SEAM FOR RULER

Evening Star, Issue 22276, 29 February 1936, Page 10

SEAM FOR RULER

CUSTOM OF ANCIENT TIBET Tibet, the vast and mysterious tableland that has defied the conquerors of all the ages, is looking for a baby who shall be a god. A new Dalai Lama must bo found. He is, according to Buddhist belief, a reincarnation of the former holder of the office.

The leading prelates of Tibet search for a baby boy who was horn as nearly as possible at the time when the Dalai Lama died. It is the ambition of every Tibetan woman to give birth to a boy who shall become the Dalai Lama. She and all her family are forthwith ennobled. Estates are granted to them by the Tibetan Government. There is never any lack of candidates when the chance presents itself.

A wceding-out process soon reduces the choice to about a dozen babes. It is then that the serious task begins of deciding which of these interesting infants .possoses the soul of the Dalai Lama who has died; The chief test is a close scrutiny of a certain mark that every hoy in Tibet bears on his shoulder blade. It is a sun-burn produced by a burning glass, but interposed between the burning glass and the child’s shoulder is a disc of metal held at an angle which represents the shape of the moon at the time the baby was borne. The child with the moon mark nearest to' the known shape of the moon when the Dalai Lama died is judged to he his reincarnation.

The lucky youngster is then taken from the custody of his parents and carefully trained by ‘prelates for his high office. The parents arc usually poor peasants, but so long as their son, the new Dalai Lama, lives they enjoy the title of “ The New Patrimony.” When he dies they or such of his next of kin who survive, select a new name and enter the ranks of the nobility. The highest form of blessing bostowed by the Dalai Lama is the placing of both his hands on the head of the person he blesses. The lowest blessing is just a flick with a tassel. All women have to he content with this lowest blessing except one, and she is entitled to be blessed by the Dalai Lama placing one hand on her head. This woman is the only member of her sex who is deemed by the Tibetans to he a reincarnation.