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.

    60/772 (page 28)
    “ To 1^’ooshce,” I replied, realising full well that I was to go through the ordeal of an iiujnisitioii. “You speak Chinese, of course ?” then asked the gentleman. My reply in the ahirmative caused him at once to talk to me in ([uito fluent Chinese, which put me in no little consternation in secret. Com])elled hy necessity, I ventured calmly: “You must he talkingintlie official lacking dialect, while 1 can talk only in the common Fooshee tongue, and J do not understand you at all.'’ He was not to let mo oh' yet. Says he next: “ You can write in Chine.se, I sup])ose. Yes, J could, and I wrote. Some of my characters were intelligible enough to my guests, and some not, and after all it was agreed that it was best to confine ourselves to 'ribetan. As our conversation progressed, my principal guest came to the crucial j)art of the impiisition and asked : “ You say you have come from the landward .side : well, from what part of Tibet have you come ? “ In sooth, from Lhasa, sir ; I have been on a pilgrimage through Darjeeling to Buddhagaya, and from thence here, I readied. 1 was requested to say, then, in what ])art of the city of Lhasa I lived. Being in- formed that I was in the grand Sera monastery, he wanted to know if I was acquainted with an old })riest who was the Tatsang Kenpo (gi’and teacher) of that institution. 1 was bold enough to say that I was not a perfect stranger to the ])riest in (piestion, and made a right good use of what 1 had learned from Lama Shab- dung at Darjeeling. So far 1 managed to keej) up my disguise, but each moment that passed only added to my fear of being trap])ed, and compelled to give myself away. To avoid this da,nger, 1 felt it important to head off my impiisitorial visitors by dispelling their .suspicion, if they entertained any, about me. 1 was remarkably successfid in this, the information obtained from Ijania Shabdiing again doing im- excellent service. For, wlien