The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1908-11-13
CURIOUS LAMAS.
Subjecting Themselves For Years to
Senseless and Acute Torture.

Once in Tibet we passed two
Young lamaS from Khan. writes
Sven Hedin in Harper'S Magazine.
They did moi walk like ordinary pill
erimS. but literally 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 PRAYER. then make
mark on the road. arise. JOIN their
hands together again over their
heads. and. muttering prayer. take
few steps forward to the mark. to
fall full length once again and re-
peat the entire ceremony al the way
round the mountain. Performed IN
this manner by "prostration.' the
Journey took twenty days. The two
lamas we saw had only done about
half the distance. and they contem-
plated doing the whole journey twice.
One of them was to return there at
ter having completed his duty as pill
grim. 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 Up
per Tsangpo.
Few forms of self-mortificatio ton
are of such value as this life spent in
the dark, this absolute separation
from the world, from ones follow
men and the light of the sun. In
Linga-gunpa I obtained much valu-
able information regarding this cur
ious custom. In the PRAYER grotto at
that place-a little stone hut at the
foot of cliff-was then lama who
had already been immured for three
years. No one knew him, no one
knew whence he came nor What his
name was. and even we're one to
know his name it was forbidden to
mention it before human beings. But
they told me that the day he went
into 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 entrance 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. y
elbow do you know that he is alive?"
"The food (tsamba) which is pass
ed in to him once day through all
underground passage is eaten up by
the morning, but should we find the
dish untoched one morning, then We
should understand that he had died. y
A stream flows through the cave in
the day time; by this means he gets
water.
How wonderful! For days and
weeks I could not drive the picture
Of this lama ont Of my mind. Never
to hear human voice. never get
glimpse of the sun. never to see the
difference between night and day, on
" to know Of the approach Of VIM
ter by the lowering Of the tempera
ture. I pictured to myself 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 continually
less till finally only tinv little hole
was left. Through this he took his
last farewell Of the sun, and when
that. too. was finally closed up he
remained in complete and utter dark
ness. Since that time three years
had now elapsed. In another tenn
ple. like Linga absolutely unknown
bv Europeans. a lama had lived I'M
INJURED in this manner for siXtv-nlne
years.