Re: The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism With Its Mystic Cults
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:29 am
Part 2 of 2
As most of these specific charms are of the nature of sympathetic magic, and evidently derived from very ancient Indian sources, probably dating back to Vedic times when the ritual consisted largely of sympathetic magic,49 I give here a few examples:50 —
Thus to make the
Charm against Bullets and Weapons. — The directions are as these: With the blood of a wounded man draw the annexed monogram (D (upside-down D) and insert in the vacant space in the centre of the aforesaid print of "The Assembly of the Hearts of the Lamas." The sheet should then be folded and wrapped in a piece of red silk, and tie up with a piece of string and wear around the neck or an unexposed part of your breast immediately next the skin, and never remove it.
Charm for Clawing Animals (i.e., tigers, cats, bears, etc.). — On a miniature knife write with a mixture of myrobalans and musk-water the monogram (? ZAH) and tie up, etc. (Here the knife seems to represent the animal's claw.)
For Domestic Broils. — Write the monogram (? RE) and insert in print and fold up and bind with a thread made of the mixed hairs of a dog, goat, sheep, and enclose in a mouse-skin, and tie, etc. (This seems to represent union of domestic elements.)
For Kitchen Cooking Smells offensive to the House-Gods. — With the blood of a hybrid bull-calf write the monogram GAU ( = cow), and insert it in the print, and fold up in a piece of hedge- hog-skin. (Compare with the western Aryan myth of the Greek hearth-god Vulcan, whose mother Hera as Io is represented as a cow.)
For Cholera (or "the vomiting, purging, and cramps" ). — With the dung of a black horse and black sulphur and musk-water write the monogram (? ZA), and insert in the print, and fold up in a piece of snake-skin, and wear, etc. (Here the dung seems to represent the purging, the horse the galloping course, the black colour the deadly character, and the snake the virulence of the disease.)
Charm against Plagues.
This charm, figured at the head of this chapter, consists of a monster figure of the Garuda, the king of birds, with a snake in its mouth, and each of its outstretched plumes bears a text, and it also contains the "Buddhist creed." The inscription runs:—
Om! Bhrum satrirbad namkhamjamram.
Om! bisakhrilimili hala svaha!
Om! bisakhrilimilihalaya skachig!
Guard the holder (i.e., the wearer) of this from all the host of diseases of evil spirits and injuries, including contagious diseases, sore-throat, cough, rheumatism, the black "rgyu-ghgyel," brum-bu, and all kinds' of plague of the body, speech, and mind! [Here follows the Buddhist creed.] Habatse habatse hum sod. Suru suru hum sod. Sukarjuka My sod. Sati karur hum sod. Kularakhyi hum sod. Merumthuntse hum sod. Maltakuruna guru triga gurunam nagashara ramram duldul nagatsita pho naga chunglinga shag thumamnyogs sos.
Guard the holder.
Om! thamitharati sadunte dswaramghaye svaha!
Another charm for disease is given at page 62, where the fierce demon Tam-din, clad in human and animal skins, bears on his front a disc with concentric circles of spells.
Scorpion-Charm against Injury by Demons.
This charm, figured at page 474, is in the form of a scorpion, whose mouth, tipped by flames, forms the apex of the picture. On its shoulder are seated the especial demons to be protected against. The inscription runs: —
Ayama durur cashana zhamaya.
Hum! Om! A! Hum! Artsignirtsig!
Namo Bhagavati Hum! Hum! Phat!
A guard against all the injuries of "rgyalpo," "drimo" (a malignant demon specially injuring women), "btsan" (or red demons), "sa-dag" (or earth-demons), klu (or naga), including "gnan" (a plague-causing subordinate of the naga).
Against injury by these preserve!
And the figures are hemmed in by the mystic syllables: Jsa! Hum! Hum! Bam! Ho!
Charm Against Dogbite
The huge Tibetan mastiffs are let loose at night as watch-dogs, and roaming about in a ferocious state are a constant source of alarm to travellers, most of whom therefore carry the following charm against dog-bite. It consists of a picture of a dog fettered and muzzled by a chain, terminated by the mystic and all-powerful thunderbolt-sceptre; and it contains the following inscribed Sanskrit mantras and statements: "The mouth of the blue dog is bound beforehand! Omriti-sri-ti swaha! Omriti-sri-ti swaha!" And this is repeated along the body of the dog, followed by: —
Om Vajra ghana kara kukuratsa sal sal nan marya smugs smugs kukuratsa khathamtsa le tsa le min mun sar sar rgyug kha tha ma chhu chhinghchhang maraya rakkhya rakkhya! (It is) fixed! fixed!
Charm against Eagles and Birds of Prey.
Eagles play havoc with the young herds of the pastoral Bhotiyas of the Sikhim uplands and Tibet. For this the people use the annexed charm, which they tie up near their huts. The central figure is a manacled bird, representing the offending eagle or other bird of prey; and around it is the following text: —
"A guard against all injuries of the covetous, sky soaring monarch bird. (It is) fixed! fixed! Om smege smege bhum bhummu!"
Charm for KILLING One's Enemy.
Eagle-Charm
The necromantic charms for killing one's enemy are resorted to mostly in inter-tribal feuds and warring with foreigners. I have given details of these rites elsewhere.51 They require the following objects: — 1. An axe with three heads, the right of which is bull-headed, the left snake-headed, and the middle one pig-headed.
2. On the middle head a lamp is to be kept.
3. In the pig's mouth an image of a human being made of wheaten flour (a linga). The upper part of the body is black and the lower part red. On the side of the upper part of the body draw the figure of the eight great planets, and on the lower part of the body the twenty-eight constellations of stars. Write also the eight parkha (trigrams), the nine mewa, the claws of the Garuda in the hands, the wing of the eagles and the snake tail.
4. Hang a bow and an arrow on the left and load him with provisions on the back. Hang an owl's feather on the right and a rook's on the left; plant a piece of the poison-tree on the upper part of the body, and surround him with red swords on all sides. Then a red Rgyangbu wood on the right, a yellow one on the left, a black one in the middle, and many blue ones on divers places.
5. Then, sitting in quiet meditation, recite the following:—
"Hum! This axe with a bull's head on the right will repel all the injuries of the Nag-pas and Bon-pos— sorcerers; the snake on the left will repel all the classes of plagues; the pig's head in the middle will repel the sa-dag and other earth-demons; the linga image in the mouth will repel all the evil spirits without remainder, and the lamp on the head will repel the evil spirits of the upper regions. O! the axe will cleave the heart of the angry enemy and also of the hosts of evil spirits!!! etc., etc., etc., etc.
During the Sikhim expedition of 1888, near Mt. Paul on the Tukola ridge, where the final attack of the Tibetans was made, there was found one of the mystic contrivances for the destruction of the enemy. It consisted of an obliquely carved piece of wood, about fourteen inches long, like a miniature screw-propeller of a steamer, and acted like the fan of a windmill. It was admittedly a charm for the destruction of the enemy by cleaving them to pieces, a device for which there are western parallels. And on it was written a long, unintelligible Bon spell of the kind called z'an-z'un, followed by a call for the assistance of the tierce deities Tam-din, Vajrapani, and the Gaaruda, and concluding with "phat, phat " — Break! Destroy! It may also be mentioned here that the bodies of all the Tibetans slain in these encounters were found to bear one or more charms against wounds, most of them being quite new; and some of the more elaborate ones, which contained in their centre figures of the other weapons charmed against, swords, muskets, etc., had cost their wearers as much as twenty-five rupees a-piece.
