Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 212

184
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[OCTOBER, 1931
procession. . . . . According to ancient Indian cosmology the stature and span of life of mankind are not changeless, but undergo cycles of decrease and increase. At the zenith of human glory man is a giant, and the average duration of life is 80,000 years, but gradually degeneration sets in. Stature and life-span decrease until all human beings are dwarfs and live only for ten years. After this comes a cycle of increase, when man goes back to his original size and duration of life, but just at present, according to the Hindus and Buddhists, man is on the down-grade. Every century man's life and size steadily, even though imperceptibly, decrease. The average life is already less than 100 years and the average stature less than six feet, and this degeneration will continue for many centuries to come. But when the nadir is reached, Maitreya, the compassionate Saviour, will arise. The boys in the procession, therefore, represent what all human beings will look like in the era of the future Buddha."
8. Head-room. "In nearly all cases (pp. 122-123) the ground floor of the house is used only for stables and warehouses, with occasionally a room set aside as servants' quarters, the residential part being on the first or second floor. Most frequently, I was told, the head of the family had the highest room, as it was considered injurious to his dignity to have any one standing or sleeping above him."
4. Left-hand Whoris. "Another interesting relic (p. 125) at the Lha-Kang champo is a conch shell, the whorls of which turn from left to right. Lamas alone may blow it, and they do so only on receiving seven ounces of silver. One acquires great merit by blowing or inducing a lama to blow this shell."
5. Merit in possessing books. "Most of the peasant pilgrims (p. 320) who come to Lhasa like to buy a few religious books. To be possessed of holy writings is to acquire merit. It is quite unnecessary that they be read, and as they are not to be read, why should they be well printed."
6. Books. "Printed books I also secured (pp. 323-324) now in large numbers. The more metaphysical and philosophical books are never kept in stock in the book shops, but the old scholar managed to get several printed off for me. The wooden blocks for such books are kept in some of the larger monasteries, and when one wants a copy of a book, one must bring one's own paper to the monastery, and for a small cost the monastery officials will have the paper stamped with the proper blocks."
7. Learning. "He was a man of great learning (p. 323) from the mediæval Tibetan standpoint. His learning was exactly like that of the school-men of the Middle Ages. His geography was delightfully vague. To him the world was a cylinder and the sun and moon but tiny satellites which revolve round it, but for him such concrete material things were of little or no importance, for he was interested in the subtleties of being and non-being, the nature of substance and the inherence of attributes, and on these pointe his knowledge and his views were profound."
"I was surprised at the colossal ignorance of the average (p. 325) monk-ignorance concerning his own religion. This was the more surprising considering the examination they are supposed to have undergone. Very few of them could give any clear exposition of what Buddhism really teaches. They could only repeat a large number of incantations."
8. Snowmen. [McGovern devotes two pages (pp. 98-99) to the "Snowman" of Tibet.) "In nearly all parts of Tibet one finds traditions of the existence of a primitive race of men-former inhabitants of the land, who have been driven out of the plains by the Tibetans and who now