INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. xxxv 



indeed, we may see from Marco Polo's repeated allusions to 

 the diabolical arts of the sorcerer Bakshis of Tebet and 

 Keshenmr. The reform did not, apparently, prohibit all 

 magic, but only its grosser arts, distinguishing, as Koeppen 

 felicitously expresses it, between white magic and black ; 

 forbidding necromantic incantations, with regular sorcery 

 and witch-broth-cookery, as well as vulgar tricks like fire- 

 breathing, knife-swallowing, and the pretended amputation 

 of the limbs, — or even the head, — of the performer by his 

 own hand. These were all pet practices of the old red un- 

 reformed Lamas, and still remain so. Tsongkaba's reform 

 had great swing, and has long been predominant in num- 

 bers and power. 



He was, of course, canonized among his followers, and 

 is generally regarded as having been an incarnation of the 

 Dhyani Buddha ^ of the present world-period, Amitabha, 

 though sometimes also of the Bodhisatvas, — or Buddhas 

 designate, — Manjusri and Vajrapani. His image is found 

 in all the temples of his Yellow Church, often between 

 those of its two Pontiffs, the Dalai Lama of Lhassa, and 

 the Lama Panchhan Rinbochhi of Tashilunpo. 



The reforms of Tsongkaba led to, or at least culmi- 

 nated in, a new development of Lama doctrine and order ; 

 from one point of view, in the establishment of a regular 

 papacy, — though dual or bicephalous ; from another point 

 of view, in that of a peculiar system of succession such as 

 has, probably, no parallel on earth. 



Thus there exist since his time two chief prelates and 

 pontiffs of the Yellow Church, exercising both spiritual and 

 temporal power, — two popes, in fact, each within his own 

 dominion ; the one at Lhassa, the Dalai Lama, as he is best 



' The Dhyani Buddhas (or Buddhas of contemplation) belong to 

 the complex subtleties of northern Buddhism. The human Buddha 

 performing his work upon the earth has a celestial reflexion, or repre- 

 sentative, in the world of forms, who is a Dliythii Buddha. A Bodhi- 

 satva is one who has fulfilled all the conditions necessary to the 

 attainment of Buddahood (and its consequent Nirvana), but from 

 charity continues voluntarily subject to reincorporation for the benefit 

 of mankind. 



b 2 



