IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. LXI. WONDERFUL DOINGS OF LAMAS
315
►
1E
Jesuit Delrio laments that credulous princes, otherwise of pious repute, should have allówed diabolic tricks to be played before them, " as, for example, things of iron,
and silver goblets, or other heavy articles, to be moved by bounds from one end of
a table to the other, without the use of a magnet or of any attachment." The pious prince appears to have been Charles IX., and the conjuror a certain Cesare Malt2sio.
Another Jesuit author describes the veritable mango-trick, speaking of persons who " within three hours' space did cause a genuine shrub of a span in length to grow out of the table, besides other trees that produced both leaves and fruit."
In a letter dated Ist December, 1875, written by Mr. R. B. Shaw, after his last return from ILashgar and Lahore, this distinguished traveller says : " I have heard
stories related regarding a Buddhist high priest whose temple is said to be not far to the east of Lanchau, which reminds me of Marco Polo and Kúblái Khan. This high priest is said to have the magic power of attracting cups and plates to him from a distance, so that things fly'through the air into his hands." (MS. Note.—H. Y.)
The profession and practice of exorcism and magic in general is greatly more prominent in Lamaism or Tibetan Buddhism than in any other known form of that
religion. Indeed, the old form of Lamaism as it existed in our traveller's day, and
till the reforms of Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), and as it is still professed by the Red sect in Tibet, seems to be a kind of compromise between Indian Buddhism and the
old indigenous Shamanism. Even the reformed doctrine of the Yellow sect recog-
nises an orthodox kind of magic, which is due in great measure to the combination of Sivaism with the Buddhist doctrines, and of which the institutes are contained in the
vast collection of the fud or Tantras, recognised among the holy books. The magic
arts of this code open even a short road to the Buddhahood itself. To attain that perfection of power and wisdom, culminating in the cessation of sensible existence,
requires, according to the ordinary paths, a period of three asankhyas (or say Uncountable Time x 3), whereas by means of the magic arts of the Tanlras it may be reached in the course of three rebirths only, nay, of one ! But from the Tantras also can be learned how to acquire miraculous powers for objects entirely selfish and secular, and how to exercise these by means of Dizárani or mystic Indian charms.
Still the orthodox Yellow Lamas professedly repudiate and despise the grosser exhibitions of common magic and charlatanism which the Reds still practise, súch as
knife-swallowing, blowing fire, cutting off their own heads, etc. But as the vulgar
will not dispense with these marvels, every great orthodox monastery in Tibet keeps a conjuror, who is a member of the unreformed, and does not belong to the brotherhood
of the convent, but lives in a particular part of it, bearing the name of Choichong, or
protector of religion, and is allowed to marry. The magic of these Choichong is in theory and practice different from the orthodox Tantrist magic. The practitioners
possess no literature, and hand down their mysteries only by tradition. Their fantastic equipments, their frantic bearing, and their cries and howls, seem to identify them with the grossest Shamanist devil dancers.
Sanang Setzen enumerates a variety of the wonderful acts which could be performed through the Dhárani. Such were, sticking a peg into solid rock ; restoring
the dead to life ; turning a dead body into gold ; penetrating everyNN here as air does ; flying ; catching wild beasts with the hand ; reading thoughts ; making water flow backwards ; eating tiles ; sitting in the air with the legs doubled under, etc. Some of these are precisely the powers ascribed to Medea, Empedocles, and Simon Magus, in passages already cited. Friar Ricold says on this subject : " There are certain men whom the Tartars honour above all in the world, viz. the Baxitae (i.e. Bakhshis), who are a kind of idol-priests. These are men from India, persons of deep wisdom,
well-conducted, and of the gravest morals. They are usually acquainted with magic arts, and depend on the counsel and aid of demons ; they exhibit many illusions, and
predict some future events. For instance, one of eminence among them was said to fly ; the truth, however, was (as it proved), that he did not fly, but did walk close to the surface of the ground without touching it ; and would seem to sit down without having any substance to support him." This last performance was witnessed by Ibn
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