The Red Cloud chief., 1888-09-21
THI-BEIT WANG S g
Dr. the jewellers on the Roof Of
the World"
Something About This Extraordinary PEG
Ple-Their Peculiar Manners, Gus
toms and Religious Rites
The Defxi Lamns.


belt Wang Tsue. Owe their nationality
70 2 ~princcly Chinese rebel, who on ac-
count of some court intrigue took
refuge with his family among those
mountainous regions now called Thibet.
Establishing himself on the Yarling'
river. he gathered TO his standard the
wild. hairy. mountain-cave dwellerS of
this lofty plateau. With the Khuenlun
Mountains on the north and the mighty
Himaiayas on the south. Wong Chou
felt himselfinvincible and impregrable;
and so il proved. for this settlement of
savages fiourished. and in course of
time developed one OF the strangest
civilizations in the world.
La order TO understand this people.
ths- manners. customs and religious
rites. We must glance at their country.
II is the Hottest plateau on the globe.
yirt with steep barriers and with ex-
tremes Of temperature, in some parts
freezing every night, even in summer.
while in others the noon sun is more
fierce and scorching than in the hot
test regions Of Hindostan. From its
lofty table-land descend some OF the
greatest rivers of Asia. the Indus. the
Brahmapoo:ra. the Irrawady. the Gan
yes. the Hohang-hO. At their sources
mountains pile upon mountains. some
bare and volcanic, Others covered with
primeyal forests. frightfully tangled
together with huge creepers. as yet
unnamed by the botanist. The highest
peaks VA in awful grandeur. vapOr-
crowned and snOw-clad. assuming in
the rising and setting sun forms of I'M
speakable ~splendor. The annual trans
formations of this land of mountain
and valley are magical: evergreenS.
ferns. lichcns, mosses, thousands of
mountain rills. and myriads of flowers
fill it with music. fragrance and dewy
beauty: in winter storms. darkness.
heavy mists and a terrifying silence en-
wrap The land-now and then this awful
silence is broken by ayalanches of ice
and snow. laundering and booming
down the mountains as with the roar
ing of distant cannon. And above all
when night on. there is nowhere
4 Land so weird: il is full Of milky
vapors OF serpentinc form. of shades
and phantoms. inspiring in the minds
of lis inhabitants a sense of ave..
mystery and sublimity. Ii is not
strange that the jewellers on the Roof
OF the World" should be what they are
the most superstitiOuS. re~verentiai.
religious and credulous people on the
face of the earth.
Nowhere. as in Thibef. does Buddh-
ism and lis mysterious doctrine of the
TRANSPORTATION of souls hold sway SO
absolute. The mountain caves are
filled with male and female ascetics.
who practice the most austere forms of
penauce. abstinence and self-tOrture,
in order to work out their dedication:
in what was once the lair of wild
beasts. live Thibetian maidens. who for
years scourge themselves with bruises.
sanctify themselves by continual fasts.
prayers and pious meditatiOnS in the
hope that they may become mothers to
future Delai Lamas: here are converts
and monasteries without end, temples.
shrines and pagodas without number.
filed with pilgrims. saints. sages, ma
g~iciaIs. rahats (saintS in the various
stages OF deitication), arahats. both
MAJ and female. Here is enshrincd
the great Dclai Lama himself. the latest
living incarnation of the Buddha. be-
lieved in Us a veritable man-gOd. pure.
infallible. omniprcsent and o~mniscient.
who Is wor>hiped with the most
sumlsuous OF pagan rituals morning.
noon and night as a heavenly deity:
while on every conspicuous rock and
towering peas is cut in huge Thibetian
characters the mystical and symbolic
p~rayerOffered tO: this strange man-deity:
'-O.n Manni Padmih HON."
Amid this grand scenery and these
strange ideas of human dedication. a
Thibetian village makes but a mean
appearance. The houses are alike.