A SINGULAR CEREMONY IN THIBET.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2519, 1 September 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

A SINGULAR CEREMONY IN THIBET.

The selection of the Pantshen Lama, whose head-quarters are at the Monastery of Krashis Lumpo, in Further Thibet, and who has shared the overlordship of Thibet with the Dalai Lama since the fifteenth century, took place at Lhassa on the last week of February. The ceremony is, perhaps, the strangest revival in the ritual of any Church. It was an old idea with the northern Buddhists that distinguished members of their order were incarnations of divine beings, who, while continuing to live in heaven, had the power to assume an earthly existence. This belief is still held regarding the pontiffs of Gedun Dubpa and Krashis Lunpo, the one being looked on as the incarnation of the third person in the Trinity of which the Great Teacher is the head, and the other that of the second person in the same. Accordingly, when either of the Pontiffs dies, as the Pantshen Lama did some time ago, the other has to set to work and discover wherein the celestial spirit has embodied himself anew. The first step is to get the names of all the male children born just after the death of the deceased Lama, and to select three from these, one of which, cast by lot, is the name of the new incarnation. At the beginning of the year the Chinese Resident at Lhassa was informed that three "young boys of remarkable intelligence and strangeness" had been found, and after some time spent in communication with Pekin the youngsters were brought to Lhassa and preparations made for the grand ceremony. All the abbots of- the great monasteries were present to supervise the week of prayer ; the three children were received by the Resident and the Thibetan authorities "in order that their intelligence and difference from other persons might be tested," and finally on au auspicious day a golden vaeo containing the fate of the boys having been brought in and placed in front of the Emperor's image, which stands in the hall of Gedun Dubpa the lot was drawn, and the elect of the three hailed as Amitabha incarnate, the Pantshen Miipolshe, " Glorious Teacher," henceforth to rule over half Thibet.