The Timely Rain: Travels in new Tibet [1 ed.]

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Stuart & R o m a Gelder

TH E T IM EL Y R A IN Travels in N ew Tibet

Foreword by EDGAR SNOW

P h o to g ra p h y by STUART GELDER

H U T C H IN S O N

OF LO N D O N

THE TIM ELY R A IN

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by the same authors LO N G M ARCH TO

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books by Stuart Gelder T H E E A R L Y L IF E O F D . H . L A W R E N C E (with Ada Lawrence) T H E C H IN E S E C O M M U N IS T S

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Lhasa Valley from Sera Monastery

H U T C H IN S O N & C O . (Publishers) LT D 17 S -20 2 Great Portland Street, London, IV.t London Melbourne Sydney Auckland B om bay Toronto Johannesburg N ew Y o rk ★

First published 1964

© Stuart and Roma Gelder 1964

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I I A G 11 ! C l !/» 1

S £ C

This bock has beett set iti Bembo, printed in Créât Britain on Antique Wove paper by The Aiuhor Press Ltd., and bound by Wm. Brendon & Son Ltd., both o f Tiptree, Essex.

‘ Y o u r w ill is like the gathering o f clouds, you r call like thunder, ‘From these comes tim ely rain to nourish selflessly the earth!’

From a hymn to Mao Tse-tung composed by the fourteenth Dalai Lama Dantzen-Jaltso at Norbulin-Shenfu Palace, Lhasa, 1934. It was presented to the Chairman o f the Chinese People's Republic on the occasion o f the Dalai Lama’s visit to Peking in 1954, and now hangs in the Buddhist Temple o f Broad Charity in the Chinese capital.

For Ann, Alison, D avid & Imogen

CONTENTS

Foreword

13

1

Jou rn ey to the U nknow n

17

2

G atew ay to Lhasa

20

3

Flight into Danger

33

4 Jou rn ey in Reverse

38

5

Festival at D repung

44

6

A Living Com m unist God

55

7

T he Story o f Apei

62

8

T he Holiest o f Holies

69

9

Death o f the D ogs

79

10

Medicine— O ld and N e w

85

11

T h e Little W orld o f D a Chuen

100

12

Facts about Food

106

13

T he Story o f Tsereh W ang Tuei

112

14

T he D ivine Invention

119

15

T heology Thrives

130

16

A Tibetan Critic

136

17

Interlude

142

18

Learning from Lamas

157

19

T h e M on k’s Story

17 1

20

Loser Pays A ll

175

CONTENTS

21

W ithin the Rose Fence

179

22

H oliday in Jew el Park

184

23

T om b at the Top

189

24

Clouds o f Confusion

199

25

H ym n to Mao

204

26

Rebellion in Lhasa

2 10

27

N o Ring o f Truth

220

28

Lhasa in London

225

Appendices

227

Index

245

ILLU STRA TIO N S

COLOUR

Lhasa V a lle y fro m Sera M onastery Potala Palace from the N orb u lin gka road at sunset Lhasa V alley from a Potala r o o f D etail o f butter sculpture m ade b y lamas at K u m bu m M onastery, C h in gh ai. T h e entire w o rk , 6 feet h igh and 18 feet lon g, was carved from one and a h a lf tons o f butter. This is the first colour picture to be taken o f this fabulous Tibetan art Lhasa citizen w ith outsize prayer w heel on his w a y to church G irls o f T ib et’s first gram m ar school at playtim e Pupils o f a People’s Prim ary School organised b y Tibetan parents fo r their children T h e Potala from the w ater m eadow s on the outskirts o f the city B ed ro om o f the Fourteenth D alai Lam a, Potala Palace D alai Lam a’s private prom enade, Potala Palace E ve n in g shadow s o v e r the Lhasa V alley from the tom b o f the Thirteenth D alai Lam a. T h e pieces o f rag hanging on the line are prayer flags A lady o f Lhasa M ongolian w orsliippcrs at K u m bum M onastery, C h inghai, o f w h ich T h u b tcn Jig m e N o rb u , brother o f the Fourteenth D alai L am a, w as A bbot D etail o f golden canopy o f Thirteenth D alai L am a’s tom b which rises through three storeys o f the Potala D etail o f great chanting house façade at D repun g, largest m onastery in the w o rld B u dd h a o f Sera M onastery 9

10

ILLUSTRATIONS

M o n k at scrvicc, Jo h k a n Cathedral

facin g page 97

T ravellin g lama

112

W e m et this old w om an w alkin g round a chorten in a country road, saying her devotions w ith her p rayer wheel and w ith her pet puppy trotting at her heels

113

Tibetan schoolgirls w earin g Pioneer— C om m unist youth m ove­ m ent— scarves

113

Pilgrim s go in g to scrvicc in great chanting house at 551st anniver­ sary o f D repung M onastery

128

T h e old lama m edical college on Iron H ill and the road to the N orbulingka (Jew el Park) from the private prom enade o f the D alai Lam a, Potala Palace

12 9

A Tibetan herdsw om an

144

Lam a houses, Sera M onastery

145

Chcnscl Phodrang, favourite sum m er palace o f the Fourteenth Dalai Lam a in the N orbulingka from w hich he fled b y night in 1959. H e w as told this building w ith other palaces in the Je w e l Park w as reduced to ruin b y Chinese gunfire soon after he left. W e found it intact w ith all its contents m eticulously preserved

16 0

T h e h o ly o f holies o f Tibet. T h e altar o f T h e J o , w hich legend says was brought to Lhasa in the seventh century b y the Chinese Princess W en C h eng as a w edding gift to her husband the K in g o f T ib et

16 1

A lama o f K u m bum in a tem ple courtyard

17 6

W orshipper at the feet o f T h e J o , Jok h an Cathedral

17 7

BLACK

AND

WHITE

Rom a G cldcr and bathing boys at the foot o f the Potala

facin g page or between pages 56

G old-crow ned sym bols like this and the go ld-ro ofed canopies o f the D alai Lam as’ tombs 011 the r o o f o f the Potala can be seen from every Lhasa horizon

56 -57

T h e Je w e l in the Lotus— T h e B uddha— w h ich decorates all monastic buildings in Tib et

56 -57

T h e Fourteenth D alai Lam a’s private apartments at the Potala sum m it

^7

Detail o f canopy o f Thirteenth D alai Lam a’s tom b w h ich contains 300,000 ounces o f go ld

gg

Fourteenth D alai Lam a’s throne in his private reception hall, Potala Palace

88-89

ILLUSTRATI ONS

II

C o u ch and tabic o f Fourteenth D alai L am a’s private sittingro om in Potala Palace facing page or between pages 88-89 H o ly w ater b o w ls and cases o f divinities o f the Buddhist Pantheon form ing a w all o f the Fourteenth D alai L am a’s sitting-room

88-89

Chortens festooned w ith p rayer flags

89

Tibetan shopkeeper w ith his fam ily. T h e bundles in the can on the left are incense sticks w h ich customers b u y to bu m before temple gods. O n the w a ll and on the right arc prayer sheets fo r sale

12 0

Herdsm en fro m the grasslands

12 0 -12 1

Y aks in Lhasa m arket place

12 0 -12 1

Tibetan hat fashion— Plantagenct style

12 0 -12 1

N gap o N g a w a n g Jig m e , fo rm er m em ber o f Fourteenth D alai Lam a’s C abin et, C o m m a n d er-in -C h ic f o f the Tibetan A rm y ; n o w Secretary-General o f the Provisional G overnm ent o f T ib et, w ith his w ife and the youngest o f their tw elve children

12 1

W e met these m erry youngsters gathering firew oo d fo r their m others

I 52

W h erever w e w ent w ith ou r cameras w e w ere follow ed b y hordes o f children w h o had never seen Europeans before

1 5 2 - 15 3

T h e G reat Je w e l—T h e Panchcn Lam a

I 52 - I 53

Boundless L igh t— His Serenity T h e

Tibetan housew ife

1 5 2 - 15 3

A b o y lam a o f Sera M onastery

153

M on k actor

l8 4

Ancient m ystery p lay being perform ed at 5 5 1st anniversary o f D repung M onastery

18 4 -18 5

R o m a G cld cr in the stalls

18 4 -18 5

Pa T c i C h ia n g C h u , the deaf-m ute m on k o f K u m b u m

18 4 -18 5

Tibetan urchin at D repung festival p lay

185

Tscreh W a n g T u c i, form er s e rf o f D repung, w h o was blinded and m utilated fo r stealing tw o sheep from his m onastic lords

19 2

Tibetan gram m ar school teacher

*93

Tibetan theologian, the H igh L im a T u T c n g K a T su ng

200

Tibetan yo u th w earin g portrait brooch o f Fourteenth D alai Lam a

200-201

A village schoolgirl

200-201

Joh k an B udd h a decorated w ith Hatas (good-luck scarves)

201

A reading class at D egc (good luck) Street People’s P rim ary School

208

12

ILLUSTRATIONS

A prim ary school pupil

filin g page or between pages 208-209

A T ibetan actress—daughter o f a form er se rf

208-209

Y oungest m em ber o f the first Tibetan dram a school

208-209

M atron and orphan at old fo lk s’ and children’s hom e, T sai G o n T a n g village

209

W o m an o f old folks’ hom c w earing clothes confiscated from house o f a noble w h o took part in 1959 rebellion

209

R o m a ’s Chinese nurse in Lhasa

224

A h W an g C h u T z a , Dean o f the traditional lama hospital, w h o is still sometimes w orried b y e vil spirits

224

Pathologist— new Lhasa hospital

225

Surgeon— new Lhasa hospital

225

FOREWORD By E D G A R SN O W

W hen I met Stuart and Rom a Gelder in Peking in the autumn o f i960 they urged me to jo in them in an attempt to storm Tibet. After fifteen years’ absence from China the provinces alone seemed enough to occupy me during a b rie f visit, but w ho would count him self out on a possible view o f the Potala? Just in case anything came o f their petition to Premier Chou En-lai, I asked to be included. A t that time the trip proved impracticable chiefly because o f old man weather. T w o years later Stuart and Rom a quietly (that is, without a w ord to me) went back to China, made a second try and attained the unattainable. As a personal lesson, this book proves how mistaken I was in consoling myself, in i960, that anyw ay T could have learned little’ (as I wrote) b y ‘spending a few days in Lhasa as a guest o f the Chinese authorities’. N o w to add insult to the professional injury o f their ‘w e told you so’, I have been asked to say grace for the banquet spread before us b y this team o f intrepid travellers. I cannot com plain; I was fairly warned; I can n o w only applaud their achievmcnt. And what a story it is! Here is a w ork superbly realized from an oppor­ tunity largely created b y human persistency, and from rich materials w oven together in a brilliant and vivid tapestry that brings to life the most remote and for­ bidden o f all the highlands o f the world. W e are fortunate that the Gcldcrs were well pre­ pared to understand so much o f what they saw, to photograph its contrasts o f beauty and pathos with fidelity, and to narrate the experience with honesty, 13

FOREWORD

humour and compassion. As a professional newspaper man for many years, Stuart’s record establishes his credibility. He first went to India, a youthful journalist, thirty-eight years ago. On the staff o f the News Chronicle o f London for tw enty years, he was its correspondent in India where lie follow ed the ups and downs o f the independence movement and became an admirer and friend o f Mahatma Gandhi. During W orld W ar II Stuart covered events in China, Burm a and India; his documentary book The Chinese Communists reflected a foreknowledge o f revolutionary victory. W hile a w ar correspondent he was the first Englishman to bomb Japan— as an observer with the 20th Bom ber Com m and o f the U .S . A ir Force. Later, when ch icf correspondent o f the News Chronicle in W ashington, he and Rom a came to know American politics and politicians and conceived a deep affection for the American people. Throughout the M cC arthy years Stuart retained liis faith and interest in both the United States and China, and the judgm ent he had formed o f them. In their book Long March to Freedom, published follow ing his return to China with Rom a in i960, he was able to report changes and great progress from pre-revolutionary memories o f Chinese society which few Western visitors nowadays bring to that scene. A man o f w arm spontaneity and enthusiasm, once he has made a judgem ent, Stuart obviously lives with it; his marriage to Rom a has lasted thirty-seven years, and cliildren and grandchildren, as w ell as R om a’s fortitude under the physical tests o f Tibetan altitudes, attest to its continued durability. W hether or not one agrees with the implications o f this book, few w ill read it without recognizing that it is an honest inquiry made with 110 political com m it­ ments to any organized powers that be. One is given ample space and air to read between the lines. It informs rather than indoctrinates. I f it is contradictory in some respects, the facts themselves— or the clusivencss o f facts— arc often, as elsewhere on the China landscape, to blame. As a pioneer w ork The Timely Rain is both news and history to enrich

