By The Lamas Themselves I Never Heard These Mounds Alluded To
Otherwise Than By The Words "Mani Panee." Cunningham, However,
Who Had Ample Opportunity Of Ascertaining Their Meaning And Origin,
Terms Them "Manis" (In Another Form Of Spelling, "Munees"), And Thus
Describes Them:
- "The Mani - a word naturalized from the Sanscrit
- is a stone dyke, from four to five feet high, and
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.
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