The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-22
MORE MISSIONARIES PENETRATE TH|BET Dr. Shelton and Family
 Undertake Trip A FERROUS JOURNEY Objective Point of Msnd and Wife Is Shasa, Holiest, Most Secred
 and Most Mysterious
 City of East
A FERROUS JOURNEY

ragS-dlflN, tanned, hllnost piach DJ cA- posture and at deaths door with fatigue staggered to the courtyard of the China Inland Mission house at Ta-Chien-Lu. When strength enough for speech re- turned she told her story. It was Dr. Susie Carsons Rijnhart. the first woman missionary who ever penetrated the wilds of Tibet and returned to tell the story.
 Al lthe world knows the wonderful his tory of the woman's homeward journey of 15oo miles, unprotected and alone, from the interior, near the outskirts of Lhasa. where she buried her baby beneath stone on the mountainside and where her husband was later captured by hostile natives and murdered
 Since that time only one group of for eigners has penetrated interior Tibet. This was the band of Englshmen who reached and invaded the sacred city un- der the command of Colonel Younhus- band. Since the unsuccessful ending of that expedition Lhasa and interior Tibet have again been closed to the outside world, wonderful region whose myste- ries have been guarded as the holy of hoies and as the impenetrable sanctuary
 
 of the mysterious east.
 But it Is not to remain so When in 1901 pr. Rijnhart returned to her chosen field northwestern China. she took with her two missionaries of the Foreign Christian Missionary society, Dr. and Mrs. A. l.. shelton iWth them she estab- lished apather mission in Ta-Chien-Lu. of which Dr. Shelton and his wife took oh rpreo m aat af ta fo, missionary year ago.
 Later 1t was given over to other hands. for Dr. Shelton and his wife resolved to emulate the example of the Rijnharts. and if it be in human power they intend to penetrate interior Tibet and to estab- fish a Christian mission in Lhasa. the very shrine of Buddha, where no foreign CT has ever been permitted peaceably to enter and where none has ever dwelt.
 iWth their baby girls, Doris, years old, and Dorothy. [ the two missionaries set out from Ta-Chien-Lu last fall on their arduous and dangerous journey They have now arrived at Batang, about Q months journey from I,hasa, whence they have sent to this country the most remarkable collection of Tibetan photo graphs ever secured. The mission station Is near the lamasary at Batang, which houses 5000 lamas or Buddhist priests,
 
 of Tibet
 The western theosophists cherished ideal of this life, pure spirit and lofty contemplation. Is hardly borne out by the description of the Buddish lamas, as seen in everday life by the Sheltons. To begin with, like all Tibetans. they are in- ordinately dirty. The native of Tibet never bathes, nor is the lama an excep- ton tothis rule. They are covered with dirt and grease and exude an odor of ran cid butter from the fumes of the butter lamps that fl lthe temples.
 They are also infested with vermin, which they may not even destroy, be- cause to kill even the humblest of ami mals is contrary to the teachings of the Buddhist religion. The wonderful learn In gof tho Buddhist lama is also said to be largely product of western imagna- tion. The worship consists largely in noisy incantations. in the process of which guns are sometimes fred bels ring and horns give forth deafening blasts
 Huge borfires are an accepted means of warding off the demons of famine pes tilence and war. The religion of the Ti- betan Is largely a system of devil worship to propitlate and ward off wicked spirits Prayer wheels and heaps of 'mani'' stones. surmounted by little prayer flags are In evidence in the widest and most remote regions of the country. At one of the stages of his Journey Dr. Shelton huge mound of mani stones ever mile long. Each stone had been deposited at some time by a passing pilgrim.
 The Tibetan woman may not be without ebauty. It is impossible to tell, since she does not wash Men and women bright colored cloth. fastened about the waist by green and red sashes. The blouse waist portion is always used as the re- ceptacle for the tea basin. whence it is handily drawn forth at the constantly re- curing hospitality of tea drinking.
 Women and men wear heavy top boots. They may be distinguished by the head dress. Both sexes braid the hair into in- plaits, sometimes over 100. In some sections the plaits are fastened to- gether with bright colored cloth or with a heavy felt band covered with silver ir- shells and beads A turban with a white fur brim and a red tassel hang ing from the pointed crown is often worn.
 Women fin the district of Lhasa wear for hair ornaments a silver halo set with turquoise-a most becoming headdress other things being equal The Tibetan damsel uses her braids in coquettish fash ion much as do our debutante her fan If she is or wishes to apear confused she shakes the curtain of buttered locks over her face. forming screen through which she peers with artful artlessness. In some regions near remote lamaseries the wom- en are said to daub their faces with a greasy black cosmetic lest the lamas might be tempted by their beauty, a pre- caution which can hardly fail to impress the traveller as rather unnecessary
 Execp. the great caravan route, which is so thicly beset with spies that to travel it without meeting a military com pany sent out to turn the travellers back is impossible the roads to Lhasa are narrow mountain passes, in some places only obe traversed by climbing single file or mounted on sure footed yaks Ii is Through such narrow, precipitous passes that Dr. Shelton, his wife and lit- tie ones have so far made their way. If as they near Lhasa they should take the path travelled by Dr. Rijnhart and her husband and child they will pass big boulder beneath which lie the remains of year-old baby boy, the first white child ever in Tibet.
 Doris and Dorothy Shelton who have so far endured the journey very well, are the most remarkable pilgrims in the world. They are the youngest and If their parents accomplish the purpose to which they have consecrated their lives. Doris and Dorothy will one day romp and rollick in the sombre shadows of Lhasa, the holiest city of all Asia, where the Dalai Lama lives in his wonderful palace, building whose immensity and ornamentation baffe description. where many of the houses are literally roofed with gold and where the dead are dis membered. then left exposed on stone