FOREWORD

man’s know ledge o f revolutionary Tibet. As a oncc-in-a-lifctime story, fellow writers w ill salute it w ith a much deserved well done. EDGAR

St. Cergue, Switzerland

SNOW

J O U R N E Y TO TH E U N K N O W N

In i960 w e travelled more than 5,000 miles through seven Chinese provinces as freely as w e wished, but our report was incomplete because w e didn’t see Tibet. W e couldn’t go there, said Foreign Minister Chen Y i, because in winter the return jou rn ey b y land from Chengtu in Szechuan or from Sining in Chinghai could take more than a month and w e hadn’t so much tim e to spare. W e argued that even during a b rie f visit w e could discover i f Tibetans w ere victims o f genocide b y the Chinese w ho were accused o f destroying them b y starvation and murder. In 1962 in his autobiography M y Land and M y People1 the Dalai Lama w rote that: Tens o f thousands o f his people had been killed, not only in military actions but individually and deliberately. T h ey had been killed, without trial, on suspicion o f opposing communism or for hoarding m oney or sim ply because o f their position, or for no reason at all, but mainly and fundamentally they had been killed because they would not renounce their religion.2 T h ey had not only been shot but beaten to death, hanged, scalded, buried alive, drowned, vivisected, starved, strangled. These killings had been done in public; the victims’ fellow villagers and friends and neighbours had been made to watch them; eye-witnesses described them to the Commission (o f lawyers) w ho com piled stories o f refugees. Men and wom en had been slow ly killed w hile their families were forced to watch; small children had been forced to shoot their parents. W e asked i f w e could be flown in, but Prime Minister Chou En-lai said the governm ent was short o f suitable aircraft for this hazardous jou rn ey. W e could not kn ow i f these were diplomatic 1 . W cid cnfcld & N icolson 2 . A uth ors’ italics B

17

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evasions or genuine cxcuscs, but w e were promised that i f w e could return in another year arrangements w ould be made for us to travel in Tibet without restriction for as long as w e liked. In 1962 w e told Peking w e were ready and 011 n t h August w e left London for Lhasa. But it isn’t Chairm an M ao, Premier Chou or the Foreign Minister w ho finally decide i f you can go to the r o o f o f the w orld. T he last w ord lies with another, entirely impersonal and non-political trium­ virate: an electro-cardiogram, a blood-prcssure measuring kit and an X -ra y machine at the Fu W ai Hospital. And i f they say ‘ N o ,’ all the personal influence in China w o n ’t get you a yard further on you r w ay. N o Everest climbers were more searchingly tested b y the relent­ less electric pens which recorded our heart-beats clanging in our heads like steam-hammers, the fluoroscope in the dark-room which lit up our insides like neon signs and the m ercury pum ping painfully in the pressure tubes so that w e were sure our arteries must be wafer-thin. O nly when medical certificates pronounced us fit to live and w o rk at altitudes o f 13,000 to 15,000 feet was the rarest passport in the w orld and the first to be issued to Westerners, placed in our hands. W e had asked K oo She-lonc, the companion o f our i960 journeys, i f he could come with us as secretary-interprcter, and after the doctors had worked 011 him for a week, getting dow n his blood-prcssure to the permitted level w e left for Lanchow where w e were received in one o f the 300 to 500-room hotels which the Chinese inexplicably build for tourists w ho aren’t allowed to visit them. O ur suite o f lounge, bedroom and bathroom was deliciously perfumed and huge dishes o f water-melon were brought to wash the dust out o f our throats. It was our last luxury for five weeks. A t three o ’clock in the m orning w e began the ascent 011 the single-track railw ay to Sining, gatew ay to Lhasa. The cries o f people loading and unloading luggage and the squeaks o f little black pigs wakened us as dawn was slow ly lighting a w ide valley, and bare, deeply cleft mountains which enclosed it loom ed through the last pale shades o f the night. Between them and the railw ay track peasants were already w orking on the stony earth behind wooden ploughs draw n b y donkeys, oxen and mules. M en and wom en were w innow ing grain b y tossing it in the air with forks. E v ery foot o f fertile earth was grow in g cabbages, potatoes, onions, buckwheat and soya beans. W om en and girls w ere gathering a colourful harvest o f ruddy apples, plums and persimmons from orchards near every village, whose mud houses m ight have been anywhere in M exico. Cézanne w ould have felt at home in this hard, rolling, sunburned landscape. These might be the brow n summer

JOURNEY

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19

mountains o f the Route Napoleon and the skies o f Provence over the baking fields. As w e drew near to the city w e saw on the horizon what appeared to be red cathedrals towering hundreds o f feet into the morning sky. These w ere vertical rock formations sculpted b y w ind and water. Vast apses had been form ed, heightening the illusion o f human archi­ tecture where the rock had been most deeply eroded. Great industrial areas arc being developed in W est China, but in this high hinterland m ore than six million peasants still live in the cottages and use the tools o f their ancestors o f the Chinese Middle Ages w hich politically ended here only thirteen years ago. The >coplc still face a bitter unceasing struggle w ith Nature but no ongcr live in fear o f W ar Lords whose avarice and cruelty can never be forgotten or forgiven.

f

G A T E W A Y TO L H A S A

From Sining you can walk up the dirt road ju st beyond the only hotel, clim b through the valleys on to the Chinghai uplands and travel cross­ country over the Tibetan plateau without com ing to another tow n in more than 2,000 miles. U ntil the Chinese occupied Tibet in 19 5 1 this was the only w ay to Lhasa from the east. N o w a road has been driven through the w ild wastes and grasslands o f the border 1,300 miles to the Tibetan capital. T he only other highw ay to the H oly C ity runs 1,500 miles from Chcngtu in Szechuan province, via Cham do and over some o f the most formidable passes in the w orld rising to 15,000 feet. This was hacked out o f the vertical moimtainsidc b y Chinese and Tibetan labourers and Red A rm y soldiers w ho w orked w ithin inches o f i,ooo-foot drops to make the hard shoulders which w ould enable trucks to pass round hairpin bends. Com pared with the Szechuan route, the Sining-Lhasa road is a gentle undulating journey. But when w e arrived in early September long stretches had been washed out b y the heaviest summer rains for fifty years, so that it w ould have taken us one or tw o back-breaking weeks to cover the distance to Lhasa b y jeep. The Chinese Governm ent had given us the choice o f going to Tibet by air or land, but because our time was limited, w e had asked the A ir Force to fly us in i f the weather was favourable. W e had hoped to stay only one night in the unlikely opulence o f the hotel at the edge o f this wilderness which had been built b y the C ity Com m unist Council on ly a couple o f hundred yards from the medieval mud homes o f the local peasantry. But A ir Force radio operators above Lhasa were telling the Sining Com m ander that demoniac winds how ling through the ice-cowled peaks would tear the wings o ff our aircraft like gossamer moth wings i f w e took o ff now. The Cnina-Tibet mountain ranges aren't the highest in the world but here the weather can change from calm to furious

GATEWAY

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storm and back to calm again within an hour so that for aircrews they arc the most dangerous. It wasn t surprising that the Buddhists, ignorant o f meteorology, believe this violent w orld is in the pow er o f malevolent demons in everlasting conflict w ith benevolent gods w ho have all their w ork cut out to maintain b rie f uncertain periods in which human and animal life can survive. A fter dinner w e stretched our travel-cramped legs b y walking through the tow n. M ain streets in Cliina arc the broadest in the world. There are no private cars and few m otor vehicles o f any kind but when they are mass-produced, tunnels w ill have to be driven to enable pedestrians to cross from one side to the other unless they arc to be slaughtered b y the thousand. Sining main street is one o f the broadest o f all. N o w , with foot on accelerator and hand on horn, drivers can scatter jay-w alk in g citizens to safety. A t first sight the female population seemed to be composed o f black-cowled nuns. These were Moslem wom en. Their menfolk, in grey-w hite pill-box hats, might have been figures in any Middle East city. T he new squat box-shaped shops and offices had no national iden­ tity and might have been throw n up overnight anywhere on earth where an oil strike or new ly discovered mineral deposits had attracted a flood o f immigrants. O nly w eirdly and wonderfully dressed M on­ golians and Tibetans, w earing sheepskin coats, leather boots with upturned toe points and hats with outlandish ears, turquoise ear-rings and carrying rosaries twined round their wrists, reminded us that we had com e to the country where tw o cultures meet. A t dawn K o o She-lonc wakened us with a message from the air­ field. W e couldn’t hope to fly for another twenty-four hours. So w e drove to Kum bum monastery o f which Thubten Jig m e N orbu, the eldest brother o f the fourteenth Dalai Lama, was form erly abbot.1 Five hundred yards beyond the hotel the smooth macadamed road camc to an abrupt end and w e pitched into a curtain o f dust thrown up b y mule and donkey carts carrying vegetables into Sining over a deeply pot-holed dirt track. Betw een one gear change and another w e had passed from the new sophisticated city into a countryside which was a fe w steps and a thousand years aw ay. Here, for the first time in China, w e saw men, wom en and children in rags. But, incongruously, some o f them sat at the doors o f their mud houses which were onc-roomed huts, eating breakfast from beautifully shaped and decorated bowls, i . T h u b ten Jig m c w en t to India w hen the Chinese first entered T ib et in 19 5 1. H e n o w lives in the U nited States.

22

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the designs 011 which have remained unchanged for centuries. C o m ­ pared w ith this peasant ware, the expensive new crockery sold in tow n shops is crudely decorated and shoddily finished. T all poplars, lining the rocky w ay through the closely cultivated fields, again gave us the illusion that w e were travelling through a southern French landscape until w e were jolted back to China by frantic swerves to avoid vegetable carts com ing at us straight dow n the centre o f the track. W ith bruised bones w e reached a long village where it was market day, and slow ly brushing our w ay through flocks o f chickens, goats, ducks, pigs and people came upon a ro w o f white, blue and gold chortens, the pagoda-shaped memorials o f holy lamas, guarding the w ay to the monastery. T h irty temples, the houses o f the A bbot, the Dalai and Panchcn Lamas and high ecclesiastics, the cells and hermitages o f the monks, barns and store houses lay within the folds o f the sun-parched hills planted with cedars and juniper bushes. Thubten Jig m e N orbu, like his brother the Dalai Lam a, was born in a cow -byrc at the small farm ­ stead o f their peasant parents in the poor village o f Tcngtscr, tw o days’ jo u rn ey on horse-back from this great religious town. I11 his autobiography Tibet is M y Country1 he has related to his friend Heinrich Harrcr, author o f Seven Years in Tibet2, that when he w as an infant, it became know n to his father and mother that he was the reincarnation o f a famous monk, Tagtser, and had inherited great wealth through his previous incarnations at Kum bum and from other monasteries besides. W hen he was eight years old this peasant child was dressed in fine clothes and taken to his ‘rich and splendid’ inheritance. A t Kum bum , like a prince in a fairy-tale, dressed in silk-embroidered robes o f finest quality, lie was placed 011 his throne to receive the homage o f the A bbot and thirty other Rimpoches, the high dignitaries w ho were his fellow monastic aristocrats. T he boy from the dark w indowless cottage at Tengtser now ruled from a house filled with beautiful and valuable treasures which according to Buddhist belief had been left by him self to him self when he departed from his previous body. N o w the child w ho had never seen a clock possessed fifteen, w ith little cuckoos to pop out and tell him the time and a collection o f lovely musical boxes, from one o f which a girl cam e out to dancc to the music, carrying in her hand a smaller b o x from w hich another dancer appeared. In his previous incarnation Thubten N orbu had achieved a great reputation as a healer which brought him a fortune. He had fled to 1 . & 2. [R upert H art-D avis]

