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.

    58/772 (page 26)
    Scat/ and the scene was superbly pictnrescjue, and also hallowing, when 1 thoiiglit of the days and nights the Buddha s{)ent in lioly meditation at that very spot. Wliilst seateil t)ii the Diiiiiiond Si'iit, absurbeil In thouglitful iiKMlitation full and deop / The lunar orb, snsi)endc‘d o’or tlio tree— Tlic Sacred Bodlii tree- sbines in the sky. I wait with loiif'in^ for the inorniiif' star 'I’o rise, the witness of that moment hif^li When His Illumination fjained the Lord The I’erfeet Huddha, I’erfect Teacher Great. After it few days'stay in Buddhagaya, I took the railway- tniin for Nepal, tind a ride of it thiy find a night brought me to Saganli, on the morning of Jiinnary 26. Sagiinli is St stiition at a distance of two days’ journey from the Nep alese border. Here one bonnditry of the linguistic terri- tory of English Wits reached, and Iteyond neitlier that language nor the Tibetan tongue was of any use— one liad to speak either Hindustani or Ne])ale.se to be understood, and I knew neitlier. So it became a necessary ])art of my Tibetan adventure to sto}) a while at Saganli, and make myself master of working Nepalese. It was like forging the chain after catching a criminal. But up to then, my time had been all taken up in learning Tibetan, and 1 had had no moment to sjiare for anything else. By good fortune, however, my stay there was not to be a long one. I found the postmaster of Saganli, a BengfdT, to be proficient both in English and Nejialese. As the thing had to be done in the most exjieditious way jio.ssible, I started my work liy noting down every Nepalese word the postmaster would teach me. 'I'lie next day after my arrival at Saganli, while I was out on a walk near the station with my note-book in hand, I noticed, among those who got off a train, a comjiany of three men, one of whom was a gentleman, ajiparently of forty