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DECEMBER, 1904.)
TEMPORAL POWER OF THE DALAI LAMA.
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monasteries, enriched by royal donations, and by the pious gifts of the lay-population, possess large tracts of rich land, managed by their steward or treasurer, which they increase, not only by trading with the produce of their lands, but also by devoting themselves to all kinds of commerce; almost all the export, import, and transport trade is thus in the hands of the Lamas.
It is easy to understand what importance such wealth gives to the superiors or abbots of the great monasteries, even from a political point of view. Thus the ecclesiastical history of Tibet is entirely filled with tales of rivalries and struggles, sometimes sanguinary, between the abbots of the more important monasteries, especially when they belong to different sects. But although they are jealous of one another, they are wise enough to cease tearing one another to pieces in order to seize any scrap of power from the civil authority and afturwards to divide the booty.
Toward the commencement of the 19th century, the leading position was held by the sect named Sa-skya-pa, from the name of its principal monastery. A monk of this sect, surnamed 'Phags-pa, sent 18 & missionary to Mongolia, finding himself by chance on the route of the illustrious Khubilai Khan, when he was about to invade China, prophesied that he would gain the victory and the empire. Becoming master of the Chinese empire, and emperor, Khubilai remembered the monk and his Prediction and called him to his court (Târânátha, the official historian of Tibetan Buddbism, says that, 'Phags-pa, being dead, it was his nephew and successor Lo-dai Gyaltsan, who came to the court of Khubilai). It is from this epoch that the expansion of Lamaism in China dates. But tho emperor's recognition was not limited to empty honours. By decree he conferred on 'Phags-pa and his successors, as superiors of the Sa-skya sect, the religious and political sovereignty of Tibet, but withont suppressing the king of that country, who continued to govern it under the authority, more nominal than real, of the Sa-skya-pa priests.
Besides a doubtful recognition, political causes may be assigned to the act of Khubilai : on the one hand, the desire to flatler his Mongol subjects, for the most part Lamaīsts ; on the other, the hope of patting an end to the continual incursions of the Tibetans into Chinese territory. In fact, from this moment dates Chinese influence in Tibet.
The successors of Khubilai continued his policy with regard to Tibet and Lamaīsm, bat do not appear to have attained the desired end, for, under their rule, the incursions of the Tibetaus were more frequent and more audacious than ever, to say nothing of the difficulties stirred up by the tyranny of the Sa-skya-pa sect, over their rivals, and notably the burning of the Kargyutpa monastery of Dikung in 1320. Thus the dynasty of the Minge (1368-1616), which succeeded them, changed its policy with regard to Tibet. It set itseli to diminish the power of the Sa-skya-pa sect, which was much too great, by giving to the abbots of the monasteries of Dikong (of the Kargyatpa sect) and of Ts'al (of the Khadampa sect), a rank and authority equal to those of the Grand Lama of Sa-skys by cleverly exciting their rivalry, by covering with honours and by granting pensions to the chief men of the country in order to bind them to themselves.
About this time, in 1355 at Khum-bnm, in the district of Am-do, was born the celebrated Tsonkha-pa, who, indignant at the vice and corruption of the monks of his time, at the superstitious practices, and the rites of sorcery, which degraded Lamaïsm, undertook to re-call it to the purity of primitive Buddhism, promptly gathered together, under the name of the Ge-lags-pa Rect, a number of disciples, to whom, in order to distinguish them, he gave a yellow costume (the other Limas were dressed in red) and founded in 1409 the monastery of dGa-ldan, of which he remained superior until his death in 1417.
It is commonly, thongh erroneonsly, said, that Tson-kha-pa was the first Dalai Lama. Ho never had any title but that of dGa-luan, as also had his successor dGe-'don-grab. This title and dignity only appeared during the pontificate of Nng-dbao bLo-bzan the fourth successor of the latter (1617-1680).
