The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-08-15

i SHHSSA AN ~ II. n E DALAI sIAtVl1N..
coNcoRDAT BETWEEN TI-
BETANs VATICAN AND THE
PALACE AT PEklNG. s..
So few have been the foreigners
who have entered Shassa, says the
/ New York Herald, that they can al
most be counted on the hand.
Some years ago an agent OF the
| Indian government. Chandra Das, sue,
ceeded in reaching the Buddhist sa-
cred city and remained there about
two weeks disguised as lama A
Japanese priest. Ekal kawaguchi, in
the role of a Chinese physician, also
| penetrated to the capital in 1900, and
| stayed there two years and two
months. when his secret leaked out
and he had to escape secretly to save
his life. He had an audience with
the Dalai Lama at Potalt palace.
tor.
The palace consists of an imposing
mass of buildings on hill to the
northwest of the city. which COM
mands a view of the great plain sur
rounded by mountains, on which clus-
ter innumerable temples and monas-
teries. The rooms are richly deco
rated In Chinese style. Tibet being
nominally a fef of the Manchu dynas
ty at Picking.
His Sublimity the Dalai Lama is for
the first time for century the de:
facto ruler of the country, instead of
a junta of Buddhist priests, who have
hitherto governed Tibet, keeping the
Dalai Lama in their hands as an in
FAINT or puppet whom they represented
as a mysterious incarnation of the
Deity.
The present Dalai Lama is believed
to be the first in a long line of the
nominal heads of the Buddhist re-
ligion who has escaped the fate of
an early death. He is now IS years
old, and has assumed the actual pre-
negatives of his office in the way of
personal government. He is describ-
ed as having fine, intelligent counte-
nance. He. wears the yellow Tartar
hood or priests cowl and robes of
yellow silk and red wool, with many
under robes Of parti-colored silks.
re tisaGo d iOSEdi =-Cl USdts5 lHG
fruit of the pipul, or DO tree.
The raison d'etre OF the Tibetan
government is the preserva ton and
of Buddhism, and the
policy of the closed door and seclu-
sion was originally adopted for the
same reason. To such an extent was
this idea fostered that the ENJOYS of
the lamas who met Col. Younghus-
bands mission on its approach beg
ged him not TO proceed to the city, I
as the very presence of the foreigners
at it's gates might cause the death Of
the Dalai Lama.
Potala is the monastery which is
the winter residence of the Dalai
Lama. and corresponds to the vatican
Tibet. which has been the least
known country in the world, has been
he only one where an actual theocra- Il
~ held sway. While Potala is the \
headquarters of the real supreme pow
er of the Buddhist pontiff there is
another monastery-that of Tachi- (
1877 miles west of
shassa, of which the head is the Pant It
chen Lama, who is held in even high i
,r generation than the Dalai Lama. I
,eing considered the reincarna ton of s
he Deity as the father. while the
Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of (
he son. 6
For more than four centuries the II
head has exercised in Asia r
n influence analogous to that Of the &
,ope of Christendom in the Middle II
,ges. To this and and to the support OF
ne Tibetan monasteries the Manchu-
ian an ynasty reign ing in China rye IL,
is con TIM ed existence Be- 81
ween he vat lean of sshassa and Z i
alaceS of9 Pek ing there has sesistedi