INVOCATION OF LUNGTA.

253

the officiating Lama, holding in his left hand the two spoons, emblematical of those used in this ceremony.

3. Invocation of Lungta.

Lungta, "the airy horse, the horse of wind," occurs in the list of the seven precious things under the name of Tachog, "the best horse of its kind." This horse is praised in the legends for its extraordinary swiftness. "When the king of the golden wheel, the governor of the four continents (in Sanskrit Maha Chakravartin Rāja), mounts it to traverse the world, he sets out in the morning and returns at night without having experienced any fatigue." The Norvu phrengva reports, that it over immense tracts in one moment."

passes 21.

The Lungta is the symbol of "harmony;" for it unites in harmony the three conditions of human existence, upon the union of which happiness depends; it strengthens these conditions, so as to cause a union salutary to man. These three conditions of existence and welfare are: Srog, Lus, and Vang.

Srog, the vital principle, "breath," is the basis of existence.

Lus, "body," means the due development of the organic formation of the body.

Vang, "power," means the moral energy enabling man to abstain from such actions as injure the vital

'rLung, "wind;" rta, "horse."

2 Rémusat, in Foe koue ki, p. 128. Schmidt, Ssanang Ssetsen, p. 471. About the seven precious things, see p. 53.

Plate XI.

principle and the organs of the body, and produce illness and death. It indicates, at the same time, the faculty of averting the dangers which arise from the natural hostility of the elements.1

Another faculty of Lungta is the power of depriving the constellations of the planets hostile to man of their obnoxious influence. Moreover, the efficacy of any Dharani, or mystical sentence, for happiness in this existence is supposed to become more certain by the presence of Lungta, and from this belief it has become customary to add to such Dharanis a horse supporting the precious stone Norbu, or a figure allegorical of the horse, or at least an address directed to Lungta.

The plates brought home by my brothers, exhibit specimens of this practice. The Dharanis are Sanskrit, and are written with Tibetan, and occasionally also with Lantsa characters. The purposes aimed at, and the deities implored by them vary; in most of them, however, we meet with "Om mani padme hum," and "Om Vajrapani hum," Dhāranis meant for Padmapāni and Vajrapani.

The horse stands in the centre of plate No. XI., and bears the precious stone Norbu. In other copies it is running towards the left border, whilst the letters run as usual from left to right; in the present plate

As often as the element which at a person's birth occurred in the denomination of the year comes in contact in "the cycles of years" with a hostile element, the years in which this takes place are unlucky ones; health is endangered and failure in one's undertakings may be expected. This idea refers to the belief of the Tibetans in an influence of the elements upon the welfare of man. See Chapter XVII.

To face p 254

Plate XI.

MYSTICAL SENTENCES, WITH THE FIGURE OF THE AIRY

HORSE.

The letters are here inverted, the same having been cut in the block itself in their positive form.