In guaranteed fast colours Suitable for all purposes, at very reasonable prices embarrass the living but also the dead.
This again is a decided mark of progress not known only to civilization, but quite un-general, but it somehow satisfies the rollick-known in the Forbidden Land.
It may come ing, in the Land of the Lamas; but why should dwelling somewhere on the Roof of the it? The nomad may be ignorant, dirty, World. He has no money in the bank and superstitious, idolatrous; knows anything about him can deny the satisfaction of his soul and the amount of unalloyed pleasure and enjoyment he gets out of life. He may and does bow before idols of wood, stone, mud and bronze, but his soul is his own and beautifully free from the love of money, which is the root of all evil. If gold in any shape or form comes into his hands he uses it, not to build instruments of destruction, but to beautify his idols and his temples.
Should such ignorance, superstition, innocence and blessedness be disturbed and should the woolly nomad be encouraged to keep step with civilization and invent banks, stocks, bonds and shares and all the distressing impedimenta of the twentieth century If an empty sauce bottle will make him happy should we refuse to take some smelly yak dried cheese in exchange?
Can a religious country like the Land of the Lamas with the charming philosophy that nothing is nothing and everything is nothing and after all there is really nothing, indulge in private finance, public finance or commercial enterprise or even run a Country Club. If John Citizen wants to buy a horse, well Torii Nomad has a yak for sale: but the very name of John Citizen has all the ghostly shades of municipal finance, building societies, public libraries, Free Masonry and general elections, while Tom Nomad lives in blissful ignorance of all these pecuniary embarrassments.
His overdue subscription to the workmen's club never disturbs his peaceful sleep and his yearly donation to collective security in no way distresses his nomadic family. Tom Nomad and John Citizen live in two entirely different worlds: the one lives, moves and has his being in his grandfather's sheepskin, the other reads the daily press to discover where the bargains are and which petrol will give most miles per gallon, 8
These are all pecuniary embarrassments and none of them distress or harass the woolly nomad. If he rides a yak he gets there slowly; if he rides his little Tibetan horse he gets there quickly: on both he enjoys the pleasures of imagination and is entirely free from the distractions of finance.
It seems hardly possible that in this day of civilization and international relationships that Tibet should remain so isolated as she is and yet she has deliberately and defiantly closed the door against all intruders and invaders; and if we knew the reason why we might be surprised and shocked.
Tibet apparently has no desire or ambition for intercourse with the outside world. She s perfectly satisfied with her own religion, philosophy and social order. Life on the Roof of the World may be filled with superstition, and red-robed lamas may dominate the situation, but there is a delightful absence of the peculiar madness now distracting what we understand by the term civilization.
The Young Party in the Land of the Lamas has tried on occasion to keep in step with other nations and made an attempt to invent a coinage. But the Young Party, fortunately, has not been the government and so has lacked any stabilizing influences behind the movement. Private, public and government banks, if they function at all, simply must have a currency, be it paper, copper, silver or gold. And in this manner Tibet has failed to function as a banking nation.
To explain the origin, development and status of the Bank of England is like trying to explain the origin, development and status of Nirvana.
The principle of faith enters into both organizations: in one institution you place your priceless soul; and in the other you put your material wealth. Both promise a certain amount of interest, so life assumes a certain amount of tranquillity, But the moment the woolly nomad begins the adventure of finance and puts his money—if he ever has any in the bank and if there is any bank—from that moment Nirvana, as a place or state of rest, joy and peace loses something of its charm and attraction. Finance and Lamaism are absolutely incompatible terms and the lama who piles up money, and at the same time seeks Nirvana, is cancelling one ambition at the expense of the other.
Pushed in any direction Lamaism simply means renunciation, and the nomad who desires peace, rest and joy in the lama's paradise must carefully eschew the world, the flesh and the devil, and set his affections very devoutly on things that.are above. The res of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things, as far the lama and the nomad are concerned, have their beginning and end in the one word, money, Lamaism, as a religious system, has no place in its philosophy for money or finance. However surrounded as she is, with great world powers whose very existence demands finance, Tibet has had some difficulty in maintaining her simple attitude towards international exchange. With Burma on the south, India on the west, Russia on the north and China on the east, Tibet has had, more or less, to accept something of the cur-rendes of these different countries. Her acceptance of the monies of other nations has not been on a basis of finance or exchange but as a means of adornment.
The young Tibetan ladies all over Kham display a wonderful headgear made up almost entirely of Indian and Chinese rupees. ' And when the nomadic lady comes to town she buttons up her coat with half Chinese and half Indian rupees. If she is very wealthy and particularly vain she wears bigger denominations in her headgear and larger coins as buttons. But the fact that these same coins will buy lots of nice things in the Chinese or Indian bazaars is quite ignored. A silver -coin to this unwashed, nomadic lady has the same value and function as a Gordon Highlanders brass button. She displays them both as articles of adornment, being probably ignorant of the glory of the one and the value of the other.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.