;
TARTARY AND MONGOLIA
TIBET,
SOCIAL
AND POLITICAL CONDITION,
THE RELIGION OF BOODH, AS THERE EXISTING.
COMPILED FROM THE REPORTS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TRAVELLERS, ESPECIALLT
FROM
M. Hue's REMINISCENCES OF
AND
M.
THE RECENT JOURNEY OP HIMRELF
GABET, LAZARISTE MISSIONARIES OF MONGOLIA.
Tb*
HENRY
T.
PRINSEP, 1
^
Esq.
\
Scconti lElfUton.
LONDON:
Wm. H. 7,
ALLEN
&
CO.,
LEADENHALL STREET. 1852.
I.F.V IS
AND SON, PIUNTEKS,
21, FINCH LANE, CORMIILL.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
This
little
volume pretends
to
no higher merit
than to be a faithful abstract of the information, regarding the civil
tions of Tibet, Tartary,
been furnished by
and
religious Institu-
and Mongolia, that has
travellers, or
by men who
have made the language and literatm'e
of
those countries their especial study. It
was undertaken before M. Hue's account
of his adventurous journey through these regions, in
quu'ed
company with M. Gabet, had
the
popularity
it
ac-
has since attained.
That work will now have been read, either
in the
original French, or in the English translation,
by
all
who
description,
take an interest in matters of this
and by many more
besides,
who
IV
read only for entertainment and to pass the hour.
We
have no wish, and
effort
the
would be
volumes. likely to
vain, to
of these
perusal If,
we had
if
however,
the desire, the
withdraw readers from
and
lively
instructive
we had thought them
be so soon made generally accessible to
English readers, the idea of printing and pub-
which
lishing a work, the half of
of
M. Hue's " Souvenirs"
its
an abstract
of his journey,
But our
never have occurred to us.
with
is
would
abstract,
notice of antecedent journeys into the
same regions, and
its
summary
of the result of
recent researches into the sacred literature of the
Boodhists, appeared just
began to
as
M. Hue's work
excite attention in England,
been read along
with
it
;
and has
finding so
much
favour, that the whole of the copies originally
printed have been sold, and the book
longer procurable by those refer to
it.
This alone
is
is
now no
who desire to read or reason sufficient for
reprinting the work, with such revisions and corrections, as,
on a
careful re-perusal,
it
has
seemed
to
need
Of
.
these, the
most
matcrical
have been suggested by the discovery, that the Chinese itinerary, which guided these missionaries in their
journey on return, was the iden-
tical
work
sian
by the Archimandrite Hyacinthe Bitchou-
rin,
and was commented upon and fm-ther
that
had been translated
into
Rus-
illustrated
by the learned Klaproth, and so
pubhshed
in Paris
this
work,
in 1831.
By
we have been enabled
curately the route followed
by
re-
the aid of
to trace ac-
tlfese
travellers
in the latter part of their adventm'ous journey,
and greatly to improve the sketch map given the
first
edition, so as to
add
in
to its value as
a geographical record.
But there
is
a fm'ther reason for republish-
ing this volume at the present juncture, and that
is,
that the
those to keep
book
is
a useful
summary
by them, whose profession
for
or
whose pursuits may require them to have some practical acquaintance with Boodhist notions
and Boodhist
institutions.
VI
The whole would seem
now
India being
of
to be the destiny of
British,
England
it
to
be drawn, day by day, more into relation with the races of gion,
mankind who
profess that
reli-
and who, occupying the countries beyond
India, have hitherto
made
it
their study
to
isolate themselves frona the contagion of west-
ern
and European
intelligence,
The war with China, to break
down
in
1841-42, did much
the barrier which fenced round
her social institutions; discoveries
civilization.
in the
and the recent gold
countries
washed by the
Pacific ocean, are fast contributing to establish
an intercourse, that must soon revolution-
ize,
and fuse into a community of
intelligence
and of perceptions, the races which have
for
centuries prided themselves on the strength of their separate civilization,
and on the progress
made
in arts
and
of Europe,
by the
force of native ingenuity
they
sciences, even in
indigenous institutions.
advance
and
But while the ships
and steamers of Europe, or of her Anglo-Saxon
Vll
descendants, are appropriating the Pacific, and
working out the ends of Providence
in their
upon the Tartar races of Boodhist
influence
more
faith in that quarter of the globe, the
violent
and
upon the
war
direct action of
work
at
is
barrier of Indo-Chinese races,
which
has hitherto severed the same countries from
communion with
the rest of the world from
We
the west and south.
are
now
at
war
with Biu'mah, a nation of exclusively Boodhistical institutions
the
and
issue
tribute
to
progress,
it
upon.
late
To what degree
and faith.
results of this
war
forward the social
would be
will
con-
revolution in
fruitless yet to
specu-
This war, however, must add to
the interest already existing in respect to the religion
which has so widely spread amongst
these nations, and cannot
fail
to
stimulate
enquiry into the characteristic features of doctrine, ritual, osity
it
is
and
institutions.
the object of this
satisfy. October, lf<52.
work
its
That curiin part to
TIBET,
TARTARY AND MONGOLIA.
were unknown
to
the ancients, except as lands of fable, occupied
by
Tibet, Tartary and
]\'Iongolia
wandering Scythians.
Tibet was the
country
whence came the Indians of the Persian
who
ate their* dead, as told
court,
by Herodotus, and
as
they themselves report to have been their ancient custom. tic
the
There
travel into
is,
however, no record of authen-
any region of the East, lying above
Himalaya, and beyond the
which the Oxus and Jaxartes have anterior to the journey of Father
quis to
Karakurum,
France, and of
mountains
William Rubru-
in the reign of Louis
Mangoo Khan,
Jungeez Khan, of Tartary. undertaken in a.d. 1253,
in
their sources,
IX. of
the grandson of
This journey was
at the
time
when King
Louis was in Syria, engaged in a holy war. B
It
had
2
TARTARY
TIBET,
origin in an overture made, through, a real or
its
Khan of the Mongols, Don and the Wolga rivers,
pretended ambassador of the settled
between the
who was to
have professed Christianity, and
said to
have held out the hope of a diversion from the
North in favour of the cause of
The Khan
against Islam.
that religion
referred to
is
called
by
Rubruquis, Sartach, but in the works of later
French missionaries, he
He
called
is
Gayook Khan.
was the son of Batoo, at that time great
Khan
of the western tribes, and conquered territories of the Mongols beyond the Caspian Sea.
Crossing
the Euxine to the Crimea, Rubruquis found Sar-
tach in the pastures between the
Don and Wolga,
which are now occupied by the Cossacks. By Sartach he was sent on to Batoo, who was then near the
Wolga
;
and the
into Syria appearing, his competency, the
the Court of
made
aifair
even
of an expedition
him, to be beyond
to
monk envoy was
Mangoo Khan,
at
sent on to
Karakurum.
He
the journey in winter, riding relays of horses
along with a Tartar noble, and found no obstruction except
He
roads.
from cold, fatigue, starvation and bad remained
Khan, and was
He
five
months with Mangoo
similarly sent
back in the summer.
writes in his official report of this mission,
made
to
King
Louis, "
We
came
in
two months
AND MONGOLIA. and ten days from Karakurum saw a town nor
so
much
to
as the
3 Batoo, and never
appearance of any
we
house but graves, except one village, wherein did not so
much
rest in these
day, because
as eat
bread
;
nor did
we
ever
two months and ten days, save one
we
could not get horses.
We
went
two days, and sometimes three, without taking any
The geograby Rubruquis are very
other food but cosmos (Kurmis)." phical particulars given
scanty, but great interest attaches to
ports of the habits
and of
what he
re-
and character of these Khans,
their courts,
and likewise of the religious
condition of the Moghuls, or Mongols, in that age.
Mangoo Khan was the grandson of Jungeez Khan, who died in the year a.d. 1227, diily twenty-six years before the date of this mission.
The conquest
of China had not yet changed the character and habits of the conquering horde,
and we find both
Batoo and Mangoo to be the same simple-minded illiterate
barbarians that
we
still
read of as occu-
pying the station of Tartar Khans, but not wanting in shrewdness, high-minded feeling, and even dignity. A^^ith respect to religion,
apostle
of the
Jungeez Khan was the
most complete
toleration.
Mahommedans report that he had the subject cussed in a Mosque of Bokhara, and there
The dis-
laid
4
TIBET,
down
TARTARY
the principle, that he reqnired only faith in
one all-powerful God, leaving supplied this
all
the rest to be
by man's free study and judgment.
was the early creed of
Mohammed
upon him
As
himself
more than half Mohammedan. But the creed of Jungeez was Boodhism. The very title of Jungeez Khan was given to him by a Kotooktoo, or regenerate Boodh,
the Moolaves looked
as
of great sanctity, after his wars with Tangoot or Tibet, and he was too deep a politican not to use
the agency and influence of that
extraordinary
priesthood to assist him in binding the Tartar,
Tibetan and Mongol races in the wonderful sociation he contrived to establish
and Avhich subsisted
many
for
as-
amongst them,
generations after
his decease.
In the Shensi province a stone tablet was found
by the
Jesuits, in the seventeenth century, record-
ing the presence of Nestorian Christians in the country, and their success in spreading Chi'istianity, as early as a.d.
636
;
and there are imperial
edicts in its favour of dates A.D. 782,
and
which are
still
between that year and
preserved in the archives
histories of China.
We
find also
from the report of Father Rubru-
quis, that Nestorian Christians abounded
at the
courts and in the territories, as well of Batoo
Khan,
;
AND MONGOLIA. as of his superior,
O
Mangoo Khan that they had many at court, especially of ;
great influence with
the wives and daughters of these and other chiefs that they
were allowed publicly
religion, to
to profess their
open chapels, and parade the cross in
public streets and market-places, dressed in canonical vestments
;
and
that they
were especially
called on to administer medicines, and to pray for
Father Rubruquis,
persons in extremity.
sick
himself, took part in a controversy of these Christians,
faith
;
Mohammedans, Mangoo Khan, on matters of
held with Boodhists and
in the presence of
and one cannot read
his report without Avon-
dering at the patience with which these simple-
minded people, and the
priests
and professors of
their ancient religion submitted to
the ill-man-
nered arrogance and pretensions of the intrusive Christian zealots, who, while proclaiming the mysteries of the Trinity,
and of the Host, and of holy
water, too frequently insulted those to the faith of their fathers,
their books,
be
and declared publicly
and those of the Mahommedans,
and the believers "
lies,
who adhered to
vile dogs."
Rubruquis thus reports, in a general way, of the
Lama
priesthood he found at the courts of the
Mongol Khans; and we give because
it
is
of importance
the extract verbatim, to
show
that their
b
TIBET,
TARTARY
forms and habits have suffered very the six
hundred years
and had not
their
little
origin
any imitation of
in
Romish observances, he being the
who
that church
is
change in
since his visit to Mongolia,
known
to
fii'st
priest of
have entered the
country.
" All their priests had their heads shaven quite over, and they are clad in saffron coloured gar-
Being once shaven, they lead an unmarried
ments. life
or
from that time forward, and they live a hundred
two hundred of them together in one
Upon
the days
when they
cloister.
enter into these temples,
they place two long forms therein, and so sitting
upon the
said forms, like singing
men
in a choir,
one half of them du'ectly over against the other, they have certain books in their hands, which
sometimes they lay down upon the forms their heads are bare as long as they
temple
and then they read
;
not uttering any voice at
among them, manner,
sibly.
I
and
softly to themselves,
On my coming
all.
in
time of their superstitious de-
and finding them
votions,
them
at the
;
remain in the
all
sitting
mute
in a
attempted several ways to provoke
to speech, yet could not
They have with them
by any means posalso,
whithersoever
they go, a certain string, with a hundi*ed or two
hundred nutshells thereupon, much like our beads.
AND MONGOLIA. which we carry about with mutter these
mani padyne
words,*
horn)
them expounded
us,
Om
'
7
and they do always matii
hactavi
God, thou knowest,'
And
me.
to
it
one of
as
so
(om
often
do
they expect a reward at God's hands as they pro-
nounce these words in remembrance of God." Again " I made a visit to their idol temple, and :
outward portico,
found certain priests
sitting in the
and those which
saw seemed by
beards as
if
I
(Qy
They
they had been our countrymen.
wore certain ornaments upon
made
mitres
their shaven
The
of paper.
heads like
their
priests of the
Jugures
Chakars) use those ornaments wherever
?
they go. jackets,
They wear always which are very
their saffron-coloured
straight-laced, or buttoned
from the bosom downwards, fashion,
the
after
and they have a cloak upon
shoulder, descending under
theii"
French
their left
right arm, like
deacon carrying a collector's box in time of
a
Lent." This description corresponds exactly with what
one sees at
this
day in any Boodhist temple of
Mongolia, China, Burma, or Siam.
Pythagorean
* The proper translation of this universal prayer of Boodhists is
"
Oh
the jewel in the Lotus,
who have been absorbed and ike the jewel-shaped
mark
Amen," meaning, "
Oh
Boodh,
incorporated in the divine essence
in the
Lotus flower."
8
TIBET,
silence
and abstraction
TARTARY is
there the universal rule.
The ceremonies and public occasions,
on particular
services
and especially those of the Tibetan mo-
nastic establishments, are of a different character, as will hereafter
The only bruquis
is,
letter of
King
in the
be noticed.
further thing to be gathered from
Mangoo Khan
that the reply of
Louis,
is
stated to have
Mongolian language, but Clu'istians,
to the
been written
in the character
had been
of the Jugures or Chakars, which
duced by Nestorian
Ru-
intro-
and was derived
from the Syrian, but written in
lines doT\ai the
page, commencing from the
left.
so written at the present day.
We wonder if there
is
any trace of
France this
!
still
which led said to
this letter
Mongolian
among
is
the archives of
There are records of older times than subsisting in
England, and the
to the mission of father
letter
Erubruquis
is
be extant.
The next account of these regions obtained by Europe was furnished through the relation of the Two noblemen of the Vetravels of Marco Polo. netian family of Polo had relations of commerce and friendship
with
the
Tartar
northern shores of the Euxine,
chiefs
at the
of the
very period
of the journey of Rubruquis, above noticed.
some
vicissitudes they
were led
to
Bokhara,
By
at the
AND MONGOLIA. time
when Alan Khan,
better
9
kncmi by
name
the
of Hulakoo, sent an ambassador to Kublai Khan,
whom
he acknowledged
Mongol
Tartar and
By
races.
the Venetians were invited to in
company.
It
head of the entire
as the
that
make
ambassador the journey
occupied an entire year, but
we
have no record of the line of route followed from
Kublai
Bokhara.
Khan
received them well, and
having kept them some time
at his
court, sent
them back with letters and a message to the Pope, inviting him to open communications with him.
Some troubles and changes a
of the papacy prevented
prompt acknowledgment of
this overture
at last, in A. D. 1269, as nearly as
tained, the
two Polos, Nicolo and
with them
INIarco, the
set out
soon
priest,
who
letters into
were three years and a half upon
Upon
journey. call
taking
Starting from Acre, on the coast of
Syria, the Polos
they
^Nlaifei,
them, delivering the Pope's
their hands.
this
but
young son of the former,
on their return, along with a
left
;
can be ascer-
their arrival at Pekin,
Cambala, which
is
the
Tartar
which
name
Khanbaliq, young Marco was taken immediately into favour,
and was
for twenty-six years after-
wards a nobleman of the great Khan's court, cmployed in several missions, and other high of state.
He
came away
offices
at last, in a. d. 1295, in
B 3
10'
TARTARY
TIBET,
who was
charge of a princess
be married
to
to the
Tartar sovereign of Persia.
The information obtained
China and Tartary was committed
in
by
to writing
from his dictation, during a
iNIarco Polo, or
captivity It
in this long sojourn
he suffered
at
Genoa,
after his return.
was thus given only from memory, and
But
vague.
it
by subseqiient
is
often
has been confirmed in most respects
The
travellers.
route followed, on
the Polos' second journey into China, was
through Budukhshan
up the
whence crossing the Pamir table-land to Kotun, they went across the Hamil or Shamil desert, to Cambala (Khanbaliq), or Pekin. The return was by sea to Oxus,
to its soui'ces,
;
Singapore, and round Ceylon, to the Persian gulf.
Of Tibet and Mongolia, Marco Polo His employments seem
to
says
little.
have carried him chiefly
into the provinces of China Proper,
and other south-
ern countries, the magnitude and population of the cities of which, he details with exaggeration.
He
dwells also with animation upon the magnifi-
cence of the court of Kublai
Khan
strange change of habit between decessor,
Mangoo Khan,
;
him and
as described
years before by Rubruquis.
We
shoiving a
find,
his pre-
only a few
however, in
Marco Polo, continued evidence of the extreme by this race of emperors to all
toleration allowed religions,
and of the impartiality with which ho-
AND MONGOLIA. nours were granted to
men
stated to have
been a Nestorian
stance,
is
and
to
have built a church
his
own
faith.
also
to
for in-
Chi-istian,
Roman
Catholic
;
and Mahom-
were numerous, and freely employed.
It is, indeed, stated to
shrines,
The
at Nankin for those of Marco Polo was himself in high
favour, though a
emperor
of every faith.
who conquered southern China,
general
medans
11
have been the custom of the
send offerings on his birthday to the
and presents
to the priests of all religions,
on the same principle,
it
would seem,
as
was
re-
Romans when they
erected their
temple to the gods of lesser nations.
This spirit
cognised by the
of general toleration did not orginate with the
Mongol emperors. We learn from the Mahommedan travellers who visited China as early as a.d. 850, that it then prevailed and that, when Canton was taken and sacked in a.d. 877, by a rebel army, as many as 120,000 Mahommedans, Jews, Christians, ;
and Parsees perished in the
sack.
This shows that
the policy of China in those days allowed the free
and residence of men of
The all religions. common with Rubruquis, relate same travellers, in conferences had with the emperor, or with men in
resort
power, on subjects of spirit of free
faith, affording
evidence of a
inquiry into such matters quite con-
sonant with the
known
principle of
Boodhism
which recognises the pursuit of truth by abstrac-
TIBET, TARTARY
12 tion,
and by the
human mind,
'
free exercise of tlie
as the first duty,
powers of the
and only road
These Mahommedans came
perfection.
to
to
China
by sea, and did not penetrate into Tibet or Tartary, which have ever been the head quarters of the reBoodh, but they knew of that religion
ligion of
having been derived from India, of
its
being very
and of its being based on a belief in the
ancient,
transmigration of
souls,
combined with image
worship.
The earliest travels into Tibet Proper which have been transmitted fathers,
us, are
to
China by that route in dred years
after
They were the known to have of Tibet
;
for
Marco
first
a.d. 1661, just four
hun-
Polo's journey westward.
Christians of
Europe who are
penetrated into the populous parts
Marco
Polo's journey was, as
stated, to the north-west,
Oxus.*
those of the Jesuit
Grueber and Dorville, who returned from
we have
by the sources of the
Father Grueber was
much
struck with
* Benedict Goez, a Portuguese monk, went from Lahore by Kabool, to Kashghur, and across the sandy desert, into China,
where he died in a.d. 1607 but his route also was far north of Another Jesuit, Anthony Andrada, passed through Kumaon to the Manoosa-Rahwa lake, and thence went on to Rudak on the western confines of Tibet. His journey was made in 1624, and is discredited by commentators and geographers, because of ,
Tibet.
Ganges and Indus, no doubt, however, that the voygenuine, though we have no details of it.
his mentioning this lake as the source of the
instead of the Sutlej.
age
is
There
is
13
AND MONGOLIA,
the extraordinary similitude he found, as well in
the doctrine, as in the rituals, of the Boodhists of
own Romish faith. He noticed cli-ess of Lamas corresponded with
Lassa to those of his first,
that
that the
handed
doA\ai to us in ancient paintings, as
the di-ess of the Apostles.
and of the
pline of the monasteries,
of
Lamas
2nd. That the disci-
or priests, bore the
Romish church.
that of the
of an incarnation was
different orders
same resemblance 3rd.
common
to
That the notion
to both, so also the
belief in paradise and purgatory. 4th. He remarked that they made suffrages, alms, prayers, and sacrifices for the dead, like the Roman Catholics. 5th. That they had convents, filled with monks and friars, to the number of 30,000, near Lassa, who all made the three voavs of poverty,
obedience, and chastity, like sides other vows.
licensed
and
and
to
Besides
;
Roman monks,
6th, that they
be-
had con-
by the superior Lamas, or empowered to receive confessions,
fessors,
bishops
so
And
impose penances, and give absolution. all
this,
there Avas found the practice of
using holy water, of singing service in alternation, of
prapng
for the dead,
and a perfect
similarity in
the costumes of the great and superior
Lamas
to
those of the different orders of the Romish hierarchy
These early missionaries, further, Avere led
to con-
TIBET, TARTAR
14 elude, from
what they saw and heard, that the an-
cient books of the
Lamas contained
traces of the
Christian religion, which must, they thought, have
been preached in Tibet in the time of the Apostles.
We reserve the further discussion until
we have
of this question,
given the more complete and accu-
by recent
rate information afforded
travellers,
who
followed very nearly the same route with these
The
missionaries.
sources of our geographical in-
formation deserve the
The map
of Tibet,
first
notice.
which
is
given in connection
with that of China, was not framed from actual surveys
made by
employed by the
the Jesuits
Emjjeror Kanghi to prepare the l^uted
some Lamas,
to
whom
They
latter.
de-
they had imparted
the rudiments of the science of surveying, and from their information, filled in that portion. state it
Du
was published by
is
we have on
the subject.
on no account
to
into
Tibet, with
ficulties
and
to this
day
therefore,
On
the
who have penetrated
exception to Captain Turner,
Warren Hasting's envoy, sufferings,
notices of the
is
The map,
be depended upon.
other hand, the few Europeans
this
Halde, in the begin-
ning of the eighteenth century, and all
In
tell
us only of their
dif-
and give very imperfect
geography of the routes they
fol-
lowed. Fathers Grueber andDorville crossed China
AND MONGOLIA. from Pekin, by Singanfoo
15
to Sining,
and reached
Koko-noor valley, and thence passed into Tibet, rovmd the sources of the Kwang-ho, and crossing the
They came on
those of the Yang-tse
Kiang
from thence
through the valley of Nipal
to India,
river.
by Katmandu, and Hetounda to Patna, on the Ganges, where Dorville died. Another missionary, Pere Desideri, started from Goa in November, 1T13, and passing through Dehli and Kashmeer into Baltistan, arrived at
Leh, or Ladak, on the
25th June, 1714, and remained there for an
From
year.
entii'e
thence, he continued his journey, in
autumn of 1715, to Lassa, by a route of extreme elevation, of which we have no details whatthe
sover
;
Desideri, like the rest, only reporting his
own sufferings from
occupied from August 1715, to the worst part was to
The journey March 1716; and
the intense cold.
made
be the case with
all,
in the winter, as seems
because of the impossi-
bility of crossing the rivers
and torrents
at other
Desideri found the temporal sovereignty
seasons.
of Lassa in the hands of a Tartar prince (a Sifan),
who had
recently conquered the country
;
the
Lamas were, however, respected and reverenced, and
dii'ected all things spu-itual.
After
this, a
sent into Tibet
mission of twelve Capuchins was
by Pope Clement XL,
at the
head
"^
16
TARTARY
TIBET,
of which was a
Penna.
It
Bhatgaon
monk named
j^assed
in Nipal,
Francis Horace della
through Betia in Behar,
and thence reached Lassa.
1732, letters were received in
Rome from
this mis-
an interval of years, announcing
sion, after
to
In
its
favourable reception, and soliciting a reinforcement,
which was sent
In 1742, there was pub-
in 1738.
Rome
lished in
a very
meagre report of the pro-
ceedings of this mission, making pretence of great success,
of the
and of having brought even the sovereign
kingdom to acknowledge the
tianity
:
truths of Chris-
but stating that he was restrained from
proclaiming his conversion by policy, and by a respect for old customs.
branch of,
Bhatgaon
The
which had
mission,
a
is
not further heard
and no geographical, or other
details of interest,
at
in Nipal,
have ever been obtained
fr-om
bishops in partihus nominated title
of BishojD of Tibet
is still
but among the by the Pope, the
it
;
in use.
After these comes, in point of date, the authentic
and highly interesting narrative of Captain
who was
by Warren Hastings Grand Lama of Teeshoo Vor Djachi Loomboo. Full particulars Turner,
on a special
sent in 1783
political mission to the
of this journey were published in 1785 in London,
map of the route known to need either
with an accurate is
too well
;
and the book
citation, or
any
AND MONGOLIA. statement in abstract of
its
17
contents.
We
shall
hereafter have occasion to refer to the account
gives of the state of society and of religion
it
in
Captain Turner's route to Djachi was from
Tibet.
Rungpoor
in Bengal, to Tassisudon in Bqotan,
and
thence by the Chumulari pass, across the Himalaya.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; He never
Avent to Lassa.
nearly from Rungpoor was taken
who made
The same route by Mr. Manning,
the attempt to pass through Tibet into
We
China, but was sent back from Lassa in 1811. are not aware of
any other Europeans having ever
penetrated from India into this interesting region
but the government of India has received
;
intel-
ligence on several occasions from merchants of
who
Patna,
Katmandoo
trade with Lassa indirectly through ;
and
its
relations with Nipal, have,
more than once, brought the governor-general direct
communication with the Chinese
into
officers in
Tibet. It
may be
convenient to mention in this place
the nature and circumstances of these
communi-
cations.
In the time of Warren Hastings, the Bootan chiefs
made an
incursion into the district of
Rung-
poor, and the detachment employed in driving back the Booteas penetrated into the lower hills, and
took Dclamcotta.
The Booteas then sued
for
TIBET, TARTAR
18
peace, using the good offices of the Teeshoo
Lama
for intercession, for they are Boodhists, o"\vning
the spiritual supremacy of the Tibetan Lamas.
Favourable terms were given cotta
them, and Delam-
was restored. The missions, first of Mr. Bogle and afterwards of Captain Turner,
to Tassisudon, to
to
Djachi Loomboo, had their origin in
war.
The British power,
it is
to
this petty
be observed, was
not then viewed with the same suspicion as at present, either
by Tibetans
or
by Chinese, nor was
the authority of China so firmly established in Tibet.
In 1792, the Goorkhas having mastered the whole of the valley of Nipal, and of the hill country from
Sikhim
to the
Gogra, a party of them crossed the
Himalaya, and
a])j)eared
suddenly before Djachi
Loomboo. The Lama and priests hastily evacuated their convents, and fled to Lassa, and the place was plundered by the Goorkhas, who retired immediately with their booty. to
China
for aid,
The Tibetans applied
and an army was collected
for
the punishment of this act of unprovoked outrage.
The Goorkhas met them
at
Tingri
My dan,
and the two armies were for some time in presence, but the Chinese made
at last a
the Nipalese were defeated.
general attack, and
The Chinese
general,
following up his victory, took the frontier post of
AND MONGOLIA.
19
Nipal, called Koti,and showed a disposition further
southern
to penetrate into the
hills.
Captain Kirk'
patrick was at this tinie resident at
Katmandoo,
on the part of Lord Cornwallis, governor-general
His instructions were, studiously
of India.
to
avoid anything like interference in the quarrel
with Tibet
;
but
to
hold always the language of
reprobation and displeasure in respect to this un-
provoked
act of the
Goorkha
court.
The
conse-
quence was, that despairing of aid from us, the
Goorkhas submitted unconditionally nese commander,
who imposed
to the Chi-
a tribute, and
tri-
ennial mission to Pekin, besides restitution of all
the booty taken at Teeshoo
Loomboo, and took
hostages for the performance of these stipulations.