GATEWAY

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M ongolia from a tribal rebellion during which Kum bum was destroyed by fire and from there went to Russia, where his healing powers were in w ide demand and he was handsomely rewarded. In middle life he returned to Chinghai with a caravan full o f treasures including the cuckoo clocks and music-boxcs. The wealth o f this incarnation had been passed 011 to his successive reincarnations and increased b y shrewd investment in property and land. T he farms o f the estates and monas­ teries yielded large revenues. T h ey were leased to peasants under the ancient feudal system b y which they gave up a percentage o f their harvests to their landlord. Five years after Thubten’s birth another boy, named Lhaino D ondrub, was born to his mother in the cow -b yrc at Tcngtscr. When he was four, high lamas from Lhasa, disguised as merchants, came to look for the new incarnation o f the thirteenth Dalai Lama, recently dead, in a house which had been seen, reflected in the waters o f a lake near the H oly C ity , and under whose strangely shaped gutter pipes the Regent had dreamed he saw standing the fourteenth Incarnation. There, in Tcngtser village, was the identical house, the home o f Thubtcn N o rb u ’s parents. T he ‘merchants’ told the housewife they w ere on their w ay to Chakhyung, and asked i f they might rest awhile in her kitchen. T he leader o f the search party, Kyetsang Rimpoche, had dressed him self as a servant so that his companions appeared to be his superiors. I11 order to observe little Lham o Dondrub more closely they asked i f they m ight stay the night. T h ey were made welcome and played with the infant until it was his bedtime. T h ey were impressed b y him but i f lie was truly the reincarnation for w hom they were looking he must prove it b y recognising certain objects which he had possessed in his form er life. Kyetsang Rim poche carried am ong other things, the thirteenth D alai’s rosary. T he b o y claimed it as his ow n and m oreover saw through the disguise and told Kyetsang he was a lama and, it is said, to the amazement o f his parents and the visitors, addressed him in the Lhasa dialect, which had never been heard in Tcngtser. He also recog­ nised a walking-stick and a small drum which had belonged to his previous body. He took them in his hands and refused to part with them. W ithout revealing their identity the ‘merchants’ left before dawn, but returned to declare w ho they were. N ow’ they carried with them the thirteenth Dalai Lam a’s silver pencil and eating bow l as w ell as indistinguishable replicas o f them. The boy would have none o f the imitations. This time Kyetsang Rim poche also w ore the former Dalai’s rosary round his neck and carried a replica in his hands but little Lhamo

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Dondrub knew his ow n and tried to pull the genuine beads from the monk, crying out that it belonged to him. The visitors also found, on exam ining the child’s body, tw o marks on the shoulders, traces o f an extra pair o f arms, w hich all true incarna­ tions possessed. There could now be no doubt that the fourtcnth Dalai Lama was discovered. The romantic story was complete. T he peasant b o y was taken to his capital where he w ould reign from the m ighty Potala Palace until he died and was reborn to reign again. His father, w ho was made a duke and his mother now a duchess went with him to the H o ly C ity, where the great ecclesiastical and lay lords received them w ith the reverence and high rcspcct due to parents w ho had been chosen b y the gods to bring back the Dalai Lama to the w orld from the ‘Honourable Field’.1 T h ey were t^ivcn lands and riches and their other children were ennobled and enriched likewise. U ntil 19 5 1 , when the Chinese Communists came to Tibet, they lived happily ever after. Thubtcn Jig in c N orbu, w ho had been elected A bbot o f Kum bum , was living the last chapter o f his fairy-tale when M a Pu-fang, Chiang Kai-shek’s Governor in Sining, fled before the advancing Com m unist arm y, taking with him all the treasure he could pack into his private plane and abandoning his troops to rob the local peasantry o f food and every valuable they could lay hands on. G overnor M a had exploited Buddhism but lie had not suppressed it. In a country where the oppression o f corrupt officials was accepted with long-practised resignation, his behaviour did not occasion protest from the lay and ecclesiastical aristocracies even though the price o f their peace was the payment o f tribute when the govern or’s bank account was running low . It was true that Thubten N o rb u ’s little brother, Lham o Dondrub, was found to be the Dalai Lama, but the b o y had not been allowed to leave China for Tibet until a large sum o f m oney had been paid to Ma Pu-fang. T he monks w ho had discovered the Incarnation could not raise the m oney until a party o f rich merchants, travelling to Lhasa, lent it to them. B u t the public practice o f religious beliefs had never been forbidden nor had the local w ar lords been so foolish as to put out o f business the monastic landlords w ho put such generous taxes into their pockets. It was understandable that the A bbot and his monks should fear that Communists would seize their treasure and property and destroy their 1. Death.

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religion as w ell. But i f the Dalai Lam a’s brother was so ready to believe, even before he m et them, that these godless men w ould be cruel and ruthless oppressors, they certainly outraged him as soon as they arrived b y their total lack o f sympathy with his religious outlook 011 social problems. Eleven years later w e were w ell able to imagine his dismay when twenty monks, w ho had made it, proudly showed us a screen six feet high and eighteen feet wide, sculptured out o f one and a h a lf tons o f butter. This depicted the wedding jou rney o f the Princess W en Cheng who went from Sian, China’s ancient capital, to Lhasa in the seventh century to m arry the K in g o f Tibet and took Buddhism w ith her. T he wedding coach, the escorting nobles 011 prancing horses, the border landscape w ith rivers, boats, trees and flowers, houses, deer and huntsmen with their hounds, were exquisitely carvcd and delicately coloured in the minutest detail by the artists, w ho began to learn this craft when they were boys. This fantastic picce o f w ork had been completed in the previous January. N o w it was slow ly disintegrating. I11 the N e w Y ear they would begin another. Cut in stone in a Christian cathedral, it w ould be as renowned as the w in­ dows o f Chartres. Here it was housed in a dilapidated barn for the folk from the surrounding country, w ho had donated the butter, to sec. In early September a rancid stench advertised its presence. In the winter o f 1949 the new Com munist G overnor o f Chinghai had lccturcd Thubtcn N orbu on liis duties to the peasants, now liber­ ated from feudal oppression b y the People’s A rm y. The lands o f K um bum , he said, should be distributed amongst the population, and monks should w ork, instead o f idling around the monastery, wasting time praying and frittering aw ay m oney on incense and wasting large quantities o f butter in religious ceremonial. Beggars should be given jobs. W earily recalling this ordeal, the form er A bbot wrote that they had been talking at cross-purposes. I f the Com m unist was being impossibly pompous the unhappy monk was naive in his sim plicity when he complained that the Gover­ nor w ould not or could not understand that ‘alm sgiving was one o f the fundamental obligations o f our religion and that the beggars were therefore fulfdling a useful function in society’. He probably could not have astonished the M arxist m ore i f he had given him a prayer wheel as a goodw ill present. B u t i f Thubtcn N orbu was a little lacking in political sensibility he didn’t lack courage, for when the Governor asked him to issue an immediate order forbidding the burning o f any more butter the Abbot firm ly refused and told him that i f he wanted this done he must do it

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himself. Confounded b y this brave resolution, the atheist soldier declared he had no such intention and conceded that the authorities w ould have to proceed to reform step b y step. Eleven years after their conversation the sculptured butter screen confirmed that progress continued to m ove at an unforced unhurried pacc. W orshippers still come to the shrines, carrying their small butter lamps in their hands to burn in propitiation for their sins in this life and the hope o f a more com fortable existence in their next, and the gold and jew elled Buddhas still sit, impassive and undisturbed, in the shadows cast b y the soft light o f hundreds o f butter flames flickering from enormous bronze and silver vessels at their feet. As w e arrived at the first temple o f the monastery, tw o M ongolian w om en and a small b o y and girl appeared at the gates. Their long w ild tangles o f hair fell over their shoulders. T h ey w ore sheepskin coats stiff with grease and dirt, and skirts dccoratcd with strips o f brightly coloured leather. Round their necks, and from richly embroidered belts, hung long ropes o f red and blue beads and large silver discs. In their hands the wom en carried tiny and beautifully w rought silver cups in which small butter lights w ere burning. W ithout a glance to cither side, apparently unconscious o f our presence, they w alked slow ly past us and disappeared silently into the shrine like apparitions from the lost w orld o f Genghis Khan. N o w only 400 o f the 3,000 men w ho were here before the C om ­ munists came remain to live out the quiet monotonous rhythm o f the Buddhist Religious. T he Chinese say that after the Tibetan rebellion in 1959, when the governm ent decreed that all monks were free to remain in monasteries or go as they pleased, the monks o f Kum bum , which is in China proper, were also ‘liberated’, and that those w ho went from here returned to lay life to m arry and settle dow n as farmers, craftsmen, labourers and clerks. But it is also probable that, as Thubten N orbu reported, many fled before the Com munists arrived because they feared they w ould be persecuted or killed. It is also likely that others went because they saw 110 future in a monastic life which Com m unist unbelievers might not destroy but could not be expected to encourage. A nd there w ould be m ore w ho, having been given to Kum bum as religious offerings w hen they were children, were glad to be quit o f a life for which they had 110 vocation but from which their fears o f heavenly retribution w ould not allow them to escape before. Certainly Thubten Jig m c N orbu and the departed monks never saw Kum bum in its present splendour. The temple where w e met the Mongolians might have been created

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b y a m onk designer for the delight and terror o f children. For this quiet and sacrcd place was also a bizarre and barbaric setting for a play where one w ould not have been surprised to sec outlandish pantomime characters com e tum bling down the sanctuary steps to perform in the courtyard below . This was like an Elizabethan stage, flanked b y galleries for an audience. Looking dow n from them now, as i f they expected us to throw them titbits, were stuffed horses, bears, cows and impudent­ faced monkeys occupying the vacant scats. T he walls were garish w ith delicately painted pictures o f exquisite torments suffered by the damned in manifold Buddhist hells. Im mediately inside the temple entrance, where the placid deities gazed through a thin haze o f butter smoke into the autumn light, the stuffed white horse o f the eighth Panchen Lam a, his neck garlanded with white hatas (good-luck scarves), stood w aiting as i f he expected the god to descend at any moment and ride o ff on his back over the mountains to the H oly C ity o f Lhasa. The local taxidermist had a keen sense o f humour for he had suc­ ceeded in givin g all liis animals the expressions o f comical human characters. W hen w e walked out o f the village into Kum bum w e stepped from reality into a child’s dream w orld o f gods and demons where good and evil spirits lived in stones and trees and animals were the souls o f human dead w ho had returned to earth. I f they were good bears, horses, cow s and monkeys they might find redemption in the next round o f existence as men and wom en again. According to the belief o f Tibetan Buddhists, i f you don’ t live virtuously in one life you may be punished b y having to live again 011 a low er plane. I f you arc rich and pow erful, but misuse you r gifts, you m ight be chastened b y being reborn poor and humble but i f your misbehaviour is really serious you m ight not be reincarnated in human form at all but could reappear on earth as a mouse or a fly. So Tibetans have a special reason to be kind to animals. A fter all, i f you beat you r mare or dog you m ay be beating you r aunt or grandfather, and personal sentiments apart, this could seriously prejudice you r position in your next existence. Strangely enough, this situation causes no embarrassment in Tibetan social relations, for i f one meets a poor ragged old monk like Lo Tsang Gcng-dcn the keeper o f this temple at Kum bum , it doesn’t occur to one that he might have lived disreputably when he was 011 earth before nor did one assume that the m ore richly attired Chu C heng Chicn-chuo, w ho received us in the name o f the senior A bbot, absent on a pilgrim age to Lhasa, was a more reputable charac­ ter. For w hile to Tibetan Buddhists their religious belief is a convenient w a y o f explaining the human dilemma in an otherwise inexplicable

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universe, they have been like other people in the w orld, rich or poor for much the same reasons. Lo Tsang Gcng-dcn came to K um bum forty-six years ago as a poor b o y without a do w ry, and while he might now be advancing spirit­ ually towards such perfection that dead, he m ight go straight to heaven and never have to return to endure human life again, he had obviously made no material progress here. Chu Cheng Chien-chuo had com e from a more prosperous fam ily w ho could afford to pay an entrance fee to the monastery, so that he had got o ff to a better start. U nlike his poorer brother monk, he did not become a monastery servant but learned to read and write. So he was n ow w ell qualified to be K um bum ’s representative on the N ation­ alities Commission, set up b y the governm ent in all parts o f China where there are racial minorities, to protect their interests. Although monks arc not a racial m inority, they form a separate com m unity w ith a separate culture, and so have been given an official voice through selected representatives w ho sec no conflict o f interests between a government which doesn’t believe in gods and monks w ho assume that spirits live in every juniper bush. W e at first mistook C hu Cheng Chien-chuo for a civilian, as he w ore dark trousers, tunic and soft peaked cap, but when w e said w e wished to photograph him he changed into his best monks’ clothes with gold-thread trimmings and the embroidered, tliick-solcd boots o f a prosperous lama. In this more appropriate dress he escorted us through the steep narrow streets and courts o f the monastery in which w e should have been lost without a guide. N e w ly gilded roofs and Buddhist symbols shone from every hill. Intricately carved eaves o f temples were freshly painted in red, green, blue and gold, and everyw here walls were decorated w ith charm ingly coloured ceramics in relief, o f deer, pastoral scenes, monkeys and legendary animals and pious murals. Chu Cheng Chien-chuo told us that the Peking Governm ent had given 300,000 yuan1 for restorations and redecorations since the mon­ astery’s lands and their revenue had been taken over b y the state. The diminished com m unity was 110 longer self-supporting. A ged and infirm monks were given small government pensions o f a few shillings a month, presumably provided from the profits o f confiscated manors. Younger, able-bodied men worked to g ro w food 011 land w hich K u m ­ bum had been allowed to retain for its ow n use. B u t it was not for­ bidden to accept alms and the devout peasantry still made gifts o f food 1 . Seven yuan to £ 1 .

