asserting independence, was beheaded by the emperor's order, whereupon the temporal sovereignty was extinguished, and the Delai Lama was vested with both authorities. The Emperor Kanghi professed always great veneration for the two great Lamas of Tibet, and used their in- 98 TIBET, TARTARY fluence on many occasions to settle differences with the Mongol priesthood, who gave him much trouble. He established at Lassa and Djachi two envoys called kinchais, through whom his wishes were expressed, and who were at first mere chan- nels of communication with these Lamas ; but when the temporal sovereignty was conferred on the Delai Lama, these kinchais as his advisers and the supporters of his power acquired much influence, and this was greatly increased, after the Nipalese had invaded Tibet, and a Chinese army had been called in to repel and punish the invaders. Military posts were then established as well on the frontierof Tibet towards India, as on the direct line of communication with China, and the kinchais have from that time forward exercised the same degree of authority in Tibet, that a British resident possesses at the court of a protected chief in India. In the thirty-fifth year of Kien-long, anno domini 1770, before Tibet was thus occupied by Chinese troops, the two kinchais took upon themselves to seize and behead a Nome-Khan dur- ing a visit of ceremony. An emeute was the con- sequence, which ended in the massacre of every Chinese in Tibet. A long war, and the invasion of Tibet by a Chinese army followed. The result was to re-establish the Chinese kinchais at Lassa, AXD MONGOLIA. 99 ■vrith equal, if not superior, influence to that they before enjoyed, and this was confu*med and much augmented by the events of the war with Nipal, which led to the establishment of military posts at the most important points for the defence of the country. Nevertheless, there are very few Chinese troops in Tibet to support the influence and au- thority the kinchais exercise. There is, indeed, a line of guard-houses all the way between Lassa and Se-chuen, for the purpose of keeping up the communication, and another line of guard-houses, "snth small garrisons, is established along the Bootan and British frontiers. At Lassa, however, the head-quarters of all these posts, there are only a few hundred soldiers. These receive their pay from China, and are relieved every third year. The principal Chinese envoy at the time of the arrival of our missionaries was, as we before said, the well-knoA\Ti Ki-Shen, the great councillor of state, who had been sent to negociate with the British admiral, and with Captain Elliot, at the commencement of the war with China in 1840. The result of his negotiations was, it will be recol- lected, a treaty or convention, containing a stipu- lation for the cession in full sovereignty to the British Queen of the island of Hong Kong. This was a sine qua non of Lord Palmerston's instruc- F 2 loo TIBET, TARTARY tions, and was agreed to most unwillingly by Ki- Shen. "Wlaen the treaty was sent to Pekin for ratification, this article was looked upon there as disgraceful, and the negotiator was recalled and sentenced to confiscation, and at exile to Hi ; his great credit at court and known talents alone saved his head. The issue of the war which fol- lowed having proved his superior wisdom, and the affairs of Tibet requiring a man of vigour and ability, Ki-Shen was partially restored to rank, and appointed to the mission there. The case forms a curious passage in that country's history. The Nome-Khan of Lassa is himself a " Cha- beron," or regenerated Boodh, selected for the office of civil administrator by the Delai Lama. The Nome-Khan whom Ki-Shen found there had been nominated long before, and in his time three successive Delai Lamas had died very soon after reaching the age of majority. This occa- sioned great scandal, and it was openly said, that all three events were the work of the Nome- Khan. The first Delai Lama had died of stran- gulation, the second was killed by the fall of the roof of his bed-chamber, and the third was poi- soned at a meal, along with several of his fami- liars. Add to this, the chief Lama of the Kaldan AND MONGOLIA. 101 monastery, close to Lassa, had died suddenly in the same way. The Nome-Khan was a Sifan noble of Yang- Tou-See, consequently a subject of China. He was rich, and by his liberality had obtained a large following, the Lamas of the Sera mona- stery especially being much devoted to him_ There are under the Nome-Khan four state offi- cers, called Kalons. These combining, made a secret representation to the court of Pekin of the crimes and cruelties of the Nome-Khan ; and it was in consequence of their representation, that Ki-Shen was ordered from Hi to investigate and redress these evils, and was vested with extra- ordinary powers for the purpose. Upon his arrival in Tibet, he paid court to the Bundshan- Rembouchi,* the great Lama of Djachi Loomboo, and to the four Kalons or ministers of the Nome- Khan at Lassa. With their help he obtained evidence to prove the charges of murder against the Nome-Khan, who was accordingly brought to trial, and on being confronted with the witnesses, confessed his crimes, and signed the record which * Turner calls this officer the Punjin-Eembochay. M. Hue says he claims equality with the Delai Lama. The place called Teeshoo Lomboo, after Captain Turner, M. Hue calls Djachi Loomboo, and translates, "Mountain of oracles." 102 TIBET, TARTARY contained the evidence of his guilt, together with his accomplices' confessions. It was counter- signed by all the high officers of Tibet, including the Djachi Lama, and the case was so sent to Pekin for adjudication. Thi-ee months after- wards, the imperial mandate arrived, sentencing the Nome- Khan to exile on the banks of the Sagalien in Manchoo Tartary. The sentence was immediately placarded at Lassa, and the Nome- Khan was placed in confinement. The Lamas of the Sera monastery, however, to the number of 15,000, rose in insurrection, and gaining the ascendancy at Lassa, released the Nome-Khan, and wished to carry him back to his palace in triumph. But he refused, saying he must make the journey to Pekin, in order to explain the case, and enlighten the emperor, for submission was his duty. The Lamas of Sera were discon- certed by this refusal, and returned at night to their convent. In the meantime, Ki-Shen, who had escaped the first violence of the insurgents, concerted measures with the Kalons, and brought next morning an armed force into the plain between the monastery and Lassa, and so reduced the rebellious Lamas to submission. The Nome- Khan was dispatched a few days after in a palan- quin, by the route of Se-Chouen, to the place of AND MONGOLIA. 103 his exile. The accomplices, however, were left to the Kalon magistrates of Lassa, and were not severely dealt with. The selection of a new Nome-Khan fell on the Chaberon, or regenerated Boodh-Lama, of E,an- chan, a youth of only eighteen years of age. The first Kalon was accordingly named regent, and it was with him and Ki-Shen, that the mis- sionaries had to deal in January and February 1846. What passed is curious, and deserves full mention. The missionaries reported themselves to the authorities at Lassa, as Lamas of the west come to enquire after, and to preach the truth. They were immediately visited by an inquisitive Chi- nese, who came to enquire what they had to sell. " Nothing," they said, " but their old saddles." " Exactly what I want," said he ; and in bargain- ing, asked multitudinous questions calculated to elicit all particulars regarding the strange visitors to the holy city. Four similar visits of inquiry for merchandize did the missionaries receive on the same day. It was evident that these were all spies. At the dinner hour they were summoned to the presence of the Kalon, regent, along with their servant Sambda-Chamba. On arriving at the palace, this 104 TIBET, TARTAR Y functionary surveyed them curiously for some time without saying a word, whereupon they said to one another in French : " He seems of good dis- position, we shall fare well," Though said in a whisper, they were immediately called upon to repeat what they had said ; which they did aloud in French. An appeal was then made to all pre- sent, to know if any one understood the language. The answer being in the negative, they were called upon themselves to translate, which they did faithfully into Tibetan. The regent was pleased with the compliment, and made a long speech to explain how it was his duty to be well disposed. He then asked whence they came ; they said, " From the West." " From Calcutta?" he asked ; they replied, " No ; from France." " You are assuredly Pelings ? " (English) said the regent. " No ; we are French." " Can you write ? " said he. They said " Yes ; " whereupon ink and paper were provided, and they were told to write something in their own language. They wrote " Que sert a Vhomme de conquerir le mondc eiitier, s'il vient a perdre son ame." They were made to write the translation of this in Tibetan, Mongolian and Chinese, which they did, exciting the admira- tion of the court at their learning and profound doctrine. In the midst of this, Ki-Shen came to AND MONGOLIA. 105 the palace, and the examination was renewed before him in a different spirit. They saluted him in the French form, without falling on their knees, merely taking oif their caps and bowing low. " 'Tis well," he said, ''you follow the customs of your country ; they tell me you speak correctly the language of Pekin ; let us converse in that." The mission- aries said, theii" language would be found faulty by such a judge, but his intelligence would penetrate the meaning. " Pure Pekin!" he exclaimed, "you French must have great facility in the acquisition of languages." " Yes, we are French." " I knew some Frenchmen in old days in Pekin," he said. " You might also have seen some at Canton," they replied ; but the recollection was not agree- able to their questioner, and he frowned. " You are Christians," he said. " Yes." " I knew it ! and you are here to propagate and spread your re- ligious opinions." "It is our only object." "^Vhat countries have you passed thi-ough ? " They named China, Mongolia and Tibet. " Who did you live with in China ? " They refused to answer this question, even though threatened; but told freely where they had learned the languages they knew. " And who are you ? " he said, turning sharply to Sambda-Chamba. " A native of Ki-tou-tse." " AVhcre is that ! " " In the district of San-Chouen, r 3 106 TIBET, TARTARY in the Kansou province." "Ah ! subject of the central nation ! down on your knees, before your Emperor's representative. On your knees ! " he repeated, and was instantly obeyed. "As a subject of China, I am your judge ; say, where you met these foreigners." Sambda-Chamba replied frankly, not denying that he was himself a convert to the Chi'istian faith ; which he could not believe to be proscribed, because it enjoined him only to do good, and to shun evil. " True," said the Com- missioner, "but what induced you to enter the service of these foreigners?" He denied that he knew them to be foreigners, or otherwise than as good men. " What wages do they give ? " He said, " None, but his board and lodging ; he was with them for the sake of his soul, regarding them as his spiritual teachers." "Are you married?" "No ! I was a Lama, before joining them." The next question drew a blush from Sambda-Chamba; he did not answer it. And the missionaries pro- tested against such imputations, declaring the thought or mention of such things to be equally against their religion and their morals. At this Ki-Shen felt reproved, and broke up the ex- amination, saying it was late, and he should re- quire to see them again next day. From this examination they were carried again to the regent. AND MONGOLIA. 