. The book of Ser Marco Polo : the Venetian concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East . says {Ibid. p. 230) that the Taoszu are called in Tibetan Bonbo and Youngdhroungpa.—H. C] X Apparently they had at their command the whole encyclopaedia of modern mentions among their sorceries the art of producing by their invocations the figures ofLao-tseu and their divinities in the air, and of making a. pencil to write answers to questions withoutanybody touching it. 326 MARCO POLO Book I. divinities occupied in the Bon-po Pantheon,* though we cannot say of either sectthat th
. The book of Ser Marco Polo : the Venetian concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East . says {Ibid. p. 230) that the Taoszu are called in Tibetan Bonbo and Youngdhroungpa.—H. C] X Apparently they had at their command the whole encyclopaedia of modern mentions among their sorceries the art of producing by their invocations the figures ofLao-tseu and their divinities in the air, and of making a. pencil to write answers to questions withoutanybody touching it. 326 MARCO POLO Book I. divinities occupied in the Bon-po Pantheon,* though we cannot say of either sectthat their idols are all feminine. A strong symptom of relation between the tworeligions, by the way, occurs in M. Durands account of the Bon Temple. We seethere that Sken-rabs, the great doctor of the sect, occupies a chief and central placeamong the idols. Now in the Chinese temples of the Taosse the figure of theirDoctor Lao-tseu is one member of the triad called the Three Pure Ones, whichconstitute the chief objects of worship. This very title recalls General Cunninghamsetymology of Tibetan Bacsi. [At the quarterly fair {yueh kai) of Ta-li (Yun-Nan), Mr. E. C. Baber {Travels,158-159) says : A Fakir with a praying machine, which he twirled for the salvationof the -pious at the price of a few cash, was at once recognised by us; he was ourold acquaintance, the Bakhsi, whose portrait is given in Colonel Yules Marco Polo.—H. C] {Hodgson, in/. R. A. S. XVIII. 396 seqq. ; Ann. de la Prop, de laFot, XXXVI. * It is possible that this may point to some report of the mystic impurities of the Tantrists. TheSaktidn, or Tantrists, according to the Dabistan, hold that the worship of a female divinity affords agreater recompense. (II. 155.) Chap. LXI. ASCETICS CALLED SENSIN 327 301-302, 424-427 ; E. Schlagintzveit, Ueber die Bon-pa Sekte in Tibet, in the Sitzens-berichte of the Munich Acad, for 1866, Heft I. pp. 1-12; Koeppen, II. 260; Ladak,P* 358; J- As. ser. II. torn. i. 411-412 ;
Size: 1421px × 1758px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectvoyagesandtravels