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and m oney to monks, w ho were also able to earn extra income by conducting special prayer services for the laity in their ow n homes and officiating at religious weddings and funerals. W ere the peasants still as religious as before? Y es,’ said C hu Cheng Chicn-chuo. ‘A government can’t destroy beliefs which have been a part o f people’s lives since they were children.’ B u t the people arc no longer subservient to monastic secular rule and no longer dependent on Kum bum , o f which they were tied tenants, for their livings. Religion is tolerated by the Communists and the faithful arc not denied the right to practise it. Also they are no longer com pelled to support it b y taxation or induced to make gifts, b y threats o f ecclesiastics that they w ill suffer heavenly retribution i f they don’t. K um bum is still a ccntre o f devotion but no longer exercises political or economic authority over the neighbourhood. W e could hardly cxpect this young man w ho supported the new governm ent, to express regret that this change has come about, for he now occupies a m ore important position than he held under the old order. B u t when w e asked him what he thought o f the new situation he showed no hesitancy or embarrassment when he answered: ‘The m ajority o f the peasants and the m ajority o f the monks were poor be­ fore. Som e monks and some laym en were very rich. I think the big change is that no one now is rich at the expense o f others.’ B u t what about the impoverishm ent o f religion? He replied: ‘T he Communists don’t believe in it, but they don’t persecute it. Y o u can’t impoverish religion itself.’ Even i f the Com munists had wished to do so there was no need to persecute the few harmless monks in w orn-out clothes, stiff with the dirt and spilled rancid butter grease o f years, w ho shuffled round the silent streets and altars wliich had once been alive with more than a thousand men. Perhaps i f the buildings o f Kum bum had been flaking and crumbling in decay they w ould have appeared less melancholy to us than they did in their fresh gay brilliance. The greatest religious foundation in China is now a splendid stage set for a majestic play which cannot be produced because only 400 o f the cast o f 3,000 w ho were needed to perform it arc still there. Those w ho remain are figures in a small charade in which, lost am ong the colossal props, they can hardly be seen. But there w ere some remarkable individual performances in the wings where monks mimed their rituals out o f sight o f any audience. Before a lovely shrine, housed beneath a jade, gold and crimson roof, a tall bearded man was prostrating in penitential exercises before

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a ro w o f images w ho smiled dow n on him w ith expressions o f benevo­ lent but faintly amused approval. He w ore woollen pads on both palms to protect them from hot friction with tw o broad parallel strips o f w ood w orn to glassy smoothness. He flung him self dow n and slid forw ard on his hands until his body, face downwards, was pressed elose to the ground. Then, without bending his knees, he raised and lowered him self slow ly, supporting his weight with rigid arms a dozen times before springing to his feet again. His breath softly whistling from his deep chest like a blacksmith’s bellows, he was continuing this ceaseless rhythm ic movem ent a half-hour later when w e left him, and tw o hours afterwards w e saw his figure slow ly rising and falling as w e passed through the court again. C hu Cheng Chien-chuo explained that this monk was gaining great merit b y his strenuous devotions which he w ould probably continue until he was com pletely exhausted or even un­ conscious. Since a thousand prostrations counted only as one according to mystical Buddhist calculations, it obviously took superhuman endur­ ance and resolution to make a reputable score in the eyes o f the gods. As w e watched him, w e remembered a confession b y the form er Abbot, Thubten N orbu, that he was quickly tired b y these exercises and gave up after only a few prostrations. It was all v ery w ell for him. He had stored up a large credit o f merit in his form er lives so that he could now afford to live on his capital without further effort. Ju d gin g by his enormous exertions, the bearded monk must have dissipated his spiritual reserves in his previous incarnation and bequeathed to him self in his present life a load o f debt which he was n o w w orking hard to pay off. W ith odds o f a thousand to one against him , it didn’t seem a very good bet that he w ould be in credit before he died, so perhaps i f w e returned to K um bum tw enty years hence w e might find him in a new body, still sweating it out. W e should have been unimaginative travellers i f w e had felt no momentary nostalgia for the past, described w ith such evocative sym pathy b y the former Abbot, for an ordered w orld in w hich all men knew their places and w ere without envy o f their neighbours, w ho were in better ones. Because, know ing they had brought their fates upon themselves by their foolishness in previous lives, the poor and oppressed and afflicted bore their adversities, not only without resentment but with hope because they were now being given another chance o f a more jo yfu l life when this unfortunate existence was m ercifully ended and they were reborn. T he rich and pow erful could accept their good fortune as reward for their personal excellence. I f they were m om entarily disturbed b y the sufferings and hardships o f their lesser brethren they could instantly dismiss their qualms w ith the

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thought that but for the grace o f their ow n superiority they would have been sim ilarly punished. Here was a security which could not be rudely disturbed by social change and progress. Inevitable discomfort ensued when men rashly brought it upon themselves to make their ow n justice instead o f leaving its dispensation to the gods. In such a w orld the people o f Tibet and its monastic satellite societies, which the Dalai Lam a has described as without envy, would become envious o f others, like all w ho lived in foreign countries where freedom was synonym ous w ith licentiousness when it preferred material progress to spiritual advancement. Perhaps w e should have sympathised less with the A bbot’s com­ forting illusions i f w e had been Pa T ci Cliiang Chu, the little monk in rags whose home was a stable on a hillside which he shared with a few chickcns and pigs. W e couldn’t ask him how lie felt about the disruption o f the old unchanging life o f the monastery where he had lived since he was eight years old, for he was a deaf-mute. He gently pressed our hands in his and uttered unintelligible sounds which his poor neighbour, w ho lived in an earth cell next door, assured us was his wclcoine. But perhaps Pa T ei Chiang Chu was the most fortunate monk o f all. N o one could tell him that he was living the life o f a destitute tramp because he had misbehaved him self in his former life. So in his ignorance h ow could he b y acts o f contrition put him self right with the gods in the hope that they w ould give him a good pair o f cars with his next body? O r in their inscrutable charity, had they already rewarded him at birth by blessing him with an affliction which also freed him from the fears which tormented his brethren, because he was innocent o f any sense o f guilt? This was our first meeting w ith Buddhism and w e had begun our jou rn ey in K u m bu in a little self-consciously, fearful lest w e might com­ mit an irreverent act b y speaking too loudly in a temple or forgetfully turning our backs on the gods as w e walked out. The monks, who acccptcd cigarettes and struck matches 011 the pedestals o f deities in the courtyards and lit up under their noses, put us at our case. W e had been even m ore nervous o f personally offending these holy men in whose minds cleanliness had 110 connection with godliness and whose feet looked and smelled as i f they hadn’t been washed since they w ere bom . So they might have thought us stand-offish but for the screen o f tobacco smoke which n o w made intimate conversation possible. T he loneliest inhabitants here arc the Buddhas in the great prayer

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house where every day they used to hear the voices o f the great com ­ munity chanting their office. N o w there arc long gaps which w ill never be filled in the lo w thick-carpeted benches covering the vast floor, which arc the choir stalls. V ivid banners hung from the immense walls. Tall pillars supporting the high roof, clothed in richly coloured overlapping scalloped tapestry, resembled rows o f giant figures in Plantagcnet costume. Before w e left w e were offered tea from a small pitcher in a kitchcn where it was once made for 3,000 monks and their guests on festival days. In former days food was cooked in three metal vats each o f which could have concealed a dozen men. Chu Cheng Chicn-chuo suggested w e should return next day to make more film i f w e were unable to leave for Lhasa. T he weather report was still hopeless in the m orning and w e accepted his invitation. Perhaps the prayers o f our friend the bearded monk, w ho after a night’s sleep was continuing his devotional exercises, might help to placate the furies over the mountains. A t any rate, early on the third day the A ir Force reported that they w ere quieter and w e could make a dash for an intermediate airfield from which w e should have a better chance o f getting through to T ibet in rapidly changing w ind and cloud. O ver the turquoise ice-shored lake o f K oko N or w e flew into the back o f the Chinghai beyond.

Potala Palace from the Norbulingka road at sunset

Lhasa Valley from a Potala roof

Detail o f butter sculpture made by lamas at Kumbum Monastery, Chinghai. The entire work, 6 feet high and 18 feet long, was carved from one and a half tons o f butter. This is the first colour picture to be taken o f this fabulous Tibetan art

FLIG H T IN T O D A N G E R

W hen w e had asked i f it was forbidden to take photographs during the air jou rn ey the Chinese authorities had replied, ‘O nly from the aircraft on the approaches to T ibet.’ T h ey could hardly have imagined that our camcras w ere filled w ith X -ra y lenses which would absorb enough light to expose film through aeroplane w indow s opaque with frost at 22,000 feet. O r they were jokin g. N o one w ould take up the dreary underpaid jo b o f spying i f he were intelligent and energetic enough to make a living at any other trade. This is perhaps the reason w h y professionals usually appear even sillier than their fictional counterparts and w h y their government employers, w ho must ju stify the money they spend on Secret Services, disown them as soon as they arc caught. T h ey cannot admit they waste m oney on such dolts, especially since the really valuable information can alw ays be had for nothing. There has never been a shortage o f scientists w ho really know how to b lo w the w orld to bits and are anxious to give their blueprints to an ‘enem y’ so that everyone w ill possess the deterrent which all w ill be afraid to use, and so save us all from destruction. But they can never persuade a professional ‘enem y’ agent to accept them for nothing. This w ould spoil the market. So they are soon inevitably caught as they almost certainly never w ould be i f they were not forced to behave as spies are expected to behave. T h ey usually have a few enem y pounds in their pockets, hardly enough to give them a decent w eek’s holiday at the seaside. I f the Chinese are as inscrutable as they are supposed to be, they should be very good at this sort o f thing. T hey arc no good at all. W e were gulping oxygen through our masks and staring at a frosty blur o f propellers thrashing the thin air over the mountains which school maps had told us forty years earlier were down below, when an officcr came to see us. ‘T h e y ’ w ould be obliged, he said, i f w e didn’t

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report the name o f the place where w e w ould conic dow n in a few minutes. Since w e couldn’t keep a secret i f w e didn’t know it, w e asked its name. He immediately told us, but w e can’t repeat it because w e have forgotten it. W e landed on a salt desert as em pty as the surface o f the moon, enclosed b y razor-edged ice and snow-covered peaks. The men w ho maintain this staging post, an ice-box in winter, a furnace in summer, live in a group o f unheated wooden huts at the edge o f the runw ay. N o w the mountain devils were w hipping up such a furious storm over the Tangla Range that w e couldn’t take on for Lhasa, and Rom a, shivering and shaking in her thick padded clothes, was ordered to bed by a major-doctor. O ur chief pilot said she w ould have time to recover; some travellers had been held dow n here for weeks. Had we, after all, turned our backs carclcssly on some offended K uinbum god w ho had now struck her down and conjured legions o f demons to close the gates o f the H oly C ity when w e w ere almost in sight o f them? W e hoped the prostrating bearded monk was still interceding for us as he had promised. Perhaps, with the clairvoyant powers sometimes attri­ buted to lamas, lie had already sensed our plight and accelerated his exercises to speed R om a’s recovery. T he doctor said it was a long w arm sleep and the effect o f antibiotics which brought dow n her temperature so that she was ju st w ell enough to stagger up for dinner. B u t when, late that night, the meteorological officer reported that the new storm was dying, w e gave all credit to our protector in the monastery nearly a thousand miles away. N o people arc more practical than the Chinese and occasionally none can be more inexplicably lacking in com m on sense. W hat is surprising about their recent history is not that they have suffered setbacks in their crash plan to industrialise China but that without experience they liavc begun developing a modern state at unprece­ dented speed. T h ey have organised a great steel industry. T h ey have designed and built huge hydro-electric and watcr-conscrvation schemes o f enormous com plexity, yet you w ill be lucky i f you arc not kept awake in the best hotels, whose food and service are usually excellent, by dripping taps and water-closet ballcocks which don’t w ork properly. Millions o f gallons o f water must drip to waste every day. The major-doctor, w ho w as taking a turn as duty officcr, served us a dinner at the salt-descrt airfield cooked b y an A ir Force ch cf w ho w ould qualify for a jo b at one o f Peking’s best restaurants which arc the equal o f any in France and better than most. B u t the most nauseous lavatories in France, than which there are few more repelling 011 earth, except at K uw ait Airport, where they

