to have felt indebtedness to this man, who, to quote the words in his letter to the Dalai:—"In undertaking a journey of 20,000 li, to contribute to the celebrity of my 'Wan-shou' did more than sufficient to entitle him to all the distinctions that could evince my sense of his kindness; but the air of satisfaction and pleasure, which diffused itself on all around him, and which he himself manifested whenever he was admitted to my presence, impressed on my mind one of the most exquisite gratifications it ever felt".................... Unfortunately, in a very short while, however, the Teshoo Lama was taken with small pox, which in those days was the scourge and great dread of China and Tibet. The Dalai Lama, who visited Peking during Shun Chih's time seems to have shared the general dread of the disease, and acted very wisely in taking an early departure from Peking. (達賴喇嘛奏此地水土不宜身既病從人並病請告歸) as reported in the 東華錄一)
In spite of all available medical assistance, and though the Imperial Princes and the Emperor himself frequently visited his bedside, and in spite of the munificent charities bestowed on his behalf upon the poor, the holy man could not escape his destiny. "He returned from this perishable world to the everlasting mansions" (according to the words of Changoo Cooshoo to Warren Hastings) on the first day of the month of Rujjub, in the year of the Hegira 1194." This would be the 5th July, 1780. According to the letter of the Emperor to the Dalai Lama and the text of the inscription, however, his death occurred on the day of the Fire and Rat (2nd day) of the 11th moon, which is about December of that year.
