CHANGING CHINA

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 38, 13 August 1932, Page 5

CHANGING CHINA

LIVING GOD'S PART

ENORMOUS INFLUENCE

The Soviet Russian Government and the Imperial Japanese Government, asserting from "West and East their influence over Mongolia, have suddenly been challenged by a power that mortal means cannot combat. This power is the "Living God," writes Kadia Larova in the "San Francisco Chronicle." Highest spiritual dignitary of a land that boasts of forty-five living Buddhas, Banehen-Kinboche Lama, a native of Tibet, where he is considered greater than the Dalai Lama of Lhassa, is also known as "the Precious Jewel" and the incarnation of the goddess Avaloh.itcshvara, '' Light Without End.'' The few Westerners who have beheld the god know him as "Pan-Chen," and realise that he wields extraordinary influence over millions of men. Emerging recently from his seclusion in a lamaseiai in Poiping, where he has lived since 1924, the Living God has urged the Mongols to adopt an attitudo of watchful waiting toward the Japanese. It will be recalled that the newly formed "state" of Manchoukuo, set up by the Japanese, takes in a slice of Mongolia. Simultaneously Pan-Chen has launched a bitter campaign against Russian Reds and their disciples in Asia, who have transformed the greater part of Mongolia into a Soviet Eepublic. His enthusiastic followers are indifferent to threats of machine guns, and the doctrines of Karl Mars, according to information from Harbin, Manchuria, or as it is now called, Manchoukuo. ' Pan-Chen may bo just a wise-eyed Asiatic with a vision beyond that of the average nomad of the steppe. The fact remains that millions of men, probably including himself, bolievo that ho is indeed. "Light Without, End"—the greatest religious and occult authority since the. Mongolians' own Living God, Djebtsung Damba Hutukhta Khan, passed away in 1925, and the political situation in Mongolia pi«vented a search for his reincarnates. Now faith has been known to move mountains, not to mention men. WORD GOES ROUND. The Tibetan's name first came into prominence last autumn, when word spread among the tribes of Barga, a section of Mongolia, that the Living God would deign to appear in Hailar, the capital, to conduct a great religious rally. A few foreign observers hastened to Hailar, easily reached by the Chinese Eastern Railway, rightly estimating that there would be launched a most important anti-Soviet campaign in Mongolia. A hill crowned by a temple was consecrated to the use of the. god.: Hundreds of men worked feverishly, building a light tewaeed palace, furnishing it, adorning the hill with silks and amulets. Thousands of worshippers arrived from Mongolia's vast spaces —from Manchuria, frpm across the frontier of Soviet Siberia, where native tribes still cling to Lamaism, and camped around the hill. They brought more than a million dollars' worth of gifts. Since even the "red" Mongols believo that nothing can change the preordained course of life incarnations, revolutionists and conservatives alike made up the immense throng, tens of thousands strong, that met the Living God on the outskirts of the city. Swathed in silks of a peculiar tone of yellow—the colour sacred to Lamaism, an American limousine drove up from the steppe, surrounded by shaggy; slant-eyed riders on shaggy, slant-eyed horses. Joined by the throng, the procession moved to the hill. Without showing his face, concealed, by a yellow veil, the Living God left his car and walked to the temple on.the hill, while crowds of worshippers fell on his tracks and 'swallowed the dust on which the "oA had trod. HIS BLESSING. At the end of a two-week prayer meeting, when the religious fervour was at white heat, the Living God appeared to his people and unveiled his face. The mass of people fell down and kowtowed, while Pan-Chen gave them his blessing. . .. The shrewd Living God now called together Mongolian princes and statesmen, instructing them to counteract, with every means at their . command, the encroachments of the Soviet agents on ono hand and the Japanese on the other. These suggestions were passed on to the exalted, impressionable throng, which has now spread them over Central Asia. In the meantime Pan-Chen received a special delegation from- Ealha, Sovietised section of Mongolia, which begged him to= free .them from the Communist rule. Late in October the Living God left for Inner Mongolia at the head of a great caravan of 130 camels. Since then a third factor has arisen to complicate, the situation and call out all the diplomatic ability that Pan-Chen seems to possess. The fact is that Mongolia has always professed loyalty to the Manchu dynasty, as represented by the Emperor of China, but never to China as a country. It is significant that in 1912, the year of the establishment of the Chinese republic, Mongolia refused to take ah oath of allegiance, and began a movement for complete autonomy. ■ Now the head of the puppet State of Manchoukuo, created by the Japanese, and protected by their soldiers, is Henry Pu-yi, otherwise former Emperor Hsuan-tung, last representative of the Manchu dynasty, which ruled China for three hundred years. . ' The question has arisen in the minds of conservative Mongols-—does not tradition and their self-interest dictate that they'renew their allegiance to the last of the Manchus? This would mean a definite entrance of Mongolia into the Japanese sphere of influence, a break with China, and certainly a violent demonstration of some sort on the part of Russian and Asiatic reds. The Buddhaliko mask of Pan-Chen Lama holds the answer.