MONK'S ADVENTURE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3445, 15 November 1932, Page 2

MONK'S ADVENTURE

POSED AS TIBETAN LLAMA. A Holy Man whom, it is claimed, ! wild animals and poisonous snakes will not touch, recently arrived in London, following remarkable adventures in the forbidden city, Lhasa, in Tibet. The man is Rahul Sankrityana, a Buddhist monk from a remote monastery in Ceylon. Four months he cut himself off from human society and became a lonely wanderer in the most mysterious country in the world. The monk seemed to bear a charmed life. At night he slept under trees; in the daytime he struggled along the dangerous mountain paths. Practically the only food he had for weeks together was jungle fruits. Rahul, who can speak, read, and write Sanskrit, Pali, Hindu, English, Arabic, Chinese, Tibetan, French, German, a'nd Russian, told the story of his remarkable journey to the Sunday Chronicle recently. "I wanted to go to Lhasa in order to do some Buddhist research work," he said. "I could not get a permit to go to Tibet, so had to devise some means of smuggling myself into the country. "I managed to learn the Tibetan language from the monks and travellers who came to Nepal, and one evening, as soon as I felt I was fluent enough, I disguised myself as a Tibetan beggar and set off on my journey. After nearly three months' wandering alone in the heart of the Tibetan ranges Lhasa seemed further away than ever. i

"Once I was resting under a tree when suddenly six Tibetan bandits rushed toward me. With quaint weapons in their hands they demanded gold and silver, and coins. I told them that I was a beggar, and that I had nothing on me except my beggar's bowl. They threatened to kill me, but I insisted that they should search me first. They did, and finding nothing, let me go." After four months of travelling Rahul reached the "Forbidden City," and lived like one of the Tibetan monks in a monastery. During his stay in Tibet he discovered a rare manuscript which he has taken with him to London. It is 800 years old, and written on palm leaves. It unfolds the secrets of Buddhist mysticism.