Quaint Superstitions Concerning Eclipses of the Moon: The Fish-bodied Dog By Tuerax Tachienlu, Jan, 21 On Saturday night, January about half past eight, it seemed, if all the Communists. in China had suddenly taken it into their heads to invade "Techienlu, "The noise was terrify: "pandemonium seemed "to have taken possession of the city. Lights were seen in diferent parts; Chinese' firecrackers were banging all over the town, and rifles" were being fred. at intervals. What did mean and what was taking place? Every year bout this ume we anticipate trouble, and tore It was sure enough. It it was "not the Com= muuniste from the outside, it must be the Tibetans from the inside; and so wwe rushed to the back door to aiscover that an eclipse of the moon was causing all the noise.
'Lamas were praying hard and fast and loud; the drabas. were blowing conch shells, beating "drums, and yelling with' all" their might? the 'Amchos were vociferaling with great {Rusto, fArmly believing that i€ disas-for was to be averted, then they were the boys to do it' It was very evident that a calamity of the rst magnitude was somehow about to take place—the end of the world, the. sudden. disappearance of the moon, oF a felling of the stars. The Tama"has established himself on the Root of the World as the averter of disaster, 20. It was up to him to fainiain 'Ais. position here' on. the Frontier. And the more noise he was able to emit, the greater the assur~ ance the inhabitants had. that all Would be well. tu Tachienlu the Tibetans live in 48 large caravan series and on, the night of January 19 these suddenly became concen was. very was the modus operandi to maintain a pale moon ight for future generations to enjoy, andin the Tibetan imagination System without a moon was simply fan. impossible situation. 'The moon, Ike the sun, tS very dear tothe 'Tibetan heart, and when seen on the high plateau from the nomadic camp fire, shining on a scene of quiet pas tonal" beauty, with the cold" snow Giants lying softly' in the distance, tone is not surprised that the nomad foyes fis moon. And here apparent was some" nasty litle dog tempting to devour the object of his atfestion.
'A Welrd Little Do The Tibetans have many stories connected with an eclipse and per~ hhaps "the most popular is the one which says that a Tittle dog, with the body" of a fish, makes every tempt It can to devour the moon. The nomads and drabas in Kham maintain that some Wild dog tries to Swallow" the moon," But that the prayers of the. lamas have hitherto reserved this: luminary 10: posterity. Apparently the dog simply opens its oun, and the moon, foolish ereaure, stupldedly sips' in, oF would 080, if the" Tibetan" eracksmen Were not quick with their rifles. and put an end to the moon's foolish ness.
The noise made by beating empty kerosene tins, blowing trumpets, and banging gongs is supposed to scare the dog and thus spare the moon. 'The din on Saturday night was particularly terrific as the Tibetans now have the impression that we are somehow on the verge of some terrible catastrophe, and unless the moon can be saved, humanity will plunged into' utter darkness, Of course, this may be all moonshine, but It! is what the Tibetans believe, and what the lamas are foisting on 1 moon struck people. ing religion, and subduing the devil and naturally with these will go the! five worldly acts, conception, "birth, achievement, marriage, and power, 'A Complicated Task So when the red-robed lama at-tempis to avert disaster he is involving himself in a somewhat complicated task, and it might be better after all, if the dog did consume the There is, however, another explanation, more philosophical and practical." Shaja Tuba was a Keen psychologist, especially where it affected religion, and he realized, that if his system was to continue and make progress, he must do something o introduce the "fear complex" among his followers. And the, simple method he adopted was the dea of an eclipse; an eclipse of the sun or moon he firmly" believed would force his followers to work and pray very hard, and so sometimes, Shaja throws the shadow of his hand across the sun or. the moon, thus causing an eclipse. Very simple and very effective!
Every good deed done during an eclipse has the same reward as the seed town in the good ground, and every prayer offered brings the same recompense, namely, a hundred fold. Naturally a lazy lama and a. careless draba and a care-free nomad are! prepared to pray very hard while the eclipse lasts, as one repetitation of "cinema-ni-pad-me-hum" registers Jone hundred repetitions, and _one thousand registers one hundred thousand, This is what we call "Making hay while the sun shines" or working hard when the moon is shy.
Shaja extends his "deliverance" to sinful humanity and oe if that wayward humanity is ever to reach the Jama's paradise he must work on its "fear complex" hence an_occasional eclipse to stir up the dry bones. There is however, another side, namely, a "good complex" wherein the inhabitants of the Land of the Lamas are encouraged to do good during the "moon terror." A bag of tsamba, chunk of butter, and a lump of tea, have all a hundred-told reward if iven during the days of an eclipse, the idea being that this is somehow a manifest ion of Shaja Tuba, and a time when he takes cognisance of all that is done. It g"no wonder, therefore, that _on Saturday night we rushed to the conclusion that there had been Communistic invasion of Tachient. The lamas were praying and repeating as if the end of time had suddenly come upon them and it was now or never with the mystic phrase
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.