And for torturing one's enemy short of death, there is the same popular practice which is found amongst occidentals,52 namely, of making a little clay image of the enemy and thrusting pins into it.
The directions for this procedure are: —
Take some of the earth from his footprints; or better from the house of some wrecked person, and mixing with dough prepare a small figure of a man. On its head put thorns. Through the heart's region thrust a copper needle. Then say following spell: Om Ghate Jam-mo hamo hadsam; during the recital of which move the needle briskly over the region of the heart. If this process is long continued then the bewitched person will surely die within the day; but if done only for a time, and the needle and thorns are again withdrawn, and the image- body and needles are washed, the enemy who is thus bewitched will only suffer temporary anguish, and will recover (for it is against Buddhist principles to take life).
"Prayer-Flags."
The tall flags inscribed with pious sentences, charms, and prayers, which flutter picturesquely around every Lamaist settlement, curiously combine Indian with Chinese and Tibetan symbolism.
It seems a far cry from Asoka pillars to prayer-flags, but it is not improbable that they are related, and that ''the Trees of the Law," so conspicuous in Lamaism, are perverted emblems of Indian Buddhism, like so much of the Lamaist symbolism.
Everyone who has been in Burma is familiar with the tall masts (tagun-daing),53 with their streaming banners, as accessories of every Buddhist temple in that country. Each mast in Burma is surmounted by an image of one or more Brahmani geese, and the streamers are either flat or long cylinders of bamboo framework pasted over with paper, which is often inscribed with pious sentences. The monks whom I asked regarding the nature of this symbol believed that it was borrowed from Indian Buddhism.
Now, the resemblance which these posts bear to the Asoka pillars is certainly remarkable. Both are erected by Buddhists for the purposes of gaining merit and displaying aloft pious wishes or extracts from the law; and the surmounting geese form an essential feature of the abacus of several Asoka pillars. The change from pillar to post could be easily explained, as great monoliths were only possible to such a mighty emperor as Asoka; but everyone could copy in wood the pious practice of that great and model Buddhist who had sent his missionaries to convert them.
Such wooden standards may have been common in Indian Buddhism, as some Burmese believe, and yet, from their perishable nature, have left no trace behind. At most of the old rocky Buddhist sites in Magadha I have seen sockets in the rock, some of which may have been used for such standards, although many of the smaller sockets were doubtless used for planting umbrellas to shelter the booth-keepers in their sale of flower and other offerings for the shrines. Most also of the clay models of Caityas in relief, dug out of the earlier Indian Stupas, show streamers tied to the top of the Caityas; and in Ceylon the old Stupas are surrounded by what seems to be similar posts.54
Lamaism, which, more than any other section of Buddhism, has, as we have seen, substituted good words for the good works of the primitive Buddhists, eagerly seized upon all such symbolism, as for instance, Asoka's historic gifts in their daily rice-offerings. The decided resemblance of its "prayer-flags" to the tagun-daing of the Burmese is55 not more striking, perhaps, than the apparent homology which they present to the Asoka pillars. They are called by the Lamas Da-cha,56 evidently a corruption of the Indian Dhvaja, the name given by the earlier Indian Buddhists to the votive pillars offered by them as railings to Stupas.57
The planting of a Lamaist prayer-flag, while in itself a highly pious act, which everyone practises at some time or other, does not merely confer merit on the planter, but benefits the whole countryside. And the concluding sentence of the legend inscribed on the flag is usually "Let Buddha's doctrine prosper" — which is practically the gist of the Asoka inscriptions.58
Chinese Long-Horse. Or Horse-Dragon, "Long-ma."
But the Lamas have degraded much of their Indian symbolism, and perverted it to sordid and selfish objects.
The prayer-flags are used by the Lamas as luck-commanding talismans; and the commonest of them, the so-called "Airy horse," seems to me to be clearly based upon and also bearing the same name as "The Horse-dragon" of the Chinese.
This Horse-dragon or "Long-horse" is one of the four great mythic animals of China, and it is the symbol for grandeur. It is represented, as in the figure on the opposite page, as a dragon-headed horse, carrying on its back the civilizing Book of the Law.
The Tibetan Lung-Horse.
Now this is practically the same figure as "The Lung-horse" (literally "Wind-horse") of the Lamaist flag, which also is used for the expressed purpose of increasing the grandeur of the votary; indeed, this is the sole purpose for which the flag is used by the Tibetan laity, with whom these flags are extremely popular.
And the conversion of "The Horse-dragon" of the Chinese into the Wind-horse of the Tibetans is easily accounted for by a confusion of homonyms. The Chinese word for "Horse-dragon" is Long-ma,59 of which Long = Dragon, and ma = Horse. In Tibet, where Chinese is practically unknown, Long, being the radical word, would tend to be retained for a time, while the qualifying word, ma, translated into Tibetan, becomes "rta." Hence we get the form "Long-rta." But as the foreign word Long was unintelligible in Tibet, and the symbolic animal is used almost solely for fluttering in the wind, the "Long" would naturally become changed after a time into Lung or "wind," in order to give it some meaning, hence, so it seems to me, arose the word Lung- rta,60 or "Wind-horse."
In appearance the Tibetan "Lung-horse" so closely resembles its evident prototype the "Horse-dragon," that it could easily be mistaken for it. On the animal's back, in place of the Chinese civilizing Book of the Law, the Lamas have substituted the Buddhist emblem of the civilizing Three Gems, which include the Buddhist Law. But the Tibetans, in their usual sordid way, view these objects as the material gems and wealth of good luck which this horse will bring to its votaries. The symbol is avowedly a luck-commanding talisman for enhancing the grandeur61 of the votary.
Indian myth also lends itself to the association of the horse with luck; for the Jewel-horse of the universal monarch, such as Buddha was to have been had he cared for worldly grandeur, carries its rider, Pegasus-like, through the air in whatever direction wished for, and thus it would become associated with the idea of realization of material wishes, and especially wealth and jewels. This horse also forms the throne-support of the mythical celestial Buddha named Ratna-sambhava, or "the Jewel-born One," who is often represented symbolically by a jewel. And we find in many of these luck-flags that the picture of a jewel takes the place of the horse. It is also notable that the mythical people of the northern continent, subject to the god of wealth, Kuvera, or Vaisravana, are "horse-faced."
The flags are printed on the unglazed tough country paper, and are obtainable on purchase from the Lamas, but no Lama is necessarily needed for the actual planting of the flag and its attendant rites.
War of the Tiger and Dragon
These luck-commanding or "prayer-flags" are of four kinds: —
I. The Lung-ta proper, as above figured. It is almost square in form, about four to six inches long, and contains in the centre the figure of a horse with the mystic jewel Norbu on its back. It is hung upon the ridges of the houses, and in the vicinity of dwellings. The printed text of this sort of flag varies somewhat in the order in which the deified Lamas are addressed, some giving the first place to St. Padma, while others give it to the celestial Bodhisat, Manjursi; but all have the same general form, with the horse bearing the jewel in the centre, and in the four corners the figures or the names of the tiger, lion, the monstrous garuda-bird, and the dragon — the tiger being opposed to the dragon, in accordance with Chinese mythology, as figured over the page. A translation of one of the prayer-flags is here given: —
Here it will be noted that the three great celestial defensores fidei of Lamaism are invoked through their spells, namely: —
1. Manjusri, who conveys wisdom; 2. Avalokita, who saves from fear and hell; and 3. Vajrapani, who saves from accident and bodily injury. And in addition to the above are also given the spells of: 4. Vajrasattva, who purifies the soul from sin; and 5. Amitayus, who confers long life.