The Raja
of Sikhim was at the same time taken
under Clunese protection, so
as to
prevent the ex-
Goorkha conquest eastward. This is principality with which we recently had
tension of
the a
hill
quarrel
consequently upon the detention of
Dr. Campbell, our agent
at Darjeeling,
while
upon an excursion beyond the limits of that station, which excited Chinese jealousy. The attempt tains
to explore
the passes through the
moun-
was thus checked, and resented by the
in-
tervention of the local authorities, most probably at the instance or suggestion of the at Lassa.
Chinese
officers
20
TIBET, TARTARY
Checked towards the East by these events, the Goorkhas extended jugating
Kumaon,
their
Sirinugur,
country to the Sutlej.
Their
could not be restrained croaching upon
dominion westward, sub-
British
ÂŁi"oin
and
the
hill
rapacity
plundering and en-
subjects,
within the British frontier.
all
restless
and on
rajas
This brought on the
Nipal war of 1814-16, which terminated in the British conquest of hills,
tish
Kumaon, and of
all
the western
and the cession of that territory
to the Bri-
by
a formal treaty,
which was signed and de-
livered to General Ochterlony, on the 4th March,
1816. that at
It is
under the stipulations of
we have now
a
this treaty
permanent resident stationed
Katmandoo.
The Chinese viewed, with
great jealousy, the
establishment of a British political officer at the court of one of their tributaries, for the Nipal
Raja had continued since 1792
to
send the
tri-
ennial mission, with presents, to Pekin, in ac-
knowledgment of fealty. the court of Pekin sent with
su.ch
In September, 1816, a special commissioner,
troops as could be collected, to call
their feudatory to account for his proceedings.
A
mission of explanation was accordingly sent from
Katmandoo, which was rated soundly by the Chiname was Choong Chang,
nese commissioner, whose
AND MONGOLIA. for
21
having brought war upon their country by
wanton aggressions and
acts of violence,
and
for
having represented the British object in the war be to obtain
to
To
command
of the passes into Tibet
the Governor-General of India,
wrote as follows
Choong Chang
:
" His Imperial Majesty, who, by God's is
of
blessing,
well informed of the conduct and jirocecdings all
mankind, reflecting on the good
faith
and
wisdom of the English, and the firm friendship and constant commercial intercourse which has so long subsisted
between the two nations, never
placed any reliance on the calumnious imputations
put forward by the Goorkha E.aja," &c. &c. "
You
mention that you have stationed an envoy in Nipal.
This
as the raja
is
a matter of no consequence
but,
from his youth and inexperience, and
fi"om the novelty of the thing, has
picions, if
;
imbibed sus-
you woidd, out of kindness
to us,
and
in consideration of the ties of friendship subsisting,
withdraw your envoy,
it
would be
better
;
and
we should
feel inexpressibly gratified for the con-
sideration
shown
to
government would send a high through
whom we
To
our wishes."
Marquis of Hastings replied, that might seek
if
the
this,
the Chinese
officer to
Nipal,
redi'ess, in case
future injuries and aggressions,
of
we might then
TIBET, TARTARY
Z^ dispense with
mandoo
:
presence of an envoy at Kat-
tlie
otherwise there seemed no alternative
but to keep him there,
to give
and receive expla-
and only way of preventing
nations, as the best
To
differences hereafter.
replied, after a long interval, in these
" Be
it
kno^vn
to
China
this the court of
words
:
you, that the Goorkha Raja has
long been a faithful tributary of the Chinese go-
vernment, and refers himself to sion requires.
There
is,
it
whenever occa-
therefore,
no need of
deputing thither any one from this empii-e. sides,
Be-
by the grace of God, His Majesty, possessing kingdom of China,
the sovereignty of the whole
and other countries, does not enter the one without cause.
If
it
so
happen
city of
any
that his vic-
torious forces take the field, in such case, after
punishing the refractory, he, in his royal clemency,
We have
restores the transgressor to his throne.
not thought
it
our duty to represent this matter
to the tlirone, as this
it
is
opposed
to the
customs of
The merchants who frequent
empire.
the
port of Canton, can inform your lordship of our
customs. to
For
the future, a proposition so contrary
usage, should not he introduced into a friendly
dispaichr
With
this display of
respondence closed. gular, that Tibet
is
It
is
to
humour
the cor-
be remarked
never once referred
to
as sin-
by
the
AND MONGOLIA, Chinese
officers.
The
cerning Cliina and
its
affair is
23
treated as one con-
tributary, Nipal,
and none
In the time of Warren Hastings, when
other.
we were embroiled with Bootan, under circumstances not very dissimilar, it was the Lama who interceded, and with whom we had relations in consequence. The Emperor of China was then only the friend and patron of the Lamas of Tibet, but in 1816 their political existence was absolutely ignored.
This change seems to have resulted from
the resort to Chinese military aid, in order to repel the Nipalese incursion of 1792.
Tibet thus rested in
sleep of isolation, shut
its
out fr'om European travellers and unheard of in the annals of the world's history, until the Sikh
conquest of Ladak and Balti, on disturbed in some measure
tier,
wur Singh,
the Sikh general,
its
its
western
repose.
fi'on-
Zora-
who commanded
the
Kashmeer by Goolab Singh taking Ladak and Iskardo, marched
expedition, sent from in 1839, after
up the valley of the Indus
into Gnari, a province
of Tibet, and captured Gurtokh,
its capital.
His
was inconsiderable, and he wrote in vain They were not supplies and reinforcements.
force for
easily
furnished
across
the
many
intervening
ranges of snow-capped mountains. Winter was
approaching, and ZoraAvur Singh self a
fortified for
now him-
cantonment near Gurtokh, when a Chinese
TIBET, TARTARY
24
and Tibetan
force surrounded hiin
His detachment
supplies.
and himself
and cut
^vas thus
liis
About 120 miserable Sikh
slain.
found their way, half frozen, across the
fugitives
Niti Pass, into the British province of
and
off
overpowered
told the tale.
1841-1842,
at the
Kumaon,
This occurred in the winter of
very time when the British force
by the AfThe Chinese and Tibetans did not follow up their victory, and made no use of it to extend their frontier towards Ladak. The Sikhs, thereof Kabool was similarly overpowered
ghans.
fore,
soon recovered, and have since maintained,
their possession of the valleys as well of the Indus, to Debrung, as of the entire Shayuk river. W^ien the Sikh war with the British terminated in
Tip
the establishment of our ascendancy in the Punjab,
and in the permanent assignment of Kashmeer and its
tributaries to
were sent
Raja Goolab Singh, British
to ascertain
and
officers
settle the frontier line
of the territory so committed to his management,
where China.
met
it
that of territory subject to Tibet or
This duty was executed by Lieutenant
Strachey,
whose
mission
has
geographical information, and tails
respecting
much
scientific de-
the elevated regions he visited
beyond the Himalaya, and rivers
furnished
many
in
which these two
have their sources.
While, however, Tibet has been thus hermeti-
AND MONGOLIA. cally sealed against us
25
on the side of India, two
French missionaries have succeeded passage into
it,
and in reaching
from the north-east.
its
in effecting a
capital, Lassa,
They came from
the
Koko-
noor lake, or inland sea, by the same route that
had been followed by fathers Grueber and Dorville, two centuries before, and one of them, M. Hue, has recently published in two volumes, in French, a full account of the incidents of this journey It is the conviction of the trustworthiness of the
information contained in these volumes, and the desire to
make
British public,
more extensively known
it
and especially
to those
whose occupations abroad give value
Englishmen to authentic
details regarding the habits, religion, and
of these to
make
little
known regions,
this compilation
stance of
M. Hue's work
and
that to
to the
geography
we have been led
compress the sub-
into the following pages.
Every one has heard of the mission established Pekin under French Jesuits. The founder of it was Pere Ilicci,who went from Macao into the interior of China, in a.d. 1585, and established himself in the first instance at Nankin. He was a good mathematician, and making himself master of the Chinese language, published some maps of the world in Chinese and gave lessons and instructions generally in European science. He thus at
;
c
26
TIBET,
TARTART
acquired in that country a high reputation for
and commenced circulating
upon religion, and upon the immortality of the soul, and Sometimes persecuted, and somea future state. times applauded and followed, he removed, after a few years, from Nankin to Pekin, where he was well learning,
received, and his doctrines
made an impression
on some nobles of the court. for
many
years, the recognised
missionary
establishments,
tracts
He
lived there
head of several
located in
different
making many converts, and reuntil his death, which occurred at
parts of China,
spected
by
all
the age of fifty-seven, in the year 1610.
The
Ming dynasty was at this period in its decadence. Chun-chi, the Manchoo Tartar completed its fall During the convulsions which attended this revolution, the French Jesuits met with varied fortune, but Chun-chi, upon his assumption .of in 1644.
the imperial dignity, in the year stated, called
Father Schall, the successor of Father Ricci, to his court at Pekin,
and received him there with
great distinction, nominating
him president of the him the entree
tribunal of mathematics, and giving to his
It
own
presence at
was in the
last
Grueber returned
all
times, with other favours.
year of this reign, that Father to
Europe through Tibet and
India as before mentioned.
AND MONGOLIA.
Upon Chun-Chi's
death,
27 1662, his
in
cessor, Kang-hi, was only eight years
suc-
old,
and
during his minority the Jesuits and their converts
were proscribed and persecuted by the Chinese tribunals.
Father
Adam
Schall died in prison
during these persecutions, under sentence of death,
and the Jesuit missions were
for a time
broken up.
But when Kang-hi came to his majority, and took into his own hands the reins of power, he caused the sentence of condemnation passed against Adam
Schall to be reversed, and received the Jesuits
A maternal uncle
again into favour.
of the
Em-
peror declared himself a convert in a.d. 1672, and
was publicly baptized
others followed, and fresh
;
missions were, at this period, established in different parts of China, rapidly.
where the
religion spread
Father Verbien, the successor of
Schall, wrote
now
to the
Pope,
Adam
to ask for assist-
ance in the work of conversion, and further missions of Dominicans, Franciscans,
were despatched from Rome,
to
and Augustins, carry out the
views and realize the high expectations then entertained.
Father Verbien
just at the time rived,
when
died unfortunately
these remforcements
ar-
and a schism then arose between the Jesuits
and the Dominicans,
as to the propriety of allow-
c 2

TIBET, TARTARY
ing Chinese converts to continue the rites and
observances practised universally by that nation in
honour of parents and ancestors. were
for yielding this,
and
The
Jesuits
for not regarding the
reverence so paid to ancestry in the light of an idolatrous worship, inconsistent with the Christian
notion of the Divine nature, as the sole object of
Not
adoration and prayer.
and
this
so the
Dominicans
schism not only divided and paralyzed
the action of the missions in China, but for half a
century was
was carried even decision.
After
debated to the
many
Europe,
and
papal authority for
final
all
over
rescripts,
and several
less attempts to reconcile differences
fruit-
and avoid
giving a final judgment, Clement XI. at
last, in
1710, declared finally against yielding any indul-
gence to Chinese usage in the matter of reverence to parents and ancestors, and sent out a Legate Cardinal, a
M. de Tournon, to
enforce this decision,
in 1715.
Kang-hi, the Chinese Emperor, had in the mean time taken the Jesuits into great favour. He employed them in rectifying his calendar, and in sur-
veying and mapping his dominions, and in teaching his subjects to cast cannon and other useful arts,
and but
for this
schism magnificent results
AND MONGOLIA. might have followed.
29
But when he heard of the
Pope's decision in favour of the Dominicans, he took a decided part for the maintenance of the institutions
ness,
He his own subjects. M. de Tournon, with harsh-
and usages of
treated the Legate,
and ordered him back
to Canton,
immediately
he learned that he was the bearer of orders from the Pope, to disallow parental reverence, and the
usual observances. Christianity has from that time forward, been exhibited and proclaimed to the
Chinese, as a false and seditious conspii'acy to
overturn the laws and institutions of the empire,
and
to set sons against fathers,
husbands. It
is
on
this
and wives against
ground that the preaching
and proclaiming of Christianity are proscribed in the
China.
to this
day
Ail the persecutions of
eighteenth century had their
origin in the
conviction, that the defence and maintenance of
the ancient laws in favour of the parental authority required
an overt action against doctrines,
quite repugnant to those usages and observances,
and which substituted the
priest for the parent in
every family.
But Kang-hi, though he took
this strong part
against the papal decree in support of the nicans, continued to
court,
whose
Domi-
favour the Jesuits of his
scientific services
he
still
needed.
He
TIBET, TARTAR
30
died in 172^, after a prosperous reign of sixty
Yong-Ching, who succeeded him, en-
years.
couraged the tribunals in their persecution of the converts to Christianity, and even banished from court the Jesmts, and several
members of his own
who favoured the new religion. who succeeded to the throne in and who reigned, like Kang-hi, for sixty
family,
Kien-long, 1735,
years, recalled his Christian relatives from exUe,
and seemed his
high
favourably disposed to the
at first
Jesuit missions
but upon a representation ii'om
;
officers,
expulsion of
he
all
at last
priests
passed an edict for the
and missionaries.
Jesuits were, at this period, proscribed in
The
Europe
and the mission they had established in China languished in consequence, and fell into also,
inaction; and thus, for want of due support to keep alive the zeal both of professors and preachers,
the hope of extensively spreading Christianity in
China yielded
to the severity
against preaching
execution.
Some
its
doctrines
Jesuits
have been permitted
with which the edicts
to
were carried
into
appear, however, to
maintain a small establish-
ment at Pekin, for the purpose of assisting in the preparation of the annual almanacks
were
restricted
;
but they
from preaching, and not allowed
to travel, or to conunimicate freely
with strangers.
AND MONGOLIA.
31
The Emperor,
and were scarcely recognised.
Kia-King, who ascended the throne in 1799, completed the destruction of the hopes of the propa-
and driving the
gandists,
last
remains of the
French mission out of Pekin, renewed the persecution of converts with greater rigour.
In China Proper, there are tribunals with a strict police,
tion, that
and a machinery of
make
it
local administra-
nearly impossible for converts to
Christianity to evade the law and escape punish-
They were everywhere discovered and
ment.
plundered
;
and
diey would not consent to re-
if
nounce the new
faith, their lives
even were in
danger. But the influence of Chinese laws, and of the civil power for the execution of edicts
called
Tartar tribes retain their
tary, rules his
light
very
beyond the Great "Wall. by the Chinese, the Land of Herbs, the
men
and
own
Each Khan,
of government.
of the
is
In Mongolia,
different
own
tribe,
laws and forms
or Tao-tse tribu-
and the simple habits
make that rule very The Chinese, taking advantage
of the desert
easy.
of this simplicity, emigrate largely from China,
and
settle
in the valleys of Mongolia,
they can find a
They appear
to
soil that will
settle
down
wherever
repay cultivation. as
separate
and
nearly independent communities, under elected
32
TIBET,
chiefs or captains,
TARTARY
and whether dealing with the
chief of a tribe, or with individuals, contrive generally to get the better, displacing the
nomade po-
own
usages and
pulation,
and establishing
modes of
life.
their
The persecution
by the Chinese become emigrants
of Christian con-
verts
authorities, led
to
to
Mongolia.
many
of them
Several settle-
ments were thus formed by them in the valleys of the southern
feeders
or Sagalien, about one
of Pekin. the
Empire
of the
river
Amour,
hundred miles due north
In the days of the Republic, and of in France, little
heed was taken of the
relations of the ancient French Church with these people but upon the restoration of the Bourbons, ;
they became the subject of inquiry, and zealous
men
of the religious orders were not wanting, to
undertake the mission of reclaiming and bringing again within that Church, the scattered flock of
persecuted proselytes.
In the Ooniot
its
district of
"the Land of Herbs," there is a valley called that of " the Black Waters," whither many of the Chinese converts had retired. There an establish-
ment was formed, under Lazarist missionaries from Paris, which unobtrusively following its vocation, gathered together a considerable congre-
gation of these converts, and brought
many Mon-
golians also to accept the Christian creed.
Hearing
AND MONGOLIA. of their
the
success,
Roman
33
appointed the head of this mission, at
Siwang,
to
Excited by
1842,
in
Pontiff,
who
resided
be his vicar-apostolic in Mongolia. to
this
fresh efforts, these Lazarist
missionaries conceived the design, of exploring the desert,
and of penetrating even
a view
to the establishment there of a subordinate
mission. fathers
Two members
of
into Tibet, with
brotherhood,
the
Gabet and Hue, were selected by the
vicar -apostolic for this adventurous duty
account, recently published
by the
;
and the
latter,
of the
circumstances and events of their journey, and of its toils
and dangers, furnishes proof abundant of
the judicious selection made, and of the high qua-
undertaking possessed by both
lifications for the
missionaries.
In
the
dress
and character
of
Tibetan Lamas, attended by a single servant, a
man
of a half-civilised race from the vicinity of
the Koko-noor,
who had been brought
Christianity, these
to profess
two French gentlemen started
from the "Valley of Black Waters," north of Pekin, to live for years the life of Tartars of the desert
subsisting on their their hardships
meagre
fare,
supported during their severe
aim of their sacred to the faith
and enduring
and privations, calling,
cherished
trials
and by
all
and
by the high
their devotion
they desired to spread. They took the c 3
TIBET, TARTAHY
34
line of the great wall of China,
but kept generally
and so followed up the Hoang-Ho, or Yellow River, till they reached and on the desert side of
it,
rounded
"Wintering in the valley of
its
sources.
the Koko-noor,
salt lake, they next year crossed
the yet more mighty Yang-tse-Kiang, or Blue
River, and so reached the Snowy Mountains and high table-lands of Tibet, which separate the waters
Passing these in
of China from those of India.
the midst of winter, they penetrated at last to the city of Lassa, where they were well received
There,
the Tibetan authorities.
it
was
by
their de-
sign to have established a separate mission under
the Mongolian vicar-apostolic
;
but the Chinese
envoy at Lassa, the same Ke-Shin, British admiral at the
1840, and
Mr.
who
mouth
who met
the
of the Pichelee, in
negociated the
first
treaty with
Elliot afterwards at Canton, laid his veto
on
the scheme, and sent the two missionaries back into
China, by a route, hitherto, so far as
know, quite imexplored by any European.
we
They
passed among the mountains north of Bootan and
Ava, and so made their way due east to the plains of " the Central Elowery Land," where these are watered by the Yang-tse-Kiang, in nificence.
It is of this
ships, perils
its
journey, and of
full
mag-
its
hard-
and privations, exceeding perhaps
AND MONGOLIA. by
those ever endured
the tale, that
The
tions.
M. Hue
we
lived to tell
keep no journal
forfeited, if
seen to take notes, or to
they saw and heard.
who
has given us his recollec-
travellers could
would have been
lives
traveller
35
make on
It is
;
their
they had been
sketches of what this
account, that
find a lamentable deficiency of dates, distances,
and of other
kind that one
particulars, of the
usually looks for in books of travels. Nevertheless, there
volumes an aggregate of
in the
is
gence, and a fund of characteristic
traits,
intelli-
and well
told anecdotes, bearing intrinsically the stamp of truth, that gives to far
and the
them
sufficient ftilly to
want of the
a Pallas.
interest,
compensate the reader
the
for
Humboldt and by far the most recollections of M. Hue,
scientific details of a
But, what
is
in our eyes
important part of these is
and an
a value,
exceeding those of ordinary books of the kind,
detailed
account
we
find
there
of
the
monastic and academic institutions of Tartary and Tibet, and of the studies, habits and discipline of
the several classes of Lamas.
The two
missionaries
lived for months together in Lamaserais, or convents, in the valley of the Koko-noor, salt lake,
associating daily with
mixing in their these
subjects,
Lamas of
studies.
therefore,
all
degrees, and
Their information on is
not that of mere
36
TIBET,
passing travellers
and
;
TARTARY their observations
on the
working of the Boodhist monastic system, influence the
on the people, and
its
relations
Manchoo Government of China, derive
tional value
But we this
with addi-
Europe.
trespass
on the patience of our readers
They
preface.
summary
its
from their own connection with similar
institutions of
by
in
in
be impatient
will
for a
of the real contents of the volumes.
this, therefore,
we
To
hasten.
In prejDaration for the journey, the missionaries
employed a Mongol convert
to
procure camels
They had nearly
from the borders of Tibet.
de-
spaired of the arrival of these animals, owing to
the time that had elapsed their
dispatch,
and had
arrangements for their
own
since in
they heard of
consequence made
departure in a waggon
of the country,
when
pearance, under
theii* faithful
the camels
made
their ap-
conductor, a Chiaour
named Sambda-Chamba, who had been brought up as a Lama before his conThe caravan version, and still wore the dress. was then arranged, and commenced its march in the following order The Tibetan led, mounted on a black mule, and drawing after him a string of of Northern Tibet,
:
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
two camels, bearing a tent
and the baggage.
M.Gabet rode next upon a dromedary, and M.Huc
aud Mongolia.
37
brought up the rear, mounted on a white horse. These, with a watch-dog, formed the entire train that started for a
dc
journey of five-and-twenty
grees of longitude and ten of latitude, across the
unknown
elevated regions of central Asia.
tume.
had
Before
change their cosAmongst their Chinese converts, they had
starting, the missionaries
to
dressed habitually in the secular habit of China,
wearing the long of this nation.
tail,
by
so inestimably prized
For the journey, they shaved
all
their
heads, and assumed the same dress as their con-
ductor
Sambda Chamba, which was
habit of a Tibetan
Lama.
the secular
This was essential for
the character the travellers intended to bear,
was that of Lamas of the west, come into the
which
to inquire
doctrines and ritual of Tibet, the holy
religion. As laymen by Tibetans, black men), it would have been impossible for them to have talked of religion, or to have shown any acquaintance with
ground of the Boodhist (called
its
doctrines or ritual, but as secular
Lamas
enquiry was both natural and praiseworthy. missionaries,
though they carried a
tent,
the
The were
glad to put up at the hotels of the country, where there were any, as was ordinarily the case, within
the
fii'ontiers
of China Proper.
There they found
always a hot meal, and a hang, or elevated dais,
TIBET, TARTARY
38
be heated by the same
SO contrived as to
fire that
served to boil the caldron that cooked their din-
The
ner.
guests
for their meal,
cross-legged
sit
and spread
upon the kang
their beds afterwards
in rows, with their feet towards one another,
and so
in the severest winter our travellers contrived to sleep with some comfort. In the tent there was no such security from the cold, and sometimes they had the greatest difficulty in even lighting a fire,
which,
at the best,
was but of argols or dung-fuel.
Yan-pa-ool was the start
was made.
district
Thence,
town from which the
after three
hours of
la-
borious ascent, the caravan reached the table-land of the Sain-ouia Mountains, in which the Chara Mooren,a large tributary of the Amour or Sagalien,
has
its
sources.
On
this table-land, the travellers
began
their experience of the hardships of Tartar
travel.
After pitching their tent, they had to col-
by the camels and other animals of preceding caravans, which ordi-
lect the
argols, or
dung,
left
narily was the only fuel available thi-oughout the
whole of
their long journey.
With
this fuel,
when
they had made their pot to boil, they heated some " Kioamin^'' a kind of vermicelli, prepared for the purpose, which, with a
slice of
bacon added, when
procurable, formed the whole of their luxurious
meal
at the
commencement of the journey.
As
AND MONGOLIA.
39
they proceeded, this meal was reduced to " Tsamba," a decoction of brick-tea,*
a
For more than an
butter.
little
and meal mixed up with
these French missionaries rior
meal
to
such as
entire year,
had very rarely
we have above
a supe-
described, and
never better beds than their skin cloaks spread
upon the ground. Hear this, ye travellers by rail and steam-boat who grumble if your dinner of !
three courses be not served in ten minutes, and
who
find nothing but discomfort in the princely
Rhine and of the high roads of
hotels of the
Europe
On
the table-land of the Sain-oula, the travellers
crossed part of the hunting ground of Jeho-ool,
which they describe richness.
them
as of surpassing
The descent
to the district of
fertile
beauty and
to the south-west
brought
Jeshekten (Gechekten), a
country, in which
Chinese industry and
chicanery are encroaching largely on the pastoral habits,
and on the
this district, as
proj^erties of the
well as in that of the Ooniots,
by the missionaries on the other oula range, gold exists in mines,
and
is
is
is
is
In left
side of the Sain-
procured in abundance.
and there
* Tlie tea of Tartary the leaves,
Mongols.
a class of
It
men among
formed into bricks by compression of
very coarse and inferior to that sold by the
Chinese for the European market.
40
TIBET,
the Chinese,
who possess,
of discovering from the this
metal
TARTAR^
is to
or pretend to, the
soil
Upon
be found.
power
and vegetation where a discovery being
declared by one of these, parties
of vagabonds
gather about hitn, who, with their head-quarters at the
mine, commit excesses exceeding those of
California,
and
neighbourhood. of miners, the
who
number
subsist
by plundering the
M. Hue
tells a
story of a
entire
body
so settled in the Ooniot country to
of 12,000, and for two years were the
terror of the vicinity.
At
last,
a
Mongol
princess
passing near the mine, was plundered of her jewels,
which induced the Ooniot horde for vengeance.
chieftain to collect his
The Chinese were
over-
powered, and massacred without mercy, and many
them taking refuge in their mine, the mouth was blocked up, and they perished miserably. This, be it observed, was not 200 miles from the capital Pekin, and shows how little real authority the Chinese government possesses over the free hordes of Mongolia: but of that, more presently. From
of
Jeshekten, the travellers passed into the district of the eight banners of Chakars, the
apparently that Father
Rubruquis
same nation calls
Jugures.
There, meeting some Tartars in search of stray horses, they
were much importuned
to
cast a
horoscope to determine in what direction the
lost
AND MONGOLIA. animals would be found.
by acceding
tion, it seems, is
a
Their servant wondered
and told how well he had fared
at their refusal,
heretofore
41
to
such requests.
Divina-
one of the recognised sources of
Lama's livelihood.
they came to the city of Tolo-Noor (seven lakes) called by Chinese " Lama
In the Chakar
district,
Mias," by Mongols " Nadan Omo," by Tibetans " Sat Doon." On the French map the place bears
name
the
of "
What
Naiman Soome."
geographer do with such a nomenclature city, like
lights.
no
police,
obstructions of
a
This
no drainage, no pavement,
The passage through
consequence, perilous as well as
sets,
?
most of those out of China, has no mu-
nicipality,
no
can a
mob
all
kinds
plunders
it
;
if
its streets is,
difficult,
in
from
a wheel carriage up-
with impunity, and camels
and other laden animals are frequently disabled in the
muddy
quagmires, and similarly
rifled.
Still,
commerce of Tartary, as well with Northern China as with Kiakhta. There are foundries in Tolo-Noor for casting brass and iron statues, bells and metal utensils of all kinds, and the missionaries witnessed the dispatch to Tibet of ^ statue of Boodh, cast in pieces, and laden upon eighty-four camels. the city
They
is
a great mart of the
availed themselves of the opportunity of their
TIBET, TAKTARY
42 visit to this
mart, to have a Christ cast in bronze
after a
French model, and M.
to the
high
that
it
Hue bears testimony
state of art of the
was impossible
Chinese, declaring
to distinguish the
copy from
the original.
On
the 1st of October, 1844, one of the very
few dates of our calendar given by M. Hue, the missionaries left Tolo-Noor. Their camels passed through the slippery and deep mire of the
streets
But they were no sooner they entered upon the than beyond the suburbs, with extreme
difficulty.
