CHAPTER II.
LAMAISM.
No account of an expedition to Lhasa would be complete
without some reference to the technical side of the
religion of the country. I have before referred to its
application to the people and the effect it produces upon
their life, but a certain amount of information as to the
ecclesiastical aspect of Lamaism is necessary to a full
understanding of the real position which Buddhism
occupies in Central Asia. I have no intention of wearying
the reader with minute formulae, but the spirit which
underlies this Buddhism is worthy of some study.
The origin of Buddhism in Tibet is explained by the
Tibetans themselves in a somewhat amusing way. It
is said that in old days Tibet was a country of ravines
and mountain tops and torrents, varied by huge lakes.
Buddha in person then visited the land, and found that
the inhabitants were monkeys. He questioned the
monkeys and asked them why they were not men and
good Buddhists. They answered, not without reason,
that with the country in its existing state there was no
opportunity for the development of their own bodies,
let alone their religious impulses. To this Buddha
replied : “ If you will promise to become men and good
Buddhists I will give you a good and fertile land to live
in.” The agreement having been struck, Buddha there
and then drained off the waters from the land which
is now known as the plain of Gyantse by an underground
channel through the Himalayas into the Ganges
near Gaya. The Tibetans on fheir side kept their promise,
and though of course they knew not Darwin,
became both men and, as they assert, good Buddhists.
As a matter of fact, the moment at which Buddhism
became the established religion of Tibet can be ascertained
with some approach to certainty. The Tibetan
King Srong-tsan-gambo, to whom reference has been
made in the first chapter, must have been a man of considerable
foresight. It is not in the least likely that it
was the influence of his two wives, one of whom was a
Chinese, and the other a Nepalese princess, which decided
him to adopt Buddhism as the religion of his country,
though both of them may have helped to strengthen him
in his intention. The truth is that he recognised the
enormous value which would attach to the identification
of Buddhism with his new capital. In India, as he saw
clearly enough, Buddhism was being driven headlong
before the re-encroaching tides of Hinduism. Had
Buddhism remained a living force in India, no other
place in Asia could have attempted to compete in local
religious importance with, say, Gaya. But when Buddhism
became an exile from the land of its birth, Srong-
tsan-gambo made use of his opportunity. He recognised
both the importance of having its central authority
located in Lhasa, and the peculiar suitability of that
place to his aims. In the seventh century, therefore,
the official metropolis of Buddhism was transferred from
the plains of Northern India to the mountain fastnesses
of Tibet, and here in a couple of centuries the new
religion established itself in the mystic and fascinating
seclusion which veils it to this day.