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arc rich enough to make them o f gold, were fragrant bowers compared to the nightmares into which w e found our w ay through the night. U nlike the wooden living huts, these massive structures were perma­ nent brick and concrete halls in which one squatted over troughs constructed at such an angle that they w ere choked with the defecations o f previous visitors. Behind their rear walls, and running along their entire length, were wide deep moats into which, presumably, this horrific debris was washed dow n when the squatting platforms be­ came unusable. Between these lavatories and the nearest mountains was fifty or sixty miles o f unoccupied plain, but it hadn’t occurrcd to the architect to have trenches dug, protected by canvas screens and filled up and replaced b y new trenches when necessary. H aving put up the brick and concrete monuments, the victims were stuck with them, monstrous moats and all. Later, in England, when turning out the contents o f a desk, we came upon a photograph o f the first cottagc in which w e lived thirtyfive years ago in a Nottinghamshire village. The earth closet, a few yards from the kitchen door, was emptied b y the council night-soil m an twice a year. W c endured it for one summer and fled. W e de­ termined then that w c had made our last odious comparisons between China and England or anywhere else. Before daw n a gap opened in the weather, wide enough for us to pass through safely. As w e hurried to breakfast w c saw our plane taking o ff on a test run. T o lose an engine at 23,000 feet over the wildernesses o f ice between here and Lhasa w ould mean our certain end. Ifw c weren’t lucky enough to be killed outright in a crash there w ould be no hope o f rescue. T he cold bit through our layers o f cotton, padding and fur, but ju st before take-off soldiers came running with heaps o f quilts which they threw into the aircraft w ith warning shouts to us to keep warm . W e were the first from the W est to go to Tibet for eleven years. W e weren’t going to be the first to die getting there i f they could help it. W c climbed in w ide circles to reach 20,000 feet above the first mountain barrier before w e turned to cross it. N o w w c flew south-west to T an Hsiung, the highest airfield in the w orld, 13,000 feet above sea-level. B e lo w the starboard w ing, w hite reflected sunlight flashed from the windscreens o f trucks, traced for us the thin course o f the SiningLhasa road snaking through the Chinghai foothills to the north. O ur feet began to freeze in our wool-lined boots. Rom a, masked and cncascd in her padded coat and pants like a spacewoman, was adjusting her oxygen control when a burst o f hot air from the gaping

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end o f a flexible metal pipe lying on the floor blasted m y ankles. It had been there yesterday, but probably, with the traditional Chinese aver­ sion to making direct statements, the ch ief pilot hadn’t eared to mention it until he was sure it w ould w ork. Better first to provide quilts and blankets. N o w w e threw them off, loosened the fastenings o f our coats and relaxed in soporific warmth. A few years ago this flight was thought to be impossible. T h e eastern air-route over the Himalayas between Chabua, Dinjan in Assam and Kunm ing had been pioneered b y the American A ir Force and the Chinese civil airline, when the Japanese overran the Burm a road, to maintain the only link between India and China. Scores o f planes disappeared in the mists o f those borderlands. Clim bing safely at 23,000 feet over the highest mountains on the maps, m any had ex­ ploded into them a thousand feet below their peaks. I had made m any o f these blind journeys. After the first three or four you w eren’t afraid o f being killed because you learned to die before you started and put your trust in the Douglas and Curtis factorym cn w ho had made you good aeroplanes, the skill and guts o f the American insurance clerks and farmers and students w ho flew them and the prevailing westerly winds which helped you into Yunnan. B u t from Chinghai you looked straight into the w ind’s teeth, dripping icy saliva on the edges o f your wings. W hile an arm y o f soldiers and civilians began to dig out a 1,300mile trace to Lhasa from Sining, a group o f Chinese A ir Force pilots and navigators began to grope a w ay through the high valleys. It wasn’t a jo b for intrepid dashing adventurers. It was important to get as far as they could and survey the ground they could cover with meticulous accuracy, but it was more important to return w ith their marked charts. I f they didn’t they had only shown the w ay to disaster for another crew. Everyone came back safely until the last, which was also the first aeroplane to land in Tibet, had the complete picturc o f the route. From that da\ on all aircraft had got through, but only because they didn’t take ofl unless pilots and navigators could sec most o f the w ay with their own eyes. W e moved over glittering peaks and high snowfields which looked near enough to touch i f one could have leaned out o f the wii dows. Sometimes w e passed so close that the slipstream o f the pro­ pellers ickcd up flurries o f snow behind us. Then w e were flying between ice gorges into fantastic bottomless valleys and turning again aw ay from frozen walls through which there was no gap from one horizon to another.

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I dropped m y mask from m y face to get a clearer view and was wakened h a lf an hour later by a steep diving turn in which the pistons sounded as i f they were bursting through the sides o f the engines. W e were screaming through blinding cloud and the altimeter needle was dow n to 14,500 feet. K oo Shc-lonc’s eyes glanced over his mask—a reassurance or a mute gesture o f resigned farewell? N o w Rom a was w aving a hand to attract m y attention and pointing down. W e were levelled out over a long green valley flanked by the shining icy heads o f mountains whose shoulders were buried in vast capes o f snow. Hundreds o f animals were running from the noise o f our motors which were n ow being throttled back so that I could hear her saying, ‘T h ey’re yaks.’ W e were on top o f the world.

J O U R N E Y IN R E V E R S E

Soldiers w ith rifles stood every hundred yards on either side o f the runw ay— guarding it from rebellious Tibetan saboteurs? W e asked w hy they were there. ‘T o shoot yaks i f they stampede and run in the path o f a landing aircraft,’ said the young ofliccr w ho helped us w ith our luggage into a reception hut. ‘The ground is too hard here to drive in fence posts and we had some nasty moments when the first flights came in before w e had the sentries. It’s a cold and lonely jo b but the traffic isn’t heavy.’ A n A ir Force doctor came to measure our blood-pressures. T h ey were above normal, but he reassured us: ‘ It happens to everyone. All the same, don’t stay up here too long or yo u w o n ’t feel w ell. W e’ll try to get you aw ay in h a lf an hour.’ I had hardly assured him that I couldn’ t have felt better when m y eyes began to lose focus and m y head swam with nausea. Rom a handed me a m ug o f tea. After a few minutes reclining in a chair the furniture came into sharp outline again and I noticed that she was quietly writing in her diary. Surely only sex prejudice or a feminine indifference to such impractical pursuits prevented a wom an from being the first to reach the South Pole or the summit o f Everest. O ur cliief pilot came to tell us that i f w e had been an hour later taking o ff it w ould have been impossible to land. C loud w hich had blinded our approach had now closed in over the last range and he and his crew were likely to be grounded for the rest o f the week. As he talked, his face receded until it was a small blur like m y bedroom w indow , which in childhood fevers had become a small square o f light at the end o f a long grey tunnel, and then reappeared in normal size as though it was tied to m y eyes 011 clastic string which stretched and shrank as they tried to keep it in its usual place. A driver came to say he was ready. Someone heaved me to m y feet and I floated into the yard to which I felt I was only held dow n by 33

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the heavy cameras and tape-recording gear on m y shoulders. It was ten o ’clock w hen w e rattled out 011 to the last stretch o f the SiningLhasa road in a bus in which Keystone C om edy stunt-men would have refused to travel without danger money. W e had thought the city was vaguely round the corner until we asked what time w e should arrive. T he driver replied that lie could make the jou rn ey in nine or ten hours i f w e weren’t bogged dow n by floods, and the next moment crashed dow n screaming gears to stop in the middle o f a rocky stream over which rode a cavalcade o f Tibetan horsemen. Dressed in bright embroidered boots, and fur hats with longbarrelled rifles, bow s and quivers o f arrows and gleaming swords slung from shoulders or belts, they turned in their saddles to stare in slow surprise at our white faces. W e were a type o f Chinese they had never seen before. T h ey passed slow ly by the windows to get a closer look at us, and then, shouting with laughter, galloped up a long slope towards a group o f black yak-hair tents at the foot o f a mountain. These w ere herdsmen w ho had com e to take part in an archery festival at the weekend. The driver o f a lorry carrying petrol from Sining, which was half capsized in a ditch further up the road, helped to push us out o f the water and w e staggered 011 w ith our feet drumming on the vibrating floor which threatened to slide o ff the chassis, and us with it, at every pothole between which there were only b rief intervals o f solid ground. T he last spring had stretched itself out and died a hundred journeys ago, and for all the buoyancy they gave the tyres, almost flat 011 the wheel-rims, w ould have been more useful as boot-solcs. W ithin a few minutes Rom a had discovered how to survive the next mile without a broken back. She held 011 to the top o f the seat in front and rode the bus like a bucking horse, rising and falling and leaning with the jolts. Soon w e all got into the rhythm . The vehicle, propelled by madly galloping passengers led by fair-faced demons from another world, m ay n o w be a legend in those w ild lands. The road-makcrs had cut the first highw ay through north-cast Tibet parallel with the R iver K y i, which raced and boiled in flood through a w ide enchanting valley sheltered b y the snow mountains and carpeted w ith small daisy-shaped, deep blue flowers. Hundreds o f inquisitive little brow n mousc-harcs popped out o f holes in the ground when they heard us com ing, took a quick look at us and popped dow n again out o f sight o f gliding eagles and huge hawks. This was the edge o f the lands o f the nomads and the eleven and a

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h alf million yaks and sheep which outnumber human beings o f Tibet b y more than ten to one. Herds grazed between river and mountains as far as w e could sec. E v ery few miles w e came upon a camp o f yakhair tents which were the homes o f herdsmen and their families. These were ringed by lo w walls o f the wooden saddles and bright w oo l cloths o f riding and pack animals. Grazing in the water-meadows beside the river were splendid ponies with long manes and tails. T h ey were all the colours o f new-washed pebbles on a beach, pure white, cream, pale pink, chestnut, grey and black. W hen w e stopped to rest, men rode over on their beautiful beasts to pass the time o f day and their wives brought the children to sec the bus and look at Rom a, w ho was the first white wom an they had ever seen. T h ey asked our driver, w ho spoke some Tibetan, from what part o f China she came, for since she w ore Chinese winter clothes she must be Chinese. B u t they had never before seen a w om an w ith such light skin and round eyes. He explained that w e had travelled across the world from England. T h ey laughed and nodded and were satisfied. England was evidently a province beyond Chinghai o f which they hadn’t heard. T he dark-skinned wom en with the fine aquiline features o f Rom any gypsies, w ore long black dresses covering their ankles. Panels fell over their backs from their shoulders, decorated with rows o f metal, mother o f pearl and turquoise discs. O n their heads, tilted rakishly, some w ore pearl string caps. A t first glance they appeared to be suffering from a disease which blotched their faces. T liis was kutch, a mixture o f earth w hich Tibetans smear on the skin to protect it from the fierce sun and winds o f these high exposed uplands. A t Y an g Pa C hing, where the snow-line ended and the road became narrower and steeper in its last sixty miles fall into the Lhasa Valley, the bus wheezed into the yard o f a lorry-drivers’ camp where tw o Russian-made jeeps w ere waiting to take us on to the city. M y feet felt as i f they w ere shod in deep-sea diving-boots as I walked slow ly to a hut where lunch was served, and m y head was a dull sick throb. K oo She-lone’s blood-prcssure, which was still abnormal w hen w e left Sining, had mounted with the ascent to the airfield, and he sat staring listlessly at a plate o f grey, hard strips o f dried fish. There were com forting hot noodles and iron-tough biscuits which w e soaked in tea. W om en from an adjoining room , engaged in m aking quilts, left their task to crow d in our doorw ay and watch us feed, and a swarthy handsome young man with a tangle o f black hair to his shoulders, wearing a single long turquoise ear-ring, came to the open w in d ow

