Word: lamas
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Into Lhasa, bleak Forbidden City of windswept Tibet, last week a swaying caravan brought home Tibet's "living god." This 14th Dalai Lama, sovereign pontiff of Tibet, a bright, intelligent lad of five named Tanchu, had been discovered in western China (TIME, Aug. 21). Instead of taking him direct to Lhasa, the caravan went some hundreds of miles out of the way to Chungking, China's capital, where an attendant held the button-eyed god aloft before the populace. Thence representatives of the Chinese Government accompanied the caravan to Lhasa...
...robed Je Chen, Tibet's regent until Tanchu reaches his majority at 18, greeted the reincarnated pontiff with due ceremony. From a golden bowl the regent drew one of numerous bamboo slips which, if a proper choice had been made, would bear the name of the new Dalai Lama. Sure enough, it bore Tanchu's. This ritual the visiting Chinese watched contentedly. By establishing a Chinese as Dalai Lama they had, for what it was worth, underscored the influence China has long claimed over chill, far, out-of-the-world Tibet...
...chief fuel is yak dung, and a stuck-out tongue is a friendly greeting. Faith of the 3,000,000 Tibetans-and of other millions throughout the fastnesses of Central Asia-is Lamaism, a theocratic form of Buddhism. Lamaists believe in numerous divine incarnations, chief of them the Dalai Lama, "Buddha of Mercy," who is not only temporal ruler of Tibet but a god. Since the death of Ngawang Lopsang Toupden Gyatso in 1933, Tibet has been ruled by a council of lamas. Last month, a new Dalai Lama was discovered* in a remote village of Kokonor. Last week...
...omens, portents, visions & oracles, this 14th reincarnation of Buddha was a 5-year-old peasant boy named Tanchu, "quiet mannered with bright penetrating eyes." Now Tanchu will live in a gold-domed penthouse atop the Potala, his massive fortress-palace at Lhasa, spend the next 13 years under the lama regency learning about his previous incarnations and the intricate Lamaist ritual. If he reaches the age of 18 he will be consecrated, rule for the rest of his days...
...familiar Tibetan figure is the sinister Tzuren or poison-doctor, who practices his art to keep the ins in and the outs out. In modern times, only Dalai Lama who did not die mysteriously before reaching his majority has been Ngawang Lopsang Toupden Gyatso. In 1893, shortly before he took office, he thoughtfully ordered his regent and other advisers thrown into dungeons. As "Buddha of Mercy" he then had a long and prosperous life. If the 14th Reincarnation learns this much about the 13th, he may think it wise to do the same...