107 who promised his support, gave them supper, and questioned them several times over on the subject of maps, and notes of their route. They told him candidly, that they had a printed map of China with them, by which they had been guided on their journey. The regent heard this with some anxiety, fearing it would give them trouble ; the great dread of the Chinese being, exploration by Europeans to ascertain the geography and re- sources of their country. Rooms were prepared for the missionaries this night in the palace, where they were now, in fact, prisoners. They were carefully waited upon, and found good beds pro- vided ; they passed the night, however, in great anxiety as to their futxure fate, and found a re- source and comfort in prayer. Early the next mornmg they were visited by the chief Kashmerian merchant, who came to condole with them, and to tell them to prepare next day for a close ex- amination of their baggage. This was the Avork of the Chinese Kinchai, he said, against the wishes of the regent, but they must submit. All these precautions, he further told them, were the con- sequences of Moorcroft's explorations ; amongst whose eifects, after he was murdered in Gnari, the Chinese had found many maps arid notes, illus- 108 TIBET, TARTARY trative of the geography and resources of the entire country. Early next morning, the Tibetan regent made the first examination of their baggage with all forms, prior to sealing it up. A crucifix was the first thing that engaged his attention, and he laughed heartily, when the missionaries said, it was with that that they had come to make the conquest of Tibet. A careful list was made of everything, to the most minute article, and the whole baggage was then carried away under seal to the court-house, where Ki-Shen was waiting. Have you only these two trunks of baggage," he asked. " Nothing else," said they ; " you may open them and see what they contain." "Are they mine," said he, " that I should open them, and expose myself to your reproaches, if anything should be found wanting ? oj)en them yourselves." Everything was then laid out, and examined with the utmost curiosity, by all present. Amongst the articles were some books and lithographic drawings, which excited much admiration. Ki- Shen took upon himself to explain the great progress the French had made in the arts, and he asked if the missionaries had no watches, tele- scopes, or magic lanterns. They pointed to a solar niicro!:Cope, the only instrument of that kind AXD MONGOLIA, 109 which they had with them, and put it together, nobody but Ki-Shen himself having the slightest idea of its use. He asked them to exhibit it ; but they put it up again immediately, saying, " We are here under examination and trial, not to make exhibitions." He then asked for the maps, which were produced, being one of the world, on Mer- cator's projection, and another of China, both printed in France. The regent gave them a look which seemed to say, " You are ruined, and have signed your death warrants ;" but the missionaries appealed to Ki-Shen's intelligence and knowledge of things, to distinguish printed from manuscript maps, and to satisfy himself that these were not of their own drawing. He at once recognised them as printed maps, and pointed out the distinguishing marks to the regent, who seemed much relieved, though he could not understand the difference. At the request of both these officers, the mis- sionaries pointed out on the map of the world, the site of all the different countries. Calcutta was a first object of enquiry, and when it was indicated, they remarked how near it was to Lassa. " Never mind," the regent added, " the Himalaya lies be- tween us and the English." Ki-Shen was quite familiar wdth every article used in the ritual of the 110 TIBET, TARTARY Catholic church, having been governor of the Picheli province, when the Christians were perse- cuted and expelled. These, therefore, created in him no suspicion, and the examination ended in a decision, that the missionaries were plain men, without deceit, and should be left at liberty. The regent was delighted at this issue of the examina- tion, and the head of the Kashmeer merchants provided a banquet to greet them on their return home; and further purchased, on the regent's account, their two white horses for two ingots of silver, each of ten ounces, a liberal price, exceed- ing their value in the then condition of the ani- mals. One of the ingots they gave to Sambda Chamba, as a compliment on his discharge, which was to him a fortune, not unmerited by his ser- vices. The next day, the missionaries became the re- gent's guests, and improved their acquaintance with him to terms of familiarity. At the house he assigned to them, they prepared an oratory with a crucifix, and other attributes of religion, and com- menced then* religious functions in a manner to excite curiosity, and to give them the hope of making converts. They began thus to flatter themselves with the promise of great success in their mission, and amongst others, reckoned even AXD MONGOLIA. Ill upon the probability of making some impression on the regent himself. He was a man of great experience of the world, as well as of high lite- rary reputation in Tibet, and he delighted in dis- cussing doctrinal questions with the missionaries, acknowledging fully the paramount necessity of enquiry, for the purpose of ascertaining where truth lay, for the good of the soul in perpetuity. He acknowledged the truths and moral precepts of Christianity, claiming for pure Boodhism per- fect correspondence on these points, and alleging the errors pointed out by the missionaries to have been the result of erroneous teachings of ignorant or half-informed Lamas. The two points of dis- agreement were, the creation of the world, the Mosaic account of which the regent could not accept, and the doctrine of transmigration, which was to the missionaries equally irrational. In discussing these differences, the regent was more than a match for the missionaries, while they con- versed in Tibetan, and they were compelled to call in the Cashmerian chief merchant to interpret the arguments they wished to enforce. The regent seeing this, and promising to renew the discussion when they were more familiar with the language, gave them his nephew for preceptor, to perfect them in Tibetan ; and in the meantime, 112 TIBET, TARTARY confined himself ordinarily to conversing about Europe, its arts and habits, concerning which he showed great curiosity, especially after having witnessed with great wonder an exhibition of the ^olar microscope. He mastered completely the Roman alphabet, from a copy of it made for him by the missionaries, and was particularly inte- rested in descriptions of steamboats, railroads, bal- loons, and daguerreotypes. With Ki-Shen also the missionaries had very friendly relations. He questioned them frequently about England, and Queen Victoria. His idea of Prince Albert was singular ; he conceived that, because the British constitution gave him not the kingly power, he must be to the queen, what queens of China are to emperors and other royal personages of the east, and no more. He asked after Lord Palmerston, and Captain Elliot, and was not surprised to hear that the latter had been recalled, at the same time that he was himself disgraced. " He was a good man but irresolute," said Ki-Shen ; " was he put to death or exiled ?" " Neither one nor the other ; these things are not managed so summarily in Europe." " I know," said he, " your mandarins fare better than we do. Our emperor cannot know everything ; yet it is he only who judges, and none dare speak in his AND MONGOLIA. 113 presence. If he says, ' This is white,' we say, ^ Truly so, it is white ;' if soon after, he points to the same thing, and says, ' It is black,' we fall on our faces and say, ' Yes, it is black.' But if one, more bold, ventures to suggest that the same thing cannot well be both black and white, the emperor will say, ' That is true ;' but the offerer of such a sug- gestion will jirobably lose his head. Ah ! we have no assembly of chiefs as you have, to control the actions of our emperor." Ki-Shen told them freely, how the affair with the English had been treated in 1839-40. The Emperor called his eight Choung-Tangs to coun- cil, and stated the case. He said, " These west- ern mariners are very rebellious and refractory ; they must be chastised, as an example to all others." Having thus stated his 0"v^ti opinion, he asked the advice of his council. The four Man- choo councillors fell on their faces, and said, " Yes, yes, 'tis the sovereign's wish and order." The Chinese Choung-Tangs then prostrated them- selves, and said, " Yes, yes ! 'Tis the heavenly will of the Emperor ;" and so the thing was set- tled. Ki-Shen himself acknowledged his convic- tion, that the Chinese would never be able to contend with Europeans, till they adopted their weapons and discipline ; but added, that no one 114 TIBET, TARTARY dared to advise the Emperor to this effect, or he would lose his head. The missionaries had the means, through their intimacy with the Tibetan regent, of informing themselves fully of the doctrines and customs, as well as of the constitutional forms of the Tibetan theocracy. The Boodhist religion has no eternity of punishment. Everything proceeds from God, and will return to him ; but the soul passes, in transmigration, to inferior or superior animals, according to its desert. There are six grades of animals vested with souls. Angels, demons, men, quadrupeds, birds and reptiles. A sovil in each state has its means of attaining greater perfec- tion ; the highest of all is to be absorbed into the Divinity, whence again living Boodhs are de- tached, to take a human shape, in order to recal men from errors and teach the road to perfection. The highest of existing regenerate Boodhs are, the Delai Lama of Lassa; the Band-shan Rem- boochi, of Djachi Loomboo, the same who was visited by Captain Turner, in the time of Warren Hastings ; the Geesoo Tamba of Grand Kouren, at Oorga, on the borders of Siberia ; and the Chang-kia-fo, or great almoner of the court of Pekin. Of all these the Delai Lama of Lassa is the pope, or spiritual guide of all Boodhists. He AND MONGOLIA. 115 was only nine years old when our missionaries were there, and had been then recognised pope for six years, having been taken from an obscure family of Sifans, in the province of Ming-chen- tou-tse. When this Boodhist pope dies, every- body falls to meditation and prayer to discover the new birth. Prayer barrels* turn with re- doubled vigour. All who fancy they have a re- generate Boodh in their families give notice, and a council of holy ones, that is, of Kotooktoos, sits, and selects three infants, who are sent for to Lassa to be examined. For six days they are shut up, and the examiners devote themselves, this while, to earnest meditation and prayer. On the seventh day, they write the names of the three infants on golden plates, and place them in an lu'n. The senior Kotooktoo di'aws the lot ; and the child whose name is drawn, is immediately proclaimed Delai Lama, and carried in state through the town; while the two rejected children are re- * Every Lama has his prayer-barrel. Prayer and meditation being regarded as the only effectual means of attaining sanctifiea- tion, the continued repetition of the mystical " om mani padme horn" is considered as the first essential of faith. Hence the number of repetitions is the test of merit ; and for multiplication of them, the devise of turning a barrel, on which the words are written, has been imagined, and obtains universal credence in its efficacy. 116 TIBET, TARTARY turned to their families, with liberal pensions. Our missionaries wished to be presented to the Delai Lama, and the regent had arranged for theu' pre- sentation, but an alarm was raised that the fo- reigners "might communicate the small-pox, for it so hap2)ened, that this disease broke out soon after the arrival of the caravan with which they had travelled to Lassa ; thus they lost the oppor- tunity of witnessing the forms and ceremonies of this extraordinary court. While they were thus living at Lassa, the guests of the regent, and honoured and respected by the entire population, a storm was brewing in a quarter they little suspected. They meditated opening a communication, through Calcutta, with the China mission, of which they had heard nothing since they undertook this journey ; and M. Gabet pro- posed to attempt the route through Bootan for the purpose, when the Chinese commissioner, Ki-Shen, sent for them one day, without warning, and after much prelude of compliment, told them he was quite sure the climate of Tibet was too cold, and the country unsuited for Frenchmen accustomed to the life they had led ; that they had better, therefore, prepare for their return. The mission- aries asked, if this was his advice or his order ? He said, coldly, " Both." They objected, saying, as a AND MONGOLIA. 117 matter of advice, they were not disposed to adopt the suggestion, being quite prejiared for all the difficulties and inconveniences of a residence in Tibet ; on the other hand, being under the protec- tion of the established governor of the*country, they did not recognise his right to order them out of it. " You, strangers, and foreigners ! do you chiim the right to remain?" said he. They replied, boldly, that they conceived they had the same right as was conceded to the natives of India, of Kashmeer, and of Mongolia ; while his title of Kin-chai, or resident-ambassador, showed himself also to be a stranger. " I, a stranger !" said Ki-Shen, starting up, " I, who hold the Imperial commission, by right of which I have tried and sentenced the Nome-khan of this country." " But he was a native of China, and a guilty man," said they ; " we are men of God, preaching only the salvation of souls." " I know," said he, " you are good men, and zealous in your calling, but your religion has been condemned by the Emperor." They declared that they needed not the Imperial sanction to perform their religious duties. And with this the conversation for that day closed. They had now indeed braved the lion in his den They went forthwith from the Kin-chai to the regent, in order to claim his protection. He was 118 TIBET, TARTARY well disposed to grant it, if left to himself. But the Kinchai, declared that he was specially com- missioned to protect the interests of the Delai Lama, and of the Boodhist religion, in Tibet, and that Tie conld not permit so great a danger as the continued residence m the country of men who preached doctrines subservive of both. Their aim, he said, was to subvert Boodhism,and establish their own faith. If they succeeded, what would become of the institutions of Tibet, and of the Delai Lama, and what would the Emperor say to him for allowing it ? The Tibetans, he declared, knew not the extent of the danger, and seeing the men to be virtuous, and of good life, and of great comparative learning, believed them innocent on that account, as well as good ; but their virtues and their learning only made them more danger- ous in his eyes, for the Tibetans would be unable to cope with them on points of doctrine, and many simple people would be won over from the faith of their ancestors, if the mischief were not prevented in time. The matter was argued for several days between the regent and the Kinchai, and protocols were exchanged in due form. The Tibetan regent sub- mitted in the end ; the missionaries themselves so advising, for peace-sake. They went accordingly AND MONGOLIA. 