>) o <»«’ r\ I ^ TIBET Written and published for the members of The Newark Museum Association, to introduce them to an Exhi- bition of the Museum’s Collection of Tibetan Objects, in the Public Library Building, Dec. 6 to Jan. 31, 1921-1922, and sent to all the 3500 members. The meagerness of authentic information concerning the interior of Tibet is indicated by the fact that the population of its 463,000 square miles is variously estimated at from 1,500,000 to 6,000,000. The only census ever taken of the country was that conducted by the Chinese nearly two hundred years ago, showing 316,000 lamas (monks) and 635,000 laity. For a more detailed map of this region, see the National Geographic Society’s “Map of Asia,” published as a supplement with the May Geographic. The National Geographic Society has kindly permitted us to use this map and its legend, which appeared in the National Geographic Magazine for September, 1921, with an article by Dr. Shelton. — J. C. D. Note the great rivers of Asia that flow from the Tibetan Plateau or from the mountains that surround it. TIBET THE COUNTRY, CLIMATE, PEOPLE, CUSTOMS RELIGION, RESOURCES By LOUISE CONNOLLY Educational Adviser to Newark’s Museum and Library NEWARK, N. J. THE NEWARK MUSEUM ASSOCIATION 1921 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/tibetcountryclimOOconn CONTENTS Page Table of Contents v List of Illustrations vii Preface ix-xi I. Dr. Shelton’s Life in Outline 1 II. Topography and Climate. .. 2 III. Transport and Travel 5 IV. The People 6 V. Religion 12 VI. Houses and Tents ... 18 VII. Farms and Domestic Animals 22 VIII. Wild Animals. Minerals 24 IX. Food and Eating. .. 27 X. Manners and Customs 28 XL Family Life 29 XII. Trade and Manufacture 30 XIII. Art and Literature. .. 32 XIV. Miscellany 33 Appendix 37 V LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Map of Tibet and border countries..... .....Frontispiece 1. Map of the world showing latitude and longitude of Tibet 2 2. A Tibetan valley 3 3. Map showing relation of Tibet to China and India 4 4. The “Living Buddha” and his wife 5 5. Map comparing Tibet with England in size 7 6. Pau San Yea 8 7. Map showing routes of Tibetan explorers 10 8. Road building in Tibet 13 9. Man carrying a pack.. 14 10. A coracle or boat 16 11. An aqueduct for irrigating purposes. 17 12. Tibetan criminal beggars. 18 13. Vases for holy water or wine 19 14. Silver symbol of authority 20 15. Ceremonial objects of worship 21 16. Silver butter lamp 23 17. Handwrought ewer of iron 24 18. Prayer wheels 25 19. Two pages from Tibetan scriptures 26 20. “Oh, the Jewel in the Lotus!” 29 21. Title page from the Kanjur 31 22. House building 32 23. A Tibetan house 33 24. The Lamasery at Derge 34 25. The Lamasery at Peyhen 35 26. A Tibetan house 36 PREFACE Tibet is far from Newark, in distance, in climate, in manners and customs, in religion, in fact in every aspect of the two. Why, then, intro- duce Tibet to Newark by a display in Newark’s Museum of objects illustra- tive of Tibetan people and manners? The series of incidents which brought about the acquisition by Newark’s Museum of several hundred Tibetan objects, as told in the first chapter of the story which follows, explains the presence of the objects and gives an answer to the question, “Why?” This unusual and, for America, rather unique collection having been acquired, it should be made attractive and useful to its owners, the people of Newark — and here the question is, “How?” The search for a response to this query has been for the Museum staff a matter of large moment for many months. Here is what we have done by way of that answer : We merged the things received last year with those received ten years ago. We engaged Dr. Shelton himself to go over the objects and dictate to a stenographer the more important facts about each one. What he thus gave us we placed with like facts which he gave us in 1912, published at that time in a pamphlet called “The Tibet Collection.” This pamphlet is sent to members on request. The Library added largely by purchase to its books on Tibet and to its maps of the country, and brought all together for the Museum’s use. Of both of these the Library compiled and printed lists, in several parts, for distribution to all who ask for them. Our Educational Adviser, Miss Louise Connolly, was then asked to prepare an account of Tibet’s topography, climate and people, as compact of information as she could make it. The result of her study of scores of books on the country and of many maps, added to what she gathered from interviews with Dr. Shelton, from correspondence with Mrs. Shelton and others, and from interviews with persons who have worked or traveled in Tibet, is found in this pamphlet. We then asked Miss E. A. Grady, acting head of the Library’s Lend- ing Department, to compile from a few encyclopaedias a brief answer in simple language to the question: “Who are the Tibetans; that is, what is their origin and how are they related to the peoples about them?” and, “What has been the influence on the movements of Asian peoples of the presence, in central Asia, on a high plateau, of a race long hostile to all visitation and inspection by outsiders?” Her answers form a brief Appendix to Miss Connolly’s story. To illustrate this story we prepared three rough, outline maps; secured a map, the frontispiece, from the National Geographic Society; and made cuts from 14 of the several hundred photographs which we acquired from Dr. Shelton, choosing such as would reproduce fairly well and add to the interest of the story. IX. X PREFACE We caused to be made by a member of the Museum staff a large outline map of southeastern Asia, 12' x 12' in size. This hangs in the Library’s central court. From notes given us by Dr. Shelton, from a study of Tibetan books, and from interviews and correspondence with persons experienced in Tibetan affairs. Miss Connolly compiled a catalog of the objects which form the exhibition. This catalog does not include the pictures, chiefly enlargements of Dr. Shelton’s photogi’aphs, and the maps shown in the Exhibit; but they are all accompanied, on the walls, by explanatory labels. The catalog has been printed in simple form. It is available to all visitors and is sent free to members of the Museum Association on request. Copies of the catalog, so printed that the several entries are more easily read than they are in the ordinary edition, have been used to form labels for the objects. A special effort has been made to add descriptive and explanatory notes to the many Temple paintings which form the most striking feature of the collection. For these, which are attached to the paintings, we are chiefly indebted to Mr. Albert E. Andre, a Lutheran missionary acquainted with Tibetan religion. To some of his notes Miss Connolly has added helpful comments, signed L. C. Several months ago “The Contemporary of Newark,’’ the most impor- tant organization of women in New Jersey, having about 1,500 members voted to make this Tibetan Exhibit its point of contact with the Museum for the coming winter. For several years this organization has generously taken under its auspices, and done much to make widely known and widely appreciated at least one important Museum Exhibition; and this year its choice fell, happily for the Museum’s work, on the Exhibit of Tibet. From Tibet, perched on the world’s highest tablelands and set behind its highest mountains, hostile in climate to all dwellers in the temperate zone, and with a people long trained to repel all visitors from this far country — to the men of factories and commerce of our very modern and entirely accessible Newark, is a long and difficult journey. But, after all, the east is east and the west is west; and the pictures, taken at first hand by a man of honor who lives only that he may help to make Tibet a better home for its people — these pictures of Tibetan life, and the maps of all Asia that accompany them, and the many curious bits of the apparatus of Tibetan daily life, all give to the observer far more than a mere hint of the far east, and far more than a hint of the infinite patience and the wide experience needed to bring east and west together. We make bold to believe that the busiest of busy men can get from even a brief glance at this exhibit a helpful