ROSARIES. 283 



names; although it is not usual to tell these on the rosary. One 

 huudred and eight is the usual number of lamps and cakes offered at 

 great shrines ; and in the later Kham editions of the lilmuic scriptures 

 — the " kah-gyur " — the volumes have been extended from 100 to 108. 

 The Southern scriptures state that 108 Brahmaus were called by 

 Gotama's father at the birth-feast to cast the embryo Buddha's horo- 

 scope, and the Burmese footprints of Buddha sometimes contain 108 

 subdivisions.^ This mystic number is perhaps borrowed, like so 

 many other lamaic fashions, from the Hindus, of whom the Vaishuabs 

 possess a rosary with 108 beads. 



The two ends of the string of beads before being knotted are 

 passed through three extra beads, the centre one 

 of which is the largest. These are collectively 

 called dok-dsin^ or " retaining or seizing bead" — vide " a" in figures. 

 The word is sometimes spelt jwdo-hdsin, and pronounced do-dsin, 

 which means " the union-holder." In either case the meaning is much 

 the same. These beads keep the proper rosary beads in position, 

 and indicate to the teller the completion of a cycle of beads. 



This triad of beads symbolizes "the Three Holy Ones" of the 

 Buddhist Trinity, viz., Buddha, Dharma (the Word), and Sangha (the 

 Church, excludmg the laity). The large central bead represents 

 Buddha, while the smaller one intervening between it and the rosary 

 beads represents the Church and is called "Our special Lama- 

 monitor,"^ the personal Lama-guide and confessor of the Tibetan 

 Buddhist ; and his symbolic presence on the rosary immediately at 

 the end of the bead- cycle is to ensure becoming gravity and care in 

 the act of telling the beads, as if he were actually present. 



The ge-luk-pa or " reformed" sect of lamas usually have only two 

 beads as dok-dsin, in which case the terminal one is of much smaller 

 size, and the pair are considered emblematic of a vase from which the 

 beads spring. 



Attached to the rosary is a pair of strings of ten small pendant 

 metallic rings as counters — vide "b " in the figures, 

 e coun . Qj^g ^£ these strings is terminated by a miniature 

 dorfe (the thunderbolt of Indra) and the other by a small bell — in 

 tantric Buddhist figures the dorje is usually associated with a bell. 

 The counters on the dorje-string register units of bead-cycles, while 

 those on the bell-string mark tens of cycles. The counters and the 

 ornaments of the strings are usually of silver, and inlaid with turquoise. 

 These two strings of counters are called dang-dsiu* or "count- 

 keepers," but vulgarly they are known as chub-slu;^ or "the ten 



' The Burman : His Life i ' rdog-^dsin. | * crane-Adsin. 



ani iVo<io«i, I. page 201. I ' j-tsa-waiii 6ia-ma. I ' /cliu-Usljad. 



U 