119 to Ki-Shen, to announce their readiness to obey his mandate, and proposed to leave the country by the route of India. He said he had abeady prepared everything for their departure ; that they should travel with an escort as far as the frontier of China, but could not be permitted, as they desired, to go by Bootan to Calcutta. They exclaimed against the cruelty of compelling them to make again a perilous journey, such as they had just gone through, and hinted that their country's govern- ment might well take umbrage at such treatment of its innocent subjects. Ki-Shen coolly replied, that what the French government might say or do was nothing to him, he knew his duty to his own government, and should deserve, and be punished with, death, if he suffered their stay in Tibet, and did not send them back to China. Next day, Ki-Shen again sent for them, to read the report he had prepared of their case. He said, he wished to report fairly as well as correctly, and therefore had sent for them to hear what he had written, in order that anything erroneous might be corrected. M. Hue, after hearing the draft read, said he had one thing to represent, but must do it in secret, as it was of more importance to Ki-Shen than to themselves. He at first insisted on what M. Hue had to say being publicly stated, 120 TIBET, TARTARY but on his still refusing, Ki-Shen cleared the room, when M. Hue told him, he had entered China by Macao, in the second month of the twentieth year of the reign of the Emperor Tao-Kwang, when Ki-Shen was himself viceroy at Canton, and it would be for him to say whether this circumstance should be reported or no. " Does any one know this?" said the Kinchai. "Nobody." He then tore up the report, and wrote another, with his own hand, saying nothing of the time of the mis- sionaries entering China, and praising highly their learning and general character. This matter being so settled, it was arranged that the missionaries should start, after the festival of the new year of Tibet, which is one month later than that of China, and is kept like our Christmas and New Year, with nightly wakes, and revels, and festivities. On the third day of the moon, the Lamas are let loose from all the adjoining mo- nasteries, and for six days after that, the city and neighbourhood is inundated with them, and the greatest confusion and disorder prevails. There are, near Lassa, three great Lamaserais ; those of Kaldan, Preboung, and Sera, each of these having 15,000 Lamas attached to it. They are distant twelve, six, and two miles respectively from the town. The Lamas of all three deem it a AND MONGOLIA. 121 point of duty to make the pilgrimage to the holy " Morou" convent at Lassa, in order to receive there the benediction of the Delai Lama, for the new year ; and the feuds and jealousies of these institutions produce, consequently, innumerable quarrels at this season. The missionaries were, during these satui'nalia, preparing for their journey back to China. They took affectionate leave of the regent, and of the Kashmerian head merchant, with both of whom they had established the most friendly relations. Through the latter, they now made the attempt to send a letter to France by Calcutta, but we are not informed whether it was successful. They parted, likewise, with the faithful Sambda-Chamba, and so prepared to wait on Ki-Shen, in order to be forwarded as he might direct. The mandarin-commandant of their escort, was named " Lee," the " Pacificator of Kingdoms." He had commanded on the Goorkha frontier of Nipal, and wore a blue button. Though only forty-five years old, he seemed upwards of seventy, being completely worn out by service, as well as debilitated by a life of excess, and by indulgence in spirituous liquors. He had the rank of Tou-tse, and was entitled, therefore, to an escort of fifteen men, now that he was retiring from the service G 122 TIBET, TARTARY and returning to China. He was a man of much intelligence, but, like most Chinese, a perfect free- thinker in matters of religion. To this man the missionaries were first intro- duced on the day of their departure ; and they went with him to Ki-Shen, who now announced, that they were to retui'n by a different route from that by which they had come, but, he trusted, neither so long, nor so difficult ; that he could not provide them with palanquins ; so that they must ride with the escort, and would find relays of horses, called oollas, at the different stages and guard-houses, for which he gave the order. He told them they would be conveyed at the public exjDense to Se-Chouen, where the Governor, Pao, would provide for them. He next made a speech to the " Pacificator of Kingdoms," advising him to give up drinking ardent spirits ; and then he paid him on the spot 500 ounces of silver, as retiring bounty for his services. Lastly, he made a speech to the escort, enjoining them to do their duty ; and when these ceremonies had been gone through, he took the two missionaries apart, and told them, he himself should soon be recalled to China, and he wished two large boxes of treasure to be carried thither in advance.* These he asked * Ki-Shen was shortly after appointed Governor of Sechouen. AND MONGOLIA. 123 them to take amongst their baggage, and deliver safely as directed, at Ching-tou Fou, the capital of Se-Chouen. Then publicly warning them against thieves, he bade them farevi^ell. The Kashmerian chief merchant rode ^vith them to the Boo-Choo river, where they found a Tibetan escort of seven men and a Deba, appointed by the regent to accompany them. The river was crossed in a skin boat by the missionaries and the Pacifi- cator, the cattle and baggage having crossed in canoes. The missionaries were now travelling by relays of the ordinary Chinese post, on the direct line to the central provinces of China. After crossing the river on their first march on the 15th March 1846, they went for some time along a highly- cultivated valley, the fields marked by stone- wall enclosures, to Detsin, a large village six leagues or eighteen miles from Lassa. Here they were received in state by the village authorities, headed by the Deba Lama, who commanded the escort of Tibetans assigned by the regent for their protection. He proved a very intelligent, and most usefvd intermediary for communications with the people of the country. His name was Sham- Chand. They supped here with the Pacificator who lent them his itinerary, which they studied G 2 124 TIBET, TARTARY and copied. This appears to be the work which was first made known to Europe by the translation into Russian, with notes of Father Hyacinth Bit- chourin Archi-Mandrite, and which was afterwards rendered more carefully into French, by M. Klap- roth, and published in Paris, in 1831. The route of the missionaries on return, can be followed closely on the map, framed from the itinerary by M. Klaproth. The Chinese author was a com- missary who accompanied the Chinese army sent against Nepal in 1792 ; and the work contains some curious notices of Tibet, in addition to the itinerary. From Detsin the route still lay in the same fertile valley, gradually ascending towards a moun- tain range. After twenty -five miles (eight leagues, eighty lis) of this march, they stopped at a convent in ruins, situated at the extreme verge of cultiva- tion ; but they had still twelve miles to ride to the post station of " Michhou-Koung," which they reached only after dark. They were com- pelled to halt the next day, for want of the relay of horses called the " Oola." There would be no travelling in these hill countries, if the obligation to furnish men and cattle were not imperative on the population that inhabits them. This duty is enforced more strictly than the payment of taxes. AND MONGOLIA. 125 and is indeed, almost the only state requisition made on the population. Every village and every family acknowledges the liability, and must either serve in person, or provide a substitute, or furnish cattle. The Chinese officers abuse this regulation, and use influence to get an order for a larger oola than they require, that they may take an equi- valent for the excess. The Pacificator of king- doms had procured our missionaries to be set down, as requiring twelve yaks for their luggage, although they had but their beds and two port- manteaus. Like all of his nation, he was exceed- ingly avaricious. The oola being at last provided, the caravan started next morning from Michhou-Koung, and for five days had to pass through ravines and rocky mountains, along the line of the same river that they had crossed on leaving Lassa. The descrip- tion given of this part of the route is very un- geographical, the direction by compass even not being stated. It is, indeed, not quite clear whe- ther the route lay down the course of the Sampou, or Bramapootra, or up one of its tributaries ; but we presume the latter, because, after five days' travel, they ascended the Looma-Ri mountain, or rather table-land. It was not steep, and the ascent was made without dismounting ; but the table- 126 TIBET, TARTARY land extends for forty lis, or about thirteen miles, and the descent to the station of Ghiamda on the other side was difficult, from the quantity of ice and snow. After leaving the table-land, they had first a dense forest to pass in a close ravine, and then to scale a mountain-ridge on foot, from the top of which the descent was made by a slide over congealed snow. There were at Ghiamda two mandarins and eighteen soldiers, who received the Pacificator with a salute, and the Tibetan civil authorities paid a similar compliment to the mis- sionaries and their Deba. At Ghiamda they stayed two days, partly detained by rain and tempestuous weather, but mainly because the oola was incomplete. At Ghiamda, also, the local Deba made the missionaries a present of hair spectacles, to guard their eyes against the glare of snow, a necessary precaution, for from this point they had, for many days together, nothing else but snow to cross. A little way out of Ghi- amda, a torrent was passed on a bridge of firs ; and for three days afterwards there were no vil- lages, nothing but Chinese guard-houses for the relays, with a few shepherds huts; still the horses and cattle of the oola were always ready. On the fourth day, after crossing on ice a large lake, they came to the village of Adza, where the Chinese AND MONGOLIA. 127 itinerary says unicorns are to be found, that is the Cherou antelopes, described by Mr. Hodgson. From Adza to La-K-i is only fifteen miles, but between lies a range of mountains covered with perpetual snow, and for five days it had been falling fresh, making the passage very dangerous. It was determined, after some consultation, to proceed, if the weather continued fine, next day, sending the yaks in advance to beat down a path- way. The sun shone bright, and the ascent was successfidly made of this mountain of spirits. On the other side, near the top, was a glacier which was passed by all the party on the slide, the yaks leading, fortunately, without loss or in- jury. Passing downwards, thence, along the river, the caravan soon arrived at La-Ri, which is reckoned to be one hundred-and-one leagues, or about three hundred-and-three miles from Lassa, and was thus reached on the fifteenth day. There is a provision depot at La-Ri, under a Leang-Tai, or Chinese civil officer, who made the excuse of ill-health for not \'isiting them, but the Pacificator said, it was avarice that prevented the compliment being paid, in order to save the presents that would be required. On the first march from La-Ri, they crossed a lake about three miles long by two-and-a-half broad, quite frozen over, and 128 TIBET, TARTARY lodged for the night at a village called Tsa- chou-ka, close to some hot springs. Next day they crossed the Chor-kou-La, equalling in eleva- tion and difficulty of passage the La-Ri. After the ascent, the journey lay for several days over a table-land of broken ridges, with terrible preci- pices sometimes on both sides, and with so little footing, as to be quite unsafe, other-^vise than mounted on the trained cattle of the country, and these often were lost by a slip or false step. The road, indeed, was occasionally formed of wooden pathways let into the mountain side, without, of course, any railing. After two days' journey of this kind, the cara- van reached Alan-To, where they were congra- tulated by the Deba on their good fortune, in hav- ing lost no lives among the precipices of the approach. From Alan-To, a march of ninety lis, or about 27 miles, brought them to Lang-ki-choung, a pic- turesque village in a wooded valley, called by the Chinese, on account of its fertility, Kin-Keou, " Golden Dell." Here the Pacificator was dis- concerted by the announcement that the oola was ready, but that the Tanda pass in advance was closed. Our missionaries looked into the itine- rary they had borrowed, and found it stated in AND MONGOLIA. 