YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY The EUCHARIST of BUDDHISM. o THE BUDDHISM OF TIBET LAMAISM WITH ITS MYSTIC CULTS, SYMBOLISM AND MYTHOLOGY, AND IN ITS BELATION TO INDIAN BUDDHISM. L. AUSTINE WADDELL, M.B., F.L.S., F.R.G.S., MEMBBR OF THE HOYAL ASIATIC SOCIKTY, ANTHROPOLOGICAL ISSTITUTE, ETC., SURGEON-MAJOR H.M. BKNGAL ARMY. 1^ LONDON : W. H. ALLEN & CO., LIMITED, 13, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W. 1895. [All rights reserved.] AVYMAN AND SONS, LIMITED, PBINTEKS, LONDON AND KEDHILL. W12. TO VILLIAM TENNANT GAIEDNER,-M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., in admiration of his noble character, philosophic teaching, wide culture, and many labours devoted with exemplary fidelity to the interpretation of nature and the service of man, this book is respectfully dedicated by The Author. PEEFACE NO apology is needed for the production at the pre sent time of a work on the Buddhism of Tibet, or " Lamaism " as it has been called, after its priests. Notwithstanding the increased attention which in recent years has been directed to Buddhism by the speculations of Schopenhauer and Hartmann, and the widely felt desire for fuller information as to the conditions and sources of Eastern religion, there exists no European book giving much insight into the jealously guarded religion of Tibet, where Buddhism wreathed in romance has now its chief stronghold. The only treatise on the subject in English, is Emil Schlagintweit's Buddhism in Tibet l published over thirty years ago, and now out of print. A work which, however admirable with respect to the time of its appearance, was admittedly fragmentary, as its author had never been in contact with Tibetans. And the only other European book on Lamaism, excepting Giorgi's curious compilation of last century, is Koppen's Die Lamaische Hier archie 1 Leipzig and London, 1863. That there is no lack of miscellaneous litera ture on Tibet and Lamaism may be seen from the bibliographical list in the appendix ; but it is all of a fragmentary and often conflicting character. PREFACE. wad Kirche ' published thirty-five years ago, and also a com pilation and out of print. Since the publication of these two works much new information has been gained, thoughj scattered through more or less inaccessible Russian, German, French, and Asiatic journals. And this, com bined with the existing opportunities for a closer study of Tibet and its customs, renders a fuller and more syste matic work now possible. Some reference seems needed to my special facilities for undertaking this task. In addition to having personally^ studied "southern Buddhism" in Burma and Ceylon; and " northern Buddhism " in Sikhim, Bhotan and Japan ; and exploring Indian Buddhism in its remains in "the Buddhist Holy Land," and the ethnology of Tibet and its border tribes in Sikhim, Asam, and upper Burma ; and being one of the few Europeans who have entered the territory of the Grand Lama, I have spent several years in studying the actualities of Lamaism as explained by its priests, at points much nearer Lhasa than any utilized for such a purpose, and where I could feel the pulse of the sacred city itself beating in the large communities of its natives, many of whom had left Lhasa only ten or twelve days previously. On commencing my enquiry I found it necessary to learn the language, which is peculiarly difficult, and known to very few Europeans. And afterwards, realizing the rigid secrecy maintained by the Lamas in regard to their seemingly chaotic rites and symbolism, I felt compelled to purchase a Lamaist temple with its fittings ; and prevailed on the officiating priests to explain to me in full detail the symbolism and the rites as they proceeded. Perceiv ing how much I was interested, the Lamas were so oblig- 1 Berlin, 1859. PREFACE. ing as to interpret in my favour a prophetic account which exists in their scriptures regarding a Buddhist in carnation in the West. They convinced themselves that I was a reflex of the Western Buddha, Amitabha, and thus they overcame their conscientious scruples, and im parted information freely. With the knowledge thus gained, I visited other temples and monasteries critically, amplifying my information, and engaging a small staff of Lamas in the work of copying manuscripts, and searching for texts bearing upon my researches. Enjoying in these ways special facilities for penetrating the reserve of Tibetan ritual, and obtaining direct from Lhasa and Tashi-lhunpo most of the objects and explanatory material needed, I have elicited much information on Lamaist theory and practice which is altogether new. The present work, while embodying much original research, brings to a focus most of the information on Lamaism scattered through former publications. And bearing in mind the increasing number of general readers interested in old world ethics, custom and myth, and in the ceaseless effort of the human heart in its insatiable craving for absolute truth ; as well as the more serious students of Lamaism amongst orientalists, travellers, missionaries and others, I have endeavoured to give a clear insight into the structure, prominent features and cults of this system , and have relegated to smaller type and footnotes the more technical details and references required by specialists. The special characteristics of the book are its detailed accounts of the external facts and curious symbolism of Buddhism, and its analyses of the internal movements leading to Lamaism and its sects and cults. It provides material culled from hoary Tibetan tradition and explained to me by Lamas for elucidating many obscure points in primitive Indian Buddhism and its later symbolism. Thus PREFACE. a clue is supplied to several disputed doctrinal points of fundamental importance, as for example the formula of the Causal Nexus. And it interprets much of the inter esting Mahayana and Tantrik developments in the later Indian Buddhism of Magadha. It attempts to disentangle the early history of Lamaism from the chaotic growth of fable which has invested it. With this view the nebulous Tibetan " history " so-called of the earlier periods has been somewhat critically examined in the light afforded by some scholarly Lamas and contemporary history ; and all fictitious chronicles; such as the Mani-kah-'bum, hitherto treated usually as historical, are rejected as authoritative for events which happened a thousand years before they were written and for a time when writing was admittedly unknown in Tibet. If, after rejecting these manifestly fictitious " histories " and whatever is supernatural, the residue cannot be accepted as altogether trustworthy history, it at least affords a fairly probable historical basis, which seems consistent and in harmony with known facts and unwritten tradition. It will be seen that I consider the founder of Lama ism to be Padma-sambhava — a person to Avhom previous writers are wont to refer in too incidental a manner, Indeed, some careful writers ' omit all mention of his name, although he is considered by the Lamas of all sects to be the founder of their order, and by the majority of them to be greater and more deserving of worship than Buddha himself. Most of the chief internal movements of Lamaism are now for the first time presented in an intelligible and systematic form. Thus, for example, my account of its 1 