Tibet

THE Chumbi valley on the northern side of Darjeeling is an indescribably lovely and seductive spot, and is one of the approaches to the barest and most inhospitable country of Asia—Tibet.

Tibet has not always becia a closed land. Until the end of the eighteenth century only physical obstacles stood in the way of entry into Lhasa itself. Jesuits and Capuchins reached Lhasa and made long stays there, and were even encouraged by the Tibetan government. As early as 1825 it is known that foreigners visited the country, but the first Europeans to reside in Lhasa arrived there in 1661.

Two centuries ago Europeans might travel in remote parts of Asia with greater safety than is possible to-day, for now the white man inspires fear where he used only to awaken curiosity. At the end of the eighteenth century the Nepalese overran Tibet, and the Chinese being called in to aid, almost annihilated the Gurkhas. From that time China practically ruled in Lhasa. The policy of strict exclusion dates from then. Since the decline of China’s power, a Tibetan Mission to the Czar, supposedly of a religious character, brought Tibet somewhat under the influence of Russia. Several Buriat lamas had been educated in Russia, chief of whom was one Dorjieff, who headed the Russo-Tibetan Mission of 1901. Dorjicff and others inspired dreams of a consolidated Buddhist religion, under the spiritual control of the Dalai Lama, backed by the military power of Russia; this was believed possible because the ignorant lamas imagined Russia to be a Buddhist country.

Tibet is a mysterious country with an ancient but arrested civilization; a land where prayer flags flutter: in the wind, and where men spend half their time in turning mechanical prayer wheels. The pcople are medieval in government. Witchcraft, incantations, and ordeals by fire and boiling are still common. The entire population is only about six millions.

In Lhasa, the home of the Buddha and the Dalai Lama, is a superbly detached building on a hill of rock called the Pctala. ‘“‘ Its massive walls, its terraces and bastions stretch upward from the plain to the crest, and are crowned with glittering domes shining with turquoise and gold. At its feet lies the squalid city of Lhasa. Buddhism holds all life sacred, yet this place, where dwells the divine incarnation, has witnessed more murder than even the bloodstained castles of medieval Europe.”

The Buddhist religion is the one thing that keeps the nation together, and every family must contribute one son to the priestly order ef Lamas. -Hundreds of years ago a Buddhist saint predicted that Tibet would one day be invaded and conquered, and Buddhism would become extinct. Thus it is that a blind fear and fanaticism combine to keep all doors of entrance closed to this land, and the teaching of a foreign religion more than anything clse brings down on the head of the offender the severest persecutfon, and even the most crucl death.