OUR ambassadors, upon their coming into the town, went directly to the chief pagoda,
several lamas coming to receive them and to conduct them across the square court, quite
large and well paved with square tiles, to the pagoda, where was one of their chiefs. He
was one of those whom the impostors say never die. They affirm that when his soul is
separated from his body, it immediately enters into that of a newborn child. The
veneration which the Tartars have for these impostors is incredible, even worshiping them
as gods upon earth. I was witness of this respect which our ambassador and a part of his
retinue, particularly the Mongols, paid him. The person who then pretended to be thus
brought again into life was a young man about twenty-five years old. His face was very
long and rather flat. He was seated under a canopy at the farther end of the pagoda upon
two cushions, one of brocade and the other of yellow satin. A large mantle of the finest
Chinese yellow damask covered his body from head to foot, so that nothing of him could be
seen but his head, which was quite bare.
His hair was curled, his gown edged with a sort of parti-colored silk lace, four or
five fingers broad, much as our church copes are, and which the mantle of this lama was
not much unlike. All the civility which he showed the ambassadors was to rise from his
seat when they appeared in the pagoda and to continue standing the whole time he received
their compliments, or rather adoration.
The ceremonial was as follows: The ambassadors, when they were five or six paces
distant from the lama, first veiled their bonnets to the very ground, then prostrated
themselves thrice, striking the ground with their foreheads. After this adoration, they
went one after the other to kneel at his feet. The lama put his hands upon their heads and
made them touch his bead-roll, or string of beads. After this, the ambassadors retired and
made the same adoration a second time; then they went to sit down under canopies got ready
on each side. The counterfeit god being first seated, the ambassadors took their places,
one on his right hand, and the other on his left, some of the most considerable mandarins
seating themselves next to them. When they had sat down, the people of their retinue came
also to pay their adoration, to receive the imposition of hands, and to touch the
bead-roll; but there were not many there who had this respect shown them.
In the mean time there was Tartarian tea brought in large silver pots, with a special
one for this pretended immortal carried by a lama, who poured it out for him into a fine
china cup, which he reached himself from a silver stand that was placed near him. The
motion he at that time used opened his mantle, and I observed that his arms were naked up
to the shoulders, and that he had no other clothes under his mantle but red and yellow
scarfs, which were wrapped round his body. He was always served first. The ambassadors
saluted him by bowing the head both before and after drinking tea, according to the custom
of the Tartars; but he did not make the least motion in return to their civility.
A little after, a collation was served up, a table being first set before this living
idol; then one was set before each of the ambassadors, and the mandarin who attended them.
Père Pereira and I had also the same honor done us. There were upon these tables dishes
of certain wretched dried fruits and a sort of long thin cakes made of flour and oil,
which had a very strong smell. After this collation, which I had no inclination to taste
of, but with which our Tartars and their attendants were very well entertained, tea was
brought a second time. A little after the same tables were brought covered with meat and
rice. There was upon each table a large dish of beef and mutton half dressed, a china dish
full of rice---very white and clean---and another of broth, and some salt dissolved in
water and vinegar. The same sort of meat was set before the attendants of the ambassadors
who sat behind us. What surprised me was to see the Great Mandarin devour this meat, which
was half dressed, cold, and so hard that, having put a piece into my mouth only to taste
it, I was forced to turn it out again.
But there was none played their part so well as two Kalkas Tartars who came in whilst
we were at table. Having paid the adoration to and received the imposition of hands from
the living idol, they fell upon one of these dishes of meat with a surprising appetite,
each of them taking a piece of flesh in one hand and his knife in the other, and cutting
unusually large slices, after which they dipped them in the salt and water, and swallowed
them down.
All being taken away, tea was brought once more, after which there was quite a long
conversation, the living idol keeping his countenance very well. I don't think that during
the whole time we were there he spoke more than five or six words, and that very low and
only in answer to some questions which the ambassador asked him. He kept continually
turning his eyes around and staring very earnestly on each side, and sometimes smiling.
There was another lama seated near one of the ambassadors who kept up the conversation,
probably because he was the superior, for all the other lamas who waited at table as well
as the servants, receive orders from him.
After a short conversation, the ambassadors arose and went about the pagoda to take a
view of the paintings, which are very coarse after the manner of the Chinese. There is not
a statue in it as in other pagodas, only figures of the deities painted on the walls. At
the bottom of the pagoda there is a throne, or sort of altar, upon which the living idol
is placed, having over his head a canopy of yellow silk; and here he receives the
adoration of the people. On the sides there are several lamps though we saw but one
lighted. Going out of the pagoda we went upstairs, where we found a wretched gallery with
chambers on all sides of it. In one of them there was a child of seven or eight years old,
dressed and seated as a living idol, with a lamp burning by him. It was probable this
child was designed one time or other to succeed the present idol, for these deceivers have
always one ready to substitute in the place of another in case of death, and feed the
stupidity of the Tartars with this extravagant notion that the idol comes to life and
appears again in the body of a young man into whom his soul passed. This is the reason for
their so great veneration for the lamas, whom they not only implicitly obey in all their
commands, but make them an offering of the best of everything they have; and therefore
some of the Mongols of the ambassadors' retinue paid the same adoration to this child as
they had done to the other lama. This child did not make the least motion nor speak one
single word. We found also in another chamber a lama singing his prayers, written upon
leaves of coarse brown paper.
When our curiosity was satisfied, our ambassadors took leave of this impostor, who
neither stirred from his seat nor paid them the least civility, after which they went to
another pagoda to visit another living idol, who came to meet them the day before; but
Père Pereira and I returned to the camp.
