the Tartars, and in 1270 Kublai khan recognised the
supremacy of the Red Lama of the Sakya monastery
as titular ruler of Tibet, an arrangement which lasted
until the foundation of the Yellow or Gelukpa sect by
Tsong-kapa in the fifteenth century and the final establishment
of the re-incarnate hierarchy of Lhasa two
hundred years later. But before that momentous coup
d'état, the first European traveller had entered Tibet,
and it is the aim of this chapter rather to give a brief
account of the attempts of foreign nations to enter into
communication with this hermit country, than to dwell
at any length upon its internal history.
Friar Odoric or Ordericus of Pordenone, a Minorite
friar, appears to have visited Tibet about the year 1328.
He was returning from the east coast of China, by Shensi,
hoping eventually to strike the main European
caravan routes through Asia. It seems clear that he
never reached Lhasa. Astley dismisses him as “ the
prince of bars,” but some of his notes are good and
interesting. He reports of the capital of Tibet that its
walls are black and white ; ■ that its streets are well
paved -, that the Buddhist prohibition against the
taking of life was strictly observed there ; and that the
Tibetans of the country districts lived, as now, in black
yak-hair tents. The title of the Grand Lama of Sakya
he gives as Abassi, in which a reflection of the Latin
title of the chief of a monastery may probably be seen.
But from that time there is a blank of many years,
at the end of which the present régime was established by
Tsong-kapa,* a monk from the then populous region of
Koko-nor, far to the north-east of Lhasa. His reformations
were sweeping in their scope, and though
* “ He of the Onion Land.5’
at this day the various sects of Lamaism are divided
rather by tradition, ritual and costume than by any
vital dogmatic schism, the stricter moral code of the
Gelukpas or Yellow Caps, Tsong-kapa’s sect, is still to
be recognised. Before the next European visited Lhasa,
the Gelukpas had consolidated their rule, and in 1624,
Antonio Andrada, of the Society of j esus, found the chief
power in their hands at Tashi-lhunpo. This missionary
was the author of the most widely known description of
Tibet until the travels of Turner were issued at the close
of the eighteenth century. But it is certain that his acquaintance
with the country was limited to the western
and northern parts— Lhasa still remained unvisited.
The doctrine of political re-incarnation had now
been fully accepted. The first re-incarnation of
Amitabha or Manjusri*—the Indian synonyms are conveniently
used for the chief personages of the Greater
Vehicle of Buddhism— was Gedun-tubpa, Grand Lama
of Tashi-lhunpo,. in whom Tsong-kapa recognised the
personality of Padma Sambhava. Gedun-tubpa thus
founded a series of re-incarnations near, Shigatse, of
which the successive holders made such good use, that
towards the middle of the seventeenth century Na-wang
Lob-sang made himself master of Tibet. But he then
transferred his capital to Lhasa, accepted the title of
Dalai Lama from the Emperor of China, f built the
Potala Palace, and, most important of all, discovered
that, besides being, as Grand Lama of Tashi-lhunpo, a
re-incarnation of Amitabha, he was also a reappearance
of Avalokiteswara. This produced a curious result, for
Avalokiteswara was an emanation of Amitabha and,
* The Tibetan name is Chenrezig.
t The title means Ocean (of learning). It has originated the perpetual surname
of Gya tso (expanse of water) for the successive re-incarnations of the Dalai Lama.