The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-04

should English Invade Grand LAma's
 Domain-OaIy Closed shrine Left
 "why disturb this only hermit king dom now upon the face of the earth? It has nothing that either England or Russia can make use of. But if let alone it will continue to do the world good"
 The man who thus spoke had just read the news that Colonel Younghus- bandman is preparing an expedition at Darjeeling, India, to invade Tibet soon. He is a high caste Brahmin, the Baba Premanand Bharati, and he has been for some months in New York teaching.
 While he has never been in the hermit kingdom, north of the Himalayas, he is well acquainted with numbers of Sonn- yasins or Hindoo ascetics, who frequent Tibet in spite of the prohibitive laws against strangers. Until few years ago these ascetics were welcomed at the mysterious city of Lhasa, because the Grand Lama learned much from them. said the Baba.
 .sThe Hindoos are well acquainted with what is going on in Tibet, and its mysteries are no secrets to them," he went on. "All Hindoos naturally feel very kindly toward the Tibetan lamas and are not little disturbed at the prospect of the expedition of Colonel Younghusband. Sue , .s.:- Al <.
 Tn the last century strain of Brah- n1inism carried there by the Hindoo as- cetics permeated Tibetan Buddhism, and we look upon these yellow men as our nearest brothers without India. They are near to our immortal noun tains and shrines and Tibet is the one remaining country in the world closed, on account of religion, to the curious, the adventurer and the exploiter. Ex- cept in a few caves in the Himalayas there is not shrine or other holy place in all India that the curious globe-trot- ters cannot intrude upon, caricature and profane in books.
 The east looks upon Tibet as a spir- itual engine room for the whole world. You know how fatal is the touch of an ignorant, unsympathetic hand upon material machinery, but vastly more fla tai is the presence of a prying curiosity or greed upon the spirit and atmosphere of holy place. ..-.a
 Send foreign army to Lhasa and the Grand Lama and his anchorites will either flee to the caves or degenerate into the kind of beings so many other priests are. We Hindoos hold that spiritual men are most potent for the good of the world, when they keep themselves most aloof from the world. But, of course, Tibet will soon be inva- ded. D. =.
 But for the decline of China, the presence of Russia in Manchuria and the intrigues of the latter power through an alleged Russian Buddhist, M. Zybi- koff, at Lhasa within the last two years the English probably would not be in such hurry to enter the country. If Japan were not in such an awkward position, facing Russia and relying upon England for moral, if not for ma terial support we might expect the Buddhists of that country to enter protest against this move
 But the whole east, the birthplace of all the worlds religions, is inpotent to raise a hand for the protection of it's last remaining religious shrine. The west will, of course, speak of the open ing of Tibet as an act of civilization, while all Oriental peoples can regard it in no other light than that of spiritual vandalism.
 "The Grand Lama, or Dalai Lama, the Pope of Buddhism. is now a man of about twenty-eight and is what Hin doos call a Ja tis mar yogi, that is, a yogi who remembers his previous lives He has resigned at Lhasa for long ages, having died and reincarnated himself many times, and his life is one of the most conclusive proofs on record of re- incarnation. ...l-g "-.%. :.e
 Indeed, at every rebirth he must prove to his followers upon evidence that would be accepted in a western law court that he was their old Lama. When the Lama dies he tells his disci- pies when and where he will reappear- that is, that he will be reborn in such a family at such time. =:..
 "A sharp watch is set for his reap pearance, and when he is old enough to speak and identify certain objects of furniture and other things that were in his personal possession he is called upUll tU dO SO.$ SllSillCot IollluiS Oli the part of the child in this test would be taken as absolute evidence that it could not be the former Grand Lama, for all Orientals know that once yogi reaches that plane where he awakes to the memory of previous life all of his past lives are opened to him and he never again forgets.
 T am very sure that the Grand Lama Tn his present life has never been seen by any persons but known devotees and disciples. Indeed, it is doubtful if he was ever seen by any of those who have given elaborate descriptions of him. An English army may possibly find him, unless he fees to a cave before it ar- rives in Lhasa.
 sBut an authentic description of the Tibetan Buddha is not of so much in- terest and import to Christendom as certain manuscripts that are known to be in the library at Lhasa. Among them is one, a life of Christ, entitled The Life of Saint Issa, the Best Among the Sons of Men
 This manuscript is in the Pali lan- guage, and is deposited in the archives Of the lamasery of Mount Marbour, the residence of the Grand Lama, overlook ing the city. Transactions which have haaf1 made from this manuscript into