hint on the subject of mankind in general, and on that of opening the great door of trade with eastern peoples. PREFACE XI The newspapers of the city have been generous in the space they have given, on several occasions in recent months, to interesting articles on many aspects of the collection and its display. Invitations to the Exhibit, briefly descriptive of it, were sent in due course to all of the Museum Association’s 3,500 members; and to them also were sent copies of this pamphlet. Through the courtesy of Dr. Corson, Superintendent of Schools, we have been able to send a special invitation to all the teachers and all the older pupils in our public schools. Like invitations have been sent to paro- chial and private schools, and to institutions of learning outside of Newark. The invitations and the pamphlet are sent also to such missionaries, mis- sionary societies, geographic and other scientiflc organizations and ex- plorers and scientists all over the world, as we have thought would find them of interest. This story of the steps taken to make the Tibet Collection of immediate interest and educational value to its owners — the citizens of Newark — has been written and is here included, partly because it is in large degree identical with the story of the efforts toward public utility which the Museum staff has put forth, in connection with nearly all of the hundred and twenty exhibits it has installed and opened to the public in the twelve years of the Museum’s existence. J. C. Dana, Director. November, 1921. TIBET I. Dr. Shelton’s Life in Outline. About 46 years ago, Albert L. Shelton was born in Indiana. His parents soon moved to Kansas where he lived on a farm. He was brought up in the “good old way.” For instance, “My father promised that every time we got a threshing at school we would get another when we got home. This promise he faithfully kept.” When he was a lad he hauled water with an ox team. He says, “It is not easy, racing with an ox team, but it can be done.” His avocation was the killing of rattlesnakes. In some weeks he earned as much, killing gophers, skunks, jack-rabbits, and coyotes, as his father earned at car- pentry. When he was 17 he began to teach school himself. At 20 he entered school again at Emporia. “When I reached Emporia I had $9.25. That lasted me for eight years.” He carried newspapers, acted as janitor, cut corn, herded cows, tended furnaces and tutored. He enlisted for the Spanish War, but was mustered out after six months with $100 in his pocket. “I put it into the bank on Friday, and on Monday the bank failed. However, I was no worse off than I had always been.” The next spring, while still at school, he took two days’ leave and married a girl whom he had met in the Normal School. He was given a scholarship in a Kentucky Medical School, and went, leaving his wife to finish out the school year. He made his living through his medical course also, his wife making hers as a school teacher. Then he applied to the Foreign Christian Missionary Society for work as a medical missionary, and their physical examiner declared him, “the best animal I have seen for a long time.” He and his wife joined Dr. Susie Rijnhart and went to China when he was 28 years old. He was ordained a minister before leaving. They went up the upper Yangtsze, first by a houseboat pulled by 40 coolies, and then by rafts. They crossed the mountains to Tatsien-lu, their baggage on men’s backs, the women in sedan chairs, and Dr. Shelton on foot. There they learned, first Chinese, then Tibetan, and he practiced medicine. In Tatsien-lu their daughters Doris and Dorothy were born. In the hospital which they started those who were able paid the cost of the medicine used; the rest paid fees of five cents, “whether for a dose of salts or for the amputation of a leg.” Dr. Shelton and a co-worker decided that the Main Mission station ought to move westward, so they prospected over 14 mountain passes into Tibet, to Batang, described by travelers as “the dirtiest town in the world.” So, with the consent of headquarters in America, they and their families made the journey. They met there Tibetans on whom Dr. Shelton had operated, and who made them welcome. 2 THE STORY OF TIBET The matter-of-fact accounts given in the books of Dr. and Mrs. Shelton of the trials, successes, and heroisms of their lives, are full of convincing thrills. They tell many illuminating anecdotes in that best of all literary styles — the unself-conscious directness of Caesar, or Grant. They have a hospitable, comfortable home. They have taught their Tibetan friends to raise and eat vegetables, to clean their houses and their persons, to wash clothing. They have introduced good breeds of fowls and stock, and wholesome ways of cooking. They have taught hygiene of body and soul, and have trained the hands and minds of the children. By their medical work they have shown and have won the friendship on which all religious teaching and all international amity must be based. Twice in the 18 years of their service they have returned to America, bringing objects and pictures invaluable to the ethnologist, most of which have been acquired by the Newark Museum. Mrs. Shelton will establish her daughters in American schools, and will go back to continue her translation of the Bible into Tibetan, and Dr. Shelton hopes soon to begin in Lhasa, the once unapproachable city, a hos- pital and medical school where he may prepare young men from all parts of Tibet to do medical and surgical work in their home regions. As to how Chinese robbers kidnapped the doctor in 1920, on his way to the coast, and how he gained his freedom, that is told in his book, herein listed. Read it. II. Topography and Climate. Tibet is in the latitude of our southern states. It is geogi’aphically the Switzerland of Asia. It is high, central, mountain-enclosed and moun- tain-crossed, and has magnificent peaks, glaciers, waterfalls and lakes. 1. Tibet is in the iatitiules of Spain and Northern Africa; and of our .soutliern states, from Philadeipliia to New Orleans. But while Switzerland prospers because of boundless hospitality, Tibet is the Hermit Nation, the last word in national aloofness. The Tibetan people have withdrawn to the most enormous and highest mass of mountains in the world, and have pulled the latch string in. Yet visitors follow — to get the view. “It was like sitting in a swallow’s nest under the eaves of the Roof of TOPOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE O O the World,” says Kipling. “Kim threw his soul after his eye across the deep blue gulfs.” Here are valleys 14,500 to 17,500 feet, peaks 24,000 feet and passes 19,000 feet above the sea. And here are plains which show the curvature of the earth as does the sea, some desert-like, and some with lakes, “scattered in every direction like fragments of a broken mirror.” And in Tibet rise the great rivers of Asia, the Brahmaputra, the Indus, the Sutlej, the Mekong, and the great Yellow River of China. The two most striking things about Tibet are its climate and its religion. Almost everything peculiar about the country is caused by one or the other of these. The climate is due chiefly to the elevation. Tibet is cold. The sun- shine is hot when it is direct, and in southern valleys two good crops a year are raised. In Lhasa, under the shelter of snow-clad mountains, children in summer run about naked, flying their kites. But at night and in winter, even in the south, the frigid zone is reproduced in latitudes that everywhere else are warm or moderate. When horsemen find the leg on the sunny side of the horse too warm the other is often stiff with cold. “When you fear your foot is frost-bitten, put on a plaster of mutton fat and slip the foot into the smoking paunch of a newly-killed sheep.” Guns cannot be greased with oil; it freezes. Use black lead instead. If you wind a scarf about your face it is soon a sheet of ice that cracks when you turn your head. Nothing but fur or sheepskin with the wool next the body can keep out the cold. In October ink freezes on the pen before it can be transferred to paper. The storms of Tibet are violent. Snowstorms in winter and hailstorms in summer are sudden and raging. In the spring. 