MONK'S CHARMED LIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21314, 15 October 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

MONK'S CHARMED LIFE

UNTOUCHED BY SNAKES ADVENTURES IN TIBET 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. P"or 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 /harmed 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 were jungle fruits. Rahul, who can speak, read, and write Sanskrit, Pali, Hindu, English, Arabic, Chinese, Tibetan, French, German, and 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 Tibotan language from the monks and travellers who came to Nepal, and one evening, jus soon as I felt I was fluent enough, 1 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. " 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 1 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, aud, finding nothing, let me go." After four mofiths 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 lie' has taken with him to London. It is 800 years old and written on palm leaves. It unfolds the secrets of Buddhist mysticism.