Primarily Lexicographically Treated. By Johan Van Manen. I. THE SONG OF THE EASTERN SNOW MOUNTAIN. A. INTRODUCTION. In his ‘Mythologie des Buddhismus,’ Grünwedel gives on p. 59 the figures of a triad of famous reformers of lamaism; Rje Rin po chʽe, better known as Tsoṅ kʽa pa, and his two pupils, Rgyal tsʽab rje and Mkʽas grub rje. On pp. 70–72 he gives biographical notes concerning the three, and indicates their place and historical importance in lamaism. Günther Schulemann, in ‘Die Geschichte der Dalailamas,’ gives in chapters II and III a complete compilation of what is known about these three. In the modern Dge lugs pa sect their historical importance has never been lost sight of and their memory is kept green by a universal prayer or invocation, still in daily use, opening and closing every ceremony in a Dge lugs pa monastery. In preceding a ceremony it runs as follows:— གངས་ཅན་ཤིང་རྟའི་སྲོལ་འབྱེད་ཙོང་ཁ་པ ༎ དངོས་སྟོབས་རིག་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་རྒྱལ་ཚབ་རྗེ ༎ མདོ་སྔགས་བསྟན་པའི་བདག་པོ་མཁས་གྲུབ་རྗེ ༎ རྒྱལ་བ་ཡབ་སྲས་གསུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ ༎ To the repairer of the Tibetan vehicle, Tsoṅ kʽa pa (the Onionlander), To the true, strong, wise Lord Rgyal tsʽab rje (Noble Throne-prince), To the sūtra and mantra teaching master Mkʽas grub rje (Noble Cleverness-perfection) To these three victorious (illustrious) Father and Sons (Family of three), obeisance! In closing the ceremony the words ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ་ are changed into གྱི་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ ཤོག་, ‘may their blessing be on us,’ ‘may they bless us.’ When the monks meet for གསོལ་ཇ་, collective or communal tea drinking, the last three words are changed into མཆོད་པ་འབུལ་, ‘we give our offering,’ said before drinking the first cup and whilst sprinkling a few drops in libation with two fingers, the thumb and fourth finger of the right hand. At the termination of tea drinking nothing is said at all. Except for these changes the formula remains the same for all occasions. Another pupil of Tsoṅ kʽa pa was his own nephew Dge ḥdun grub, about whom further particulars are given in the same passages of the two works cited above, and who may be called the first Dalai Lama, though not known by that title but by that of Rgyal ba, or conqueror. Yet it will be seen from the above formula that the three who are together called ཡབ་སྲས་ ‘father and sons,’ that is Tsoṅ kʽa pa and his two spiritual sons or pupils, are all three called རྒྱལ་བ་. The expression ཡབ་སྲས་ has no doubt to be understood as a collective word like ‘group,’ ‘family,’ just like ཕ་མ་ means ‘parents.’