Festiva! ni Spring at Techienlu -Paow Out Own ComtesronuEnr Tachienla, China, Apr. 29.
Yesterday Tachienlu was mantled in a beautiful fall of snow. For some days the weather had been quite cold and chilly ani yesterday's fall of snow has helped the sun any day of the year in this border town 9,000 feet high. A sudden change in the wind and the snow] {is blown on the city from the high snow mountains surrounding the! town.
When April comes with its little pink primulas the religious people ye In the city are reminded it is again time to circumambulate the sacred building in the town. Just as light breaking in the cast and_the sun tipping the crests of the higher mountains "O mani pad me hum": Tesounds in the ears of those who are still enjoying the comforts of a warm bed. These mystic, mysterious words have been set 'Tibetan music and a2. the people valk along they sing as Sees' pray.
'On the hillside behind our house! there isa narrow path along which the pilgrims Tave to roam, and at ni point overlooking. the city and sing' "Omani Pad The music is sweet harmonious andthe words clear amd distinct. The pilgrims move) long another hundred" yards a again "O. mani pad me. hit" Sounds over the town, "And. this focs_on during the whole month of len and women, boys and girls, priest and layman, caste amd tan and Chinese usually take the air in this religi fous way. The sceptic says they fare merely out for pleasure; the! man of the world says it is simply nonsense; the ignorant says, they don't "know what they are doing: and the may discuss and eritelse as much as we may but it has no effect what fever on those, who sing "O mani pad me hum."
It may be purely a physical reaction' without any religious} Significance. It may be ignorance, Superstition, idolatry, and no doubt but it has one. very beneficial effect, it enables the poorer Tibetan fo leave the smoky fireplace and the confinement of the smoky house for the fresh air and invigoting freedom of the mountain sie. The long winter has seen them pent up in a dark, smok; lose, badly ventilated room, ai now "April comes with its flowers fand sunshine and freedom and song. 0 mani pad me hum" is now heard morning, moon, and night resolu ing over hill and. dale.
'And what does it' mean?) Or has it any meaning? And can that meaning be found out?
Twas chatting one day with a Living Lama on the subject of ereation—had creation a Creator? And while in the midst of the dis. cussion "Omani pad me hum" Sounded in our ears. I took the opportunity of asking him with the words meant and was some: what surprised to find how little seemed to know about them, of hhow little he was prepared to comis explanation was as during spring, creation, includes all living nature, was according to Lamaism, having! 8 terrible struggle for existence re-exertion as he called it. Living nature held in bondage during the long cold winter was now strugelto reassert itself and so the pilgrim prayed "O mani pad me hum" merely to help the creation groaning in travail. According, to the Living Lama, that was. the {er bennet in: the lum' phhowopay lat branch inthe lama philosophy was to watch over creation arid help it at ite birth.
justo Draba, for that is his! name, also said'it was also a pray-_ call for help to the sic access of beings into which Lama-fam had divided the Living specie, Bamelyy men, gods reptiles, those Who were not gods, these in hell, ud the ida, "a tiass of beg: The idea is" that they Shemscives are also_calling for help or deliver-nce hind the voice that helps them with "O "rant pad me hon" Seclmolating great merit Zor which ie'some day fay. stand in need Homeyer, we dlecovered that different. systems Have different explanations and interpretations. The Yellow Sect has one idea, the Red' Sect this mystic phrase, A. simple ex-Dianation. among the, common Ple is: "0 mani pad me ham 2 prayer for others, that is, those in hell, and for yourself, that in man. the rebirth you may be born a
The most complicated explanation
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.