E.g. W. E. S. Ralston in his Tibetan Tales. PREFACE. xi sects *nay be compared with that given by Schlagintweit,1 to which nothing practically had been added.2 As Lamaism lives mainly by the senses and spends its strength in sacerdotal functions, it is particularly rich in ritual. Special prominence, therefore, has been given to its ceremonial, all the more so as ritual preserves many interesting vestiges of archaic times. My special facilities for acquiring such information has enabled me to supply details of the principal rites, mystic and other, most of which were previously undescribed. Many of these exhibit in combination ancient Indian and pre-Buddhist Tibetan cults. /The higher ritual, as already known, invites comparison with much in the Roman Church ; and the fuller details now afforded facilitate this com parison and contrast. But the bulk of the Lamaist cults comprise much deep-rooted devil-worship and sorcery, which I describe with some fulness. /For Lamaism is only thinly and im perfectly varnished over with Buddhist symbolism, beneath which the sinister growth of poly-demonist superstition darkly appears. The religious plays and festivals are also described. And a chapter is added on popular and domestic Lama ism to show the actual working of the religion in every day life as a system of ethical belief and practice. The advantages of the very numerous illustrations — about two hundred in number, mostly from originals brought from Lhasa, and from photographs by the author —must be obvious.3 Mr. Rockhill and Mr. Knight have kindly permitted the use of a few of their illustrations. 1 Op, cit, , 72. 2 But see note on p. 69. 3 A few of the drawings are by Mr. A. D. McCormick from photographs, or original objects ; and some have been taken from Giorgi, Hue, Pander, and others. PREFACE. A full index has been provided, also a chronological table and bibliography. I have to acknowledge the special aid afforded me by the learned Tibetan Lama, Padma Chho Phel; by thaf venerable scholar the Mongolian Lama She-rab Gya-ts'6;; by the Nin-ma Lama, Ur-gyan Gya-ts'6, head of the Yang-gang monastery of Sikhim and a noted explorer of Tibet ; by Tun-yig Wang-dan and Mr. Dor-je Ts'e-ring i by S'ad-sgra S'ab-pe, one of the Tibetan governors of Lhasa, who supplied some useful information, and a few manuscripts; and by Mr. A.W. Paul, CLE., when pursuing my researches in Sikhim. And I am deeply indebted to the kind courtesy of Professor C. Bendall for much special assistance and advice ; and also generally to my friend Dr. Islay Muirhead. Of previous writers to whose books I am specially under obligation, foremost must be mentioned Csoma Korosi, the enthusiastic Hungarian scholar and pioneer of Tibetan studies, who first rendered the Lamaist stores. of information accessible to Europeans.1 Though to Brian Houghton Hodgson, the father of modern critical study of Buddhist doctrine, belongs the credit of dis covering2 the Indian nature of the bulk of the Lamaist literature and of procuring the material for the detailed analyses by Csoma and Burnouf. My indebtedness to Koppen and Schlagintweit has already been mentioned. i Alexander Csoma of Koros, in the Transylvanian circle of Hungary, like most of the subsequent writers on Lamaism, studied that system in Ladak After publishing his Dictionary, Grammar, and Analysis, he proceeded to Darjihng in the hope of penetrating thence to Tibet, but died at Darjiling on the 11th April, 1842, a few days after arrival there, Avhere his tomb now bears a suitable monument, erected by the Government of India. For details of his life and labours, see his biography by Dr. Duka. 2 Asiatic Researches, xvi., 1828. PREFACE. Jaeschke's great dictionary is a mine of information on technical and doctrinal definitions. The works of Giorgi, Vasiliev, Schiefner, Foucaux, Rockhill, Eitel, and Pander, have also proved most helpful. The Narrative of Travels in Tibet by Babu Saratcandra Das, and his translations from the vernacular literature, have afforded some use ful details. The Indian Survey reports and Markham's Tibet have been of service ; and the systematic treatises of Professors Rhys Davids, Oldenberg and Beal have supplied several useful indications. The vastness of this many-sided subject, far beyond the scope of individual experience, the backward state of 'our knowledge on many points, the peculiar difficulties that beset the research, and the conditions under which the greater part of the book was written — in the scant leisure of a busy official life — these considerations may, I istrust, excuse the frequent crudeness of treatment, as well («as any errors which may be present, for I cannot fail to have missed the meaning occasionally, though sparing ino pains to ensure accuracy. But, if my book, not- L»t withstanding its shortcomings, proves of real use to tiuthose seeking information on the Buddhism of Tibet, lias well as on the later Indian developments of Buddhism, juand to future workers in these fields, I shall feel amply rttirewarded for all my labours. L. Austine Waddell. London, Zlst October, 1894. CONTENTS. Preface Note on Pronunciation List of Abbreviations ... I. Introductory — Division of Subject A. HISTORICAL. II. Changes in Primitive Buddhism leading to Lamaism ... III. Rise, Development, and Spread of Lxmaism . . . IV. The Sects of Lamaism B. DOCTRINAL. V. Metaphysical Sources op the Doctrine VI. The Doctrine and its Morality VII. Scriptures and Literature C. MONASTIC. VIII. The Order of Lamas IX. Daily Life and Routine ... X. Hierarchy and Re-incarnate Lamas D. BUILDINGS. XI. Monasteries PAGE vii xvii xix 1-4 5-17 18-53 54-75 76-131 132-154 155-168 169-211 212-225226-254 255-286 CONTENTS. XII. Temples and Cathedrals ... XIII. Shrines and Relics (and Pilgrims) PAGE 287-30| 305-323 E. MYTHOLOGY AND GODS. XIV. Pantheon and Images 324-386 XV. Sacred Symbols and Charms 387-419 F. RITUAL AND SORCERY. XVI. Worship and Ritual ... .... 420-449J XVII. Astrology and Divination ... ... ... 450-474) XVIII. Sorcery and Necromancy... ... ... ... 475-500 ] G. FESTIVALS AND PLAYS. XIX. Festivals and Holidays 501-5H| XX. Sacred Dramas, Mystic Plays and Masquerades 515-568 H. POPULAR LAMAISM. XXI. Domestic and Popular Lamaism ... ... ... 566-573 APPENDICES. I. Chronological Table 575-578 II. Bibliography 578-58J Index 585-59! PRONUNCIATION. The general reader should remember as a rough rule that in the oriental names the vowels are pronounced as in German, and the con sonants as in English, except c which is pronounced as " ch," n as " ng " and n as " ny." In particular, words like Buddha are pronounced as if spelt in English " Bood-dha," Sahya Muni as " Sha-kya M-66-nee," and Karma as " Kur-ma." The spelling of Tibetan names is peculiarly uncouth and startling to the English reader. Indeed, many of the names as transcribed from the vernacular seem unpronounceable, and the difficulty is not diminished by the spoken form often differing widely from the written, owing chiefly to consonants having changed their sound or dropped out of speech altogether, the so-called " silent consonants." l Thus the Tibetan word for the border-country which we, following the Nepalese, call Sikhim is spelt 'bras-ljons, and pronounced " Den-jong,'' and bkra-s'is is " Ta-shi." When, however, I have found it necessary to give the full form of these names, especially the more important words translated from the Sans krit, in order to recover their original Indian form and meaning, I have referred them as far as possible to footnotes. The transcription of the Tibetan letters follows the system adopted by Jaeschke in his Dictionary, with the exceptions noted below,2 and cor responds closely with the analogous system for Sanskritic words given over the page. The Tibetan pronunciation is spelt phonetically in the dialect of Lhasa. i Somewhat analogous to the French Us parlent. 