After a fatiguing
sands of the great Tartar desert. day's march, they
encamped
at a mineral spring
of very nauseous water, but finding
made
wood
fuel,
The next day they
a luxurious meal.
fell
in with the suite of a princess of the royal race of
Jungeez Khan, of the Khalkhas travelling hist
upon
monastery of the
of Shense.
tribe,
who was
a pilgrimage to the famous
They
left
teous interchange of
five
Bood-
towers in the province
the princess, after a cour-
civilities,
and pushed on
until
overtaken by a storm of wind and rain, in the set up They were relieved Mongols, who saw their dis-
midst of which they vainly endeavoured to their tent
and
light their
fire.
by some hospitable One of these proved tress.
to
be a
soldier, not
long returned from the war with the English.
He
AND MONGOLIA.
43
stated the order of service in the Chinese empire
be that "
to
first
the Chinese militia are sent
Next
against an invading enemy.
the Solo hordes
is
"Were
tribes are called out."
the banner of
After them the Chakar
raised.
all
the Chakars
on this occasion?" asked the mission" Yes/' said the soldier, " all." " At first,
called out aries. little
was thought of the war, and
Chakars will not be required. militia could do nothing.
The
it was said the But the Chinese
Solo troops marched,
Then
but the heat of the South destroyed them.
came the Emperor's order
into our country
;
every
one immediately furbished his arms and prepared for the
campaign.
For
us this fine country,
now
"We were bound in duty
required our services.
answer the
to
eight banners were gathered, and
Pekin.
we had who gave
six generations
not been called upon, but the Emperor,
Thence they sent us
The
call.
we marched
to
to
Tien-Tsin-vei,
for three months." " Did enemy and meet in battle ?" he dared not show himself. The Chinese
where we were in camp
you ever "
No
!
told us
the
see the
we were marching
enemy were
to certain death
;
that
sea monsters, hiding themselves
under water, and coming out when not expected, to discharge fiery
water melons (bombs and
that before one could
bend
a
bow
shells),
against them.
44
TIBET,
TARTARY
they disappeared again under water like frogs. Us, too, they thought to frighten with such
But we cared
stories.
The Grand Lama had been
not.
consulted and had assured us of a prosperous
We
issue.
had a Lama acquainted with medicine
attached to each (Chounda) company, and
why
But the enemy, when they heard of our approach, were alarmed and sued for peace ; and our holy master (the Emperor) acceded to should
we
fear
?
their request out of compassion, so
we
without meeting them in battle."
This Mongol
soldier
left
returned
the missionaries before they could
further satisfy their curiosity about the events of
the war.
The Chakar country
is
bounded on the
east
by
Jeshekten, on the west by Tourmet, and by the
Sooniot district on the north, and
hundred and broad.
The
fifty
said to be a
is
leagues long, by a hundred
district
was assigned
banners of the Chakar horde
to
the eight
as a barrier against
the Khalkhas, which, as being the tribe of Jun-
geez Khan, the Manchoos view with great jealousy, as well because of
its
ancient glories, as of the
aspirations
which the descendants of
conqueror
still
cannot
Chakar.
sell
A
his
delight to entertain.
this
mighty
A
Chakar
assigned land to other than
Chinese purchaser
is at
a
once ejected.
AND MONGOLIA. The Chakars
45
are guardians of the imperial stud,
and draw considerable emoluments from the frauds which the
trust enables
them
to perpetrate.
From theChakar country, the missionaries passed to
Chaborte (the swamp), which they reached on
the day of the Yue-piiig
(moon cake)
festival is of great antiquity
1368,
it
This
but, since the year
has been kept by the Chinese with par-
honour
ticular
;
festival.
;
for in that year, a Sicilian vesper
was prepared secretly against the Tartars, and the announcement of the hour of rising was circulated in the cakes of the festival.
This perversion of
the rites of the day has, however, been forgotten in the lapse of years,
the Chinese in
its
and Mongols now join with
celebration.
were invited by a Mongol vities,
The
missionaries
to partake of the festi-
and with very questionable good breeding
reminded the host of the massacre of his ancestors, to
which the
festival
had contributed but
this
;
not affect the cordiality of their reception.
were presented with brother Benjamin's
did
They
slices
of
the fat of monstrous sheep's-tails, a great delicacy,
though
far
beyond
guests,
They among the
their digestive powers.
divided and distributed the
tit-bits
and then fared heartily on the
flesh,
A
Toolholos sang in this assembly several national songs commemorative of the glory of the Mongols,
TIBET, TARTARY
46
and amongst them, the spirited'lament
He
so exciting to a Tartar.
for
Tymoor,
gave them but half-
an-hour, and then went his round to other households, singing at each for a large gratuity, pro-
portioned to his
skill.
After a stay of two days, to
replenish their stores with fresh purchases, they
prepared for a
start firom
Chaborte, but found their
The
mule and horse missing.
friendly
Mongols
undertook the search, and soon reeoved them.
The
missionaries then took the route to
Khoton, or " the blue
city."
On
Koko
the third day of
their march, they fell in with a deserted city, the
walls of
which they found
entire,
half buried in sand and earth.
and the houses
The
place had the
appearance of having been so deserted for centuries,
and no Tartar could furnish information the time or cause of the desertion.
either of
M. Hue
says
that the desert abounds in such remains of all
dimensions.
He
assigned to them a date coeval
with the expulsion of the Mongols from China,
and ascribed them
Young-ho,
to the severities of
an early sovereign of the Ming dynasty, who en-
deavoured
to annihilate the Tartars.
We
should
rather suspect some failure of water to be the cause
of the desertion of these localties, for
if
the site
were favourable, they would assuredly have been soon re-peopled.
Near
this
ruined
city, the tra-
AND MONGOLIA.
47
vellers crossed the great southern road
akhta,
by which the Russian missions are
conducted
to
Two more
from Ki-
ordinarily-
Pekin.
days carried the travellers into the
of Efe, a part of the ancient territory of
kingdom
by them during the wars which preceded the establishment of the present the Khalkhas, but lost
The
dynasty.
early sovereigns of
gave this tract to the Chakars
;
Manchoo
but
it
race
was taken
again from the eight banners of this nation, to be
given by Kien-long as dower of a princess of the imperial family, married
by him
to a prince of the
ancient race of Jungeez.
The Mongols wrestlers,
of Efe are famous for their skill as
and fr-om infancy are continually training
themselves.
They
take pride in carrying off the
prizes in the annual contests held at
many
places,
one of which occurred when M. Timkoiiski was Oorga, and he
On
the
certifies to
22nd day of the 8th moon,
after passing
out of Efe, the travellers crossed a range of
on the road
to the
at
the skill of this tribe.
hills
Chorchi Lamaserai, of one of
had heretofore made a them the Mongol lan200 Lamas on the Chorchi
the inmates of which they convert, while he taught
guage.
There are
establishment, which, being a favorite of the
Em-
But these
insti-
peror's, has
been richly endowed.
â&#x20AC;˘
48
TIBET, TARTARY
tutions rarely
When
it is
Lamas
owe
their origin to imperial bounty.
proposed
to
buUd
number
one, a
of
start in all directions to collect subscriptions
from the pious.
Wlierever they go they are hos-
pitably received, and rarely collection, which,
fail to
on their return,
is
make
a large
devoted to the
erection of suitable buildings of brick or stone
Round
these again, the pious further build temples
and tombs, by which means the desert verted into the appearance of a /
are themselves the sculptors
quently the these
is
The
soon con-
The Lamas fre-
the construction of
principle
that of the Great
Kooren of Tim-kouski),
is
and painters, and
artificers also in
edifices.
Mongolia
city.
Lamaserai of
Kouren
(the
all
Oorga
situated in the country
of the Khalkas, on the banks of the Toula river,
and standing on the edge of the great stretches
forest that
northward into Siberia. To the south,
the desert of a month's journey. ever, in a pleasant valley,
lies
how-
amid mountains near the
source of the Toula, whigh river
Baikal lake.
It stands,
falls into
the great
There are 30,000 Lamas, under
several heads, at
Oorga;
their chief is the Geesoo-
Tamba, a regenerated Boodh, of great sanctity. There has, of course, risen a large city and mart of commerce in the immediate vicinity of the convent, and
it
is
the head quarters of Mongolia, having
AND MONGOLIA.
49
been the capital of the princes of the family of
Jungeez Khan, before their conquest of China. Tea-bricks are here the measures of value, an ounce of silver representing five tea-bricks.
There are
Grand Kouren,
ostensibly to
Chinese mandarins
at
preserve the peace amongst the Chinese merchants,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;but,
in reality, to act as spies on the Geesoo-
Tamba, whose influence and power are very much dreaded at Pekin. In 1839, the Geesoo-Tamba announced a visit to the -court of Pekin, which was His retinue was ordered the cause of great alarm. to
be reduced
to
3,000 Lamas, and the three petty
sovereigns of Oorga, descended from Jungeez, were
forbidden to accompany him. Still, as this hierarch marched through Mongolia, he was received every-
where with extraordinary honours. Supplies were pro\'ided, and wells dug at the resting-places of his route,
and the Tartars thi-onged from
meet and worship him.
At
all
parts to
the Great Wall, half
his small retinue Avas further stopped,
still
his pre-
sence gave inquietude to the imperial government,
and he was soon despatched from the visit the
Blue City. it
was
capital, to
Lamaserai of the Five Towers, and the
He
died on his
way home,
said, of imperial jealousy
;
for
it
the victim,
was strongly
suspected that he received at Pekin a slow poison.
The same thing,
it
will
be recollected, occurred
D
TIBET, TAETARY
50
when the Djachi Lama visited Pekin in the days of Warren Hastings, and it is observed to be very much the custom for these sanctified persons to die, before they reach the seats of their spiritual supre-
macy, on their return.
Perhaps the Chinese know
they return dissatisfied in their hearts,
not
if
disgusted, with the result of their visit to Pekin
and
;
fearing, therefore, to leave this feeling rank-
ling in the breast of persons of such extensive influence, prefer to promote a regeneration,
and
to
take the opportunity of professing reverence and regret,
and the most profound personal attachment,
in a long obituary notice in the
Pekin Gazette.
In 1844, the Geesoo Tamba was regenerated in Tibet, and our missionaries
met
in the
Koko-noor
vaUey the mission of Khalkas Tartars, which was proceeding to bring him from thence
to the Grand In Mongolia, besides the Kouren monastery. Grand Kouren, monastery at Oorga, there are the Mingan Lamari Kouren, i. e., the thousand Lama
monastery, also that of
Koko Khoton, "
the Blue
City," and the Polou-noor, and Jeho-ool, serais, in all of
and criminal
Lama-
which, the Lamas have both
jurisdiction.
civil
Within the wall of
China there are the monasteries of Pekin, of the Five Towers, and of Shensi,
all
of the same high
rank and privileges.
From
Chorchi, the missionaries entered again
AND MONGOLIA. They were now
the territory of the Chakars. lands of the
Red Banner
51 in the
From
of that nation.
thence, after several days march, they passed into
The
Western Tourmet.
name the
lies
on the other side of the Chakar
In the western
tory.
eastern district of that
ascendancy, and
district
terri-
Chinese habits have
agriculture
is
extending.
Everything seemed here prosperous, and trees even had been planted on the road-side. Three days march in Western Tourmet brought the travellers Koko-Khoton, as it is called to the " Blue City"
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
in
Mongolian
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Kui-hwa-chen in Chinese.
There
are two cities close to one another, the old and the
new; the new being the
Tartar, or military estab-
by Kang-hi, with magnificent Here the missionaries found a force of 10,000 men, under a Kiang-kian. The soldiers were originally Manchoo Tartars, but had nearly forgotten the Manchoo language. The missionaries
lishment, built walls.
remarked, indeed, that generally, in China as in
Mongolia, the Manchoos had
tionality as the result
Manchoo
is
some banner, and, vileges. tarily in
Sifo
of their
under obligation
Many
as well
lost their na-
ascendancy.
A
to enrol himself under
failing to
do
so, loses his pri-
neglect to enrol themselves volun-
order to avoid the conscription.
and Solo are the highest
These are proud of
tribes of
their position
and
The
Manchoos. history, but 7>
8
TIBET, TARTARY
52 without
much
cause on the ground of antiquity or
Manchoos had no written was the language reand arranged in dictionaries and
of civilization, for the
character
duced
until 1641, nor
to rule,
grammars, until the reign of Kien-long, that
is
MokManchoos. The
towards the end of the eighteenth century.
den
is
the native capital of the
Emperor has city,
a palace there, and
one quarter of which
" Yellow Belts," that is, perial family.
it is
a
handsome
is
appropriated to the
to the
members of the Im-
In the northern
districts,
near the
Sagalien, a very productive kind of cotton to
is
said
grow, yielding, says M. Hue, in a square of French,
fifteen feet,
as
much
two thousand
as
pounds of cotton. Losing themselves in the
Khoton, the
travellers
of a sharper,
muddy streets
were exposed
who reckoned upon
of Koko-
to the villany
selling
them
as
Tartar simpletons, but they extricated themselves adroitly
by taking refuge
in the very respectable
Chinese hotel of " three perfections." Here estabblishedjthey prepared for the coming winter by the
purchase of sheep-skin cloaks and clothing. There is
no coined money in China, except the brass
pieces with a hole in the centre, of
one will have seen specimens. the weight, and an ounce
1700
to
is
which every
Silver
is
sold
by
the equivalent of from
1800 of these brass coins, which are called
AND MONGOLIA.
53
sapeks by Europeans, by the Chinese Tien, and
by Tartars Deboy.
In taking change for some
ounces of silver to make these purchases, the
Chinese money-changer, thinking he was dealing with simple Tartar Lamas, allowed a high rate,
and gave
fall
weight, but endeavoured to cheat in
the calculation; the missionaries, however, with their arithmetic,
were too much
for the
Chinese
money-changer, with his saopan, and got their
full
Their means compelled them to put up
change.
with second-hand sheep-skin cloaks, and fox-skin caps; they took, however, the precaution to treat
them with a mercurial process
to get rid of the
vermin, a necessary operation before they could venture to wear them.
At Koko-Khoton there are five great Lamaserais, in each of which there are more than 2000 Lamas, besides
fifteen smaller
a low estimate for the
famous
city.
The
ones ; 20,000
number
of
Lamas
chief of the whole
is
is
a " Hobil-
gan," established at the Five Towers; that
Lama, who, having by
thus
in this
is,
a
abstraction and study, ob-
tained Boodhism, has been transmitted since
by
regeneration. In the reign of Kanghi,the *Geesoo*
M. Timkowski
says " Koutouktou, in Mongol, and Goussee
is the name of the highest class of the priests Boudha the one resident at Ourga is called by the Mongols, Gheghen Koutoukton."
(G-eesoo) in Tibetan,
of
;
54
TIBET, TARTARY
Tamba
resided at Koko-Klioton
ror paid
;
and that empe-
when on an expedition against Hi tribes. The insolent hierarch
him a
visit
the Ooloo, or
received him without rising or taking the least
whereupon a military mandarin in attenhim on the spot. The city was immediately in emeiite, and the Em-
notice,
dance, drew his sword and slew
peror's person
was
most of those
for
some time in great danger
with him
were
sacrificed,
and
amongst them the perpetrator of the violence on
Tamba. The Khalkhas tribe of Monup the cause, and declaring that the Geesoo Tamba had re-appeared in their country, established a grand Lama with that title at Grand the Geesoo
golia took
Kouren. Everything was ripe
for
an insurrection;
but Kang-hi proved equal to the occasion.
He
immediately courted the Delai Lama, of Lassa,
and through him gained over
all
the
Lamas of
Tibet and Tartary not already compromised in the quarrel.
Thus he restored
farther collision or violence.
Kouren, however, wear on the
collar of their
in
mourning
It
was
tranquillity without
The Lamas
to this
yellow dress, in
for this slaughtered
settled
on
of
Grand
day a black border
memory and
Geesoo Tamba.
this occasion that the
Geesoo
Tamba should remain
at
Grand Kouren, and an
Hobilgan replace him
at
Koko-Khoton, and
that
AXD MONGOLIA. the regeneration
of the
55
Geesoo Taniba should
always take place hereafter in Tibet, by which
means the
local influence
hierarch are
much
and attachments of
this
diminished.
Koko-Khoton is an university in which Lamas from all parts come to study and take degrees, returning afterwards to
ments.
whe
Lamas
theii-
provincial establish-
are of three kinds
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the
religious,
devote themselves to study and abstraction,
and become teachers, and eventually domestic, to tribes
who
and
live in families, or attach
localities;
and the
saints; the
themselves
itinerant,
who
are
always moving from convent to convent, and travelling for travel's sake, often without aim, not
knowing
at all
where they are going. There
is
no
country that some of these have not visited, and
when they have
a religious or partisan feeling they
must be the best
spies in the world.
In the monasteries of Mongolia there religious discipline, but each his
cows and sheep,
every establishment
Lama
a strict
has generally
as well as a horse. is
is
Almost
nobly endowed, and the
funds are distributed on fixed days in the year, in
by the rank attained by But each Lama is free to seek other emoluments, such as by practising as a physician, or by performing domestic religious serproportions regulated the members.
TIBET, TARTARY
56 vices, or
by
casting horoscopes, or in any similar
manner, not inconsistent with the profession of a
Lama.
Some
families,
they generally spend prodigally.
attain
number of Lamas all
wcahh, which, having no
in Tartary
extreme
is
;
The almost
the younger sons are devoted from infancy to
this destiny
laymen,
to
;
the eldest only being brought
The younger
as
brothers have no choice, but have
their heads shaven
from childhood.
be the policy of the court of Pekin this multiplication of
in the idea that
it
The shaven
tion.
up
tend the flocks and keep up the family.
influential, if not
Lamas among
It is said to to
encourage
the Tartars,
checks the increase of populaare the most intelligent and
the most numerous
these sons of the desert, and
body of
the Chinese pay
court to them assiduously in consequence.
China Proper the corresponding
class of
In
Bonzes
by the government, and has sunk into the most abject poverty. The reason is obvious. A regenerated Boodh of Tibet or Tartary can at any time call round him thousands of dequite neglected
is
Lama
voted
bidding
at his * It
is
title
;
and* these no
curious to observe in
how many the
followers, ready to sacrifice their lives
De
less
than the lay
Gruigne's History of the
of the generals and lieutenants of Jungeez
of Kotooktoo.
Hnns,
Khan bore
AND MONGOLIA.
whom
Tartars, fluence,
57
they lead by their religious in-
have a high military
and the
spirit,
recol-
lection of the past glories of their race in the days
of Jungeez and of Tymoor, to excite them to great enterprises.
It is
hence the study of the Chinese,
and a recognised part of their policy, this influence
with the State, just
to associate
as the
Church
Europe is made by most governments an engine To effect this, of order and of civil government. largely to all government of Pekin contributes the the monastic institutions of Mongolia, Tibet and
in
Tartary, and supports the hierarchy and even the theocracies
by aspiring priests in Lassa, and at the Grand Kouren
established
various parts, as at
of Oorga, using these institutions to control the nobility as well as to lead the
seat of theocratic
mob. But there is
at
each
government a skiKul Chinese
di-
plomatist, who advises, and even controls, the deified
Lama and who, upon ;
of any kind, affairs,
is
occasions for political action
the prompter and director of
all
holding the strings and wires that move the
puppet, while he
is
treated with
all
outward
re-
spect and reverence.
On
the fourth day of the ninth
sionaries left difficulty
in
moon
the mis-
Koko-Khoton, but found the utmost leading their
narrow, ever-muddy
streets.
camels
through the
The country they D 3
TIBET, TARTAR
58
now passed througli was
On
rich
the second day they put
and highly cultivated
up
at
an inn, where
they met a singular character, who called himself a " Tartar-devourer," and who was an agent to recover debts owing to Chinese.
The next day they White En-
arrived at Chagan-Kouren, or the "
As they reached
closiu'e."
it,
they
fell
in with a
caravan of camels laden with merchandize of the west, which extended for fifteen It
had been
desert,
there
ti'avelling for five
lis,
or five miles.
months across the
and came probably from Kashghar, whence
is
a large import of jade stones and western
products.
They
arrived at the town late at night, and
found a lodging with Mongol's.
difficulty
at a hospitable
They were now approaching
the
Hoang-Ho, or Yellow River, and learned here
that
the inundations were out, and the passage across
They determined, nevertheless, Chagan-Kouren is a new town,
nearly impossible. to
attempt
it.
built with great regularity,
and open squares its
;
having broad
streets
but the inundation reached to
suburbs, and the camels after leaving them had
to proceetl fields
on
muddy embankments,
with the water up
to their
knees
or through ;
while the
whole plain before them had the appearance of a great lake.
At
a village
which they reached,
after
AND MONGOLIA,
59
a laborious but short march, they bargained with
some boatmen
for the passage,
two thousand sapeks channel.
to carry
They reduced
and were asked
them over the
first
the charge to eight hun-
dred, and were so conveyed to a station on the
bank of the main stream, which was rapid but not
Here they bargained again
very broad.
to
be
carried across this channel for another thousand
making an ounce of silver for the whole passage. Then* camels were taken into the boat at sapeks,
the second passage, an enterprise effected with ex-
treme
They had forded
difficulty.
the
under bad guidance and were nearly missionaries, after crossing this
first
stream
The
lost.
main stream, had
yet a third branch, the Paga-Gol, to get over, and a
march
muddy
across
inundated
before they could reach
its
fields
bank.
to
make
That march
remained some days on the northern bank of the Paga-Gol, disputing about the terms
effected, they
At
of transport.
last
they affected the transit by
the favour of a fisherman,
by a
fierce dog,
ment.
When
came
to
who having been them
the styptic they administered had
been applied with success, the fisherman,
ashamed of
bitten
for medical treat-
his inability to
pay the usual
being-
fee,
un-
dertook for the passage of the party on reasonable terms.
The
right of ferry,
it
may be
observed,
is
TIBET, TARTAR
60 a
monopoly enjoyed under
family,
by
a royal grant
a
whose exorbitant demand was beyond the
travellers'
means, and
long detention
Beyond
this
was the cause of
their
at this point.
the Paga-Gol lies the country of the
Ortoos, which extends a hundred leagvies from
and sixty-six from north
east to west,
In A.D. 1635, the
to south.
with
tribes of this region sided
the Manchoos, in their contest with the last of the
Ming
dynasty, and thus came into great favour
who
with Kanghi,
and
declared them the most honest
intelligent of his subjects,
breeders
country
of is
all
the
Mongol
and the best Tartars.
cattle
But the
a sandy desert throughout, producing
nothing except wild hemp, the dried remains of
which formed a or camel's
fuel
much
superior to the argols,
and bullock's dung, which our
usually depended upon for their meal. great want of
this countr}' is water,
travellers
But the
and owing
to
the sterility in consequence, the Ortoos are in the greatest misery, and beggars are here
ous than in Ireland. ritory, the travellers
and
rain
more numer-
In crossing the Ortoos
ter-
encountered a storm of wind,
and snow, that reduced them
greatest possible state of distress
But they found by good
and
fortune,
to
the
difficulty.
some caves
and deserted rock habitations, which gave them
AXD MONGOLIA.
61
shelter,
and aiFordcd the means of di-ying their
clothes
and
refitting
the
who
told
here a Tartar,
They met
caravan.
them
that
the
caves
had been thus prepared by a party of Chinese
who had lands.
settled there to cultivate the adjacent
When
they grew rich and insolent, the
Tartars resolved to expel them, and accordingly
drove cattle into their ripe
fields,
destroying 'the
entire crop, which had led to the Chinese decamp-
ing in a body about two years before.
After
leaving these caves, the missionaries experienced the extreme cold of one of those winds of Tartary,
which are described
as so terrible.
The
cold was
too severe to allow of their continuing the march,
and
it
for a
gave them
good
fire.
full
employment
to collect fuel
After a halt of tAvo days, the wind
becoming more moderate, they resumed their march, but could not draw their tent pins without first
heating them several times with hot water
poured round them. They had, however, no sooner
commenced
the
quite oppressive ;
march than they
perature in that terrible climate.
day of the Ninth
felt
the heat
such are the alternations of tem-
On
the 15th
jNIoon, the missionaries fell in
way Lama, who had vowed
Rash-chooren, to see
with pilgrims on their
to
a
there to cut open his
bowels in public.
For
this the
devotee prepares
TIBET, TARTARY
62
by long penance, prayer and day appointed he
sits
on an
abstraction
altar,
on the
:
and deliberately
ripping open his belly, lays the bowels before him,
and
so
falling
oracularly
all
into
a kind of trance,
by
questions put
operation finished, he gathers his bowels
and reciting a long prayer, readjusts nothing had happened. to
We
answers
the pilgrims.
up
The again,
his girdle as if
commend this miracle The missionaries
the Magician of the North.
resolved to go a
little
out of their road to witness
the exhibition, but lost their way, and passed a
Beyond the mo-
miserable night in the desert.
nastery of Rash-chooren, they came to the salt lakes of Dabsoon-noor, which, though nearly dry,
required great care in the crossing, owing to the
multitude of quicksands, and general treachery of the
soil.
cattle,
Round
these lakes are rich pastures for
and especially for camels.
beyond them, the pastures,
Two days' journey
travellers halted,
and purchased a sheep
still
amid rich
for a feast
from a
Lama, who procured them also an accomplished butcher, and brought his family to partake of the dainty meal. The description of these festivities will well repay the reader
;
entering into the details.
On
but
we
refrain
from
the next day, after
a long march, the water had to be drawn from a
deep well, the mouth of which was closed with a
AND MONGOLIA. large stone. Another long
63
march brought them
to
the "
Hundred Wells ;" and on the day after, they met the Prince or King of Alishan, on his way to Pekin
to
render homage.
Three Tartars of
this
prince's suite passed the night"svith the missionaries,
and explained the relations which subsisted between
The
Alishan, and the court of Pekin.
tributes
paid by
all
nominal,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a camel, or a horse of particular breed,
or
these Tartar chiefs are
any special
little
more than
may produce
rarity the country
of
the vegetable or animal kingdom, forms the tribute.
One
of the chiefs of the
Chakar
tribes, for instance,
pays tribute in pheasants' eggs, which are used to give lustre to the hair of the imperial concubines.
But
all
such tributes must be offered in person by
the head of the principality, and the visit
is
re-
quired to be annual, unless in consequence of the distance the period
great favour.
is
extended
Arrived
at
to thi'ee years as a
Pekin, the tributaries
are treated very unceremoniously
;
they have no
separate audiences, but on great days, like that of the
New
Year, or the Emperor's birthday, they
stand round, and see the Imperial countenance ap-
proach from a distance. pearance, they must
all
Immediately on his apfall
on their knees, and
perform the Kotou, never rising has passed.
On
till
the other hand,
the
all
Emperor
these petty
TIBET, TARTARY
64
chiefs are pensioned,
some receiving
ÂŁ2,000 per annum, and others
less.
much
as
The
as
stipends
are paid in hard silver, at the time of presenting
the tribute, but occasionally the tributaries receive plated ingots instead of genuine ones.
The information given by
these Tartars of the
character of the Alishan country, and of
to take a
its
recent
from drought, decided the missionaries
sufferings
more eastern route through Chinese terKoko-noor valley, crossing again the
ritory to the
Hoang-ho, or Yellow this route,
By
river, for the purpose.
they would pass withm two days' march
Sambda Chamba, which was to him a source of great satisfaction, as he had not seen his family for eighteen years. From due west, the travellers now turned of the native country of their servant,
a
little
to the south,
march by their
map
a Tartar, :
and were directed on
their
whose information confirmed
but the water
very putrid, and required
at their to
next stage was
be purified by char-
coal.
They passed here through mountains
schist,
which had the appearance of having been washed by an ocean wave, and presented
of
heretofore
the most grotesque forms, besides being covered
with
shells
and marine
caves evidently
fossils,
by water
and being worn
into
action.
