Examiner’s “Gag.”

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 26, 29 June 1907, Page 42

Examiner’s “Gag.”

Examination for the priesthood of Tibet is a severe ordeal, in which the candidates are liable to be forcibly prevents I from speaking by the examiner. Herr Tafel. the German explorer, who has just returned from Tibet, says he saw one grotesque ceremony in which the Dalai Lama examined three candidates. who lay tl.it on their faces before him. A large number of priests were present, and they also prostrated themselves on their faces in token of veneration to the Dalai Lama. Each cin.li-d.ite raised his head and replied when a question was asked, and then buried his face in the mat again. If

a lame reply to a question were given, the Dalai Lama stooped, and placed a hand tightly over the candidate's mouth, so that he might not appear ridiculous to his fellow students.

If the answer were specially bad, the Lama described a circle in the air just above the offender's head, as an expression of his contempt for the candidate. Herr Tafel obtained the audience of the Dalai Law. at the Tibetan monastery of Gumbum, not far from the Chinese frontier. He is said to be the first European who has ever been face to face with the fugitive Lama. The Dalai Lama tied from Lhasa on the approach of the Y'ounghusband Mission. and at first found a refuge at Urga, in Northern Mongolia. He was reputed to have left that place last September; and in the following month he passed through Lanehau-fu. on bis way, it was said, to Kashgar. He was travelling in grept state, in a large sedan chair carried on horses, and with an escort of two hundred lamas.