Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch
RASHKB and author
48
Vol. 1 (1961)
ISSN 1991-7295
and makes a kind of extract of tea. They put that into another mixer, added a good chunk of butter, some soda, and some salt, and go on pounding until they get a well-mixed soup. It is excellent provided that the butter was good to begin with.
Q: Is it true that some monks can move objects by sheer thought?
A: Marco Polo described a contest between various religious personages at the court of the Great Khan at which they were put through their paces to see who would be the best chaplain to the Crown. He chose the Tibetans because their representative could make a cup rise from the table to his mouth. That was quite a long time ago and I haven't seen it done myself, but that's the story.
Q: Is there any truth in the story of an operation to open the "third eye"?
A: None whatsoever. The book which describes it is an utter fraud. It was written by somebody who had never been out of England.
Q: Are the roofs of the Kumbum Monastery really gold?
A: Unfortunately I have never been there but I have read accounts of it, and quite obviously it is a little bit too modern. You can have dances put on for a sum of money. But I assure you that the golden roofs in Tibet proper, although they are not pure gold, are well-coated in the stuff.
Q: Is it true that Tibetans place no importance on gold and jewels, despite an abundance of them underground?
A: There are certainly some gold mines in Tibet, but nobody knows whether the resources are very great. It isn't quite true to say that they don't place any importance on gold and precious stones—they like them very much. They use them as the principal offerings in religious places. All the butter-lamps are made of gold in the holy places; the scene in the holy of holies, the cathedral in Lhasa, is quite fabulous. The main image, behind large iron-mesh curtains, is surrounded by huge gold butter lamps, all blazing with butter—a wonderful sight.
Although Tibetans used to dig for gold, it became rather an imposition, because the peasant would dig it out and then the landlord would come and say "This is my gold", so in general they stopped digging. Tibetans did not use much money of any sort—it was mostly barter.
Q: Is there capital punishment in Tibet?