It is interesting to compare with these Tibetan luck-flags the somewhat similar prayer-flags62 which the Burmese Buddhists offer at their shrines. "These," says Mr. Scott, 63 "are fancifully cut into figures of dragons and the like, and in the centre contain, in Pali or the vernacular, sentences like these: —
"By means of this paper the offerer will become very strong.
"By the merit of this paper Wednesday's children will be blessed by spirits and men.
"May the man born on Friday gain reward for his pious offering.
"May the man born on Monday be freed from Sickness and the Three Calamities."
The Large Luck-Flag "The Victorious Banner." (Reduced 1/3)
The second form of the Tibetan luck-flag is called cho-pen.64 It is of a long, narrow, oblong shape, about eight to ten inches in length. This sort of flag is for tying to twigs of trees or to bridges, or to sticks for planting on the tops of hills. Its text has generally the same arrangement as form No. 1, but it wants the horse-picture in the centre. Its Tibetan portion usually closes with "May the entire collection (of the foregoing deities) prosper the power, airy horse, age and life of this year-holder and make them increase like the waxing new moon."
Very poor people, who cannot afford the expense of the printed charms, merely write on a short slip of paper the name of the birth-year of the individual, and add "May his lung-horse prosper."
One lung-horse for each member of a household must be planted on the third day of every month (lunar) on the top of any hill near at hand, or on the branch of a tree near a spring, or tied to the sides of a bridge; and on affixing the flag a stick of incense is burned. And a small quantity of flour, grain, flesh, and beer are offered to the genius loci of the hill-top by sprinkling them around, saying, So! So! Take! Take!
A more expanded form of the luck-flag is the Gyal-tsan dse- mo, or "Victorious banner,"65 which is generally of the same form as that first mentioned, but containing a much larger amount of holy texts, and also usually the eight glorious symbols, of which the lotus forms the base of the print. It prospers not only luck in wealth, but also the life, body, and power of the individual, and seems to contain also spells addressed to the goddess Durga, Siva's spouse.
The Vast Luck-flag. This fourth form of Lung-ta is named "gLan-po stob ryyas" or "That which makes vast like the Elephant." It is pasted to the walls of the houses, or folded up and worn around the neck as a charm for good luck. It consists of crossed vajras in the centre with a Garuda and a peacock, the jewelled elephant and the jewelled horse, each hearing an eight-leaved lotus-disc on which are inscribed the following Sanskrit and Tibetan texts. The other symbols are "the eight glorious symbols" already described.
And around the margin is the familiar legend "the Buddhist creed," repeated several times, also the letters of the alphabet, together with the words "May the life, body, power, and the 'airy horse' of the holder of this charm prosper his body, speech, and wishes, and cause them to increase like the growing new moon; may he be possessed of all wealth and riches, and be guarded against all kinds of injury."
In the upper left hand disc: "May the life of this charm-holder be raised sublimely (like the flight of the garuda here represented). Om! sal sal hobana sal sal ye swaha! Om! Om! sarba kata kata sata kata sala ya nata sah wa ye swaha! Om! kili kili mili mili kuru kuru hum, hum ye swaha! O! May the life of this charm-holder be raised on high!
In the upper right-hand disc: "May the body of this charm-holder be raised sublimely (like the flight of the peacock here represented). Om! yer yer hobana yer yer ye svaha! Om! sarba Tathagata bhiri bhiri bata baia miri miri mili mili ae bata sarba gata-gata shramana sarba gata-gata shramana sarba!! May the body of this charm-holder be raised on high."
In lower left-hand disc: "May the power of this charm-holder be raised sublimely (like the precious elephant here represented). Om! Mer mer hobana mer mer ye swaha! Om sarva dhara dhara bara dhara ghi kha ye swaha! Sarva kili kili na hah kang li sarba bhara bhara sambhara sambhara! O! May the power and wealth of this charm- holder be increased and all the injuries be guarded against.
In lower right-hand circle: "May the 'Airy horse' of this charm- holder be raised sublimely (with the celerity of 'the precious horse' here represented). Om! lam lam hobana lam lam lam swaha! Om! Sarva kara kara phat! Sarbha dhuru dhuru na phat I Sarba kata kata kata na phat! Sarba kili kili na phat! Sarbha mala mala swaha! O! May the 'Lung-horse' of the charm-holder be raised on high and guarded against all injury."
In the central disc over the junction of the cross Dor-je is written: "Om! neh ya rani jiwenti ye swaha! O! May this charm-holder be given the undying gift of soul everlasting (as the adamantine cross Dor-je herein pictured)."
In planting these luck-flags a special form of worship is observed. And the planting of these flags with the due worship is advised to be done when ever anyone feels unhappy and down in luck, or injured by the earth-demons, etc. It is called " The great statue of the Lung-horse," and is as follows: —
The "Vast" Luck-flag (Reduced 1/2)
_______________
Notes:
1 Tib., dKon-mch'og-gsum, or "The rarest ones."
2 Yun-drun. Chinese, Chu'-Vang, or "The ten thousand character"; cf. also Indian Antiquary, ix., 65, etc., 135, etc., and numerous references in Dumoutier, op. cit., 22-23.
3 Su, meaning "good" or "excellent" (in Greek, eu), and Asti is the third person singular present indicative of the verb As, "to be," and Ka is an abstract suffix.
4 Skt., Arani.
5 But see Jacobi's works.
6 Namely, the Jina Su-parsva.
7 Skt., Sapta-ratna. T., Rin-ch'en sna-bdun; cf. Hardy's Man, p. 130, and Alabaster's Wheel of the Law, p. 81.
8 Cakra-rartin Raja.
9 Skt,, Cakra; T., 'K'or-lo.
10 Fergusson, Tree and Serp. Worsh. pl. xxix., Fig. 2.
11 Skt., Ratna; T., Norbu.
12 Skt., Stri; T., Tsun-mo.
13 Skt., (?) Girti or Mahajana; T., bLon-po.
14 Skt., Hasti; T., glan-po.
15 This elephant is frequently represented as a miniature bronze ornament or flower-stand on the Lamaist altar. Mr. Baber records (R. G. Soc. Suppl., paper, p. 33) a colossal elephant with six tusks, cast in silvery-bronze, in western Ssu-ch'uan. It is of artistic merit, and carries on its back, in place of a howdah, a lotus-flower, in which is enthroned an admirable image of Buddha.
16 Skt., Asva; T., rTa-mch'og.
17 Aswin or Uchchaihsravas.
18 Compare with the divine horse named "Might of a Cloud," from the thirty-three heavens, which delivered the merchants from the island of Rakshasis. — See Hiuen Tsiang's Si-Yu-Ki.
19 Skt., Kshatri or Sena-pati; T., d.Mag-dpon.
20 Bum-pa-ter; Skt., Kalasa.
21 Gyal-ts'an sna bdun.
22 'Jigs-yons-gyi rin-po-ch'e, namely, bSeru, conch-shell curd, king's earring, queen's earring, jewelled tiara, three-eyed gem, and the eight-limbed coral. Another enumeration gives Padmaraga, indranila, baidurya, margad, vajra, pearl, and coral.
23 Ne-wai rin-poch'e sna bdun.
24 Cf CSOMA'S An., p. 76; Jaeschke's Dict., p. 454.
25 Skt., Ashta-mangala; T., bkra-s'i rtags-brgyad.
26 Said to be symbols of the Vita-raga. Hodgson's L.L., p. 136, also J.A.S.B., art. "Naipalya Kalyana."
27 The credulous Lamas of north-eastern Tibet credited Mr. Rockhill with having captured the golden fish in the Tosu lake. "When I came back from Tosu-nor to Shang, the Khanpo (abbot), a Tibetan, asked me where I proposed going; 'To Lob-nor,' I replied, not wishing to discuss my plans. 'I supposed that was your intention,' he rejoined; 'you have caught our horse and fish of gold in the Tosu-nor, and now you want to get the frog of gold of the Lob-nor. But it will be useless to try; there is in the whole world but the Panchen Rinpoche, of Tashi-lhunpo, who is able to catch it" ("A Journey in Mongolia and Tibet," The Geog. Journ., May, 1894, p. 376). The Japanese use a wooden fish as a gong.
28 In Sanchi Tope. Fergus., Tree and Serp. Worship, pl. xxxv., Fig. 2.
29 Also the symbol of the tenth Jina (Sitala) of the Jains. Compare with "Buddha's entrails," see number 2 of next list, also on this page.
30 bkras's-rdsas brgyad. These, together with the foregoing, may be compared with the Navakosa or Navanidhi, or nine treasures of Kuvera, the god of riches, namely, Padma, Mahapadma, Makara, Kacchapa, Mukunda, Nanda, Nila, Kharwa. And these are related to the so-called Naga kings, "the nine Nandas" of Magadha.
31 Skt., Kamaguna, T., 'dod-yons.
32 Dumoutier, Les Symboles, etc., Annamites.
33 Called rGyan-'k'yil, probably a corruption of the Chinese name.
34 Cf. Dumoutier, Op. cit., p. 21.
35 Tib., 'drug; Chinese Long.
36 Tib., nam-K'ah-ldin. The Chinese call it Con-phu'ong (Dumoutier, p. 48).
37 Cf. also Dumoutier, p. 48.
38 Ngu Ho, see figure, p. 413.
39 Dumoutier, p. 55.
40 Chinese Ngu Phu'o'c; cf. Dumoutier, p. 51.
41 See also their form on page 4.
42 Taken mostly from Csoma's Grammar, pp. 150, et seq.
43 For details of the rest of this service, see my Lamaism in Sikhim, p. 105.
44 z'uns.
45 Monier Williams's Hinduism, 127.
46 "In Gambia," writes the colonial surgeon in his report for 1890 (quoted in Nature) "the treatment relied upon for cure, and much practised in the country, is to call in a man who is supposed to be a 'doctor,' who, after looking at the patient, sits down at his bedside and writes in Arabic characters on a wooden slate a long rigmarole, generally consisting of extracts from the Koran. The slate is then washed, and the dirty infusion is drunk by the patient."
47 Figured on page 571. The kidney-shaped ones are called Ga-u ke-ri-ma.
48 Cf. also Csoma and W. E. Carte, J.A.S.B., ix., 904. See figures of some of these charms at pages 568, 571, and 572.
49 Cf. Bergaigne's La religion vedique; also Frazer.
50 For a fuller account, with illustrations, sec my article in Jour. Anthrop, Institute, 1894.
51 My Lamaism in Sikhim.
52 Cf. Virgil. Bucol. viii.: Theocritus, Pharmaceutria.
53 Mr. St. A. St. John kindly informs me that the etymology is ta, something long and straight + gun, bark or husk + daing, a post.
54 See figures in Ferguson's History of India and Eastern Architecture.
55 These instances seem something more than the simple cloths and banners as propitiatory offerings, which, of course, are found in most animistic religions — from the "rag-bushes of India to the shavings of the Upper Burmese and the Ainos. And the hypothetical relationship between the Burmese and the Tibetans, based on the affinity of their languages, does not count for much, as no real racial relation has yet been proved. Probably related to these prayer-flags are the stone pillars called masts or poles (wei-kan), found in western Su-Ch'uan in China, and figured by Mr. Baber ("A Journey," etc., Roy. Geog. Soc. Suppl. Papers, i., p. 19).
56 dar-lch'og.
57 Cunningham's Stupa of Barhut.
58 As the legend usually bears a lion and a tiger in its upper corners, while below are a Garuda-bird and dragon (Naga), it seems not impossible that these may be related to the surmounting lion and the so-called geese of Asoka'a pillars. The rites related to the erection of the Lamaist standard are somewhat suggestive of the Vedic rite of "raising Indra'a banner," which in its turn is probably the original of our Maypole, and Asoka's pillars seem to have been somewhat of the nature of the Jayatambha.
59 Dumoutier, op. cit., p. 30
60 rLun-rta; another form of spelling sometimes, though rarely, met with, is kLun rta, where kLun is said to mean "year of birth."
61 T., rgyas.
62 Kyet sha-taing.
63 The Burman, i., p. 225.
64 sbyod-pan.
65 Sometimes rendered into Sanskrit as Arya dhvaja agra-keyur rana maharani.
66 gLan-po stob-rgyas.
As most of these specific charms are of the nature of sympathetic magic, and evidently derived from very ancient Indian sources, probably dating back to Vedic times when the ritual consisted largely of sympathetic magic,49 I give here a few examples:50 —
Thus to make the
Charm against Bullets and Weapons. — The directions are as these: With the blood of a wounded man draw the annexed monogram (D (upside-down D) and insert in the vacant space in the centre of the aforesaid print of "The Assembly of the Hearts of the Lamas." The sheet should then be folded and wrapped in a piece of red silk, and tie up with a piece of string and wear around the neck or an unexposed part of your breast immediately next the skin, and never remove it.
Charm for Clawing Animals (i.e., tigers, cats, bears, etc.). — On a miniature knife write with a mixture of myrobalans and musk-water the monogram (? ZAH) and tie up, etc. (Here the knife seems to represent the animal's claw.)
For Domestic Broils. — Write the monogram (? RE) and insert in print and fold up and bind with a thread made of the mixed hairs of a dog, goat, sheep, and enclose in a mouse-skin, and tie, etc. (This seems to represent union of domestic elements.)
For Kitchen Cooking Smells offensive to the House-Gods. — With the blood of a hybrid bull-calf write the monogram GAU ( = cow), and insert it in the print, and fold up in a piece of hedge- hog-skin. (Compare with the western Aryan myth of the Greek hearth-god Vulcan, whose mother Hera as Io is represented as a cow.)
For Cholera (or "the vomiting, purging, and cramps" ). — With the dung of a black horse and black sulphur and musk-water write the monogram (? ZA), and insert in the print, and fold up in a piece of snake-skin, and wear, etc. (Here the dung seems to represent the purging, the horse the galloping course, the black colour the deadly character, and the snake the virulence of the disease.)