2 The exceptions mainly are those requiring very specialized diacritical marks, the letters which are there (Jaeschke's Diet., p. viii.), pronounced ga as a prefix, eha, nya, the ha in several forms as the basis for vowels ; these I have rendered by g, eh', n and ' respectively. In several cases I have spelt words according to Csoma's system, by Avhich the silent consonants are italicized. PRONUNCIATION. For the use of readers who are conversant with the Indian alphabets, and the system popularly known in India as " the Hunterian," the following table, in the order in which the sounds are physiologidallyi produced — an order also followed by the Tibetans — will show the system of spelling Sanskritic words, which is here adopted, and whichi it will be observed, is almost identical with that of the widely used dictionaries of Monier- Williams and Childers. The different forms usedjin the Tibetan for aspirates and palato-sibilants are placed within brackets : — {gutturals) k kh(k') g gh n {palatals) c(c') ch(ch') J jh n {cerebrals) t th d dh n {dentals) t th(t') d dh n {labials) p pMp*) b bh m {palato-szbil.) (to) (to (« &ds) (*') 7 V r 1 sibilants) s h sh(s') s am am ABBREVIATIONS. B. Ac. Ptsbg. = Bulletin de la Classe Hist. Philol. de I'Academie de St. Poters- bourg. BimN. J. = Burnouf 's Introd. au Bv.dd. indien. Burn. II. ¦= „ Lotus de bonne Loi. cf. = confer, compare. Osoma An. = Csoma Korosi Analysis in Asiatic Researches, Vol. xx. Osoma Gfr. = „ „ Tibetan Grammar. Davids = Rhys Davids' Buddhism. Desg. = Desgodins' Le Tibet, etc. Eitel = Eitel's Handbook of Chinese Buddhism. Jabsch. D. = Jaeschke's Tibetan Dictionary. J.A.S.B. = Jour, of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal. J.R.A.S. = Journal of the Royal Asiatic Soc, London. HodGs. = Hodgson's Essays on Lang., Lit, etc. Hue = Travels in Tartary, Tibet, etc., Hazlitt's trans. KopptN = Koppen's Lamaische Sier. Marksam = Markham's Tibet. Marco P. = Marco Polo, Yule's edition. O.M. = Original Mitt. Ethnolog. Konigl. Museum fur Volkerkunde Berlin. Pander = Pander's Das Pantheon, etc. pr. = pronounced. Rock. L. = Rockhill's Land of the Lamas. Rock. B. = „ Life of the Buddha, etc. Sarat = Saratcandra Das. S.B.E. = Sacred Boohs of the Bast. Schlag. = E. Schlagintweit's Buddhism in Tibet. Skt. = Sanskrit. S.R. = Survey of India Report. T. = Tibetan. Tara. = Tdrandtha's Geschichte, etc., Schiefner's trans. Vasil. = Vasiliev's or Wassiljew's Der Buddhismtts. INTRODUCTORY. TIBET, the mystic Land of the Grand Lama, joint God and King of many mil lions, is still the most impenetrable country in the world. Behind its icy barriers, reared round it by Nature herself, and almost un- surmountable, its priests guard its passes jealously against foreigners. Few Europeans have ever entered Tibet ; and none for half a century have reached the B Below Tang-kau Pass INTRODUCTORY. sacred city. Of the travellers of later times who have dared to enter this dark land, after scaling its frontiers and piercing View into S.W. Tibet (from Tang-kar La Pass, 16,600 ft.). its passes, and thrusting themselves into its snow-swept deserts, even the most intrepid have failed to penetrate farther than the outskirts of its central province.1 And the information, thus perilously gained, has, with the exception of Mr. Rockhill's, been 1 The few Europeans who have penetrated Central Tibet have mostly been Roman missionaries. The first European to reach Lhasa seems to have been Friar Odoric, of Pordenne, about 1330 a.d. on his return from Cathay (Col. Yule's Cathay and the Rod Thither, i., 149, and C. Makkham's Tibet, xlvi.). The capital city of Tibet referred to by him with its '-'Abassi " or Pope is believed to have been Lhasa. In 1661 the Jesuits Albert Dorville and Johann Gruher visited Lhasa on their way from China to India. In 1706 the Capuchine fathers Josepho de Asculi and Francisco Marie de Toun pene trated to Lhasa from Bengal. In 1716 the Jesuit Desideri reached it from Kashmir and Ladak. In 1741 a Capuchine mission under Horacio de la Penna also succeeded in getting there, and the large amount of information collected by them supplied Father A. Giorgi with the material for his AlpJiabetum Tibetanum, published at Rome in 1762. The friendly reception accorded this party created hopes of Lhasa becoming a centre for Roman missionaries ; and a Vicar apostolicus for Lhasa is still nominated and appears in the ' ' A nnuario pontificio," though of course he cannot reside within Tibet, In 1811 Lhasa was reached by Manning, a friend of Charles Lamb, and the only English man who seems ever to have got there ; for most authorities are agreed that Moor- croft, despite the story told to M. Hue, never reached it. But Manning unfortunately left only a whimsical diary, scarcely even descriptive of his fascinating adventures. The subsequent, and the last, Europeans to reach Lhasa were the Lazarist mission aries, Hue and Gabet, in 1845. Hue's entertaining account of his journey is well known. He was soon expelled, and since then China has aided Tibet in opposing foreign ingress by strengthening its political and military barriers, as recent ex plorers: Prejivalsky, Rockhill, Bonvalot, Bower, Miss Taylor, etc., have found to their cost ; though some are sanguine that the Sikhim Trade Convention of this year (1894) a f°^7 u tm gB f k w? dge,t0 0pen UP the country, and that at no distant date Tibet will be prevailed on to relax its jealous exclusiveness, so that, 'ere 1900, " even Cook's tourists may visit the Lamaist Vatican! LAND OF THE SUPERNATURAL. almost entirely geographical, leaving the customs of this forbidden land still a field for fiction and romance. Thus we are told that, amidst the solitudes of this " Land of the Supernatural " repose the spirits of " The Masters," the Mahdtmas, Captain of Guard of Dong-hya Pass. (S.-Western Tibet.) whose astral bodies slumber in unbroken peace, save when they condescend to work some petty miracle in the world below. In presenting here the actualities of the cults and customs of Tibet; and lifting higher than before the veil which still hides its B 2 INTRODUCTORY. images, mysteries from European eyes, the subject may be viewed under the following sections: — a. Historical. The changes in primitive Buddhism leading to Lamaism, and the origins of Lamaism and its sects. b. Doctrinal. The metaphysical sources of the doctrine. The doctrine and its morality and literature. c. Monastic. The Lamaist order. Its curriculum, daily life, dress, etc., discipline, hierarchy and incarnate-deities and re- embodied saints. cl. Buildings. Monasteries, temples, monuments, and shrines. e. Pantheon and Mythology, including saints, fetishes, and other sacred objects and symbols. /. Ritual and Sorcery, comprising sacerdotal services for the laity, astrology, oracles and divination, charms and necromancy. g. Festivals and Sacred Plays, with the mystic plays and masquerades. h. Popular and Domestic Lamaism in every-day life, customs, and folk-lore. Such an exposition will afford us a fairly full and complete survey of one of the most active, and least known, forms of exist ing Buddhism; and will present incidentally numerous other topics of wide and varied human interest. P'or Lamaism is, indeed, a microcosm of the growth of religion and myth among primitive people ; and in large degree an object- 1 isson of their advance from barbarism towards civilization. And it preserves for us much of the old-world lore and petrified beliefs of our Aryan ancestors. II. CHANGES IN PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM LEADING TO LAMAISM. " w11 ! Constantine, of how much ill was cause, Not thy conversion, but those rich domains That the first Avealthy Pope received of thee."