After crossing this range, the Yellow River was
AND MONGOLIA. seen at
a magnificent stream,
its foot, still
passed to the
65
little
and was
town of She Tsui Dze
The
reasonable ferry charge.
at
found themselves upon Chinese ground,
a
now
missionaries at the
end
of two months from the date of theu' departure
At She Tsui
from the "Valley of Black Waters." Dze, they put up
at the hotel of
From
passion."
the day of their
Khoton, they had not seen the
They were here
house.
and
theii'
whom
" Justice and
Comleavmg Koko-
interior of a habited
in comparative comfort,
host was a communicative person, from
they obtained
future route
much
intelligence as to their
After two days' rest, the travellers
proceeded, and crossed the Great Wall, which surmounted the rismg ground beyond the river. It was here a barrier of little strength and rough
workmanship. Works of irrigation, and other dences of Chinese
skill
parent on their line of march the province of
at
;
and the contrast of
Kan-sou with the arid desert of
the Ortoos was remarkable.
sou was
evi-
and enterprise, were ap-
The
fii'st
Wang-ho-po, where they
halt in
fell
Kan-
in with a
Chinese caravan, bound like themselves to NingHia.
On
the road to this last city, they found
guard-houses
at
every half league, consisting of
square towers, built for the protection of travellers.
Arrived
at
Ning-Hia, a demand was made
66
TARTARY
TIBET,
for passports
by three pretended public
for purposes
of extortion.
camels
made
free with
some fresh
oziers
on a cart
A tumult
within reach of their long necks. in consequence,
officers,
In the night, their arose
which ended in a demand upon
the missionaries to
make good
But
the damage.
a jury of bystanders, a tribunal always available in China,
adjudged the reparation
to
be made by
the hotel-keeper, as he had been forewarned.
Re-
sistance to anything unjust or unreasonable
is al-
ways the best course even for strangers. Ning-Hia is a city of the first rank, but trayed unmistakeable signs of decadence.
road carried them to Hia-ho-po,
nificent
hotel of which,
named " the Hotel
a white -buttoned
cities,"
quired them to make
official
way for his
it
be-
A magat the
of Five Feli-
impudently
re-
master, a manda-
But here
also
the travellers stood on their right, as being the
first
rin of high rank, with a large suite.
arrived,
and thus shared
Two more days
carried
fairly the
them
to
accommodation.
Chong-Wei,
a for-
town on the banks of the Yellow River, which contrasted favourably with the misery of Ning-Hia;
tified
but to their wonder, the river was here without boats.
At Chong-Wei,
the Great
Wall was again
passed, and the travellers found themselves once
more amid the sandy mountains of Alishan, show-
AND MONGOLIA.
67
ing no signs anywhere of vegetation, and moving
with every breath of wind.
It is
from these sands
that the
Yellow River acquires the
derives
its
sand lers
to theu*
tint
The camels sank
name.
whence
it
in the loose
knees at every step, and the travel-
were compelled
to dismount, in order to pur-
sue their laborious journey. These sands seem to be
blown up by the western winds of the great Shamo desert,
and are piled up
on the bank of
in hills
An
the river, but are there arrested.
oasis in the
middle of these sands, called Chang Lieon-Choui
(Ever Flowing Waters), was their next resting-
where
place, a delightful spot, plaint
was of overcharge
modation.
From
this
stations
penal
settle-
Cliina in the extreme north-west.
The
on
this
to Hi, the
road are maintained by convicts,
whose banishment
to
Hi
is
remitted on the condi-
tion of their providing water
public travellers, this
accom-
village, they followed for
some distance the high road
ment of
com-
their only
for their night's
and provisions
to
who else would find none. Along
road they proceeded
till
they again crossed
the Great Wall, and soon after an interior barrier, called that of
San yen Tsin,
at the resting-place
beyond which they were again importuned
for
passports, as a plea for extortion, but again successfully resisted.
They were now
in the province
68
TIBET, TARTARY
of Kan-Sou, a well cultivated wheat and pasture
country; but they encountered here a dry tornado of a most formidable character, which, fallen
upon them while amid the sands
must
infallibly
had
if it
of Alishan,
have destroyed the whole party.
After a day's rest at a respectable farm, they
reached Choang Long, or Ping-Fang, the hotel of which was kept by a Chinese,
asked them
who
at
once
they were not Ing-kilee (English).
if
This they denied, and a bystander relieved them from the embarrassing question by saying, " Don't
you know that those English have all blue eyes and red hair." " True," said the master of the hotel, " I did not think of that besides those Ing-kilee never leave the sea, and can't ride, but ;
shake like
little fish
At
on horseback."
Lama, who was
out of water this hotel
a regenerated
tribe, returning
when they mount
they met a grand
Boodh of the Khalkas
from Tibet. All but our travellers
prostrated themselves
before him.
The
saints'
curiosity brought him, however, to terms of familiarity with them, notwithstanding this
spect,
and he asked
if
want of
re-
they were Russians, or Eng-
He
lish (Peling)*
from the Ganges and Calcutta.
had
between Tibet and the country of
travelled
* Peling
is
the Tibetan corruption of the
word
Feringi, itself
a corruption of Frank, the Oriental word for European.
AND MONGOLIA. the Khalkas
69
more than once, and had there heard
of these two nations, but he
knew nothing
of
France.
The next
stage, after leaving
Choang-Long, was
Ho Kiao-y, which also has another name, Tai-tongFou, which
used.
is less
Here they put up
at the
hotel of " Temperate Climates," where they rested
days for the sake of their
for eight
cattle,
backs were chafed by the long travel. the
whose
Being near
country of their Chiaour servant, Sambda
Chambda, they gave him leave which he found
in
the expense of his
to visit his family,
much distress, and relieved at own wardrobe. Leaving Ho-
Kiao-y, they crossed a high range called Ping-Kiou, the summit of which they reached only at mid-day,
beginning the ascent passed felt
at sunrise.
It
snowed
as
they
but in the descent on the other side, they
;
inconvenienced from the heat.
was so
steep, as to
mount
and one of
;
The pathway
compel the travellers
to dis-
their camels t"wice rolled over,
but without suffering in this range of hills
much injury. There is coal much of it was met under :
conveyance to the river on bullocks, mules, and
On
other animals.
the further side of the Ping-
Kiou range they came knitters,
called
beyond which
ie
to a village of stocking-
Lao-Ya-Pou,
five days'
journey
the city of Sining-Fou, situated
TIBET, TARTARY
70
in a well cultivated country, abounding in tobacco
but the road of the
last
day was amid rocks, and
along the line of a torrent presenting
The
gers.
Dorville
many
dan-
route of the missionaries Grueber and
fell
in here with that of our travellers, but
they had come across China proper by Singanfoo.
At
Sining, strangers
hotels
;
called Sie-Kia, as
are not received into
the
but there are separate lodging-houses,
where they are boarded
as well
lodged for nothing, the keepers of the houses
drawing their
and
profit
from the agency of purchases
sales for these strangers,
ately extortionate.
The
which
is
proportion-
missionaries having con-
tributed nothing in this way, paid for their accom-
modation.
The
route after this was rocky, and
crossed several torrents, and the Great
Wall was
passed twice before they reached Tong-Keou-ool, a small but thriving commercial town, in the valley
of the Koko-noor, full of inhabitants of
from
all
quarters,
and speaking
missionaries were
all
all races,
languages.
The
here also received at a free
lodgmg-house, kept by a Mussulman.
It
was now
month of January, and consultation was held upon their further proceedings. To pass the mountains into Tibet at this season was full of hardships, and dangerous in many respects. Yet they could the
not think of abandoning the object of their long
AND MONGOLIA.
71
journey, and in summer, the torrents and melting
snows would present even greater difficulties. After a stay of six days, wliile they a party of
were yet deliberating,
Khalkhas Tartars arrived on
from Grand Koiu'en (Oorga)
mage
to a
new Geesoo Tamba,
to Lassa, to
men
way
do ho-
declared to be rege-
nerated in a family of that country.
but eight
theii*
There were
of the party, but each had more
than one horse, besides forty camels for the bag-
gage of the whole.
The
missionaries rejoiced at
first
in the oppor-
tunity of continuing their journey in such com-
pany, but upon enquu-ing they gave up the idea, finding that these Tartars travelled fifty or sixty
miles a-day, which, with their
own
small supply of
was impossible, and they had not the money purchase more. These Tartars were all nobles
cattle,
to
of the royal race, and were visited by the young prince of the Koko-noor VaUey,
who
advised the
missionaries to wait for the return, in spring, of
the Tibetan mission, then at Pekin, which advice
they determined to follow.
At eleven leagues
dis-
tance from Tang-Kiou-ool, in the Sifan pasture district, is
and not
far
from the lake of Koko-noor,
the famous monastery of
Koon-boom, contain-
ing near four thousand Lamas of aU nations.
Thither
M. Gabet went
to seek a
Lama
preceptor
TIBET, TARTARY
73
them Tibetan, while they waited
to teach
caravan of the mission then
and engaged a cousin of
at
Pekin.
for the
He
their servant
Chamba, a Chiaour Lama, named Sandara, two years of age, who had lived
found
Sambda thirty-
for ten years in a
Lamaserai of Lassa, and who understood most of the languages of China. telligent,
tures,
He
was extremely
in-
and had passed through strange adven-
having
one time been an actor in a
at
travelling Chinese company
;
but he was cunning,
and not the best tempered of preceptors
:
how-
was most useful in the menage, and
ever, he
arranged for their removal to the Koon-boom
monastery after
begining of the Chinese year,
at the
about a month's residence
Tang-Kiou-ool.
at
At Koon-boom they obtained lodgings from generous
priest,
whose
liberality
a
had ruined him,
and who cordd take no rent consistently with the Opposite to them, in the same rules of his order. court, lived a niggardly Chinese
reputed wealth. titioner,
who
On
stuttered to a degree almost destroy-
ing his respiration defect
Lama, of great
one side was a medical prac-
when he attempted
to speak, a
which the Chinese Lama's apprentice took These neigh-
mischievous delight in mimicking.
bours and their host they met daily in the court, but very seldom visited or received each other in
AXD MONGOLIA. their apartments.
with
its
tS
The Lamaserai
of Koon-boom,
4,000 Lamas, covers the two
mountain ravine, and
consists of a
mansions built upon either temples interspersed.
number of white with Boodhist
side,
At every
you meet caps, and red
step
Lamas with yellow mitre-shaped cloaks, walking gravely, as
thought. aries,
At the time
though absorbed in
of the arrival of the mission-
they were preparing for the feast of flowers,
which was expected
this
usual magnificence.
month of
year to be held with un-
On
15th of the
the
the year this festival recurs
of flowers, there are figures of
all
for
weeks before, wetting
;
first
but in lieu
kinds prepared
of frozen butter, which twenty chosen
upon
sides of a
their
Lamas work
hands in cold
water to prevent the butter from being melted they model.
Strangers from
all
as
quarters flock to
the festival, and the missionaries were most agree-
ably surprised by the exhibition.
The accuracy
with which the features and dress of the
human
all
types of
race were represented in bas relief,
especially the skin-dress of
thing they had yet seen in butter, destroyed
and
many, exceeded anyart,
and
all this
was
in
cast into the ravine, to be-
come food for crows, the day after the festival. While the missionaries were examining these displays of art, the Grand Lama of Koon-boom came
B
TIBET, TARTARY
.74
with mucli ceromony and
state to see the festival
he was a very ordinary-looking person of forty
them
years of age, but his costume struck
responding exactly with that of their
even
own
as cor-
bishops,
to the violet chape.
The Koon-boom monastery
Amdo
district,
is
situated in the
south of Koko-noor, and
sur-
is
rounded by barren red and yellow mountains. Tsong-Kaba, whose name is by Csoma Korosi, Tson-Kha-pa and of whose
It is the birth-place of
spelt
miraculous conception and infancy strange legends are current.
He
was born
a.d. 1347, and, devot-
ing himself when quite young to a
life
of privation
and abstract study, became, according
these
to
legends, the pupil of a stranger of the west, described as of great learning, and of peculiar phy-
siognomy, being remarkable for the length of his nose.
This stranger, after teaching
ing to Tson-Kha-pa, laid himself
all his
learn-
down on
the
top of a mountain and slept the sleep of death,
never to awake, being very probably frozen to death.
Upon this Tson-Kha-pa, resolved to
travel
south into Yunan, whence he
made
and went his
way
first
after a
tural injunction
time to Lassa.
bade him
accordingly preached his
introduced
new
There a superna-
fix his residence.
new
He
doctrine there, and
prayers and forms of ritual, and
AND MONGOLIA. gained
many
by yellow
converts.
capes,
75
His sect were distinguished
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;red being
the former coloui*.
Gaining ultimately the ascendant, Tson-Kha-pa
founded the Kaldan monastery, nine miles from Lassa, in a.d. 1409, being then sixty-two years old.
This monastery 8,000 Lamas. this
world
still
exists,
and numbers more than
In 1419, the reforming saint quitted
Tson-Kha-pa, besides
for the celestial.
reforming the
ritual, revised
and published a new
version of the doctrinal scriptures of Sakhya-Muni, the great founder of the religion, under the
name
the " graduated road of perfection."
mission-
aries
The
saw reason, in the conformity of ritual,
as of costume, especially in this sect of
of
as well
Lamas,
for
believing that the preceptor of Tson-Kha-pa must
have been a stray member of the Romish Church,
who found after
and
his
way
into these regions a century
Rubruquis and Marco Polo. ritual are
in all Tibet,
adopted in
now
His doctrine
the prevailing forms of worship
Mongolia and Tartary, and have been
many Chinese
Koon-boom was
built
at his bu'thplace,
some time
and there
is
was shorn on
said to
is
That of
after his decease
a miraculous tree
have grown on the spot
shown, which
where
his hair
monasteries.
his
becoming a Lama,
on every leaf of which tree there
is
a letter of the
Tibetan alphabet distinctly marked. The mission-
E 2
TIBET, TARTARY
76 aries
saw the
three
men
was
It
tree.
was not more than eight letters
old,
with a stem that
could scarcely circle in the girth, but feet
high
the Tibetan
;
were well formed, and seemed engrained in
the leaf as
They
grew.
it
but could not
at all
testify to the miracle,
account for
We presume
it.
the letters to be written
upon the young
with some substance that
affects their
texture,
and
so remains indelible.
say, is of a species that
where.
leaves
growth and
The
tree,
no one has seen
they else-
The Emperor Kang-hi, when he made
a
pilgrimage to Koon-boom, covered the tree with
endowment for the perpetual support of three hundred and fifty Lamas, which the monastery still enjoys. The a silver dome, and gave an
missionaries
speak highly of
management, and
its
discipline
and
testify to its well-merited cele-
brity as an university for the instruction of Lamas.
There are four great First
fessors for each.
classes,
mystical doctrines, and of the tion
which leads
with separate pro-
and highest, the faculty of of contempla-
life
to sanctification
Second, the
;
faculty of the liturgy, including the study of religious ceremonies cine, including
botany and pharmacy
faculty of prayer,
consequently
is
;
all
Third, the faculty of medi-
which
the best
is
;
Fourth, the
obligatory on
filled.
all,
and
There are thirteen
AND MONGOLIA.
77
branch of study only, the books of
classes in this
prayer being most numerous, and very voluminous,
and the students being graduated according
No
their progress in these books. for
age or length of study
;
one
is
to
advanced
very young persons,
even boys, take often the very highest places in
The
the hierarchy.
place
is
given after
strict
examination, but a handsome present to the tution, or to the examiners, mitigates
The
severity.
the open
air,
much
insti-
of
its
lectures are given at all seasons in
and the lessons having been
recited,
upon generally to maintain a thesis upon any subject. He must answer all opponents, and if victorious, is carried round one of the pupils
the
is
called
school-yard on the shoulders
The whole
quished.
disputation
is
of the
van-
conducted in
the Tibetan language, no other being taught or
admitted in the schools. are strictly enforced
by
Discipline and attention
censors, who carry iron rods
with which they punish summarily any delinquents.
The
proctors and their bull-dogs are dis-
tinguished by a grey dress and black mitre.
have great power in the
streets of the
They
town, as
well as in the courts of the monastery, and there are
Lama judges
any petty
for
more
serious offences.
theft, the culprit is
head and cheek by a hot
iron,
marked on the and expelled.
For fore-
TIBET, TARTARY
IQ
Our two
missionaries, with the aid of their pre" Sandara," prepared a Tibetan abstract of ceptor
summary of the principal The report of their
the Scriptures, and a doctrines of their
own
employment spread
many began
faith.
in the monastery,
anxious enquiries to
hope
for
of superstitions.
;
so, that
they
but their preceptor was
The
a confirmed sceptic.
much
much
extensive success in winning
converts to their faith
medicine was
so
;
and excited
stuttering student of
to
though full them one day,
ceremony
for the benefit
better disposed,
He
proposed
to assist in a charitable
of lost and forlorn travellers.
It consisted of the
very simple process of stamping the figure of a horse, caparisoned, on
little
pieces of light paper,
winds on a mounThe young student had the most perfect faith that many a poor wanderer would be relieved by this charitable
and giving these
to the strong
tain top, with certain prayers.
sending of horses in
all
quarters.
The missionaries had resided three months at Koon-boom, when they received a civil message, that the time had expired when they could live as stranger guests, dressing and comporting themselves as they pleased.
If they remained longer,
they must wear the mitre and costume of the They objected on monastery, and matriculate.
AND MONGOLIA.
79
the score of religious scruples, and were accord-
ingly advised to remove to a less strict monastery at
Chogortan, especially devoted to medical stu-
dents.
This advice they readily followed, and had
no reason
to
repent the change of their residence.
M. Hue
Before taking leave of Koon-boom, votes a chapter to the precepts of
the introduction of this religion into China.
he
cites,
and the
facts
and highly interesting
;
de-
Boodh, and
to
What
he mentions, are curious but through the writings
Csoma Korosi, and Mr. G. Turnour of Ceylon, we have much more fidl details on the of the late Mr.
subject of this
religion,
derived directly from
Tibetan and Pali sources.
The Chinese
give the year,
b. c.
1029, as the
date of the birth of Sakhya-Muni,
or
and the year,
death
B.C. 951, for that of his
Boodh, but
;
they admit that the religion was not introduced into
China
iintil
1,000 years
later.
They
state the
book of the Forty -two Precepts, from which the missionaries give extracts, to have been translated into the language of China, in the year a. d. 68.
A
comparison of many epochs has established in India the date, B.C. 628, for the year of the birth of
We
Boodh; and
B.C. 543, for that of his decease.
ask not for
him
greater antiquity than this, but
shall reserve the
examination of this question, and
80
TARTARY
TIBET,
Bood-
especially the discussion of the claim of the hist sacred
books
to greater
antiquity than our
own, until we have carried our missionaries to their journey's end.
The
climate in the elevated region of the
made
noor, wherein the missionaries sojourn,
is
Kokolong
this
snow falls nearly through-
so severe, that
out the year, though the latitude
only 36째 north.
is
sudden change, and
In July, however, there
is
vegetation proceeds as
the earth were in a state
of fermentation.
if
a
The mountains
suddenly
are
covered with verdure, and flowers show their bright colours on
At
sides.
all
this season the
camels of our travellers lost their long hair, and
were
for
grew
fast
some days quite uncomfortable, but it again, and the coat thus shed proved a
valuable acquisition, being converted into cords for fastening the loads.
mond,
Chogortan
or the Brighton, to
Koon-boom
the Rich-
which the Lamas of summer and season, the whole fa-
resort for recreation in
here especially came,
at this
culty of medicine, to
pharmacy.
is
;
simples for
collect
their
In the plains round about were rich
pastures, from
which the monastery was
with argols for winter fuel.
The
a special dissertation in this place,
of the argol of different animals
;
sui3plied
missionaries have
upon the merit
that of goats
and
AND MONGOLIA. sheep stands in the kine of
all
first class
;
kinds in the third
of that genus, in the
81
camels in the second ;
horses,
and animals
because the dung of
last,
these animals burns too quick, and gives a dis-
agreeable smoke.
The Chogortan Valley, favoured pasture-grounds,
in consequence of
is
its
subject to the attacks
of brigands, not plundering as individuals, but in
organized bodies and tribes.
boom
The Lamas
of
Koon-
take to arms immediately on hearing of the
approach of these banditti, but not with any fective organization, so that the valley
is
times swept before any succour can arrive
ef-
some;
and
the missionaries were witness to the confusion resulting from an incursion of this kind during their stay.
It
was the end of September, 1845, before the
Tibetan mission made
its
of the Koko-noor, on
Pekin.
appearance in the valley
its
return to Lassa from
Immediately, on hearing of
its
approach,
our travellers made their preparations so as to be
ready
to
accompany the caravan.
The
supplies
they laid in were, three bricks of tea, two sheep's
stomachs of butter, two sacks of flour, and eight sacks of Tsamba, that to
be mixed with the
food
is,
tea,
of roasted barley meal,
which
is
of Tibetans, without being
the universal satisfied
E 3
with
TIBET,
82 which, there
is
no passing by
The above
Tibet.
missionaries, with
TARTARY this
were
supplies
route into
for the
two
two servants, four camels, two
horses and a mule, a condition of baggage and
commissariat for such an expedition, that would satisfy
even Sir Charles Napier.
of garlic, a specific
A
good supply
recommended by the people
of the country to prevent
consequences from
ill
bad atmosphere and nauseous vapours, was the For the conveyance
only further article provided.
of these extra supplies a horse and camel were
added
to
the original establishment with which
Koon-boom, and a young Lama was hired as helpmate to Sambda Chamba, in tending the cattle. With this preparation, the missionaries made a the missionaries had reached
march of four days
to
meet the Tibetan mission
on the banks of the Koko-noor lake or rather
They passed on
inland sea.
their
way
to the lake
the Lamaserai of Tansan, having about 200 Lamas,
and found magnificent pastures on the plains These travellers are the first Europeans from whom we have any trustworthy notice near the lake.
of this lake from personal examination. scribe
it
ference, also to
as
They
de-
about one hundred leagues in circum-
and
as salt as the ocean.
be subject
to
some kind of
They tide,
state it
but
this
AND MONGOLIA.
we
83
Towards the south a rocky island, where a
think must be a mistake.
end of the lake there
is
few Lamas have established a temple with some
There is no communication in winter over the ice, for on them except with huts for residences.
the whole lake there
not a single boat.
is
Lamas, however, are
There are twenty-nine
season by the shepherds.
banners of subject princes plains of
who
divide the pasture-
Koko-noor amongst them, paying tribute
China.
to
The
liberally supplied in that
The plundering tribes are Eastern who live in the Bayen
Tibetans, of the Sifan race,
Kharat mountains, near the sources of the Yellow River. They are called Kolo, and are Boodhists, but have added to their mythology a special
God
of plunder.
The
missionaries remained near a
banks of the Koko-noor, waiting envoy's caravan from Pekin. the end of October.
It
used
month on the
for the Tibetan
It arrived to
towards
be the custom
for
the Tibetan mission to travel yearly to Pekin, but
was attacked by the Kolo robbers, whom they beat off, but found next day that the Chanak-Kampo, or Lama ambassador, had in 1840 the caravan
disappeared in the night attack, whether slain or not,
was never thoroughly ascertained.
1841, a second
officer
Again, in
of the same rank received
TIBET, TARTAR
84
wound, of which, he died shortly after. In consequence of these casualties, the Emperor made
a severe
the mission triennial, instead of annual, and
it
was the return of that of 1844 that formed the present caravan.
It consisted,
by our
traveller's
estimate, of 15,000 yaks, 12,000 horses,
many
camels, and about 2,000
whom
human
and
as
beings of
mounted were well armed. The Chanak-Kampo rode in a litter carried by two
mules
all
;
the
and the caravan had an escort of 300
Chinese soldiers, from the province of Kansou,
and 200 mounted Tartars, who were the
to
frontier of Tibet, but
no
to
conduct
further.
it
The
caravan generally started three hours before sunrise, so as to
come
and so afford the
to the
cattle
new ground by noon,
grazing time
gave the signal of preparation the
two guns
march was a general move without much
order.
After a journey of six days, the Pouhain-
Gol, a river that
be crossed
;
it
falls into
the Koko-noor, had to
ran in twelve channels, not very
deep, but the frozen edges cult
;
and departure, and
made
the passage
diffi-
and disagreeable.
Our
travellers
made
journey, with three Lamas,
acquaintance,
who had
in
this
travelled over
the whole of Mongolia, to collect subscriptions for the erection of a grand temple near Lassa.
They
AND MONGOLIA. successful,
and were bringing
sufficient for their
grand design, but
had been eminently back means at
85
Koon-boom were overtaken by an order from
Pekin, and the principal emissary was sent on to
Lassa for
and
on the charge of fraud and forgery,
trial,
was placed
his treasure
Delai
Lama
at the disposal of the
to abide the result.
Five days' march
beyond the Pouhain-Gol, the caravan came to a small river, on the other side of which was a deserted Lamaserai, which had been besieged and
Here No-
ravaged by the terrible Kolo plunderers. the Chinese escort left them.
On
the 15th
vember, they entered the Tsaidam cupied by Mongols, and
name.
The
collected in pits,
is
On
tallizes freely.
oc-
dry and rocky, and produces
soil is
borax, which
district,
crossed the river of that
where
crys-
it
the further side of this valley
was the dreaded Boorhan-boota Mountain.
On
the eastern and northern side of this range the air is
so
impregnated with carbonic-acid gas, that
unless there
is
a
wind
to
sweep
it off,
scarcely pass without suffocation.
valley of the Upas, in Java, similar cause.
Our
which
animals can
It is like the is fatal
from a
travellers passing at a time of
calm, experienced severely the effects of the cor-
rupted atmosphere. in comparison with
But the
this difficulty
passage
was
of the
trivial
Chuga
86
TARTARY
TIBET,
The
mountains some days
after.
north-east was
summit was no wind met them in the face,
easy,
sooner reached than a
ascent from the
but the
in the midst of deep snow, that
dangerous in the highest degree.
made the descent They could not
venture to face this wind, and sat with their faces
Monsieur Gabet reached the
to the horses tails.
bottom with his nose and ears frozen, and suffered so severely in other respects, that his recovery at
one time despaired
of.
At
was
the halting-place
they had to scrape away the snow in search of argol fuel, to
which was
make
a miserable
the heat of
fire,
insufficient to boil their tea.
The miseries of a Tibetan journey had now fairly commenced all the travellers marched in mourn;
ful silence
to
many
amid snows that proved every day
with the bones of
men
remind them of the
perils
as well as of animals, to
by which they were
Monsieur Gabet
rounded. that
made him
fell
sick, to a
there were
still
sur-
degree
quite helpless, in consequence of
his sufferings in the passage of the
to Lassa,
fatal
of the cattle, and the road was strewed
Chuga
;
yet
two months of journey before them possibility of halt, no comforts,
and no
no medicines.
In the beginning of December,
they reached the famous Bayen Kharat chain of mountains, which stretches, from south-east to
AND MONGOLIA.
87
Hoang-Ho and Kin-ChaThey were now close to the sources
north-west, between the
Kiang
rivers.
of the former, which lay two day's journey to
Here they held
the East, but could not be visited.
council how best to effect the passage of the dividing
range. It lay before them, covered with deep fresh
snow. The day was calm, but
when they reached
much of it had passed
by the morrow, which would be condition of the snow.
opinion
;
On
the foot of the ridge.
other hand, there was a probability of a
the
wind arising
fatal in the
then
The caravan was divided
in
but our travellers were of the party for
proceeding, and they scrambled over the fresh snow
without accident. fine, and
Luckily, the next day also was
those who had stopped
without any one being
lost in
came over
likewise,
an avalanche or a
snow-wreath, which was looked upon as extreme
good fortune. They rested on the
side of a frozen
lake, depending for fuel,
on the argols of previous caravans and moved, next day, to the bank of the
Mouroui-Oossoo, the name here given called below the
Kin-Cha-Kiang, and
to the river
in the plains
of China, the mighty Yang-Tse-Kiang, or Blue
River.
