Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/45

Rh climax in this doctrine of continuous incarnations, maintaining the succession to high spiritual dignity on earth.

The Buddhas of the past,—those culminations of spiritual progress who have attained and accomplished their day in that supreme position, vanish in Nirvana and return no more. But the Bodhisatvas, for the weal of mankind, become thus repeatedly embodied on earth. This voluntary incarnation is a different thing from the ordinary re-birth of metempsychosis. The latter is a fate incumbent on every living soul till it be freed from all impurity. But voluntary incarnation is the peculiar privilege of those sin-free souls alone which have wrought their way out of the toils of transmigration. Transmigration, in short, from a Buddhist point of view, is a natural, whilst reincarnation is a supernatural process.

This doctrine, no doubt, had early seeds, but it expanded to its full development only in the fifteenth century, and in the Yellow Church of Tsongkaba.

The Dalai Lama of Lhassa is always looked on as the incarnation of the Bodhisatva Avalokite^vara, the special guardian of Tibet. The Panchhan Rinbochhi is regarded immediately as the re-born Tsongkaba, but therefore ultimately as the Dhyani Buddha Amitâbha. So that, as regards the spiritual rank and doctrinal authority that he represents, the latter would, perhaps, stand highest; but he of Lhassa preponderates in temporal dominion, and consequently in ecclesiastical influence.

It is very obscure how this double popedom arose; but the most probable deduction from the fragmentary facts accessible is that the Lhassa pontificate is somewhat the oldest, going back to very near the age of Tsongkaba, and that the Panchhan Rinbochhi dates from the foundation of the great monastery of Tashilunpo, circâ 1445-47. We know that in 1470 both existed, for both in that year received seals and diplomas from the Chinese Emperor.

For a considerable time the two were only the arch-priests of the Yellow sect, and were so regarded by the chiefs of the Reds, who held an analogous position. But