The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1904-12-22
The Holy Tyranty
How DO the Lamas Inspire Their
Folowers7
BY EDMUND GAMBLER.

Kang-Ma.
With the Tibetans one must expect the
unexpected.
They will try to achieve the impossible,
and shut their eyes to the obvious. They
have a genius for doing the wrong thing
Their elan, their dogged courage, their
unquestonaed her0lsm, their occasional
acuteness, their. more general imbecile
folly and vacillation and inability to
grasp a situation, make Il impossible to
say what they will do In any given cir
cumstances.
against hopeless odds, and die to man
| nghting desperately handful of i'm
pressed peasants win devote themselves
to death in defense Of a village like Re
| old Roman patriots. At other timer tlWf
| Will forsake strong position at the first
shot. and thousands will prowl round a
camp At night, shouting grotesquely, but
| too tiFnid to make a determined attack
| against q vastly outnumbered enemy
This uncertainty OF our enemy may be
| accounted for to some extent by the fact
that we are not often opposed by the
same levies. which would imply that
theirs Is largely the courage of ignorance
| Yet In the face OF the fighting at Palla,
and Mani, and Gyangtze Jong, this Is evil
dently no fair estimate OF the Tibetan
spirit.
The men who stood in the breach at
| Gyantse, in that hell OF shrapnel and
| Maxim and rife bullets. and dropped
4
climbed the wall. met death knowingly,
| and were not terrified by the resources
| Of modern science in war, the magic. the
demons the unseen messages OF death.
But the men who attacked the Kang-
ma post-what parallel have we in his
| tory for these?
They had been sent from Lassa by the
| Karo-la. Here the band divided at the
| junction of the roads Half went to
| Gyangtse TO re-enforce the jong; half to
kang-ma with orders to destroy all the
posts between Phari and the front; Their
\ spiritual masters accompanied them to
see that they did their work well.
| They came by night many miles over
steep mountain cliffs and rocky ravines,
perhaps silently, with determined pur-
pose, weighing the odds; or. maybe,
bOastfully with song and jest saying.
I'VE Will steal upon these English before
dawn and slay them in their beds Then
we VIII hold the fort and kill all who
| come near"
They came in the gray before dawn and
| hid In gully beside our camp. At
the reveiIle sounded, and the sentry left
rushed sword in hand, their rifles slung
| behind their backs. at the wall
The whole attack was directed or. the
southeast front, an unscalable wall of
solid masonry, with bastions at each
corner four feet thick and ten feet high.
They rushed at the bastlons. the only
point on that side they might scramble
They knew nothing Of the fort and its
tracing Perhaps they had expected to
find us eneamped in tents on the open
ground. But from the shallow nullah,
where they lay concealed only 200 yards
distant and watched our sentry, they
could survey this uncomprising front
which they had set themselves to attack
with naked sword
They had no artillery, no gun cotton,
no material for storming. but they had
come from Lassa to take Kang-ma, and
they would not turn back. They hoped
TO scale the wall and annhilate the gar
rlson that held 1t.
They came on undismayed, even as men
flushed with victory The sepoys said
they must be drunk or drugRed They
rushed to the bottom OF the wall tore out
stones and flung them up at our men;
Lhey leaped up and scrambled to gain
foothold and lift themselves on to the
parapet, to seize the muzzles of our rifles:
they fell bullet-pierced. and some turned
savageiy on the wall again.
IL was only a question OF time of min
utes, and the cool, mechanical fire Of the
IWenty-third would have dropped every
man. But at last they turned and fed.
,ha nuufqrs9 nuns ana SIX bodies were left near
the wall sixty more were killed in the
pursuit. Was ever such a hopeless. help
less struggle. such desperate and inef-
fectual gallantry?
Almost before il was light the yak
corps, with their small escort OF thirty
rlnes Of the Second Gurkhas. were start
Ing on the road to Kalutsho. They passed
the hiding place Of the Tibetans without
noticing the few hundred men in rusty
colored cloaks breathing quietly among
the brown stones.
Then the Tibetans made their charge,
Just as the transport had passed. and a
detachment OF them swerved OFF on the
yaks: TWO Tibetan drivers in our service
stood 9Ssd, directly IN their path
VINO are your cried one Of the enemy
only yak-driver," was the frightened
Then take that" the Tbetan said.
,si;, ,sil;n,shing at his arm with no intent to
The Gurkha escort took up a position
oenlho sangar and opened fire-all save
one man, who stock by his yak and re-
FUSED to come under cover despite the
shouts and warnings of his comrades
he killed several, but fell himself
neeked with seven sword cuts. The Tib-
etans were driven Oh and Joined the rOut
from the fort. The whole affair lasted
less than ten minutes.
our casualties were the isolated Curls-
ma killed, two men in the fort slightly
Mouhaed Dy stones. and three OF the
Gurkhas behind the sangars severaiy
wounded, two by sword cuts and one by
bullet in the neck
Ana what was the flame that smould-
cred IN these men and lighted them to
action? -
They might have been Paladins or Cru
saders. But the Buddhsts are not IA
natics. They do not stake eternity on a
single existence They have no Mahdis
or Juggernaut cars And the Tibetans
we are told, are not patriots Politicians
say tnat they want us In their country
that they are priest-ridden. and hate snd
lear tner lamas What then, drove
Certainly not fear. No people on earth
have shown a greater contempt for
ueatn- Their lamas were with them un-
I'll the final assault. Twenty shaven
polls were found hiding in the nullah
Gown which the Tibetans had crept in
the dark. and were Immediately dis
patched.
What promises and cajoleries and
threats the holy men used no one will !
ever know. But whatever the afrerna- |
tive, their simple followers preferred |
death.-London Mail.
Wired, OF Course She Was Won.
There Is luck in matrimony as in /
orator. Take my wife. a pretty and es- !