IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| India and Tibet : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
JAPANESE VIEW OF TIBETANS 311
people, I did not find the higher Lamas impressed me any
more favourably than the ordinary monks.
These impressions, which in themselves would not
r have much value, as my period for observation was so very
I limited, are borne out by the courageous Japanese traveller
i Kawaguchi, himself a Buddhist, and once Rector of a
i monastery in Japan, who lived in the Sera Monastery,
1 and in his most valuable work, "'Three Years in Tibet,"
r written since we were in Tibet, has given to the English
public the results of his study.
For a few Lamas he had a sincere attachment. Like
myself, he greatly revered the old Ti Rimpoche, who
taught him Buddhism in its correct form, and truly im-
pressed him as a living Buddha." He struck Kawaguchi
as not only having a juster ideal of the real spirit of
Buddhism than the other Lamas, but as also having
greater ability, which may have been due to what I had
not myself known—his father being a Chinaman. For
an ex-Minister of Finance, a Lama, Kawaguchi also had
great admiration, and certainly from him received unstinted
kindness, even when he risked his life in showing Kawa-
guchi attention. The Head-Priest of Wartang he also
thought very clever, and from him he received valuable
information on Buddhism.
These, however, were exceptional men, and most of
the Lamas were very disappointing to the Japanese. Even
the good ex-Financial Minister had the defect of living
with a nun. A Lama travelling companion was a " pe-
dantic scholar " who knew nothing of the essential prin-
ciples of Buddhism, and had only a vague notion of the
doctrines. The Abbot of Sakya had a son, though Lamas
are not allowed to marry, and Kawaguchi was " loth to
remain with so dissipated a priest." The tutor of the Tashi
Lama was disappointing in his answers about " grammar."
The doctors of the highest degrees, he said, were
unquestionably theologians of great erudition, and at
home in the complete cycle of Buddhist works. They
had, indeed, he considered, a better knowledge of Buddhist
theology than the Japanese divines. But such were few
and far between, and he seems to have agreed with the
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