1^29 truth, that the Tanda pass was the most difficult of the entire journey. People were sent to examine the route, and reported it quite impracticable. They were in consequence detained for some days at Lang-Ki-Choung, and found amusement in playing chess with their fellow-travellers, the game being well known even in this wild region. All this while the yaks of the place, added to those of the caravan, were employed in beating down a passage through the snow of the pass. On the fourth day the passage was declared to be suffi- ciently practicable, and they started. The ascent was so steep and slippery, that the only method of mastering it was, to hold on by the tails of their horses, and both would often have slidden over into the valley they had quitted, but for the walls of snow left on either side. M. Gabet was quite exhausted by this ascent, and must have been left behind, if the Tibetan escort had not taken him among them, and with great efforts pushed him up to the top of the pass, scarcely sensible. On the summit of the mountain was a body of Lama pilgrims, on their return from the Lassa- Morou, all lying down to recover their breath, which they had quite lost in the painful ascent. The descent on the other side of the pass was even more precipitous than the ascent, and an ass was G 3 ISO TIBET, TARTARY lost over the precipice ; but, with this exception, all reached Tanda in safety. From this station to Lha-dze, a distance of one hundred and ten lis, or thirty-six miles, the route proceeds along the plain or valley of Pianpa, for half the distance, and then down the bed of a torrent, to what river tributary we seek in vain ; we guess it must be one of the streams that flow into Assam, and not into the Irawadi, or any river of Siam, or into the great river that flows through Cambodia, the main stream of which was yet far to the east. Klaproth would carry into that stream the rivers of Lassa, which we know now to form the Brahmapootra river, debouching with the Ganges into the Bay of Bengal. The rivers of Burma and of Siam reach not to so high a latitude. From Lha-dze to Barilang is one hundred lis or somewhat more than thirty miles, crossing the famous mountain Chak-la, one of the passes which the Chinese call " Life-claimers." It was found fatiguing, but was passed without accident. From Barilang, after a march of equal length in a valley studded with hcrdsmens' huts, and herds of wild yaks, they reached Chobando, a considerable town, with its houses and Lamaserais painted red. Here was a military station of twenty soldiers, under a Tsien-Chong, who as an old conu-adc of AND MONGOLIA. 131 the Pacificator, gave the party a dinner. The town is on the side of a mountain, and to reach it they passed a fierce torrent over a fragile shak- ing wooden bridge. Of this river, also, we learn no more, and are uncertain, therefore, whether the dividing land of the waters of India had yet been reached. They were overtaken here by two imperial couriers, who had left Lassa only six days before, and had in that short time accom- plished six hundred miles, on the same road that the missionaries had traversed with so much diffi- culty in a month. Our travellers were told that the dispatches would reach Pekin on the thirtieth day, carried all the way frequently by the same men. The couriers who make these wonderful journeys, prepare themselves by a day of fast before starting, and during the whole journey eat only two eggs at each relay, never resting any- where, and travelling both night and day. There are two monasteries at Chobando, and in one is the great printing press for sacred works for the entire Kham province, which they had now entered. Kia-yu-Kiao was the next station ; the road led down a valley of heavy forest, and the river Look-chou, which flows through it was broad, deep and rapid ; the wooden bridge over it had recently fallen, the wood hav- 132 TIBET, TARTARY ing* decayed from age and neglect. The river was accordingly passed on a raft constructed hastily for the purjjose. Nine or ten miles below Kia-yu-Kiao they crossed the river again over a fragile wooden bridge, and then passed over a mountain to Wa-ho-chai, a military station, where it began to snow heavily, much to the discom- fiture and alarm of the caravan, for the next day's march lay over a frozen lake, where a general with all his army had been buried in snow in the reign of Kang-hi, owing to his firing a gun at the time of encamping, according to the regulated order of the Chinese military service. The march of next day was long, being one hundred and fifty lis, or from forty-five to fifty miles. They started before daylight, and crossed the table-land and lake of Wa-ho in full sunshine, their eyes suffering ex- tremely from the glare of the snow, notwithstand- ing their use of hair spectacles. It was dark before they came to aij end of the table-land, and they reached Nzenda-chai, by a painfid descent, at midnight, completely worn out with fatigue and nearly blinded. They were compelled to halt next day, in order to relieve their eyes by medical treatment. After three more stages of severe mountain travel, they reached Chamdo (Tsiamdo) on the banks of the great river, Kiang- AND MONGOLIA. 133 tang-Chou. Thus, in thirty-six days from Lassa, they had got over two thousand five hundred lis, of the Chinese itinerary, -which they reckoned equal to two hundred and fifty leagues, or seven hundred and fifty miles. A li is not quite one- third of a mile, for two hundred lis equal a degree of latitude, or sixty-nine statute miles, and one hundred and sixty-six decimal parts of an inch. Chamdo is a considerable military station : it has a garrison of three hundred men, with four officers, a Yeon-Ki, a Tsien-Choong, and two Pa-Choongs. There is also a depot of provi- sions, under charge of a civil officer, called a Liang-tai. Chamdo is the capital of the province of Kham, and was heretofore fortified, but the walls had fallen to decay. It lies in the fork of the two rivers, Dza-Chou and Om-Chou, which uniting form the Kiang-tou-chou, which flows into Cambodia, and is there called the Ya-long- Kiang ; both are bridged, and the road from Lassa to Se-Chouen passes over one, that to Yunan over the other bridge. Chamdo is a con- siderable city, but rather in decay. There is -a large Lamaserai under a Kotooktoo, who is the sovereign of the Kham province. Inferior to him, but also of saintly dignity, is the Chak-Chouba of Jaya, a Lamaserai, lying five hundred lis, or 134 TIBET, TARTARY one hundred and fifty miles, eastward towards China. At the period of our missionaries passing through Chamdo, there was a feud raging between its Kotooktoo and this Chak-chouba ; the latter, an aspiring young priest, claimed to have received the diploma of a Kotooktoo, in a previous gene- ration, from the Delai Lama, a fact of which it was difficult to prove the negative. The Chamdo Kotooktoo, however, refused to recognise this assumption of new dignities, and the entire pro- vince, and especially the priesthood of Kham, were in commotion on account of this quarrel. After the usual course of written and verbal dis- putation, in support of the claim and in resistance to it, the partisans of each side came to blows. Half the province had been ravaged by these hostilities, and the bitterness with which the war was carried on convulsed the entire population. A truce had recently been agreed to, at the time when our missionaries passed, in order that the quarrel might be referred for adjudication to the Delai Lama, and commissioners had been sent from Lassa, and from Pekin, to adjust the dif- ference. Many conferences had, in consequence, been held, and the young aspirant of Jaya himself attended at Chamdo with a lai'ge retinue of his adherents, to influence and overawe the decision. AND MONGOLIA. 135 The popular feeling was all on his side, the elder Kotooktoo of Chamdo being deemed a creature of the imperial court of Pekin, and the Tibetan national spirit eschewing, especially, all foreign intervention in their spiritual quarrels. The mis- sionaries were treated wdth deference and respect by both parties during the three days of their halt at Chamdo. The infirmities of Lee, the Pacificator of Kingdoms, and especially the swell- ing of his legs, had so increased during this painful journey, that he was advised here to purchase a palanquin, but could not be induced to incur the expense. The party was overtaken at this stage by a Chinese Liang-tou, or civil commissary, who was returning to China with his son, a youth of eighteen years of age ; both travelled in palan- quins, having left Lassa a few days after the mis- sionaries : but they had suffered so much from the journey, that it was doubtful whether they would have strength to reach their native country. On our travellers leaving Chamdo, their party was joined by a Chinese soldier, who, having received his discharge, was carrying back his family by a Tibetan wife, an unusual thing, for which he was laughed at by the men of the Chinese escort. The wife rode an ass, and led a pack-horse, with a child in each of two cai?es balanced across his back. 136 TIBET, TARTARY The soldier brought up the rear, with a boy of twelve years old riding behind him. The route of the caravan lay up the Dza-Chou river to Meng- Phoo, distant only about twenty-five miles, and next day a march of twenty miles brought them to Poa-tun, where the Tibetan population began to show a hostile spirit towards the Chinese of the escort. A march of thirty miles then carried them to Bagong ; in the course of it they saw many calcareous hills, full of natural caves, some of large dimensions, but they could not stop to examine them. Before this, all the mountains the missionaries had crossed from Lassa were of gra- nite, but now most of them were of chalk or lime-stone, and the road near Bagong was skirted with frequent slabs of marble, on which the mys- terious prayer " Om mani padme hom " was carved, with more or less neatness, in evidence of the devotion of the population. On the road between Chamdo and Bagong the Chinese Liang-Tou died in his palanquin ; the bearers on setting it down and opening the cur- tains found him dead. He had left Chamdo two days only before the caravan ; and the son here purchased a coffin, and fixed it in the palanquin, in order that the corpse might be so conveyed to the land of its fathers. For this the young man AND MONGOLIA. 137 paid dearly, but filial duty required the sacri- fice. The Tibetan authorities at Bagong distinctly told Lee the Pacificator, that no oola would be furnished, except on payment of a fixed rate of hire. The Pacificator remonstrated, but it was of no use. He accordingly made a complaint to the Proul-Tamba, a Tibetan Lama of great influence, who lived at a short distance from Bagong. The Lama came himself the next day, and was received with great ceremony. He was a man of much intelligence, and of very striking ap- pearance. He recognised the Pacificator as an old comrade, but was himself a hot partisan of the Jaya-Kotooktoo, and had been engaged in many warlike operations in his favour, in which he had always been victorious. He complained loudly of the Chinese, for having interfered in the domestic quarrels of Kham, and alluded also to the trial and punishment of the Nome-Khan of Lassa by Ki-Shen, as a gross violation of Tibetan indepen- dence. He even spoke slightingly of the great emperor, as being a layman of no equal authority with a regenerate Boodh. After much invective of the same kind against Chinese domination, he gave at last the oola, out of consideration for his old coim-ade, and for the two Lamas of the "West, 138 TIBET, TARTARY who, he said, had been specially recommended to him by the regent of Lassa Their route lying by the residence of the Proul-Tamba, they paid him a visit of ceremony on their way, in return for this civility, and towards evening arrived at Wang- Tsa, where the Chinese guard-house had been demolished and everything showed signs of civil war. Here the men who came with the oola resigned their charge to the women of the place, because Gaya, the next stage, being of the opposite faction, the men dared not show themselves near it. On their arrival at Gaya, the women delivered their charge, and returned immediately with the oola quite unmolested, leaving the travellers at the mercy of the population. A council was forth- with held of the chief men of the place, and it was resolved to furnish an oola to the Tibetans of the party, and to the missionaries, gratis, in deference to the regent of Lassa, but to demand payment for all animals taken by Chinese of the party. The Pacificator remonstrated, and inveighed in vain against this resolution ; he was obliged to submit. At Angti, the next stage, they were detained five days, partly by a fall of snow, but mainly while discussing the afiEair of the oola. The Deba Chief of Angti, was a dwarf, almost without legs, named AND MONGOLIA. 