The Washington herald., 1912-09-29

the schools OF the nations Capital rank
with the best In the country.
1t for saying prayers written thereon
gives the barrel a push.
| About Tsong says there has been
many a fight over his prayer barrel. II
after one monk has given It a turn
| another comes along. stops the barrel.
and starts It OF for himself. there Is
/ sure to be a quarrel. Another mode OF
worship is the prayer wheel. In every
mountain one can find thousands OF
them continually revolving prayers for
! their owners At the entrance of every
| monastery there are long streamers OF
paper filed with prayers Worship in this
country is reduced to an exact science
| The people worship by machinery. This
| seems to me a very strong piece OF sar-
casm on the boosted progressiveness OF
the West.
Meets Medical student.
Before arriving at the monastery /
stopped at a small town nearly a hundred
miles from here. met a young medi-
cal student. with whom i became quite
friendly. He explained to me some
methods OF his science. His professors,
he said. taught him that one side Of
the body is Oiled with yellow bile and
the other half is filled with blood. All
diagnoses are made from feeling the
pulse. The young man felt the pulse in
my right arm, and after looking at the
sky gravely for a few moments declared
my left kidney to be out OF order.
Before leaving the fellow he insisted
that We go up an adjoining mountain
| and send horses to unfortunate travellers
| / was somewhat perple1ed until We ar
rived at the place from where the horses
were to be sent He produced a large
bundle of scrap paper. On each piece
was written a prayer and the picture Of
| a horse. He threw the paper away by
! the handful, declaring that the great
Bu1dha would turn the paper horses into
real ones, TO be used by any travellers
| who may be distressed on the highways.
After We returned from this holy mis-
sion he took me to what corresponds to
| the dissecting hall OF a Western medical
school. l was surprised to find NOT a
! single anatomical specimen. The walls
| were filled with diagrams of the human
body. The places of the internal or
gans were marked by number. He said
that the ills of the body were Al in
| number He would rot agree with me
that humanity suffered from an almost
| infinite number Of ills.
This is a priest-ridden land. There are
monasteries here by the thousand
| Some OF them contain as many as u. 900
monks some OF whom are very rich and
l others very poor. Certain monks have
more business ability than others. and
/ as a consequence collect more aims. On
account OF the overwhelming number OF
/ monks the manageable men are so few
I that polygamy is absolutely necessary.
| II is estimated that there are twice as
many women in the country as there are
men.
! The celebration Of high mass is very
much like that of the Catholic Church.
The priest who performs dresses in a
! chasubel. Hn alb and wears a mitre. all
OF which are worn by a bishop in my
own church. He stands on the altar and
sings the ritual In Tibetan. and is an
swered by the choir OF deacons sitting
behind him. The deacons sit in rows and
| each has his book of prayers Religion
is a matter OF form with them. how
| ever. for I have seen them laugh and
chat while service was going on.
Pcnance for Sin.
Several days ago a rich pilgrim came
to this monastery He had committed
great sin and wished to do pennance for
| 1t by giving aims to the monks. He
gave them each a bowl Of tea, five pieces
OF money. and a brick OF tea. He was a
merchant from Mongolia, who had killed
| a monk accidentally.
There are two classes of monks: those
Of the yellow habit and those OF the red.
Those of the yellow represent the more
liberal side Of the religion. and came
| into existence about 1900 Those Of
the yellow are the more conservative as
their existence dates as far back as go
A D. Both sects live in the same mon
asteries, however, and attend the same
exercises. Their fundamental beliefs are
the same.
| One can always tell when he Is getting
near the Tibetan border By the mendi-
| cant monks he meets. They are mostly
of the yellow habit variety. They in
variably have their little wooden bowls
with them, and the moment they meet
you they take II from their pockets and
ask for few pence for the great Bud
| dha's sake. They use the bowl to receive
| aims In, to drink tea out OF. to eat out
| OF, and for several other things Tea. /
NAV say, is the national drink, and it is
rather peculiar to see a number of monks
licking their bowls after having drank
all the tea they will contain.
| I should like very we'll to get to Lassa.
The abbot has Just been telling me of the
great Dalai llama and his college OF
| cardinals. The college of cardinals Is
| composed of the abbots Of the larger
| monasteries. The abbot of this estab-
lishment Is member Of the college and
has just returned from a long conference
| with the Pope.
] Inc sudnse dndlORleS between the
I Catholic ritual and the Buddhist has
caused much wonder among comparative
historians. Some state that the Tfbetans
copied their present monastic system
| from HISTORIAN monks who visited their
| country shortly after Christ. Others
claim that Buddhism had its monastic
system before Christianity came into ex-
istence. I rather think that the
Buddhists have copied their ritual from
the Roman Church. It is true that
Buddhism is more than 500 years older
that Christianity, but II must be re-
membered that monastaries and con-
vents were founded by a Lama In about
900 A. ID. -;fter this Buddhism was
recognized as the state religion by Asoka
the Great In view of these facts It
seems to me that the present analogy
between the two great churches was
brought by HISTORIAN missionaries who
are known to~have visited Tibet at a
very early timea
JEAN JACQUES CLEMENcEAU.
l A Trade Grfernn~~