THE FORBIDDEN LAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19990, 5 November 1927, Page 13 (Supplement)

THE FORBIDDEN LAND

ADVENTURES IN TIBET WOMAN’S PERILOUS JOURNEY EXCLUSION EDICT DEFIED. The distinction of being the first , white woman to enter Lhasa, the forbidden city of Tibet, is claimed by a Frenchwoman who had learned the language and customs of the country from an old hermit, while living for two years in a Himalayan cave. Her journey to Lhasa was prompted by a desire to show what a Frenchwoman could do in face of the edict forbidding any foreigner to enter the city or even to travel in Tibet without a permit. She travelled on foot with her adopted son, a young Tibetan lama. She was disguised as his mother, her fair hair blackened with Chinese ink, and made more plentiful by black hair from a yak; her face darkened with a mixture of cocoa and charcoal. Her dress was that of a Tibetan beggar pilgrim. The difficulties and dangers of the journey over a tableland covered in many places with deep snow, and infested by 'bandits, were terrible, and there was always the fear that someone might penetrate her disguise. In her book, 44 My Journey to Lhasa,” Mme. Alexandra David-Neel tells her story of perils surmounted and difficulties overcome. I Stopped by Robbers. Once the two were stopped by a band of robbers, who took a few coins from the handkerchief of the lama. The amount was trifling, but the robbers next laid hands on the load the priest carried. To permit them to examine this would have led to disaster, for in it were foreign objects which would have created suspicion; and once on the track of things the robbers might have found the gold hidden in their clothing. Wo screaming at the top of her voice and howling in utter despair, the “mother” lamented the loss of the rupees, the only money they had got. What was to become of them? How could they eat during the long trip to Lhasa? Moreover, the rupees were sacred money, the offering of a man whose father had died and for whom tho lama had performed the funeral rites. But revenge would come and all the deities of Tibet would respond to her cries. After some minutes of imprecation, one of the bandits came forward and said: 4 ‘Don’t be angry, old mother; Here are your rupees. Do not weep. Do not curse us. We only want to go peacefully back to our village.’’ They then asked for the blessing of the lama and departed. Omens of 111-fortune. It is a custom in Lhasa during the first months of the year to look for signs and omens regarding the prosperity or ill-fortune that is to come to the State. One of the omens is obtained in strange fashion. Three tents are erected, and in each an animal is shut. These have charms hung about their necks which have been blessed by the chief lama. A number of men fire as the tents from a distance, and if any of the animals is hit it means that calamities are awaiting Tibet and Its ruler. Should one of the animals be wounded the monies of three great monasteries must-read the Sacred Scriptures for twenty days, and perform ceremonies to counteract the ill-will of the deities. The year the strangers were there twenty-five shots were fired and no tent was hit. One gun, however, burst, and killed the man who fired it. The fact that no tent ’ had been hit was considered a happy omen. The commoner, they thought, had been taken by some angry demon as a substitute for the ruler.