139 Bomba, a man nevertheless of great energy of character. Mounted on the shoulders of a strong mountaineer, his voice was always heard loudest ; he influenced every determination of the local council, and arranged everything. He also was particularly civil to the missionaries, and gave them a dinner, but was inexorable in his hostility to the Chinese. On leaving Angti there is a high snowy moun- tain pass, which proved as troublesome as any of the preceding. The passage occupied the whole day, and it Avas midnight before they reached Jaya, the head quarters of the aspiring Kotooktoo. The town had suffered in the civil war, and was nearly destroyed; but there was here a guard- house and a garrison of twenty Chinese, who strove almost in vain to maintain a strict neutrality in the ci^ol war. The next stage was Adzoo- Thang, where they overtook, again, the palanquin of the Liang-Tou, who had died at Bagong, and whose son here also fell a victim to the hardships of the journey. How to carry to China this second corpse, puzzled much the ingenuity of the escort, yet it was a duty not to be neglected. The body of the son was accordingly secretly cut in pieces, and placed in the same coffin with the father. 140 TIBET, TARTARY From Adzoo-Thang the next stage was Che- Pan-Keou, a valley of slates, gold-dust, and musk deer. Here, and at the tliree following stations* the Chinese were similarly called upon to pay the hire of the oola, while the missionaries and Tibe- tans were furnished with cattle gratis. The party next arrived at Keang-Tsa, a Chinese town and military post of considerable size, hav- ing two military mandarins. These latter per- suaded Lee, the Pacificator, to give up travelling on horseback, and to use the palanquin of the son of the civilian, which was at his service gratis, in consequence of the youth's decease. Four days after leaving Keang-Tsa, the caravan reached the banks of the mighty Yang-tse-Keang. They crossed it soon after, and descended its valley to Bathang, a large city and military sta- tion, situated in a climate differing altogether from that in which they had spent the preceding two years. At Bathang is a garrison of three hundred Chinese soldiers, under a Chion-Pie, two Tsien-Chongs, and a Pa-Choong, whose pay, amounting in the whole to nine thousand ounces of silver, is remitted regularly from China. The population is mixed Chinese and Tibetan. There is here a large Tibetan Lamaserai, under a Kampo delegate of the Delai Lama, but his authority is AND MONGOLIA. 141 confined to spiritual matters, the temporal power being in the hands of a Taou-Tse, or tributary prince of China. The increasing illness of the Pacificator caused a halt of three days at Bathang. From Chamdo to Bathang the route had been southerly for the entire twenty days of march, but now it turned northward, and on the second day after leaving that city, they crossed another snowy range, and encamped in a miserable hut, at a station called Ta-so, situated in a valley, whence again they ascended, next day, to a table- land covered with snow. Beneath it was a mag- nificent forest of pines, and cedars, and hollies of large size. The march was long from Ta-so to Samba, and Lee, the Pacificator, quite worn out with the fatigue, was found dead in his bed in the morning^ This caused a halt, untQ arrangements could be made to carry the body forward. The Chinese escort were now without a commandant, and were not willing to obey the Tibetan Lama, who had the separate charge of the escort of that nation, provided by the regent of Lassa. The missionaries were compelled in consequence to take on them- selves the general direction of the party, and were cheerfully obeyed by the men of both nations. Three more days of mountain march carried them 142 TIBET, TARTARY to Li-thang, a depot with one hundred soldiers, having for officers a Liang-tai, a Cheon-pie, and two Pa-Choongs. It was the duty of one of these, to take the command vacated by the death of the Pacificator, and to carry on the escort, but all wished to shirk the service, and to leave the missionaries to direct the march, as they had done since the death of the brigadier-general. On their refusal, a Pa-Choong was at last appointed, who begged for a delay of two days to make pre- paration. At Li-thang is a printing press for Boodhist sacred books, but the language of the place is neither Tibetan nor Chinese, and seemed to the missionaries to resemble the Sifan dialect of the Koko-noor more than any other. The Tibetans of the escort were understood with difficulty. From Li-thang to Ta Tsien-lou, the frontier town of Se-Chouen, was a further distance of six hundred lis, or two hundred miles, of mountain road, divided into eight stages. In the course of this march, one day beyond Makian-Joong, the party crossed a large tributary of the Yang-tse-Kiang, Called Ya-loong-Kiang, which rises at the foot of the Bayan Kharat Mountains, and joins the Blue River in the Se-Chouen province. At Ta-Tsien- lou the Tibetan escort took leave. It was the AND MONGOLIA. 143 end of June when this town was reached ; the journey from Lassa having occupied three months, and being rated in Chinese itineraries at five thousand and fifty lis, sixteen hundred and eighty- three miles. From thence to Se-Chouen the missionaries travelled in palanquins. Of their adventures there, and the trial they underwent before the Chinese tribunals, they promise a separate report, which, if the story be but half as well told, as this of theu- journeys in Tartary and Tibet, will be looked for and read with double interest; for M. Hue's lively and unpretending narrative cannot fail to leave in every reader most kindly feelings of respect for the character of these missionaries, joined to a high reverence for the truly apostolic zeal, and untiring energy, which carried them through their hardships. Every one therefore •will desire to follow them through all their further dangers, and to learn every circumstance of their intercourse with the singular sections of the human race with which they were brought thus strangely in collision, and of whose institutions, habits, and feelings their narrative promises to aflEbrd a more perfect knowledge. But of all the important matters laid open to us in these volumes, there is nothing so interest- ing, or so deserving of attention, as the insight 144 TIBET, TARTARY they afford into the Boodhist doctrines, and into the discipline, ritual, and practices of those who still believe and profess that religion. We must not close our notice of this work without reverting to this subject. Everybody knows that the Boodhist faith so widely spread over Eastern Asia, had its origin in the teachings of Sakhya Muni, a saint, whose era dates long before Christ. The Chinese carry the era back to more than one thousand years, and De Guignes and Klaproth fix it from these autho- rities at 1027 years before Christ. Sir William Jones adopted the same date. But it is to be observed, that the Chinese, acknowledging the author of this religion to have been a native of India, state their nation to have adopted the faith of Boodh one thousand years after it had been preached there- Their chronology, therefore, so far as it dates from this era, commenced only from its thousandth year, and wants earlier verification. Indian authorities, on the other hand, confirming the Cingalese, Burmese, and Siamese dates for the commencement of the Boodhist era, fix the death of Sakhya-^Iuni (called his nirvan, or absor]3tion into the divine spirit) in the year u.c. 543. This difference, of four hundred and thirty-six years has led many to believe the Chinese era to refer AND MONGOLIA. 145 to an anterior Boodh, but it is more probably ascribable to the round number of a thousand, as- sumed for the antiquity of the religion at the time of its spread in that country. The date is so far important, as[the extraordinary similitude in many parts of the doctrine, and of the books, and ritual, and forms, and institutions of this religion, -svith those of Romish Clu-istianity, which was remarked by the Jesuits who visited Tibet in the seven- teenth centmy, and even by Father Rubruquis in the thirteenth, might lead to the belief that they had been borrowed entirely from this latter, if the chain of evidence that established their greater antiquity were less complete. The points of resemblance referred to commence even with the form of the Scriptures, or principal books of the faith. The most important is the life of Sakhya-Muni, whose doctrines are repre- sented as having been delivered in discourses held to his ten disciples, or as arising out of occasions, not unsimilar in some respects to those recorded in our Evangelists. The idea of a divine spirit being moved to take on itself a human form for the instruction of mankind, and for the redemp- tion of the human race from the sins into which it had fallen by a course of degeneracy, is Boodh- istical. The doctrine of the fall of man, that is, H 146 TIBET, TARTARY the Mosaic account of the creation of the world, and of the original sin of the father of the human race, is no part of Boodhism ; and this we may remark would likewise most probably have been found there, if it had been a religion borrowed from the Christian as its antecedent. The spirit of Sakhya-Muni is alleged to have been pre- existent, in a condition of sanctified holiness, pre- eminent amongst the gods of Tushita, and there, being moved to become incarnate in the human form, in order to redeem mankind from the sin and degeneracy it had fallen into from long tast- ing of earthly pleasures, and from their corrupt- ing influences, it elected the royal race of Shudho- duna for the birth. The conception of Maya- Devi, the mother, is described as miraculous and mystical, and the birth as attended with mii'acles, but not of the same description with those which attended the birth of our Saviour. There is, how- ever, a holy man like Simeon, who, admonished by an illumination of the world, bears witness to the child's divine mission, and laments that age will prevent his hearing his doctrine. Sakhya also at school displays learning which confounds the doctors and professors. He takes on himself the domestic state, and marries twice, but at the age of twenty-nine, he is led to commence a course AND MONGOLIA. 147 of meditation, his attention being directed to four subjects in particular — old age, sickness, death, and a future state. He gives up the world to pursue his meditations on these subjects, and to seek the truth. He practises mortifications, until findmg his body weakened, he bathes in the Nyranjana river, and takes refreshment after- wards to recover his strength. This is a species of baptism. He is tempted after his baptism by the God of Pleasure, who makes offers of worldly power, hke those we find in the Temptation in the Wilderness. But he rejects them, and over- comes and drives away the tempter. After this his meditations are rewarded by an inspiration of the divine Spiiit, and so becoming a supreme Boodh, he begins to preach his doctrine, which is adopted first by ten disciples of implicit faith, and then "svins over the multitude. The precepts he inculcates are : — First, That there is sorrow in life. Second, That this sorrow is inseparable from mortality. Third, Tliat it may be remedied. Fourth, That faith in his doc- trine, and its reception and observance will give the remedy, which is, salvation in an improved future state, preparatory to absorption ultimately in the divine spirit. He goes from place to place in India, teaching this doctrine, and is followed H 2 148 TIBET, TARIARY and revered, until he dies at last in Assam at the advanced age of eighty, his death being attended with many prodigies. The body is burnt, and the remains are collected and revered as relics of pre- eminent sanctity. A contention then arises, as to their disposal, and the remains are divided be- tween eight cities, each of which erects a Stupa, or mausoleum over its portion. This is said to have occurred in the reign of Ajata-Satra, who was the predecessor of Chandra- gupta (Sandracottus) by one hundred and ninety- six years. The future state promised by Sakhya- Muni, is regeneration in an inferior or superior animal condition, according to the degree of spi- ritual perfection obtained in life by meditation and faith, the highest reward of all being that which Sakhya-Muni himself obtained, viz., ab- sorption into the divine Spirit, from which all vitality is beHeved to have emanated originally, and to which all will finally return. The next highest state to that of immediate absorption, is that of perpetual regeneration as a Boodh. There is in Boodhism no perpetuity of punishment in a place of torments, but the regeneration in inferior animals, is not very dissimilar to the purgatory of Catholics, as was remarked by Father Grueber ; and the Devas, or gods, of the different heavens. AND MONGOLIA. 