As To Their Dress,
Our Lama Said That They Had No Particular Colour Of Garments, But Their
Priests Frequently Wore Red Clothes, As Some Sects Of The Buddhist
Priesthood Do.
Mr. Heyde, however, once on a journey in our neighbouring
county of Langskar, saw a man clothed in black with blue borders, who
the people said was a Bonpo."
[Mr. Rockhill (Journey , 63) saw at Kao miao-tzu "a red-gowned,
long-haired Boenbo Lama," and at Kumbum (p. 68), "was surprised to see quite
a large number of Boenbo Lamas, recognisable by their huge mops of hair and
their red gowns, and also from their being dirtier than the ordinary run
of people." - H. C.]
The identity of the Bonpo and Taosse seems to have been accepted by Csoma
de Koroes, who identifies the Chinese founder of the latter, Lao-tseu, with
the Shen-rabs of the Tibetan Bonpos. Klaproth also says, "Bhonbp'o,
Bhanpo, and Shen, are the names by which are commonly designated (in
Tibetan) the Taoszu, or follower of the Chinese philosopher Laotseu."[11]
Schlagintweit refers to Schmidt's Tibetan Grammar (p. 209) and to the
Calcutta edition of the Fo-koue-ki (p. 218) for the like identification,
but I do not know how far any two of these are independent testimonies.
General Cunningham, however, fully accepts the identity, and writes to me:
"Fahian (ch. xxiii.) calls the heretics who assembled at Ramagrama
Taosse,[12] thus identifying them with the Chinese Finitimists. The
Taosse are, therefore, the same as the Swastikas, or worshippers of the
mystic cross Swasti, who are also Tirthakaras, or 'Pure-doers.' The
synonymous word Punya is probably the origin of Pon or Bon, the
Tibetan Finitimists. From the same word comes the Burmese P'ungyi or
Pungi." I may add that the Chinese envoy to Cambodia in 1296, whose
narrative Remusat has translated, describes a sect which he encountered
there, apparently Brahminical, as Taosse. And even if the Bonpo and the
Taosse were not fundamentally identical, it is extremely probable that the
Tibetan and Mongol Buddhists should have applied to them one name and
character. Each played towards them the same part in Tibet and in China
respectively; both were heretic sects and hated rivals; both made high
pretensions to asceticism and supernatural powers; both, I think we see
reason to believe, affected the dark clothing which Polo assigns to the
Sensin; both, we may add, had "great idols and plenty of them." We have
seen in the account of the Taosse the ground that certain of their
ceremonies afford for the allegation that they "sometimes also worship
fire," whilst the whole account of that rite and of others mentioned by
Duhalde,[13] shows what a powerful element of the old devil-dancing
Shamanism there is in their practice. The French Jesuit, on the other
hand, shows us what a prominent place female divinities occupied in the
Bon-po Pantheon,[14] though we cannot say of either sect that "their idols
are all feminine." A strong symptom of relation between the two religions,
by the way, occurs in M. Durand's account of the Bon Temple.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 529 of 655
Words from 276237 to 276758
of 342071
