Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-24
STRANGE TALES.
A Travellers Marvellous Account Of Tibet
Published In a Chinese Paper.

A Travellers Marvellous Account Of Tibet
Published in a Chinese Paper.
A Chinese newspaper published in Hong
Kong gives the following marvellous account
of Tibet, which it says has received from a
recent traveller in that country, and pub
fishes at his request. Tibet, he says, is de-
signated Buddha's country, and in it there
are lofty. cloud-piercing galleries of pre-
cious things, and buildings of jade, from
which the sound of Pail talk and ringing
of bells flow in harmony through forests
and valleys. In one part there grows the
tree ofperennial spring, and in another part
is the heaven of perpetual youth. At
Lhassa there are four temples, where the
Dalai Lama is enthroned, and where he
strolls about and enjoys himself. These
temples are palatial in size and very beau
tiful. with the dazzling splendor Of gold
and jade.
In Ulterior Tibet are to be seen three
temples where the Banchin Lama is en-
throned. There the writing is all in Pail
and is INTERPRETED according to the Pail
sounds. There are also a nine-stoired pa
CODA, which contains an image of Buddha
looking grave and stern among the sever
precious things, towers high into the air.
There temples, which are surrounded by
fragrant olive trees and grape vines, planted
and trained to interwine and make deep
shade, contain strange things from foreign
lands. The common belief is that the
Banchin Lama is a re-embodiment of Kim
kang, obtained after over ten years en-
ployed in cultivating wisdom, projecting
himself, keeping the precepts, renewing and
purifying the heart, thoroughly mastering
the religious. canons, and abstaining from
all dissipation. The Dalai Lama and the
Banchin Lama are both able to foretell
births and deaths aud future events, and are
also able to solve all doubts and difficulties
of the future.
All Tibetans slain in battle are honored
by the people with offerings ofsweet-scented
flowers. They salute their superiors by
taking off their hats and thrusting out their
tongues three times. The people say the
climate differs every few miles. The punish
melts are very severe. No matter whether
the crime be grave or trivial, the matter
great or small, all offenders, when caught,
are tied up in dark room with all their
limbs bound, and kept there until dragged
out for trial. Sentences of death are carried
out by binding the criminal to a pillar and
shooting at him with muskets and bows in
contest for drink, by taking him to cave
swarming with scorpions and allowing the
latter to stirg him, or by handing him over
to be divided and eaten by the savages of
the o country. They put their dead in
bags made of hides, which they suspend for
seven days from the ridge poles of their
dwellings, while Lama priests chant the
liturgy, and afterward they are carried to
mountain peaks, where the flesh is cut into
thin slices and thrown to the dogs to eat;
this is called the earth interment. The
bones are pulverized, made into pills about
the size of beans, and given to eagles to eat;
this is called sky interment. The sick do
not take medicine, but are placed in the
scorching heat of the sun, with their bodies
daubed all over with butter. Referring, in
conclusion, to the recent war in Sikkim, the
writer says that the inhabitants have al
most been annihilated in war with India,
"but happily the high Imperial Minister
Shing Chuh Shan, has gone forth to restore
harmonvD