Page 24 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
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GFA – A Different Drumbeat 24
Konkyr mountain which runs Amne Machin peak a close second. It is in this country
that the giant pander, the golden monkey and many other forms of wild life abound.
I believe I am correct in
Joseph Francis Charles Rock (1884 – 1962) saying that no specimen of the golden
was an Austrian American explorer, monkey has been taken into captivity.
geographer, linguist and botanist. Rock was The peculiarity of this monkey is the
cherished for his eccentricities, as well as his long hair of golden sheen which grows
knowledge of botany and of ethnic minorities. from the rump. This skin is highly
He always travelled with a complete set of valued by the Chinese as a preventive
silverware, which was laid out for him at
mealtimes. He also travelled with an of rheumatism. In my young days a
Abercrombie and Fitch canvas bathtub, which pair of leggings made from this skin
his servants filled with hot water so that he would fetch as high as five hundred
could enjoy that most European of luxuries: a ounces (taels) of silver. I remember
good soak in the bath. once enthusing a certain Mr.Tangiers
Smith, whowas about to travel this
Brigadier-General George Edward Pereira, region, with the idea of capturing a live
CB, CMG, DSO (26 January 1865 – 20 specimen of the golden monkey for a
October 1923) was a British explorer in Central
Asia, Tibet and Western China; a soldier,
writer and diplomatist. zoo. He was successful in his mission
in that he did manage to secure a
baby one. So anxious was he to
preserve the little one alive that he engaged a Tibetan woman to act as a wet nurse.
All went well and the youngster seemed to thrive on his diet, until one night after he
had made camp and the nurse was suckling her charge beside the camp-fire, the
camp was suddenly attacked by a band of roving Tibetans. In the excitement that
ensued upon the outbreak of shooting, the wet nurse rose so hurriedly that she
upset her young charge into the camp fire where it was so singed that it died shortly
after.
No account of a visit to any part of Tibet, however short, would be
complete without some reference to, or description of, the Tibetan lamaseries. The
communal life of any Tibetan region pivots on its lamasery. But of all the lamaseries
in the areas on which we have touched tonight, the most outstandingly famous is
the lamasery of Kumbum far better known to the Chinese as Tah-er-tze) in the
Kokonor. Located some seventeen miles south of the city of Sining, this lamasery
was founded in memory of Ts’ong Khaba, the reformer of Buddhism and the
founder of the Yellow Sect. Born in 1360 AD near the site of the present lamasery,
at an early age he entered the priesthood with fond hopes of attaining to a state of
holiness. Sadly, grieved by the corruptions and abuses which prevailed among the
lamas of his time, with steadfast purpose he set himself to the task of effecting a
reformation. He succeeded in founding the Yellow Sect (in contrast to the then
existing “Red” Sect whose sacred symbol to the present day is the well-known
Swastika Cross). The Yellow Sect was so named from the colour of the robes they
Konkyr mountain which runs Amne Machin peak a close second. It is in this country
that the giant pander, the golden monkey and many other forms of wild life abound.
I believe I am correct in
Joseph Francis Charles Rock (1884 – 1962) saying that no specimen of the golden
was an Austrian American explorer, monkey has been taken into captivity.
geographer, linguist and botanist. Rock was The peculiarity of this monkey is the
cherished for his eccentricities, as well as his long hair of golden sheen which grows
knowledge of botany and of ethnic minorities. from the rump. This skin is highly
He always travelled with a complete set of valued by the Chinese as a preventive
silverware, which was laid out for him at
mealtimes. He also travelled with an of rheumatism. In my young days a
Abercrombie and Fitch canvas bathtub, which pair of leggings made from this skin
his servants filled with hot water so that he would fetch as high as five hundred
could enjoy that most European of luxuries: a ounces (taels) of silver. I remember
good soak in the bath. once enthusing a certain Mr.Tangiers
Smith, whowas about to travel this
Brigadier-General George Edward Pereira, region, with the idea of capturing a live
CB, CMG, DSO (26 January 1865 – 20 specimen of the golden monkey for a
October 1923) was a British explorer in Central
Asia, Tibet and Western China; a soldier,
writer and diplomatist. zoo. He was successful in his mission
in that he did manage to secure a
baby one. So anxious was he to
preserve the little one alive that he engaged a Tibetan woman to act as a wet nurse.
All went well and the youngster seemed to thrive on his diet, until one night after he
had made camp and the nurse was suckling her charge beside the camp-fire, the
camp was suddenly attacked by a band of roving Tibetans. In the excitement that
ensued upon the outbreak of shooting, the wet nurse rose so hurriedly that she
upset her young charge into the camp fire where it was so singed that it died shortly
after.
No account of a visit to any part of Tibet, however short, would be
complete without some reference to, or description of, the Tibetan lamaseries. The
communal life of any Tibetan region pivots on its lamasery. But of all the lamaseries
in the areas on which we have touched tonight, the most outstandingly famous is
the lamasery of Kumbum far better known to the Chinese as Tah-er-tze) in the
Kokonor. Located some seventeen miles south of the city of Sining, this lamasery
was founded in memory of Ts’ong Khaba, the reformer of Buddhism and the
founder of the Yellow Sect. Born in 1360 AD near the site of the present lamasery,
at an early age he entered the priesthood with fond hopes of attaining to a state of
holiness. Sadly, grieved by the corruptions and abuses which prevailed among the
lamas of his time, with steadfast purpose he set himself to the task of effecting a
reformation. He succeeded in founding the Yellow Sect (in contrast to the then
existing “Red” Sect whose sacred symbol to the present day is the well-known
Swastika Cross). The Yellow Sect was so named from the colour of the robes they
