In the aforementioned report "The peoples and politics of the Far East," by Sir Henry Norman was published in 1895, I have found some descriptions that Boothby puts the narrator of the second Dr. Nikola-band in the mouth or in the spring. From her how it could actually have been a source for his descriptions. Said Sir Henry tells of a tour in the Great Lama Temple, the Lama Temple, and many details appear similar in the "Expedition of Dr. Nikola" on when Nikola and Wilfred Bruce dressed in entering the temple.
is particularly interesting that the two authors, two unbiased Victorian gentleman full of tolerance toward other religious faiths, in the representation the monks fully agree: This is a thoroughly depraved bunch. I personally have imagined Buddhist monks always kind of different ...
How credible is this report was, once an open question, but I have translated it for this blog.
A particular tour I will never forget when I would not even repeat. Among the places worth visiting in Beijing is one of the Lama Temple, the great Lama Temple. It is a monastery of the Mongolian Buddhism or Schamaismus who live in over a thousand Mongolian and Tibetan monks under the rule of a "living Buddha". For several years had already entered no longer a stranger as the residents were seen as crude and lawless, they are virtually outlawed by the Chinese authorities and the last group, who visited the temple, was treated very rudely. He is also considered very holy, because one of the emperor was born there, before he was handed over to the llamas. When I spoke of visiting the temple, said both my groom and my "Boy", residents there were no longer welcome, the former also reported that he had been with six service men there, without success. A friend in Beijing, however, told me one of the lamas, known as the Lama Pai, which might also mean always have, from him A few weeks ago lent five U.S. dollars, have as an additional incentive for the granting of the loan offered him the Pai Lama if he wanted to visit the temple or one of his friends, he would let him in without a fee. My friend gave me, then a large Chinese card with the name of the Lama Pai on a recommendation and a member of the embassy, said the Chinese was so nice to accompany me because he wanted to visit the temple. The temple is located at the outer edge of Beijing, about an hour's ride from the Legation Street. We passed two or three goals without difficulty, then we spotted some novices or altar (we saw on their shaved skulls) and warned the priest, who then closed the gates. A quarter of an hour we talked to the gatekeepers and they finally persuaded to inform the Lama Pai, and eventually turned up on this even. It was a dirty little guy, who succeeded after some difficulty in convincing the other, we admit. Then he disappeared immediately and was never seen again. After another half hour, we agreed with the monks that they would show us a small sum for the four major attractions of the temple.
The first was the great Buddha, a 70-foot wooden statue, richly decorated and adorned with a giant lotus in each hand and the traditional jewel on the chest. At its crown as the waves were all small Buddhas, exact copies of the large and well decorated. His toe measured 21 inches. On each side of him a long roll, hanging 75 feet long, marked with Chinese characters, and he was surrounded by a number of galleries, to which several steps led up. His bronze face had a unique expression of sublime and I felt the desire to photograph it. The monks were at the locked door, only one of them we had hineinbegleitet. I promised him a dollar for a photo. The dollar was interested, but he did not know what was a photograph. After a while my companion was able to explain to him what the Chinese call "shadow", but then he would not hear of it, he said, the whole temple would collapse in such crimes immediately. I offered two dollars, three, four, five, ten, finally, twenty dollars. But he agreed to smuggle me in the morning in the temple, and when the other priests mightest know it, he would have trouble.
We then considered other sites: two magnificent bronze lions and a beautiful bronze urn, many temples with strange statues and thousands of silk hangings, with Tibetan rugs designed and thousands of silk banners decorated, lots of altar utensils made of bronze and enamel, gifts of various emperors, including two elephants from Cloisonné , which are among the artfully most works of this kind in China, and the Great Hall with their prayer benches for all the monks in the held every afternoon at five of the service was.
had a couple of hours later we saw everything and went back to the courtyard. Here we expected a hundred or more monks, all with shaved skulls like billiard balls, a pile throughout Sun degenerate rags as they can imagine: puffy dirty, swarming with vermin, scrofulous, the marks on the faces of nameless diseases.
