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the gown, hang a knife-case and several purses or little pockets containing various articles, such as a tooth-brush, a tongue-scraper and an ear-pick, steel and tinder, tabacco or betel-nut, dice used in foretelling future events; a prayer-cylinder and a Chinese metal pipe are also almost always to be found among the articles fastened to it.

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The rosaries, in Tibetan Thengpa, indispensable instruments for counting the due number of prayers, are generally fastened to the girdle, or sometimes worn round the neck. The beads amount to 108, which answer to the number of the volumes of the Kanjur; but most of those used by the lay population have a much smaller number of beads, about thirty to forty. The beads are of wood, pebbles, or bones of holy Lamas; the latter have a very high price; the rosaries of the head Lamas are not unfrequently of precious stones, particularly of nephrite (the Turkistani Yashem) and of turquoise. To most rosaries are fastened a pair of pinchers, needles, an ear-pick, and a small Dorje."

The amulet-boxes, in Tibetan Gau (in the Lepcha language of Sikkim Koro, and Kandum, if of wood), are likewise worn round the neck; and it is not unfrequent to see several fastened to the same string. Most of the

1 Compare Pallas, "Reisen," Vol. I., p. 563. Turner, "Embassy," pp. 261, 336. I. J. Schmidt, "Forschungen," p. 168. While travelling the Lamas are loaded with many other objects. See Hooker, "Himalayan Journals," Vol. II., p. 142.

2 Pinchers are in use even amongst the rudest tribes, who go almost naked; for they need them to draw out thorns. I add as another instance of the ancient use of pinchers, that we have found them also in the oldest graves in the Franconian Hills, in Bavaria.

DRESS: AMULET BOXES.

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boxes are pointed, imitating the form of a fig-leaf; but they are also square or circular. The outside is either embossed or painted.

Wooden boxes are closed by a slide, which has not unfrequently a space cut out to allow the image of the chosen tutelary god to be seen. Those of brass have the two parts fitting together like the cover and the lower part of boxes; but hinges are replaced by rings, of which one at least must be connected with each part. A string or a piece of leather can be passed through, and serves to hang up the object as well as to keep it together.

The things put into such cases are relics, images of deities, objects which are believed to be dreaded by the evil spirits, and charms.1 I had occasion to examine the following different sorts:

1. A square wooden box from Gyúngul, in Gnári Khórsum; the box was bound in brass. In the interior were carved on one side one of the goddesses Dolma (see p. 66), who are supposed to protect against emaciation, having on her left Chenresi (see p. 88) and Amitabha (see p. 53) on her right. The opposite side shows Sakyamuni with the same deities.

2. A leaf-shaped wooden box painted yellow, with red clouds. It contained a figure of Shinje (see p. 93) of tinted clay; at the bottom of the case lay a little medal of hardened barley-paste representing Tsonkhapa

1 Compare about the kind of charms, Csoma, "Journ. As. Soc. Beng.," Vol. IX., p. 905.

(see p. 69); it is half an inch in diameter, and was wrapped in paper covered with charms.

3. A circular box of brass with charms and a similar medal of Tsonkhapa, covered with gold paint.

4. Three conical brass boxes fastened to one string. The central box enclosed a gilt figure of Tsepagmed Amitabha, see p. 129), who is supposed to grant longevity. Also a piece of copper formed to represent a thunderbolt was wrapped in a piece of red cloth as a protection from the effects of lightning. In the smallest box several slips of paper were covered with seals of the Dalai Lama printed in red, which are supposed to protect against death by drowning. I found there also grains of barley and earth. The third box contained several figures of Lha Dolma, and Tsonkhapa (all carefully wrapped in pieces of red silk) alternating with charm-papers.

The charms were all written in small characters, or running hand, but by the friction against the images and grains the papers had been almost reduced to loose fibres. All objects were strongly perfumed with musk, and had besides, like every sacred article fabricated in monasteries, an unpleasant greasy odour.'

1 Drawings of the different sorts of rosaries, as well as of the amulet boxes described above, from originals obtained by my brothers, will be given in a plate accompanying the "Results of a Scientific Mission to India and High Asia."

CHAPTER XIII.

RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS AND MONUMENTS.

CEREMONIES PRECEDING THE ERECTION.-MONASTERIES.-HISTORICAL DOCUMENT RELATING TO THE FOUNDATION OF THE MONASTERY OF HIMIS.-TEMPLES.RELIGIOUS MONUMENTS. 1. Chortens. 2. Manis. 3. Derchoks and Lapchas.

Ceremonies preceding the erection.

THE erection of every new religious building is preceded by a benediction of the ground and by various other ceremonies. The Lamas of the neighbourhood come together, and the highest in rank presents offerings to the deity selected as tutelary god, it being the custom to dedicate every building to a particular god, who is supposed then to protect it against mischievous spirits as well as malignant men, and to bestow every kind of happiness upon its frequenters. A god very often chosen as patron, is King Bihar (Bihar gyalpo) one of the five

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great kings. An image which my brother Adolphe obtained in Gnári Khórsum represents Bihar in an upright attitude, standing upon the "seat of diamond," Tib. Dorjedan, Sanskrit Vajrasana, formed of Lotus leaves. He is trampling upon four human beings of black, red, white and yellow colour; the skulls also of which his necklace is composed are of these colours. His gown is of blue silk (Tib. Darzab), with various ornaments; his cap, of the form I have described (p. 171) as Nathongzha, and his shawl are red. His right hand wields the Dorje, in his left is the Phurbu. The picture is meant to represent a statue placed in a box the four sides of which form a frame separating it from the surrounding figures, which are: the fabulous kings Dalha, Luvang, and Tokchoi gyalpo, and three highly revered Lamas.

The prayers accompaning the inaugurative ceremonies are read for the prosperity of the edifice. At the ceremony of laying the first stone prayers are recited for the prosperity of the new temple or place of worship; these are then written down and deposited with other prayers and certain forms of benediction (Tib. Tashi tsig jod, "blessing speeches"), together with relics and other sacred objects, in a hollow in the foundation stone. When the building is finished, the Lamas again assemble to perform the rites of consecration.2

The restoration of a ruined building is also preceded

1 See p. 157.

2 A volume treating of these ceremonies, in which Vajrasattva (p. 53) is addressed, is mentioned by Csoma in his Analysis of the Kanjur, As. Res., Vol. XX., p. 503. Concerning the objects usually enclosed in the Chortens, see Cunningham, "Ladak," p. 309.

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