National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Atiśa had never yet tasted tea, and the first cup on Tibetan soil was offered him
with the following solemn words : " Venerable sage, permit me to make an offering of
this celestial drink which contains the essence of the wishing tree !" Atiśa said :
" This curious cup of precious material contains an elixir of the wishing tree.
What is the name of this drink which you prize so much ? " The Tibetans answered :
" Venerable sir, it is called tea. We do not know that the tea plant is eaten, but
the leaves are churned in warm water, and the soup is drunk. It has many proper-
ties !" Thereupon Atiśa, who could pay compliments like any French abbé, remarked :
" So excellent a beverage as tea must have originated from the moral merits of the monks
of Tibet !"
The Manasarowar Lake pleased Atiśa so much that he stayed there for seven days.
Then he proceeded to mTho-lding, the capital of Guge, where he was received by the
king with due honours. Although all the lamas and noblemen rose respectfully when
Atiśa approached them, the old lama, Rin-chen-bzang-po, would not rise, partly from
envy, partly from weakness. But then Atiśa displayed his intellectual armour in
such a brilliant way before the old monk that even he was conquered and ready to sit
at the feet of the newcomer.¹ After a residence in Guge of two years, Atiśa proceeded
to Central Tibet. He died at Nyethang near Lhasa at the age of seventy-three in the
year 1053 A.D. The founding of the so-called half-reformed sects of Lamaism was
due to his exertions. The most important of them is the bKa-gdams-pa sect. It was
in monasteries of this sect that Tsong-kha-pa studied, before he started the great reform
movement which ended in the creation of the Ge-lug-pa sect. The object of all these
reformations was not, as is often supposed, to go back to the early Buddhism as it was
preached by Gautama, but to build up a church which represented the doctrines of the
Mahāyāna school of Buddhism in a pure form. The doctrines of Nāgārjuna were pro-
pounded by all the great teachers of Tibet. But the Kāla-chakra philosophy with its
monotheistic tendencies was also favoured by them.
On the 10th August, we travelled to the southern end of the lake, and then along
its western shore, and at sunset we arrived at bKor-rdzod (map Karzok. Plate XXIII).
The sudden appearance of the monastery in that barren desert was such a surprise that
it was at first difficult to believe in its reality. On this march, the Tibetan fauna was
much in evidence. There were large herds of rkyang (wild asses which look like mules),
and one of the rkyang came quite close to us and watched our caravan passing by.
There were very many hares and marmots which did not show any signs of fear, and
also the beautiful tail-less rats of Tibet looked at us curiously from behind many a stone.
Whilst animal life was thus well represented on dry land, I could not discover any
living being in the water of the lake. But as aquatic plants were plentiful it attracted
wild geese and ducks, of which we saw a good number. As Drew says, gulls have their
breeding ground on an island in the lake. In spite of the desolation round about,
the scenery is very fine. Snowclad peaks, bare hills of brownish colour, dark