DIVINATION BY DICE. 



337 



Starting from the world of human existence the dice is thrown, 

 and the letter which turns up determines the region of the next 

 rebirth {see the list in next paragraph). Then proceeding from it the 

 dice is again thrown and the turned-up letter indicates the next state 

 of rebirth from this new existence, and so on from square to square 

 ad infinitum. 



For the lamaic layman there thus appear only six states of rebirth 

 ordinarily possible, viz. — 



A. sngags-lam hgro, i.e., the path of the sorcerer. 



S. Nyin tshogs lam. 



R. dud hgro or the "bent goer's," i.e., the beasts. 



G, Bonpo lok chhos, i.e., a follower of the B5n or pre-lamaic 

 form of religion in Tibet. It is called Lok chhos or " the 

 reverse religion," because much of their ritual is the 

 reverse of the lamaic form ; thus chaityas are circumam- 

 bulated in the reverse direction, and prayer-wheels are 

 turned in the reverse way and the " om mani " is repeated 

 backward, and the swastika has its ends turned in the 

 reverse fashion. 



D. Mutegpa, i.e., as an Indian heretic. 



Y. Sridpai-bar-do — a ghostly state. 



The dice accompanying my copy of this board seems to have been 

 loaded so as to show up the letter Y, which gives a ghostly existence, 

 and thns necessitates the performance of many expensive rites to 

 counteract so undesirable a fate. 



Extra to the ordinary six states of possible rebirth are the extra- 

 ordinary states of rebirth to be obtained by the 

 The grand coup. grand co?//7 of turning up the A five times in succes- 

 sion or the S 13 times in succession. The former event means direct 

 rebirth in the paradise of Padma Sambhava and his mythical Buddha 

 Kimtu sanf/po (Skt. Samanta hhaclra), while the latter event is rebirth 

 immediately into the grander paradise of the coming Buddha Champa 

 (Skt. Maitreya). 



Every year has its general character for good or evil foretold 

 in the astrological books, but like most oracular 

 The Lamaic Zadkiel. utterances, these prophecies are couched in rather 

 ambiguous terms, and as there are fom- or five versions of these fore- 

 casts for each year of the twelve-year cycle in addition to a separate 

 set for each year of the sixty-year cycle, there is thus considerable 

 latitude allowed for accounting for most phenomena. In 1890, during 

 that great visitation of locusts which swarmed over India and into 

 Sikhim as well, the local lamas were in great glee on finding that the 