4 THE STORY OF TIBET herds of wild asses are found standing as they froze when the storm caught them. In a hailstorm, an inch and a half of hailstones may fall, of the size of cherries. Yet Kim’s Holy One, fleeing the heat of India, yearned for these wild, cold hills: “A breath from the snows blows away 20 years from the life of a man.” On the hills in the farming regions are small monasteries where during the growing season live priests whose sole busi- ness is to foresee and prevent hailstorms. Tibetans use horsehair eye shades to prevent snow-blindness, caused by sunlight on the snow. In these great heights the air is so thin that people from lower regions suffer from nausea and weakness — called “mountain sickness.” Every 20 or 30 yards they must sit down and pant. When they get pneumonia they die of suffocation. Wounds, too, heal slowly for lack of oxygen. It is impossible to calculate distances, the air is so thin. The details of objects ten miles away are as clear as of those only two miles off, and soldiers miscalculate in firing because the air does not resist the charge. “What was the chief effect of being long in high altitudes?” asked a scientist of Captain Younghusband, who had just returned from Tibet. “A desire to get to low altitudes,” said he. The beauty of the Tibetan land is, however, so great that even when suffering physically from the cold and lack of oxygen all travelers rave over Tibetan scenery. “Surely the gods live here; this is no place for men.” 3. The relation of Tibet to China and India. Tibet is about 1,000 miles from the east eoast of China, in a direet line: but far more than that by the route that must he followed, up a winding river and over mountain ranges. The greatest width of Tibet from east to west is about 1,250 miles — as far as from New York to New Orleans or Omaha; from north to south it TRANSPORT AND TRAVEL 5 is two-thirds as much. Its area is about one million square miles, or ten times that of England. III. Transport and Travel. For a European to make a journey through Tibet costs from ten to twenty thousand dollars and takes a year or two. Begging lamas do it for less! And then the traveler does not arrive at the place he started for. A caravan of camels, horses, mules, yaks, cows, sheep, men, all laden with food, or clothing, tents, bedding and articles to trade with the nomads of the Heights, starts out full of courage. Its course is marked with the skeletons of its animals, often with articles discarded from their loads, and sometimes with the graves of its members. 4. The “liivins Buddha” and his wife. Among his people the “Living Buddha” is considered to be the most exalted personage of eastern Tibet and is supposed to be a reincarnation of Buddha himself. He has defied precedent and married. There are no wheeled vehicles and no roads. A highway in Tibet is “a collection of parallel paths.” Four men and one woman in the country are permitted to ride in sedan chairs. Everyone else walks or mounts a yak, a horse, or a cow or mule, and in emergencies the back of a man. As for freight, a sheep can carry 25 pounds 12 or 14 miles a day, resting every seventh day. It needs no grain or shoes. With a bag of flour on its back it is a traveling meal. A yak carries 150 pounds and feeds as he goes, but on the plains dies — “on the slightest provocation.” For freight, mountain men are hardier than mules, and they sing and joke as they climb impossible heights. A trang is a path along the side of 6 THE STORY OF TIBET a cliff, a projecting wall on one side, a precipice over a rocky stream far below on the other. It may be pieced out with projecting poplar poles where there is no support of rock. If these get rotten and give way, the Tibetan traveler jumps. To get down a snow-covered mountain side it may be necessary to throw your goods down so as to make a track through the snow along which you can then yourself follow. This is not advisable if many of your goods are breakable. Most bridges are very primitive. A stone bridge can be built only over a very narrow stream, for the arch is unknown. A single poplar pole on which the passenger sits astride and hitches along; a little plank foot- bridge, one end resting on a rock in the middle of the stream; a rope from which passengers hang by a harness and are pulled across by another rope; three ropes, one below to walk on and two above to hold to; a plank foot- way hanging by ropes from two horizontal poles: all these makeshifts imply that only brave and active people get across at all. But one can sometimes go by ferry, on a raft of logs tied together and buoyed up by inflated pig skins, or in a tub of yak skin fastened over a frame of twigs. The oar has perhaps a forked blade with leather stretched between the prongs like the skin on a duck’s foot. The Chinese established rest houses on the chief trade routes, for there are no real inns, and the Tibetan government forces the headmen of vil- lages along the road to provide, free of charge, food, guides, and trans- portation for travelers with passports. The people think this a great hard- ship. Dr. Susie Rijnhart says, “Here I received ula, which was a young girl, who shouldered my whole load and walked away with me.’’ Ula may mean many horses and men. A ula stage may be an all day trip, or it may mean only a journey of two or three hours. Then the next headman pro- vides ula, and so on. If a European traveler pays for these services, his guides, or headmen, put the money into their pockets, and the poor folks who do the work get none. This is “squeeze”; we would call it graft. The Tibetans take their time, and yours. They seem incapable of hurry. Yet, tho travelers must crawl, news flies. No matter where you go or how fast, when you arrive anywhere the people have heard all about you. Government couriers on foot make 25 miles a day. If they are late they are beaten. IV. The People. The Tibetans are Turko-Mongols. They are short, with black waving hair, moderately high cheek bones, rather good noses, broad shoulders, almost white complexions, large ears, and square, flat feet. They have little beard, but much hair. Their walk is quick and irregular, and they can climb like goats. They have an odor very unpleasant to Europeans. Most Tibetan babies die in their first year. At intervals smallpox sweeps the country. Cleanliness, decent nursing and the science of medi- cine are almost unknown. People become old early and do not live long. The population is dwindling. Those who live are, however, hardy. A Tibetan woman can carry kegs of water on her back up steep hills, rtin after the yak, milk the cows, care for her children, load the mules, go on THE PEOPLE 7 ula, spin, weave, cook, and, through it all, sing and joke. Their power of recovery is wonderful. After receiving wounds which would kill a white man, a Tibetan often recovers. Yet the race seems to be degenerating. The English Army surgeons, who are, except a few medical missionaries, the only people of scientific as the bird flies, about 330 miles from Lhasa, Tibet’s forbidden city; but the ilistaiice as one must travel is much greater. The highest mountains in the world rise between tbe two, and these mountainsi are now being carefully ex- plored by a party of scientists from Kngland. The party will try to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the highest point on the world’s surface. knowledge so far able to report on Tibetan health, found many cases of goitre, cataract, and hare lip, an indication, they think, of race decay. The Tibetans think all their physical ills are punishments for sins com- 8 THE STORY OF TIBET mitted in their former lives or to demons, often instigated by human enemies. And they have fantastic theories like our old talk of “night air” being bad for the delicate. They lay mountain sickness to the pollen of certain flowers or to poisonous vapors from the soil. They may know of certain healing herbs; but most of their medicine is magic. Here comes the Dr. Lama, a case of charms across his bosom, a bell at his back, turning a prayer wheel as he rides, watching the path for queer-looking stones to grind up for medicine. He will tell you that G. Pail San Yea« an old friend of Dr. Shelton at Batan^. your blood circulates on one side of your body and bile on the other, and he will cure you by writing a holy word on paper of which he makes a pellet