! JO understand the origin of Lamaism and its place in the Buddhist system, we must recall the leading features of primitive Buddhism, and glance at its growth, to see the points at which the strange creeds and cults crept in, and the gradual crystallization of these into a religion differing widely from the parent system, and opposed in so many ways to the teaching of Buddha. No one now doubts the historic character of Siddharta Gautama, or Sakya Muni, the founder of Buddhism ; though it is clear the canonical ac counts regarding him are overlaid with legend, the fabulous addition of after days.2 Divested of its embellishment, the simple narrative of the Buddha's life is strikingly noble and human. Some time before the epoch of Alex ander the Great, between the fourth and fifth centuries before Christ,3 Prince Siddharta appeared in India as an original thinker and teacher, deeply conscious of the degrading thraldom of caste and the Sakya Muni. 1 Dante, Paradiso, xx. (Milton's trans.) 2 See Chapter v. for details of the gradual growth of the legends. 3 See Chronological Table, Appendix i. CHANGES IN PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM. priestly tyranny of the Brahmans,1 and profoundly impressed with the pathos and struggle of Life, and earnest in the search of some method of escaping from existence which was clearly in volved with sorrow. His touching renunciation of his high estate,2 of his beloved Avife, and child, and home, to become an ascetic, in order to master the secrets of deliverance from sorrow; his unsatisfying search for truth amongst the teachers of his time ; his subsequent austerities and severe penance, a much-vaunted means of gaining spiritual in sight ; his retirement into solitude and self-communion ; his last struggle and final triumph— latterly represented as a real material combat, the so-called "Temptation of Buddha":— Temptation of Sakya Mdni (from a sixth century Ajanta fresco, after Eaj. Mitra). " Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round So^ebenr^V s°me.h°wl'd. *»me ydl'd, some shriek'd, borne bent at thee their fiery darts, Avhile thou Sat st unappall'd in calm and sinless peace " • » cit^'SZrJf dd^T1' "I!6" the™h™^> h«l existed for about three centuries previous to Uuddna's epoch, according to Mat m;;u„,.- m i /wn . Lectures, 1891, p. 58)-the initial dates there given are ifv . ™'-? T ^ ( Brahmanas, eighth century b.c. ; Sutra sixth, Ld Buddh sm fifth 'n^ * ^ ' . The researches of Vasiliev, etc., render t probable , ™t B dd ' ?*? f 1 only a petty lord or chief (of. also OldenbeiJ^ t?X V Sddharta's father was pessimistic view of life may have been ZceAuLnt'Tt^' ™A that ^*'S through conquest by a neighbouring Idng P ™ by the loss of his territories 3 Milton's Paradise Regained, Book iv BUDDHA'S LIFE AND DEATH. his reappearance, confident that he had discovered the secrets of deliverance ; his carrying the good tidings of the truth from town to town ; his effective protest against the cruel sacrifices of the Brahmans, and his relief of much of the suffering inflicted upon helpless animals and often human beings, in the name of religion ; his death, full of years and honours, and the subsequent Buddha's Death (from a Tibetan picture, after Grilnwedel). burial of his relics, — all these episodes in Buddha's life are familiar to English' readers in the pages of Sir Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia, and other works. His system, which arose as a revolt against the one-sided de velopment of contemporary religion and ethics, the caste-debase ment of man and the materializing of God, took the form, as we shall see, of an agnostic idealism, which threw away ritual and sacerdotalism altogether. Its tolerant creed of universal benevolence, quickened by the bright example of a pure and noble life, appealed to the feelings CHANGES IN PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM. of the people with irresistible force and directness, and soon gained for the new religion many converts in the Ganges Valley. And it gradually gathered a brotherhood of monks, which after Buddha's death became subject to a succession of "Patriarchs,"' who, however, possessed little or no centralized hierarchal power, \ nor, had at least the earlier of them, any fixed abode. About 250 B.C. it was vigorously propagated by the great Emperor Asoka, the Constantine of Buddhism, who, adopting it as his State-religion, zealously spread it throughout his own vast empire, and sent many missionaries into the adjoining lands to diffuse the faith. Thus was it transported to Burma,2 Siam, Ceylon, and other islands on the south, to Nepal8 and the countries to the north of India, Kashmir, Bactria, Afghanistan, etc. In 61 a.d. it spread to China,4 and through China, to Corea, and, 1 The greatest of all Buddha's disciples, Sariputra and Maudgalyayana, who from their prominence in the system seem to have contributed materially to its success, having died before their master, the first of the patriarchs was the senior surviving disciple, Mahakasyapa. As several of these Patriarchs are intimately associated with the Lamaist developments, I subjoin a list of their names, taken from the Tibetan canon and Taranatha's history, supplemented by some dates from modern sources. After Nagafjuna, the thirteenth (or according to some the fourteenth) patriarch, the succession is uncertain. List of the Pateiabchs. 1. Mahakasyapa, Buddha's senior disciple. 2. Ananda, Buddha's cousin and favourite attendant. 3. Sanavasu. 4. Upagupta, the spiritual adviser of Asoka, 250 B.C. 5. Dhritaka. 6. Micchaka or Bibhakala. 7. Buddhananda. 8. Buddhamitra (= PVasumitra, re ferred to as president of Kan- ishka's Council). 9. Parsva, contemporary of Kanishka, circa 78 a. d. 10. Sunasata (?or Punyayasas). 11. Asvaghosha, also contemporary of Kanishka, circa 100 a.d. 12. Masipala (Kapimala). 13. Nagarjuna, circa 150 a.d. 14. Deva or Kanadeva. 15. Rahulata (?). 16. Sahghanandi. 17. Sahkhayaseta (?) 18. Kumarada. 19. Jayata. 20. Vasubandhu, circa 400 a.d. 21. Manura. 22. Haklenayasas. 23. Siiihalaputra. 24. Vasasuta. 25. Punyarcitra. 26. Prajnatara. 27. Bodhidharma, who visited China- by sea in 526 a.d. 2 By Sona and Uttaeo (Maliavanso, p. 71). 