Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 178 (Color Image)

0178	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

132 PEKING TO LHASA

are stronger than the yellow sect, the reformers.

They are chiefly found in Kham and outer Tibet,

while the reforming yellow sect are found in inner

Tibet. There is also a black sect, called Pun, who

have kept up some of the superstitions of the

old pagan religion, worshipping, for instance, the

snake and a white stone with the characters for

snake on it. The adopted son told Pereira that

this Pun sect is scattered about Tibet, and there

are some on the Chinese border near Li-fan-ting

and Kwan-hsien. While the Buddhists go round

the Men-dong prayer wells from right to left,

the black sect reverse the process.

Madame Nèel said the only really orthodox

Buddhists are in Burma and Ceylon. These do

not worship images and do not recognise the

spiritual authority of the Dalai Lama at Lhasa or

the Tashi Lama at Shigatse, who in many ways

has more spiritual authority than the Dalai Lama

though he has not the latter's temporal power.

The big square pile of stones which Pereira had

seen at Shih-tsi on the last stage into Jye-kundo

Madame Nèel said is called a " mani ", i.e. jewel.

It is one of the biggest she had seen. It is sup-

posed that the sacred stone came out of the ground

here. People throw stones on it, and after genera-

tions the present huge square, perhaps a hundred

feet or more of a side, is built up. The outer flat

stones have pious ejaculations inscribed on them

and are let into the sides, and prayer wheels are

put in niches.

According to Madame Néel the monks are

divided into two classes, Lama and Traba, pro-

nounced Taba. Lama means " excellent one ", and

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