Word: lama
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...also one of the most benighted. Tibet is one of the world's last theocracies: its culture centres about its religion, Lamaism, a form of Buddhism which was brought up from India through the Himalayan passes in the 7th Century. This hierarchical faith, with its priests, abbots, lamas (monks), hutukhtus ("Living Buddhas"), is headed by two infallible incarnations-the Panchen Lama, a spiritual teacher or "Buddha of Boundless Light," and the Dalai Lama, a temporal sovereign, the "Buddha of Mercy...
...Lhasa, a dirty, disagreeable town which was once the "Forbidden City" to foreigners, a fourth of the male population belong to the Lamaist priesthood. To help keep the Lamas out of mischief, an early Dalai Lama decreed that Tibetan women should paint their faces bright...
During and after the reign of the late, 13th Dalai Lama, China and England jockeyed for influence in Tibet. The Chinese established a radio station and a school (said the China Year Book: "The curriculum of the school consists principally of Chinese and commonsense"). The British put in another radio station (which worked better than the Chinese) and established a diplomatic mission, headed at present by a capable civil servant, Basil john Gould...
...hostile mandarins and officials had accepted the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War, to pick up useful military data for possible future use. The Mannerheim party traveled 8,750 miles on horseback, lost two Cossacks from the hardships of the journey, had many adventures. Colonel Mannerheim kept the Dalai Lama waiting to receive him while he carefully shaved and dressed, made his peace with the gift of a revolver, which he showed the Lama how to use. At Lhabrang Monastery he was hissed and stoned by pilgrims. The expedition took two years, gave Colonel Mannerheim a reputation as a scientist...