for you to swallow, and by reading a holy book aloud in your house. When really ill: 1. Deceive Death by offering your image and some presents to the Lord of Death; 2. Use life-saving charity; save a lot of lives. For THE PEOPLE 9 instance, buy several hundred fish from the fisherman and put them back into the water. Tibetans are ^eedy for European medicine such as castor oil, mustard plasters, and seidlitz powders. “See the magic in it; it boils in cold water.” Miss Duncan prescribed for a sore-eyed baby. She washed its face and eyes in the presence of an astonished multitude and told the mother calmly, “Do this daily until she is married.” Dentistry is more like ours than medicine. When you report to the blacksmith that a worm has bored a hole in your tooth, he puts a stone into your mouth to hold it open and pulls the tooth with pincers intended for horse-shoe nails. Many Tibetans are toothless at thirty. Usually the religious rules of people are good for their health, but it is hard to find one useful rule of Lamaism. Yet the lama doctor studies eight years, learning volumes of prescriptions by heart. Tibetans are noted for good nature. They are friendly, cheerful, good-tempered, and merciful to their beasts. “Tail twisting of bullocks stops at the Indian border.” They are kinder to children and beggars than are the Chinese. With the Tibetans, “After sorrow a song.” They are not truthful, but they do not lie maliciously. “They are so accustomed to lie themselves,” says Sven Hedin, “that they have great admiration for any one who succeeds in deceiving them.” They rarely keep promises on time. “Perhaps we will be ready in ten days’ time, perhaps in a month,” they say. “The blue sky above only knows.” They are probably the most conservative people in the world. “A thing is so in Tibet because it has always been so,” says Landon. There is every kind of testimony about the courage of the Tibetans. “A handful of peasants,” says Candler, “will devote themselves to death like the old Roman patriots, but will forsake a fortified position at a shot, and prowl around a small-sized foe shouting, too timid to attack.” They are naturally good traders, although they have little opportunity. Their merchants are mostly women. Miss Bird, with no intention of humor, says, “A religious atmosphere pervades Tibet, and gives it a singular sense of novelty.” She thinks it wonderful that their virtues are so great, considering their debasing religion. Waddell says they are naturally warlike people, softened by Buddhist teachings. Tibet is described as a land of fear. Officials and people fear each other. There are many spies. Peasants fear the priests. And everybody fears all strangers. But fear once overcome they feel warm affection. Many travelers tell of parting from their Tibetan servants mid tears and blessings. They seem to us shockingly humble to their superiors. They bow and scrape, bending double and sticking out their tongues, like slaves. But similarly did Englishmen in feudal times, as is shown in Mark Twain’s Yankee at King 'Arthur’s Court. They have a political shrewdness which we can understand. “We put up with dishonest chiefs because they often do us favors which are not just.” Kxpinnntion of thin innp of Tiltet In on the opposite paKe. LEGEND FOR MAP OPPOSITE. 7. The Map of Tibet on the paicre opposite shows the routes of six explorers who approaehed Lhasa and were driven away. In eaeh case the O shows where the attempt was cheeked. Perhaps the most persistent of such travelers was Sven Hedin, the Swede. His movements back and forth could not be shown clearly on so small a map. The mysterious and unapproachable Lhasa was a place of great interest for many centuries. The dates of the expeditions here noted, and of several others, are given below. Marco Polo, Italian, on a mission which carried him through the western provinces of China, traveled through the wild country on the eastern borders of Tibet in 1277. This is the earliest recorded visit to Tibet. A succession of Jesuits and Capuchin friars made their way to Lhasa between 1061 and 1716, from Austria, Belgium, Portugal and India and even succeeded ill founding a mission there. George Bogle and Samuel Turner, whose routes are shown on the map, in 1774 and 1783, were the first Englishmen to penetrate Tibet, but they did not succeed in reaching Lhasa, Thomas Manning, a student of China and the Chinese, in 1811 undertook to reach the interior of China through Tibet. He actually reached Lhasa, and re- maineiinishment. They are now beggars. The picture illustrates well the Tibetan head and face and the coats of sheepskin, wool inside, which are so much worn. The temple music of Tibet is not tuneful, but at a distance it is har- monious. It is pleasant to hear families, gathered about their house doors in the evening, sing their religious songs. VI. Houses and Tents. Tibet may be divided according to climate into the region of tents and the region of houses. The flock-raising nomads live in tents. Inside the HOUSES AND TENTS 19 tent is a long clay stove, the fire at one end, a draft drawing the heat along and holes where several pots may boil at once. Within the town, even, are usually some tents. In Lhasa, the sacred city, are wretched tents made of dirty rags upheld by a few sticks, wherein beggars live. 13. Va.ses for holy water or for wine. The one without a spout is of old Tibetan shape, and has ears for attaehin^ a eord for earryinp;. The other shows Chinese influenee, whieh introdueed the eonvenient spout. 11" liij^h. Nos. 102- 103 in Catalog. In warmer regions where there is water, houses are built. A village may consist of from two to fifty houses made of sods, of stones with mud for mortar, of adobe, or of sun-dried brick. The mud house is made as are concrete houses. A roof may be of stalks or shingles held down by soda and stones, or of several rows of crossed logs, poles, and twigs, beaten clay between. Such a roof often during a storm falls in upon the family. There is seldom a street in a Tibetan village. Between irregular lines of houses are narrow paths where black swine wallow in refuse and dead dogs lie in stagnant puddles. Houses are from one to three stories high. Many are built on hillsides that the inhabitants may look down on all callers, and with few windows on the outside, but with inner courts. They have no glass, but bar windows and use inside wooden shutters. The first floor of a good house is for cattle, the second perhaps for storeroom, the third for rooms, and open sheds may be built on the roof. Many houses are whitewashed without, often in stripes which look from a distance like colonial columns. Rooms are small; stairs are notched logs. Around the walls of the living room is a raised platform a few inches high for sleeping. In the middle is a clay stove the heated air from which turns prayer wheels. A 20 THE STORY OF TIBET 14. Silver Kyiiiltol of authority of a Tilietan Kiii^ nlto ruled under the Dalai Uaiiia about 14U yearK aj;o. It probably eoiitains prayers, dociiiueiits and charms. We arc told that it is of great importauee in religious ccreiuoiiies. 