Charm against Plagues.
This charm, figured at the head of this chapter, consists of a monster figure of the Garuda, the king of birds, with a snake in its mouth, and each of its outstretched plumes bears a text, and it also contains the "Buddhist creed." The inscription runs:—
Om! Bhrum satrirbad namkhamjamram.
Om! bisakhrilimili hala svaha!
Om! bisakhrilimilihalaya skachig!
Guard the holder (i.e., the wearer) of this from all the host of diseases of evil spirits and injuries, including contagious diseases, sore-throat, cough, rheumatism, the black "rgyu-ghgyel," brum-bu, and all kinds' of plague of the body, speech, and mind! [Here follows the Buddhist creed.] Habatse habatse hum sod. Suru suru hum sod. Sukarjuka My sod. Sati karur hum sod. Kularakhyi hum sod. Merumthuntse hum sod. Maltakuruna guru triga gurunam nagashara ramram duldul nagatsita pho naga chunglinga shag thumamnyogs sos.
Guard the holder.
Om! thamitharati sadunte dswaramghaye svaha!
Another charm for disease is given at page 62, where the fierce demon Tam-din, clad in human and animal skins, bears on his front a disc with concentric circles of spells.
Scorpion-Charm against Injury by Demons.
This charm, figured at page 474, is in the form of a scorpion, whose mouth, tipped by flames, forms the apex of the picture. On its shoulder are seated the especial demons to be protected against. The inscription runs: —
Ayama durur cashana zhamaya.
Hum! Om! A! Hum! Artsignirtsig!
Namo Bhagavati Hum! Hum! Phat!
A guard against all the injuries of "rgyalpo," "drimo" (a malignant demon specially injuring women), "btsan" (or red demons), "sa-dag" (or earth-demons), klu (or naga), including "gnan" (a plague-causing subordinate of the naga).
Against injury by these preserve!
And the figures are hemmed in by the mystic syllables: Jsa! Hum! Hum! Bam! Ho!
Charm Against Dogbite
The huge Tibetan mastiffs are let loose at night as watch-dogs, and roaming about in a ferocious state are a constant source of alarm to travellers, most of whom therefore carry the following charm against dog-bite. It consists of a picture of a dog fettered and muzzled by a chain, terminated by the mystic and all-powerful thunderbolt-sceptre; and it contains the following inscribed Sanskrit mantras and statements: "The mouth of the blue dog is bound beforehand! Omriti-sri-ti swaha! Omriti-sri-ti swaha!" And this is repeated along the body of the dog, followed by: —
Om Vajra ghana kara kukuratsa sal sal nan marya smugs smugs kukuratsa khathamtsa le tsa le min mun sar sar rgyug kha tha ma chhu chhinghchhang maraya rakkhya rakkhya! (It is) fixed! fixed!
Charm against Eagles and Birds of Prey.
Eagles play havoc with the young herds of the pastoral Bhotiyas of the Sikhim uplands and Tibet. For this the people use the annexed charm, which they tie up near their huts. The central figure is a manacled bird, representing the offending eagle or other bird of prey; and around it is the following text: —
"A guard against all injuries of the covetous, sky soaring monarch bird. (It is) fixed! fixed! Om smege smege bhum bhummu!"
Charm for KILLING One's Enemy.
Eagle-Charm
The necromantic charms for killing one's enemy are resorted to mostly in inter-tribal feuds and warring with foreigners. I have given details of these rites elsewhere.51 They require the following objects: — 1. An axe with three heads, the right of which is bull-headed, the left snake-headed, and the middle one pig-headed.
2. On the middle head a lamp is to be kept.
3. In the pig's mouth an image of a human being made of wheaten flour (a linga). The upper part of the body is black and the lower part red. On the side of the upper part of the body draw the figure of the eight great planets, and on the lower part of the body the twenty-eight constellations of stars. Write also the eight parkha (trigrams), the nine mewa, the claws of the Garuda in the hands, the wing of the eagles and the snake tail.
4. Hang a bow and an arrow on the left and load him with provisions on the back. Hang an owl's feather on the right and a rook's on the left; plant a piece of the poison-tree on the upper part of the body, and surround him with red swords on all sides. Then a red Rgyangbu wood on the right, a yellow one on the left, a black one in the middle, and many blue ones on divers places.
5. Then, sitting in quiet meditation, recite the following:—
"Hum! This axe with a bull's head on the right will repel all the injuries of the Nag-pas and Bon-pos— sorcerers; the snake on the left will repel all the classes of plagues; the pig's head in the middle will repel the sa-dag and other earth-demons; the linga image in the mouth will repel all the evil spirits without remainder, and the lamp on the head will repel the evil spirits of the upper regions. O! the axe will cleave the heart of the angry enemy and also of the hosts of evil spirits!!! etc., etc., etc., etc.
During the Sikhim expedition of 1888, near Mt. Paul on the Tukola ridge, where the final attack of the Tibetans was made, there was found one of the mystic contrivances for the destruction of the enemy. It consisted of an obliquely carved piece of wood, about fourteen inches long, like a miniature screw-propeller of a steamer, and acted like the fan of a windmill. It was admittedly a charm for the destruction of the enemy by cleaving them to pieces, a device for which there are western parallels. And on it was written a long, unintelligible Bon spell of the kind called z'an-z'un, followed by a call for the assistance of the tierce deities Tam-din, Vajrapani, and the Gaaruda, and concluding with "phat, phat " — Break! Destroy! It may also be mentioned here that the bodies of all the Tibetans slain in these encounters were found to bear one or more charms against wounds, most of them being quite new; and some of the more elaborate ones, which contained in their centre figures of the other weapons charmed against, swords, muskets, etc., had cost their wearers as much as twenty-five rupees a-piece.
And for torturing one's enemy short of death, there is the same popular practice which is found amongst occidentals,52 namely, of making a little clay image of the enemy and thrusting pins into it.
The directions for this procedure are: —
Take some of the earth from his footprints; or better from the house of some wrecked person, and mixing with dough prepare a small figure of a man. On its head put thorns. Through the heart's region thrust a copper needle. Then say following spell: Om Ghate Jam-mo hamo hadsam; during the recital of which move the needle briskly over the region of the heart. If this process is long continued then the bewitched person will surely die within the day; but if done only for a time, and the needle and thorns are again withdrawn, and the image- body and needles are washed, the enemy who is thus bewitched will only suffer temporary anguish, and will recover (for it is against Buddhist principles to take life).
"Prayer-Flags."
The tall flags inscribed with pious sentences, charms, and prayers, which flutter picturesquely around every Lamaist settlement, curiously combine Indian with Chinese and Tibetan symbolism.
It seems a far cry from Asoka pillars to prayer-flags, but it is not improbable that they are related, and that ''the Trees of the Law," so conspicuous in Lamaism, are perverted emblems of Indian Buddhism, like so much of the Lamaist symbolism.
Everyone who has been in Burma is familiar with the tall masts (tagun-daing),53 with their streaming banners, as accessories of every Buddhist temple in that country. Each mast in Burma is surmounted by an image of one or more Brahmani geese, and the streamers are either flat or long cylinders of bamboo framework pasted over with paper, which is often inscribed with pious sentences. The monks whom I asked regarding the nature of this symbol believed that it was borrowed from Indian Buddhism.
Now, the resemblance which these posts bear to the Asoka pillars is certainly remarkable. Both are erected by Buddhists for the purposes of gaining merit and displaying aloft pious wishes or extracts from the law; and the surmounting geese form an essential feature of the abacus of several Asoka pillars. The change from pillar to post could be easily explained, as great monoliths were only possible to such a mighty emperor as Asoka; but everyone could copy in wood the pious practice of that great and model Buddhist who had sent his missionaries to convert them.
Such wooden standards may have been common in Indian Buddhism, as some Burmese believe, and yet, from their perishable nature, have left no trace behind. At most of the old rocky Buddhist sites in Magadha I have seen sockets in the rock, some of which may have been used for such standards, although many of the smaller sockets were doubtless used for planting umbrellas to shelter the booth-keepers in their sale of flower and other offerings for the shrines. Most also of the clay models of Caityas in relief, dug out of the earlier Indian Stupas, show streamers tied to the top of the Caityas; and in Ceylon the old Stupas are surrounded by what seems to be similar posts.54
Lamaism, which, more than any other section of Buddhism, has, as we have seen, substituted good words for the good works of the primitive Buddhists, eagerly seized upon all such symbolism, as for instance, Asoka's historic gifts in their daily rice-offerings. The decided resemblance of its "prayer-flags" to the tagun-daing of the Burmese is55 not more striking, perhaps, than the apparent homology which they present to the Asoka pillars. They are called by the Lamas Da-cha,56 evidently a corruption of the Indian Dhvaja, the name given by the earlier Indian Buddhists to the votive pillars offered by them as railings to Stupas.57
The planting of a Lamaist prayer-flag, while in itself a highly pious act, which everyone practises at some time or other, does not merely confer merit on the planter, but benefits the whole countryside. And the concluding sentence of the legend inscribed on the flag is usually "Let Buddha's doctrine prosper" — which is practically the gist of the Asoka inscriptions.58
Chinese Long-Horse. Or Horse-Dragon, "Long-ma."
But the Lamas have degraded much of their Indian symbolism, and perverted it to sordid and selfish objects.
The prayer-flags are used by the Lamas as luck-commanding talismans; and the commonest of them, the so-called "Airy horse," seems to me to be clearly based upon and also bearing the same name as "The Horse-dragon" of the Chinese.
This Horse-dragon or "Long-horse" is one of the four great mythic animals of China, and it is the symbol for grandeur. It is represented, as in the figure on the opposite page, as a dragon-headed horse, carrying on its back the civilizing Book of the Law.
The Tibetan Lung-Horse.
Now this is practically the same figure as "The Lung-horse" (literally "Wind-horse") of the Lamaist flag, which also is used for the expressed purpose of increasing the grandeur of the votary; indeed, this is the sole purpose for which the flag is used by the Tibetan laity, with whom these flags are extremely popular.
And the conversion of "The Horse-dragon" of the Chinese into the Wind-horse of the Tibetans is easily accounted for by a confusion of homonyms. The Chinese word for "Horse-dragon" is Long-ma,59 of which Long = Dragon, and ma = Horse. In Tibet, where Chinese is practically unknown, Long, being the radical word, would tend to be retained for a time, while the qualifying word, ma, translated into Tibetan, becomes "rta." Hence we get the form "Long-rta." But as the foreign word Long was unintelligible in Tibet, and the symbolic animal is used almost solely for fluttering in the wind, the "Long" would naturally become changed after a time into Lung or "wind," in order to give it some meaning, hence, so it seems to me, arose the word Lung- rta,60 or "Wind-horse."
In appearance the Tibetan "Lung-horse" so closely resembles its evident prototype the "Horse-dragon," that it could easily be mistaken for it. On the animal's back, in place of the Chinese civilizing Book of the Law, the Lamas have substituted the Buddhist emblem of the civilizing Three Gems, which include the Buddhist Law. But the Tibetans, in their usual sordid way, view these objects as the material gems and wealth of good luck which this horse will bring to its votaries. The symbol is avowedly a luck-commanding talisman for enhancing the grandeur61 of the votary.
Indian myth also lends itself to the association of the horse with luck; for the Jewel-horse of the universal monarch, such as Buddha was to have been had he cared for worldly grandeur, carries its rider, Pegasus-like, through the air in whatever direction wished for, and thus it would become associated with the idea of realization of material wishes, and especially wealth and jewels. This horse also forms the throne-support of the mythical celestial Buddha named Ratna-sambhava, or "the Jewel-born One," who is often represented symbolically by a jewel. And we find in many of these luck-flags that the picture of a jewel takes the place of the horse. It is also notable that the mythical people of the northern continent, subject to the god of wealth, Kuvera, or Vaisravana, are "horse-faced."
The flags are printed on the unglazed tough country paper, and are obtainable on purchase from the Lamas, but no Lama is necessarily needed for the actual planting of the flag and its attendant rites.
War of the Tiger and Dragon
These luck-commanding or "prayer-flags" are of four kinds: —
I. The Lung-ta proper, as above figured. It is almost square in form, about four to six inches long, and contains in the centre the figure of a horse with the mystic jewel Norbu on its back. It is hung upon the ridges of the houses, and in the vicinity of dwellings. The printed text of this sort of flag varies somewhat in the order in which the deified Lamas are addressed, some giving the first place to St. Padma, while others give it to the celestial Bodhisat, Manjursi; but all have the same general form, with the horse bearing the jewel in the centre, and in the four corners the figures or the names of the tiger, lion, the monstrous garuda-bird, and the dragon — the tiger being opposed to the dragon, in accordance with Chinese mythology, as figured over the page. A translation of one of the prayer-flags is here given: —
TIGER LION.
Hail! Vagishwari mum! (i.e., yellow Manjusri's spell.) Hail! to the jewel in the Lotus! Hum! (i.e., Avalokita's spell).
Hail! to the holder of the Dorje! Hum! (i.e., Vajrapani's spell).
Hail! to Vajrasattva (The Diamond-souled one!)
Hail! Amarahnihdsiwantiye swaha.
[The above is in Sanskrit. Now follows in Tibetan: — ]
Here! May all of the above (deities whose spells have been given) prosper ... [here is inserted the year of birth of the individual], and also prosper —
the Body (i.e., to save from sickness),
the Speech (i.e., to give victory in disputations),
and the Mind (i.e., to obtain all desires); of this year-holder [above specified]
and may Buddha's doctrine prosper!
GARUDA. DRAGON.
Here it will be noted that the three great celestial defensores fidei of Lamaism are invoked through their spells, namely: —
1. Manjusri, who conveys wisdom; 2. Avalokita, who saves from fear and hell; and 3. Vajrapani, who saves from accident and bodily injury. And in addition to the above are also given the spells of: 4. Vajrasattva, who purifies the soul from sin; and 5. Amitayus, who confers long life.
It is interesting to compare with these Tibetan luck-flags the somewhat similar prayer-flags62 which the Burmese Buddhists offer at their shrines. "These," says Mr. Scott, 63 "are fancifully cut into figures of dragons and the like, and in the centre contain, in Pali or the vernacular, sentences like these: —
"By means of this paper the offerer will become very strong.
"By the merit of this paper Wednesday's children will be blessed by spirits and men.
"May the man born on Friday gain reward for his pious offering.
"May the man born on Monday be freed from Sickness and the Three Calamities."
The Large Luck-Flag "The Victorious Banner." (Reduced 1/3)
The second form of the Tibetan luck-flag is called cho-pen.64 It is of a long, narrow, oblong shape, about eight to ten inches in length. This sort of flag is for tying to twigs of trees or to bridges, or to sticks for planting on the tops of hills. Its text has generally the same arrangement as form No. 1, but it wants the horse-picture in the centre. Its Tibetan portion usually closes with "May the entire collection (of the foregoing deities) prosper the power, airy horse, age and life of this year-holder and make them increase like the waxing new moon."
Very poor people, who cannot afford the expense of the printed charms, merely write on a short slip of paper the name of the birth-year of the individual, and add "May his lung-horse prosper."
One lung-horse for each member of a household must be planted on the third day of every month (lunar) on the top of any hill near at hand, or on the branch of a tree near a spring, or tied to the sides of a bridge; and on affixing the flag a stick of incense is burned. And a small quantity of flour, grain, flesh, and beer are offered to the genius loci of the hill-top by sprinkling them around, saying, So! So! Take! Take!
A more expanded form of the luck-flag is the Gyal-tsan dse- mo, or "Victorious banner,"65 which is generally of the same form as that first mentioned, but containing a much larger amount of holy texts, and also usually the eight glorious symbols, of which the lotus forms the base of the print. It prospers not only luck in wealth, but also the life, body, and power of the individual, and seems to contain also spells addressed to the goddess Durga, Siva's spouse.
The Vast Luck-flag. This fourth form of Lung-ta is named "gLan-po stob ryyas" or "That which makes vast like the Elephant." It is pasted to the walls of the houses, or folded up and worn around the neck as a charm for good luck. It consists of crossed vajras in the centre with a Garuda and a peacock, the jewelled elephant and the jewelled horse, each hearing an eight-leaved lotus-disc on which are inscribed the following Sanskrit and Tibetan texts. The other symbols are "the eight glorious symbols" already described.
And around the margin is the familiar legend "the Buddhist creed," repeated several times, also the letters of the alphabet, together with the words "May the life, body, power, and the 'airy horse' of the holder of this charm prosper his body, speech, and wishes, and cause them to increase like the growing new moon; may he be possessed of all wealth and riches, and be guarded against all kinds of injury."
In the upper left hand disc: "May the life of this charm-holder be raised sublimely (like the flight of the garuda here represented). Om! sal sal hobana sal sal ye swaha! Om! Om! sarba kata kata sata kata sala ya nata sah wa ye swaha! Om! kili kili mili mili kuru kuru hum, hum ye swaha! O! May the life of this charm-holder be raised on high!
In the upper right-hand disc: "May the body of this charm-holder be raised sublimely (like the flight of the peacock here represented). Om! yer yer hobana yer yer ye svaha! Om! sarba Tathagata bhiri bhiri bata baia miri miri mili mili ae bata sarba gata-gata shramana sarba gata-gata shramana sarba!! May the body of this charm-holder be raised on high."
In lower left-hand disc: "May the power of this charm-holder be raised sublimely (like the precious elephant here represented). Om! Mer mer hobana mer mer ye swaha! Om sarva dhara dhara bara dhara ghi kha ye swaha! Sarva kili kili na hah kang li sarba bhara bhara sambhara sambhara! O! May the power and wealth of this charm- holder be increased and all the injuries be guarded against.
In lower right-hand circle: "May the 'Airy horse' of this charm- holder be raised sublimely (with the celerity of 'the precious horse' here represented). Om! lam lam hobana lam lam lam swaha! Om! Sarva kara kara phat! Sarbha dhuru dhuru na phat I Sarba kata kata kata na phat! Sarba kili kili na phat! Sarbha mala mala swaha! O! May the 'Lung-horse' of the charm-holder be raised on high and guarded against all injury."
In the central disc over the junction of the cross Dor-je is written: "Om! neh ya rani jiwenti ye swaha! O! May this charm-holder be given the undying gift of soul everlasting (as the adamantine cross Dor-je herein pictured)."
In planting these luck-flags a special form of worship is observed. And the planting of these flags with the due worship is advised to be done when ever anyone feels unhappy and down in luck, or injured by the earth-demons, etc. It is called " The great statue of the Lung-horse," and is as follows: —
First of all is made a rice-offering of the universe, under a yellow canopy, but screened on the four sides by curtains of different colours, blue on the east, red on the south, white on the west, and black on the north. The canopies are to be fixed in the ends of a perfect square set in the four directions, around which are the twelve-year cycle, the nine cakes (bs'os) representing the nine Mewas, eight lamps representing the eight parkha, eight planets, twenty-eight constellations of stars, five Tormas, five glud (small balls of wheaten flour offered to demons as ransom), five arrows with silk streamers (mda-dar) of the five different colours, and many more mda rgyan-bu and 'p'an. The above must be arranged by a practical man, and then the ceremony begins with the fingers in the proper attitude of the twelve cycle of years, and recitation of the following in a raised and melodious voice: —
"Kye! Kye! In the eastern horizon from where the sun rises, is a region of tigers, hares, and trees. The enemy of the trees is the Iron, which is to be found in the western horizon, and where the enemy, the life-cutting bdud-devil, is also to be found. In that place are the demons who injure the life, body, power, and the 'Lung-horse.' The devil who commands them also lives in the occidental region: he is a white man with the heads of a bird and a monkey, and holds a white hawk on the right and a black demon-rod on the left. Oh! Bird and monkey-headed demon! Accept this ransom and call back all the injuring demons.
"Kye! Kye! In the southern horizon is a region of horses, snakes, and fire. The enemy of the fire is the water, etc., etc. O! Rat and pig-headed demon! Accept this ransom and call back all the injuring demons." ....
"Kye! Kye! In the boundary of the south-eastern horizon is a yellow dragon-headed demon. O! Dragon-headed devil! Accept this ransom and call back all the injuring devils.
"Kye! Kye! In the boundary of the south-western horizon is a yellow sheep-headed woman. O! Sheep-headed she-devil! Accept this ransom and call back all the injuring demons.
"Kye! Kye! In the boundary of the north-western horizon there is a yellow dog-headed demon. O! Dog-headed devil! Accept this ransom and call back all the injuring demons.
"Kye! Kye! In the boundary of the north-eastern horizon there is a yellow bull-headed demoness. O! Bull-headed she-devil! Accept this ransom and call back all the injuring demons!
"O! Upset all the injuring evil spirits, the ill-natured devils, the demons who injure the life, body, power, and the Lung-horse, the wandering demons, the ill-luck of bad 'Lung-horses,' the fearful goblins, the bad omens, the doors of the sky, and the earth, and the injuries of all malignant devils.
"May we be freed from all kinds of injuries and be 'favoured with the real gift, which we earnestly seek!'"
"May virtue increase!'
"Glory!"
The "Vast" Luck-flag (Reduced 1/2)
_______________
Notes:
1 Tib., dKon-mch'og-gsum, or "The rarest ones."
2 Yun-drun. Chinese, Chu'-Vang, or "The ten thousand character"; cf. also Indian Antiquary, ix., 65, etc., 135, etc., and numerous references in Dumoutier, op. cit., 22-23.