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near where our table was set, leaned his arms 011 the sill and grinned and talked to us o f what w e knew not. For the next sixty miles w e slithered through fearful gorges, where rocks as big as the jeeps, washed out o f the mountainside by the rain, had been smashed up with sledge-hammers b y lorry-drivers so that they could squeeze b y before the next avalanche came down. The smallest, falling on our roof, w ould have crushed us to pulp. N o w below the last snow, w e ran through a wide valley into wliich the river bursting from the narrow stony banks which compressed it, exploded over the fields wliich had become a shallow lake. W here it had crossed the road beneath bridges, the water had engulfed them and smashed them so that every few miles w e had to turn o ff into the country and plough through floods wliich came up to the mudguards, in fourwheel drive. T w ice w e were impaled on submerged stones and rocked ourselves o ff b y going forward and reversing in quick succession. This part o f the route was strewn with big trucks, carrying drums o f petrol, which had sunk under their weight in silt and mud, where they had been forced to leave the road. Som e had turned over when trying to get round the deep waters by driving at crazy angles on the mountain­ side. Villages built on safe, high ground could be recognized from miles aw ay b y forests o f tattered praycr-flags hanging over the roofs o f mudwalled houses, built like squat towers and protected from the fierce winter winds by groves o f trees. T he ‘flags’ appeared to be any old rags o f cotton which could be tied to a stick, wedged into an eave or chimncy-stack or strung on a line like washing. W here the river m oved aw ay from the road, villages w ere closer to it. W e had left the last yaks grazing behind Y an g Pa Ching. In this low er, more sheltered country were herds o f small cows, flocks o f goats and sheep and very hairy small black pigs shepherded by boys and girls. T he children were barefoot and dressed in greasy sheepskin rags, but they were a cheerful sight with their black matted hair tied up in g ay coloured braids. T h ey greeted us with w ide grins, displaying rows o f even white teeth, and shouts o f laughter. One small boy, tending piglets on the verge, was apparently so overcom e with astonishment when he saw our pale faces gaw ping through the canvas curtains ofthejeepthathcletou t a great yell, gesticulated w ild ly to his friends to make sure they would see us, danced a little jig , then, turning tw o or three somersaults, collapsed in the road with uncontrollable merriment. U nlike the children w ho seemed to regard us as human jokes, the adults stared at us w ith blank expressions until w e smiled and saluted

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them. T hen they nodded their heads eagerly in short sharp bow s and smiled back with pleasure, but few put out their tongues in the greeting which w e had read was the traditional welcom e o f Tibet. Between the airfield and the approaches to the city w e had met no armed soldiers. Here and there a fe w were helping civilians to fill up the biggest holes in the road and squads were repairing bridges. The only men w e saw with pistols were a lorry-drivcr and the driver o f our jeep. T h ey told us they carried them for protection against robbers who had been known, though rarely, to attack unescorted travellers. I found m y m ind wandering from this superb countryside and sentimentally imagined a future scene in which I sat w ith m y grand­ children at a winter fireside where all the best talcs arc told and begin­ ning the story o f this jou rn ey: ‘ Once upon a time when your grandmother and I travelled from Peking to Lhasa on the r o o f o f the world . . .’ There was no need o f signposts, for dominating the landscape, and seen from every horizon, the Potala Palace, winter home o f the Dalai Lamas, towered over the city beneath its colossal walls. B u t when w e reached it w c were drained o f all emotion and had no energy to sit up and look at the most fascinating building in the w orld which on ly a handful o f foreign travellers had ever seen. O ur bones and muscles a congealed aching mass, w e dragged ourselves to our room in the guest house where w c collapsed into bed, too w eary to hold a cup for longer than it took to sw allow a mouthful o f tea. W e were wakened in the m orning b y a pretty, demure girl in short pigtails tied with red ribbons. She w ore neat tailored trousers, Mabel Lucy A tw ell type buttoned shoes and gay flowered jackct. She an­ nounced that the doctor was ready to test our blood-prcssurcs and hearts at our convenience. W c told her w c w ould be glad to sec him at any time upon which our visitor crossed the threshold, put a plastic satchel on a table and took out a stethoscope and blood-prcssure kit which she assembled. She asked, ‘D o you feel w ell after you r long jou rney?’ Y es, w c felt much better for our long night’s sleep. She w aved a child’s hand towards the pressure gauge standing in its b o x and said, ‘I f one o f you w ill hold out you r arm w e can see h o w you arc.’ W ith brisk precision she manipulated the apparatus, listened to our pulses with her stethoscope and informed us that although our pressures were up a little, this was usual for new arrivals. W e offered her a cigarcttc which she refused. ‘I w ould suggest,’ she said, ‘that you don’t smoke too m uch,’ catching sight o f a bottle o f brandy on the dressing-table she added prim ly, ‘Alcohol at this altitude isn’t advisable.’ I found m yself holding m y hands over m y pipe like a schoolboy

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caught sm oking behind the lavatories and said, ‘ I am surprised to find a girl so you n g is a doctor.’ She replied, sm iling: ‘I am twenty-seven. I was trained in Sian Medical School and volunteered to com e to Lhasa where the people need us.’ Suddenly she reminded me o f an adorable girl in a Salvation A rm y bonnet w ho had sold us The War C ry in a Black C ountry pub thirty years ago and asked us i f w e w ere ‘saved’. Both were possessed by the same evangelistic fervour. T he doctor warned us to rest and do no w ork for three or four days until our bodies had become more acclimatized to the thin air at this high altitude. B u t soon after her departure a cadre came to tell us that the 551st anniversary o f the foundation o f Drepung, the largest monastery in the w orld, was to be celebrated next day and w e should be the first foreigners to have an opportunity o f film ing and recording it.

FESTIVAL AT D R E P U N G

Soon after dawn the roads from the city and villages above the valley were winding ribbons o f colour as thousands o f pilgrims in g ay holiday clothes made their w ay to the Buddhist tow n at the foot o f a m oun­ tain five miles from Lhasa. T in y points o f light gleamed in the hands o f travellers as the sun shone on the silver butter lamps w hich they w ere taking to bum before the altars. Before the Chinese Communists came, eleven years earlier, there was no wheeled vcliiclc o f any kind in Tibet, excepting tw o cars brought from India piecemeal on yak-back for the use o f the thirteenth Dalai Lama, w ho drove them for his ow n amusement in the N orbulingka (Jewel Park) when he stayed in his summer palace. T he only wheels in the country were prayer wheels. N o w hundreds o f families w ere jo g g in g their w ay to the monastery in rubber-tyred carts draw n by ponies, donkeys and mules. Mothers and daughters, their gleam ing black hair new ly washed and oiled for the occasion and braided with m any-coloured silks, rode in the backs. Tibetan wom en dress in pinaforc-style anklc-lcngth gowns with cross-over bodices and pleats falling from the shoulders at the back which give them graceful fulness. W ide sashes tie them at the waist and underneath vivid blouses o f magenta, yello w , peacock, orange, cerise, violet and white arc w orn. Sleeves hanging inches beyond the finger-tips arc flicked back over the wrists with a single graceful effortless motion when they need to use their hands. T he costume is completed with hand-woven, horizontally striped multi­ coloured aprons, the most splendid having gold-braided pockets. Fathers and sons rode in front, driving their sleek spirited ponies bedecked with ribbons. Their clothes were more subdued than the wom en’s, but some sported splendid hats with gold and red embroider­ ed crowns and fur-trimm ed peaks w orn over the right or left car. N early all w ore one large turquoise ear-ring. 44

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The grassy slope before the monastery walls was a living Breughel canvas. Thousands o f folk jostled amongst the stalls o f a fair where happy vendors were doing a brisk trade in bricks o f black tea, dried fruits, sweetmeats for the children and hair ribbons. Everyone was buying thick bundles o f long incense sticks and the still air was already becoming heavy w id i their pungent scent as pilgrims lit them before beginning the long clim b to the temples. Shaven-headed, rancid-smelling monks, their brown habits shiny with butter spilt from votive lamps and greasy tea, had joined the crowds and w ere keenly enjoying bargaining with local peasants for fresh fruit and vegetables. C om in g from peasant families themselves, they relished getting something for less than the seller demanded. Some families were sitting out o f the heat o f the sun in the shade o f rocks, eating a bit o f breakfast and drinking buttered tea from large vacuum flasks ‘made in China’. Men and boys were taking their animals out o f their shafts and tying them to walls and trees. Then they fed them before they fed themselves. A tall lama w ho had noticed our strange faces in the crow d, offered to guide us through the maze o f narrow precipitous lanes to the chanting house, 200 feet above, where the great prayer services o f the day were about to begin. W e were surrounded and accompanied by men, w om en and children w ho discussed us excitedly and pointed out our m ore surprising features to one another. W hen w e were out o f breath and paused to recover, some just stood in front o f us and stared intently into our eyes. W hen it occurred to them that w e might think them rude they laughed softly with embarrassment, reassuringly touched us with the tips o f their fingers and stepped aside to let us pass. Because the w ay was too steep and far for small children to w alk or be carried, some w ere 011 the backs o f donkeys and mules stumbling up the rocky ascents almost touching the houses on either side. M any children carried pet puppies in the folds o f their gowns and scores o f fam ily dogs had com e to the festival with their masters and mistresses. These charm ing, sleek and w ell-fed creatures resembled Pekingese, but had m ore pronounced noses and longer, straighter legs. Others were Shih-Tzus, like small miniatures o f O ld English sheep-dogs. The principal chanting house on the ro o f o f Drepung overlooked the wide em pty sunlit Lhasa valley. Fifty miles aw ay the knife-edged outlines o f tall mountains were etched in the crystal air with such claritv that they appeared to be forty miles nearer. Those unaware o f any other w orld might well imagine that these majestic horizons encompassed the physical universe. T he beauty and dignity o f the buildings in this fair landscape matched the splendour o f nature. The

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whiteness o f the wide, perfectly proportioned temple was relieved by gold symbols on the front w all and a deep coursc o f red-painted reeds cut flush with the stonework under the caves. T he main entrance, framed by lacquered pillars and overhung b y an embroidered canopy was approached from the terrace by broad shallow steps over which worshippers appeared to float silently into the sombre interior. N o photographic film has been made which could truly reproduce the colour o f this scene. N o painting can com pare with its brilliance, for perhaps nowhere in the w orld, except in this virgin air, is the human eye so immediately and clearly in contact with physical objects. T o a photographer w ho has experienced this phenomenon, his most accurate exposure w ill appear as i f his camera lens had been obscurcd by a cata­ ract, how ever excellent it may seem to others. W hen w e arrived on the terrace our tongues were parched. A gold and white booted dignitary wearing a gold embroidered tunic under his magenta robes came dow n to invite us to tea w ith the Abbot. Passing through the doors out o f the sunlight, w e plunged into complete blackness. T he high lama conductcd us dow n an aisle between rows o f dim forms squatting on the floor. A fter a few paccs they emerged from the gloom and w e saw the entire com m unity o f D repung assembled on their carpeted benches w aiting to begin the scrvicc. Round the walls stood the lay congregation w ith their lamps and glow ing sticks o f fragrant incense. As w e passed a little girl, a puppy popped his saucy head from her gow n and lickcd our hands. His small owner, overcom e with confusion, put her hand over her pet’s nose. T he lama smiled, but bccause it was forbidden to bring animals into the chanting house, turned his head and pretended not to sec. A grey-haired wom an with a fluffy Shih-Tzu in her arms saw the lama before he saw her and with a smile which asked us to ignore her, bent quickly down and put the dog under her w ide skirt. Through a narrow door w e climbed to another r o o fb y an almost vertical wooden ladder staircase, slippery with butter grease. As I climbed, holding firm ly to a stout wooden hand-rail, a hand nudged me in the back and I turned to find a fat monk behind me grinning and gesticulating an assurance that he was there to break m y fall i f I should slip. M y head was beginning to swim after the long struggle from the foot o f the mountain, and 011 the dark narrow stair I felt trapped as in a dark funnel, h alf choked with the sickly rancid fumes o f burning butter which rose from the temple. Then a hand reached dow n and helped me into the light. T he senior monks’ room , where guests w ere entertained, w as fur­ nished with a luxurious carpet and, like the temple itself, w ith lo w

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thickly carpctcd benches. T he r o o f was supported by slim columns clothed in finely w orked and intricately coloured hangings. Familiar divinities sat as they had been sitting for centuries in their antique tapestries on the walls impassively regarding the new white spirits w ho had joined them. Incongruously gazing from a shrine hung with silken scarves were the benign faces o f M ao Tse-tung, Chairm an o f the Com m unist Party, Liu Shao-chi, Chairm an o f the Chinese Governm ent, and Chou En-lai, Prime Minister o f China. T he K am bu, or Abbot, a quiet portly man was dressed in robes like his monks but with a m ore richly embroidered undcrcoat. Hanging below his waist was his badge o f office, a large embroidered silk square. In a pouch he carried a vessel o f water with which, w e gathered, he rinsed his mouth in a ritual o f purification. A rosary was looped round his wrist in a thick bracelet. He m oved softly across the room to greet us, then low ered his bulk gently to a bench as i f invisible hands beneath his armpits w ere helping him to his scat. He gestured towards us with his fingers and a shabby monk with down-at-heel boots appeared before us silent as a shadow. He placed porcelain bowls on small tables, delicately carved with highly coloured floral motifs and heraldic beasts, and filled them with brow n liquid from an enormous earthenware pot. The A bbot raised his ow n bow l and invited us to drink the first buttered tea w e had ever tasted. The appearance o f this hot greasy liquid was revolting. As I took a hesitant sip, the A bbot watched me with amused eyes and tilted his head inquiringly to one side. I answered b y sw allow ­ ing the w hole contents o f m y bow l. It was delicious, with a faint tang o f salt, replacing some I had sweated out 011 the ascent to the roof. T o the delight o f our hosts I drank more bowls straight off, after which I felt com pletely refreshed. Before w e left to go down to the service I consumed three or four more and didn’t feel hungry for the rest o f the day. In 1959, eight years after the Chinese armies entered their country, the Tibetans w ere in rebellion against them. T he Dalai Lama fled to India. W e quoted to the A bbot his accusation that the Chinese were torturing and killing monks. He shook his head and replied: ‘ He cannot be speaking o f Lhasa. Y o u have seen thousands o f people com­ ing to our religious festival today. I cannot think that he believes it.’ W e asked how m any monks lived at Drepung before the rebellion. The A bbot answered, ‘M ore than 7,000.’ ‘And no w ?’ ‘ O nly 700 rem ain.’ ‘W here have more than 6,000 gone?’ ‘A fter the rebellion the Chinese authorities and the Tibetan local