20" high. No. 24 in Catalog. few shelves, a churn, a stone mortar for grinding tea, a few pots and ket- tles, a distaff, and a box for fine clothing are all the furniture. Seldom is HOUSES AND TENTS 21 anything within doors cleaned. Around some towns are lawns, gardens and trees, all well kept and used in good weather for tea parties. Many Lhasa houses have in their windows boxes or pots of flowering plants and caged birds. The houses of some of the rich are gorgeously decorated within and lavishly furnished. Rugs are used in Tibet to drape walls and furniture or to sit on, but not to step on. 15. Driiiii ii.sed during religious oereiuoiiies, made of the eromis of two human skulls. No. 123 in Catalog. Thigh bone trumpet, silver and brass mounted, made from a human thigh bone, and used in worship. No. 121 in Catalog. Prayer wheel, large, gold-plated, used by priest of high position. About a sixth of actual size. No. 115 in Catalog. The chief buildings are lamaseries. At all corners of a temple are bells that ring when the breeze blows. The tomb of the fifth Tashi Lama glitters with gold, turquoise and coral. Even the floor of one tomb is studded with turquoises. The Tashi Lama’s roof is supported by carved and painted pillars and the walls are hung with silken banners. Yet the stairs, even there, are “covered with the dust of centuries.” Apparently the Jo Kang, or cathedral, is the only clean spot in Lhasa. “It looked as though a housemaid had been around with a duster an hour ago,” says Landon. Tibetan art makes much use of the gruesome. Scenes from the hells, both hot and cold, are common in temples. Frescoes of flayed human 22 THE STORY OF TIBET bodies, skulls full of blood, and gory heaps of vitals, brains, and torn out tongues, all in vivid colors, ornament their walls. They remind Landon of Dante and 14th century European artists. Rockhill, the American; Sven Hedin, the Swede, and several of the English military expedition have described Tibetan vegetation somewhat, and its beauties have been sung chiefly in Landon’s book, “The Opening of Tibet.” In the north grows hard wiry grass that is never green. Camels that eat it are hungry as before. Yet dwarf blue iris grows on the edge of patches of snow. VII. Farms and Domestic Animals. It is hard to see how the herb-eating animals exist. Like the Alps, the mountains are flower-decked in the spring with gentians and wild rhu- barb, poppies and carpets of forget-me-nots, “blue beyond any anywhere else.” Wild yellow gooseberries are used for dyeing, and coming south, or down, wild onions begin the vegetable fare of man. In the eastern farms peaches grow, but do not fully ripen, and on the Kashmir border, apricots. They have persimmons, crab-apples, mulberries and currants. Nettles are used for soup, and mushrooms grow well, as do mustard and cresses. Landon found at 13,000 feet altitude a flourishing hedge of bamboo. Near Lhasa farm houses are embowered in trees — walnut, willow, elm, birch, alder. Farther north, “Fuel for sale” — the roots of thistles! In the coldest regions, if the summers are warm enough for any crop whatever, barley grows; but scantily, for they cannot fertilize, as the yak- dung must be used for fuel. (They call this dung “argols.”) Then come turnips, then peas, and potatoes of small size, probably the progeny of those planted everywhere he went by Bogle, whom Warren Hastings sent to visit the Tashi Lama in 1774. Wooden, iron tipped plows pulled by yaks hardly scratch the soil. Women chiefly are the farm hands. The barley crop is pulled up by the roots and is threshed on the ground by the feet of ponies or on the roofs by women with flails. It is winnowed in wooden hand trays. The attend- ant lama blesses it and takes his share. Chandra Das reports muzzled cows as treading out the grain. The yak, or Tibetan ox, is black or tawny, often with white forehead and tail. He is slow, but sure. He can climb like a goat and pick up his living like a camel. His tongue has horny barbs which hold fast the short grass which he only can eat. He provides his owner with textiles, meat, fuel, leather and transportation; but he cannot live below 12,000 feet. A cow in Tibet may be milked or set to plowing or threshing or she may join a caravan as a pack animal, the two sexes having equal opportunities. Dr. Susie Rijnhart records, “My pony took his stimulating meal of warm tea and a little meat,” which is however occasional only, and not the usual diet of Tibetan steeds. A caravan may consist of camels, horses, donkeys, mules, yaks, cows, goats, sheep, and even of zebrules. TheL camel is little used. Caravans from the east start with them, but FARMS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS 23 arrive at Lhasa without them. Horses, too, succumb to the cold of the northern plateaus; the trails are strewn with their skeletons. “When we see a wolf,” says Bonvalot, “we fasten the older sheep to- gether, nose to nose, and the others creep in between. Then the yak are fastened by a cord so that their heavy bodies make a wall about the tents. The ponies can protect themselves.” The Tibetan is often fond of his domestic animals. He may overload a yak but he does not beat it. IG. Ill lamps of liaiidn'rought silver or brass, like this, plaeed on altars, the Tibetans burn butter offered by the devout. The lamps folloiv conventional de- sigii.s, with .slight variations, and are almost always attractive. Unbnrnetl remnants of butter and -such grain or food offerings as the mice leave are tossed out on the floor when lamps and other vessels are re-filled; so that Tibetan temples have a characteristic odor, agreeable to Tibetans through sacred associations. Of these lamps the Museum has IS solid silver and 3 in other metals. About 10" high. No. 89 in Catalog. The Tibetan mastiff is untamably fierce. The “holy dogs” at the lamaseries are of this breed. They are used as watch dogs, and they con- sume the bodies of the lamas who die. The commonest Tibetan dog is a poor breed of collie. Their terrier resembles the Skye, and their spaniel the Pekinese. Tibetan cats have good tails, says Waddell. Cats do not suffer in their future lives for the murders they commit in this, since they pray con- tinually. Hear them purr! This is a serious Tibetan belief. Pigeons are common in Tibet and bees are kept in hives much like those of the wild bee. 24 THE STORY OF TIBET VIII. Wild Animals. Minerals. The Tibetan antelope bounds along with an agility “which we envy all the more as we cannot go more than 20 yards without sitting down to rest.” The kyang, or wild ass, is clever. “One of them will round up a bunch of tame ponies and drive them off to freedom before your eyes. A greyhound cannot keep up with them. They scratch up the snow and eat the coarse grass below. And they deploy in good formation like cavalry.” At low elevations in the southern mountains are musk deer. From a gland on the belly is obtained the musk which the Chinese buy for medicine. Big red wolves and big snow-leopards are many. The lynx is paler than that of Europe. The marmot — a lama once — burrows under the rocks in winter to meditate on religious subjects. It is never killed — much less eaten. But 17. Haiio. 21M in Catalog. if you do kill one, skin it, decide which of your enemies you wish to get rid of, and blow up the skin. Your enemy will swell up and die. Even a wolf is safe near a lamasery, and the wolf knows it. No life may be taken there, except a sheep’s! WILD ANIMALS. MINERALS. 25 Miss Duncan tells of killing a bear. Three-quarters of an hour after that bear had been walking about in the snow nothing was left of him but his skeleton. Vultures, ravens, kites and lammergeier abound and have a rank in Tibet accorded them nowhere else. Brahmany ducks are sacred because they wear the lama’s yellow. And the Tibetans are shocked when IS. Prayer wheels, around one of the temples of Derge. About five feet high, weigh about 250 lbs. eaeh. Arranged on pivots to turn easily. The faithful acquire merit by going around and around this house turning eaeh wheel as they go. travelers commit the crime of killing a wild goose whose mate will grieve herself to death at the parting. The lamas feed the pheasants who are the “spirits of the blest.” There are tree sparrows, where there are no trees, skylarks, martins, magpies and partridges. “Only Europeans,” say the Tibetans, “shoot partridges.” Hardy birds survive the cold. Captain 26 THE STORY OF TIBET Rawlings found a lark’s nest with fledglings at 17,500 feet “exposed to the full force of bitter wind and driving snow.” Travelers lay chief emphasis on insect parasites, more abundant, ap- parently, in Tibet than anywhere in the world. Dr. Susie Rijnhart said 10. Two paj^es from one of fourteen volumes of Tibetan scriptures, written on roii^h paper which has been prepared by rubbing Chinese ink over the surface until it has become biack and taken on a polish. The lines are written alter* nately in arold and silver. Kor this the writer takes lumps of |?old and silver, rubs them on stone until they are finely macerated, and mixes them w'ith a liquid into an ink. These volumes, which are about 400 years old, and were probably written in Uias:i, represent the work of one man for perhaps two years or more. Such books are in the possession of the more wealthy people or of Isimaserles only. See \o. 295.2*15 in Catalog;. that after feeling a woman’s pulse it was always necessary to go hunting. Numberless beetles live