DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.649#0210
174 THE TIBETAN I'RIESTIIOOD.
/tin
the gown, hang a knife-case and several purses or little
pockets containing various articles, such as a tooth-brush,
a tongue-scraper and an ear-pick, steel and ^tinder,
tabacco or betel-nut, dice used in foretelling future events;
a prayer-cylinder and a Chinese metal pipe are also
almost always to be found among the articles fastened
to it,
The rosaries, in Tibetan Thengpa, indispensable in-
struments for counting the due number of prayers, are
generally fastened to the girdle, or sometimes worn round
the neck.1 The bpads amount to 108, which answer to
the number of the volumes of the Kanjur; but most of
those used by the lay population have a much smaller
number of beads, about thirty to forty. The beads are
of wood, pebbles, or bones of holy Lamas; the latter
have a very high price; the rosaries of the head Lamas
are not unfrequently of precious stones, particularly of
nephrite (the Turkistani Yashem) and of turquoise. To
most rosaries are fastened a pair o^piuehers, needles, an
ear-pick, and a small Dorje.?
The amulet-boxes, in Tibetan Gau (in the Lepcha
language of Sikkim Koro, and Kandum, if of wood), are
likewise worn round the neck; and it is not unfrequent
to see several fastened to the same ptnng. Most of the
1 Compare Pallas, "Reisen," Vol. I., p. 563. Turner, "Embassy," pp. 261,
336. I. J. Schmidt, " Forschungen," p. 168. While travelling the Lamas are
loaded with many other objects. See Hooker, "Himalayan Journals," Vol. II.,
p. 142.
2 Pinchers are in use even amongst the rudest tribes, who go almost
naked; for they need them to draw out thorns. I add as another instance
of the ancient use of pinchers, that we have found them also in the oldest
graves in the Franeonian Hills, in Bavaria.
/tin
the gown, hang a knife-case and several purses or little
pockets containing various articles, such as a tooth-brush,
a tongue-scraper and an ear-pick, steel and ^tinder,
tabacco or betel-nut, dice used in foretelling future events;
a prayer-cylinder and a Chinese metal pipe are also
almost always to be found among the articles fastened
to it,
The rosaries, in Tibetan Thengpa, indispensable in-
struments for counting the due number of prayers, are
generally fastened to the girdle, or sometimes worn round
the neck.1 The bpads amount to 108, which answer to
the number of the volumes of the Kanjur; but most of
those used by the lay population have a much smaller
number of beads, about thirty to forty. The beads are
of wood, pebbles, or bones of holy Lamas; the latter
have a very high price; the rosaries of the head Lamas
are not unfrequently of precious stones, particularly of
nephrite (the Turkistani Yashem) and of turquoise. To
most rosaries are fastened a pair o^piuehers, needles, an
ear-pick, and a small Dorje.?
The amulet-boxes, in Tibetan Gau (in the Lepcha
language of Sikkim Koro, and Kandum, if of wood), are
likewise worn round the neck; and it is not unfrequent
to see several fastened to the same ptnng. Most of the
1 Compare Pallas, "Reisen," Vol. I., p. 563. Turner, "Embassy," pp. 261,
336. I. J. Schmidt, " Forschungen," p. 168. While travelling the Lamas are
loaded with many other objects. See Hooker, "Himalayan Journals," Vol. II.,
p. 142.
2 Pinchers are in use even amongst the rudest tribes, who go almost
naked; for they need them to draw out thorns. I add as another instance
of the ancient use of pinchers, that we have found them also in the oldest
graves in the Franeonian Hills, in Bavaria.