Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-11-06
Miseellaneuus Beading.
CURIOUS LAMAS.
Subjectins Themselves For Years to
Senseless and Acute Torture.
NO.. 80.

Subjectins Themselves For Years to
senseIess and Acute Torture.
Once in Tibet we passed two young
lamas from Khan, writes Sven Hedin
In Harper's Magazine. They did not
walk like ordinary pilgrims, but literal
ly measured off the distance with their
own bodies. Lying down full length on
the ground, they would join their
hand over their heads and read pray
| er, then make mark on the road, arise,
join their hands together again over
their heads, and, muttering a prayer,
take a few steps forward to the mark,
to fall full length once again and re-
peat the entire ceremony all the way
manner by 'prostration," the journey
took twenty days. The two lamas we
saw had only done about half the dis
tance, and they contemplated doing the
whole journey twice. One Of them was
to return there after having completed
his duty as pilgrim. The other-he
was barely twenty years old-was to
pass the remainder Of his earthly life
in a dark grotto on the banks Of the
Upper Tsangpo.
Few forms Of self modification are
Of such value as this life spent in the
dark, this absolute separation from the
world, from ones fellowmen and the
light of the sun. In Linga- -gunpa OBJ
tanned much valuable information re-
garding this curious custom. In the
prayer grotto at that place-a little
stone hut at the foot Of a cliff-was
then lama who had already been i'm
INJURED for three years. No one knew
him, no one knew whence he came nor
what his name was, and even were one
to know his name 1t was forbidden to
mention it before human beings. But
they told me that the day he went in
to the grotto he was followed in most
solemn procession by all the red monks
Of the monastery, and when all the
ceremonies prescribed in the holy books
had been gone through, the narrow en-
trance into the grotto had been closed
up again. We were standing outside
It. I asked the head lama whether he
could hear us talk. He replied, "Oh no,
he can neither hear nor see: he is sunk
night and day in profound meditation"
| How do you know that he Is aliveW
THE food (tsamba) which is passed in
to him once a day through an under
ground passage is eaten up by the
morning, but should we find the dish
untouched one morning, then we should
understand that he had died." A stream
flows through the cave In the day time;
by this means he gets water.
How wonderful! For days and weeks
could not drive the picture Of this
lama out Of my mind. Never to hear
human voice, never get glimpse Of
the sun, never to see the difference be-
tween night and day. only to know OF
the approach of winter by the lowering
of the temperature. pictured to my
self the day when he was entombed In
the cave. He sat there alone and
watched them fill up the opening with
blocks of stone, the: light growing con-
tinually less till finally only tiny lit
tie hole was left. Through this he took
his last farewell Of the sun, and when
that, too, was finally closed up he re-
manned in complete and utter darkness.
Since that time three years had now
elapsed. In another temple, like Linga
absolutely unknown by Europeans,
lama had lived immured in this man
ner for sixty mine years.