Three years in Tibet : with the original Japanese illustrations / by the Shramana Ekai Kawaguchi.

  • Ekai Kawaguchi
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Three years in Tibet : with the original Japanese illustrations / by the Shramana Ekai Kawaguchi. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    39/772 (page 13)
    A year in Darjeelinj^. It was just after the great earthquake iii Assaiiq India, that I arrived in Darjeeling, and, as I could see from a large nnmher of entirely collapsed and partly destroyed houses, this latter place also had had its share of the seismic disturbances. As for the vSarat Villa, it too had suffered more or less, and repair was already in progress. For all that, I was received there with a Avhole-hearted welcome. An evening’s talk was sufficient, however, to make my inteiltions clear to rny kind host, and, as my time was precious, Rai Sarat took me out, the very next day after my arrival, to a temple called Ghoompahl, Avhere I was introduced to an aged Mongolian priest, Avho lived there and was renowned for his scholarly attainments and also as a teacher of the Tibetan language. The priest was then seventy-eight j'ears of age, and his name, which Avas 8erab Gyamtso (Ocean of KnoAvledge), happened by a curious co- incidence to mean in the Tibetan tongue the same thing as my own name Ekai meant. ’Phis discovery, at our first meeting, greatly pleased my Tibetan tutor, as the old priest was thenceforth to be. Our talk )iaturally devolved upon Buddhism, but the conversation ])roved to be a rather aAvk- Avard affair, for though Rai Sarat kindly acted the part of an interpreter for us, it had to be carried on, on my part, in Amry rudimentary English. As it Avas, the first day of luy tutelage ended in my making the acquaintance of the’Tibetan alphabet, and from that time oiiAvard, I became a regular attendant at the temple, daily Avalking three miles from and back to the Sarat mansion. One day, about a month after this, Rai Sarat had me in his room and spoke to me thus : “ Well, Mr. KaAvaguchi, I Avould advise you to give