149 are of the same class with angels and saints. In every state there is a means of reaching a superior condition, if properly followed out; and life is sacred and not to be taken without sin, because of its being of the divine essence, passing, in this world, through the course prescribed towards final absorption. Such are the principal characteristics of the Boodhist doctrine. With respect to the institu- tions : the doctrine that a spiritual, and even a divine condition is to be obtained by withdrawing from the world, and by meditation, prayer, and abstraction, gave early origin to the monastic con- dition. We have distinct evidence of the exist- ence of institutions of this kind, established in viharas, or cells and caves, or in buildings, erected for the convenience of those who sought so to spiritualise themselves by separation from the world, at dates long antecedent to our era. Such buildings exist in India, at present, only as re- mains of antiquity, quite deserted; but we find them in Tibet and Tartary, exactly in the condi- tion that we may imagine, from the traces left of the domiciles occupied by the Indian Sramanas, or Lamas, that they presented heretofore in various parts of Hindoostan ; and this at periods, at least twenty centuries anterior to the present. That 150 TIBET, TARTARY condition varies very little from what is reported of the earlier Christians ; and we have still, ac- cording to M. Hue, both at Koon-boom and in Tibet, the type of the devotees who practised penances, and sat on pillars, like Simeon Stelites. The discipline, the habits, and even the ritual of these monasteries of Tibet and Tartary, have also a remarkable resemblance to those of the churches of Rome and Constantinople in the middle ages. With respect to the ritual, we have before noticed the strong impression which its resemblance in many points made on Father Grueber, in the se- venteenth century. Caj)tain Turner, the ambas- sador of Warren Hastings to Tibet, in 1783, re- marked the great similarity which the chaunts of alternate verses by the officiating priest, and by the congregations of Tibet, bore to the ceremonies of high-mass in the Romish Church. He was quite ignorant of the Tibetan language, and judged merely of the form, and manner, and effect of what he saw and heard. M. Hue confirms this report, as the result of his longer and more ac- curate observation, based on some acquaintance with the language of Tibet ; and he tells us how intense and extensive is the study of ritual in the Koon-boom monastic college, and in similar insti- tutions of Lassa. Now Csoma Korosi has oiven AND MONGOLIA. 151 US translations, and abstracts, of some part of what is thus chaunted or recited, and we have ourselves been much struck by the resemblance in spirit and tone, to parts of the Litany, and of the Psalms, which are similarly read or chaunted in Catholic churches. Take the following hymn, for instance, in celebration of the victory gained over the great tempter, prior to the reception of the divine inspiration by Sakhya-Muui. We copy it from Csoma Korosi's translation, breaking only the verses, for alternation of the chaunt or recita- tion, which is the method of reading and deliver- ing it. Priest. " There has arisen the Illuminator ol the world ! the world's Protector ! the Maker of light; who gives eyes to the world that is blind, — to cast away the burden of sin." Congregation. " Thou hast been victorious in the fight : thy aim is accomplished by thy moral excellence : thy virtues are perfect : Thou shalt satisfy men with good things." P. " Gotama (Sakhya) is without sin : He is out of the miry pit. He stands on dry ground." C. "Yes, He is out of the mire; and he will save other animated beings, that are carried off by the mighty stream." 152 TIBET, TARTARY P. " The living world has long suffered the dis- ease of corruption. The Prince of physicians is come to cure men from all diseases." C. " Protector of the world ! by thy appearance, all the mansions of distress shall be made empty. Henceforth, angels and men shall enjoy happi- ness," &c., &c. Again, see another hymn. Priest. "To Thee, whose virtue is immaculate, whose understanding is pure and brilliant, who hast the thirty-two characteristic signs complete, and who hast memory of all things, with discern- ment and fore-knowledge." Congregation. " Reverence be to Thee : we adore Thee ; bending our heads to our feet." P. " To Thee, who art clean and pure from all taint of sin, — who art immaculate, and celebrated in the three worlds, — who, being possessed of the three kinds of science, givest to animated beings the eye to discern the three degrees of emancipa- tion from sin." C " Reverence be to Thee." P. " To Thee, who with tranquil mind clearest the troubles of evil times : who, with loving kind- ness, teachest all living things to walk in the path designed for them." AND MONGOLIA. 153 C. " Reverence be to Thee !" P. " Muni ! whose heart is at rest, and who delightest to explain the doubts and perplexities of men: who hast suffered much for the good of living- beings : Thy intention is pure ! Thy practices are perfect." C. " Reverence be to Thee." P. " Teacher of the four truths; rejoice in sal- vation ! who, being thyself free from sin, desirest to free the world from sin." C. " Reverence be to Thee." We could multiply illustrations of this kind without limit ; but these examples will suffice to show the resemblance we have noticed in the forms and method of the Boodhist ritual. It is, hoAvever, much more elaborate than that of any church of Christendom, the books containing it being very voluminous, and the services being exceedingly complicated, and differing, almost, for every day of the year, besides being special for every festival. In the absence of authentic histories, it is not easy to settle the precise period when the doctrine and forms of Boodhist worship were first established in the east; but no one has ever doubted their great antiquity. The early missionaries of the Romish church believed them to be a form of Christianity H 3 154 TIBET, TARTARY preached there in the time of the first Apostles ; and hearing of the theocratic government estab- lished in Tibet, and occasionally amongst Tartars and Mongols of the desert, carried back to Eiu'ope tales of a Prester, or Presbyter John, to excite the wonder, and stimulate the zeal of the pious in Christendom. But the more accurate and search- ing enquiries of the present age have brought out this religion in a new character, and leave little doubt of its priority by several centuries to Chris- tianity, with forms of worship and with doctrines, corresponding closely with those which so forcibly struck Captain Turner in Tibet, and which excited the wonder of the missionaries of successive cen- turies, both there and in Mongolia. Of the sacred books of Boodhism we have now three complete versions, in the Sanscrit, Tibetan, and Pali languages ; and all have been carefully examined and reported upon by thorough profi- cients in each of these languages respectively. We have a Sanscrit version, that was obtained in Nipal by Mr. Hodgson, the British resident at Katman- doo,and after being studied and partially abstracted by himself, was by him transmitted to the Royal Library of Paris about fifteen years ago, and has there been closely examined by Messrs. Remusat and Bourn ouf, whose works on the subject are AND MONGOLIA. 155 before the world. We have also a Tibetan version obtained through the same channel, and subjected by the government of India to the examination of M. Csoma Korosi. The result of his labours has appeared in several translations and abstracts ,which were published in the Asiatic Researches of Bengal, and in the monthly journal of the Asiatic Society, between the years 1835 and 1840, The Pali version was traced out by Mr. George Tumour, a high civil functionary of Ceylon. This gentleman first pub- lished in a separate volume the text, with a close translation of the Maha-wansa, an ancient poem on the origin and spread of the Boodhist religion, com- piled in the fifth century of our era from the Cinga- lese version of the Attha-katha, a work of much higher antiquity. He next published in the pages of the journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, a series of valuable essays, with the heading of "Pali Budliistical Annals ;" and in these we find a com- plete analysis of the sacred books themselves, and a critical examination of the grounds for assuming them to be genuine, and for assigning them to a date and period, very nearly corresponding with that claimed for them by the professors of the religion. "VVe have no means of determining the j^recise date when the Sanscrit version of these Boodhist 156 TIBET, TARTARY Scriptures was prepared. It professes to have been made from an original in the language of Moghada, that is, of Bahar, in which province both Patali- putra, (the ancient Palibothra, now Patna) and Rajgriha, where Sakhya Muni was born, and which was the more ancient capital of that province, were situated. The Tibetan version was translated from the Sanscrit, and took the shape of the Kahgyur, in which it now exists, in one hundred leaf volumes, between the seventh and ninth centuries of our era. Tibet does not pretend to conversion to Boodh- ism till many centuries after the death of Sakhya Muni ; we cannot, therefore, look in this quarter for evidence of the date of the first appearance of this religion in the world ; but when we find that the version of its Scripture now current there, and the Sanscrit version also, through which it was derived, correspond in all essentials with the Pali version of the same Scriptures found in Ceylon, Siam, and Burma (for all these are identical), it . is an undeniable collateral evidence of the genuine character of the whole ; for there could be no collusion between the priests of all these distant regions. Still, in order to establish the antiquity of the original Scriptures, we must seek other proofs than this conformity. The Pali books examined and abstracted by AND MONGOLIA. 157 Mr. Tumour, consist of the Pitakattayan, the At- tha-katha, and the Mahawansa. The first is, quasi, the gospel of Boodhists, containing the life, dis- courses, and precepts of Sakhya Muni himself, as derived from his o^vn mouth, and put together by his disciples immediately after his decease. The Attha-katha is, quasi, the acts of the- apostles, and contains the account of the settlement of the Pita- kattayan, and of the succession of Theros, or chief disciples and preachers of the religion after Sakhya Muni ; also of the schisms which took place in the first few centuries after the nircan, or decease, of the great saint and founder; and especially of the convocations held, as well to settle the Gospel itself in the first instance, as to determine the points of difference, and to suppress schisms as they arose. This latter work is by far the most valuable to the historian, and if its genuineness and antiquity can be considered established, there are many doubtful points of chronology, and many matters touching the succession of kingly races, and other events, also re- garding the state of society of the period between the death of Sakhya, B.C. 543, and the date of its promul- gation, B.C. 306, that it will assist in clearing vxp. It is stated in the Mahawansa, that the Pita- kattayan was brought to Ceylon by Mahindo, the son of Asoka, in the eighteenth year of his father's 158 TIBET, TARTARY reign, that is, in B.C. 306, in the exact Pali form in which it now exists. That the Attha-katha was brought to the island at the same time, but was circulated and first made known in the Cingalese vernacular dialect. Both books are stated to have been preserved, orally only, for more than two cen- turies, as they well might be in the monasteries ; but to have been committed to writing in the reign of a king who flourished in Ceylon between B.C. 104 and B.C. 76. The Attha-katha existed in this condition in Cingalese, until it was rendered back into Pali by a priest who came from Moghada, of great learning and celebrity, whose name was Budha Ghosa. This is stated to have occurred between the years a.d. 410, and a.d. 432 ; and a full account of all these circumstances is given in the Mahawansa, which was written between a.d. 459, and 477, and professes to have been compiled from the same Cingalese version of the Attha-katha. The facts mentioned in both these works corre- spond in all essentials with the record of similar events found in the Sanscrit and Tibetan sacred books, and the differences consist only of some insertions in the former, specially referring to Ceylon, and likely to have been interpolated by priests of that nation. We may, therefore, fairly look on these works as standing nearly on the AND MONGOLIA. 