There Were
Prayer-Wheels, Cymbals, Horns And Drums, And A Prayer-Cylinder Six
Feet High, Which It Took The Strength Of Two Men To Turn.
On a shelf
immediately below the idols were the brazen sceptre, bell, and
thunderbolt, a brass lotus blossom, and the spouted brass flagon
decorated with peacocks' feathers, which is used at baptisms, and for
pouring holy water upon the hands at festivals.
In houses in which
there is not a roof temple the best room is set apart for religious
use and for these divinities, which are always surrounded with
musical instruments and symbols of power, and receive worship and
offerings daily, Tibetan Buddhism being a religion of the family and
household. In his family temple Gergan offered gifts and thanks for
the deliverances of the journey. He had been assisting Mr. Redslob
for two years in the translation of the New Testament, and had wept
over the love and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. He had even
desired that his son should receive baptism and be brought up as a
Christian, but for himself he 'could not break with custom and his
ancestral creed.'
In the usual living-room of the family a platform, raised only a few
inches, ran partly round the wall. In the middle of the floor there
was a clay fireplace, with a prayer-wheel and some clay and brass
cooking pots upon it. A few shelves, fire-bars for roasting barley,
a wooden churn, and some spinning arrangements were the furniture. A
number of small dark rooms used for sleeping and storage opened from
this, and above were the balconies and reception rooms. Wooden posts
supported the roofs, and these were wreathed with lucerne, the
firstfruits of the field. Narrow, steep staircases in all Tibetan
houses lead to the family rooms. In winter the people live below,
alongside of the animals and fodder. In summer they sleep in loosely
built booths of poplar branches on the roof. Gergan's roof was
covered, like others at the time, to the depth of two feet, with hay,
i.e. grass and lucerne, which are wound into long ropes, experience
having taught the Tibetans that their scarce fodder is best preserved
thus from breakage and waste. I bought hay by the yard for Gyalpo.
Our food in this hospitable house was simple: apricots, fresh, or
dried and stewed with honey; zho's milk, curds and cheese, sour
cream, peas, beans, balls of barley dough, barley porridge, and
'broth of abominable things.' Chang, a dirty-looking beer made from
barley, was offered with each meal, and tea frequently, but I took my
own 'on the sly.' I have mentioned a churn as part of the
'plenishings' of the living-room. In Tibet the churn is used for
making tea! I give the recipe. 'For six persons. Boil a teacupful
of tea in three pints of water for ten minutes with a heaped dessert-
spoonful of soda. Put the infusion into the churn with one pound of
butter and a small tablespoonful of salt.
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