In the Potala

A wispy sickle moon slid through the heavens over Peiping one night last week, eclipsed the planets Saturn and Venus, left them glowing balefully red. To some yellow-robed Buddhist monks conducting sombre ritual in Peiping's ancient, dilapidated Lama Temple, the eclipse was an ominous portent. They twirled their prayer-wheels uneasily, muttering the potent Buddhist charm: Om mani padme hum ("Hail to the jewel in the lotus flower"). Three nights before, some 1,000 miles to the southwest of Peiping, the great Dalai Lama, Venerable Ocean Treasure and Jewel of Majesty, had gone to his Nirvana, aged 60, in the Potala, his massive fortress-palace in Lhasa high on the bleak plateau of Tibet. Dead, some said, of poisoning, was the 13th reincarnation of Buddha, absolute ruler of Tibet and of many a Buddhist elsewhere, Ah-Wang-Lo-Pu-Tsang-To-Pu-Tan -Chia-Ta-Chi-Chai- Wang-Chu-Chueh-Le-Lang-Chieh, otherwise known as Ngag-Wang Lobsang Thubden Gya-Tsho. From Buddhists who traveled up from India in the 7th Century, over torrential rivers and through snow-swept passes of the Himalayas, the Tibetans adopted their faith--Lamaism. A powerful hierarchy grew up, with lamas (monks), priests, metropolitans, abbots, hutukhtus (saints). With a graded priesthood and a liturgy which included vestments, chants and prayers, Lamaism came to resemble a caricatured Catholicism, remembered perhaps from the teachings of wandering heretic Nestorians. In the 15th Century, through a shift in its priesthood which brought in a "Yellow" or reformed sect, Lamaism acquired a theocratic and infallible rule, divided between two men who both were Buddhas incarnate. One was the mighty Dalai Lama, temporal ruler of Tibet, master of the Potala fortress, incarnation of the ancestor of all Tibetans, the "Buddha of Mercy." The other was the spiritual ruler, the Panchen Lama, resident at Tashilunpo Monastery eight days distant by caravan, the 'Buddha of Boundless Light." The succession of the Panchen and Dalai Lamas was determined by the Tibetan hierarchy. Upon the death of either Lama his spirit immediately found residence in the body of some small Tibetan moppet, of high family or low. Omens and portents would indicate to priests and monks which child was to be the next Living Buddha. In preparation for taking office upon reaching his majority, the new Living B, Idha would be trained in a monastery. His family would immediately be raised to high rank, cared for by the State. In the case of the Dalai Lama, the method of choice was to confront the infant candidates with trinkets and toys among which were placed relics made holy by the previous Living Buddha. The child who touched a relic became the Dalai Lama. But no such method was used when, half a century ago, a Dalai Lama died. Instead, the abbot of the Golden Monastery picked a new one merely by beholding, in a chill Tibetan lake, a vision of the birthplace, parents and person of the child Ngag-Wang Lobsang Thubden Gya-Tsho. Taking office in 1893, this Dalai Lama distinguished himself in other ways. Previously all his predecessors in modern times had died mysteriously before reaching majority--a fact not surprising since a common figure in Tibet and Mongolia is the sinister Tzuren or poison-doctor who practices his art to keep the "ins" in, the "outs" out. That the Dalai Lama escaped the Tzuren until he was 60 (if he were poisoned at all) was in itself an achievement. For centuries Lhasa was called the "Forbidden City," visited only by a few resolute explorers and missionaries. But the late Dalai Lama, pockmarked, bullet-headed, snaky-mustached, was a shrewd ruler with some modern tastes. His agile mind relished intrigue as much as his slim fingers enjoyed the feel of the coat of his favorite pet, a tiger. In his early youth the Dalai Lama toyed with Russia, which long had dreamed of nudging India from the north. When, in 1904, a British mission headed by Colonel (later Sir) Francis Edward Younghusband entered Tibet suitably armed, the Dalai Lama fled with his court into Mongolia, eventually reaching Peiping. His cold reception there turned him irrevocably against China, nominally Tibet's sovereign. He returned to Tibet which was now opened to trade with India. For a time he lived quietly, sleeping between his white satin sheets, eating off his plates of gold. In 1909 the Chinese entered Tibet, forcing the Dalai Lama to flee once more, this time to India where, kindly treated, he bided his time before returning to drive the Chinese out and let England's influence be established. Because Tibetans believe that the "Gods of Everest" are jealous and vengeful, the Dalai Lama was always reluctant to permit explorers to attempt the world's highest peak. An expedition in 1924 in which 13 climbers were killed had, in his belief, ''upset the Gods for eight years.' After the Clydesdale-Blacker-Mclntyre flight over Everest last spring, there followed an especially bad summer for Tibet. Last fortnight, just before his death, the Dalai Lama informed Britain that attempts on Everest must be abandoned.

To be absolute ruler of 3,000,000 Tibetans, master of fabulous hordes of gold and jewels and a potentate whose every move was watched by China, Russia, England was not enough for Ngag-Wang Lobsang Thubden Gya-Tsho. Recalling the unprecedented circumstances of his accession, he decided he was right fully the Panchen Lama as well. Some Tibetan hierarchs agreed and in 1924 the Dalai Lama took both posts. Ousted, to wander in China, Mongolia and Man churia, was the Panchen Lama, a good little roundheaded, round-bellied man whom many a devout Buddhist continued to regard as divine. So great, in fact, was the Panchen Lama's influence outside Tibet that in 1931, while the Dalai Lama was riding about Lhasa in his first auto mobile, the Panchen Lama was riding about Manchuria in a bright yellow rail road car, expounding a united China for the Nationalist Government which paid him $480,000 a year and gave him the title of "Great Wise Priest Who Guards The Nation and Spreads Culture." Last week the paunchy Panchen Lama was in Inner Mongolia. When the good news of the Dalai Lama's death reached him he at once set out for Peiping, where his advisers hoped he would announce his intention to try again for his old post. Tibetan troops last week were again in vading China. The Panchen Lama's candidacy became China's chance of quiet ing them, of establishing Chinese control in Tibet. But Russia was watching Tibet, and so was Britain. While the monks in Peiping muttered their prayers last week, in Lhasa nothing was done to pick a successor to the Dalai Lama. The monks explained that the portents were not yet right.

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