Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/121

 LAMAISM 115 LAMAISM (Thibetan, ILama* lord, master, teacher), the prevailing religion of Thibet and some other parts of Asia. It is a form of Buddhism modified by the adoption of some of the doctrines and practices of Sivaism, one of the religions of India, and Shamanism or spirit worship, a Mongolian superstition. The most essential features of Lamaism are described in the article BUDDHISM, vol. iii., pp. 399 et seq. Of the religion of Thibet previous to the introduction of Buddhism nothing certain is known. According to the Thibetan and Chi- nese annals, a king of Thibet named Ssrong- bTsan-sGam-po (the upright wise prince), who reigned in the early part of the 7th century, was the introducer of Buddhism into that country. He had two wives, one from China, the other from Nepaul, in both which coun- tries Buddhism had been established for sev- eral hundred years. These princesses brought with them Buddhistic books and idols. For the preservation of the latter, temples were built at Lassa (Lha-ssa, god-land), which af- terward became and still remains the great metropolis of Lamaism. In 632 Ssrong- bTsan sent his prime minister Thumi-Ssam- bho-ta to Nepaul to study Buddhism, and to adapt the Devanagari or Sanskrit alphabet, to the Thibetan language. This king also intro- duced the wonderful mystic formula of six syllables, Aum ma-ni pad-me hum, which is supposed to mean, "God! jewel in the lotus, Amen." It is a kind of universal prayer or invocation, and great spiritual and corporeal benefits are attributed to its utterance. Du- ring the century following the death of Ssrong- bTsan, Buddhism made but little progress in Thibet; but it received a new impulse from Thi-Ssrong-de-bTsan, who reigned from 740 to 786. He built many monasteries, invi- ted to his court learned men from India, and completed the translation of the ~bKa> JiGyur (pronounced Kanjur, versio verM), the great canon in three sections, and containing, in 100 volumes, 1,083 different works, treating of everything connected with the doctrines and discipline of Buddhism. The third king who is regarded as sacred by the Lamaists was Khri- IDe-Ssrong-bTsan, who increased the power of the priesthood until it became unendura- ble, and he was murdered by the support- ers of his brother gLang-dar-ma, between 821 and 840. The latter immediately commenced a bloody persecution of Buddhism, in conse- quence of which the priests called him a Ichu- Wghcm of Shisnus, or incarnation of the devil, and finally murdered him ; but for a long time afterward the religion made little progress. In the llth century a learned Buddhist, Jo- bp-Atisha, introduced several reforms, and by his efforts and those of his Thibetan disciples, especially Brom-bakshi, a new impulse was a vowel and immediately followed by a capital, is not pro- nounced; thus bLama is pronounced Lama. Such is the Thibetan spelling and pronunciation. given to the religion. New monasteries were established, and Kun-dGa-ssRing-po, abbot of the monastery of Ssa-skya, about 1070, is said to have been the first grand lama of Thibet ; but it is not certain that his authority was uni- versally recognized. In the 13th century the greater part of Thibet was subject to China, and in 1279 it passed with the rest of the empire under the dominion of Kublai Khan, f'andson of the Mongol conqueror Genghis han. Kublai Khan was a patron of learning and became a Buddhist. He took the lama of Ssa-skya under his protection, and subject- ed the whole country to his authority. This lama, who among his numerous titles bore that of Ti-s'su, emperor's teacher, is said to have contrived letters for the Mongolic lan- guage. Kublai and Ti-ssu, with the aid of Thi- betan, Uiguric, Chinese, and Sanskrit scholars, revised the Kanjur, and it was printed at the sNar-thang monastery in 1285-1306. He also sent an embassy to Ceylon, which brought back the bhikshu bowl, two molar teeth, and a miraculous image of Sakyamuni. The suc- cessors of Kublai were equally zealous. Tem- ples were restored, convents were erected in China as well as Thibet, and so many Chinese pretended to be monks in order to escape pay- ment of taxes and the performance of other duties, that it is said 500,000 of these impostors were expelled from the cloisters of a single province. After a rule of 89 years the Mon- gol dynasty called by the Chinese the dynasty of Yu-en was expelled, and in 1368 the -Ming dynasty was established. In 1373 Tai-tsu, the Chinese emperor, desirous of lessening the power of the lama of Ssa-skya and of increasing the influence of China, conferred equal digni- ties and titles upon four lamas. This policy of dividing and thus weakening the power of the lamas was followed by the succeeding em- perors, though the lama of Ssa-skya was still regarded as the highest in dignity. In 1403 a lama named bTsong-Kha-pa commenced a great reform. Many wonderful legends of his miraculous conception and birth are preserved, and he is regarded in Thibet, Mongolia, and among the Calmucks with almost as much reverence as Buddha himself. He proclaimed the duty of celibacy on the part of the priest- hood, originated the sect or order of dGe-lugss (of virtue), wrote many works, and founded many monasteries. Previous to his time one of the distinguishing marks of the priesthood had been a red cap. He and his followers adopted a yellow cap, as being more in accor- dance with the original custom of the Buddhists. The Lamaists thus became separated into two sects, which to this day are called red-caps and yellow-caps, but at present the sect of red-caps in Thibet is very small and of little importance. Some time between 1417 and 1429 bTsong- Kha-pa died, or, as his followers believe, was translated to heaven. The organization of the lamaistic hierarchy as it exists at the present day is essentially the same as it was left by
 * Throughout this article a small letter unaccompanied by