1892,3 L. A. Waddell— Lamaic Rosaries : their Kinds and Uses. 27 
The number of these formulas, daily repeated in this way, is enormous. 
The average daily number of repetitions may, in the earlier stages of a 
Lama’s career, amount to 5,000 daily, but it depends somewhat on the 
zeal and leisure of the individual. A layman may repeat daily about 
five to twenty bead-cycles, but usually less. Old women are especially 
pious in this way, many telling over twenty bead-cycles daily. A mid¬ 
dle-aged Lama friend of mine has repeated the spell of his tutelary 
deity alone over 2,000,000 times. It is not uncommon to find rosaries 
so worn away by the friction of so much handling that originally globu¬ 
lar beads have become cylindrical. 
Affixed to the rosary are small odds and ends, such as a metal 
toothpick, tweezer, small keys, &c. 
Material of the Beads. 
The materials of which the Lamaic rosaries are composed may to a 
certain extent vary in costliness according to the wealth of the wearer. 
The Khen-bo or abbot of a large and wealthy monastery may have rosaries 
of pearl and other precious stones, and even of gold. Turner relates* 
that the Grand Taslii Lama possessed rosaries of pearls, emeralds 
rubies, sapphires, coral, amber, crystal and lapis-lazuli. 
But the material of the rosary can only vary within rather narrow 
limits. Its nature being determined by the particular sect to which the 
Lama belongs and the particular deity to whom worship is to be paid. 
Kinds of Rosaries. 
The yellow rosary or Setheng is the special rosary of 
the Ge-luk-pa or ‘ reformed school,’ also called 1 the yellow hat 
sect’ ( Sha-ser ). The beads are formed from the ochrey yellow wood 
of the Ghang-chhub tree literally ‘the Bodhi tree’ or tree of 
supreme wisdom, which is said to grow in central China. The wood 
is so deeply yellow, that it is doubtful whether it be really that of the 
pipal ( Ficus religiosa ), of which was the Bodhi tree under which Gauta¬ 
ma attained his Buddhahood. These beads are manufactured whole¬ 
sale by machinery at the temple called by Tibetans Ri-wo tse-nga and by 
the Chinese U-tha Shan , or ‘ The Five Peaks ’ about 200 miles South¬ 
west of Pekin. Hue gives a Sketch f of this romantic place but makes 
no mention of its rosaries. This rosary is of two kinds, viz., the usual 
# Embassy to Tibet, p 261, 1800. 
f Travels in Tartary, Tibet and China. By M. IIuc. Hazlitts’ trails. I. p. 79. 