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government which supported them decreed that monks were free to continue their religious life or renounce it and return to lay life.’ ‘As in Kum bum ?’ ‘ W herever there were monasteries.’ ‘Then suddenly, in response to a governm ent decree, more than 6,000 monks w ho had lived here all their lives decided that they had no vocation for religion?’ ‘T hey did not all choose their religious life,’ said the A bbot, ‘it was chosen for them when they w ere children.’ W e asked a young m onk w ho sat at his side what was his position in the monastery. He pointed to tw o others, one as young as himself, the other a wrinkled old fellow w ho said he was sixty but like all ageing Tibetans, looked ten years older. ‘W e are the representatives o f the National Minorities Com mission at D repung,’ he answered. ‘ And what are you r duties?’ ‘ T o see that the welfare o f the com m unity is preserved and to act as representative o f Drepung in liaison with the local governm ent.’ ‘ W hich consists o f those Tibetans w ho have remained loyal to the Chinese Com m unist Governm ent?’ w e asked. T he monk looked at our Chinese companions w ith an expression which said, ‘ W hat kind o f a man is asking such questions as this?’ B u t since they, like the Abbot, maintained an indifferent silence he continued. ‘The governm ent consists o f those w ho did not take part in the rebellion. Y o u have asked what happened to thousands o f monks w ho left here. It is true that some were glad to abandon their religious life. But unfortunately for Drepung others had violated their Buddhist belief which forbids violence and took up arms against the government. Som e were killed in the fighting. Others were taken prisoner. Those w ho had rebelled w illingly were kept in gaol. Others w ho had been per­ suaded to jo in in against their w ill were released. T he lands which w e did not need for our support were taken from the monastery and distributed am ong our serfs. N o w w e g ro w as much o f our food as w e can on the land that is left to us. T he older monks w ho cannot w ork are supported b y small pensions from the governm ent. T he “ cash” in Drepung in gold and silver was seized as punishment for our part in the revolt, but no religious object o f whatever value was touched and there is no interference with the w ays o f life o f those o f us w ho remain.’ ‘ Y ou have not been persuaded to become a Com m unist?’

Lhasa citizen with outsize prayer wheel on liis way to church

Girls o f Tibet’s first grammar school at playtime Pupils o f a People’s Primary School organised by Tibetan parents for their children

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T he m onk gave me an incredulous look. ‘I don’t think it is possible for a Buddhist to be a materialist,’ he said. Had the A bbot nothing to say? The head o f the monastery unwound his rosary and drew it through his hands. W c have to adm it,’ he said, ‘that our religious life in Tibet had sometimes departed a long w ay from the true practice o f Buddhism. W e g rew rich on the labour o f our serfs and I am glad they arc free. For m any, the religious life was not a vocation but an occupation. This was not their fault because having been given to the monasteries as children, no question o f choice was involved. I am sorry that Drcpung took part in the armed rebellion in 1959 and that so many o f our com m unity left us when they w ere allowed to choose their ow n mode o f life, but I believe that those w ho have remained arc more truly religious. O f coursc, w c were all afraid o f the Chinese when they first cam e bccausc w e believed the Communists would kill us and destroy our monasteries, but, as you see, this has not happened.’ As he played with his rosary, did w e imagine that in this gesture, the venerable prelate betrayed the nervous unease o f a child who isn’t being quite truthful and crosses his fingers behind his back to expunge a lie 011 his lips? There was no time for more aw kw ard questions for at tliis moment a servant came to announce that the service was beginning. The Abbot asked to be excused to attend to his duties and w e did not see him again. D o w n in the temple, now bright with lights for our film cameras, powered b y a portable generator brought up b y mule cart from the city, lo w guttural chanting had begun. An old monk saw us looking for a placc to put our tapc-rccordcr and motioned us to the bench beside him. W c had brought this sensitive delicate instrument 16,000 miles for the moment when w e could rccord these prayers. E very day in Tibet for m ore than a thousand years tliis music had been lost with the breath o f the singers in the mountain wilderness. O nly the fascination o f seeing the tape run straight through the reels and the voices com ing back through the earphones kept us in our scats. The stench from the body o f the m onk beside us, saturated with old sweat and dirt, and o f all the others, mixed with the hot rancid fumes o f burning butter in the huge votive vessels and the sickly sweet and pungent smoke o f incense, filled our throats with nausea. N o flesh was visible 011 our neighbour’s bare feet showing through tattered slippers for they were coatcd with scaly filth which looked as i f it were pasted on with a palette knife. The skin o f his wrinkled facc had the appcarancc o f hide which had been shrunk in water and dried under a grill. Then w e noticed that the microphonc was in front o f his

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mouth and the deep melodious sounds in our cars were coining from his tliin throat which looked like the neck o f a strangled fow l. Apparently chanting was thirsty w ork for while the service con­ tinued, servant monks walked noiselessly dow n the aisles between the carpeted benches, carrying buttered tea in huge two-handled earthenware pots. W hen the singers needed a drink they stopped chanting and held out their wooden or pottery bowls, or tins. W hat­ ever size the vessel, it was filled to the brim . A m on g so many voiccs, the tem porary silence o f a score or so was unnoticeablc. W hen one was hungry he took a handful o f tsampa (roast barley flour) from a little bag which each carried, mixed it w ith his tea, rolled it into edible balls and proceeded to cat it. Appetite and thirst appeased, he resumed the chant, w hich in the absence o f a conductor, was intoned in perfect unison with faultless timing. The singing was unaccompanied but for the occasional cadence o f sweet-toned little bells. W hen these sounded, there was a momentary silence and the chant was resumed in another key. W hatever changes had resulted from monastic reforms, economic equality among the brethren was not one o f them. T he A bbot and senior monks were sumptuously clothed compared w ith these poorly clad men w ho were the only priests left in D rcpung to ju stify its religious life. T he A bbot might believe they had remained because they had true vocations but it was also obvious, as at Kum bum , that the m ajority w ho had stayed were too old to begin a new life outside. T h ey were too feeble for hard manual w ork and past the age when they could learn to be useful as teachers or clerks. T he men offering these ancient prayers w ould soon be seen and heard for the first time in the West by millions o f English people sitting before their television screens in a w orld as remote from tliis fabulous sanctuary as from the w orld o f Kublai Khan, in w hich none o f these monks w ould have felt a stranger. T h ey w ould also be watching the last priests o f the last and strangest theocracy in human history singing the Nunc Dimittis o f Tibetan Buddhism. In a few years, when they w ould all be dead, none would com e here to take their places. Soon there would be only the treasures o f the Drcpung M onastery Museum and the gods looking down upon em pty benches to be filmed and the voiccs o f guides explaining them to tourists, to be recorded. For the children standing in awed silence, holding glow in g incense sticks in their hands, w ould be at school again next week. There they w ould learn that the deities whose images sat on these jew elled altars w ould not protect them from the demons and devils embroidered on banners

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and m arvellously sculptured in w ood and stone, because all gods and demons existed only in the imaginations o f the monks. T h ey w ould learn that they w ere not born rich or poor, strong or w eak, because o f their virtues and vices in their previous lives. They w ould hear in their new science classes that Tibet would not be ravaged b y flood and earthquake and that they w ould not die o f small­ p ox or cancer because their behaviour displeased the heavenly spirits. T h ey w ould 110 longer believe that devils would seize the world i f they didn’t sing and pray to be delivered from them as these old men w ere singing and praying. And when the last o f these children ceased to believe in them, the last gods and the last demons in Tibet w ould also be dead. The people w ho had com e to the anniversary celebration o f D rcpung bore 110 resemblance in demeanour to Tibetans described by Perceval Landon The Times correspondent, w ho went to Lhasa with the Younghusband expedition in 1904. I f some o f his reports were reprinted today by the Peking Governm ent, without acknowledgment, they m ight be mistaken for propaganda o f Chinese Communists, seeking to ju stify their ‘liberation’ o f Tibet fifty years later. Landon found a country in which Buddhism bore no longer the faintest resemblance to the plain austere creed preached by Gautama Buddha. Tibetan religion was a system o f devil worship and the monkish communities spared ‘110 effort to establish their predomi­ nance m ore firm ly every year b y fostering the slavish terror which is the w hole attitude to religion o f the ignorant classes o f the land'.1 Unseen demons inhabited every tree, rock, stream and house and their malevolence could only be placated by the priests. Tibet was peopled with as many bogeys as the most terrified child in England could conjure up in the darkness o f his bedroom. B u t the prayers o f the laity could only exorcise evil spirits i f they were approved by monks and they were only approved 011 payment o f fees. N o feudal lords in the dark ages o f Europe exacted their full rights as mercilessly as this narrow sect o f self-indulgent priests, wrote Landon. W hen they lost their political and economic pow er after the Chinese put dow n the 1959 rebellion, the monasteries lost the religious authority which went w ith it. So it was not surprising that the holiday crowds w ho had com e to this festival showed no sign o f subservience to the monks. A nd i f they bore no resemblance to Landon’s Tibetans neither did this scene bear any resemblance to the Dalai Lam a’s des­ criptions o f his country ravaged b y sadistic Chinese barbarians. 1 . Lhasa, V o l. I, H urst & B lackctt Ltd. (London, 1905)*

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Lamas had been specially persecuted, he said. The Chinese tried to humiliate them, especially the elder and most respected, by harnessing them to ploughs, riding them like horses, whipping and beating them and torturing them by methods too evil to mention, and while they were slow ly putting them to death, they tormented them w ith their religion, calling 011 them to perform miracles to save themselves. But here were more than 30,000 people, nearly all the population o f Lhasa, w ho had come to the shrines o f Drepung w ith their votive butter lamps to burn before the altars. Long before midday the last bundle o f inccnsc sticks had been sold at the fair. A nd now w e were photograph­ ing a young man wearing 011 his breast an enamel brooch fram ing a portrait o f the Dalai Lama, for all the w orld to sec. W hen the religious scrvicc was over w e visited the private apart­ ments o f the Dalai Lama preserved as they w ere before he fled from Lhasa. Butter lamps glow ed before a photograph o f the bland, gentlefaced young man. T w o monks in charge o f the sacred rooms took heavy gold embroidered silks from a chest and draped them 011 the Incarnation’s small throne so that w e could see how it appeared w hen he was there 011 ceremonial occasions. T h ey explained that w e were specially privileged for members o f the public w ere not allowed to enter this part o f the monastery. W e asked i f they expected to see the Dalai Lama again. T h ey replied that they w ere sorry he had been persuaded to go aw ay. In the meantime they w ere behaving as i f he might walk through the door at any moment. N o w it was time for the festival play to begin. This antique drama had been performed 011 every anniversary o f Drepung for centuries. The actors w ere monks w ho had begun their training when they were children. T he stage was an open courtyard protected from the sun b y a huge white canopy. T he audience sat 011 the ground and 011 surround­ ing flat roofs in tiers. W e sat 011 cxotically carpeted benches in the Dalai Lam a’s private balcony from which, every year, he had watched the performance from behind transparent curtains. He could see the actors and spectators, but to them he was only a vague shadow behind a yellow screen for they were not permitted to gaze 011 his facc. W e looked down 011 the play over long w indow -boxcs massed with brilliant dahlias. W hen w e raised our eyes over the canopy the Lhasa Valley and the far-distant mountains formed a backcloth o f breathtaking splendour. The cast w ore superb costumes o f highly coloured and embroidered silks with fantastic hats. There were 110 intervals and for more than five hours the monks, with the stamina o f O lym pic athletes, danced and sang and mimed their w ay through a riot o f opera, pantom im e,