They passed
it
over ice, and witnessed a
strange spectacle in the passage.
A string
than fifty wild yaks had been frozen
moment
of
swimming
across,
up
of
more
at the
very
and remained there
TARTARY
TIBET,
88
fixed in death, their eyes having been pecked out
by crows and are
common
Wild yaks and wild
eagles.
asses
in the most elevated regions of Tibet,
and are seen wandering in herds, seeking fresh pastures.
The caravan here
separated, the
camels pre-
ceding, because capable of making longer marches,
and of moving more rapidly than the loaded yaks. lers
By
now
a gradual fvirther ascent, our travel-
reached, at
last,
the dividing land be-
tween the waters of China and Tibet, the highest It elevated region, perhaps, in the whole world.
was mid- winter, and
for fifteen
over the plain with murderous
days the wind blew
severity.
During the
this time the cold was so intense, that though they wore flannel shirts, and over that a coat of fox-skin, and over that a lamb-skin jacket
whole of
or spencer, and a large cloak of sheep-skin over
and carried
their
Tsamba paste
for refreshment
all,
on
the day's journey next to their skin, yet they never
took
it
out to eat, during the march in this elevated
region, without finding that the
it
cutively for days together.
be enveloped in less
frozen.
It is
human frame should endure felt
The
cattle
required to
wrapcrs, but were neverthe-
decimated in the terrible march.
we must be
wonderful this conse-
And
here
permitted to complain of our travellers
AND MONGOLIA. for starting
on such a journey without even a com-
pass, a barometer, or
microscope
compass
to give the bearings of to
solar
remarkable peaks,
show the degree of
the boiling point of water,
cold,
would have given
results of the highest possible
value.
A
a thermometer.
seems they had with them, but a
it
and a thermometer
tific
89
Lieutenant Strachey, the
and
interest
officer
and
scien-
of the
who wintered at Ladaq, and spring and summer of 1848, to
Indian government, penetrated in the
Pangong determine the boundary of
the sources of the Shayek, and to the Salt Lake, in order to
the Chinese territory towards the Indus, crossed several passes of 18,000
ascertained height
brother of this
;
and 19,000
feet of well
and we expect shortly from the
officer
some curious
ticulars, the result of a careful
scientific
par-
survey and exami-
nation of a considerable area of territory at the sources of the Sutlej.
These French missionaries
give us no means of comparing observations at the sources
made
of the great rivers of China, with
those of these western explorers, and
we may wait
long for another journey into the regions crossed
by the perilous route we are here
More than
forty
men
tracing.
of the caravan were left on
the road frozen during the fifteen days of painful
march over
this table-land,
and no one could stop
90
TIBET, TARTARY
to relieve, or frost.
M.
even
to bury, those overtaken
by the
Gabet's illness and sufferings increased
to such a degree at this period of the journey, that
he could neither ride nor walk
;
he was conse-
quently sewed up in his cloaks and blankets, and so carried, like a bale of goods,
on a camel.
But
he recovered when the extreme cold was somewhat mitigated, and the cutting
wind had
ceased.
In
fell in
with
the midst of this march, the travellers
Kolo brigands, who, however, showed Lamas of the west, and declared that they had no wish to plunder what the caravan was carrying back to the Delai Lama; but a party of
great respect for the
would never
at the feet of a
Chinese
after this rencontre, the
caravan
to Pekin, in order to
Soon
emperor.
wealth of Tibet to be carried
suffer the
be laid
approached the Tant-La* pass, the summit of which they reached, after six days of continual further
At
ascent.
the top was another table-land, along
which they travelled for twelve days but the wind had ceased to blow, and the sun was now radiant ;
and reviving, and M. Gabet recovered wonderfully under
its
influence.
After thus crossing this high
dividing ridge of Tartary, the descent was from * Throughout Tibet, called La.
This
as far
is
the
that bears this name.
It
is
west as Ladaq, a mountainous pass
first is
on the road from Pekin to Lassa,
in evidence of the
commencement of
the use of the Tibetan language as the vernacular.
AND MONGOLIA, mountain
to
91
mountain, in steps each day of reduced
elevation.
In the valleys, hot springs were very
frequent.
After some days of rough travel, the
missionaries reached a plain of good pasture,
they gave their worn-out
cattle a halt of
where
two days,
during which shepherds brought them fresh meat, a luxury they purchased with
Pekin manufacture as
such
articles of
they could spare
as
they were on the point of sitting
;
but just
down
to a lux-
urious meal of roasted mutton, so procured, the cry of
fire
fire
!
!
and they found that some
arose,
members of the caravan had
injudicious
ignited
the grass to windward, and the flames were coming
down
upon
fast
encampment.
their
were saved with extreme
difficulty,
The
tents
but the long-
way
haired camels would not
the
the flames, and one of
dreadfully
move out of them was so
of
burnt as to be rendered quite unserviceable. Fol-
lowing down a valley, the travellers came the
first
now
to
Tibetan village, called Na-Pchu, or
Kara-oossoo, both meaning, one in Tibetan, and the other in Mongolian, Black Waters.
lage
is
inhabited
by Tartar shepherds.
The vilThe mis-
sionaries sold here their three serviceable camels for fifteen ounces of silver,
one into the bargain. chased
six
yaks,
to
and gave the poor burnt
With
this
money they pur-
convey their baggage
to
TIBET, TARTARY
92 Lassa, and
who had The thieves
assistant camel-driver,
tlie
proved a great rogue, was discharged. of
Na-Pchu
are described as expert and most au-
dacious.
There were yet village to Lassa.
days of march from this
fifteen
Our
missionaries travelled the
remainder of their journey in company with some
Mongols of Khar chin, who along with a regenerated Boodh were on pilgrimage to the holy city.
The Chaberon, so these
sainted hierarchs are called,
young man of eighteen, and was proceeding to graduate and study in one of the Lamaserais of A prince and several nobles of Kharchin Lassa. accompanied him, and he was watched, rather
was
a
who
than attended, by two aides-de-camp,
per-
mitted him no recreation, but compelled him always to sit in state,
Boodh
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
and
however, allowed
Lamas
act
and talk the regenerated
a miserable state of existence
described as an
is
gent well-disposed youth,
He
was,
and converse with our
to visit
of the West, and
!
intelli-
who enjoyed much
the
privilege of holding rational converse.
The
route between
Na-Pchu and
Lassa,
is
de-
scribed as rocky, fatiguing and difficult, and some-
times even highly dangerous, but the caravan was
approaching
now
to smile.
civilization,
and everything seemed
The passage
of the Koiran range of
AND MONGOLIA. mountains presented most
93
difficulty.
On
teenth day from Na-Pchu, they reached called
the
fif-
Pampoo,
on maps Panctou, a valley interspersed with
farm-houses, on the banks of a considerable river-
Here they had again cattle,
The
and provide
change then* carriage
to
asses in place of their yaks.
cold had sadly disfigured their bearded coun-
tenances ; but they did their best, with their limited
wardrobe and means,
to
make
a respectable ap-
pearance on their arrival at Lassa.
been pro\ided,
after
some delay, in
Asses having sufficient
abun-
dance for the whole party, the missionaries, with their
Mongol
associates, scaled the
range, which stiQ lay between called the last
Boodha-La, and
so
high mountain
them and Lassa,
reached the city
at
on the 29th January, 1846, eighteen months
from the Valley of Black Waters
after their start
in Mongolia.
The houses
of Lassa are described as large,
and are fresh whitewashed and painted every year, so as to present a
gay appearance, but within they
are filthy in the extreme, cleanliness being no characteristic of a
Tibetan or Tartar.
They found
a
lodging at Lassa, in a house of entertainment,
where there were upper room,
mount by
to
fifty
other lodgers, and hired an
which they were compelled
a ladder of twenty-six steps.
It
to
had
94
TIBET, TAE.TARY
for
chimney a hole in the roof
窶馬ot
able substitute in the depth of winter this
was preferable
argol fuel in the
to retaining the
room they
below were compelled
to
Lassa has no wall, but suburbs.
The
a comfort-
but even
;
smoke of the which those
inhabited,
The city of surrounded by garden
submit
is
to.
streets are broad, well laid out,
and clean enough, but the suburbs are There
the extreme.
is
filthy in
one quarter, however, the
houses of which are described as most picturesque, the walls being built of the horns of cattle and sheep, intermixed with infinity of designs, and
We
cemented together with mortar between. this
description of Lassa, because
we know, been
never, that
European
traveller.
by any Mr. Manning, who went there yet described
from Calcutta, in 1811, intending into
to
penetrate
China by that route, was seized and sent back,
and saw very
little
of the place
companion, being handed over of
cite
city has
the
justice,
was
never
Mr. Manning went then by
;
to
and
afterwards
heard
sea to Canton,
there, without giving to the world his travels
Chinese
his
Chinese courts of.
and died
any result of
and researches.
The French
missionaries were assured
by
Ti-
betans that Mr. Moorcroft had also been at Lassa,
and a Kashmerian merchant introduced
to
them
AND MONGOLIA.
95
Moosulman named Nishan, Avho declared himhave been Mr. Moorcroft's servant, and to have accompanied him in tours of exploration made in different directions, in quality of a Ma-
self to
hommedan cattle merchant, speaking Persian. We know that Moorcroft died of fever caught in Koondooz
this
;
person must, therefore, have been
one of his companions,
who assumed
his
name.
The traveller, whoever he was, is said to have been murdered by robbers in the Gnari province, near
No
the sources of the Indus.
intelligence cor-
responding with these particulars has ever reached
any British has been
officer
much
and on the other hand, there
;
exploration lately in the direction
of Gnari, and the Chinese frontier in that quarter
has been laid
down by Lieutenant
alluded to
so that such
;
an event,
if
it
were
scarcely have escaped them.
really true, could "VVe
Strachey, before
must admit, however, that the motives
for
concealment were of the strongest on the part of the Chinese frontier officers.
The
palace of the Delai
the Lassa Morou, hill, at
is
Lama
built
at Lassa, called
on an isolated rocky
a short distance to the north of the city.
It is
of stone, and of large dimensions, with a
high
gilt
much
dome, exhibiting, say our
architectural
beauty.
We
travellers,
presume
the
TIBET, TARTARY
96 style
and character of the
edifice not to
from those described, and of which we
diiFerent
have drawings, in Turner's Embassy
Round fices
be very
Tibet.
to
the palace are a multitude of Lamas' edi-
of
all
of Tibet
;
sizes.
but
as
The Delai Lama he
is
supposed
is
Pope
be always in
to
the state of abstract meditation for
of mankind,
the
his temporal authority
the benefit is
exercised
through a deputy, called the Nome-Khan, who
is
Lama, enjoying the relative position towards the hierarch of a Romish cardinal. About two hundred years ago, the women of Tibet, being much given to dress and libertinage,
also a sanctified
corrupted the Lamas to a degree to bring their
holy order into bad repute.
The then Nome-Khan
accordingly issued an edict, that the
women should
never appear in public without first smearing their Strange to
faces with a black disfiguring paste.
say, this order still
was obeyed, and
observed, but without
Father Grueber notices face to
have
much
the practice
benefit to morals.
this habit of
smearing the
prevailed in his time, wliich
hundred and eighty years before the travellers.
The women
industrious,
and managing persons,
France, and not at
was one
visit
of our
are described as active,
all likely to
the place assigned to
is
women
like those of
be content with
in the social system
AND MONGOLIA. of India and of
97
Western Asia, nor do they submit
to seraglio discipline.
The
position of the Chinese at Lassa
is
peculiar.
In the beginning of the eighteenth century Tibet
was conquered by the Sifan Tartars, who though Boodhists, and therefore in spiritual matters subject to the great
Lamas, ruled nevertheless with
great cruelty and were
an intrusive
hateful as
race.
The Tibetans looked
for the means of Emperor Kanghi which being favoured by to
China
expelling them, and in 1720 the sent a force into Tibet,
the native population, overpowered and drove out the Sifans.
Kanghi then
established four Tibetan
chiefs as temporal sovereigns, but, as
fore mentioned, they quarrelled,
named Pholonai,
we have
be-
and one of them,
prevailing over the
rest,
was
by the court of Pekin as a On his Tai-tse and afterwards as a Kiun-wang. death his son Ghiur-medh Namghial succeeded recognised
to the
same
at
first
title
and authority
;
but in 1750 he re-
volted, and, asserting independence, was beheaded
by the emperor's order, whereupon the temporal sovereignty was extinguished, and the Delai
was vested with both
authorities.
Lama
The Emperor
Kanghi professed always great veneration for the great Lamas of Tibet, and used their in-
two
7^
TIBET, TARTARY
98 fluence
on many occasions to
He
established at Lassa and Djachi two
whom
envoys called kinchais, through
were expressed, and who were
when
his wishes
mere chanLamas but
at first
of communication with these
nels
differences
who gave him much
with the Mongol priesthood, trouble.
settle
;
the temporal sovereignty was conferred on
the Delai Lama, these kinchais as his advisers
and the supporters of influence,
and
this
his
power acquired much
was greatly increased,
after
the Nipalese had invaded Tibet, and a Chinese
army had been
called in to repel
and punish the
Military posts were then established as
invaders.
well on the frontierof Tibet towards India, as on the direct line of communication with China,
and the
kinchais have from that time forward exercised the
same degree of authority in Tibet, that a British resident possesses at the court of a protected chief
In the
in India.
thirty-fifth
year of Kien-long,
anno domini 1770, before Tibet was thus occupied
by Chinese
troops, the
two kinchais took upon
themselves to seize and behead a ing a
visit
of ceremony.
An
Nome-Khan
dur-
emeute was the con-
sequence, which ended in the massacre of every
Chinese in Tibet. of Tibet
was
by
A long
a Chinese
army
war, and the invasion followed.
The
result
to re-establish the Chinese kinchais at Lassa,
AXD MONGOLIA.
99 they
vrith equal, if not superior, influence to that
before enjoyed, and this was confu*med and
much
augmented by the events of the war with Nipal, which led
to the establishment of military posts
most important points
at the
for the defence of the
country. Nevertheless, there are very few Chinese troops in Tibet to support the influence and authority the kinchais exercise. a line of guard-houses
and Se-chuen,
for the
all
the
There
is,
indeed,
way between Lassa
purpose of keeping up the
communication, and another line of guard-houses, small garrisons,
"snth
Bootan and British
is
the head-quarters of
all
a few hundred soldiers.
along the
established
frontiers.
At Lassa, however,
these posts, there are only
These receive
their
pay
from China, and are relieved every third year.
The
principal Chinese envoy at the time of the
arrival of our missionaries was, as
we
before said,
the well-knoA\Ti Ki-Shen, the great councillor of state,
who had been
sent to negociate with the
British admiral, and with Captain Elliot, at the
commencement of the war with China in 1840. The result of his negotiations was, it will be recollected, a treaty or convention, containing a stipulation for
British
was
the cession in full sovereignty to the
Queen
a sine
of the island of
Hong Kong.
This
qua non of Lord Palmerston's instrucF 2
TIBET, TARTARY
loo tions,
and was agreed
to
most unwillingly by Ki-
"Wlaen the treaty was sent to Pekin for
Shen.
ratification, this article
was looked upon there
as
and the negotiator was recalled and sentenced to confiscation, and at exile to Hi ; his great credit at court and known talents alone disgraceful,
saved his head.
The
war which
issue of the
fol-
lowed having proved his superior wisdom, and the of Tibet requiring a
affairs
ability,
Ki-Shen was
and appointed
to
man
of vigour and
partially restored to rank,
The
the mission there.
case
forms a curious passage in that country's history.
The Nome-Khan
of Lassa
is
himself a " Cha-
beron," or regenerated Boodh, selected for the
by the Delai Lama. The Nome-Khan whom Ki-Shen found there had
office
of civil administrator
been nominated long before, and three successive Delai after reaching
in
his
time
Lamas had died very soon
the age of majority.
sioned great scandal, and
it
This occa-
was openly
said, that
work of the NomeKhan. The first Delai Lama had died of strangulation, the second was killed by the fall of the
all
three events were the
roof of his bed-chamber, and the third was poi-
soned
at a
meal, along with several of his fami-
liars.
Add
to this, the chief
Lama
of the Kaldan
AND MONGOLIA.
101
monastery, close to Lassa, had died suddenly in the same way.
The Nome-Khan was
Yang-
a Sifan noble of
He
Tou-See, consequently a subject of China.
was
rich,
and by
his
liberality
Lamas
large following, the
had obtained a
stery especially being much devoted There are under the Nome-Khan four cers,
secret
representation to the court
was in consequence of
of Pekin
Nome-Khan
;
of
and
to investigate
and
and was vested with extra-
ordinary powers for arrival in Tibet,
state offi-
their representation, that
Ki-Shen was ordered from Hi redress these evils,
him_
to
These combining, made a
called Kalons.
the crimes and cruelties of the it
mona-
of the Sera
Upon
purpose.
the
he paid court
to the
his
Bundshan-
Rembouchi,* the great Lama of Djachi Loomboo,
and
to the four
Khan
Kalons or ministers of the Nome-
at Lassa.
With
their
help he
obtained
evidence to prove the charges of murder against the
Nome-Khan, who was accordingly brought
to
and on being confronted with the witnesses, confessed his crimes, and signed the record which
trial,
* Turner calls this officer the
Punjin-Eembochay.
says he claims equality with the Delai
Lama.
M. Hue
The place
Teeshoo Lomboo, after Captain Turner, M. Hue Loomboo, and translates, "Mountain of oracles."
calls
called
Djachi
TIBET, TARTARY
102
contained the evidence of his guilt, together with his
accomplices'
signed by
all
confessions.
the Djachi
Lama, and the
Pekin
adjudication.
for
was counter-
It
the high officers of Tibet, including
was
case
so sent
months
Thi-ee
to
after-
wards, the imperial mandate arrived, sentencing
Nome- Khan to Sagalien in Manchoo
the
exile
Tartary.
immediately placarded
Khan was
on the banks of the
The sentence was and the Nome-
at Lassa,
placed in confinement.
the Sera monastery, however, to
ascendancy
at
and wished triumph.
Lassa, released the
Nome-Khan,
to carry
But he
him back
to his palace in
The Lamas
his duty.
certed
by
must make
refused, saying he
order to explain the
and enlighten the emperor,
case,
of
gaining the
insurrection,
the journey to Pekin, in
was
of
and
in
rose
15,000,
The Lamas the number
this refusal,
for submission
of Sera were discon-
and returned
at night to
In the meantime, Ki-Shen,
their convent.
had escaped the
first
who
violence of the insurgents,
concerted measures with the Kalons, and brought
next morning
an armed
force
into
the plain
between the monastery and Lassa, and so reduced the rebellious
Lamas
to submission.
The Nome-
Khan
was dispatched a few days after in a palan-
quin,
by the route of Se-Chouen,
to the place of
AND MONGOLIA. his
103
The accomplices, however, were left Kalon magistrates of Lassa, and were not
exile.
to the
severely dealt with.
The
selection of a
new Nome-Khan
fell
on the
Chaberon, or regenerated Boodh-Lama, of E,ana youth of only eighteen years
chan,
The and
Kalon was accordingly named regent,
first it
of age.
was with him and Ki-Shen, that the mis-
sionaries
had
What
1846.
to deal in
passed
January and February
and deserves
curious,
is
full
mention.
The
missionaries reported
themselves to the
Lamas of the west come preach the truth. They were immediately visited by an inquisitive Chinese, who came to enquire what they had to sell. authorities at Lassa, as
to
enquire
after,
and
to
" Nothing," they said, " but their old saddles." " Exactly what I want," said he and in bargain;
ing, asked multitudinous questions calculated to elicit all particulars
to the
holy
Four
regarding the strange visitors
city.
similar visits of inquiry for
merchandize
did the missionaries receive on the same day.
was evident that these were dinner hour they were
all
summoned
spies.
to the
It
At the presence
of the Kalon, regent, along with their servant
Sambda-Chamba.
On
arriving at the palace, this
104
TIBET, TARTAR
functionary surveyed them curiously for some time
without saying a word, whereupon they said to
one another in French position,
we
"
:
He
seems of good
Though
shall fare well,"
dis-
said in a
whisper, they were immediately called upon to repeat what they had said
An
in French.
which they did aloud
;
made
appeal was then
to all pre-
know if any one understood the language. The answer being in the negative, they were called upon themselves to translate, which they did faithfully into Tibetan. The regent was pleased with the compliment, and made a long speech to sent, to
explain
He
how
it
was
his
duty
to
be well disposed.
then asked whence they came
;
they said,
" From the West." " From Calcutta?" he asked ; they replied, " No ; from France." " You are assuredly Pelings
"
No we ;
?
" (English) said the regent.
" Can you write
are French."
They
" Yes
?
" said
"
whereupon ink and paper were provided, and they were told to write
he.
said
;
something in their own language. "
Que
s'il
sert
a
Vhomme de
conquerir
vient a perdre son ame."
le
They wrote mondc eiitier,
They were made
write the translation of this in Tibetan,
to
Mongolian
and Chinese, which they did, exciting the admiration of the court at their learning
doctrine.
In the midst of
this,
and profound
Ki-Shen came
to
AND MONGOLIA. the palace, and the examination was
him
in a different spirit.
105
renewed before
They saluted him
French form, without falling on
in the
their knees, merely
taking oif their caps and bowing low. " 'Tis well,"
he
said, ''you follow the
they
tell
Pekin
;
me you let
customs of your country
us converse in that."
aries said, theii"
;
speak correctly the language of
The
mission-
language would be found faulty by
such a judge, but his intelligence would penetrate the meaning. " Pure Pekin!" he exclaimed, "you
French must have great facility in the acquisition " Yes, we are French." " I knew
of languages."
some Frenchmen in old days in Pekin," he said. " You might also have seen some at Canton," they replied
;
but the recollection was not agree-
and he frowned. " You " Yes." " I knew it are Christians," he said. able to their questioner,
and you are here ligious opinions."
to
propagate and spread your re-
"It
is
our only object." "^Vhat
you passed thi-ough ? " They named China, Mongolia and Tibet. " Who did you live with in China ? " They refused to answer this countries have
question, even though threatened; but told freely
where they had learned the languages they knew. " And who are you ? " he said, turning sharply " A native of Ki-tou-tse." to Sambda-Chamba. " AVhcre
is
that ! " " In the district of
San-Chouen, r 3
TIBET, TARTARY
106 in the
Kansou province." "Ah subject of the down on your knees, before your !
central nation
!
On
Emperor's representative.
your knees " he !
"As
repeated, and was instantly obeyed. of China, I
am your judge
;
say,
a subject
where you met
Sambda-Chamba replied frankly,
these foreigners."
not denying that he was himself a convert to the Chi'istian faith
;
which he could not believe
proscribed, because
good, and to shun missioner,
it
be
" True," said the Com-
evil.
"but what induced you
He
service of these foreigners?"
knew them
to
enjoined him only to do
to enter
the
denied that he
be foreigners, or otherwise than as " What wages do they give ? " He
to
good men. " None, but
said,
his
board and lodging
;
he was
with them for the sake of his soul, regarding them
"Are you married?" was a Lama, before joining them." The
as his spiritual teachers."
"No
!
I
next question drew a blush from Sambda-Chamba;
he did not answer tested
against
it.
such
And
the missionaries pro-
imputations,
thought or mention of such things
declaring to
against their religion and their morals.
Ki-Shen
felt
see
At
this
reproved, and broke up the ex-
amination, saying
quire to
the
be equally
it
was
late,
and he should
them again next day.
examination they were carried again
From
rethis
to the regent.
AND MONGOLIA. who promised
his support,
107
gave them supper, and
questioned them several times over on the subject of maps, and notes of their route.
They
candidly, that they had a printed
map
told
him
of China
with them, by which they had been guided on their journey.
The regent heard
anxiety, fearing
it
with some
this
would give them trouble
;
the
great dread of the Chinese being, exploration
by
Europeans
re-
to
ascertain the
sources of their country.
geography and
Rooms were prepared
for the missionaries this night in the palace,
they were now, in
fact,
carefully waited upon,
vided
;
prisoners.
where
They were
and found good beds pro-
they passed the night, however, in great
anxiety as to their futxure fate, and found a resource and comfort in prayer.
Early the next
mornmg they were visited by the chief Kashmerian merchant, who came to condole with them, and to
tell
them
to prepare
next day for a close ex-
amination of their baggage.
This was the Avork
of the Chinese Kinchai, he said, against the wishes
of the regent, but they must submit.
All these
precautions, he further told them, were the con-
sequences of Moorcroft's explorations
whose
eifects, after
the Chinese
;
amongst
he was murdered in Gnari,
had found many maps
arid notes, illus-
108
TARTARY
TIBET,
trative
of the geography and resources
of the
entire country.
Early next morning, the Tibetan regent made the
first
examination of their baggage with
A
all
crucifix
was the
attention,
and he
laughed heartily, when the missionaries
said, it
forms, prior to sealing first
thing
that
it
up.
engaged
his
was with that that they had come conquest of Tibet.
A
careful
list
make the was made of to
everything, to the most minute article, and the
whole baggage was then carried away under to
seal
Ki-Shen was waiting.
the court-house, where
Have you only
these two trunks of baggage," he " Nothing else," said they " you may open asked. ;
them and
see
mine," said he, " that expose myself
"Are they
what they contain." to
I
should open them, and
your reproaches,
if
anything
should be found wanting ? oj)en them yourselves."
Everything was then laid out, and examined with the utmost curiosity,
the
articles
by
all
present.
Amongst
were some books and lithographic
drawings, which excited
much
admiration.
Ki-
Shen took upon himself to explain the great progress the French had made in the arts, and he asked
if
the missionaries
scopes, or
had no watches,
magic lanterns.
They pointed
solar niicro!:Cope, the only instrument of that
tele-
to
a
kind
AXD MONGOLIA,
109
which they had with them, and put
it
together,
nobody but Ki-Shen himself having the slightest idea of its use. He asked them to exhibit it but ;
up again immediately, saying, " We are here under examination and trial, not to make exhibitions." He then asked for the maps, which
they put
it
were produced, being one of the world, on Mercator's
and another of China, both
projection,
printed in France.
The regent gave them say,
"
You
death warrants to
ruined,
are
;"
a look which seemed to
and have signed your
but the missionaries appealed
Ki-Shen's intelligence and knowledge of things,
to distinguish printed
from manuscript maps, and
to satisfy himself that these were not of their
He
drawing.
at
once recognised them
as
own
printed
maps, and pointed out the distinguishing marks the regent,
who seemed much
relieved,
to
though he
could not understand the difference.
At the request of both these sionaries pointed out site
of
all
officers,
the mis-
on the map of the world, the
the different countries.
Calcutta was a
and when
it was indicated, was to Lassa. " Never mind," the regent added, " the Himalaya lies be-
first
object of enquiry,
they remarked
how near
it
tween us and the English."
Ki-Shen was quite
familiar wdth every article used in the ritual of the
110
TIBET,
TARTARY
Catholic church, having been governor Picheli province,
when
cuted and expelled.
him no
of the
the Christians were perse-
These, therefore, created in
and the examination ended in a
suspicion,
were plain men,
decision, that the missionaries
without deceit, and should be
left at liberty.