3 Bochanan-Hakilton (Acct of Nepal, p. 190) gives date of introduction asAD 33- probably this was its re-introduction. ' 714ADDUring th6 ^^ °f thS EmPer°r Mlng T1- BEAL {Budd- in CW' P- 53) gives BUDDHA'S RELIGION AND ITS SPREAD. in the sixth century a.d., to Japan, taking strong hold on all of the people of these countries, though they were very different from those among whom it arose, and exerting on all the wilder tribes among them a very sensible civilizing influence. It is believed to have established itself at Alexandria.1 And it penetrated to Europe, where the early Christians had to pay tribute to the Tartar Buddhist Lords of the Golden Horde ; and to the present day it still survives in European Eussia among the Kalmaks on the Volga, who are professed Buddhists of the Lamaist order. Tibet, at the beginning of the seventh century, though now surrounded by Buddhist countries, knew nothing of that religion, and was still buried in barbaric darkness. Not until about the year 640 A.D. did it first receive its Buddhism, and through it some beginnings of civilization among its people. But here it is necessary to refer to the changes in Form which Buddhism meanwhile had undergone in India. Buddha, as the central figure of the system, soon became invested with supernatural and legendary attributes. And as the religion extended its range and influence, and enjoyed princely patronage and ease, it became more metaphysical and ritualistic, so that heresies and discords constantly cropped up, tending to schisms, for the suppression of which it was found necessary to hold great councils. Of these councils the one held at Jalandhar, in Northern India, towards the end of the first century A.D., under the auspices of the Scythian King Kanishka, of Northern India, was epoch-making, for it established a permanent schism into what European writers have termed the " Northern " and " Southern " Schools : the Southern being now represented by Ceylon, Burma, and Siam ; and the Northern by Tibet, Sikhim, Bhotan, Nepal, Ladak, China, Mongolia, Tartary, and Japan. This division, however, it must be remembered, is unknown to the Buddhists them selves, and is only useful to denote in a rough sort of way the relatively primitive as distinguished from the developed or mixed forms of the faith, with especial reference to their present-day distribution. 1 The MaMvanso (Tuknoue's ed., p. 171) notes that 30,000 Bhikshus, or Buddhist monks, came from " Alasadda," considered to be Alexandria. 10 CHANGES IN PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM. The point of divergence of these so-called "Northern" and " Southern" Schools was the theistic Mahayana doctrine, which "" substituted for the agnostic idealism and simple morality of Buddha, a speculative theistic system with a mysticism of sophis tic nihilism in the background. Primitive Buddhism practically confined its salvation to a select few ; but the Mahayana extended salvation to the entire universe. Thus, from its large capacity as a " Vehicle " for easy, speedy, and certain attainment of the state of a Bodhisat or potential Buddha, and conveyance across the sea of life (samsara) to Nirvana, the haven of the Buddhists, its adherents called it " The Great Vehicle " or Mahayana ; * while they contemptuously called the system of the others — the Primi tive Buddhists, who did not join this innovation — " The Little, or Imperfect Vehicle, " the Hinaydna,2 which could carry so few to Nirvana, and which they alleged was only fit for low intellects. This doctrinal division into the Mahayana and Hinayana, how ever, does not quite coincide with the distinction into the so-called; Northern and .Southern Schools ; for the Southern School shows a considerable leavening with Mahayana principles,3 and Indian Buddhism during its most popular period was very largely of the Mahayana type. Who the real author of the Mahayana was is not yet known. The doctrine seems to have developed within the Maha-sanghika or " Great Congregation " — a heretical sect which arose among the monks of Vaisali, one hundred years after Buddha's deatli, and at the council named after that place.4 Asvaghosha, who appears to have lived about the latter end of the first century A.D., is credited with the authorship of a work entitled On raising Faith in the Mahayana.5 But its chief expounder and developer was Nagarjuna, who was probably a pupil of Asvaghosha, as he 1 The word Tana (Tib., Teg-fa ch'en-po) or "Vehicle "is parallel to the Platonic oxi^va, as noted by Beal in Catena, p. 124. 2 Tib., Teg-pa dman-pa. 3 Cf . Hiuen Tsiang's Si-yu-Ei (Beal's), ii., p. 133; Eitel, p. 90; Dhabmapaia is Mahdbodhi Jour., 1892; Taw Sein Eo, Ind. Antiquary, June, 1892. i The orthodox members of this council formed the sect called Sthaviras or "elders." s He also wrote a biography of Buddha, entitled- Buddha-Cariia Kavya, translated by Cowell, in S.B.E. It closely resembles the Lalita Vistara, and a similar epic was brought to China as early as 70 a.d. (Beal's Chinese Buddhism, p. 90). He is aim credited with the authorship of a clever confutation of Brahmanism, which was latterly entitled Vajra Siki (cf. Hodss., III., 127).- THE MAHAYANA AND NAGARJUNA. 11 followed the successor of the latter in the patriarchate. He could not, however, have taken any active part in Kanishka's Council, as the Lamas believe. Indeed, it is doubtful even whether he had then been born.1 Nagarjuna claimed and secured orthodoxy for the Mahayana doctrine by producing an apocalyptic treatise which he attributed to Sakya Muni, entitled the Prajnd-pdraTnitd, or " the means of arriving at the other side of wisdom," a treatise which he alleged the Buddha had himself composed, and had hid away in the custody of the Naga demigods until men were sufficiently enlight ened to comprehend so ab struse a system. And, as his method claims to be a com promise between the extreme views then held on the nature of Nirvana, it was named the Mddhyamika, or the system " of the Middle Path." 2 This Mahayana doctrine was essentially a sophistic nihilism ; and under it the goal Nirvana, or rather Pari-Nirvana, while ceasing to be extinction of Life, was considered a mystical state which admitted of no definition. By developing the supernatural side of Buddhism and its objective symbolism, by rendering its J^Q]-*»)*-ffl"^a Nagaejuna. i Nagarjuna (T., kLu-grub.) appears to belong to the second century a.d. He was a native of Vidarbha (Berar) and a monk of Nalanda, the headquarters of several of the later patriarchs. He is credited by the Lamas (J.A.S.B., 1882, 115) with having erected the stone railing round the great Gandhola Temple of " Budh Gaya," though the style of the lithic inscriptions on these rails would place their date earlier. For a biographical note from the Tibetan by H. Wenzel, see /. Pali Text Soc, 1886, p. 1, also by Saeat, J.A.S.B., 51, pp. 1 and 115. The vernacular history of Kashmir (Rajatarangini) makes him a contemporary and chief monk of Kanishka's successor, King Abhimanyu (cf. also Eitel, p. 103 ; Schl., 21, 301-3 ; Kopp., ii., 14 ; O.M., 107, 2 ; Csoma, Gr„ xii., 182). 2 It seems to have been a common practice for sectaries to call their own system by this title, implying that it only was the true or reasonable belief. Sakya Muni also called his system "the Middle Path" (Davids, p. 47), claiming in his defence of truth to avoid the two extremes of superstition on the one side, and worldhness or infidelity on the other. Comp. the Via media of the Anglican Oxford movement. 