26 
Sarat Chandra Das —Contributions on Tibet. 
[No. 1, 
the end of which he saw her face, and welcomed her by singing seventeen 
hymns. The goddess in return presented him with a cup of gem-like 
fruits, by virtue of which divine gift, within the course of a month, he 
learnt by-heart five volumes of Tsoiikhapa’s precepts. During this period, 
one night, he saw in a vision the image of Buddha, as high as a mountain, 
shining with the brightness of myriads of suns, and approaching him to 
confer benediction. At the age of seventeen he entered the Thosamlin. 
college of Tasi-lhunpo, where he studied psychology and logic, and ob¬ 
tained the high degree of Master of learning. At the age of twenty-two 
he was ordained priest by Pan-chhen-Yar-phel. In the latter part of 
the same year, he went to U' to visit the sacred images. Here he saw 
several happy and auspicious omens. Going to Gahdan he disputed with 
the learned in argumentative science, and secured for himself a world-wide 
celebrity. At the age of thirty-one he was raised to the sacerdotal chair of 
Tasi-lhunpo, during his tenure of which he ably turned the wheel of 
Dharma to promote the diffusion of the sacred religion. He was the first 
to introduce the annual prayer-fair at Tasi-lhunpo, executed twenty three 
satin embroidered pictures, numerous tapestries, paintings and copper and 
clay images. He richly furnished the recluses’ monasteries with religious 
necessaries. He ordained afterwards the Dalai Lama Yon-ton Gya-tsho 
into the priesthood and taught him the Ivalachakra ritualism. As a 
punishment for their internal dissensions, he employed the monks of 
Tasi-lhunpo in erecting three lofty chhorten within the monastery walls. 
He entertained the monks of Sera, Dapun and Gahdan several times, 
distributing gold pieces among them. At the invitation of the Raja of 
Guge he visited upper Tibet. At the age of forty-four he applied to the 
collected body of monks to be permitted to retire from the abbotship of 
Tasi-lhunpo, but their earnest entreaties dissuaded him from the resolve. 
After the death of the Dalai Lama, the Gelugpa church having waned 
greatly, he was invited to Lhasa where the Synod of the Lamas under 
the presidentship of the abbots of Sera and Dapun appointed him to the 
pontifical throne of Gahdan, which high office he meritoriously filled. 
During his incumbency there arose a quarrel between the southern Mongo¬ 
lians and the Tibetans, which ended in the invasion of Tibet by Thingir- 
tho, the nomad king of Kliokhonur. 35 Thinger-tho’s armies slew 500 
Tibetan soldiers. The armies of Tsah and U' consisting of nearly 100,000 
soldiers assembled at the foot of Chagpori in the suburbs of Lhasa. Immense 
hordes of nomad warriors reinforced Thingir-tho’s armies which were thus 
enabled to besiege the Tibetans and cut off their supplies. Unable to bear the 
sight of the distress of his countrymen, Cbho-kyi Gyal-tshan sued for peace 
and delivered his country from the hands of the enemies by the payment of 
35 Kho-kho-nur. 
