ABORS AND GALONGS. . Ill 



I was met by the head Lama, a dignified man in a reddish-purple silk-lined robe who 

 gave me a skein of cotton ; the gates of the sanctuary were opened and we were asked 

 to go in. As at Yortong, I followed our own custom and took off my hat when I en- 

 tered the temple. This seemed a sure mark of respect for the Membas never wear their 

 hats in their churches and invariably took them off when they met us on 

 the road. 1 Devils and devil-masks there were, but they seemed to be in the back- 

 ground ; they did not dominate the place. The shining golden Buddha with his 

 calm peaceful face sitting in contemplation opposite the doors made of the place a 

 sanctuary. And not all the recital of the names of the demons by which his three 

 chief companions were called could take that feeling away. 



The interior w T as much larger than the Yortong tsogan. Apart from the 

 keynote struck by the central figure and maintained by the infinitely more beauti- 

 ful decoration of the wood-work and the richness of the banners, the great differ- 

 ence between the two lay in the Abbot's chair on the left of the altar, and the 

 opposite wall with its pigeon holes from floor to ceiling filled with books under 

 metal presses. The ceiling was canopied with silks of different colours. The 

 gilding was chiefly confined to the main figure ; and the conventional lotus designs 

 on the pillars were in shades of green and pink softened by time and very beauti- 

 ful. It could hardly be attributed to some Pictor Ignotus of the brotherhood, 

 for the only decoration that was obviously new looked like nothing else than 

 the crude tricking out of some medieval coat, argent and azure for the most 

 part. The deities in their order, as one stood facing the altar, were Guru Dopu, Shukia 

 Thoba,' and then, on his gilded lotus and in his golden shrine, with a light-blue 

 nimbus, holding an orb and sceptre, sat what the monks called Guru Tsoke Dorje. 3 

 In front of his throne a long row of drinking cups had been placed. On his left 

 glared the rather devilish, martial-looking Guru Tansi — and beyond him by the 

 Lama's chair the little dancing blue devil whom they called King-toup. Personally 

 I should call him (( Fiendish-glee." 



Between him and Guru Tansi was placed an object of great interest, the 

 memorial casket in which rest the bones of Rintsing (or Teletsinge) the Abbot 

 it must have been, who befriended Kinthup. From all accounts he was a man 

 of strong personality: and to his pious exertions the endowment of the neigh- 

 bouring tsogans and temples is attributed. After living — so I was told — about 

 60 years in the monastery of Marpung he died about ten years ago; his body 

 was burnt according to custom, with the exception of the bones of the skull 

 which are now preserved in the reliquary. This casket stood about 5 feet high 

 and was in shape a minaret resting on six steps that rose pyramidwise from 

 its square plinth. The 'globe of the minaret was surmounted by a tapering 

 spire on the top of which was a gilded crescent with a ball above it — the origin 

 of the device on the doors of the houses. The casket was of white metal with some 



1 Waddell confirms this as the Tibetan practice. 



2 See Waddell's " Buddhism," p. 343, where this. deity may be identified with Sakya Muni. 



s It is suggested that this may be Vajrasam Muni, an alternative form of Sakya's image (see " Buddhism," p. 344). 



