From six to
twelve in breadth; length from ten or twenty feet to half a mile The
surface of the Mani is always covered with inscribed slabs; these
are votive offerings from all classes of people for the attainment
of some particular object. Does a childless man wish for a son, or a
merchant about to travel hope for a safe return; each goes to a Lama
and purchases a slate, which he deposits carefully on the village
'Mani,' and returns to his home in full confidence that his prayers
will be heard."
[23] - This was in all probability intended to represent the form
of the lotus. VIDE Appendix B.
[24] - Of this custom Turner remarks, alluding to Thibet Proper: -
"Here we find a practice at once different from the modes of Europe,
and opposite to those of Asia. That of one female associating her fate
and fortune with all the brothers of a family, without any restriction
of age or numbers. The choice of a wife is the privilege of the elder
brother; and singular as it may seem, a Thibetan wife is as jealous
of her connubial rites as ever the despot of an Indian Zenana is of
the favours of his imprisoned fair."
[25] - "As the inscription of course begins at opposite ends on each
side, the Thibetans are careful in passing that they do not trace
the words backwards." - Turner.
[26] - This is Mount "Everest," which has been called, the King
of the South. The King of the North, "Nunga Purbut," is 26,629 feet
above the level of the sea.
[27] - VIDE illustration, Hemis Monastery.
[28] - The only information I here again received was "Um mani
panee!" The wheel consisted of a roll of the thinnest paper, six
inches in diameter, and five and a half in width, closely printed
throughout with the eternally recurring words, which all appeared so
ready to pronounce and none seemed able to explain. The roll was sixty
yards long, and was composed of a succession of strips, one foot nine
inches in length, and all joined together. The whole was inclosed in
a coarse canvas cover, open at both ends, and marked with what was no
doubt the official seal of the particular society for the diffusion of
ignorance at Lassa, from which it had originally emanated. Each of the
strips contained the mystic sentence, one hundred and seventy times,
so that I was thus at once put into possession of all the valuable
intelligence to be derived from "Um mani panee," repeated between
seventeen and eighteen thousand times. VIDE Appendix B.
[29] - The origin of this divinity is probably derived from the
legend of Khoutoukhtou, which will be found in Appendix B.
