The Tibetans' Protective Deities: The Zhee-Da Versus the Yee-Dam: The Part Flying Horses Play.
By Tincra Tachienlu, Nov. 8, Yesterday morning, Drendong Dabun, my Tibetan teacher, falled to ut ju an appearance, and 1' wondered, why. However, he turned up in the afternoon, and while we were reading through the story of Lydia, the seller to discover what had detained him.
Yesterday was the frst of the tenth Chinese moon and apparently a good. day for offering sacrifice to the Zheeda, the local deity or mousier, who, when offended, sends diseases or other calamities upon a particular village oF province or individual, The. Zhee-da is evidently a live old fellow, also known as "the lord of the soit" "and usually has his habitation Away up on some high mountain, from which point of vantage he overlooks the surrounding country and all its inhabitants. When it rains or snows or thunders or blows big guns oF turns cold suddenly or the crepe are. bad or the cattle die, this old fellow. perhaps entirely innocent, is made of held responsible for all that has hay pened. However, as he holds sway over a given district, and can work hhavoe when he likes, he simply must be appeased, and that speedily, Otherwise!
The Yee-dam is quite a different fellow and apparently only waiting to help when called upon. Like poly-androns marriages, his duration. of ofice very largely depends on aftection. The services of the Yee-dam may be engaged for a month or a year or a life, The Tibetan selects some particular one with whom he. believes he has some affinity and re-ards him as his guide and protector and deliverer from the evil machin: Hons of the ever present surrounding, Jam-beh-yang and Jen-reh-zee and very, popular Yee-lams in the Land of the Lam: and are quite able on occasions to protect those who seek their shelter, And so the Tibetan in his religious Bhilocophy," and "that "philosophy. Sxceedinaly wide and varied, merely pits the 'Yee-dam against the Zee 4a, and thereby escapes. But both ae greedy, steeples, tireless, ruthless: individuals "who simply must attended {0 or they will show their isplearure' fu hundred diferent Way, and. so" the woolly nomad has Concocted ways nnd means of geting past the many hindrances that bat the road to Nirvana, Drendong Dabun discovered two very Important facts when making his Deace with the Zhee-da, namely. Eleven am was ago ie fine the offering, and that twelve waa the time shen demons and wick:
abie enjoyed thee ati. Cone {imo mast convenient to. the. coal ily Drendon
deity and that apparently was eleven firn Naturally ye were interested to Know what shape the offerings took and" what they were made of wppeare that the' Zhee-da like something to drink, something to eat, ud something to smell so the oder ing conaiated of wine, butter, barley fou, and Juniper branches. However the thing which counts for' meet from him they expect deliverance from the fatal wheel, the orb of transmigration.
And if the persistent repetition of "cinema-ni-pad-me-hum" will get the woolly nomad out of "this" into "that" then he is quite prepared to repeat this charm till the end of time and thus bring from Jen-reh-zee the salvation he is waiting to give. The dea behind this mystic phrase is something like this: when the Tibetan, repeats It he believes it will act as a charm with Jen-reh-zee and bring pass the lama's desire, namely, thet when he has finished with this life, he will find himself in the next, in place where sorrow and trouble never come. So, "om" conveys. the desire that he will not be born as a Bod, as gods' are subject to dear "ma" that he will not be born @ warlord, as in this realm big guns is the perpetual topic of discussion; "ni" that he may not be born as a man, this condition he might stay:
"pad" that he might not be nas A creeping, crawling thing; me" that he may not be born to suffer the torments of hunger and thirst, In this region the condemned spire tual beings have tremendous bodies with very tiny necks, down which it Impossible to get food. "Hum" that they may not be born in hel and the lama's hell is no children's play ground. He indulges in. such things as "preliminary hells" which Ue somehow adjacent to the "greater hells" and round about the eight hot and eight cold hells are such nasty things as "the forest of razors" and the "wood of sword" and the "iron-bristle trees." To be born into such a place would be very awkward Indeed, and s0 Drendong had printed on his paper flags and his prayer flags the mystic charm "Om-na-ni-pad-me-hum," each syllable of which is, [pregnant with some terrible meaning.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.