159 same footing as the Pitakattayan : for the record of events found in them was equally brought to Ceylon in the reign of Asoka, in the condition in which it existed, and was received and believed in Moghada in that reign. This be it observed, was more than three hundred years before the birth of our Saviour. The Attha-katha contains nothing of subsequent date to B.C. 306, and it appears to have come to us nearly perfect through this channel, although not free from interpolations, and not in the original text. Now, let us examine whether these books con- tain internal evidence to confirm the inference that they were current at this early period. The Pitakattayan, which contains the life and discourses of Sakhya Muni, refers to cotemporary kings of India, of dynasties known then to have held do- minion in India, and to disciples of Sakhya, who became afterwards leaders of the Boodhist faith. There is nothing found in it inconsistent with the fact of its declared antiquity. The Attha-katha tells us that this Pitakattayan was settled in the state in which we find it, for the Pali language corresponds with that of Moghada, at a convoca- tion held in the first year after Sakhya's decease ; tlu*ee of his disciples, Kasyapa, Upali, and Anando, having each presided at the recital and settlement of the three several portions of the work. 160 TIBET, TARTARY This account of its authorship is confirmed precisely by what is found in the Sanscrit and Tibetan versions of the same sacred books. The Pali Attha-katha tells us further of schisms which then arose amongst the professors of the Boodhist religion, and that for the settlement of these, a second convocation was held one hundred years after the first, which determined the points in dispute, and expelled the heretics. Of this con- vocation, however, and of the schisms which led to it, we have no mention in the Tibetan scriptures of Boodhism, which, as they were avowedly of much later origin, would seem to show that the importance of the convocation, and perhaps even the memory of the schism, had then quite passed away. The points in dispute in this first century of Boodhism, referred to indulgences in matters of priestly discipline, such as in respect to the keeping of salt for more than seven days, which some pretended might be allowed in vessels of horn ; also in the eating of food after mid-day, and things of the kind. The indulgences claimed were ten in number. The convocation denounced them all, requiring a rigid adherence to the letter, as well as to the spirit of the rules and precepts of the Pitakattayan, as settled at the first convoca- ' tion, which shows the severe discij^line enforced at that early period in all viharas, as the religious AND MOXGOLIA. 101 establishments of the priesthood were then called in India. In the reign of Asoka, the grandson of Chan- dragupta, who was the Sandracottus of Megas- thenes, a third convocation was held, according to the Attha-katha and INIahawansa, and the Tibetan sacred books confirm this. King Asoka is stated to have become a convert to Boodhism in the fourth year of his reign, and was an active propa- gandist of the faith. The Attha-katha says, that consequently upon this royal patronage, many heretics and unbelievers assumed the priestly garb, " shaving their heads and clothing them- selves in yellow robes," which is exactly the cha- racteristic of Lamas of the present day ; and that they sauntered about viharas, spreading dissen- sions and interrupting the ceremonies of the true religion, being especially addicted to fire-worship and to sacrifices. Consequently upon these dis- sensions, the rigid priests of Boodhism suspended the performance of the " Uposatho" periodical worship and ceremonies, and also of the Pawa- rano, declaring that these could not properly be performed in the public halls or churches of the viharas in company with heretics. The suspen- sion of these rites continued, according to the statement, for seven years, Avhen King Asoka, 16£ TIBET, TARTARY taking umbrage, ordered the Uposatho to be re- newed at his principal vihara at Pataliputra, and sent his chief minister to enforce this order. The heads of the establishment still refused, where- upon the minister caused several of them to be beheaded on the spot, in the order in which they sat in the assembly. The king's brother, Tisso, who was attached to this vihara, then placed him- self on the seat to which the minister next came in turn, and held out his head for martyrdom by decapitation ; but the minister hesitated, and re- ferred again to the king for orders. Shocked at the issue to which the matter had thus been brought, King Asoka humbled himself before the ministers of religion, and asked for absolution. A convocation was then held to settle the points in dispute, and the Boodhist church being purged by the expulsion of 60,000 heretics, whose yellow dresses were taken away, and white furnished to them instead, the Uposatho was performed again with great solemnity. It was at this convocation that the sacred books were again revised and finally settled, and the Attha-katha closes with the record of this particular event. It occurred in the seventeenth year after Asoka's inaugura- tion, that is, in the year B.C. 307, just before Mahindo's mission to Ceylon. AND MONGOLIA. 163 Such, but with extraordinary detail, is the in- ternal evidence dcducible from these sacred books of Ceylon. It remains to show how this evidence is supported by external events and circum- stances. There is, first, the fact of the era of the death of Sakhya, Muni, (called his " Nirvan " or absorption into the divinity), which era, being introduced into Ceylon, at the time of Mahindo's carrying thither the religion and scriptures of Boodhism, has been retained in the annals of that island to the present day. The same era is current in Burma and in Siam. There is, second, the reference to the reign of Chandragupta and his descendants, whose identity with the Sandra- cottus of Megasthenes is admitted, and whose reign is thus fixed chronologically. These are strong corroboartive circumstances, but are far from being the whole of the evidence. Within the last fifteen years, inscriptions in a very ancient Indian character have been deciphered, which purport to be edicts of a king who calls himself Devanam-pia-Piadasi. These edicts, as trans- lated by Mr. James Prinsep, with the aid of pun- dits in Calcutta, purport to be injunctions of a direct Boodhist character, consistent with the faith thus stated to have been adopted by King Asoka ; and Mr. Turnour has established the 164 TIBET, TARTARY name of Piadasi as identical with that of King Asoka. In two copies of these edicts, viz., those found at Girnar in Guzrat, and at Kapoordigiri, not far from Peshawur, the names of Antiochus and Ptolemy, and of Antigonus, Alexander, and Magas, are specifically cited as of cotemporary kings, through whom the doctrines and principles of the edicts are to be further extended. We are aware that Professor Wilson, in a recent memoir on these inscriptions, has cast doubts on the inter- pretation of the edicts, and denies that there is ground for assigning them to King Asoka, or even for supposing them to be Boodhistical ; but his criticism is a mere statement of doubts ; and whether the edicts of the specific inscription he discusses, which is five times repeated, and pur- ports to contain the edicts of the twenty-seventh year of Piadasi's reign, be fairly susceptible of Boodhistical interpretation or no, signifies little, for there is a further edict in the same precise language and character, and of the same King Pyadasi, which was discovered at Bhabra, on the road between Jypore and Dehli, and which settles the point by specifically referring to the precepts and doctrines of " Bhagavat Boodha," the Lord Boodha, as the only faith to be followed, and condemns the precepts of the Vedas, which AND MONGOLIA. 165 enjom sacrifices ; and the same edict especially upholds the merit and virtues of the " Uposadh " ceremonies, and further, is specifically addressed to the faithful congregated in Moghada. It would thus seem to have been published in the seven- teenth year of this king, on the conclusion of the convocation, referred to in the Attha-katha, for purging the Boodhist church of Vedan heresies, as the condition upon which only the Boodhist priesthood -would perform the periodically-recur- ring rite of Uposadh. This* inscription will be found in No. 102 of the Jo\u"nal of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, and is there given in text, with a translation by Kamla Kant and Sarodha Prashad, the same pundits who assisted Mr. James * The following extracts are from the translation of this most important edict, as made by Kamla Kanta Pundit and Sarodha Prashad: — " Piadasa Raja, to the multitude assembled in Maghada, salut- ing them, says thus : — " That the sacrifice of animals is forbidden is well known to you. For men of Boodhist faith, such is not mete. The per- formance of the Uposadh is most essential." " The vedas of the Munis are observed by their disciples , their future state is to be dreaded. " The text of the vedas enjoining sacrifices are mean and false. Follow That the Lord Boodha hath commanded. Do this for the glory of Dhurma (religion.) This I desire," &c. 166 TIBET, TARTARY Prinsep in the translation and deciphering of the edicts before discovered. The stone containing the writing was afterwards transmitted to Cal- cutta, and is there deposited. The Uposadh was a recurring monthly rite, regulated by the moon's changes ; it was a church service performed in the public halls of the viharas, and whether it could properly be performed in private houses was one of the schismatic points settled at the second convocation. Its suspension for seven years was felt as a national grievance, which the King Asoka determined to remedy, but he was compelled by the obstinacy of the priesthood to submit to their condition of first cleansing the church of its here- tics and schismatics. We conceive, that upon this collateral testimony of rock-preserved edicts, in a language no longer extant, but conforming with that of the Pali sacred books of Ceylon, Siani, and Burma, — of edicts which refer to kings Ptolemy and Antiochus as cotemporaries, the inference will not be rejected, that the sacred books and ritual of the Boodhists, as now observed by professors of that religion, were then the re- ceived scriptures and state religion of India. We have further evidence of this in the ruins of an- cient Stupas and viharas existing in many locali- ties of India, which indicate a condition of things AND MONGOLIA. 167 and of monastic institutions, exactly correspond- ing with the Lamaserais described as still existing in Tibet and at Koon-boom, at Koko Khotun, and in other places of Tartary and Mongolia. The Stupas are mounds of solid masonry erected over the ashes or relics of saints and teachers of the Boodhist religion ; and round them cells and domiciles for disciples or Sramanas appear to have been built by the pious, or provided by themselves, in the precise manner m which they are now found at Koonboom and Lassa. These have for centuries been in ruins, but they bear inscriptions of the same, and even of more early date than the deciphered edicts of Asokato which we have referred above. The most remarkable of these ruins are found at Sanchi, near Bhilsa, south- w^est of Bundelkund. The inscriptions found on several stones and gateways of this ancient vihara, furnished the key for deciphering the 'Asoka edicts ; and wdthin these few days, there has been read at the Royal Asiatic Society of London, a paper by Captain Cunningham, on the subject of excavations made to ascertain the precise con- tents of several of these Stupas. The metal, steatite, and chrystal vases containing the relics have all been exhumed, and on several, or on the coycring cerements, are legible inscriptions in 168 TIBET, TARTARY >^i characters of the age antecedent to that of Asoka, recording that the relics are those of the very disciples and associates of Sakhya Muni, whose names are mentioned in the Pitakattayan and in the Attha-katha, as well as in the Tibetan books. This seems to be a strong confirmation of the verity of those books, and of the fact, that the record they contain was at least the received gospel of the age, when these Stupas were built, . ''% and that alphabet was used. We have no desire and no right to anticipate the publication of the very interesting results which have attended the search of these Stupas. Suffice it that they are quite irreconcileable with any construction of the accounts received of the Boodhist faith, that does not carry back the founder to the sixth century before our era. These, indeed, may not be the real tombs of the saints and disciples of Sakhya Muni, whose names are found on the vases and cerements, but the more probable inference is that they are so ; still, whether admitted to be so or no, the appearance of the buildings, and the character of the inscriptions, indicates a date for their construction at least three or four hundred years before Christ; and the erection of these Stupas at that date over even fictitious relics, shows the sacred books recording the laws of AND MONGOLIA. 