The Western outlook., 1915-04-17
ODD TIBETAN DEVILS
LAMAS DRAW FRlGHTFuL PIC
TuRES OF THE FIENDs.
All Misfortunes, Individual and Nat
uraI, Are Ascribed to Them-May,
However, Be Fought and Killed
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 Che that is immoral or repugnant
to western ethics That one excep-
ton is the belief in the "Dre" or
devils Somewhere in the lowest hell,
Sangee has chained the chief devil,
whose name is Sa-nin-tze or Sa-tin-tze
(not 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 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,
mplest and destroy mankind. All the
misfortunes of life are the work of the
"Dre 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 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 a devil.
My only unpleasant experiences in
the ,lamasery 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
Che. The Kenpo and l were COM
PEELED to sit on Sudenye's chest for
nearly an hour before he returned to
a normal state. I 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
lucinations and his peculiar manner
are traceable, | believe, to the morbid
talk of the lamas about devils and
and Ma-ha-ga, 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 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 |
amasery. 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
lewis appearance. 1t was precisely /
he same as the horrid picture of the
sa-tin-tze that is pasted on the wall
IF the residence of the Living, Buddha.
Yichi had looked and shuddered at
he picture so often that 1t had at
asst developed into a nightmare.
Lamasery life is almost certain to
ret on the nerves of any man who
axes it too seriously. If the average
American believed as lamas do and
ived their sort of life, he would be
candidate for, a lunatic asylum with
q six months.