of a defunct saint was found out by the use of the golden jar, or ser-bum.[1]
Three years after the death of an incarnate lama the names of the different children, who it was claimed were his reincarnation, were taken down. These names, in the case of the Dalai or Tashi lamas, were sent to the regent for examination, after which the president of the conclave, in the presence of the Regent and the ministers, enclosed in tsamba balls slips of paper, on each of which was written the name of a candidate. In other tsamba balls were slips on which was written "yes" or "no," as well as some blank slips. All these were put together in a golden jar, which was placed on the altar of the principal chapel of Lhasa, and for a week the gods were invoked. On the eighth day the jar was twirled round a certain number of times, and the name which fell out three times, together with a pellet in which was a slip inscribed "yes," was declared the true reincarnation. Those who were sent to bring the reincarnated saint to Lhasa or Tashilhunpo submitted him to certain trials; as, for example, picking out from a number of similar objects the rosary, the rings, cup, and mitre of the deceased lama.[2]
In 1875, a year after the death of the Dalai lama Tinle-gyatso, the regent and the College of Cardinals consulted the celebrated Nachung Chos-gyong oracle[3] about the Dalai's reappearance, and the oracle declared that the reincarnation could only be discovered by a monk of the purest morals. It required, again, the supernatural powers of the oracle to find the future discoverer of the Grand Lama; he was the Shar-tse Khanpo of Gadan, a lama of great saintliness and profound knowledge. The oracle further stated that he should
- ↑ According to Chinese authors, the selection of incarnate lamas by the drawing of lots from a golden vase dates from 1793. See Jour. Roy. As. Soc., vol. xxiii.; 'Land of the Lamas,’' p. 290; Waddell, op. cit., 245 et sqq. and 279, note 2; also Huc, op. cit., vol. ii. p. 348. François Bernier, in his 'Voyages' (1723), vol. ii. p. 310, gives some interesting details about the reincarnation of the Grand Lama, as told him by an attaché to a mission from the King of Little Tibet to Aureng-Zeb.—(W. R.)
- ↑ Among the strange events which occur on the birth of a reincarnation of the Tale lama may be mentioned "the blossoming, in the immediate vicinity of the birthplace, of fruit-trees some months before their usual season; the casting of two or more young by animals which as a rule do not cast so many at a birth; and the sudden recovery from fatal illnesses of persons coming in contact with the newborn child." See 'Report on Explorations,' made by A. K., p. 32.—(W. R.)
- ↑ See Waddell, op. cit., p. 478. He calls him "the Necromancer-in-Ordinary to the Government." He was first brought to Tibet by Padma-sambhava, the founder of Lamaism in the middle of the eighth century.—(W. R.)