The
regent was delighted at this issue of the examination,
and the head of the Kashmeer merchants
provided a banquet to greet them on their return
home; and
on the regent's
further purchased,
account, their two white horses for two ingots of silver,
each of ten ounces, a liberal price, exceed-
ing their value in the then condition of the animals.
One
of the ingots they gave to
Sambda
Chamba, as a compliment on his discharge, which was to him a fortune, not unmerited by his services.
The next day, gent's
guests,
the missionaries became the re-
and improved
their acquaintance
with him to terms of familiarity.
At the house he
assigned to them, they prepared an oratory with a crucifix,
menced
and other
then* religious functions in a
excite curiosity,
making
attributes of religion,
and
converts.
to
and com-
manner
to
give them the hope of
They began
thus
to flatter
themselves with the promise of great success in their mission,
and amongst others, reckoned even
Ill
AXD MONGOLIA.
upon the probability of making some impression He was a man of great
on the regent himself.
experience of the world, as well as of high
lite-
rary reputation in Tibet, and he delighted in discussing doctrinal questions with the missionaries,
acknowledging fully the paramount necessity of enquiry, for the purpose of ascertaining where truth lay, for the good of the soul in perpetuity.
He
acknowledged the truths and moral precepts
Boodhism percorrespondence on these points, and alleging
of Christianity, claiming for pure fect
the errors pointed out
by the
missionaries to have
been the result of erroneous teachings of ignorant
The two
or half-informed Lamas.
points of dis-
agreement were, the creation of the world, the
Mosaic account of which the regent could not accept,
was
to
and the doctrine of transmigration, which equally irrational.
the missionaries
discussing these differences, the regent was
In
more
than a match for the missionaries, while they conversed in Tibetan, and they were compelled to call in the
the
Cashmerian chief merchant
arguments they wished
regent seeing
this,
to
and promising
to interpret
enforce. to
The
renew the
when they were more familiar with the language, gave them his nephew for preceptor, to discussion
perfect
them
in Tibetan
;
and in the meantime,
TIBET, TARTARY
112
confined himself ordinarily to conversing about
Europe,
its arts
showed great
and
which he
habits, concerning
having
curiosity, especially after
witnessed with great wonder an exhibition of the
He
^olar microscope.
Roman by the
mastered completely the
alphabet, from a copy of missionaries,
it
made
for
and was particularly
him inte-
rested in descriptions of steamboats, railroads, balloons,
and daguerreotypes.
With Ki-Shen
had very
also the missionaries
friendly relations.
He questioned them frequently
about England, and Queen Victoria. Prince Albert was singular
;
His idea of
he conceived
that,
because the British constitution gave him not the
kingly power, he must be to the queen, what
queens of China are
after
was not surprised recalled, at the
disgraced. said
to
emperors and other royal
and no more. Lord Palmerston, and Captain
personages of the
"
Ki-Shen so
and
had been
to hear that the latter
good man but
" was he put
" Neither one nor the other
managed
asked
Elliot,
same time that he was himself
He was a ;
He
east,
;
these things are not
summarily in Europe."
said he, " your mandarins
irresolute,"
to death or exiled ?"
"
I
fare better than
Our emperor cannot know everything
;
know,"
we
yet
do.
it
is
he only who judges, and none dare speak in his
AND MONGOLIA. presence. If he says, so, it is
white
and
thing,
and say,
'
if
;'
says,
Yes,
'
This
'
soon
is
we say, Truly
white,'
we
But
black.'
^
he points
after,
It is black,'
it is
113
if
to the
same
on our faces
fall
one,
more bold,
ventures to suggest that the same thing cannot well be both black and white, the emperor will say,
'
That
is
true
;'
but the offerer of such a sug-
gestion will jirobably
Ah
head.
his
lose
have no assembly of chiefs
you have,
as
we
!
to control
the actions of our emperor."
Ki-Shen
told
Emperor cil,
them
how
freely,
had been treated
the English
called his eight
and stated the
case.
the affair with
The Choung-Tangs to counHe said, " These westin 1839-40.
ern mariners are very rebellious and refractory
they must be chastised, as an example to others."
Having thus
stated his
0"v^ti
all
opinion, he
asked the advice of his council.
The
four
Man-
on their
faces,
and
said,
choo councillors
" Yes, yes,
'tis
fell
the sovereign's wish and order."
The Chinese Choung-Tangs then selves,
and
said,
" Yes, yes
!
prostrated them-
'Tis
the heavenly
Emperor ;" and so the thing was setKi-Shen himself acknowledged his convicthat the Chinese would never be able to
will of the tled.
tion,
contend with Europeans,
weapons and
discipline
;
till
they adopted their
but added, that no one
114
TARTARY
TIBET,
dared to advise the Emperor to
would
The
this effect, or
he
lose his head.
missionaries
had the means, through their
intimacy with the Tibetan regent, of informing themselves fully of the doctrines and customs, as well as of the constitutional forms of the Tibetan
The Boodhist
theocracy.
no eternity
religion has
of punishment.
Everything proceeds from God,
and will return
to
him
transmigration,
to
according to
desert.
its
but the soul passes, in
;
There are
quadrupeds, birds and
tion
;
human
tached, to take a
The
errors
Boodhs are de-
shape, in order to recal
Lama
to perfection.
of Lassa; the Band-shan
;
the Geesoo
in the time of
Tamba
of
;
Chang-kia-fo, or great almoner of the all
these the Delai
the pope, or spiritual guide of
Lama
all
Warren
Grand Kouren,
Oorga, on the borders of Siberia
Of
Rem-
Loomboo, the same who was
by Captain Turner,
Hastings
Pekin.
in each
be absorbed into the
living
and teach the road
boochi, of Djachi
at
sovil
highest of existing regenerate Boodhs are,
the Delai
visited
all is to
whence again
men from
A
reptiles.
means of attaining greater perfec-
the highest of
Divinity,
six grades of
Angels, demons, men,
animals vested with souls.
state has its
superior animals,
inferior or
and the court of
of Lassa
Boodhists.
is
He
AND MONGOLIA.
115
was only nine years old when our missionaries were there, and had been then recognised pope for six years,
having been taken from an obscure
family of Sifans, in the province of Ming-chen-
When
tou-tse.
body the
falls
new
and prayer
who
All
Boodh
fancy they have a re-
in their families give notice,
and
of Kotooktoos,
sits,
a council of holy ones, that
and to
to discover
Prayer barrels* turn with re-
birth.
doubled vigour. generate
Boodhist pope dies, every-
this
to meditation
who
selects three infants,
For
be examined.
is,
are sent for to Lassa
six days they are shut up,
and the examiners devote themselves, to earnest meditation
this while,
On the
and prayer.
seventh
day, they write the names of the three infants on
golden plates, and place them in an senior Kotooktoo
whose name
is
di'aws the lot
drawn,
is
;
lu'n.
The
and the child
immediately proclaimed
Delai Lama, and carried in
state
through the
town; while the two rejected children are re* Every
Lama
Prayer and meditation
has his prayer-barrel.
being regarded as the only effectual means of attaining sanctifieation, the continued repetition of the mystical " om mani padme
horn"
is
number
considered as the
of repetitions
is
first
of them, the devise of turning a barrel, written, has been imagined, efficacy.
Hence the and for multiplication on which the words are
essential of faith.
the test of merit
;
and obtains universal credence in
its
TIBET, TARTARY
116
turned to their families, with liberal pensions. Our missionaries wished to be presented to the Delai
Lama, and the regent had arranged
for theu' pre-
alarm was raised that the fo-
sentation, but an
reigners "might communicate the small-pox, for it
so hap2)ened, that this disease
broke out soon
after the arrival of the
caravan with which they
had
thus they lost the oppor-
travelled to Lassa
;
tunity of witnessing the forms and ceremonies of this
extraordinary court.
While they were thus living at Lassa, the guests of the regent, and honoured and respected by the entire population, a storm was brewing in a quarter They meditated opening a they little suspected. communication, through Calcutta, with the China mission, of
which they had heard nothing
they undertook this journey
posed
to attempt the route
purpose, when sent for
much
;
since
and M. Gabet pro-
through Bootan
for the
the Chinese commissioner, Ki-Shen,
them one day, without warning, and
after
prelude of compliment, told them he was
quite sure the climate of Tibet was too cold, and
Frenchmen accustomed that they had better, The missiontheir return.
the country unsuited for to the life they
had led
therefore, prepare for
was his advice or his order ? He " Both." They objected, saying, as a
aries asked, if this said, coldly,
;
AND MONGOLIA.
117
matter of advice, they were not disposed to adopt the suggestion, being quite prejiared for difficulties
Tibet
the
all
and inconveniences of a residence
in
on the other hand, being under the protec-
;
tion of the established governor of the*country,
they did not recognise his right to order them out of
" You, strangers, and foreigners
it.
boldly, that they conceived they right as
was conceded
do you
!
They
chiim the right to remain?" said he.
replied,
had the same
to the natives of India, of
Kashmeer, and of Mongolia
while his
;
title
of
Kin-chai, or resident-ambassador, showed himself also
to
"
be a stranger.
Ki-Shen, starting
up, "
I,
I,
a stranger !"
who hold
said
the Imperial
commission, by right of which I have tried and sentenced the Nome-khan of this country." " But
he was a native of China, and a guilty man," said they ; " we are men of God, preaching only the salvation of souls."
"
I
good men, and zealous religion has
know," in
your
said he, " calling,
you
but your
been condemned by the Emperor."
They declared
that they
needed not the Imperial
sanction to perform their religious duties.
with
are
this the conversation for that
day
And
closed.
They had now indeed braved the lion in his den They went forthwith from the Kin-chai to the regent, in order to claim his protection.
He
was
118
TARTARY
TIBET,
well disposed to grant
it, if
But
left to himself.
the Kinchai, declared that he was specially com-
missioned to protect the interests of the Delai
Lama, and of the Boodhist and that Tie conld not permit the continued residence
who preached
m
religion, in Tibet, so great a
danger
the country of
as
men
Their
doctrines subservive of both.
aim, he said, was to subvert Boodhism,and establish their
own
If they succeeded,
what would
institutions of Tibet,
and of the
faith.
become of the
Delai Lama, and what would the Emperor say to
him for allowing it ? The Tibetans, he declared, knew not the extent of the danger, and seeing the
men
to
be virtuous, and of good
life,
and of great
comparative learning, believed them innocent on
good
that account, as well as
and
their learning only
;
but their virtues
made them more danger-
ous in his eyes, for the Tibetans would be unable to cope
with them on points of doctrine, and
simple people would be
won over from the
their ancestors, if the mischief
many
faith of
were not prevented
in time.
The matter was argued
for several days
between
the regent and the Kinchai, and protocols were
exchanged
in
due form.
mitted in the end
;
The Tibetan regent
sub-
the missionaries themselves so
advising, for peace-sake.
They went accordingly
AND MONGOLIA. to
Ki-Shen,
to
119
announce their readiness to obey
mandate, and proposed
to leave the
He said
route of India.
his
country by the
he had abeady prepared
everything for their departure
;
that they should
travel with an escort as far as the frontier of China,
but could not be permitted,
by Bootan
as
they desired, to go
They exclaimed them to make
to Calcutta.
the cruelty of compelling perilous journey,
such
against
again a
they had just gone
as
through, and hinted that their country's govern-
ment might well take umbrage at such treatment of its innocent subjects. Ki-Shen coolly replied, that what the French government might say or do was nothing
to
own
him, he knew his duty to his
government, and should deserve, and be punished with, death, if he suffered their stay in Tibet, and
did not send them back to China.
Next day, Ki-Shen again
sent for them, to read
the report he had prepared of their case.
he wished therefore
He
said,
to report fairly as well as correctly,
had sent
for
them
to hear
and
what he had
written, in order that anything erroneous might
be corrected.
M. Hue,
read, said he
had one thing
do
it
in secret, as
Ki-Shen than on what M.
it
after
to represent,
but must
was of more importance
to themselves.
Hue had
hearing the draft
to say
He
to
at first insisted
being publicly stated,
TIBET, TARTARY
120 but on his
still
when M. Hue
Ki-Shen cleared the room, him, he had entered China by
refusing, told
Macao, in the second month of the twentieth year of the reign of the
Emperor Tao-Kwang, when
Ki-Shen was himself viceroy at Canton, and it would be for him to say whether this circumstance " Does any one know should be reported or no. tore
"Nobody."
said the Kinchai.
this?"
up
He
then
the report, and wrote another, with his
own hand,
saying nothing of the time of the mis-
sionaries entering China,
and praising highly
their
learning and general character.
This matter being so settled,
it
was arranged
that the missionaries should start, after the festival
of the
new year
of Tibet, which
than that of China, and
and
is
is
one month
later
kept like our Christmas
New Year, with nightly wakes, and revels, and
festivities.
Lamas
On
the third day of the moon, the
are let loose
from
all
the adjoining
mo-
nasteries, and for six days after that, the city and
neighbourhood
is
greatest confusion
There
inundated with them, and the
and disorder
prevails.
are, near Lassa, three great
Lamaserais
those of Kaldan, Preboung, and Sera, each of these having 15,000
Lamas attached
are distant twelve, six,
from the town.
to
it.
They
and two miles respectively
The Lamas
of
all
three
deem
it
a
AND MONGOLIA. make Morou" convent at
121
point of duty to
the pilgrimage to the holy
"
Lassa, in order to receive
there the benediction of the Delai
new
year
;
Lama,
for the
and the feuds and jealousies of these
institutions produce,
consequently, innumerable
quarrels at this season.
The
missionaries were, during these satui'nalia,
preparing for their journey back to China.
They
took affectionate leave of the regent, and of the
Kashmerian head merchant, with both of
whom
they had established the most friendly relations.
Through the to
send a
latter,
letter to
now made
they
France by Calcutta, but we are
not informed whether
was
it
so
prepared
be forwarded
as
They Sambda-Chamba,
successful.
parted, likewise, with the faithful
and
the attempt
on Ki-Shen, in order
to wait
he might
to
direct.
The mandarin-commandant of their escort, was named " Lee," the " Pacificator of Kingdoms." He had commanded on the Goorkha frontier of Nipal, and wore a blue button. Though only forty-five years old,
he seemed upwards of seventy,
being completely worn out by service, as well as debilitated
by
a life of excess,
in spirituous liquors.
and was
He had
and by indulgence
the rank of Tou-tse,
entitled, therefore, to an escort of fifteen
men, now that he was
retiring
from the service G
122
TIBET,
and returning
to China.
intelligence, but, like
TARTARY
He
was a man of much
most Chinese, a perfect
free-
thinker in matters of religion.
To
this
man
the missionaries were
duced on the day of
went with him
to
their departure
first intro;
and they
Ki-Shen, who now announced,
were to retui'n by a different route from by which they had come, but, he trusted,
that they that
neither so long, nor so difficult
provide them with palanquins
that he could not
;
;
must
so that they
with the escort, and would find relays of
ride
horses, called oollas, at the different stages
and
guard-houses, for which he gave the order.
He
told
them they would be conveyed at the public where the Governor, Pao,
exjDense to Se-Chouen,
for them. He next made a speech " Pacificator of Kingdoms," advising him to the
would provide to give
up drinking ardent
spirits
;
and then he
paid him on the spot 500 ounces of retiring
bounty
for his services.
a speech to the escort, enjoining
duty
;
silver,
Lastly, he
them
to
as
made
do their
and when these ceremonies had been gone
through, he took the two missionaries apart, and told them, he himself should soon be recalled to
China, and he wished two large boxes of treasure to
be carried thither in advance.*
These he asked
* Ki-Shen was shortly after appointed Governor of Sechouen.
AND MONGOLIA. them
to take
safely as
amongst
123
their baggage,
directed, at Ching-tou
and deliver
Fou, the capital
Then publicly warning them against thieves, he bade them farevi^ell. The Kashmerian chief merchant rode ^vith them of Se-Chouen.
to the
Boo-Choo
escort of seven
river,
where they found a Tibetan
men and
Deba, appointed by the
a
The river was crossed by the missionaries and the Pacifithe cattle and baggage having crossed in
regent to accompany them. in a skin boat cator,
canoes.
The
now
missionaries were
travelling
by
relays
of the ordinary Chinese post, on the direct line to the central provinces of China.
the river on their
first
After crossing
march on the 15th March
1846, they went for some time along a highlycultivated valley, the fields
wall
enclosures, to
Detsin,
marked by a
leagues or eighteen miles from Lassa.
were received in
state
by the
stone-
large village
six
Here they
village authorities,
headed by the Deba Lama, who commanded the escort of Tibetans assigned
protection.
He
by the regent
proved a very
most usefvd intermediary
for
for their
intelligent,
His name was ShamThey supped here with the Pacificator them his itinerary, which they studied
the people of the country.
Chand.
who
lent
and
communications with
G 2
124
TIBET,
and copied.
TARTARY
This appears
to
be the work which
made known to Europe by
the translation
into Russian, with notes of Father
Hyacinth Bit-
was
first
chourin Archi-Mandrite, and which was afterwards
rendered more carefully into French, by roth,
and published in Paris, in 1831.
M. KlapThe route
of the
missionaries on return, can be
closely
on the map, framed from the itinerary by
followed
M. Klaproth. The Chinese author was a commissary who accompanied the Chinese army sent and the work contains against Nepal in 1792 ;
some curious notices of Tibet, in addition
to the
itinerary.
From Detsin fertile valley,
tain range.
eighty
lis)
the route
still
lay in the
same
gradually ascending towards a moun-
After twenty -five miles (eight leagues, of this march, they stopped at a convent
in ruins, situated at the extreme verge of cultivation
the
;
but they had post station
still
twelve miles to ride to
of " Michhou-Koung,"
they reached only after dark.
which
They were com-
pelled to halt the next day, for want of the relay
of horses called the " Oola."
There would be no
travelling in these hill countries, if the obligation to furnish
men and
cattle
were not imperative on
the population that inhabits them.
This duty
is
enforced more strictly than the payment of taxes.
AND MONGOLIA. and
is
125
indeed, almost the only state requisition
made on
the population.
Every village and every
family acknowledges the liability, and must either serve in person, or provide a substitute, or furnish cattle.
The Chinese
and use influence
officers
to get
abuse this regulation,
an order for a larger oola
than they require, that they
may
take an equi-
The doms had procured our missionaries
Pacificator of king-
valent for the excess.
down,
as requiring twelve
to
be
set
yaks for their luggage,
although they had but their beds and two port-
manteaus.
Like
all
of his nation, he was exceed-
ingly avaricious.
The
oola being at last provided, the caravan
started next for five days
morning from Michhou-Koung, and
had
to pass
through ravines and rocky
mountains, along the line of the same river that
they had crossed on leaving Lassa.
The
tion given of this part of the route
is
descrip-
very un-
by compass even not being stated. It is, indeed, not quite clear whether the route lay down the course of the Sampou, or Bramapootra, or up one of its tributaries but geographical, the direction
;
we presume
the latter, because, after five days'
travel, they
ascended the Looma-Ri mountain, or
rather table-land.
It
was not steep, and the ascent
was made without dismounting
;
but the table-
TIBET, TARTARY
126
land extends for forty
and the descent
or about thirteen miles,
lis,
to the station of
Ghiamda on the
other side was difficult, from the quantity of ice
and snow. first
After leaving the table-land, they had
a dense forest to pass in a close ravine, and
then to scale a mountain-ridge on foot, from the
made by a slide over at Ghiamda two mandarins and eighteen soldiers, who received the
top of which the descent was
There were
congealed snow.
and the Tibetan
Pacificator with a salute,
compliment
authorities paid a similar
and
sionaries
stayed two
their
Deba.
civil
to the mis-
At Ghiamda they by rain and
days, partly detained
tempestuous weather, but mainly because the oola
At Ghiamda,
was incomplete.
Deba made
the
spectacles, to
missionaries
also, the
local
a present of
hair
guard their eyes against the glare
of snow, a necessary precaution, for
point they had, for else
many
but snow to cross.
from
A little
way
out of Ghi-
amda, a torrent was passed on a bridge of
and
for three
lages, nothing relays, with a
and
cattle
this
days together, nothing
days afterwards there were no
firs
;
vil-
but Chinese guard-houses for the
few shepherds huts;
still
the horses
of the oola were always ready.
On
the fourth day, after crossing on ice a large lake,
they came to the village of Adza, where the Chinese
AND MONGOLIA.
127
itinerary says unicorns are to be found, that
the
is
Cherou antelopes, described by Mr. Hodgson.
From Adza between
lies
to La-K-i is only fifteen miles,
perpetual snow, and for five days falling fresh,
if
had been
after
some consultation,
to
the weather continued fine, next day,
sending the yaks in advance to beat
The sun shone successfidly made of way.
On
it
making the passage very dangerous.
was determined,
It
proceed,
but
a range of mountains covered with
bright,
down
mountain of
this
the other side, near the top, was
which was passed by
all
a path-
and the ascent was spirits.
a glacier
the party on the slide,
the yaks leading, fortunately, without loss or in-
Passing
jury.
downwards, thence, along the
river, the caravan soon arrived at
reckoned
to
La-Ri, which
is
be one hundred-and-one leagues, or
about three hundred-and-three miles from Lassa,
and was thus reached on the is
fifteenth day.
There
a provision depot at La-Ri, under a Leang-Tai,
who made
or Chinese civil officer, ill-health for not \'isiting said,
it
the excuse of
them, but the Pacificator
was avarice that prevented the compliment
being paid, in order to save the presents that
would be required.
On
the
first
march from
La-Ri, they crossed a lake about three miles long
by two-and-a-half broad, quite frozen
over, and
128
TARTARY
TIBET,
lodged for the night
at
a
village
chou-ka, close to some hot springs.
Tsa-
called
Next day
they crossed the Chor-kou-La, equalling in elevation
and
passage the La-Ri.
difficulty of
After
the ascent, the journey lay for several days over a table-land of broken ridges, with terrible precipices sometimes on both sides, footing, as
to
and with
be quite unsafe,
mounted on the trained these often were lost
so little
other-^vise
cattle of the country,
by a
let into the
and
The wooden
slip or false step.
road, indeed, was occasionally formed of
pathways
than
mountain
side, without, of
course, any railing.
After two days' journey of this kind, the cara-
van reached Alan-To, where they were congraby the Deba on their good fortune, in hav-
tulated
ing lost no lives
among
the
precipices of the
approach.
From Alan-To,
a
march of ninety
27 miles, brought them
to
lis,
or about
Lang-ki-choung, a pic-
turesque village in a wooded valley, called by the Chinese, on account of its fertility, Kin-Keou, " Golden Dell." Here the Pacificator was disconcerted by the announcement that the oola was ready, but that the closed.
Our
Tanda pass
in advance
was
missionaries looked into the itine-
rary they had borrowed, and found
it
stated in
AND MONGOLIA. truth, that the
1^29
Tanda pass was the most
the route,
and reported
They were
in consequence detained for
at
difficult of
People were sent to examine
the entire journey.
it
quite impracticable.
some days
Lang-Ki-Choung, and found amusement
playing chess with
game being well known even
in
the
fellow-travellers,
their
in this wild region.
All this while the yaks of the place, added to those of the caravan, were employed in beating
down
passage through the snow of the pass.
On
fourth day the passage was declared to be
and they
ciently practicable,
it
suffi-
The ascent only method of
started.
was so steep and slippery, that the mastering
a
the
was, to hold on by the
tails
of their
and both would often have slidden over
horses,
into the valley they
of snow
left
had
on either
exhausted by
this
quitted, but for the walls
side.
ascent,
M. Gabet was
quite
and must have been
left behind, if the Tibetan escort had not taken him among them, and with great efforts pushed him up to the top of the pass, scarcely sensible. On the summit of the mountain was a body of
Lama
pilgrims, on their return from the Lassa-
Morou,
all
lying
down
to recover their breath,
which they had quite lost in the painful ascent. The descent on the other side of the pass was even
more precipitous than the
ascent,
and an
ass
G 3
was
ISO lost all
TARTARY
TIBET, over the precipice
;
but, with this exception,
reached Tanda in safety.
From
this station to
Lha-dze, a distance of one hundred and ten
lis,
or thirty-six miles, the route proceeds along the
plain or valley of Pianpa, for half the distance,
and then down the bed of a tributary
we
seek in vain
;
torrent, to
we
guess
what
river
must be
it
one of the streams that flow into Assam, and not into the Irawadi, or
any river of Siam, or
into the
great river that flows through Cambodia, the main
stream of which was yet far to the
would carry
which we know now river,
Klaproth
east.
into that stream the rivers of Lassa, to
form the Brahmapootra
debouching with the Ganges into the Bay
The
of Bengal.
rivers of
Burma and
of Siam
reach not to so high a latitude.
From Lha-dze
to Barilang is
one hundred
lis
somewhat more than thirty miles, crossing the famous mountain Chak-la, one of the passes which or
the Chinese call " Life-claimers." fatiguing, but
was passed without
It
was found
accident.
From
Barilang, after a march of equal length in a valley
studded with hcrdsmens' huts, and herds of wild yaks, they reached
town, with red.
its
Here was
Chobando,
a
considerable
houses and Lamaserais painted
a military station of twenty soldiers,
under a Tsien-Chong, who
as
an old conu-adc of
AND MONGOLIA. the
it
on the side of a mountain, and
is
The
gave the party a dinner.
Pacificator,
town
131
to reach
they passed a fierce torrent over a fragile shak-
Of this
ing wooden bridge.
river, also,
we
learn
no more, and are uncertain, therefore, whether the dividing land of the waters of India had yet
They were overtaken here by two couriers, who had left Lassa only six
been reached. imperial
days before, and had in that short time accomplished six hundred miles, on the same road that the missionaries
had traversed with
culty in a month.
Our
travellers
so
much
diffi-
were told that
the dispatches would reach Pekin on the thirtieth
day, carried
men.
The
all
the
couriers
way frequently by the same who make these wonderful
journeys, prepare themselves by a day of fast before starting, and during the whole journey eat
only two eggs at each relay, never resting any-
where, and travelling both night and day.
There are two monasteries in one
works
is
the
great printing
for the entire
had now entered. station forest,
;
Kham
at
Chobando, and
press
for
sacred
province, which they
Kia-yu-Kiao was the next
down a valley of heavy and the river Look-chou, which flows
through
the road led
it
was broad, deep and rapid the wooden
bridge over
;
it
had recently
fallen, the
wood hav-
TIBET, TARTARY
132
ing* decayed from age
The
and neglect.
was accordingly passed on a
Nine
hastily for the purjjose.
river
constructed
raft
or ten miles below
Kia-yu-Kiao they crossed the river again over
wooden bridge, and then passed over a to Wa-ho-chai, a military station, where began to snow heavily, much to the discom-
a fragile
mountain it
and alarm of the caravan,
fiture
for the
next day's
march lay over
a frozen lake, where a general with army had been buried in snow in the reign of Kang-hi, owing to his firing a gun at the time all his
of encamping, according to the regulated order of
the Chinese military service.
The march
day was long, being one hundred and from
forty-five to fifty miles.
daylight,
Wa-ho
They
of next
fifty lis,
or
started before
and crossed the table-land and lake of
in full sunshine, their eyes suffering ex-
tremely from the glare of the snow, notwithstanding their use of hair spectacles. before they came to
aij
It
was dark
end of the table-land, and
they reached Nzenda-chai, by a painfid descent, at midnight,
completely worn out with fatigue
and nearly blinded.
They were compelled
halt next day, in order to relieve their eyes
medical treatment. severe
mountain
to
by
After three more stages of
travel,
they reached
(Tsiamdo) on the banks of the great
Chamdo
river,
Kiang-
AND MONGOLIA.
