Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-03-18
ODD TIBETkN DEVILS
LAMAS DRAW FRIGHTFUL PIC
TURES OF THE FIENDS.
All Misfcrtunes, Individual and Nat
uraI, Are Ascribed to Then--May,
However, Be Fought and KiIles
With Swords.

F. N. Nicholas, reporting to the
Geographical society on lamasery life
in Tibet, says:
Fantastic and absurd as lamaism is,
there is, with one exception, nothing
in Cho that is immoral or repugnant
to western ethics. That one excep-
ton is the belief in the Dire or
devils Somewhere in the lowest hell,
Sangee has chained the chief devil,
whose name is Sa-nin-tze or Sa-tin-tze
mot very far from Satan). Pictures
of this fiend are in every temple. They
are made as horrible and revolving
as Tibetan ingenuity will permit. Al
though Sa-tin-tze is a prisoner, he has
under his control legions of lesser
devils whose business it is to harass
humanity.
Lamaist devils do not tempt men as
the Christian devil does. Temptation,
according to the lamas, is merely the
result of a man turning his back on
Sangee. The devils of Tibet injure,
modest and destroy mankind. All the
misfortunes of life are the work of the
Ore sickness" Business. misfortune
and calamities, both individual and
national, are caused by devils. They
are not only personal" but also ram
pant and omnipresent. Almost every
lama has seen a devil and has had a
personal encounter with him. Devils
hate lamas because of their piety, and
take especial delight in attacking
them. Devils are greatly afraid of
guns During the devotional exer-
cises a Tibetan rife was fired three
times every day to scare the devils.
They may be fought and killed with
swords. More than one lama has
told me how he has slain devil.
My only unpleasant experiences in
the Iamasery have resulted from the
belief in devils.
Sudenye suddenly ran amuck one
afternoon. He stripped himself to
the waist, drew his sword and shout
ed that devils were fighting against
Cho. The Kenpo and l were COM
PEELED to sit on Sudenye's chest for
nearly an hour before he returned to
a normal state. promptly discharged
him and sent him to Ia CHEN Lo.
The direct cause of the outbreak was
his secret smoking of opium in cele-
brating New Years day, but his hal
1ucinations and his peculiar manner
are traceable, believe, to the morbid
talk of the lamas about devils and
incarnations and Malaga, and all the
rest of it.
My other servant, Yichi, walked in
his sleep one night and fell down
stairs. On the following evening,
when Kenpo dropped in for a little
chat around the hopen, Yichi turned
to him as to a father confessor and
told him how a devil had gripped
him by the throat and then had
hurled him downstairs. The Kenpo
looked worried and said that the Dire
were evidently at their old tricks
again and were lowering about the
lamasery. He advised me to fire my
rife three times. ] did SO, and this
greatly treasured the Kenpo and
Yichi.
Later Yichi described to me the
devils appearance. 1t was precisely
the same as the horrid picture of the
Sa-tin-tze that is pasted on the wall
of the residence of the Living Buddha
Yichi had looked and shuddered at
the picture so often that it had at
last developed into a nightmare.
Lamasery life is almost certain to
get on the nerves of any man who
takes it too seriously. If the average
American believed as lamas do and
lived their sort of life, he would be
a candidate for lunatic asylum with
in six months.