This High Priest Is Said To Have The Magic Power Of
Attracting Cups And Plates To Him From A Distance, So That Things Fly
Through The Air Into His Hands." (MS.
Note.
- H. Y.)
The profession and practice of exorcism and magic in general is greatly
more prominent in Lamaism or Tibetan Buddhism than in any other known form
of that religion. Indeed, the old form of Lamaism as it existed in our
traveller's day, and till the reforms of Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), and as it
is still professed by the Red sect in Tibet, seems to be a kind of
compromise between Indian Buddhism and the old indigenous Shamanism. Even
the reformed doctrine of the Yellow sect recognises an orthodox kind of
magic, which is due in great measure to the combination of Sivaism with
the Buddhist doctrines, and of which the institutes are contained in the
vast collection of the Jud or Tantras, recognised among the holy books.
The magic arts of this code open even a short road to the Buddhahood
itself. To attain that perfection of power and wisdom, culminating in the
cessation of sensible existence, requires, according to the ordinary
paths, a period of three asankhyas (or say Uncountable Time x 3),
whereas by means of the magic arts of the Tantras it may be reached in
the course of three rebirths only, nay, of one! But from the Tantras
also can be learned how to acquire miraculous powers for objects entirely
selfish and secular, and how to exercise these by means of Dharani or
mystic Indian charms.
Still the orthodox Yellow Lamas professedly repudiate and despise the
grosser exhibitions of common magic and charlatanism which the Reds still
practise, such as knife-swallowing, blowing fire, cutting off their own
heads, etc. But as the vulgar will not dispense with these marvels, every
great orthodox monastery in Tibet keeps a conjuror, who is a member of
the unreformed, and does not belong to the brotherhood of the convent, but
lives in a particular part of it, bearing the name of Choichong, or
protector of religion, and is allowed to marry. The magic of these
Choichong is in theory and practice different from the orthodox Tantrist
magic. The practitioners possess no literature, and hand down their
mysteries only by tradition. Their fantastic equipments, their frantic
bearing, and their cries and howls, seem to identify them with the
grossest Shamanist devil dancers.
Sanang Setzen enumerates a variety of the wonderful acts which could be
performed through the Dharani. Such were, sticking a peg into solid
rock; restoring the dead to life; turning a dead body into gold;
penetrating everywhere as air does; flying; catching wild beasts with the
hand; reading thoughts; making water flow backwards; eating tiles; sitting
in the air with the legs doubled under, etc. Some of these are precisely
the powers ascribed to Medea, Empedocles, and Simon Magus, in passages
already cited. Friar Ricold says on this subject: "There are certain men
whom the Tartars honour above all in the world, viz. the Baxitae (i.e.
Bakhshis), who are a kind of idol-priests. These are men from India,
persons of deep wisdom, well-conducted, and of the gravest morals. They
are usually acquainted with magic arts, and depend on the counsel and aid
of demons; they exhibit many illusions, and predict some future events.
For instance, one of eminence among them was said to fly; the truth,
however, was (as it proved), that he did not fly, but did walk close to
the surface of the ground without touching it; and would seem to sit down
without having any substance to support him." This last performance was
witnessed by Ibn Batuta at Delhi, in the presence of Sultan Mahomed
Tughlak; and it was professedly exhibited by a Brahmin at Madras in the
present century, a descendant doubtless of those Brahmans whom Apollonius
saw walking two cubits from the ground. It is also described by the worthy
Francis Valentyn as a performance known and practised in his own day in
India. It is related, he says, that "a man will first go and sit on three
sticks put together so as to form a tripod; after which, first one stick,
then a second, then the third shall be removed from under him, and the man
shall not fall but shall still remain sitting in the air! Yet I have
spoken with two friends who had seen this at one and the same time; and
one of them, I may add, mistrusting his own eyes, had taken the trouble to
feel about with a long stick if there were nothing on which the body
rested; yet, as the gentleman told me, he could neither feel nor see any
such thing. Still, I could only say that I could not believe it, as a
thing too manifestly contrary to reason."
Akin to these performances, though exhibited by professed jugglers without
claim to religious character, is a class of feats which might be regarded
as simply inventions if told by one author only, but which seem to deserve
prominent notice from their being recounted by a series of authors,
certainly independent of one another, and writing at long intervals of
time and place. Our first witness is Ibn Batuta, and it will be necessary
to quote him as well as the others in full, in order to show how closely
their evidence tallies. The Arab Traveller was present at a great
entertainment at the Court of the Viceroy of Khansa (Kinsay of Polo, or
Hang-chau fu): "That same night a juggler, who was one of the Kan's
slaves, made his appearance, and the Amir said to him, 'Come and show us
some of your marvels.' Upon this he took a wooden ball, with several holes
in it, through which long thongs were passed, and, laying hold of one of
these, slung it into the air. It went so high that we lost sight of it
altogether.
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