Tuden must have shown rapid signs of falling from grace long before he ever ma ried. As a pilgrim on his way to Lhasa he actually rode a horse; and according to alli the laws of pilgrimage this would bring him very little, if any, merit, A. pilgrimage to bring any merit and accumulate any virtue must be performed on one's legs or on one's, body. To ride a horse, however, in the act! of pilgrimage is almost exclusively confined to merchants or wealthy men of the world who have not the time to spare in crawling] from their homes to the capital of Tibet. 'They know, when they get there, there are' a number of spots de lure, which are more convenient and more eMicacious than the long] trail to Lhasa, One hundred times round the Jokang is worth more than 100,000 times round other holy spots; so time being everything to the Tibetan merchant he specializes on the high spots which bring him merit] quickly, When he rides to Lhasa he takes his servants with him and with them he circumambulates every sacred spot of any' importance, What Tuden was like before he married 1 have no idea but at present he enjoys a life of joyful abandon. Like every other Tibetan he lives a rollicking existence. As he looks upon heaven, hell and bardo, the time is merely not yet, so why trouble? A caravan} of Derge merchants was leaving Tachientu, so killing two birds with one stone, Tuden became a servant to a merchant in the] caravan and arrived one fine day in the] Place of the Gods. Parting from the merchants he began his studies in Lhasa which ended in his ordination. Tuden had accom~ plished on horseback what thousands of poor] fellows have to do on foot. He had reached) the capital, however, with considerably less merit and virtue than the ordinary "Pup of Virtue" so he would need to work hard if] he had any ambition to keep up with his companions.
Tachienlu, travelling about 20 miles every day, is round 70 stages from Lhasa, Travel-Ving, however, as the pilgrims do, the journey] may take six'months or one year.
'The pilgrimage to Jerusalem or Mecca mere moonshine compared with the pilgrim~ age to Lhasa, Tibet is not only the Land of the Lamas, it is the land of the snows. The country' is cold, terribly cold, and snow falls at all seasons of the ' year; and there are long stretches of barren' country, without habitation of any kind. Naturally in such places wild animals abound and the lonely Jama pilgrim goes to kingdom come down the throat of some vicious crea~ ture. Again, along those barren stretches, the poor draba has to find shelter for the night and from the biting blizzard in some nomadic encampment or in some wild mountain cave.
According to the pilgrims, some of the high, snow-bound passes on the road to Lhasa are dangerous and difficult, Some of the passes are covered with ice, others are covered with snow, some are terribly steep, and others are very long. In these snowy regions, away up among the ice, the lonely pilgrim meets with appalling difficulties and hardships, At the end of each day's pilgrim age a mark must be made in the snow or on the ico from which he starts next day. Having made this mark he either lies down in the snow or returns to some shelter, beginning again from this mark next morning.
'Tibet is not only a land of snows, it is also a land of winds. 'The pilgrim's' route for months lies over country. rising to 12,000) and 14,000 feet above sea level, with the high passes rising above this. If the pilgrim sleeps! near his mark he may have little diMeulty finding it, but if he has to return to] some shelter, this may not be easy. A fierce] blizzard sweeps over the pass during the night obliterating any and every mark guiding] the pilgrim on his lonely way. And sometimes a wild snow will blow for days.
The Tibetan pilgrim who crawls to Lhasa on his body from his home in Jarong, Nyarong or Minya encounters very difficult going when descending an ico-bound pass. Rising back on to his feet again where there. is a steep and dangerous declivity, specially among snows, demands some muscular ex In our journeys through Kham we have on' occasions passed these pilgrims measuring] their bodies on the ground all the way to the] Place of the Gods and the look on their! faces is stern and intense. Life to them has assumed an appalling seriousness and Niryana, with its escape from existence, must have a tremendous pull at their heart strings. Thave been told that this form of pilgrimage to Lhasa will take anything up to three years to accomplish, Some pilgrims may leave their homes or their lamaseries with all the ardour of religious fervour and break down or give up the task before they have covered very much found. Some years ago a local boy named Bale started out to cover with his body the Jong trail to Lhasa Ebieew him quite well Bs
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.