Communism -- Soviet Union; Mongolia -- Description and travel
This class of Lamas is a very important one, because every important
personage visiting the monasteries at Urga is shown to the Lama Tzuren
or fortune teller without the knowledge of the visitor for the study of
his destiny and fate, which are then communicated to the Bogdo Hutuktu,
so that with these facts in his possession the Bogdo knows in what way
to treat his guest and what policy to follow toward him. The Tzurens are
mostly old men, skinny, exhausted and severe ascetics. But I have met
some who were young, almost boys. They were the Hubilgan, “incarnate
gods,” the future Hutuktus and Gheghens of the various Mongolian
monasteries.
The second class is the doctors or “Ta Lama.” They observe the actions
of plants and certain products from animals upon people, preserve
Tibetan medicines and cures, and study anatomy very carefully but
without making use of vivisection and the scalpel. They are skilful
bone setters, masseurs and great connoisseurs of hypnotism and animal
magnetism.
The third class is the highest rank of doctors, consisting chiefly of
Tibetans and Kalmucks--poisoners. They may be said to be “doctors of
political medicine.” They live by themselves, apart from any associates,
and are the great silent weapon in the hands of the Living Buddha. I
was informed that a large portion of them are dumb. I saw one such
doctor,--the very person who poisoned the Chinese physician sent by the
Chinese Emperor from Peking to “liquidate” the Living Buddha,--a small
white old fellow with a deeply wrinkled face, a curl of white hairs on
his chin and with vivacious eyes that were ever shifting inquiringly
about him. Whenever he comes to a monastery, the local “god” ceases to
eat and drink in fear of the activities of this Mongolian Locusta. But
even this cannot save the condemned, for a poisoned cap or shirt or
boots, or a rosary, a bridle, books or religious articles soaked in a
poisonous solution will surely accomplish the object of the Bogdo-Khan.
The deepest esteem and religious faithfulness surround the blind
Pontiff. Before him all fall on their faces. Khans and Hutuktus approach
him on their knees. Everything about him is dark, full of Oriental
antiquity. The drunken blind man, listening to the banal arias of the
gramophone or shaking his servants with an electric current from his
dynamo, the ferocious old fellow poisoning his political enemies,
the Lama keeping his people in darkness and deceiving them with his
prophecies and fortune telling,--he is, however, not an entirely
ordinary man.
One day we sat in the room of the Bogdo and Prince Djam Bolon translated
to him my story of the Great War. The old fellow was listening very
carefully but suddenly opened his eyes widely and began to give
attention to some sounds coming in from outside the room. His face
became reverent, supplicant and frightened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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