Chenrezig statue in Lamayuru Monastery, Ladakh, India
Identifier: beyondpirpanjal00neve (find matches)
Title: Beyond the Pir Panjal; life among the mountains and valleys of Kashmir
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Neve, Ernest Frederic, 1861-
Subjects: Kashmir Missions, Medical Mountaineering
Publisher: London T.F. Unwin
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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s of the passages of the Lamoyoromonastery, and especially near the chief gateways, are theprayer cylinders, from one and a half to two feet high, eachrevolving on a pivot. These boxes either have a prayerpainted on them outside or an opening into which a prayersheet can be thrust, f. vThe monks as they pass set them inmotion. A certain number are kept constantly revolvingby water power or wind—a curiously mechanical and de-graded idea of prayer. The sacred text, Om mane padmehon, is also stamped on pieces of paper or white and yellowcotton cloth and hung up on poles. The Lamoyoro monasteryis one of the most important in Ladakh and is said to havebeen originallyl a Bonpo Lamaserai. In olden times thereligion of the Tibetans was the so-called Bon Chos. WhenBuddhism was introduced the original Tibetan religionunderwent certain modifications. Monasteries were foundedand the names of various spirits were tabulated. Accordingto Francke, the main features of this religion were the follow-
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32. IMAGE OF CHUNREZIG. (Interior of temple at Lamoyoro.) To face p. 180 A GLIMPSE OF KASHMIRI TIBET 181 ing: The world consists of three great realms, the land ofthe gods, or heaven, which is of white colour; the land of men,or the earth, of red colour; and the land of the water spirits orlower world, of blue colour. There is a king reigning inheaven as well as in the under world, but the greatest poweron the earth is the earth mother. There is a huge tree, thetree of the world, growing through all the three realms. Ithas its roots in the under world and its highest branches inheaven. The king of heaven is asked to send one of his sonsas king to the earth, and around the story of the mission ofthe youngest son of the king of heaven to the earth, thenational epic of Tibet in general, and Western Tibet in par-ticular, has grown up. In 900 a.d. the leader of the Bon Chos was Langdarma.He carried on a campaign against Buddhism, with bitterirony, compelling many of the monks to become hun

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