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natives of that region of lofty and bleak table-lands, with which so few Europeans have had an opportunity of becoming familiar. But the legends and fables which the late Professor Schiefner has translated from the Kah-gyur are merely Tibetan versions of Sanskrit writings. No mention is made in them of those peculiarities of Tibetan Buddhism which have most struck the fancy of foreign observers. They never allude to the rosary of 108 beads which every Tibetan carries, "that he may keep a reckoning of his good words, which supply to him the place of good deeds;" the praying wheels, "those curious machines which, filled with prayers, or charms, or passages from holy books, stand in the towns in every open place, are placed beside the footpaths and the roads, revolve in every stream, and even (by the help of sails like those of windmills) are turned by every breeze which blows o'er the thrice-sacred valleys of Tibet;" the "Trees of the Law," the lofty flagstaffs from which flutter banners emblazoned with the sacred words, "Ah! the jewel is in the lotus," the turning of which towards heaven by the wind counts as the utterance of a prayer capable of bringing down blessings upon the whole country-side; or of that Lamaism which "bears outwardly, at least, a strong resemblance to Romanism, in spite of the essential difference of its teachings and of its mode of thought." There is, therefore, no present need to dwell at length upon the land into which the legends and doctrines were transplanted which had previously flourished on Indian soil, or the people by whom they have been religiously preserved, but whose actions and thoughts they do not by any means fully represent. "At the present day," says Mr. Rhys Davids, "the Buddhism of Nepal and Tibet differs from the Buddhism of Ceylon as much as the Christianity of Rome or of Moscow differs from that of Scotland or Wales. But," he proceeds to say, "the history of Bud

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J "Buddhism," by T. W. Rhys tian Knowledge), pp. 199-211 and Davids (Society for Promoting Chris- 250.

dhism from its commencement to its close is an epitome of the religious history of mankind. And we have not solved the problem of Buddhism when we have understood the faith of the early Buddhists. It is in this respect that the study of later Buddhism in Ceylon, Burma, and Siam, in Nepal and in Tibet, in China, Mongolia, and Japan, is only second in importance to the study of early Buddhism."1

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With regard to the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet, Emil Schlagintweit 2 remarks that "the early history is involved in darkness and myth." Sanang Setsen, in his "History of the East Mongols," says that during the reign of King Hlatotori, who came to the throne in 367 A.D., four objects descended from heaven one day and lighted upon the golden terrace of his palace, "namely, the image of two hands in the position of prayer, a golden pyramid-temple an ell high, a small coffer with a gem marked with the six fundamental syllables (Om-ma-nipad-mè-hûm), and the manual called Szamadok." As the king did not understand the nature of the holy objects, he ordered them to be locked up in his treasury. While they lay there, "misfortune came upon the king. If children were born, they came into the world blind; fruits and grain came to nothing; cattle plague, famine, and pestilence prevailed; and of unavoidable misery was there much." But after forty years had passed, there came five strangers to the king and said, "Great king, how couldst thou let these objects, so mystic and powerful, be cast into the treasury?" Having thus spoken, they

1 "Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, as Illustrated by some Points in the History of Indian Buddhism" (being the Hibbert Lectures for 1881), pp. 189-192.

Whose statements are based upon those made by C. F. Köppen, in his standard work upon "Die lamaische Hierarchie und Kirche."

3 "Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen: Aus dem Mongolischen übersetzt von Isaac Jacob Schmidt," pp. 2527. St. Petersburg, 1829. According to Schlagintweit, "Constructed Vessel,' a work on moral subjects forming part of the Kanjur."

suddenly disappeared. Therefore the king ordered the holy objects to be brought forth from the treasury, and to be attached to the points of standards, and treated with the utmost respect and reverence. After that all went well: the king became prosperous and long-lived, children were born beautiful, famine and pestilence came to an end, and in their place appeared happiness and welfare. With the date of this event Sanang Setsen connects the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet; but according to Tibetan historians, says Schlagintweit, "the earliest period of the propagation of Buddhism, which reached down till the end of the tenth century A.D., begins with King Srongtsan Gampo, who was born in the year 617 A.D., and died 698." This king is said to have sent a mission to India in the year 632 A.D., the result of which was the invention of a Tibetan alphabet, based upon Devanagari characters, and the translation into Tibetan of Indian sacred books. In his introduction of Buddhism into his kingdom he is said to have been "most energetically supported by his two wives, one of whom was a Nepalese, the other a Chinese princess. Both of them, who throughout their lifetime proved most faithful votaries to the faith of Buddha, are worshipped either under the general name of Dolma (in Sanskrit Tara), or under the respective names of Dolkar and Doljang." After making considerable progress during the reign of this monarch, the new religion lost ground under his immediate successors. "But under one of them, Thisrong de tsan, . . . Buddhism began to revive, owing to the useful regulations proclaimed by this king. He it was who successfully crushed an attempt made by the chiefs during his minority to suppress the new creed, and it is principally due to him that the Buddhist faith became henceforth permanently established."