12 CHANGES IN PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM. salvation more accessible and universal, and by substituting good words for the good deeds of the earlier Buddhists, the Mahayana appealed more powerfully to the multitude and secured ready popularity. About the end of the first century of our era, then, Kanishka's "Council affirmed the superiority of the Mahayana system, and published in the Sanskrit language inflated versions of the Bud dhist Canon, from sources for the most part independent of the Pali versions of the southern Buddhists, though exhibiting a re markable agreement with them.1 And this new doctrine supported by Kanishka, who almost rivalled Asoka in his Buddhist zeal and munificence, became. a dominant form of Buddhism throughout the greater part of India ; and it was the form which first penetrated, it would seem, to China and Northern Asia. Its idealization of Buddha and his attributes led to the creation of metaphysical Buddhas and celestial Bodhisats, actively willing and able to save, and to the introduction of innumerable demons and deities as objects of worship, with their attendant idolatry and sacerdotalism, both of which departures Buddha had expressly condemned, The gradual growth of myth and legend, and of the various theistic de velopments which now set in, are sketched in detail in another chapter,. As early as about the first century a.d., Buddha is made to be existent from all eternity and without beginning And one of the earliest forms given to the greai> ; est of these metaphysical I Buddhas — Amitabha, the" Buddhaof Boundless Light Manjdsei (the Bodhisat-God, holding the Book of Wisdom and wielding the Sword of Knowledge). sL^BuLVn Chines« a"d fP^f « Scriptures are translated from the Pali Beal s Budd. %n China, p. 5) and also a few Tibetan (cf. Chap. vii.). THEISM AND IMAGE-WORSHIP. 13 — evidently incorporated a Sun-myth, as was indeed to be ex pected where the chief patrons of this early Mahayana Buddhism, the Scythians and Indo-Persians, were a race of Sun-worshippers. The worship of Buddha's own image seems to date from this period, the first century of our era, and about four or five centuries after Buddha's death ;a and it was followed by a variety of polytheistic forms, the creation of which was probably facili tated by the Grecian Art influences then prevalent in Northern India.2 Different forms of Buddha's image, origin ally intended to represent different epochs in his life, were afterwards idealized into various Celestial Bud dhas, from whom the hu man Buddhas were held to be derived as material reflexes. About 500 a.d.3 arose the next great develop ment in Indian Buddhism with the importation into it of the pantheistic cult of Yoga, or the ecstatic union of the individual with the Universal Spirit, a cult which had been in troduced into Hinduism by Patanjali about 1 50 B.C. Buddha himself had attached much importance to the practice of Vajea-pani (the Wielder of the Thunderbolt). i Cf. statue of Buddha found at Sravasti, Cunningham's Stupa of Barhut, p. vii. So also in Christianity. Archdeacon Farrar, in his recent lecture on " The Development of Christian Art," states that for three centuries there were no pictures of Christ, but only symbols, such as the fish, the lamb, the dove. The catacombs of St. Callistus contained the first picture of Christ, the date being 313. Not even a cross existed in the early catacombs, and still less a crucifix. The eighth century saw the first picture of the dead Christ. Eabulas in 586 first depicted the crucifixion in a Syriac Gospel. s Smith's Graco-Boman vnfi.on Civilization of Ancient India, J. A. S.B., 58 et seq. , 1889, and Gednwedel's Buddh. Kitnst. 3 The date of the author of this innovation, Asahga, the brother of Vasubandhu, 14 CHANGES LEADING TO LAMAISM. abstract meditation amongst his followers; and such practices under the mystical and later theistic developments of his systera| readily led to the adoption of the Brahmanical calt of Yoga, which was grafted on to the theistic Mahayana by Asanga, a Buddhist monk of Gandhara (Peshawar), in Northern India. Those who mastered this system were called Yogdcdrya Bud dhists. The Yogacarya mysticism seems to have leavened the mass of the Mahayana followers, and even some also of the Hinayana; for distinct traces of Yoga are to be found in modern Burmese and Ceylonese Buddhism. And this Yoga parasite, containing within itself the germs of Tantrism, seized strong hold of its host and soon developed its monster outgrowths, which crushed and cankered most of the little life of purely Buddhist stock yet left in the Mahayana. About the end of the sixth j century a.d., Tantrism or Sivaic I mysticism, with its worship of female energies, spouses of the Hindu god Siva, began to tinge both Buddhism and Hinduism, Consorts were allotted to the several Celestial Bodhisats and most of the other gods and de mons, and most of them were given forms wild and terrible, and often monstrous, according to the supposed moods of each divinity at different times. And as these goddesses and fiendesses Samanta-ehadea (a Celestial Bodhisat). the twentieth patriarch, has not yet been fixed with any precision. It seems to be somewhere between 400 a.d. and 500 A.n.-Of . Vasil., B, p. 78; Schiefneb's Tdra, p. 1/b ; Julien s Uistoire de la vie de Hiuen Tshang, 83, 93, 97, 106, 114. TANTRIK BUDDHISM. 15 were bestowers of supernatural power, and were especially ma lignant, they were especially worshipped. By the middle of the seventh century a.d., India contained many images of Divine Buddhas and Bodhisats with their female energies and other Buddhist gods and demons, as we know from Hiuen Tsiang's narrative and the lithic remains in India ; x and the growth of . myth and ceremony had invested the dominant form of Indian Buddhism with organised litanies and full ritual. Such was the distorted form" of Buddhism introduced into Tibet about 640 a.d. ; and during the three or four succeeding centuries Indian Buddhism became still more debased. Its mysticism became a silly mummery of unmeaning jargon and " magic circles," dignified by the title of Mantraydna or "The Spell- Vehicle"; and this so-called " esoteric," but properly " exoteric," cult was given a respectable an tiquity by alleging that its real founder was Nagarjuna, who had received it from the Celestial Buddha Vairocana through the divine Bod- hisat Vajrasattva at " the iron tower " in Southern India. In the tenth century a.d.,2 the Tantrik phase developed in Northern India, Kashmir, and Nepal, into the monstrous and polydemonist doc trine, the Kalacakra,3 with its de moniacal Buddhas, which incor porated the Mantrayana practices, and called itself the Vajra-ydna, or " The Thunderbolt -Vehicle," and its followers were named Vajrd- cdrya, or " Followers of the Thunderbolt. Eleven-headed Avalokita. i See my article on Uren, J.A.S.B., 1891, and on Indian Buddhist Cult, etc., in J.M.A.S., 1894, p. 51 et seq. ¦ a About 965 a.d. (Csoma, Gr.; p. 192). 3 Tib., 'Dus-Kyi-'lFor-lo, or Circle of Time, see Chap. vi. It is ascribed to the fabu- I lous country of Sambhala (T., De'jun) to the North of India, a mythical country prob- ' ably founaed upon the Northern land of St. Padma-mm&ta>a, to wit Udyana. 