71 
1890,] at Bho( Bagdn in Howrah. 
Lama for his fondness for Bengel was that “ although in the different 
“ periods of his reviviscence he had chosen many regions for the places of 
“ his birth, yet Bengal was the only country in which he had been born 
“ twice; for which reason,” he said, “ he had a predelection for it beyond 
“ any other, and was desirous of making it a place of his abode, ap- 
“ parently esteeming the sanctity of the Ganges, as a consideration of 
“ inferior importance.” 1 
The religious prejudices which endear Bengal to the Tibetans, are 
again thus explained by Turner, who bases his information upon what he 
had heard from the Regent and Sopon Chenpo : 2 — “ But Bengal is ren- 
“ dered peculiarly dear to them by the powerful influence of religious 
“ prejudice. The regeneration of their Lama is said to have taken 
“ place, in times of remote antiquity, near the site of the ancient and 
“ ruined city of Gowr, and all those places held in veneration by the 
“ Hindoos, as Gya, Benares, Mahow and Allahabad, are equally ob- 
“jects of superstitious zeal, with a votary of the Tibet faith, who 
“ thinks himself blessed above his fellow disciples, if he can but pei’form 
“ a pilgrimage to these hallowed spots.” 3 
After Mr. Bogle’s return to Calcutta, the Lama, as he had proposed 
in his first conversation with him on the subject of his proposed temple, 
wrote to Mr. Hastings on the subject, 4 and Mr. Bogle in his general 
report, speaking of the apprehension of Tibet merchants, in respect of 
the heat and unhealthiness of Bengal, urged that “ prejudices of this 
“ kind are to be cured only by habit, and your compliance with the 
“ Teshu Lama’s desire of founding a monastery and temple on the banks 
mountains, and conveniently intersected by many great rivers. At the centre 
of this great country stands as the filament of a lotus, its capital, the city 
of Kalapa, with extensive gardens and parks round it, which are protected by a 
ciroular wall of very lofty snowy mountains with four gates. Four rivers issuing 
from the snowy barriers, water the city and its garden, and then flow into two 
lakes, called Upasogara and Pundarika, which adorn the earthly paradise of Kalapa. 
At the southern extremity of the city stands the garden of Malaya, with the palace 
of the Ohakravarti Baja Chandra Bhadra. The mansions of the 25 Kulika emper- 
ors, who followed the line of the seven Dharma Bajas, stand on the bank of the river 
and line the lotus. The first Chakravarti emperor of S'ambhala was Suryaprabha. 
In each of the eight petal-like divisions of S'ambhala there are 12,000,000 cities, 
in consequeuco of which 90,000,000 of cities cover the entire empire. The Euro- 
pean scholars of Northern Buddhism are inclined to identify S'ambhala with Europe, 
making London (tho Western) Kalapa. 
1 Turner, ibid., p. xv. 
8 Sopon Chenpo was cup-bearer and minister to the Tashi Lama ; he was dur- 
ing the Begency of Chan jo Kusho second in rank at the court of Tashi Lhunpo. 
a Turner, ibid., p. 208. 
4 Markham, ibid., p. 138, note. 
