ABSTRACT
In Thibet there are two kinds of monks. The first class, whose superior is the Grand Lamà of Potalà, wear a yellow cap. The second class wear a red cap and also acknowledge the said Grand Lamà as supreme head of their sect and religion, but regard the Lamà who lives on the mountain in the province of Thakpò as their immediate superior. The monks with yellow caps are dedicated to Sciakkià Thubbà whom they revere as the founder of their class; those with red caps, while venerating Sciakkiá Thubbà as a legislator, are more devoted to Urghien, who they assert was the founder of their class, and whom they worship with a special ritual differing from that of the other monks. 14 Although there are fewer of these monks they are held in higher esteem and honour in Thibet than those of the yellow caps, perhaps because they are more retiring or because they appear to have a higher morality. The envy and intense hatred with which they are regarded by the monks of the first class is not to be described; the persecution was so great as to cause the ruin and almost the destruction not only of the monks of the second class, but of the it would be necessary to repeat the terrible catastrophes I have already described ( Book II, Chapters X to XII ), so I will only add that the origin of all the disasters was the envy and hatred the monks of the yellow caps bore against those of the red. The tyrannical execrable usurper of the Kingdom of Thibet, Çe-ring-ton-drup, was a monk of the first class and studied in the great Monastery-University of Giegazzé. The two principal commanders and nearly all the soldiers of his army were also monks of the yellow cap and, as I said before, no sooner did they approach Lhasá than from the monasteries of Será, Breêbung and others the monks rushed out armed, carrying arms and ammunitions to those barbarous enemies of their fatherland. But the deluded Thibettans soon discovered that the statement that they had delivered the Grand Lamà from his prison in China and were bringing him to his palace of Potalà was only a pretext to be able to vent their hatred on the monks of the red cap. So little did the former care about the Grand Lamà, that when the Chinese army entered Thibet escorting him, those deceitful wolves attacked them. Indeed, from the first of December, 1717, until the end of October, 1720, they ill-treated and murdered the monks of the second class and all who had dealings with them. Many of their monasteries were sacked and destroyed, the richest and most honoured Lamàs were killed, while others fled deprived of everything, and sought refuge in caverns. Overcome by compassion and moved to tears I helped the poor fugitive Lamà of Lungar to escape from his persecutors. He was, as I have said, one of the married Lamàs; a fat man, very courteous and kindly by nature, lord of an extensive fief, very rich and powerful because of his relationship with many great families, and universally loved and respected. We were great friends, and when I spent two years in the province of Thakpò, he often invited me to pass two or three days with him, and always wanted to give me presents, especially gold. My refusal of his offer almost broke our friendship until he heard that I had in like manner refused to accept presents from other friends, great personages, or even from the King.
