Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/355

 But this simple explanation of course does not satisfy the Lama schoolmen, who revel in glorifications and multitudinous glossifications of this formula. The six syllables are the heart of hearts, the root of all knowledge, the ladder to re-birth in higher forms of being, the conquerors of the five evils, the flame that burns up sin, the hammer that breaks up torment, and so on. Оm saves the gods, ma the Asuras, ni the men, pad the animals, me the spectre world of prêtas, hûm the inhabitants of hell! Om is 'the blessing of self-renunciation, ma of mercy, ni of chastity, &c.' 'Truly monstrous,' says Koeppen, ' is the number of padmes which in the great festivals hum and buzz through the air like flies.' In some places each worshipper reports to the highest lama how many om manis he has uttered, and the total number emitted by the congregation is counted by the billion.

Grueber and Dorville describe Manipe as an idol, before which stulta gens insolitis gcsticnlationibiis sacra sua facit., identidem verba hcec repetens: 'О Manipe, mi hum, О Manipe, mi hum; id est Manipe, salva nos!'—[Y.]

Of the Obo, or sacred cairn of the Lamas, probably a relic of their primeval superstitions, a representation is given in Kircher's account of the journey of Grueber and Dorville, who characterise it thus: 'Trophæa quæ in summis montium cum adoratione magno Lamæ diriguntur, pro conservatione hominum et equorum.'

Turner describes such a trophæum on the boundary between Bhotan and Tibet.—[Y.]