under stones close to perpetual snow. On a moun- tain top 16,500 feet high play hosts of yellow butterflies. Rockbill found along tbe river banks mosquitoes “worthy of New Jersey.” Tibet has much gold. Even Herodotus heard of mammoth ants in Tibet, protected by fierce dogs, who mined it, and the legend is not a bad description of men crouching on their knees, covered by yak hair blankets, scratching for gold with antelope horns, and accompanied by mastiffs. (Tibetans sleep in this attitude still.) The Tibetans use shovels now, and divert mountain streams to wash their gold. But they do not go below ten feet, and they put back all nuggets, which, being seed, will reproduce! Tbe gold is widely distributed, and veins are evidently untouched. China has taxed what primitive mining there is almost to extinction. Salt is plentiful, though crudely obtained. Iron is plentiful, but little is smelted, partly from lack of fuel. Holdich, who has access to the reports FOOD AND EATING 27 of the Hindu spies sent into Tibet from Calcutta, lists silver, copper, lead, mercury, agate and borax among the country’s resources. Building stones are abundant. No one claims coal or oil for Tibet. Waddell says the plains near Phari, south of Lhasa, are peat bogs, their value and uses unknown to the people. Tibetans use for jewelry turquoise and coral, mostly of poor quality, and imported. A few diamonds are imported from the north, and a few pearls from the south. IX. Food and Eating. As for food: “The rice was musty, the sheep’s butter rank, the goat- flesh tough, and the pheasant stringy,” says one. “We had a delicious repast of smoked yak’s tongue, salted carrots, peppers, barley cakes, and buttered tea,” says another. Among the nomads, meat, raw or cooked, is eaten every little while, as we eat fruit. And all Tibetans drink tea as drinking men used to drink alcoholic liquors — ever and anon. Methods of eating are matters of etiquette. And Tibetans are sticklers for etiquette. There is a way to do everything. If you have a thigh bone with meat on it, stick one end into the argol fire to scorch; eat what is cooked; put it back to cook, and so on. They have a saying, “You can tell how a man conducts business when you see him pick a bone.” A Tibetan plunges his hand into the porridge, rolls what he gets into a ball, and pops it into his mouth. He takes his cup from his blouse, fills it from the pot, laps up its contents, licks it clean, and returns it to his bosom. If your hands are greasy after eating, wipe them on your face or boots. The higher classes imitate the Chinese at meals, serving many courses on low lacquer tables, and using silver bowls and pitchers. Tibetans drink much milk, sweet or sour, some barley whiskey, and millions of gallons of tea. In the kitchen at the monastery of Tashi Lunpo are six cauldrons embedded in masonry. Each produces about 4,000 cups of tea at a boiling. The monks are revived by it several times a day. Recipe: For six persons, boil one cupful of tea in three pints of water for ten minutes, with a heaping dessertspoonful (the Tibetans know no such measure) of soda. Put it into a churn with one pound of rancid butter and a scant tablespoonful of salt. Churn to the thickness of cream. Drink, when visiting, one-third of your first cupful. More is to be greedy; less is to insult the cook. After refilling, drink all you want. Blow back the butter scum as you drink. Pour in a little tsamba — finely pulverized parched barley flour — mix it with this butter into a ball. Pop the ball into your mouth. Continue the process. When you have finished, empty your cup into the slop bowl provided for the purpose and take your leave. When entertaining, remember that tallow is not so good as butter in tea. An ordinary Tibetan eats four pounds of tsamba daily, and drinks tea accord- ingly. The tea is of several grades. Most of it is sweepings of Chinese tea farms, stuck together with sawdust and rice water. Bales of it, brought on coolie backs, have been coming into Tibet in increasing quantities for 28 THE STORY OF TIBET 1,200 years. Buttered tea makes its contribution to the odor of all Tibet — which visitors find offensive. X. Manners and Customs. The commonest way of using tobacco, also of course imported, is as snuff. It is poured on the thumb nail and snuffed, “without much regard to neatness.” Pipes also are used, and sometimes passed around, as pro- verbially among American Indians. European travelers have been good advance agents of the American cigarette, which is enjoyed by all Tibetans from three years old upward. Opium smoking, learned from the Chinese, is common. The ceremonial manners of the Tibetans are impressive. “Forty Tib- etans,” says Hedin, “when I rode up thrust out their bright red tongues.” They use many gestures: thumb up, approval; raised little finger, hostility. Two Bonbo men, meeting, kow-tow thrice and, crouching, touch heads. An important stranger approaching a village is met and his steed led to the tent where he is to stop. If you pass through a village the headman serves you tea. Even small boys in Tibet have perfect Tibetan manners. Almost all Tibetans, however humble, use visiting cards. These are sleazy scarfs of white silk, called katas. The custom began many centuries ago of giving these katas on all occasions — when calling, in letters, to accompany presents. Presents are made on all formal occasions. To the traveler they are welcome, as they usually consist of food — from a few eggs to a sheep’s carcass. And the wise traveler takes with him knick knacks, such as hand-mirrors and pocket knives for return compliments. It is really gracefully disguised barter, without dicker. In lawsuits it is etiquette for both parties to make presents to the judge. Lawsuits are, however, uncommon. For murder the penalty is a fine: so much for killing a woman, more for a common man, more yet for a nobleman, most for a lama. The whole family or tribe is punished w'hen a member is guilty. But where the mighty are hasty and the lowly humble, why use the law? “The milk was bad, so Aziz Khan poured it over the man’s head.” Few American milkmen w'ould take this mode of correction meekly. A common punishment is flogging. Each blow is not heavy, but so many blows may be laid on as to strip the flesh from the culprit’s bones. The cangue is a wooden neck-piece fitting like the old English stocks, but one walks around in it. It may weigh 30 pounds, and is often w'orn for months. Thus the expenses of feeding prisoners are saved — as also when arms and legs are cut off, or eyes gouged out. These punishments may be imposed for deer-killing. The death sentence is rarely imposed, and then bloodshed is avoided. They sew the victim up in a skin and drop him into a river. When capital punishment is inflicted, the head of the victim is hung up in some conspicuous spot, as a warning. Tibetan funerals seem to us peculiar. They cannot bury in the frozen earth, or burn, where fuel is so scant. They do sometimes throw into the river. Generally they dismember the body wdth sharp knives and feed the FAMILY LIFE 29 flesh to vultures and dogs. If consumed quickly, it was a good man; if slowly, a bad man; if not consumed, the soul went to hell. This work is done by a despised class of men who live in hovels and who “must have sinned much in former existences ever to be born into such a class.” The worst feature of natural dying in Tibet is that when ill you are not allowed to sleep, but are kept awake, even with knife sticking, if neces- sary, by your solicitous friends. Yet Tibetans do sometimes recover. The Great Lamas must all die sitting bolt upright, legs crossed, soles upward. 