MONK’S ADVENTURES

Hokitika Guardian, 9 November 1932, Page 8

MONK’S ADVENTURES

POSED AS TIBETAN LLAMA

RARE MANUSCRIPT FOUND

A ;Holy Man whom, it is , claimed, wild animals and poisonous snakes will not touch, has arrived in London, following remarkable adventures in the forbidden city, .Lhasa, in .Tibet. .

The man is Rahul Sankrityana,. a Buddhist • monk from a remote monastery in Ceylon. For months he cut himself off from human society and became a lonely wanderer in, the most mysterious country in the world. The monk seemed to bear a charmed life. At night he slept under trees ; in the. daytime he struggled. along the dangerous mountain paths. Practically the o nly. food h e had for weeks together was jungle fruits.

Rahul, who can .speak, read, and writ© Sanskrit, Pali, Hindu, English, Arabic, Chinese, Tibetan.,; French, Germain, arid Russian, told the story of his remarkable journey to the ."“Sunday Chronicle” recently. “I wanted to go to Lhasa in ore er to do some Buddhist .research work,” he said. “ ; I could not get a permit to go to Tibet, so had to devise some means of smuggling myself into tlie i country. “I managed to learn the ‘Tibetan langunee from the monks and travellers who came to Nepal, and one evening, as soon as I felt I was fluent enough, I disguised myself as a Tibetan beggar and set off'on my journey. After nearly three months’ wandering alone in the heart of the Tibetan ranges Lhasa seemed further away than ever.

"Once I was reetinv under a t’-ee when suddenly six Tibetan bandits rushed; toward me. With quaint weapons in their hands they demanded gold and silver, and coins. I told them .that ] \idis a beghir,. and tlhat'-tli had nothing dn me except my ,‘beggarfs bowl. They ‘•f’li'&W+o'vrtl to' kill'i'nie’. -ebut. I insisted that,''they shofild- search me first. They did. 'and,, finding nothing, let me go.”

After \ foiif' months of travelling , PiifluT reached the “Forbidden C'tv.” and lived like one of the Tibetan monks in a monastery. During his stay- in Tibet he discovei’ed a rare manuscript which jh e has taken with him to London. It is 800 years old. and written on palm ,leave®. It unfolds the secrets of Buddhist mysticism.