16 CHANGES LEADING TO LAMAISM. In these declining days of Indian Buddhism, when its spiritual and regenerating influences were almost dead, the Muhammadaft invasion swept over India, in the latter end of the twelfth century a.d., and effectually stamped Buddhism out of the country. The fanatical, idol-hating Afghan soldiery1 especially attacked the Buddhist monasteries, with their teeming idols, and they mas- V Nako (an Indian Buddhist Vajiacarya Monk of the Eleventh Century a.d.). sacred the monks wholesale ; 2 and as the Buddhist religion, un like the more domestic Brahmanism, is dependent en its priests. and monks for its vitality, it soon disappeared in the ahsence of these latter. It lingered only for a short time longer in the more remote parts of the peninsula, to which the fiercely fanatical Muhammadans could not readily penetrate.3 But it has now been extinct in India for several centuries, leaving, however, all over that country, a legacy of gorgeous architectural remains and monuments of decorative art, and its 1 See article by me in J.A.S.B., lxvi., 1892, p. 20 et seg., illustrating this fanaticism and massacre with reference to Magadha and Asam. 2 Tabaqat-i-Ndsirl, Elliot's trans., ii.; 306, etc. 3 Taranatha says it still existed in Bengal till the middle of the fifteenth century A.D., under the " Chagala " Raja, whose kingdom extended to Delhi and who was converted to Buddhism by his wife. He died in 1448 a.d., and Prof. Bendall finds (Cat. Buddh. Skt. MSS. intr. p. iv) that Buddhist MSS. were copied in Bengal up to the middle of the fifteenth century, namely, to 1446. Cf. also his note in J.R.A.S., New Ser., xx., 552, anil mine in J.A.S.B. (Proc), February, 1893. ITS FORM IN TIBET. 17 living effect upon its apparent offshoot Jainism, and upon Brah- manism, which it profoundly influenced for good. Although the form of Buddhism prevalent in Tibet, and which has been called after its priests " Lamaism," is mainly that of the mystical type, the Vajra-yana, curiously incorporated with Tibetan mythology and spirit-worship, still it preserves there, as we shall see, much of the loftier philosophy and ethics of the system taught by Buddha himself. And the Lamas have the keys to unlock the meaning of much- of Buddha's doctrine, which has been almost inacessible to Europeans. IiAMA-WOKSHIP. Some Lama-pkiests. III. RISE, DEVELOPMENT, AND SPREAD OF LAMAISM, JIBET emerges from barbaric darkness only with the dawn of its Buddhism, in the seventh century of our era. Tibetan history, such as there is — and there is none at all before its Buddhist era, nor little worthy of the name till about the eleventh century a.d. — is fairly clear on the 1 From a photograph by Mr. Hoffmann. PRE-LlMAIST TIBET. . 19 point that previous to King Sron Tsan Gampo's marriage in 638-641 a.d., Buddhism was quite unknown in Tibet.1 And it is also fairly clear on the point that Lamaism did not arise till a century later than this epoch. Up till the seventh century Tibet was inaccessible even to the Chinese. The Tibetans of this prehistoric period are seen, from the few glimpses that we have of them in Chinese history about the end of the sixth century,2 to have been rapacious savages and reputed cannibals, without a written language,3 and followers of an animistic and devil-dancing or Shamanist religion, the Bon, resembling in many ways the Taoism of China. Early in the seventh century, when Muhammad (" Mahomet ") 1 The historians so-called of Tibet wrote mostly inflated bombast, almost valueless for historical purposes. As the current accounts of the rise of Buddhism in Tibet are so overloaded with legend, and often inconsistent, I have endeavoured to sift out the more positive data from the mass of less trustworthy materials. I have looked into the more disputed historical points in the Tibetan originals, and, assisted by the living traditions of the Lamas, and the translations provided by Kockhill and Bushell especially, but also by Schlagintweit, Sarat, and others, I feel tolerably confident that as regards the questions of the mode and date of the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet, and the founding of Lamaism, the opinions now expressed are in the main correct. The accounts of the alleged Buddhist events in prehistoric Tibet given in the Mani-Kdh-bum, Gyal-rabs, and other legendary books, are clearly clumsy fictions. Following the example of Burma and other Buddhist nations (cf. Hiuen Tsiang, Julien's trans., i., 179 ; ii., 107, etc.) who claim for their King an ancestry from the Sakya stock, we find the Lamas foisting upon their King a similar descent. A mythical exiled prince, named gNah-ICri-bTsan-po, alleged to be the son of King Prasenjit, Buddha's first royal patron, and a member of the Licchavi branch of the Sakya tribe, is made to enter Tibet in the fifth century B.C. as the progenitor of a millennium of Sron Tsan Gampo's ancestors ; and an absurd story is invented to account for the etymology of his name, which means " the back chair " ; while. the Tibetan people are given as progenitors a monkey (" Hilumandju," evidently in tended for Hanumanji, the Hindu monkey god, cf. Rock., LL., 355) sent by Avalo- kiteswara and a rakshasi fiendess. Again, in the year 331 a.d., there .fell from heaven several sacred objects (conf. Rock., B., p. 210), including the Om mani formula, which in reality was not invented till many hundred (probably a thousand) years later. And similarly the subsequent appearance of five foreigners before a King, said to have been named T'o-t'ori Nyan-tsan, in order to declare the sacred nature of the above symbols, without, however, explaining them, so that the people continued in ignorance of their meaning. And it only tends still further to obscure the points at issue to import into the question, as Lassen does (Ind. Alt., ii., 1072), the alleged erection on Mt. Kailas, in 137 B.C., of a temporary Buddhist monastery, for such a monastery must have belonged to Kashmir Buddhism, and could have nothing to do with Tibet. 2 Bushell, loo. cit., p. 435. i They used knotched wood and knotted cords (Remusat's Researches, p. 384). c2 20 . RISE OF LAMAISM. was founding his religion in Arabia, there arose in Tibet a warlike king, who established his authority over the other wild clans of central Tibet, and latterly his son, Sron Tsan Gampo,1 harassed the western borders of China; so that the Chinese Emperor T'aitsung,;; of the T'ang Dynasty, was glad to come to terms with this young prince, known to the Chinese as Ch'itsung-luntsan, and gave him in 641 a.d.2 the Princess 3 Wench'eng, of the imperial house, in marriage.4 Two years previously Sron Tsan Gampo had married Bhrikuti, 'a daughter of the Nepal King, Amsuvarman ; 5 ' and both of these wives being bigoted Buddhists, they speedily effected the conversion of their young husband, who was then, according 1 Called also, prior to his accession (says Rockhill, Life, p. 211) Khri-ldan Sron btsan (in Chinese, Ki-tsung lun-tsan). His father, g'Nam-ri Sron-tsan, and his an cestors had their headquarters at Yar-lun, or " the Upper Valley," below the Yar- lha sam-po, a mountain on the southern confines of Tibet, neaT the Bhotan frontier. The Yar-luh river flows northwards into the Tsang-po, below Lhasa and near Samye. This Yar-luh is to be distinguished from that of the same name in the Kham pro vince, east of Bathang, and a tributary of the Yangtse Kiang. The chronology by Bu-ton (t'am-c'ad K'an-po) is considered the most reliable, and Sum-pa K'an-po accepted it in preference to the Baidyur Kar-po, composed by the Dalai Lama's orders, by De-Srid Sah-gyas Gya-mts'o, in 1686. According to Bu-ton, the date of Sron Tsan Gampo's birth was 617 a.d. (which agrees with that given by the Mongol historian,. Sasnang Setzen), and he built the palace Pho-dah-Marpo -on the Lhasa hill when aged nineteen, and the Lhasa Temple when aged twenty-three. He married the Chinese princess when he was aged nineteen, and he died aged eighty-two. The Chinese records, translated by Bushell, make him die early. Csoma's date of 627 (Grammar, p. 183) for his birth appears to be a clerical error for 617. His first mission to China was in 634 (Bushell, J.R.A.S., New Ser., xii., p. 440). 