The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1922-08-11
BUDDHIST UNION
TO EXPLORE TIBET
BRITISH TO MAKE THOR
OUCH STUDY LAND
SEARCH BURIED CITY
Explorers Will Start Closer In
vestigation People, Gus
toms and Religion

London, July 2k-LCorrespond-
ence of The Associated PressI.
Great Britain intends to make a
thorough study of the little known
land of Tibet, where devil worship
and belief in ghosts still exist. A
mission composed of some OF Eng.
lands ablest explorers. scientists,
missionaries and ethnologists soon
will leave London for the city OF
Lhasa, which is buried behind the
worlds greatest rampant Of noun
tains, the HimalayaS. between In
dia and China. The mission will pro-
coed under the auspices OF the In
ternational Buddhist Union, repre-
senting all schools OF Buddhism. in
GLIDING the Buddhist Society of the
United States.
The mission will make a closer
Investigation of the Tibetan people,
their customs, religion and language,
than has yet been possible, together
with a study of rare books and man
uscrips known to exist in the mon
astic libraries. These are expected
TO prove of the greatest value, not
only to Buddhist scholarship and to
the study of comparative religion,
but to fill many gaps that at pres
ent exist IN the worlds knowledge
of the early history OF a country
which to the present day is yelled
in mystery.
Live High Above Sea Level
The Tibetans live in mountain
strongholds. $1,000 feet above the
level of the sea, which is 500 feet
higher than Mount Whitney, the
highest peak in the United States.
They have always proved inhospit-
able to foreigners and to the intro
duction of modern ideas. Little is
known of the origin of the people.
Local tradition has it that the pro-
genitors of the race were "a She
devil of the Himalayas" and an ape
from the plains of Hindustan.
The hast foreigner in Tibet was
an American medical missionary,
Dr. A. j.. Shelton, of San Francisco,
who spent II years at Batang, near
the Chino Tibetan border. In it's
form of government. Tibet is one Of
the few remaining theocracies in
the world. The people lead nom
adic life. Monogamy, polygamy and
polyrandry flourish. Under the poly
androus system, the, eldest son OF a
family marries 4 woman and she
becomes the common wife of him
self and his brothers.
. DR.. Shelton found tkst the Tibetan
woman usually marries three or four
brothers. and in one case that came
under his observation a woman had
six brothers for husbands. The
oldest brother Is considered the
father and the other brothers the
uncles of the family. Woman oc-
cupies a superior position. She is
master of the home and farm. Grass
worms, fungi and the horns of young
deer, ground to powder, are consid-
cred by the Tibetans infallible med
icinal remedies for all ills. and are
even held in high favor as table
delicacies.
Thousands of years of isolation
have paralyzed-the progress of the
people. There is no public instruc
ton. Pagan forms of worship pre-
vail. Only the most elemental form
of government exists. Offenders a.
gainst the law, which is derived
largely from the Kanjur, the Budd-
hist Bible, a work of 10S volumes,
are punished by having their hands
and feet amputated. When a Tibet
an dies his body is dismembered and
fed to the vultures. The people are
extremely poor. They dress in sheep
skins and the usual rule is one gar
ment to a person.