How then could there be any labour dispute in the Land of the Lamas when the whole body of religious men is approaching virtue, following virtue, begging virtue and in harmony with virtue. The quest Is entirely spiritual. not material, therefore the number of houré a Jama spends in seeking virtue is quite outside the control of the Labour Bureau, It he works hard he gets more virtue; if he slacks he gets less virtue, Remuneration in no way enters Into this holy service.
James Maxton contributes nothing but noise to the debate, is his confributioA to human progress greater than that of the Tibetan lama? James Maxton may be ejected from the House but the patient lama will remain quietly in the lamasery turning his prayer wheel, counting his rosary and repeating his sacred formula. And yet James Maxton will meet his Bridgeton Constituency and declare he works harder than any of them.
1s the accusation, therefore, against the Tibetan lama, made by the Young, Party-in 'Tibet, true or just? The oMeial "Aigures' for the big three Jamaseries near Lhasa are: Drebung 7,100, Sera $000 and Galdan 3,300. Labrang has 5,000 lamas and Kum-bum in Amdo has close on 10,000. priests. Litang and Kanze have both $000 monks and hundreds of lamaseries all over Lamaland have thousands of lamas and thousands of temples have hundreds of lamas. When T was in West Australia some years ago I visited Kalgoorlie, There I saw men patiently spending their days, and sometimes their nights, doggedly digging for gold. The task seemed hopeless yet the diggers went on searching for gold, Early Morning Prayers Some years ago I spent a few days in Litang, 14,000 feet above sea level. One day' I. crawled into the -large lamasery and crept up into a gallery overlooking the main auditorium. 'Morning had hardly "dawned as T saw the dark figures come slowly' into the building. Very soon 3,000 Jamas sat below me repeating their sored, sutras. Sometime? the noise was like thundering waves; again it was ike the ripple by the sea shore
Litang; 5,000 gold diggers searching for gold in Kalgoorlie! The water for Kalgoorlie was: pumped up from Perth; the water for Liting came down, from the eternal snow. mountains, The gold digger paid taxes; the lama paid mone. And yet the young,; Tibetan is not satisfied and desires to build up a modern state wherein are! taxes, strikes, riots, rood accident, ammiintion factories, gas masks and mining disasters; and. the patient gma quietly and firmly repudiates them all. "What, we are inclined to ask, will be the Anal outcome?
Wil the Young Party, with wits national ideals, "prevail, and. soind the death knelt fo Lamaism; or will Lamaism refuse to budget for an expensive seat on the League of Nations and peacefully maintain the statue quo? Will a new Dalai Lama be found and help to carry on the salvation of the six classes of beings, Pass on, and be reincarnated in another Dalai Lama? Or, will the young men in Tibet go on agitating Ni the Land of the Lamas has taken its: place among the nations of the world? Will the great plateaux of Tibet some day hum with the latest type of aeroplane and bombing par: tion on the surrounding countries?
The Geda (constant virtue) incarnation with whom I quite recently Aiscussed some of these questions, a lama, is very modern. He isin sympathy with the Young Party, only however, as it remains under the power and influence of the lama. And this the young Tibetan will patiently submit to until Der Tag, when he springs -his coup and the lama and his bag of superstitious tricks rolls in the dust. Will then some other religion take the place of Lamaism, or will the Tibetan national god Become the state and the state become the god?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.