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ballet and broad farce in which good spirits warred with devils and demons w hile mortal heroes and heroines triumphed over human villainy. From a large photograph on a pole in the centre o f the yard, the face o f M ao Tse-tung looked dow n on the scene. Grown-ups w ho had been com ing here every year since they were infants knew every line o f the play by heart and greeted popular and unpopular characters as they appeared, w ith cheers and groans. For those w ho stayed from beginning to end, there was time for a substantial picnic lunch and a snack or tw o o f tsampa mixed with buttered tea from the large vacuum flasks which every fam ily brought to the theatre. A fter twenty scenes or so, w e took a walk round the monastery where hundreds o f other visitors were exploring the maze o f back streets, alleyw ays and innumerable courts and shrines. In a vast kitchen, monk cooks were brewing a hot mess o f barley gruel for their brethren and guests in great copper vats. W e ate the food w e had brought with us in a long dark room filled with grotesque images in ecstasy or torment. Som e w ere dressed like Victorian dolls in laces and silks with intricately decorated crowns. Some w ore cotton, others silver-gilt and silver. W e touched the skirt o f one and the material fell apart in our fingers. The heat had gone out o f the sky when w e joined the last pilgrims going home. The first o f them had risen at cockcrow in the mountain villages on the other side o f the valley and it would be nearly dawn w hen they reached home again. Small children tied on their mothers’ backs were fast asleep, undisturbed by the shouts o f farewell and the bum ping and clattering o f donkey, horse and m ule carts as they lurched dow n the stony hillside tracks. Long before w e reached Lhasa w e were pulling coats round our shoulders for after the burning heat o f the afternoon and the stuffy warm th o f the monastery, going out into the sweet cool evening air was like w alking into a refrigerated room. A m on g the crowds w e passed tw o Chinese soldiers hiking back to the city from the festival with a group o f Tibetan youths and girls. T hey laughed and shouted with mock and envious derision as w e drove by in our jeep and pretended to thumb a lift. I he Chinese privates in their thin cotton khaki uniforms and brown canvas shoes were drab figures beside their gay Tibetan companions, the boys in fur-trimmed hats and the girls in bright striped aprons and colourful long-sleeved blouses beneath their long gowns. W hat w ould the Dalai Lam a, with his horrific visions o f torture and murder, have made o f this encounter— the licentious soldiery o f

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the Com m unist conquerors w alking unarmed on a country road with the sons and daughters or perhaps brothers and sisters o f their victim s whom they and their comrades had done to death, or humiliated only three years earlier because they w ouldn’t give up their religion?

A L I V I N G C O M M U N I S T GOD

Another ‘god ’ has now taken the place o f the Thunderbolt, Precious Protector, the Ocean, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as Acting Chairman o f the Tibetan Com m unist Governm ent. He is the Great Jew el, the Boundless Light, His Serenity the Panchen Lama. Tibetans believe that this portly young man o f tw enty-five was first born 300 years ago when he achieved perfection in his first human existence. So after his first mortal death, he passed immediately to a state o f immortal bliss but out o f compassion for his struggling human brothers and sisters repeatedly returned to earth to show them the w ay to imm ortality. In 1938 he decided to be reborn for the tenth time, to a peasant woman in the Chinese-ruled province o f Chinghai where the Dalai Lama had also elected to reappear in the world for his fourteenth earthly life. T o the Peking Governm ent this high incarnation is a patriot who supports the revolution. T o the ecclesiastical and lay lords w ho fled to India after the failure o f their rebellion against the Chinese in 1959, he is a traitor. T o the self-exiled Dalai Lama he is a helpless victim o f his Chinese upbringing w ho cannot personally be blamed as an ally o f Com m unism and a true Tibetan w ho w ill never abandon his Buddhist faith. Certainly lie is the most valuable o f all Tibetans to the Peking Governm ent, for while this only equal o f the Dalai Lama remains, it can be claimed that Buddhism which believes in gods, and M arxism which denies them, can continue to exist peacefully together. W hatever his friends and enemies m ay think o f him, the Living Buddha w ho received us, clothed in richly embroidered gow n and boots, with a rosary twined round a very large expensive gold wristwatch and bracelet, brilliantly fulfilled the hopes o f his ecclesiastical guardians w ho in 1949, when he was eleven years old, quietly recog­ nized the victorious Com munists on his behalf. B y ju dging so shrewdly the speed w ith which the east red wind o f change was blow ing west­ wards towards Lhasa, they ensured that their holy charge, whose 55

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previous body had died in exile in China, would soon be able to return to Tibet, and that their lands and riches, as well as his own, would be restored. When the Dalai Lama recently wrote that his only spiritual equal would never cmbracc materialistic Communism, he o f all people should have realised that for a young man who has found no difficulty in adapting himself to life in ten different bodies for three centuries there is no problem implicit in being two different people living in the same body at the same time. So, completely at ease with two consciences, His Serenity could rccite the Sutras—the Buddhist Scripturcs—in the Jokhan Temple, and a few days later tell us, without batting an incarnate eyelid, that he was a ‘Buddhist Marxist-Lcninist revolutionary worker for the people’ , and without ever having been outside China, Tibet or India he could inform us with equal aplomb that, beyond all doubt, Chincsc-Tibctan Communist society was superior to any in the world. But his unique personal problem requires a unique solution for he is the only ‘god’ in the world who is a Communist and the only Communist who is permitted to be a ‘god’. He explained that sincc according to Communist theory the state will eventually wither away, so, according to Buddhist belief, religion will have 110 purpose when men arc perfected. Therefore eventually all governments, together with all theologies, will disappear. In the meantime a Panchcn Lama will be able to make the best o f both the spiritual and material worlds by presiding over the secular materialist state and the Buddhist faith at the same time from a splendid new palacc which is being built for him in Lhasa when he needs a change from his ancestral home at Tashilumpo Monastery in Shigatsc, where some o f the most pricclsss religious treasures in the land are to be found. Motioning us to a comfortable couch and signalling a servant to pour buttered tea into gold and silver-gilt cups, he welcomed us to his country which lie assured us had been liberated from the domination o f foreign Imperialist aggressors, led by Britain and America. He was obviously under the impression that Foreign Minister Chen Y i and Premier Chou En-lai could be relied upon not to allow any foreign visitors to Tibet who would not agree with him and his eyes flickered with faint surprise when we reminded him that no British troops had been in his country sincc 1904 when w e unjustifiably invaded Tibet in the mistaken belief that the Russians were threatening our Indian frontier through Lhasa. N o American arm y had ever set foot there. Roma Gelder and bathing boys at the foot o f the Potala

Gold-crowned symbols like this and the gold-roofed canopies o f the Dalai Lamas’ tombs on the roof o f the Potala can be seen from every Lhasa horizon

The Jewel in the Lotus—The Buddha—which decorates all monastic buildings in Tibet

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s private apartments at the Potala summit

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The embarrassed silence which followed our unexpected interrup­ tion was broken by a low grunt from a man who sat in a corner with a large black peaked cap crammed over his cars. This was Mr. Chiang Tsu-ming, the Chinese Deputy Director o f the Tibet Foreign Affairs Bureau, a self-invited guest, glowering with resentment that we should dare to doubt the incarnatc political pronouncement o f the Panchcn. ‘ W hy,’ he interrupted, 'do you defend Imperialism? It is well known that Britain is Imperialist. I f not, w hy did Ireland denounce China’s actions in Tibet in the United Nations?’ Our youthful host who, from his inquiring look, had never heard o f Ireland, leaned forward for our reply. W e told him that Mr. Chiang’s views on England were unreliable since he didn't know that we hadn’t ruled Ireland for forty years. He was also so ignorant o f social and economic conditions in Britain that he had assured us a few days earlier that our children still ran about our poverty-stricken cities in bare feet. W e suggested that in their propaganda the Panchen Lama and the Chinese Communists sometimes didn't seem quite sure why they had come to Tibet—to free it from British and American Imperialists who weren’t there, or to give freedom to hundreds o f thousands o f Tibetan serfs who were, as the Panchcn Lama himself well knew becausc he had owned some o f them. His Serenity serenely and politely suggested that i f we didn’t interrupt it would be easier for him to continue. He repeated that Tibet had been dominated by foreign Imperialists, but now, apparently in deference to our feelings, hastened to add that he was referring to American aggressors. ‘All the same, he includes the British as well,’ growled the irre­ pressible Mr. Chiang from the corner. Ignoring him and taking up our cue, the Panchen blandly con­ tinued that it had also been necessary to free Tibetans from the shackles o f feudal rule and serfdom. It had clearly been arranged that we should listen to a prepared political discourse, but we hadn’t travelled 16,000 miles to Lhasa to hear official pronouncements which we had already read in innumer­ able pamphlets. W e were interested to discover how an incarnation o f Buddha could reconcile a belief in a universe o f gods and devils with a belief that the only real conflict was between Imperialist capitalists and Communists. W e presumed to intervene oncc more. When had the Panchen Lama bccomc a Marxist? W ith a sigh the young man placed a sheaf o f notes which we now

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suspcctcd had been prepared, and certainly approved, by M r. Chiang, on the table in front o f him and replied: ‘ I have been studying Marxist-Lcninist philosophy for a long time and still pursue my researches. I am following two courses, doing m y revolutionary duty to the people and also living the life o f a good Buddhist because I have m y next incarnation to consider.’ Perhaps the awful thought had occurred to him that i f he didn’t become a good Communist in this life he might be born an AntiMarxist tool o f foreign Imperialism in his next— which would be an unimaginable embarrassment. But w hy did he think he could achieve such a remarkable recon­ ciliation between two diametrically opposed ways o f life while the Dalai Lama felt this was impossible? T o our disappointment, this pleasant young person whose situation has been so sympathetically interpreted by the Dalai Lama, answered priggishly— or perhaps he felt this was the role he must play in the presence o f a high Chinese Communist official? ‘I f the Dalai Lama truly repents o f his false denunciations o f our Chinese comrades, renounces his reactionary friends and is willing to work for the people, he will be welcomed home in Tibet.’ But Mr. Chiang had forgotten his own history and misled his pupil, this time by ignoring official Peking statements that the Dalai Lama was a victim o f Tibetan feudal lords and priests who had abducted him to India. I f this were true he couldn’t be blamed for their actions. Accord­ ing to the Chinese, the same abductors had published statements which they pretended had been made by the Dalai Lama. H ow then could he repent o f something which the Chinese protested he had never said? When we pointed out this discrepancy, Mr. Chiang pulled his cap further over his cars as i f he couldn’t bear to hear any more o f this outrageous argument which obviously hadn’t been his idea o f an interview at all. So we continued to sip buttered tea while the Panchcn Lama, who had now abandoned any attempt to amend the prepared narrative in the interest o f Anglo-Tibetan-Chincse amity, renewed the assault 011 Britain and America for the deplorable condition o f the Tibetan people which had existed for more than a thousand years before any English­ man stepped over the border. There seemed no point in going over all that again so we asked His Serenity i f he would be kind enough to send us his considered views on how Buddhism and Marxism could live together. With unconcealed relief he assured us that we could still differ and be friends.

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But Mr. Chiang couldn’t. As w e went down to the garden to film and photograph the Panchen, the Chinese comrade wagged a furious finger under our noses and exploded, ‘You have gone too far in not allowing the Acting Chairman to say what he wanted,’ rushed down the stairs and was driven o ff in a cloud o f dust, bidding farewell neither to us nor to the unabashed and courteous divinity. A few days later a messenger delivered the Panchen Lama’s answers to our questions. They were written on the ‘royal’ yellow paper used only by him and the Dalai Lama and bearing his brilliantly coloured crest. W c do not know i f these religious views arc in accord with generally acccpted Buddhist belief or whether they are heretical opinions. Certainly they present intriguing questions for students o f Buddhist theology, for according to Tibetan Buddhist belief they arc not only the answers o f a man but o f an immortal who is the highest incarnation o f the Buddha himself. And it isn’t easy to refute a living Buddha. The twelfth Dalai Lama was once talking with his theologians when one reminded him that lie had contradicted a pronouncement o f the seventeenth-century incarnation known as the ‘Great Fifth’. His Holiness confounded his audicncc by asking, ‘And who was the Great Fifth?’ There is a legend in Tibet that the fourteenth incarnation o f the Dalai Lama will be the last to reappear on earth. It may well be that the tenth incarnation o f the Panchen in this young man will also be the last in a world where belief in living gods in human shape is unlikely to survive belief in demons hiding in stones, trees and rivers. As the statement o f a Buddha who became a Communist, it will intrigue historians who may visit his country when the great monasteries and shrines remain only as museums and monuments o f one o f the most fantastic and colourful cults in man’s religious history. On ‘the auspicious fifth day o f the eighth month in the year 936 o f the Tibetan Kala