20. “O, the Jewel in the Lotus!” Picture of a stone slab bearing the sacred Buddhist formula “Oni inani padme hum,” meaning, “O, the Jewel in the Lotus.” This mystic spell or religious ejaculation was originally an invocation of the “Lord of Mercy,” one of the later Buddhist divinities; but early iu the history of Buddhism it was appropriated, together with other attributes of tbe “Lord of Mercy,” by the Dalai Lama or Grand Lama of Lhasa, who thus strengthened in the popular mind the story of his divine origin. It is found everywhere In Tibet; carved upon stones, painted in the sacred Buddhist colors upon houses and walls, picked out in small white stones upon a green hillside, twirled in prayer wheeis and uttered by every lip throughout all the Himalayan Buddhist country. By the repetition of its sacred syllables, or even by looking upon their written form, it is believed that bodily danger is averted, heli is barred and heaven forever, opened to the devout. XI. Family Life. A Tibetan woman may have, and many women do have, several hus- bands. That is, they practice polyandry. The eldest son marries — buys a wife — and she thereby becomes the wife of all his brothers. She a drudge, if the family is poor, working in the field, carrying water and argols, serving on the ula, driving cattle. But, rich or poor, she has a 30 THE STORY OF TIBET freedom and importance enjoyed by few oriental women. True, she has no political power; neither has her husband. The lamas govern. But she has economic power. She controls the household, which includes its busi- ness. She buys and sells, and no husband does much of either without asking her advice. Usually the Tibetan household is amiably run. Jeal- ousy is rare among husbands, for the eldest is legally the head of tne family. Wife-beating is occasional. Chinese women are forbidden to go to Tibet. Chinese officials in Tibet marry Tibetan wives, who usually return if taken to China, being unable to bear the Chinese restrictio-is on women. Nunneries are few; they are permitted, but not encouraged by Lamaism. Tibetan children are kindly treated, and are consequently charming. They play, and so do their elders, because their natures are playful. Toys are few. Men race, race horses, wrestle, put the stone, shoot with the long bow, play quoits and dominoes. Dances are like hornpipes. Children fly kites, play knuckle bones, or jacks, and have parties where they imitate the gi’own people. Historical dramas, lasting several days, are given at festivals under canopies in the open air. At some of these festivals sculp- ture in butter is shown — often beautiful. The work is done by traveling lamas who compete for prizes. XII. Trade and Manufacture. The trade of Tibet consists largely in exchanging religion for self- indulgence. Into the country come lamaistic pilgrims from all sides to visit holy places. They hire service, give offerings, and buy souvenirs. So comes money. From China caravans bring tea — 20,000,000 pounds a year — and silks, carpets, porcelain, red leather and tobacco. China first, then the Tibetan lamas and officials profit by this trade, and the Tibetan peas- ants pay for it with their labor. Trade with India is slight, and comes partly through Bhutan and Nepal. The Tibetans collect at Phari sheep’s wool, fox skins, musk, yak-tails, gold, salt, borax, and goat’s hair, and receive cotton goods for butter-lamp wicks, mirrors, soap, buttons, needles, spectacles, umbrellas, paints, kerosene oil, peacock feathers, watches, to- bacco, spices, coral, pearls, even phonographs and cameras. From Mon- golia come saddles, coral, amber, and a few small diamonds. A little sugar comes from Bhutan. Across the western border, from Kashmir, come dried fruits. Barter is still common. A traveler can buy almost anything with a pair of boots. Adulterated brands are preferred, if they are “what we are used to buying.” Good tea from India is refused because it is not put up in brick form like the poor tea from China. Much trade within the country is conducted through fairs. Caravans take the nomads’ butter, leather, felt, yak-tails, wool, to the fair, and return after weeks with a year’s supply of tsamba, tea, dried fruit, needles, horseshoes, churns and spindles. A few factories, mostly in the south and east, carry on special indus- tries. Derge is famous for metal work — bells, swords, seals, teapots, pen- TRADE AND MANUFACTURE 31 cases, stirrups. Near Gyantse are made fine oriental rugs. About a hun- dred women do the work under strict discipline. They are whipped when tardy. At Batang are made rude birch wood cups and pails. Chandra Das mentions a family of potters. Weaving is done in homes, but spinning is not even a cottage industry. Men and women everywhere spin as they go. When not spinning wool, all Tibetans are spinning prayers. ^1. A title pa^e, from the Kanjur, or Tibetan Bible, done by hand on hand- made paper. In this pa^e of this copy the ehnrneters are of js;old, ptinetnated with pearls. There are 108 volumes in this set. Eaeh volume, consisting? of about *200 leaves, wrapped in a cover, is filed on a partitioned shelf in the library of a lamasery. They are all read at a certain date, annually, when the upper ^rade lamas meet to read aloud (not in chorus, but all tojEfcther), working twelve hours a flay, with tea-drinking intervals, until the task is finished. To acquire merit, or to avoid misfortune, or to be cured of disease, you hire a lama to read aloud certain volumes at your house. You need not be present; the value is in the reading, not in the understanding. 18"x4%". Xo. 295 in Catalog. Their cloth is 9 or 14 inches wide and is usually made in strips 50 or 60 feet long. They make variegated stuff for boot tops, gun cases, garters, and warm weather clothing, and tent covers. They tan, of course, and sew, making their own sheepskin gowns. Paper is made from a coarse grass, and books are hand-written or printed from engraved boards. Undershot wheels grind out meal or prayers as the case may be. The meal is ground between two horizontal stones. It flows out on the floor and is swept up into a dish. These industries, simple as they are, are attributed to the same Chinese princess who brought Buddhism into the country. Although there are few factories, work is done by groups. “Twenty saddlers went to work. They sewed all day under the trees in the garden.” Again, “Twenty tailors, seated in a ring, made our clothing. They worked from morning to night, stopping every little while to drink tea.” These are pleasanter pictures than we see in most of our factories. Carpenters use a few tools for many purposes — they have the adz, plane, saw, bradawls and chisels. The blacksmith has a short one-handed hammer; a two-handed hammer; large shears; a trough, hewn out of a tree-trunk, containing water to cool the iron; for a forge, an earthenware trough for heating charcoal, a bellows, a stout iron bar stuck into the trunk of a tree for an anvil. 32 THE STORY OF TIBET XIII. Art and Literature. Pictures and statues made by Tibetan artists are conventional and stiff, but of good workmanship. Articles for use are beautiful in shape and proportion, and their ornamentation fine. The curator in the Lahore museum, as represented by Kipling, appreciated the lamas’ work. “They are few who still have the secret of the conventional brush-pen Buddhist * 2 * 2 , roiistriictiii^ a house. Poles hold parallel hoards on each side of top of ^vall. Between hoards imid is packed. Boards are then raised and another layer of mud put on. pictures which are, as it were, half written and half drawn.” Landon says, “On the finest of their temples there is a microscopic work that can be com- pared to nothing in history but seventh and eighth century illuminators of the Irish school.” When a Tibetan artist gets away from the conventional he imitates the Chinese. Scrolls, somewhat like Japanese kakemonas, are the most characteristic art expression of Tibet. They are chiefly in red and gold. As for literature, besides the Buddhistic translations they have folk- MISCELLANY 33 tales on the order of the “Arabian Nights,” some of which Mrs. Shelton has translated. Tibetan music is not written on a staff, but is expressed by waved lines. A temple orchestra consists of trumpets, cymbals, clarionets, drums and bells. Tibetans love music. They sing at their work, usually in good tones, and they play very generally guitars, flutes, bagpipes, and jew’s harps. There is general testimony that their speaking voices are soft and well modulated. XIV. Miscellany. The universal odor in Tibet is reported by many to be of “incense and burning butter, frowziness and unwashed humanity.” Socially and politically Tibet is about where Europe was in feudal times. Estates, serfs, arrogance, kindliness and cruelty, courtesy, humility. 