The Morgan County press. (Wartburg, Tenn.) 1916-1926, 1922-08-25
TIBET SECRETS
TO Be UNVEILED
Great Britain About to Send a
Mission to That Little
Known Land.
CAREFUL STUDY TO Be MADE
Explorers and Scientists Will Exam.
Inc Rare Books and Manuscripts and
Thoroughly Investigate Customs
on the "Roof Of the World"

London.-Great Britain intends to
make thorough study Of the little
known land of Tibet, where devil
worship and belief in ghosts still ex-
list.
A mission composed Of some of Great
Britain's 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 India
and China. The mission will proceed
under the auspices of the International
Buddhist union, representing all
schools of Buddhism, including the
Buddhist society of the United States.
Rare Books TO Be Studied.
The mission will make a closer in
vestigation Of the Tibetan people, their
customs, religion and language than
has yet been possible, together with a
study of rare books and manuscripts
known to exist in the monastic Ii
brarieS. These are expected to prove
of the greatest value, not only to
Buddhist scholarship and to the study
of comparative religion, but in filling
many gaps that at present exist In the
worlds knowledge of the early history
of country which to the present day
Is yelled in mystery.
The Tibetans live in mountain
strongholds $4,000 feet above the level
of the sea, 500 feet higher than Mount
Whitney, the highest peak in the Unit
ed States. They have always proved
inhospitable to foreigners and to the
Introduction Of modern ideas.
Little is known of the origin of the
people. Local tradition has it that the
progenitors of the race were "a She
devil Of the Himalayas" and an ape
from the plains of Hindustan.
The last foreigner in Tibet was an
American missionary, DR.. A. l.. Shell
ton of San Francisco, who spent II
years at Batang, near the Chino-Ti-
betan border.
Last of Theocracies.
In it's form Of government Tibet is
one of the few remaining theocracies
in the world. The people lead a ,
nomadic life. Monogamy, polygamy,
and polyandry flourish. Under the
polyandrous system the eldest son Of
family marries woman and she be-
comes the common wife of himself
and his brothers. /
Doctor Shelton found that the I'll
betan 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 occupies a superior position.
She is master of the home and farm.
Grass, worms, fungi and the horns
of young deer, ground to powder, are
considered by the Tibetans infallible
medicinal remedies for all ills and are
even held in high favor as table deli
cacies.
Thousands of years of isolation have
paralyZed the progress Of the people.
There is no public instruction. Pagan
forms of worship prevail. Only the
most elemental form of government
exists.
Offenders against the law, which is
derived largely from the Kanjur, the
Buddhist bible, work of 10S volumes
are punished by having their hands
and feet amputated.
When Tibetan dies his body is dis
membered and fed to vultures.
The people are extremely poor.
They dress in sheepskins and the usual
rule is one garment to a person.
naurE "a 0iInnEM ~ nnrAHn