on the north it is red like a Kshattriya (warrior); and
on the west it is dark like a Sudra (servile caste). Four
mountains form buttresses to Meru, and on each of these
stand severally a kadam-tree (anthocephalus cadamba),
a jambu-tree (eugenia jambolana), a pipal-tree (ficus
religiosa) and a fig-tree (ficus Indica). There are also
four great forests and four great lakes; one being Lake
Mansarowar, called Mobang or Mapan by the Tibetans,
and the gods drink their waters. “ There are the regions
of paradise (Swarga), the seats of the righteous and
where the wicked do not arrive even after a hundred
births ; there is no sorrow, nor weariness, nor anxiety,
nor hunger, nor apprehension: the inhabitants are
exempt from all infirmity and live in uninterrupted
enjoyment for ten or twelve thousand years. Devi
never sends rain upon them, for the earth abounds
with water. There is no distinction or any succession
of ages ” (Hindu Shastra).
Compare with this Homer’s account of Olympus,
Odyssey vi. 42:
“ Olympus, where, as they say, is the seat of the
gods that standeth fast for ever. Not by winds is it
shaken, nor ever wet with vain, nor doth the snow
come nigh thereto, but most clear air is spread about
it cloudless, and the white light floats over it. Therein
the blessed gods are glad for all their days ” (Butcher
and Lang).
And Tennyson’s, “ The Passing of Arthur ” :
“ The island valley of Avilion,
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly ; but it lies
Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns
And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea.”
The Buddhism of Tibet was obtained from India,
and, therefore, it is only natural to find that this country
of Kailas and Mansarowar, which is the heaven of the
Hindus, should be regarded as most sacred by the
Tibetans, and we are then not surprised to see that
the Tibetans call Mansarowar “ Rimpoche ” or “ the
holy lake, and look upon Kailas as the Paradise of
their gods.” The Bhotias also, who are a Mongolian
living on our borders, have been so far influenced by
the Buddhist and Hindu veneration accorded to this
country, that they too have themselves attached great
religious importance to it, and consider it as their own
heaven, in which dwells Brahma the omnipotent.
Waddell in his “ Buddhism of Tibet ” writes regarding
the Tibetan belief : *
“ Each universe, set in unfathomable space, rests
upon a warp and woof of ‘ blue air,’ or wind, like crossed
thunderbolts, hard and imperishable as diamonds,
upon which is set ‘ the body of waters,’ upon which is a
foundation of gold, on which is set the earth, from the
axis of which towers up the great Olympus-Mount
Meru, 84,000 miles high, surmounted by the heavens,
and overlying the hills. In the ocean around this central
mountain, are set the four great continental worlds,
all with bases of solid gold in the form of a tortoise.
And the continents are separated from Mount Meru by
seven concentric rings of golden mountains, the inmost
being 40,000 miles high, alternating with seven oceans of
fragrant milk, curds, butter, blood or sugar-cane juice,
poison or wine, fresh water and salt water. And in the
very centre of this cosmic system is ‘ the King of mountains,’
Mount Meru, towering erect ‘ like the handle of
a mill-stone,’ while half-way up its side is the great
wishing-tree, the prototype of our ‘Christmas-tree,’
* Cf. pp. 77, 81.