169 these saints and disciples, to be then the received faith of a large and wealthy population, and this is all we seek to establish. If Boodhism, however, existed with these books at so early a date, we are met by the difficulty of accounting for the • silence of Greek authors of antiquity in respect to them. The very name of Boodh is met with nowhere in Greek literature before the time of Clemens Alexandrinus, and he mentions only incidentally one Terebinthus, who, coming from India, set up for a Boodh (0ovlru), and imposed on many. We certainly have diffi- culty in accounting for this silence, but it is not inconsistent with Greek habit, so to treat barba- rian literature of all kinds. How little do we find in Greek books of the history or literature of the Persians and Parthians, with whom they were in close relation politically and commerci- ally for many ages. And it is to be observed, the Boodhist sacred books were the special property of the priesthood, and were mostly preserved and- transmitted orally amongst them : probation, by long discipline, and by shaving the head, and assuming the yellow garb of a priest, was a con- dition antecedent to the acquisition of any know- ledge of them ; and the same is even now the case with rigid Boodhists. Have not even the learned I 170 TIBET, TARTARY of Europe, with the advantage of a press, and a reading public eager for knowledge, been for many centuries acquainted with the existence of Boodhists with peculiar doctrines, without, until very recently, obtaining any accurate knowledge of these sacred books ? That the doctrines of Sakhya Muni spread widely over the western world, as well as over the east, is sufficiently known and established. Pythagoras brought the doctrine of transmigration into Greece, at a period so close to that of the decease of Sakhya Muni, as to make it probable that he received it even from himself; but we have no direct evidence that the philosopher went further east than Baby- lon. The fact, however, that he derived his doctrines from an Indian source is very generally admitted ; and it has other points of resemblance with Boodhism, besides the belief in metempsy- chosis, or transmigration of souls. The discipline he established, and the life of silence and medita- .tion he enjoined, with the degrees of initiation introduced, which was a kind of successive ordi- nation, correspond exactly with the precepts of the Pitakattayan, and the practices reported in the Attha-katha. The Pythagorean institutions also are described as very monastic in their character, resembling AND MONGOLIA. 171 thus closely, in that respect also, the viharas of the Boodhists of India. The doctrines of Pythagoras were widely spread over Greece, over Italy, and Asia Minor for centuries after his decease, and under the name of Mythi-aic, the faith of Boodh had also a wide extension. The general expecta- tion of the birth of a great prophet, Redeemer, or Saviour, which is alluded to even by Tacitus, as prevailing at the period when the fovmder of the Christian religion appeared, was, there can be no doubt, of Boodhistic origin,* and not at all confined to Jews, or based only on the prophecies of their Scripture. Although, therefore, the classic litera- ture of that age affords no evidence of the precise character of this Boodhism, nor of the basis of Scripture or tradition on which it rested, still the two facts, viz., first, the existence of these books in India at the period; and secondly, the wide spread in the west of the doctrines and belief which rested upon them, may be considered as both well established, and as not likely to be denied. Under the supposition of the pre-existence of Boodhism, such as these sacred books describe, * The advent of another Boodh a thousand years after Gotama or Sakhya Muni, is distinctly prophesied in the Pitakattayan and Attha-katha. Q-otama declares himself to be the twenty-fifth Boodh, and says, " Bagawa Metteyo is yet to come." The name Metteyo bears an extraordinary resemblance to Messiah. I g 112 TIBET, TARTARY and its professors still preach, the rapid spread of Christianity" in the first and second centuries of our era, is not surprising. To a mind already impressed with Boodhistic belief and Boodhistic doctrines, the bu'th of a Saviour and Redeemer for the Western world, recognised as a new Boodh by wise men of the east, that is, by Magi, Srama- nas, or Lamas, who had obtained the Arhat sanctification, was an event expected, and there- fore readily accepted, when declared and an- nounced. It was no abjuration of an old faith that the teachers of Christianity asked of the Boodhists, but a mere qualification of an existing belief by the incorporation into it of the Mosaic account of the creation, and of original sin, and the fall of man. The Boodhists of the west, accepting Christianity on its first announcement, at once introduced the rites and observances which for centuries had already existed in India. From that country Christianity derived its mona- stic institutions, its forms of ritual, and of ohurch service, its councils or convocations to settle schisms on points of faith, its worship of relics, and working of miracles through them, and much of the discipline, and of the dress of the clergy, even to the shaven heads of the monks and friars. It would require an entire volume to compare in AND MONGOLIA. 173 detail the several points of similarity, and to trace the divergence from the more ancient doctrine and practice, in the creed and forms of ritual ulti- mately adopted by the churches of the west. It is enough for our present purpose to establish the superior antiquity of the one, found to exhibit so many points of close correspondence. But independently of the similarity of doctrine of ritual, and of institutions, we find that Bood- hism has run in the east a very analogous course with Romanism in the west. Having its classes of specially initiated and ordained teachers, it spread widely amongst the population, before it was adopted, and made a state religion by the reigning sovereigns. It was torn to pieces by heresies and schisms on trivial observances and doctrinal points, till one sect, having enlisted the power of the state on its side, persecuted and ex- pelled its opponents, to the weakening and ulti- mate ruin of the church and its authority. The subserviency of the temporal to the spii'itual power was universally preached by this separate initiated class ; and, in presumptous reliance on their in- fluence over the populace, priests in the east, as in the west, have humbled and destroyed the kingly power, and occasionally, when circumstances fa- voured the pretension, have established a priestly iS 174 TIBET, TARTARY government, such as we see in Tibet, in entire supercession of the ordinary temporal authority, and have sought to reserve the administration of all affairs for the special class of initiated or or- dained. But the consequence in the east has been the same as in the west. The priestly govern- ments have been unable to maintain themselves without foreign support : priestly domination has been found quite incompatible with energetic mili- tary action, which always has been, and always must be, the source of real political power. The great Lamas of Tibet are the protected minions of China, just as the Pope of Rome is dependent to day on France, and was recently on Austria, not- withstanding the reverence in which the Papal name and spiritual authority is still held by vast populations. But the religion of Tibet and of China, differ- ing widely in that respect from that of papistical Rome, is by principle tolerant. Believing that the human mind can, by meditation and abstrac- tion, arrive at the knowledge of divine truth, it concedes freedom of thought and conscience to all. Boodhists will contend with Boodhists for the superiority of their Kotooktoo, and will per- secute and excommunicate those who deny his pretensions. Of tliis M. Hue witnessed a striking AXD MONGOLIA. 175 instance in the contentions of the Kotooktoos of Chaniclo and of Jaya, as he passed through Kham, the easternmost province of Tibet. But, towards strangers, and the preachers of new doctrines, Boodhists have always displayed not oidy tole- rance, but every desu*e to hear, to learn, and to understand. Hence the great success that preach- ers of Christianity have always experienced in their missions to Boodhist countries and com- munities. Conformity of doctrine and of precepts in several main essentials leads &, Boodhist to regard a missionary only as a reformer, nay, even as aiming to reclaim men to the pure or more ancient worship of the best days of his own reli- gion. It is only by alarming the civil authorities, and bringing the government to fear the separate association of large numbers for purposeis, and under disciplined leaders, which may be tui'iied to political mischief, that the powers of the state, and of its officers and institutions, are brought into action to suppress and jiut an end to conver- sions. They, whose hearts are set on the mille • nium of a general adoption of the Christian faith ^ would do well to study the causes which led to the violent persecutions instituted against Chris- tian converts and missionaries, in China, in Japan, and more recently in Cambodia. Let 176 TIBET, TARTAEY them use their advantage to engraft the belief of the divine mission of Christ on the prepared mind of the Boodhist population, without seeking the separate organization of their converts into com- munities under a priest's ambitious leading. Let them confine themselves to points of faith, of doc- trine, and of morals, without auning to enforce ritual observances and new modes of life. Thus may they hope to plant the seed, that, sooner or later, will produce a rich harvest of true religious belief, and of virtuous conduct, and sound mo- rality, even though they fail to enforce the uni- versal conformity, which, under the existing diversity of mind, and of motive, and of intel- lectual power, can scarcely be looked upon as a condition intended by Providence for mankind. The Boodhist practical creed is thus briefly stated by Csoma Korosi : — 1st. To take refuge only with Boodh. 2nd. To form in the mind the resolution to aim at the highest degree of perfection, and so to be united with the Supreme Intelligence. 3rd. To humble oneself before Boodh, and to adore him. 4th. To majie oiFcring of things pleasmg to the six senses. 5th. To glorify Boodh by music, and by hymns. AND MONGOLIA. 177 and by praise of his person, doctrine, and love of mankind, of his perfections, or attributes, and of his acts for the benefit of animated beings. 6th. To confess one's sins with a contrite heart, to ask forgiveness of them, and to repent truly, with a resolution not to commit such afterwards. 7th. To rejoice in the moral merit and perfec- tions of animated beings, and to wish that they may obtain beatitude. 8th. To pray and exhort existing holy men to turn the wheel of religion, that the world may long benefit by their teaching. Persuade the Boodhist that Christ fulfils his idea of a perfect Boodh, and let the name of Our Saviour be substituted for Boodh, in the above creed, and the Boodhist creed will approximate closely to that of a perfect Christian. Tson-Kha-pa, the saint-reformer of the four- teenth and fifteenth centuries of our era, accord- ing to the same authority, thus defines the duty of Boodhists, classing mankind in three degrees according to their intellectual capacity. Men of the lowest order of mind must believe that there is a God, and that there is a future life, in which they will receive the reward or punishment of their actions and conduct in this life. 178 TIBET, TARTARS AND MONGOLIA. Men of the middle degree of intellectual capa- city must add to the above, the knoAvledge that all things in this world are perishable ; that im- perfection is a pain and degradation, and that de- liverance from existence is a deliverance from pain, and consequently, a final beatitude. Men of the third, or highest order, must believe in further addition : that nothing exists, or will continue always, or cease absolutely, except through dependence on a casual connection or concatenation. So will they arrive at the true knowledge of God. This comes very near to Christianity, wanting only the name of Christ as the source of the doc- trine, and the Mosaic faith for its antecedent. It is these and the better moral precepts of our Gos- pel, and its doctrine of the separate immortal exist- ence of soul with its hopes in futurity and pro- mises of salvation, that the missionary must seek to add to the foundation already laid by Boodhism. —j a ma LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE i Ti ■LEWIS AND SON, PBINTEES, 21, FINCU LINE, CORNHILL. Date Due rrEEB 2 1^'3 University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 'MC\^ Dp Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 • Box 95iJBa ^°^ LOS InGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 Retumthismat^^ "^ nty-A"^ UNIVERSITY Of i ^ HiVM ORIENTALIA 3 1210 02001 7107