his sword and killed him. This violence caused a tumult, and soon afterwards it was announced that the Guison-tamba had reappeared among the Khalkas,[1] who threatened to avenge his former death. The Emperor engaged the diplomatic interposition of the Dalai Lama, who succeeded in pacifying the Khalkas. But it was arranged that the future births of the Guison-tamba should be found in Tibet, so that the Khalkas might not again have a sympathizing fellow-countryman as their high-priest.
The present seat of the Taranath Lama, in the Khalka country, is an immense monastery, with more than ten thousand monks, at Urga Kuren, on the Tula river, a description of which is given by the Abbé Huc,[2] who visited the place. There is now a Russian Consul permanently resident at Urga.
Thus there are three great and influential incarnations of the Yellow sect: the Dalai Lama, the Teshu Lama, and the Taranath Lama. The latter is alluded to several times by Mr. Bogle,[3] and also by Captain Turner.[4] A fourth may probably be added, in the person of the Changay Lama or High Priest of Peking, mentioned by Bogle.[5]
- ↑ This name is derived from the river Khalka. It came into use when the Mongol or Yuen dynasty of China was driven from the throne in 1368, and found a new home on the banks of the Khalka (De Guigne's 'Hist. des Huns,' iii. p. 234). These princes, descended from Jingis Khan, through Kublai Khan, who founded the Yuen dynasty in 1279, are now represented by the Khans of Tuchetu, Sannoin, Tsetsen, and Sassaktu, who rule over the four Khalka Khanates in outer Mongolia, near the Russian frontier, under the Emperor of China.
- ↑ The Abbé Huc met one of the new births of the Guison-tamba (Taranath) journeying from Urga to Lhasa, in 1844. In the 'Geographical Magazine' for April, 1874, there is a notice of an itinerary from Lhasa to Urga, giving the route taken by the Urga Khutuktu, or Taranath Lama, collected by M. Shishmaroff, the Bussian Consul at Urga. Again, in the 'Geographical Magazine' for March, 1875, an account is quoted from the 'Journal de St. Petersburg' of the journey of another new birth of the Taranath Lama (or Urga Khutuktu) from Lhasa to Urga. See, for the journey of the eighth Guison-tamba from Lhasa to Urga, the 'Peking Gazette ' for 1874, pp. 68, 74, and 124 (Shanghai, 1875).
- ↑ See pp. 98, 110, and 134.
- ↑ See Turner, p. 273, where he mentions the intercourse between the Taranath and the Russian Government; and pp. 279 and 314.
- ↑ See p. 130.
