265 
1895.] L. A. Waddell— Description of Lhasa Cathedral . 
exactly in the middle of the lake, whence a caitya of many colors sprung 
up. This (miracle) was witnessed by the chief ministers. By the 
solemn prayers of the king, combined with the stones thrown into the 
lake by the energetic ministers and people, a firm slender stone caitya 
was formed, which was supported on pillars, and the lake was filled 
up successfully without further difficulty. [And on this lacustrine site 
the temple of Lhasa was built]. 1 
“ But for want of the precautions pointed out by the Chinese queen, 
the demons destroyed the building. So that when the king heard of the 
astrological account of the Chinese princess by which the building could 
be preserved he was overjoyed, and he then with the aid of his two 
queen-consorts built a nine-storeyed house of solid masonry at sKyid-s’ad- 
naq-bran-p’a’-boi) ; 8 and they remained there for a week coercing ‘ the 
three Lords,’ s who appeared unto them in a vision and blessed them. 
“ Then he (king Sroq*6tsan-gam-po), erected four schools 4 at each 
of (the sites of) wT’ah-’dul, Yaq-’dul, and Ru-gmon, after making a careful 
survey of all the unlucky features of those lands. He also founded the 
school of (Lhasa) Ra-sa-p’rul-snaq, by the help of his incarnations and his 
Tibetan subjects. Then followed the erection of the school of Ra-mo-ch’e. 
“ (In the temple of Lhasa or ‘Rasa’) there is a side painting of 
the five Jinas b consecrated by the rice 6 of the king (Sroq-frtsan) him¬ 
self, as a symbol of the (mystic) Body 7 ; and the six-syllabled prayer (i.e., 
1 A popular tradition is still current that there is a lake under the temple 
of Lhasa, and that an opening underneath the great image of the Lord (Jo-wo) in 
the central shrine, communicates with this lake. The story is probably related to 
the indigenous Ndga or dragon-worship of the country. Mr. Rockhill ( loc . cit., p. 70) 
notes a legend to the effect that this lake was confined to its present bed by Padma- 
sambhava after which only did it become possible to build over it — though this 
would place the erection of the temple over a hundred years after Sroiybtsan 
sgam-po’s reign. ‘ Every year,’ says, Mr. Rockhill ‘ in the second month precious 
offerings are thrown down the hole in the Jo-k’ang out of which comes a great 
noise of wind. If this were not done, the waters or rather the Lu-jyal-po ( Nagaraja ) 
would cause the waters to rise up and engulph the city.’ On this legend conf. 
Hue’s Souvenirs d’un voyage, II, p. 193. 
8 The building to which this legend attaches still exists close to the north of 
Ramo-che on the northern outskirts of Lhasa. 
6 Rigs-srsum ?ngon-po. See before. 
4 ^Tsug-lag k’aq. 
6 | rGyal-wa rigs Zqa; the five Celestial Buddhas or ‘the 
Dhydni Buddhas of the Nepalese’—See my Buddhism of Tibet, pp. 336, 346, &c. 
6 Sacred objects are consecrated by throwing rice at them during a celebration. 
7 sKu literally ‘ the body.’ This together with the next two categories 
namely <ySuq (speech) and T’ugs (mind) denote the three mystic elements of tbe 
Vajraydna creed. Cf. my Buddh. of Tibet, p. 147. 
J. i. 34 
