Arrival of the Reincarnated Buddha at Lhasa

Abstract

THE veil of secrecy which for so long hid the religious life and ceremonial of the sacred city of Lhasa from European eyes may be said to have been lifted finally by the account of an eye-witness, accompanied by photographs, of the arrival in that city of the new Dalai Lama, the four-year-old child in whom, according to Tibetan belief, has been re-incarnated the living Buddha. The story is told in an article which is contributed to The Times of November 4 by a special correspondent. Although the essential features of the installation of a living Buddha reincarnated in the person of a small child destined to become a Grand Lama were reported by the Abbé Hue, who travelled in Tibet in 1844–46, it was on hearsay only, as the Dalai Lama of that day had already attained the age of nine years. The present account is fully confirmatory of Hue, but with much added detail. On October 7 the new Dalai Lama was met by the Regent at Rigya, two miles east of Lhasa, where he had rested for two nights, and was escorted in procession to the Peacock tent, which had been erected in the centre of a tripleline, square enclosure. There he was seated on a throne, covered with white silk and fronted with the emblem of the double thunderbolt, to receive the homage and offerings of scarves from the officials, headed by the Regent, and representatives of British, Nepalese, Chinese, and of the Lhasa Moslems, who filed before him, receiving his blessing from either both hands, one hand, or a tassel pendant from a silver rod. At the close of this ceremony, which lasted for about an hour, tea was brought for the Dalai Lama in a golden teapot, of which he partook from a jade cup after it had been tasted by a household official.