2.S. Tibetan hou.se. The lower story is used for stoek, the second for hay, grain, ete.; the third for dwellings; and the roof for idol house and eliapel. nobles, clergy, superstition, fear and obedience, castles and dungeons — they are all there. But no Tennyson will ever produce an Idyll extolling the chivalry of mediaeval Tibet. Perhaps he will rather amplify the tactful advice of a noble to his tax collector: “As eggs are quietly taken from under a sitting hen, without disturbing the nest, so collect the taxes without oppressing the farmer.” Most Tibetans wear their whole wardrobes all the time, though the rich dress attractively in fine garments of silk, generally Chinese. Each has a long robe of sheepskin, wool inside, or of dark red cloth, fastened by day with a belt making the upper part a blouse which serves as a pocket. 34 THE STORY OF TIBET When the belt comes off at night the feet may be covered by the long skirt. Their legs are encased in boots. Turquoise and coral set in silver are com- mon. When in gala dress a man wears one earring, his wife two and many rings and jewels, such as they are. His hair is in one plait, hers in 50. The Tibetan horseman arrives at a gallop, gun over shoulder, sabre in belt. His plaited hair flaps at his back. He swings his sling and shouts. A few wear iron helmets and coats of mail, and cover their steeds with armor. 2-4. Fart of the lamasery or monastery, at Der^e. The building in the fore- arroiind is the Palace of the Prince of Der^e. It is one of the finest buildings in all Kastern Tibet. The lamasery will house 3,000 people. The father of the present Prince was 15 years completing? the building. It was built by his subjects, he simply furnishing the food. Building material was brought from the surrounding mountains. All Tibetans usually have frankly dirty faces, but the women delib- erately daub their cheeks with black grease. Why? To prevent chapping, they say. It is the fashion. Although the Tibetans have a poorer idea of time than we, Landon claims they have a better idea of eternity, for they think, not in years but in lifetimes. They shock their guests by rising at three A. M. — and then arriving several hours, or days, late. As for the calendar — it is confusing, for it ignores all unlucky days. Their measures of distances are really measures of time; they are shorter on mountains than on plains. MISCELLANY 35 Their money values are uncertain; the real unit is an ounce of silver. They have a coin, called the tanka, which they split. But for small change one may be offered barley, salt, walnuts or tea. There are scholars in Tibet who can recite precisely extracts of such length from the 108 volumes of the Kanjur or the 235 volumes of the Tanjur as would awe the university faculties of the west; but they think that the world is shaped like a thigh bone and that the constellations are our guardian angels. The three great lamaseries in Lhasa are universities. 25. The lamasery, or monastery, at Peyheii. This shows the size and eoni- plexity of a lamasery and the way buildings are perched on a hill. divided, like Oxford or Cambridge, into colleges. If a student fails in his examinations he is flogged. Moreover he is deprived of his allowance of tsamba and tea. Young noblemen are day pupils in these colleges. They learn business correspondence and account keeping, and then they get what we would call civil service positions, and if they have pull they rise to be high officials. Waddell thinks one lama in tw'enty can read. O’Connor says that in every village the headman and one or two members of each family can read the everyday language of the common people in which letters are written, though not the language of scholars. He claims that that is a higher per- centage of literacy than England had fifty years ago. Dr. Susie Rijnhart 36 THE STORY OF TIBET in her diary writes, “Today I saw for the first time a Tibetan woman able to read.” Missionaries are encamped on the borders of Tibet. The Catholics have established headquarters in Sikhim. The Moravians are in Kashmir. The Disciples of Christ are in force at Batang, on the eastern border of the Mysterious Land. What for? They hope to “spread the glad tidings of God’s love.” The people of Batang are beginning to make roofs that do not 2G. Typical hoii.se. The lower part is used for cattle and storage. The broad middle section contains living rooms. On the roof are open shed.s. cave in, to build stairways, to raise good poultry, to plant several kinds of vegetables, to look out in days of plenty for days of want, to feed their cattle, to go to the doctor to get their wounds dressed, some of them to wash their faces, a few to launder their clothes. After the missionary comes trade. This the western merchants want. Is it also good to make the Tibetan conscious of his political and social wrongs, and hence discon- tented? The lamas think not. When the English military expedition en- tered Tibet a wise old lama said, “This means the breaking of our bowls.” Though what the Tibetans believe to be true may be less well proven than western knowledge, their belief is whole-hearted and passes over into actions, marked by sincerity. APPENDIX The Tibetans: Their Home, Their Racial Relationship, Their Exclusiveness A Note by Miss Emma A. Grady, in Charge of the Lending Department of the Newark Library A The people of Tibet are of Mongolic stock. It is thought by some scientists that the original home of the Mongolian race was the Tibetan tableland, and that it is from this point that the yellow race spread in all directions, during the Stone Age, settling in Central Asia, Mongolia, Siberia, Manchuria, Korea, Japan, Formosa, China, Indo-China; parts of Irania, Armenia and Caucasia; most of Asia, Finland, Lapland, the Balkan Penin- sula and Hungary; most of Malaysia, the Philippines, and Madagascar. Extensive migration was possible in those remote ages as the Hima- layas did not present such a barrier to travel as they now do. They were produced by slow upheaval, and it is probable that they did not reach their present attitude until the Pleistocene Age. B Until recently, Tibet was little known to the Europeans. On account of its great altitude, its climate is nearer arctic than tropical, so that there is no gradual blending of the physical or social conditions of life which would tend to promote intercourse between the inhabitants of the neighbor- ing regions of Tibet and India. The mountains, in themselves, are an obstacle. No great armies have ever crossed Tibet to invade India; even those of Jenghiz Khan took the circuitous route via Bokhara and Afghan- istan, instead of the direct route from Mongolia across Tibet, c The Tibetans as a race are very clannish and exclusive. Up to a few years ago they knew very little of the outside world and did not care to know more. Even now it is difficult to induce Tibetans to go abroad. They are not used to a warm climate, and the change from their elevated table- land to the lowlands of India or China is hard for them to endure. ® The Britannica writer advances the idea that the isolation of Tibet was inspired originally by the Chinese, in order to create a buffer state against European aggression from this direction. At any rate, during the period of E Chinese influence, China persistently encouraged the Lamas to exclude Europeans from the country, lest her advantages, either political or com- mercial, should suffer. The headman of every village in Central and West- ern Tibet was held responsible by the Lhasa Lamas that no foreigner should pass through, or receive shelter in his village. F The Tibetans are decidedly a commercial people, and most of the offi- cials and head lamas of the monasteries are said to keep agents, and carry on trade on their own account. So there is considerable foundation for the opinion that it may have been to protect their own sources of reve- nue and discourage competition, that they have made it so difficult for foreigners. If this be true, they have shown some knowledge of diplo- macy, by announcing to the outside world that this policy was due to orders from Peking. Authorities consulted in preparing the above statement: A. Keane. AVorld’s Peoples, p. 18. B. Encyc. Britannica, v. 26, p. 932. C. Missionary Review of the World. August, 1921, p. 608. D. Encyc. Britannica, v. 26, p. 927. E. Waddell. Lhasa and Its Mysteries, pp. 18, 20. F. Keane. Asia. p. 296. 37