Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/23

 CHAPTER II

( 度關 tu kuan)

To take children through the important crises in their lives is the work of a sorcerer. On consultation the fortune-teller announces the critical times in the child's life, when that life may be in danger. The sorcerer's help is then asked for, and he invokes the aid of the k‘ai-kuan t‘u-ti 開關土地 the precinct god who opens barriers.

The following are a few of the crises or barriers which may occur in a child's life, and with respect to which he must be carefully guarded.

There is the 短命關 tuan ming kuan or short-life barrier, which means that the child may die at any age before 12 years. At 12 the barrier or crisis is over. There is also the 100-days barrier; the child is not safe till past that age.

The Buddhist-priest barrier 和尚關 ho-shang kuan, means there is danger that the boy will run away from home and become a priest, which is equivalent to losing him altogether.

The "knock-door crisis" 撞門關 ch‘uang men kuan means there is danger that the child some time visiting a neighbour's house will get bitten by a dog or catch