| Shangtu, one in the eastern, the other in the western part of the town." (Palladius, 30.)—H. C.] One class of the Tao priests or devotees does marry, but another class never does. Many of them lead a wandering life, and derive a precarious subsistence from the sale of charms and medical nostrums. They shave the sides of the head, and coil the remaining hair in a tuft on the crown, in the ancient Chinese manner ; moreover, says Williams, they " are recognised by their slate-coloured robes." On the feast of one of their divinities whose title Williams translates as " High Emperor of the Sombre Heavens," they assemble before his temple, " and having made a great fire, about 15 or 20 feet in diameter, go over it barefoot, preceded by the priests and bearing the gods in their arms. They firmly assert that if they possess a sincere mind they will not be injured by the fire ; but both priests and people get miserably burnt on these occasions." Escayrac de Lauture says that on those days they:leap, dance, and whirl round the fire, striking at the devils with a straight Roman-like sword, and sometimes wounding themselves as the priests of Baal and Moloch used to do. (Astley, IV. 671 ; Morley in .l. R. A. S. VI. 24 ; Semedo, III, 114; De Mailla, IX. 410 ; J. As. sér. V. tom. viii. 138 ; Schott fiber den Buddhismus, etc. 71 ; Voyage de Khieou in f. As. sér. VI. torn. ix. 41 ; Middle Kingdom, II. 247 ; Doolittle, 192 ; Esc. de Lauture, 1lié;n. sur la Chine, Religion, 87, 102 ; Pcler. Boudd. II. 370, and III. 468.) Let us now turn to the Bonpo. Of this form of religion and its sectaries not much is known, for it is now confined to the eastern and least known part of Tibet. It is, however, believed to be a remnant of the old pre-Buddhistic worship of the powers of nature, though much modified by the Buddhistic worship with which it has so long been in contact. Mr. Hodgson also pronounces a collection of drawings of Bonpo divinities, which were made for him by a mendicant friar of the sect from the neighbourhood of Tachindu, or Ta-t'sien-lu, to be saturated with Sakaa attributes, i.e. with the spirit of the Tantrika worship, a worship which he tersely defines as " a mixture of lust, ferocity, and mummery," and which he believes to have originated in an incorporation with the Indian religions of the rude superstitions of the primitive Turanians. Mr. Hodgson was told that the Bonpo sect still possessed numerous and wealthy Vihars (or abbeys) in Tibet. But from the information of the Catholic missionaries in Eastern Tibet, who have come into closest contact with the sect, it appears to be now in a state of great decadence, " oppressed by the Lamas of other sects, the Peunbo (Bonpo) think only of shaking off the yoke, and getting deliverance from the vexations which the smallness of their number forces them to endure." In June, 1863, apparently from such despairing motives, the Lamas of Tsodam, a Bonpo convent in the vicinity of the mission settlement of Bonga in E. Tibet, invited the Rev. Gabriel Durand to come and instruct them. " In this temple," he writes, " are the monstrous idols of the sect of Peunbo ; horrid figures, whose features only Satan could have inspired. They are disposed about the enclosure according to their power and their seniority. Above the pagoda is a loft, the nooks of which are crammed with all kinds of diabolical trumpery ; little idols of wood or copper, hideous masques of men and animals, superstitious Lama vestments, drums, trumpets of human bones, sacrificial vessels, in short, all the utensils with which the devil's servants in Tibet honour their master. And what will become of it all ? The Great River, whose waves roll to Martaban (the Lu-kiang or Salwen), is not more than 200 or 300 paces distant. . . . Besides the infernal paintings on the walls, eight or nine monstrous idols, seated at the inner end of the pagoda, were calculated by their size and aspect to inspire awe. In the middle was Tamba-Slii-Rob, the great doctor of the sect of the Peunbo, squatted with his right arm outside his red scarf, and holding in his left the vase of knowledge. . . . On his right hand sat Keun a-Zon-bo, ` the All-Good,' . . . with ten hands and three heads, one over the other. . . . At his right is Dr euma, the most celebrated goddess of the sect. On the left of TambaShi-Rob was another goddess, whose name they never could tell me. On the left again of this anonymous goddess appeared Taira pla-mi-ber, . . . . a monstrous VOL. 1. 2 X | |
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