The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04
Letter to the New York Suu.

Letter to the New York Suu.
 THE residence of the Grand Lama
 under British protection at Dar-
 4 jeeling Is great historic event, as great as when the Pope of Rome fled to Avignon juvt TOO years ago. The Bud
 dhists of the world estimated at 500,- COG, 900, for all Confucianists, Tauists and Shintoists are reckoned as such, still re- gard the Dalai Lama as the most ex-
 alted parsonage in the world and as the reincarnation of Gautama| Siddhartha,
 'the Perfect One," who passed out of this life 543 years before Christ.
 A friend of mine, who Is a missionary in Calcutta, was deputed by his society to go to Darjeeling and if possible to ascertain if 1t would be safe to send a missionary to Tibet under the present conditions. He very graphically describes his journey from Calcutta, distance of 367 miles, which he did in p hours, cross ing the sacred waters of the Ganges In a ferryboat and then continuing the jour ney by rail. Darjeeling is 6O00 feet above the sea level, and the railroad to the top of the mountain is a very remarkable piece of engineering The train zigzags up a rocky mountain, passing through tea plantations and rich forests, until the sanitarium is reached, which is situated right on the spur of the mountain. From what is known as Tiger Hill can be seen the four highest mountains in the world: Mount Everest, 2s,1O2 feet; Kin chingunga, 2S,156 feet; Janu, 25,304 feet, and Kabru, 24015 feet NO words can adequately describe" he says, "this stu pendous glittering white wall, with its fantastic jagged peaks and background of deep blue sky" The roads were lined with a curious lot of men, mostly Ti- betans, all clothed in picturesque tatters and dr,eadfully dirty. The women were gorgeously adorned with their native jewelry.
 It is here that ''his Holiness, the Dalai Lama," resides, and this fashionable summer resort has virtually become part of "the Forbidden City of Tibet with it's
 gates ajar." The Grand Lama resides In an English bungalow which has been extemporized into a Buddhist monastery
 where the divine ritual Is. very carefully
 performed. The missionary was not per-
 mitted to see the Grand Lama, whose seclusion is very carefully guarded but the holy mans secretary is available to all corners, and they are many from all parts of the world. A regimental guard | from one of the Gurkha regiments is on
 duty, and it is visited by an English cai1 that his master had fled from PelSin, where he had been received in great honor simply because he was advised | to do so by the representatives of the
 European powers, for not only China, but
 Russia and Japan. are carefully watching
 the development of Tibet as part of Great
 Britain's central Asian policy. He called
 attention to the fact that there were two
 battalions of native troops, four guns and
 two companies of sappers and miners
 assembled at Singora on the Darjeeline
 railway, which he thought was intended
 to give the impression that the Indian
 government was determined to protect the
 life of Linsha Khencheu, the officiating
 head of the Tibet government. Prince Chun, the father of the Emperor of
 China and regent in his sons minority,
 is devout disciple of the Grand Lama
 but his Holiness feels much safer in In
 dia than in China, and has now under
 consideration the building of monastery
 either in Nepal or at Darjeeling, to W hicl
 he can gradually transfer the literary l treasures which arg in the Patola oI
 palace temple at Lhasa, among them the S4,O00 volumes of tho Tripatka, or sacred
 books of Gautama. The missionary re-
 turned to Calcutta feeling that the Brit
 ish government would not sanction any
 kind of Christian missionary work al