The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1892-01-18
YARNS ABOUT THIBET.
STORIES ABOUT LIFE IN AN Al
MOST UNKNOWN. COUNTRY.

|
tracted Many, Able Chinese Story Tell
erS - Some Remarkable Accounts of
Strange Doiuss in Chinese Writings.
A curious collection of facts respect-
Gus Chinese authors and travellers. has
who has himself explored that nysteri-
| Gus country of middle Asia.
On New Years day at the capital CITY
Lh'asa, there begins season of festivity.
One of the entertainments is called the
Spectacle of the Flying Spirits.'' TIE
performers stretch an enormously large
rope made of hide all the way from the
top to TIE bottom of Mount Potala; then
they fas-en grooved blocks of wood to
their chests and sail down the line like
so many swallows. On top of this same
mountain dwells the pope of the Budd-
hist religion, who is called the tale lama.
He is also the incarnation of the god
which chiefly protects mankind.
On the 30th of the month there is an
other great sport when the king of the
devils is driven away. A priest is chosen
to play the part of the tale lama, and a
layman, selected for his wit and activity.
takes the role of the demon. The latter
smears his face with black and white
paint, and goes before the pretended tale
lama for the purpose of knocking him
The two have an argument on religion,
the issue of which is finally referred by
mutual agreement TO a cast of dice.
These dice are very big ones, about
the size of apples, but the poor fiend has
no show at all in the gamble, for his die
is blank on every side, while the lalnas
has the highest number on each of its
faces. In Thibet, as in Christian coun-
tries, it is always laudable to defraud
the devil.
Being beaten, the king of the devils is
frightened and runs away, with all the
people after him, firing guns and cannon,
so that he is obliged to hide at length in
hole in the mountain, where provisions
have previously been placed to feed him
for few days while he remains in con-
cealment. There are nearly as many
demons in Thibet as there are human
inhabitants, and the priests or ..lamas''
are kept very busy exercising them, be-
cause otherwise they would swarm every
where and do no end of mischief.
POWER OF THE PRIESTS.
If any one is sick or annoyed in any
way the devils are responsible, and the
only sensible thing is to go and hire a
priest to frighten them off For this
purpose the lama reads aloud from the
sacred writings, blows a horn made
from human thigh bone, beats a drum
manufactured out of two human skulls.
rings bell and tells over rosary of
disk shaped beads cut out of human
skulls
The lamas also do large business in
fortune telling. Sometimes they ascer-
tain the fates with barleycorns; at
others they burn sheep bones for the
same purpose or gaze into bowls of
water.
According to one author there is a
very astonishing curiosity in Thibet in
the shape of a plant that flies. 1t re-
sembles dog in shape, is the color of a
tortoise shell and is very tame. If lions
or elephants see it they are frightened,
'hence it is the king of beasts" There
is a kind of black donkey which can
cope in fight with the tiger On the icy
peaks of the Himalayas, says this imagi-
native writer, there is a ''snow maggot,o
resembling the silkworm in appearance.
and weighing nearly a pound. 1t is ex-
cellent to eat, but too much of it will
make one bleed at the nose
Seventy Ii from Lh'asa is a convent OF,
top of IL hill, and a great hole full OF
white clay that is good to eat. As fast
as the clay is eaten more takes its place.
Behind the convent is large lake, and
evildoers who go near always tumble
into it. The ThiDetans used to cast
Buddhas in copper, and the smaller they
were the more they We're worth.
POLITENESS IN THIBET.
Chinese philosophers say that manners
differ every hundred Ii Of distance, and
customs are nc longer the same every
thousand Ii. Thus the ways of the
Thibetans vary, but in most parts it is
usual for woman going to see a priest
to smear her face with molasses. If
this is not done it rs said that she is try
ing to captivate the lama by her comeli-
ness-an objectionable crime. a sign
of pollteness on meeting a person is to
hold up the clasped hands and stick out
the tongue. When a man dies one-half
OF hls property goes to charity and the
other half to the lamas. His family
gets nothing.
One of the writers quoted observes
that in case of death the corpse is tied
up with the head between the knees,
and suspended in q rawhide bag from
the rafters. a few days later it is taken
to the corpse cutters place, where it is
tied to post. The flesh is then cut off
and given to dogs and the bones crushed
in a stone mortar and made up with
grain into balls, which are also thrown
to dogs and vultures. Both these meth
DDS of burial are considered highly de-
sirable.
For small misdemeanors men and
women are stripped and beaten in the