152 
L. A. Waddell —Buddhist Pictorial Wheel of Life. 
[No. 3, 
like the discharge of a criminal who has expiated his offence in jail; on 
release he gets back his clothes and any other properties he can justly 
lay claim to, and also the benefit of any virtuous deeds he formerly had 
done. 
But through the aid of the lamas the duration of the stay in hell can 
be reduced to a few days or even hours. Al- 
by the Lamas though the ordinary mass tor the dead urges 
the spirit to proceed direct to the Western 
Paradise, in practice the vast majority of human beings go inevitably 
to hell—the proportion of those who escape hell being not greater than 
the proportion which the quantity of earth which can lie on a finger 
nail bears to a fistful of earth. As a consequence special prayers 
to neutralize this hell-going tendency are always done within the 
period of Bardo, i. e., 49 days succeeding death; and when the Bardo 
period is over, it is customary to apply to the lamas for information as 
to where the soul then is. The lamas on casting lots and referring to 
certain books find the particular hell in which the soul is being tor¬ 
tured. An elaborate and costly worship is then prescribed for the 
extraction of the soul, and this is usually declared successful, though 
not unfrequently it is declared—as in the case of the priest and his 
client in Lever’s Story—to be only partially effectual, and then it 
has to be repeated on a still more costly scale. The usual worship 
done in such cases is called dge-ha or virtue. It consists of offerings 
of (1) food, lamps, &c., to the Gods ; (2) food, money, and other pre¬ 
sents to the Lamas ; (3) and of food, beer, clothes and other charity to 
the Poor. And the Lamas in return for their fees do masses, and 
especially appeal to Thuleje Ghhenho or ‘ The Greater Pitier ’ who pre¬ 
sides over the six worlds. The lamaic hell is not of a purgatorial or 
cleansing nature. It is merely a place of expiation where punishment 
is awarded in proportionate degrees for offences committed during the 
previous existence. 
The six Thub-pas ( = Skt. Muni ) who preside over the six worlds 
_ . _ appear only in the 1 newer ’ style of the Wheel 
The six Thub-pas. y r *v Tn , „ 
ot Lite. they are ail emanations from 
Chenresi in his form of ‘ the great pitier.’ Out of pity for the 
misery of the animal beings of the six worlds he became incarnate in 
each of these worlds. (1) In the world of the gods as rGya-byin dhar-po 
or the white, vast giver (Indra), with a harp and the mystic six- 
syllables^’. e., Om mani padma Hung /) he soothes the gods’ misery of 
hpho-thing. (2) In the Lliamayin world as Thags-bzang-ris Ijang-khu or 
the green weaver of good figures (and 2 nd in rank to Rahula) dressed 
in full armour or holding a coat-of-mail he assists the Lhamayin in their 