133
Thus, in thirty-six days from Lassa,
tang-Chou.
they had got over two thousand
five
hundred
lis,
of the Chinese itinerary, -which they reckoned
equal to two hundred and
fifty
leagues, or seven
hundred and
A
is
fifty miles.
li
hundred
third of a mile, for two
not quite one-
lis
equal a degree
of latitude, or sixty-nine statute miles, and one
hundred and
sixty-six decimal parts of an inch.
Chamdo
a considerable military station
is
:
it
has a garrison of three hundred men, with four a Yeon-Ki,
officers,
Pa-Choongs.
Chamdo
Kham, and was
walls
is
also
under charge of a
sions,
Liang-tai.
of
Tsien-Choong, and two
a
There
had
is
a depot of provi-
civil officer, called
a
the capital of the province
heretofore fortified, but the
fallen to decay.
It lies in the fork of
Dza-Chou and Om-Chou, which uniting form the Kiang-tou-chou, which flows
the two rivers,
into
Cambodia, and
Kiang
there called the Ya-long-
both are bridged, and the road from
;
Lassa to
Yunan
is
Se-Chouen passes over one,
Chamdo
over the other bridge.
that is
siderable city, but rather in decay.
There
large Lamaserai under a Kotooktoo,
who
sovereign of the
Kham province.
but also of saintly dignity,
is
is
is -a
the
Inferior to him,
Chak-Chouba hundred lis, or
the
of Jaya, a Lamaserai, lying five
to
a con-
134
TIBET,
one hundred and
TARTARY
fifty
miles, eastward
towards
At the period of our missionaries passing through Chamdo, there was a feud raging between China.
Kotooktoo and
its
an aspiring young
this
priest,
Chak-chouba ; the
latter,
claimed to have received
the diploma of a Kotooktoo, in a previous generation,
was
from the Delai Lama, a
difficult to
fact of
which
it
The Chamdo
prove the negative.
Kotooktoo, however, refused to recognise this assumption of vince,
new
dignities,
and the entire pro-
and especially the priesthood of Kham,
were in commotion on account of
this quarrel.
After the usual course of written and verbal disputation, in support of the claim to
it,
and in resistance
the partisans of each side came to blows.
Half the province had been ravaged by these hostilities, and the bitterness with which the war was carried on convulsed the entire population.
A
truce
when
had recently been agreed
to, at the time
our missionaries passed, in order that the
quarrel might be referred for adjudication to the
Delai Lama, and commissioners had been sent
from Lassa, and from Pekin, ference.
Many
to
adjust the dif-
conferences had, in consequence,
been held, and the young aspirant of Jaya himself attended at
Chamdo with
a lai'ge retinue of his
adherents, to influence and overawe the decision.
AND MONGOLIA. The popular
feeling
was
all
on
135
his side, the elder
Kotooktoo of Chamdo being deemed a creature of the
imperial court of Pekin,
and the Tibetan
national spirit eschewing, especially,
all
foreign
The
intervention in their spiritual quarrels.
mis-
sionaries
were treated wdth deference and respect
by both
parties during the
three days of their
The infirmities of Lee, the Chamdo. Pacificator of Kingdoms, and especially the swelling of his legs, had so increased during this painful journey, that he was advised here to purchase a halt at
palanquin, but could not be induced to incur the
The party was overtaken
expense.
by
at this stage
a Chinese Liang-tou, or civil commissary,
was returning
China with
to
eighteen years of age quins, having sionaries
:
;
his son, a
who
youth of
both travelled in palan-
Lassa a few days after the mis-
left
but they had suffered so
the journey, that
it
would have strength
much from
was doubtful whether they to
reach their native country.
On our travellers leaving Chamdo, their party was joined by a Chinese soldier, who, having received his discharge,
was carrying back
his family
by
a
Tibetan wife, an unusual thing, for which he was
laughed
at
by the men of the Chinese
escort.
The
wife rode an ass, and led a pack-horse, with a child in
each of two
cai?es
balanced across his back.
TIBET, TARTARY
136
The
soldier
brought up the rear, with a boy of
twelve years old riding behind him. the caravan lay
up the Dza-Chou
The
route of
river to
Meng-
Phoo, distant only about twenty-five miles, and next day a march of twenty miles brought them to Poa-tun,
where the Tibetan population began
show a hostile spirit towards the Chinese of the escort. A march of thirty miles then carried them to Bagong ; in the course of it they saw
to
many
calcareous hills, full of natural caves, some
of large dimensions, but they could not stop to
examine them.
Before
this, all
the mountains the
had crossed from Lassa were of granite, but now most of them were of chalk or lime-stone, and the road near Bagong was skirted missionaries
with frequent slabs of marble, on which the mysterious
prayer
"
Om
mani padme hom " was
carved, with more or less neatness, in evidence of the devotion of the population.
On
the road between
Chamdo and Bagong
Chinese Liang-Tou died in his palanquin
the
the
down and opening the curfound him dead. He had left Chamdo two
bearers on setting tains
;
it
;
and the son here
it
in the palanquin,
days only before the caravan
purchased a
coffin,
and fixed
in order that the corpse
the land of
its
fathers.
might be so conveyed
For
this the
to
young man
AND MONGOLIA. paid dearly, but
filial
137
duty required the
sacri-
fice.
The Tibetan told
Lee the
authorities at
Pacificator, that
furnished, except on
The
hire.
Bagong.
no oola would be
payment of
He
accordingly
the Proul-Tamba, a
influence,
a fixed rate of
made
Tibetan
who lived at a The Lama came
short
of
much
pearance.
intelligence,
He
it
was
a complaint
Lama
of great
from
distance
himself the next day,
and was received with great ceremony.
man
distinctly
Pacificator remonstrated, but
of no use. to
Bagong
He was a
and of very striking ap-
recognised the Pacificator as an old
comrade, but was himself a hot partisan of the Jaya-Kotooktoo, and had been engaged in
many
warlike operations in his favour, in which he had
He
always been victorious.
complained loudly of
the Chinese, for having interfered in the domestic quarrels of
Kham, and
alluded also to the
trial
and punishment of the Nome-Khan of Lassa by Ki-Shen, dence.
as a gross violation of
He
Tibetan indepen-
even spoke slightingly of the great
emperor, as being a layman of no equal authority
with a regenerate Boodh.
After
much
invective
of the same kind against Chinese domination, he
gave
at last the oola,
out of consideration for his
old coim-ade, and for the two
Lamas of the
"West,
TIBET, TARTARY
138
who, he said, had been specially recommended to him by the regent of Lassa Their route lying by the residence of the Proul-Tamba, they paid him a visit
of ceremony on their way, in return for this
civility,
and towards evening arrived
Tsa, where the
at
Wang-
Chinese guard-house had been
demolished and everything showed signs of
Here
war.
civil
men who came with the oola charge to the women of the place,
the
resigned their
because Gaya, the next stage, being of the opposite faction, the it.
On
men dared
their arrival at
their charge,
not show themselves near
Gaya, the
women
delivered
and returned immediately with the
oola quite unmolested, leaving the travellers at the
A
mercy of the population. with held of the chief
men
council was forth-
of the place, and
it
was
resolved to furnish an oola to the Tibetans of the party, and to the missionaries, gratis, in deference to the regent of Lassa,
for
The
all
but
to
demand payment
animals taken by Chinese of the party.
Pacificator remonstrated,
vain against this resolution
;
and inveighed
in
he was obliged
to
submit.
At Angti, the next stage, they were detained five by a fall of snow, but mainly while The Deba Chief discussing the afiEair of the oola. of Angti, was a dwarf, almost without legs, named days, partly
AND MONGOLIA. Bomba,
a
man
nevertheless of great energy of
Mounted on
character.
139
the shoulders of a strong
mountaineer, his voice was always heard loudest
he influenced every determination of the local council,
He
and arranged everything.
particularly civil
to
also
was
the missionaries, and gave
them a dinner, but was inexorable
in his hostility
to the Chinese.
On
leaving Angti there
tain pass,
which proved
it
snowy moun-
troublesome as any of
The passage occupied
the preceding.
day, and
as
a high
is
Avas
the whole
midnight before they reached
Jaya, the head quarters of the aspiring Kotooktoo.
The town had
suffered in the civil war, and
was
nearly destroyed; but there was here a guard-
house and a garrison of twenty Chinese, who strove almost in vain to maintain a strict neutrality in
the ci^ol war.
The next
stage
was Adzoo-
Thang, where they overtook, again, the palanquin of the Liang-Tou,
whose son here of the journey.
who had
died at Bagong, and
also fell a victim to the hardships
How
second corpse, puzzled
to
carry to China this
much
the ingenuity of the
escort, yet it was a duty not to be neglected. The body of the son was accordingly secretly cut in pieces, and placed in the same coffin with the father.
TIBET, TARTARY
140
From Adzoo-Thang the next stage was ChePan-Keou, a valley of slates, gold-dust, and musk Here, and
deer.
at the tliree following stations*
the Chinese were similarly called
upon
to
tans
were furnished with
pay the
and Tibe-
hire of the oola, while the missionaries cattle gratis.
The party next arrived at Keang-Tsa, town and military post of considerable ing two military mandarins.
suaded Lee, the Pacificator,
These
to give
a Chinese size,
hav-
latter per-
up
travelling
on horseback, and to use the palanquin of the son of the civilian, which was at his service gratis, in consequence of the youth's decease.
Four days
after leaving
Keang-Tsa, the caravan
reached the banks of the mighty Yang-tse-Keang.
They
crossed
it
soon
after,
and descended
its
valley to Bathang, a large city and military station,
situated in
a
climate
differing
altogether
from that in which they had spent the preceding
At Bathang
two years.
hundred Chinese
is
soldiers,
a garrison of three
under
a
Chion-Pie,
two Tsien-Chongs, and a Pa-Choong, whose pay, amounting in the whole to nine thousand ounces of silver,
is
is
here a
remitted regularly from China.
The
mixed Chinese and Tibetan. There large Tibetan Lamaserai, under a Kampo
population
is
delegate of the Delai
Lama, but
his authority
is
141
AND MONGOLIA.
confined to spiritual matters, the temporal power
being in the hands of a Taou-Tse, or tributary
The
prince of China.
increasing illness of the
Pacificator caused a halt of three days at Bathang.
From Chamdo
to
Bathang the route had been
southerly for the entire twenty days of march, but
now
it
after
turned northward, and on the second day
leaving
that
city,
they
snowy range, and encamped at
a
station called
another
crossed
in a miserable hut,
Ta-so, situated in a valley,
whence again they ascended, next day, to a tableland covered with snow. Beneath it was a magnificent forest of pines, and cedars, and hollies of large size.
The march was long from Ta-so to Samba, and Lee, the Pacificator, quite worn out with the fatigue,
was found dead
This caused a
halt,
in his
bed
in the
morning^
untQ arrangements could be
The Chinese
made
to
escort
were now without a commandant, and were
carry the body forward.
not willing to obey the Tibetan Lama,
who had
the separate charge of the escort of that nation,
provided by the regent of Lassa. The missionaries
were compelled in consequence
to take
on them-
selves the general direction of the party,
and were
cheerfully obeyed
by the men of both
nations.
Three more days of mountain march carried them
TIBET, TARTARY
142
Li-thang, a depot with one hundred soldiers,
to
having for
officers a Liang-tai, a
two Pa-Choongs. these, to take the
It
Cheon-pie, and
was the duty of one of
command
vacated by the death
of the Pacificator, and to carry on the escort, but all
wished
to shirk
the service, and to leave the
missionaries to direct the march, as they
refusal, a
Pa-Choong was
had done
On
their
at last appointed,
who
since the death of the brigadier-general.
begged for a delay of two days to
make
pre-
paration.
At Li-thang
is
a printing press for Boodhist
sacred books, but the language of the place
is
neither Tibetan nor Chinese, and seemed to the missionaries to resemble the Sifan dialect of the
Koko-noor more than any
other.
The Tibetans
the escort were understood with difficulty.
Li-thang to
Ta
Tsien-lou, the frontier
of
From
town of
Se-Chouen, was a further distance of six hundred lis,
or
two hundred miles, of mountain road,
divided into eight stages.
In the course of
this
march, one day beyond Makian-Joong, the party crossed a large tributary of the Yang-tse-Kiang,
which rises at the foot of Bayan Kharat Mountains, and joins the Blue River in the Se-Chouen province. At Ta-TsienCalled Ya-loong-Kiang,
the
lou the Tibetan escort took leave.
It
was the
AND MONGOLIA. end of June when
143
town was reached
this
the
;
journey from Lassa having occupied three months,
and being rated thousand and
in Chinese
fifty lis,
From
three miles.
sixteen
itineraries
thence to
before
Chinese
the
trial
tribunals,
separate report, which,
if
five
Se-Chouen the
missionaries travelled in palanquins.
adventures there, and the
at
hundred and eighty-
Of
their
they underwent
they promise
a
the story be but half as
well told, as this of theu- journeys in Tartary and Tibet, will be looked for and read with double interest; for
M. Hue's
narrative cannot
fail to
lively
and unpretending
leave in every reader most
kindly feelings of respect for the character of these missionaries, joined to a high reverence for the truly apostolic zeal,
them through â&#x20AC;˘will
and untiring energy, which carried
Every one therefore them through all their further
their hardships.
desire to follow
dangers, and to learn every circumstance of their intercourse with the singular sections of the
human
race with which they were brought thus strangely in collision,
and of whose
institutions, habits,
feelings their narrative promises to aflEbrd a
and
more
perfect knowledge.
But of
all
the important matters laid open to
us in these volumes, there
is
nothing so interest-
ing, or so deserving of attention, as the insight
TIBET, TARTARY
144
they afford into the Boodhist doctrines, and into the discipline, ritual, and practices of those still
We
believe and profess that religion.
not close our notice of this
who must
work without reverting
to this subject.
Everybody knows
the Boodhist faith so
that
widely spread over Eastern Asia, had the teachings of
Sakhya Muni,
more than one thousand
Guignes and Klaproth rities at
fix
it
carry the
years,
and
De
from these autho-
1027 years before Christ.
William
Sir
But
Jones adopted the same date. observed, that the
whose era
a saint,
The Chinese
dates long before Christ.
era back to
origin in
its
it
is
to
be
Chinese, acknowledging the
author of this religion to have been a native of India, state their nation to have adopted the faith of
Boodh one thousand
preached therefar as it dates its
years after
it
had been
Their chronology, therefore, so
from
this era,
commenced only from
thousandth year, and wants earlier
verification.
Indian authorities, on the other hand, confirming the Cingalese, Burmese, and Siamese dates for the
commencement of the Boodhist
era, fix the
death
of Sakhya-^Iuni (called his nirvan, or absor]3tion into the divine spirit) in the year u.c. 543. difference, of four
has led
many
hundred and
to believe the
This
thirty-six years
Chinese era
to refer
AND MONGOLIA. an anterior Boodh, but
to
ascribable to the
sumed of
it
more probably
is
round number of
a thousand, as-
for the antiquity of the religion at the time
The
spread in that country.
its
145
date
is
so far
important, as[the extraordinary similitude in
many
and of the books, and
ritual,
parts of the doctrine,
and forms, and
institutions of this religion, -svith
those of
Romish
Clu-istianity,
by the
Jesuits
who
teenth centmy, and even the thirteenth, might
which was remarked
visited Tibet in the seven-
by Father Rubruquis
had been borrowed entirely from the
chain of
in
lead to the belief that they
evidence
this latter, if
established
that
their
greater antiquity were less complete.
The
points of resemblance referred to
commence
even with the form of the Scriptures, or principal books of the life
faith.
The most important
Sakhya-Muni, whose
of
is
the
doctrines are repre-
sented as having been delivered in discourses held to his ten disciples, or as arising out of occasions,
not unsimilar in some respects to those recorded in our Evangelists.
being
moved
to take
The on
idea of a divine spirit
itself
the instruction of mankind, tion of the it
had
istical.
human
a
and
human form for
for
the redemp-
race from the sins into
which
by a course of degeneracy, is BoodhThe doctrine of the fall of man, that is,
fallen
H
TIBET, TARTARY
146
the Mosaic account of the creation of the world,
and of the original race,
is
human we may
sin of the father of the
no part of Boodhism
;
and
this
remark would likewise most probably have been found there,
had been
if it
from the Christian of
Sakhya-Muni
borrowed
a religion
as its antecedent.
The
spirit
alleged to have been pre-
is
existent, in a condition of sanctified holiness, pre-
eminent amongst the gods of Tushita, and there,
human
being moved to become incarnate in the
form, in order to redeem mankind from the sin
and degeneracy
it
had
fallen into
from long
tast-
ing of earthly pleasures, and from their corrupting influences,
duna
for the
it
elected the royal race of
Devi, the mother, mystical,
The conception
birth. is
Shudho-
of
Maya-
described as miraculous and
and the birth
as attended
with mii'acles,
but not of the same description with those which attended the birth of our Saviour. ever, a holy
man
like
There
is,
how-
Simeon, who, admonished
by an illumination of the world, bears witness
to
the child's divine mission, and laments that age will prevent his hearing his doctrine. also at school displays learning
the doctors and professors.
He
Sakhya
which confounds takes on himself
the domestic state, and marries twice, but at the
age of twenty-nine, he
is
led to
commence
a course
AND MONGOLIA.
147
of meditation, his attention being directed to four subjects in particular
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; old
He
age, sickness, death,
up the world
to
pursue his meditations on these subjects, and
to
and a future
state.
He
seek the truth.
gives
practises mortifications, until
findmg his body weakened, he bathes in the
Nyranjana wards
recover his strength.
to
of baptism. the
God
and takes refreshment
river,
He
tempted
is
This
after his
is
who makes offers of worldly we find in the Temptation in
power, hke those
But he
rejects
them, and over-
comes and drives away the tempter. his meditations are
adopted
and then
The there is
first
"svins
by ten
disciples
of implicit faith,
over the multitude.
sorrow in
inseparable
may be trine,
becoming a supreme
preach his doctrine, which
to
precepts he inculcates are
is
life.
its
:
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; First,
Second, That
from mortality.
remedied.
and
After this
rewarded by an inspiration of
divine Spiiit, and so
Boodh, he begins is
a species
baptism by
of Pleasure,
the Wilderness.
the
after-
this
That
sorrow
Third, Tliat
it
Fourth, That faith in his doc-
reception and observance will give
the remedy, which
is,
salvation in an
improved
future state, preparatory to absorption ultimately in the divine spirit.
He
goes from place to place
in India, teaching this doctrine,
and
is
followed
H 2
TIBET, TARIARY
148
and revered,
until he dies at last in
advanced age of eighty, with
many
or
each of which erects a Stupa,
cities,
mausoleum over This
is
arises, as to
and the remains are divided be-
disposal,
their
the
relics of pre-
A contention then
eminent sanctity.
at the
The body is burnt, and
prodigies.
remains are collected and revered as
tween eight
Assam
his death being attended
its
portion.
said to have occurred in the reign of
Ajata-Satra,
who was
the predecessor of Chandra-
gupta (Sandracottus) by one hundred and ninetysix years.
Muni,
is
The
future state promised
by Sakhya-
regeneration in an inferior or superior
animal condition, according to the degree of spiritual perfection
and
faith,
obtained in
life
the highest reward of
by meditation all
being that
which Sakhya-Muni himself obtained, sorption into the divine Spirit, from vitality is
and
to
beHeved
which
all
to
viz.,
ab-
which
all
have emanated originally,
will finally return.
The next
highest state to that of immediate absorption,
is
Boodh. There Boodhism no perpetuity of punishment in a
that of perpetual regeneration as a is
in
place of torments, but the regeneration in inferior animals,
is
not very dissimilar to the purgatory of
Catholics, as
was remarked by Father Grueber
and the Devas, or gods, of the
;
different heavens.
AND MONGOLIA. are of the
same
every state there
with angels and
class is
149 In
saints.
means of reaching a superior
a
condition, if properly followed out;
and
life
is
sacred and not to be taken without sin, because of its
being of the divine essence, passing, in
world, through the
this
prescribed towards
course
final absorption.
Such are the principal
With
Boodhist doctrine. tions
characteristics of the
respect to the institu-
the doctrine that a spiritual, and even a
:
divine condition
is
be obtained by withdrawing
to
from the world, and by meditation, prayer, and abstraction, dition.
gave early origin
We
have
ence of institutions of viharas, or cells
monastic con-
this
kind, established in
and caves, or in buildings, erected
for the convenience spiritualise
to the
distinct evidence of the exist-
of those
who sought
so to
themselves by separation from the
Such
world, at dates long antecedent to our era.
buildings exist in India, at present, only as re-
mains of antiquity, quite deserted; but
them
in Tibet
tion that
find
and Tartary, exactly in the condi-
we may
imagine, from the traces
the domiciles occupied or
we
left
of
by the Indian Sramanas,
Lamas, that they presented heretofore in various
parts of Hindoostan
;
and
twenty centuries anterior
this at periods, at least
to the present.
That
150
TIBET,
condition varies very
TARTARY
of the earlier Christians
cording to
from what
little
reported
and we have
;
M. Hue, both
Tibet, the type of the
is
still,
ac-
Koon-boom and in devotees who practised at
penances, and sat on pillars, like Simeon Stelites.
The
and even the
discipline, the habits,
ritual of
these monasteries of Tibet and Tartary, have also a remarkable resemblance to those of the churches
of
Rome and
With
Constantinople in the middle ages.
respect to the ritual,
we have
the strong impression which
many
points
before noticed
resemblance in
made on Father Grueber,
in the se-
Caj)tain Turner, the ambas-
venteenth century. sador of
its
Warren Hastings
to Tibet, in 1783, re-
marked the great similarity which the chaunts of alternate verses by the officiating priest, and by the congregations of Tibet, bore to the ceremonies
Romish Church.
of high-mass in the quite
ignorant
of
the
He
judged merely of the form, and manner, and of
was
Tibetan language, and
M. Hue
what he saw and heard.
report, as the result of his longer
effect
confirms this
and more
ac-
curate observation, based on some acquaintance
with the language of Tibet
;
intense and extensive
is
Koon-boom monastic
college,
tutions of Lassa.
and he
tells
us
how
the study of ritual in the
and
Now Csoma
in similar insti-
Korosi has oiven
AND MONGOLIA. US translations, and
what
is
of some part
much
and tone,
struck
of
we have
thus chaunted or recited, and
ourselves been spirit
abstracts,
151
by the resemblance
to parts of the Litany,
in
and of the
Psalms, which are similarly read or chaunted in
Take
Catholic churches.
hymn,
the following
for
instance, in celebration of the victory gained over
the great tempter, prior to the reception of the
We
by Sakhya-Muui.
divine inspiration it
copy
from Csoma Korosi's translation, breaking only
the verses, for alternation of the chaunt or recitation,
ing
which
is
the
method of reading and
deliver-
it.
Priest.
the world
to cast
ol
Maker
of
the world's Protector
!
who
light;
" There has arisen the Illuminator gives eyes to
the fight
:
excellence satisfy
is
blind,
sin."
" Thou hast been victorious in
thy aim :
the
the world that
away the burden of
Congregation.
!
is
accomplished by thy moral
thy virtues are perfect
men with good
:
Thou
shalt
things."
P. " Gotama (Sakhya)
is
without sin
:
He
is
pit. He stands on dry ground." He is out of the mire; and he will save
out of the miry C.
"Yes,
other animated beings, that are carried off by the
mighty stream."
TIBET, TARTARY
152
P. " The living world has long suffered the
The Prince
ease of corruption.
come C. all
dis-
of physicians
is
men from diseases." " Protector of the world by thy appearance,
to cure
all
!
the mansions of distress shall be
men
Henceforth, angels and
made empty.
shall enjoy happi-
ness," &c., &c.
Again, see another hymn. Priest.
"To
Thee, whose virtue
whose understanding
pure and
is
is
immaculate,
brilliant,
who
hast the thirty-two characteristic signs complete,
and who hast memory of
all
things, with discern-
ment and fore-knowledge." Congregation. " Reverence be to Thee we adore Thee ; bending our heads to our feet." P. " To Thee, who art clean and pure from all :
taint of sin,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;who
art immaculate,
in the three worlds,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
and celebrated
who, being possessed of the
three kinds of science, givest to animated beings
the eye to discern the three degrees of emancipation from sin."
C
" Reverence be to Thee." P. " To Thee, who with tranquil mind the troubles of evil times
:
ness, teachest all living things to
designed for them."
clearest
who, with loving kindwalk
in the path
AND MONGOLIA. C. " Reverence be to
P. " Muni
Thee
whose heart
!
!"
beings
Thy
:
intention
is
and perplexities of
for the
pure
and who
at rest,
is
delightest to explain the doubts
men: who hast suffered much
153
good of living-
Thy
!
practices are
perfect."
" Reverence be to Thee."
C.
P. " Teacher of the four truths; rejoice in vation
!
who, being thyself free from
to free the C.
world from
" Reverence be
We
sal-
sin, desirest
sin."
to
Thee."
could multiply illustrations of this kind
without limit
;
but these examples will
suffice to
show the resemblance we have noticed
in the forms
and method of the Boodhist
is,
much more
It
ritual.
hoAvever,
elaborate than that of any church of
Christendom, the books containing
being very
it
voluminous, and the services being exceedingly complicated, and differing, almost, for every day of the year, besides being special for every festival.
In the absence of authentic easy to settle the precise period
histories,
when
and forms of Boodhist worship were
it
is
not
the doctrine
first
established
in the east; but no one has ever doubted their great antiquity.
The
early missionaries of the
church believed them
to
Romish
be a form of Christianity
H
3
154
TIBET,
TARTARY
preached there in the time of the
first
Apostles
and hearing of the theocratic government established in Tibet, and occasionally amongst Tartars
and Mongols of the
desert, carried
back
to Eiu'ope
tales of a Prester, or Presbyter John, to excite the
wonder, and stimulate the zeal of the pious in Christendom.
But the more accurate and
search-
ing enquiries of the present age have brought out this religion in a
doubt of tianity,
its
new character, and leave little by several centuries to Chris-
priority
with forms of worship and with doctrines,
corresponding closely with those which so forcibly struck Captain Turner in Tibet, and which excited
the wonder of the missionaries of successive centuries,
Of
both there and in Mongolia.
the sacred books of
Boodhism we have now
three complete versions, in the Sanscrit, Tibetan,
and Pali languages
;
and
all
have been carefully
examined and reported upon by thorough
profi-
cients in each of these languages respectively.
We
have a Sanscrit version, that was obtained in Nipal
by Mr. Hodgson, the British resident at Katmandoo,and after being studied and partially abstracted
by
himself,
was by him transmitted
to the
Royal
Library of Paris about fifteen years ago, and has there been closely examined
by Messrs. Remusat
and Bourn ouf, whose works on the subject are
AND MONGOLIA.
We
before the world.
have
also a
155 Tibetan version
obtained through the same channel, and subjected
by the government of India
M. Csoma
The
Korosi.
to the
examination of
result of his labours has
appeared in several translations and abstracts ,which
were published in the Asiatic Researches of Bengal,
and
in the
monthly journal of the Asiatic Society,
between the years 1835 and 1840, The Pali version
was traced out by Mr. George Tumour, a high This gentleman
functionary of Ceylon. lished in a separate translation of the
volume the
text,
first
civil
pub-
with a close
Maha-wansa, an ancient poem on
the origin and spread of the Boodhist religion, compiled in the
fifth
century of our era from the Cinga-
lese version of the Attha-katha, a
higher antiquity.