3 Su, meaning "good" or "excellent" (in Greek, eu), and Asti is the third person singular present indicative of the verb As, "to be," and Ka is an abstract suffix.
4 Skt., Arani.
5 But see Jacobi's works.
6 Namely, the Jina Su-parsva.
7 Skt., Sapta-ratna. T., Rin-ch'en sna-bdun; cf. Hardy's Man, p. 130, and Alabaster's Wheel of the Law, p. 81.
8 Cakra-rartin Raja.
9 Skt,, Cakra; T., 'K'or-lo.
10 Fergusson, Tree and Serp. Worsh. pl. xxix., Fig. 2.
11 Skt., Ratna; T., Norbu.
12 Skt., Stri; T., Tsun-mo.
13 Skt., (?) Girti or Mahajana; T., bLon-po.
14 Skt., Hasti; T., glan-po.
15 This elephant is frequently represented as a miniature bronze ornament or flower-stand on the Lamaist altar. Mr. Baber records (R. G. Soc. Suppl., paper, p. 33) a colossal elephant with six tusks, cast in silvery-bronze, in western Ssu-ch'uan. It is of artistic merit, and carries on its back, in place of a howdah, a lotus-flower, in which is enthroned an admirable image of Buddha.
16 Skt., Asva; T., rTa-mch'og.
17 Aswin or Uchchaihsravas.
18 Compare with the divine horse named "Might of a Cloud," from the thirty-three heavens, which delivered the merchants from the island of Rakshasis. — See Hiuen Tsiang's Si-Yu-Ki.
19 Skt., Kshatri or Sena-pati; T., d.Mag-dpon.
20 Bum-pa-ter; Skt., Kalasa.
21 Gyal-ts'an sna bdun.
22 'Jigs-yons-gyi rin-po-ch'e, namely, bSeru, conch-shell curd, king's earring, queen's earring, jewelled tiara, three-eyed gem, and the eight-limbed coral. Another enumeration gives Padmaraga, indranila, baidurya, margad, vajra, pearl, and coral.
23 Ne-wai rin-poch'e sna bdun.
24 Cf CSOMA'S An., p. 76; Jaeschke's Dict., p. 454.
25 Skt., Ashta-mangala; T., bkra-s'i rtags-brgyad.
26 Said to be symbols of the Vita-raga. Hodgson's L.L., p. 136, also J.A.S.B., art. "Naipalya Kalyana."
27 The credulous Lamas of north-eastern Tibet credited Mr. Rockhill with having captured the golden fish in the Tosu lake. "When I came back from Tosu-nor to Shang, the Khanpo (abbot), a Tibetan, asked me where I proposed going; 'To Lob-nor,' I replied, not wishing to discuss my plans. 'I supposed that was your intention,' he rejoined; 'you have caught our horse and fish of gold in the Tosu-nor, and now you want to get the frog of gold of the Lob-nor. But it will be useless to try; there is in the whole world but the Panchen Rinpoche, of Tashi-lhunpo, who is able to catch it" ("A Journey in Mongolia and Tibet," The Geog. Journ., May, 1894, p. 376). The Japanese use a wooden fish as a gong.
28 In Sanchi Tope. Fergus., Tree and Serp. Worship, pl. xxxv., Fig. 2.
29 Also the symbol of the tenth Jina (Sitala) of the Jains. Compare with "Buddha's entrails," see number 2 of next list, also on this page.
30 bkras's-rdsas brgyad. These, together with the foregoing, may be compared with the Navakosa or Navanidhi, or nine treasures of Kuvera, the god of riches, namely, Padma, Mahapadma, Makara, Kacchapa, Mukunda, Nanda, Nila, Kharwa. And these are related to the so-called Naga kings, "the nine Nandas" of Magadha.
31 Skt., Kamaguna, T., 'dod-yons.
32 Dumoutier, Les Symboles, etc., Annamites.
33 Called rGyan-'k'yil, probably a corruption of the Chinese name.
34 Cf. Dumoutier, Op. cit., p. 21.
35 Tib., 'drug; Chinese Long.
36 Tib., nam-K'ah-ldin. The Chinese call it Con-phu'ong (Dumoutier, p. 48).
37 Cf. also Dumoutier, p. 48.
38 Ngu Ho, see figure, p. 413.
39 Dumoutier, p. 55.
40 Chinese Ngu Phu'o'c; cf. Dumoutier, p. 51.
41 See also their form on page 4.
42 Taken mostly from Csoma's Grammar, pp. 150, et seq.
43 For details of the rest of this service, see my Lamaism in Sikhim, p. 105.
44 z'uns.
45 Monier Williams's Hinduism, 127.
46 "In Gambia," writes the colonial surgeon in his report for 1890 (quoted in Nature) "the treatment relied upon for cure, and much practised in the country, is to call in a man who is supposed to be a 'doctor,' who, after looking at the patient, sits down at his bedside and writes in Arabic characters on a wooden slate a long rigmarole, generally consisting of extracts from the Koran. The slate is then washed, and the dirty infusion is drunk by the patient."
47 Figured on page 571. The kidney-shaped ones are called Ga-u ke-ri-ma.
48 Cf. also Csoma and W. E. Carte, J.A.S.B., ix., 904. See figures of some of these charms at pages 568, 571, and 572.
49 Cf. Bergaigne's La religion vedique; also Frazer.
50 For a fuller account, with illustrations, sec my article in Jour. Anthrop, Institute, 1894.
51 My Lamaism in Sikhim.
52 Cf. Virgil. Bucol. viii.: Theocritus, Pharmaceutria.
53 Mr. St. A. St. John kindly informs me that the etymology is ta, something long and straight + gun, bark or husk + daing, a post.
54 See figures in Ferguson's History of India and Eastern Architecture.
55 These instances seem something more than the simple cloths and banners as propitiatory offerings, which, of course, are found in most animistic religions — from the "rag-bushes of India to the shavings of the Upper Burmese and the Ainos. And the hypothetical relationship between the Burmese and the Tibetans, based on the affinity of their languages, does not count for much, as no real racial relation has yet been proved. Probably related to these prayer-flags are the stone pillars called masts or poles (wei-kan), found in western Su-Ch'uan in China, and figured by Mr. Baber ("A Journey," etc., Roy. Geog. Soc. Suppl. Papers, i., p. 19).
56 dar-lch'og.
57 Cunningham's Stupa of Barhut.
58 As the legend usually bears a lion and a tiger in its upper corners, while below are a Garuda-bird and dragon (Naga), it seems not impossible that these may be related to the surmounting lion and the so-called geese of Asoka'a pillars. The rites related to the erection of the Lamaist standard are somewhat suggestive of the Vedic rite of "raising Indra'a banner," which in its turn is probably the original of our Maypole, and Asoka's pillars seem to have been somewhat of the nature of the Jayatambha.
59 Dumoutier, op. cit., p. 30
60 rLun-rta; another form of spelling sometimes, though rarely, met with, is kLun rta, where kLun is said to mean "year of birth."
61 T., rgyas.
62 Kyet sha-taing.
63 The Burman, i., p. 225.
64 sbyod-pan.
65 Sometimes rendered into Sanskrit as Arya dhvaja agra-keyur rana maharani.
66 gLan-po stob-rgyas.