2 According to Chinese annals (Bushell, 435), the Tibetan date for the marriage is 639 (C, (?., p. 183), that is, two years after his marriage with the Nepalese princess. 3 Kong-jo = " princess " in Chinese. 1 The Tibetan tradition has it that there were three other suitors for this princess's hand, namely, the three greatest kings they knew of outside China, the Kings of Mag- adha, of Persia (sTag-zig), and of the Hor (Turl-i) tribes. See also Hodgson's Ess. and Rockhill's B., 213 ; Csoma's Gr., 196 ; Bodhimur, 338. 5 Amsuvarman, or " Glowing Armour," is mentioned by Hiuen Tsiang (Beal's Ed. Si-yu-H, ii., p. 81) as reigning about 637, and he appears as a grantee in Fleet's Corpn Inscrn. Ind. (iii., p. 190) in several inscriptions ranging from 635 to 650 A.D., from which it appears that he was of the Thakuri dynasty and a feudatory of King of Harshavardhana of Kanauj, and on the death of the latter seems to have become independent. The inscriptions show that devi was a title of his royal ladies, and his 635 a.d. inscription recording a gift to his nephew, a svdmin (an officer), renders it prob able that he had then an adult daughter. One of his inscriptions relates to Sivaist lingas, but none are expressedly Buddhist. The inscription of 635 was discovered by C. Bendall, and published in Ind. Ant. for 1885, and in his Jmmtey, pp. 13 and 73. Cf- also Ind. Ant., ix., 170, and his description of coins in Zeitchr. der Deutsch. INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM. 21 to Tibetan annals, only about sixteen years of age,1 and who, under their advice, sent to India, Nepal, and •China for Buddhist books and teachers.2 It seems a perversion of the real order of events to state, as is usually done in European books, that Sron Tsan Gampo first adopted Buddhism, and then married two Buddhist wives. Even the vernacular chronicle,3 which presents the subject in its most flattering form, puts into the mouth of Sron Tsan Gampo, when he sues for the hand of his first wife, the Nepalese princess, the following words : " I, the King of barbarous4 Tibet, do not practise the ten virtues, but should you be pleased to bestow on me your daughter, and wish me to have the Law,5 1 shall practise the ten virtues with a five-thousand-fold body . . , though I have not the arts . . . ' if you so desire ... I shall build 5,000 temples." Again, the more reliable Chinese history records that the princess said " there is no religion in Tibet " ; and the glimpse got of Sron Tsan in Chinese history shows him actively engaged throughout his life in the very un-Buddhist pursuit of bloody wars with neighbouring states. The messenger sent by this Tibetan king to India, at the instance of his wives, to bring Buddhist books was called Thon- mi Sam-bhota.6 The exact date of his departure and return are un certain,7 and although his Indian visit seems to have been within the period covered by Hiuen Tsiang's account, this history makes no mention even of the country of Tibet. After a stay in India 8 of several years, during which Sam-bhota studied under the i The Gyal-rabs Sel-wai Melon states that S. was aged sixteen on his marriage with the Nepalese princess, who was then aged eighteen, and three years later he I built his Pho-dah-Marpo Palace on the Red Hill at Lhasa. 1 2 The monks who came to Tibet during Sron Tsan Gampo's reign were Kusara (? Kumara) and Sahkara Brahmana, from India ; Sila Mafiju, from Nepal ; Hwa- tl shang Maha-ts'e, from China, and (E. Schlagt., Gyal-rabs, p. 49) Tabuta and Ganuta, J! from Kashmir. 3 Mirror of Royal pedigree, Gyal-rabs Sel-wai Melon. 4 mT'ah-'k'ob. * K'rims. 6 • Sambhota is the Sanskrit title for " The good Bhotiya or Tibetan." His proper name ;is Thon-mi, son of Anu. 7 632 a.d. is sometimes stated as date of departure, and 650 as the return ; but on this -latter date Sron Tsan Gampo died according to the Chinese accounts, although he (should survive for many (48) years longer, according to the conflicting Tibetan records. 8 " Southern India " (Bodhimur, p. 327). 22 RISE OF LAMAISM. Brahman Livikara or Lipidatta1 and the pandit Devavid Sinha (or Sinha Ghosha), he returned to Tibet, bringing several Buddhist books and the so-called "Tibetan" alphabet, by means of which he now reduced the Tibetan language to writing and composed for this purpose a grammar.2 This so-called " Tibetan " character, however, was merely a somewhat fantastic reproduction of the north Indian alphabet current in India at the time of Sam-bhota's visit. It exaggerates the flourishing curves of the " Kutila," which was then coming into vogue in India, and it ve'ry slightly modified a few letters to adapt them to the peculiarities of Tibetan phonetics.3 Thonmi translated into this new character several small Buddhist texts,4 but he does not appear to have become a monk or to have attempted any religious teaching. Sron Tsan Gampo, being one of the greatest kings of Tibet and the first patron of learning and civilization in that country, and haA'ing with the aid of bis wives first planted the germs of Buddh ism in Tibetan soil, he is justly the most famous and popular king of the country, and latterly he was canonized as an incarna tion of the most popular of the celestial Bodhisats, Avalokita ; and in keeping with this legend he is figured with~his hair dressed up into a high conical chignon after the fashion of the Indian images of this Buddhist god, " The Looking-down-Lord," His two wives were canonized as incarnations of Avalokita's consort, Tara, " the Saviouress," or Goddess of Mercy ; and the fact that they bore him no children is pointed to as evidence of their divine nature.5 The Chinese princess Wench'eng was deified 1 Li-byin = Li + " to give." 2 sGrdhi bstan hch'os sum ch'u-pa. 3 The cerebrals and aspirates not being needed for Tibetan sounds were rejected. And when afterwards the full expression of Sanskrit names in Tibetan demanded these letters, the five cerebrals were formed by reversing the dentals and the aspirates obtained by suffixing an h, while the paiato-sibilants ts, tsh, and ds were formed by adding a surmounting crest to the palatals ch, chh, and j. Jt is customary to say that the cursive style, the " headless " or U-med (as distinguished from the full form with the head the U-ch'en) was adapted from the so-called "Wartu" form of Devanagri- Hodgson, As. Res., xvi., 420 ; Schmidt, Mem. de I'Ac. de Pet., i , 41 ; Csoma, Gr., 201; Sahat, J.A.S.B., 1888,42. * The first book translated seems to have been the Karanda-vyulm, sutra, a favourite in Nepal ; and a few other translations still extant in the Tan-gyur are ascribedtn him (Csoma, A., and Rock., B., 212. 5 His issue proceeded from two or four Tibetan wives. ROYAL PATRONS OF BUDDHISM. 23 as " The white Tara,"1 as in the annexed figure; while the Nepa lese princess