Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1852-06-23
Feast Of Flowers.

singular custom aiming 'iiS hailioo VI O. ~
ry, is taken from The work of M. Hue, en-
titled Journey through Tartary. &C., re-
Gently published in this country, and which
we would advise every body to procure and
read. While waiting for large caravan
with which to proceed to the Capital OF
Thibet, M. Hue and his companion sojourn-
ed atthe Lamaserai of Kounboum, city oc-
cupied by Lamas, or Buddhist priest, and
there they were present at the festival de-
scribed:
This Lamaserai enjoys sucha great rep
utation, that the worshippers Of Buddha
make pilgrimages to it from all parts of Tar
tary and Thibet, and at the festivals the
confluence of strangers is immense. There
are four grand fetes in the year, but the
most famous is that which occurs on Inc
fifteenth day of the first moon, and which
is called the Feast of Flowers. 1t was the
sixth of the first moon when wetook up our
abode at Kounboum, and already numerous
caravans of pilgrims were arriving by all
the roads leading to it, and every one was
talking of the fete. The flowers this year.
II was said, would be enchanting; the coun-
Gil of the Fine Arts had examined them,
and declared them superior to all that had
been seen IN proceeding years. Of course
we were very eager for information con-
cerning these marvellous flowers and tes-
tival SO entirely unknown to US, and we
were greatly surprised at the details COM
municated to us.
The Flopers of the fifteenth OF the first
month consist of certain representations,
secular and religious, in which all Asiatic
nations appear in their appropriate costume,
and in which the characters, dresses, land
scapes, and decorations are all made out OF
fresh butter! Three months are employed
in preparation for this singular spectacle.
Twenty Lamas, chosen from among the
first artists that can be found, are employed
all day in working at the butter, plungng
their hands continually in water, lest the
heat of their fingers should injure the work;
and as this is during the most rigorous cold
of winter, they have much to suffer.
They begin by mixing and kneading the
butter well in water, to make it firm and
when the material has been sufficiently pre-
pared every one devotes himself to the part
which has been confided to him. All work
is under the direction Of chief, who has
furnished the design for the flowers of the
year, and who presides over its execution.
When the modellers have finished their
work, they give 1t over to another company
of artists, who undertake the colouring, but
still under the direction of the same chief.
On the evening before the fete the con-
course of strangers was immense. Koun-
boum was no longer the calm and silent re-
treat, where all breathee the gravity and
earnestness of religious ile,-but world
ly city, full of tumult and agitation. In all
quarters we heard the piercing cries OF cam
els, and the lowing of the long-haired oxen,
which had brought the pilgrims. On the
higher parts of the mountain rose numer-
Gus tents, where we're encamped those who
had not been able to find lodging in the
houses of the Lamas, aud during the whole
of the fourteenth an immense number OF
pilgrims were engaged in performing pill
grimage round the Lamaserai, in which the
pilgrim is required to PROSTATE himself at
every step! Among these Jealous Budd-
hists were great number Of Mongol Tar
tars, who came from great distance, and
who were remarkable for their heavy, stu
pid look, as well as for the scrupulous ac-
complishment of the ordinances of this kind
of devotion. The Long-haired ones were
there also, not looking at all more engaging
than at Tang -Keou-Eul, walking proudly as
usual, and with the right-arm bare, their
long swords and guns slung in their belts.
The most numerous of all, however, were
the S-Fan, whose faces expressed neither
the rudeness Of the long-haired, nor the
simple good faith of the Tartars, but they
performed their pilgrimage with sort of
nonchalance, as if they would say, "We
understand all that sort Of thing, we belong
to the parish"
Among the crowd of pilgrims we were
surprised to find some Chinese, with chap
lets in their hands, making all the custom
.ary prostrations. They were, as Sandara
the Bearded informed us, dealers in khatas,
who did not believe in Buddha, bat who
performed all these ceremonies to get Gus
tom and sell their wares better. Whether
this were truth or calumny we had no means
of ascertaning but as far as we knew, it
perfectly harmonised with the Chinese char
ac,er. On the fifteenth, the pilgrims max
ing the tour of the Lamaserai were not so
numerous as on the preceding days, for Gu
riosity carried most of them in the direc-
tion where the preparations for the feast
of flowers were gong on. In the evening
we all went out, leaving nobody but old
Akaye to keep house for US. The .fo,cers
were placed IN the open air before the Budd-
hist temples, on light scafoldings of various
designs, interspersed with innumerable va
ses of red and yellow copper, and the whole
most beautifully and tastefully illuminated.
The flowers really astonished us we should
never have imagined that in the midst Of
these deserts, and among halt civilized
people, there could be found artists of such
merit. They were bas-reliefs, in colossal
proportions, representing various subjects
taken from the history of Buddhism. The
figures were animated, the attitudes natu-
raj, the costumes easy and graceful, and at
the first glance you could distinguish the
kind and quality of texture meant to be rep
resented. The furs, especially, were ad-
mirable. The skins of the sheep, tiger,
wolf, and other animals were so we'll exc
cuted, that one was tempted to touch them
with the hand, to assure ones self that they
were not real. In all the reliefs it was easy
to recognise Buddha, for his noble and ma
iestic face belonged quite to the Caucasian
type and this agrees with the Buddhist ira
ditions, which always point TO the sky of
the West as his place of birth. The com
plexion was fair, and delicately tinged with
red the eyes and nose large, the hair long,
wavinc and soft to the touch. The other