"I am really happy when we are out of here," said my companion and I voted my heart. But that was easier said than done. They surrounded us with brutal intrusion, jostled and shouted at us and laughed like half-crazed gorillas. My companion told them we enjoyed the visit very much, and we pushed our way slowly towards the gate. But somehow we always drove the crowd again. They lined up against us do not really, and yet we got everywhere, not only to where we wanted. Although they would not let us go, they obviously knew that they had no excuse to us really caught hold. After half an hour we began to get angry. At this moment we came to a sort of tunnel in a wall that led to another court, especially my companion, surrounded by a bunch of people, then I with its own court, and finally my "Boy", also surrounded by a crowd. As I passed through the passage, jumped a man I did because of his clothes for a kind of gate-keeper, and yelled at me. I understood and respected him. He grabbed my arm to stop me. I pushed him away and walked on, he grabbed me with both hands on the collar and pushed me against the wall. In such a moment, one does not take long and I did what everyone would have done. Just as he loosened his grip, I struck. He recovered quickly and now the misunderstanding on both sides seemed to finally get out of hand. Since a very old priest came in a yellow robe of a globe and tried to convey, he kept us both on the hands and smiled a lot and conciliatory. I had now become clear, what folly had made me to let myself be carried away in such a place to blows, so I responded exuberantly to the appeasement of the venerable lamas, called my "Boy" caused and allowed him to explain that we listen to like everything much of what we say to the priest have, but if he should dare to stir a finger against us, he would regret. Since there were only two, and the other about two hundred, I wonder to this day that these branched ridiculous threat effect. Nevertheless, I also had to follow a few small coins, had no desire to put my argument into question. When I looked over
to my companion, I realized the waves of the crowd that something was wrong, and as I had fought him, I realized that he was in greater trouble than I was before. A young monk from a blank had attacked him from behind and came suddenly. In response now adorns an ugly welts from a riding whip his face. The man foamed with rage and threw ready to fight all his garments from him. Already he was half naked, and although he was perhaps a little overweight, he seemed to be no easy opponent.
"He hit me with a whip," shouted he, pointing to the times and let out a series of curses against us.
"What did he say?" I asked.
"He says we will not get out of here alive."
cried at that moment a monk, something the others shouted back enthusiastically, and even ran around going on a dozen of them and closed the great gates of the court.
Now we certainly were in a jam. We were inside the most dangerous place in Beijing, on the outskirts of the city, a quarter mile away from the road behind about half a dozen closed doors, surrounded by a mob of about two hundred frenzied Mongolians and Tibetans, which it loudly for our blood demanded, a thousand more of them were in shouting distance of the Chinese laws, they were not much, and the Chinese government itself would hardly dare to mess with them because they wanted to provoke any trouble in Tibet. If they are so easy on traveling the skull and hide our bodies in the temples, one would most of us never hear or see something. We could only hope that everything was a question of money. I called my "Boy" cause who quarreled with just a few monks around the two cameras, and told him to ask at the most reasonable act monk, for which amount they would let us go home. Half a minute later the crowd had got wind of it and the fist fight launched monk was voted down in no time.
"Fifty dollars," explained to us after several minutes of counseling.
"Tell them that we do not have as much money at it, but tomorrow they can pick on me."
They were too vigilant in order to fall for such obvious ruse. To bring the story to an end, my "Boy" continued to negotiate with them, and they are fleeced at every gate through that it took us (and there were quite a few), by a few dollars until we reach the road and our horses reached. I arrived safely through the gate when my "boy" it happened, he grabbed a few of them and threw him headfirst into the mud, followed by the zerbochenen cameras, the tripod and the saddle bags.
the afternoon I just repaired the cameras, as my "boy" served the tea.
"Master?"
"Yes?"
"I do not go back to the Lama Temple - bad people there. "
I have the appointment to photograph the Great Buddha, the next morning, not incidentally observed.
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