He
work of much
next published in the pages
of the journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, a series of valuable essays,
Budliistical
Annals
;"
with the heading of "Pali
and
in these
we
find a
com-
plete analysis of the sacred books themselves, a critical examination of the
them
to
and
grounds for assuming
be genuine, and for assigning them
to a
date and period, very nearly corresponding with that claimed for
them by the professors of the
religion. "VVe
date
have no means of determining the
when
j^recise
the Sanscrit version of these Boodhist
TIBET, TARTARY
156
Scriptures was prepared.
made from an that
is,
It professes to
have been
original in the language of
Moghada,
of Bahar, in which province both Patali-
now Patna) and Muni was born, and which
putra, (the ancient Palibothra,
Rajgriha, where Sakhya
was the more ancient
capital of that province,
The Tibetan
situated.
the Sanscrit, and took the shape of the in which
were
version was translated from
Kahgyur,
now exists, in one hundred leaf volumes,
it
between the seventh and ninth centuries of our
era.
Tibet does not pretend to conversion to Boodh-
ism
till
Muni
;
many centuries after the death of Sakhya we cannot, therefore, look in this quarter
for evidence of the date of the first
world
the version of
Scripture
its
;
and the Sanscrit version
was derived, correspond
appearance of
but when we find that
this religion in the
now
also,
current there,
through which
it
in all essentials with the
Pali version of the same Scriptures found in Ceylon,
Siam, and .
is
Burma
(for
these are identical),
all
it
an undeniable collateral evidence of the genuine
character of the whole collusion regions.
between the Still, in
;
for there
could be no
priests of all these distant
order to establish the antiquity
of the original Scriptures,
we must
seek other
proofs than this conformity.
The
Pali books
examined and abstracted by
AND MONGOLIA.
157
Mr. Tumour, consist of the Pitakattayan, the Attha-katha, and the Mahawansa. The first is, quasi, the gospel of Boodhists, containing the
life, dis-
and precepts of Sakhya Muni himself,
courses,
as
derived from his o^vn mouth, and put together by his disciples
Attha-katha
The
immediately after his decease. is,
quasi, the acts of the- apostles,
and
contains the account of the settlement of the Pita-
kattayan, and of the succession of Theros, or chief disciples
Muni first
and preachers of the religion
also of the schisms
;
few centuries
after
Sakhya
which took place in the
after the nircan, or decease, of
the great saint and founder; and especially of the
convocations held, as well to settle the Gospel itself in the
first
instance, as to determine the points of
difference,
and
This
work
latter
historian,
and
to suppress schisms as they arose. is
if its
by
far the
most valuable
to the
genuineness and antiquity can
be considered established, there are many doubtful points of chronology, and many matters touching the
succession of kingly races, and other events, also re-
garding the state of society of the period between the death of Sakhya, B.C. 543, and the date of gation, B.C. 306, that It
is
stated in the
it
its
promul-
will assist in clearing
Mahawansa,
vxp.
that the Pita-
kattayan was brought to Ceylon by Mahindo, the
son of Asoka, in the eighteenth year of his father's
TIBET, TARTARY
158 reign, that
in
is,
the Attha-katha was
to the island at the
same time, but was
it
brought
in B.C. 306, in the exact Pali form
now exists. That
which
circulated
and
first
made known
in the Cingalese
Both books are stated to have been preserved, orally only, for more than two cenvernacular dialect.
they well might be in the monasteries
turies, as
but to have been committed
who
of a king
104 and
to writing in the reign
flourished in Ceylon between B.C.
The Attha-katha
B.C. 76.
condition in Cingalese, until into Pali
by a
priest
it
existed in this
was rendered back
who came from Moghada, of name was
great learning and celebrity, whose
Budha Ghosa.
This
is
stated to
have occurred
between the years a.d. 410, and a.d. 432 full
account of
all
these circumstances
is
;
and a
given in
the Mahawansa, which was written between a.d.
459, and 477, and professes to have been compiled
from the same Cingalese version of the Attha-katha.
The
facts
spond in
mentioned in both these works corre-
all essentials
with the record of similar
events found in the Sanscrit and Tibetan sacred
books, and the differences consist only of some insertions in the
former, specially referring to
Ceylon, and likely to have been interpolated by priests of that nation.
We may, therefore, fairly
look on these works as standing nearly on the
AND MONGOLIA. same footing
159
as the Pitakattayan
of events found in
for the record
:
them was equally brought
to
Ceylon in the reign of Asoka, in the condition in
which in
it
existed,
Moghada
and was received and believed This be
in that reign.
it
observed,
was more than three hundred years before the
The Attha-katha
birth of our Saviour.
nothing of subsequent date to
B.C.
contains
306, and
it
appears to have come to us nearly perfect through this
channel, although not free from interpolations,
and not in the original
Now,
let
text.
us examine whether these books con-
tain internal evidence
that they
were current
to
confirm the inference
Pitakattayan, which contains the of
Sakhya Muni,
refers
and discourses
life
cotemporary kings of
to
known then
India, of dynasties
minion in India, and
have held do-
to
to disciples of
Sakhya,
became afterwards leaders of the Boodhist There
is
The
at this early period.
nothing found in
it
who
faith.
inconsistent with the
declared antiquity.
The Attha-katha
fact
of
tells
us that this Pitakattayan was settled in the
state
in
its
which we
find
it,
for the Pali
corresponds with that of Moghada,
at a
language convoca-
tion held in the first year after Sakhya's decease tlu*ee of his disciples,
;
Kasyapa, Upali, and Anando,
having each presided
at the recital
and settlement
of the three several portions of the work.
TIBET, TARTARY
160
This account of precisely
by what
its is
authorship
confirmed
is
found in the Sanscrit and
Tibetan versions of the same sacred books. Pali Attha-katha
tells
The
us further of schisms which
then arose amongst the professors of the Boodhist
and that
religion,
for the settlement of these, a
second convocation was held one hundred years the
after
dispute,
first,
which determined the points
and expelled the
Of
heretics.
vocation, however, and of the schisms to
it,
we have no mention
in
this con-
which led
in the Tibetan scriptures
of Boodhism, which, as they were avowedly of
much
later origin,
would seem
show
to
that the
importance of the convocation, and perhaps even the
memory The
away.
of the schism,
had then quite passed
points in dispute in this
first
century
of Boodhism, referred to indulgences in matters of priestly discipline, such as in respect to the
keeping of
salt
for
more than seven days, which
some pretended might be allowed horn
;
also in the eating of food after
and things of the kind. were ten in number.
them
in vessels of
all,
mid-day,
The indulgences claimed The convocation denounced
requiring a rigid adherence to the letter,
as well as to the spirit of the rules
and precepts
of the Pitakattayan, as settled at the
first
tion,
which shows the severe
discij^line
convocaenforced
at that early period in all viharas, as the religious
AND MOXGOLIA.
101
establishments of the priesthood were then called in India.
In the reign of Asoka, the grandson of Chan-
who was
dragupta,
the Sandracottus of Megas-
thenes, a third convocation
was held, according
to
the Attha-katha and INIahawansa, and the Tibetan
King Asoka is stated convert to Boodhism in the
sacred books confirm to
have become a
this.
fourth year of his reign, and was an active propagandist of the faith.
The Attha-katha
says, that
consequently upon this royal patronage, heretics
and unbelievers
assumed the
many
priestly
garb, " shaving their heads and clothing themselves in yellow robes," racteristic of
which
is
exactly the cha-
Lamas of the present day
;
and that
they sauntered about viharas, spreading dissensions
and interrupting the ceremonies of the true
religion, being especially addicted to fire-worship
and
to sacrifices.
Consequently upon these
dis-
Boodhism suspended " the performance of the Uposatho" periodical worship and ceremonies, and also of the Pawasensions, the rigid priests of
rano, declaring that these could not properly be
performed in the public halls or churches of the viharas in
company with
heretics.
The suspen-
sion of these rites continued, according
statement, for
seven years, Avhen
to
the
King Asoka,
TIBET, TARTARY
16ÂŁ
taking umbrage, ordered the Uposatho to be re-
newed
vihara at Pataliputra, and
at his principal
sent his chief minister to enforce this order.
heads of the establishment
upon the minister caused beheaded on the
self
The
to
to
be
which they
king's brother, Tisso,
which the minister next came
and held out
decapitation
;
his
head
for
martyrdom by
but the minister hesitated, and
ferred again to the king for orders.
the
them
attached to this vihara, then placed him-
on the seat
in turn,
several of
spot, in the order in
sat in the assembly.
who was
The
refused, where-
still
issue to
Shocked
reat
which the matter had thus been
brought, King Asoka humbled himself before the ministers of religion, and asked for absolution.
A
convocation was then held to
in dispute,
settle the points
and the Boodhist church being purged
by the expulsion of 60,000 heretics, whose yellow dresses were taken away, and white furnished to them instead, the Uposatho was performed again with great solemnity. that the sacred books finally settled,
It
was
at this convocation
were again
and the Attha-katha
the record of this particular event.
revised and closes with It
occurred
in the seventeenth year after Asoka's inauguration, that
is,
in the year B.C.
Mahindo's mission
to
Ceylon.
307, just before
AND MONGOLIA. Such, but with extraordinary
163 detail,
is
the in-
ternal evidence dcducible from these sacred books
of Ceylon. is
It
supported
remains to show
There
stances.
how
this
by external events is, first,
evidence
and circum-
the fact of the era of the
death of Sakhya, Muni, (called his " Nirvan " or absorption into the divinity), which era, being
introduced into Ceylon, at the time of Mahindo's carrying thither the religion and
scriptures of
Boodhism, has been retained in the annals of that The same era is island to the present day. current in
Burma and
in Siam.
There
is,
second,
the reference to the reign of Chandragupta and his descendants,
whose identity with the Sandraand whose is admitted,
cottus of Megasthenes
reign
is
thus fixed chronologically.
These are
circumstances,
but are far
corroboartive
strong
from being the whole of the evidence. Within the last fifteen years, inscriptions in a very ancient Indian character have been deciphered, which purport to be edicts of a king Devanam-pia-Piadasi. lated
These
who
calls
edicts,
as
himself trans-
by Mr. James Prinsep, with the aid of punCalcutta, purport to be injunctions of a
dits in
Boodhist
direct
character,
faith thus stated to
Asoka
;
consistent
with the
have been adopted by King
and Mr. Turnour has established the
TIBET, TARTARY
164
name
of Piadasi as identical with that of
King
Asoka.
In two copies of these
found
Girnar in Guzrat, and at Kapoordigiri,
at
edicts, viz., those
not far from Peshawur, the names of Antiochus
and Ptolemy, and of Antigonus, Alexander, and Magas, are specifically cited as of cotemporary kings, through
whom
the doctrines and principles
of the edicts are to be further extended.
We
are
aware that Professor Wilson, in a recent memoir
on these inscriptions, has cast doubts on the
inter-
pretation of the edicts, and denies that there
ground even
for
them
assigning
for
to
King Asoka,
supposing them to be Boodhistical
his criticism
whether the discusses,
is
a
mere statement of doubts
;
;
edicts of the specific inscription
which
is five
is
or
but
and he
times repeated, and pur-
ports to contain the edicts of the twenty-seventh
year of Piadasi's reign, be fairly susceptible of Boodhistical interpretation or no, signifies for there
is
little,
a further edict in the same precise
language and character, and of the same King Pyadasi, which
was discovered
at
Bhabra, on
the road between Jypore and Dehli, and which settles the
point
by
specifically referring to
the
precepts and doctrines of " Bhagavat Boodha,"
Lord Boodha, as the only faith to be followed, and condemns the precepts of the Vedas, which
the
AND MONGOLIA. enjom
sacrifices
;
165
and the same edict especially
" upholds the merit and virtues of the " Uposadh ceremonies, and further, to the faithful
specifically addressed
is
congregated in Moghada.
It
would
thus seem to have been published in the seventeenth year of this king, on the conclusion of the convocation, referred to in the Attha-katha, for
purging the Boodhist church of Vedan heresies, the condition
as
upon which only the Boodhist
priesthood -would perform the periodically-recurring rite of Uposadh.
This* inscription will be
found in No. 102 of the Jo\u"nal of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, and
is
there given in text,
with a translation by Kamla Kant and Sarodha Prashad, the same pundits
who assisted Mr. James
* The following extracts are from the translation of this most
important
Prashad:
edict, as
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
made by Kamla Kanta Pundit and Sarodha
" Piadasa Raja, to the multitude assembled in Maghada, ing them, says thus
" That the
sacrifice
of animals
is
forbidden
is
well
For men of Boodhist faith, such is not mete. formance of the Uposadh is most essential."
you.
known to The per-
" The vedas of the Munis are observed by their disciples future state
is
salut-
:
,
their
to be dreaded.
" The text of the vedas enjoining sacrifices are mean and false. Follow That the Lord Boodha hath commanded. Do this for This I desire," &c. the glory of Dhurma (religion.)
166
TIBET,
TARTARY
Prinsep in the translation and deciphering of the edicts before
The
discovered.
stone containing
the writing was afterwards transmitted to Calcutta,
and
is
changes
;
it
The Uposadh was
there deposited.
a recurring monthly
rite,
regulated by the moon's
was a church service performed
in
of the viharas, and whether
the public halls
it
could properly be performed in private houses was
one of the schismatic points settled convocation. felt as a
Its
to
second
suspension for seven years was
national grievance,
determined
at the
which the King Asoka
remedy, but he was compelled by
the obstinacy of the priesthood to submit to their condition of tics
and
first
cleansing the church of
schismatics.
We
its
here-
conceive, that
upon
this collateral testimony of rock-preserved edicts,
in a language no longer extant, but conforming
with that of the Pali sacred books of Ceylon, Siani,
and Burma,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of
edicts
which
refer
to
kings Ptolemy and Antiochus as cotemporaries, the inference will not be rejected, that the sacred
books and
ritual of the Boodhists, as
by professors of
that religion,
now observed
were then the
ceived scriptures and state religion of India.
have further evidence of cient Stupas ties
re-
We
this in the ruins of an-
and viharas existing
in
many
locali-
of India, which indicate a condition of things
AND MONGOLIA. and of monastic
167
institutions, exactly correspond-
ing with the Lamaserais described as in Tibet and at
Koon-boom,
at
still
existing
Koko Khotun,
and in other places of Tartary and Mongolia.
The Stupas
mounds of
are
solid
masonry erected
over the ashes or relics of saints and teachers of the Boodhist religion
domiciles for
and round them
;
or
disciples
Sramanas
cells
and
appear to
have been built by the pious, or provided by themselves, in the precise manner are
now found
have
at
Koonboom and
m which Lassa.
they
These
been in ruins, but they bear
for centuries
inscriptions of the same,
and even of more early
date than the deciphered edicts of Asokato which
we have
referred above.
The most remarkable of
these ruins are found at Sanchi, near Bhilsa, southw^est of
Bundelkund.
several stones
;
found on
key
for
deciphering the 'Asoka
and wdthin these few days, there has
been read a
inscriptions
and gateways of this ancient vihara,
furnished the edicts
The
at the
Royal Asiatic Society of London,
paper by Captain Cunningham, on the subject
of excavations tents
of several
steatite,
have
made
all
coycring
to ascertain the precise con-
of these
Stupas.
The
and chrystal vases containing the
metal, relics
been exhumed, and on several, or on the cerements, are legible inscriptions in
168
TIBET, TARTARY
characters of the age antecedent to that of Asoka,
recording that the relics are those of the very disciples and associates of Sakhya Muni, whose names are mentioned in the Pitakattayan and in
the Attha-katha, as well as in the Tibetan books.
This seems to be a strong confirmation of the
and of the
verity of those books,
record they contain was gospel of the age,
when
at least
the
received
these Stupas were built,
and that alphabet was used.
and no right
the
that
fact,
We
have no desire
to anticipate the publication of the
very interesting results which have attended the search of these Stupas.
Suffice
it
that they are
quite irreconcileable with any construction of the
accounts received of the Boodhist faith, that does
not carry back the founder to the sixth century before our era. real
These, indeed,
tombs of the
saints
Muni, whose names
and
may
not be the
disciples of
Sakhya
are found on the vases
and
cerements, but the more probable inference that they are so
;
still,
whether admitted
or no, the appearance of the buildings,
to
is
be so
and the
character of the inscriptions, indicates a date for their construction at least three or four
years before
Stupas
at
Christ;
that
date
hundred
and the erection of these over even
fictitious relics,
shows the sacred books recording the laws of
>^i ''% .
AND MONGOLIA.
169
these saints and disciples, to be then the received
and wealthy population, and
faith of a large is all
we seek
this
to establish.
If Boodhism, however, existed with these books at so early a date,
we
met by the
are
difficulty of
accounting for the silence of Greek authors of â&#x20AC;˘
The very name of Greek literature
antiquity in respect to them.
Boodh
is
met with nowhere
in
before the time of Clemens Alexandrinus, and he
mentions only incidentally one Terebinthus, who,
coming from India,
up
set
for a
We
and imposed on many.
Boodh
certainly have
culty in accounting for this silence, but inconsistent with
Greek
How
little
Greek books of the history or
of the Persians and Parthians, with
were
many
ages.
not
And
it is
to
do we
literature
whom
they
and commerci-
in close relation politically
ally for
diffi-
it is
habit, so to treat barba-
rian literature of all kinds. find in
(0ovlru),
be observed, the
Boodhist sacred books were the special property of the priesthood, and were mostly preserved and-
transmitted orally amongst them
:
probation,
by
long discipline, and by shaving the head, and priest,
was a con-
dition antecedent to the acquisition of
any know-
assuming the yellow garb of a ledge of them
;
and the same
with rigid Boodhists.
Have
is
even now the case
not even the learned I
170
TARTARY
TIBET,
of Europe, with the advantage of a press, and a
eager for knowledge, been for
reading public
many
centuries acquainted with the existence of
Boodhists with peculiar doctrines, without, until
very recently, obtaining any accurate knowledge of these sacred books
?
That the doctrines of
Sakhya Muni spread widely over the western world, as well as over the east,
known and
established.
is
sufficiently
Pythagoras brought the
doctrine of transmigration into Greece, at a period so close to that of the decease of as to
make
it
Sakhya Muni,
probable that he received
it
even
from himself; but we have no direct evidence that the philosopher went further east than Baby-
The
lon.
fact,
however, that he derived
doctrines from an Indian source
admitted
;
and
it
is
his
very generally
has other points of resemblance
with Boodhism, besides the belief in metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls.
The
discipline
he established, and the life of silence and meditahe enjoined, with the degrees of initiation
.tion
introduced, which was a kind of successive ordination, correspond exactly with the precepts of
the Pitakattayan, and the practices reported in the Attha-katha.
The Pythagorean as
institutions also are described
very monastic in their character, resembling
AND MONGOLIA.
171
thus closely, in that respect also, the viharas of the
Boodhists of India.
The
doctrines of Pythagoras
were widely spread over Greece, over
Italy,
and
Asia Minor for centuries after his decease, and
under the name of Mythi-aic, the
had
also a
wide extension.
The general expecta-
tion of the birth of a great prophet,
Saviour, which
is
Boodh
faith of
Redeemer, or
alluded to even by Tacitus, as
prevailing at the period
when
the fovmder of the
Christian religion appeared, was, there can be no
doubt, of Boodhistic origin,* and not at
all
confined
to Jews, or
based only on the prophecies of their
Scripture.
Although, therefore, the
ture of that age affords
classic litera-
no evidence of the precise
character of this Boodhism, nor of the basis of
Scripture or tradition on which
two
facts, viz., first,
it
rested,
still
the
the existence of these books
in India at the period; and secondly, the wide
spread in the west of the doctrines and belief which rested
upon them, may be considered
established,
Under
and
as not likely to
as
both well
be denied.
the supposition of the pre-existence of
Boodhism, such
as these
* The advent of another or Sakhya Muni,
is
Boodh
sacred books describe, a thousand years after
Gotama
distinctly prophesied in the Pitakattayan
and
Q-otama declares himself to be the twenty-fifth Boodh, and says, " Bagawa Metteyo is yet to come." The name Attha-katha.
Metteyo bears an extraordinary resemblance to Messiah. I
g
TIBET, TARTARY
112
and
professors
its
still
preach, the rapid spread of
and second centuries of
Christianity" in the first
our era,
To
not surprising.
is
a
mind already
impressed with Boodhistic belief and Boodhistic
and Redeemer Western world, recognised as a new Boodh by wise men of the east, that is, by Magi, Sramanas, or Lamas, who had obtained the Arhat doctrines, the bu'th of a Saviour for the
sanctification,
accepted,
readily
fore
nounced. the
that
was an event expected, and there-
It
when
declared and an-
was no abjuration of an old
teachers
faith
of Christianity asked of the
Boodhists, but a mere qualification of an existing
by the incorporation
belief
into
it
of the Mosaic
account of the creation, and of original the
fall
of man.
The Boodhists
accepting Christianity on at
once introduced the
which
From
for centuries
its first
rites
observances
had already existed
service,
its
forms of
councils
or
ritual,
its
in India. its
mona-
and of ohurch
convocations
schisms on points of faith,
and
announcement,
and
that country Christianity derived
stic institutions, its
sin,
of the west,
to
settle
worship of
relics,
and working of miracles through them, and much of the discipline, and of the dress of the clergy,
even It
to the
shaven heads of the monks and
would require an
entire
volume
to
friars.
compare
in
AND MONGOLIA.
173
detail the several points of similarity,
and
the divergence from the more ancient
and
and forms of
practice, in the creed
to trace
doctrine
ritual ulti-
mately adopted by the churches of the west. is
enough
for our present
It
purpose to establish the
superior antiquity of the one, found to exhibit so
many
points of close correspondence.
But independently of the
similarity of doctrine
of ritual, and of institutions,
hism has run in the
we
find that
Bood-
very analogous course
east a
with Romanism in the west.
Having
classes
its
of specially initiated and ordained teachers,
it
spread widely amongst the population, before
it
was adopted, and made a reigning sovereigns. heresies
doctrinal points,
power of the pelled
It
and schisms on
its
till
state
one
on
its
was torn trivial
sect,
having enlisted the
and ex-
opponents, to the weakening and its
authority.
subserviency of the temporal to the
was universally preached by ;
to
observances and
side, persecuted
mate ruin of the church and
class
by the pieces by
state religion
spii'itual
ulti-
The power
this separate initiated
and, in presumptous reliance on their in-
fluence over the populace, priests in the east, as in
the west, have
humbled and destroyed the kingly
power, and occasionally, when circumstances favoured the pretension, have established a priestly iS
TIBET, TARTARY
174
government, such
as
we
see in Tibet, in entire
supercession of the ordinary temporal authority,
and have sought all affairs for
dained.
to reserve the administration of
the special class of initiated or or-
But the consequence in the east has been The priestly govern-
the same as in the west.
ments have been unable
to
without foreign support
priestly domination has
:
maintain themselves
been found quite incompatible with energetic military action, which always has been, and always
must be, the source of real great
Lamas of Tibet
political
power.
The
are the protected minions of
China, just as the Pope of
Rome
is
dependent
to
day on France, and was recently on Austria, notwithstanding the reverence in which the Papal
name and
spiritual authority
is
still
held by vast
populations.
But the
religion of Tibet
and of China,
differ-
ing widely in that respect from that of papistical
Rome, the
is
by
principle tolerant.
human mind
tion, arrive at
Believing that
by meditation and abstracthe knowledge of divine truth, it can,
concedes freedom of thought and conscience to all.
Boodhists will contend with Boodhists for
the superiority of their Kotooktoo, and will per-
who deny his Of tliis M. Hue witnessed a striking
secute and excommunicate those pretensions.
AXD MONGOLIA.
175
instance in the contentions of the Kotooktoos of
Chaniclo and of Jaya, as he passed through
Kham,
But, towards
the easternmost province of Tibet.
and the preachers of new doctrines,
strangers,
Boodhists have always displayed not oidy tolerance, but every desu*e to hear, to learn, and to
Hence
understand.
ers of Christianity
their
the great success that preach-
have always experienced in
and com-
missions to Boodhist countries
munities.
Conformity of doctrine and of precepts
in several
main
essentials leads
&,
Boodhist to
regard a missionary only as a reformer, nay, even as
aiming to reclaim
men
the pure or
to
ancient worship of the best days of his gion.
It
is
only by alarming the
and bringing the government association of large
officers
for purposeis,
institutions, are
and
jiut
They, whose hearts are
sions.
and
tui'iied to
the powers of the state,
and
into action to suppress
reli-
to fear the separate
numbers
political mischief, that its
more
civil authorities,
under disciplined leaders, which may be
and of
own
brought
an end to converset
on the mille
â&#x20AC;˘
nium of a general adoption of the Christian faith ^ would do well to study the causes which led to the violent persecutions instituted against Christian
converts
Japan,
and
missionaries,
and more recently
in
in
China,
Cambodia.
in
Let
TIBET, TARTAEY
176
them use
their advantage to
engraft the belief of
the divine mission of Christ on the prepared mind
of the Boodhist population, without seeking the separate organization of their converts into com-
munities under a priest's ambitious leading.
Let
them
confine themselves to points of faith, of doc-
trine,
and of morals, without auning to enforce observances and new modes of life. Thus
ritual
may
they hope to plant the seed, that, sooner or
later, will
belief, rality,
versal
produce a rich harvest of true religious
and of virtuous conduct, and sound moeven though they
fail to
conformity, which,
enforce the uni-
under
the
existing
diversity of mind, and of motive, and of intellectual power, can scarcely be looked upon as a
condition intended
by Providence
for
mankind.
The Boodhist practical creed is thus briefly stated by Csoma Korosi 1st. To take refuge only with Boodh. 2nd. To form in the mind the resolution to aim :
at
the highest degree of perfection, and so to be
united with the Supreme Intelligence. 3rd.
To humble
oneself before Boodh, and to
adore him. 4th.
To
majie oiFcring of things pleasmg to the
six senses. 5th.
To
glorify
Boodh by music, and by hymns.
AND MONGOLIA. and by praise of mankind, of
his person, doctrine,
To
and love of
his perfections, or attributes,
his acts for the benefit of
6th.
177
and of
animated beings.
confess one's sins with a contrite heart,
to ask forgiveness
of them, and to repent truly,
with a resolution not to commit such afterwards. 7th.
To
rejoice in the
moral merit and perfec-
tions of animated beings,
may obtain 8th.
and
to
wish that they
beatitude.
To pray and exhort
existing holy
men to may
turn the wheel of religion, that the world
long benefit by their teaching.
Persuade the Boodhist that Christ idea of a perfect Boodh, and let the
fulfils his
name
of
Our
Saviour be substituted for Boodh, in the above creed,
and the Boodhist creed
will
approximate
closely to that of a perfect Christian.
Tson-Kha-pa, the saint-reformer of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of our era, accord-
ing to the same authority, thus defines the duty of Boodhists, classing
mankind
in three degrees
according to their intellectual capacity.
Men
of the lowest order of
that there life,
in
is
which they
punishment of life.
mind must
a God, and that there will receive the
their actions
is
believe
a future
reward or
and conduct in
this
Men
of the middle degree of intellectual capa-
must add
city all
AND MONGOLIA.
TIBET, TARTARS
178
to the above, the knoAvledge that
things in this world are perishable
perfection
is
Men of the third, or in further addition
always,
:
or
a
is
and consequently, a
continue
that im-
a pain and degradation, and that de-
liverance from existence pain,
;
deliverance from
final beatitude.
highest order, must believe
that nothing exists, or will
absolutely,
cease
except
through dependence on a casual connection or concatenation.
So
will they
knowledge of God. This comes very near only the trine, is
name of
to
arrive at the true
Christianity, wanting
Christ as the source of the doc-
and the Mosaic
faith for its antecedent.
It
these and the better moral precepts of our Gos-
pel,
and
its
doctrine of the separate immortal exist-
ence of soul with
its
hopes in futurity and pro-
mises of salvation, that the missionary must seek to
add
to the foundation already laid
by Boodhism.
—jama
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