Towards the end of the ninth century, continues Schlagintweit, Buddhism was strongly opposed by a ruler who "commanded all temples and monasteries to be demolished, the images to be destroyed, and the sacred books to be

burnt;" and his son and successor is also said to have died "without religion;" but his grandson was favourably inclined towards Buddhism, and rebuilt eight temples. "With this period we have to connect 'the second propagation of Buddhism;' it received, especially from the year 971 A.D., a powerful impetus from the joint endeavours of the returned Tibetan priests (who had fled the country under the preceding kings), and of the learned Indian priest Pandita Atisha and his pupil Brom-ston. Shortly before Atisha came to Tibet, 1041 A.D., the Kala Chakra doctrine, or Tantrika mysticism, was introduced into Tibet, and in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries many Indian refugees settled in the country, who greatly assisted the Tibetans in the translation of Sanskrit books." It is probably from this period that the Kah-gyur dates.

In the fourteenth century arose the reformer Tsonkhapa, who "imposed upon himself the difficult task of uniting and reconciling the dialectical and mystical schools which Tibetan Buddhism had brought forth, and also of eradicating the abuses gradually introduced by the priests." Tradition asserts that he "had some intercourse with a stranger from the West, who was remarkable for a long nose. Huc believes this stranger to have been a European missionary, and connects the resemblance of the religious service in Tibet to the Roman Catholic ritual with the information which Tsonkhapa might have received from this Roman Catholic priest. We are not yet able to decide the question as to how far Buddhism may have borrowed from Christianity; but the rites of the Buddhists enumerated by the French missionary can for the most part either be traced back to institutions peculiar to Buddhism, or they have sprung up in periods posterior to Tsonkhapa."1

Mr. Rhys Davids has remarked that, "As in India, after the expulsion of Buddhism, the degrading worship of Siva and his dusky bride had been incorporated into 1 Emil Schlagintweit, "Buddhism in Tibet," pp. 60-70.

Brahmanism from the wild and savage devil-worship of the dark non-Aryan tribes, so as pure Buddhism died away in the North, the Tantra system, a mixture of magic and witchcraft and Siva-worship, was incorporated into the corrupted Buddhism." Of this change for the worse, evidence about which there can be no mistake is supplied by the Tibetan sacred books. Dr. Malan, who has made. himself acquainted with the contents of some of their volumes in the original, says,2 " There are passages of great beauty and great good sense, the most abstruse metaphysics, and the most absurd and incredible stories; yet not worse than those told in the Talmud, which equal or even surpass them in absurdity."

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On New Year's day 1820, a traveller started from Bucharest on an adventurous journey towards the East. His name was Alexander Csoma Körösi (or de Körös), and he was one of the sons of a Szekler military family of Egerpatak, in the Transylvanian circle of Hungary. In 1799, when he seems to have been about nine years old, he was sent to the Protestant College at Nagy-Enyed, where he studied for many years with the idea of taking orders. In 1815 he was sent to Germany, and there he studied. for three years, chiefly at the University of Göttingen, where he attended the lectures of the celebrated Orientalist Johann Gottfried Eichhorn. After his return from Germany, he spent the greater part of the year 1819 in studying various Slavonic dialects, first at Temesvar in Lower Hungary, then at Agram in Croatia. But he soon resolved to apply himself to less-known tongues.

1 "Buddhism,” p. 207.

4 The exact date of his birth has

2 In a letter to the writer of the not been ascertained, but one of his Introduction.

3 In Hungarian his name would be written Körösi Csoma Sándor; in French, Alexandre Csoma de Körös; in English, he signed himself Alexander Csoma Körösi, the name Körösi being an adjectival form, meaning "of Körös."

Hungarian biographers states that he was about thirty when he started eastward in 1820. Another asserts that he was born in the Transylvanian village of Körös, on the 4th of April 1784.

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