1881.] 
Sarat Chandra Das —Contributions on Tibet. 
225 
her jealous partner, but, in the absence of witnesses, being unable to 
charge Nam-nan with any foul motive, kept her sorrows to herself. 
Some of the ministers, who knew the plot of the elder queen, did not 
venture to speak against her. Kuhju, however, once complained to the 
king about the probable wickedness, but as Nam-nah had by the agency of 
some drug produced milk in her paps, Kuhju did not see the possibility of 
establishing her accusation, but burning with a spirit of revenge tried 
to bring damnation on Tibet by means of her incantations, and wrote 
treatises construing astrology in a perverse way. In the third year of the 
prince’s age, the king invited the maternal relations of: the prince and 
the princess to a grand festive celebration. 41 When all the nobles, chiefs 
and ministers of the realm had assembled, the king seated the prince 
and the princess on either side and taking a cupful of wine in his 
hand, addressed the former—“ My son, take this gold cup of wine and with 
your tender hands offer it to him who is your maternal uncle.” To the utter 
amazement of all present, the prince at once presented it to the Chinese 
prince whom he thus addressed—“ I, Thi-sron-de-tsan am thy nephew. 
Nam-nan is not my mother, though she has nursed me for a period of 
three years. I now meet my uncle, and my heart rejoices to behold him.” 
These words of the infant prince struck all the courtiers and ministers with 
wonder. Nam-nah’s wickedness was now at last revealed, and she was 
overwhelmed with shame. Kuhju was transported with joy when the king 
presented the child to her, and now exerted herself to avert some of the evils 
she had brought on Tibet by her incantations; but as she did not fully 
succeed in correcting astrology, it is alleged by several native historians that 
the Tibetans cannot make correct calculations. 
A. D. 748—748. At the age of sixty-three the king died leaving the 
throne to the young prince, now thirteen years old. Thi-sroh applied himself 
to study and the critical examination of the ancient records contained in the 
Archives of the State. His ministers were divided into two factions, de¬ 
signated the “ Buddhist” and the “ Heretic” ministers. The first faction, or 
Chhoi-lon, advised the young king to encourage Buddhism, while their anta¬ 
gonists exhorted him to extirpate Buddhism from Tibet, which according to 
them had been productive of pernicious consequences. In spite of the oppo¬ 
sition, the king, having a great inclination for Buddhism, sided with the 
former. The Buddhist party now, with the king’s connivance, entered into a 
conspiracy against the life of Mashan the prime-minister. They bribed the 
soothsayers and astrologers to declare that some great calamity was imminent 
over the king which could be only averted by two of the high officers of State 
entering grave-like cells and remaining there for a period of three months. 
The king, therefore, offered large presents to those who would undergo this 
41 The Tibetans celebrate the aniversary of their birth. 
