Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

In The Arctic Home of the Vedas (1903), the early advocate of Indian freedom, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, added a further touch by identifying the southern migration of the Thuleans with the origin of the Aryan race.

 

Thus, many Germans in the early twentieth century believed that they were the descendants of the Aryans who had migrated south from Hyperborea-Thule and who were destined to become the master race of supermen through the power of vril. Hitler was among them.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Felix Niedner, the German translator of the Old Norse Eddas, founded the Thule Society in 1910. In 1919, the Society spawned the German Workers Party.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Soon after, Hitler was initiated into the Society and they began to train him in its methods for harnessing vril to create a race of Aryan supermen.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

In 1920, Hitler became the head of the German Workers Party, now renamed the National Socialist German Worker (Nazi) Party. In 1935 Hitler authorized Frederick Hielscher, to establish the Ahnenerbe (Bureau for the Study of Ancestral Heritage), with Colonel Wolfram von Sievers as its head. Among other functions, Hitler charged it with researching Germanic runes and the origins of the swastika, and locating the source of the Aryan race.

 

Tibet was the most promising candidate, the key to gaining the power of vril that its kindred Aryan spiritual leaders possessed...

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Next: The Way of the White Clouds

 

[Flex Mentallo]

It was in the far-western regions that Tibetans first established permanently inhabited cities. From 2,800BC this was known as the ‘heartland’, in contrast to Central Tibet which was known as the 'outer land'.

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

A succession of independent semi-feudal states developed, the most notable being the Kingdom of Guge on the banks of the Sutlej river immediately north of the main Himalaya. Founded in the 9th century Guge was the political and cultural focus for all western Tibet. It was the site of a remarkable renaissance, which saw Buddhism regain it's long lost pre-eminence in Tibetan culture.

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Sited on a minor trade route linking Tibet with Kashmir and India, ruled from the twin towns of Tholing and Tsaparang it thrived until the 17th century. Then it suddenly disappeared from history. The region was largely deserted until the early 20th Century, its great history and cultural treasures forgotten and undisturbed.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

And the astonishing cause of it’s demise was the untimely visit of a Jesuit missionary in 1624. His name was António Andrade.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

As so often with such fantastical tales, the story begins with a mysterious map - this one lost, then rediscovered a hundred years ago in Calcutta. It was part of a remarkable manuscript that contained the autobiography of a 16th-century Western missionary at the court of the Moghul emperor Akbar the Great.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

During Akbar's reign India was the centre of the civilized world. Akbar gathered scholars of all races around him, hoping to find the common basis of all religions, in order to remove the sources of religious conflict for the good of humankind. As he put it:

 

"It now becomes clear ... that it cannot be right to assert the truth of one faith above any other ... In this way we may perhaps again open the door whose key has been lost."

 

Thus in his court congregated Hindus, Yogis and Sadhus from all corners of his empire, as well as visiting Christian monks and pilgrims from western lands. Here for the first time Europeans heard tales of the semi-mythical lands beyond the Himalayas.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

One visiting Jesuit priest summarized the strange stories he heard at the court of Akbar in an essay, and sketched an accompanying map. On his map the area of Tibet is depicted as a great white blank, except for one place, labelled 'Manasarovar lacus' (Lake Manasarovar), with next to it a tantalizing scribbled note saying, 'Here it is said Christians live'.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

The priest who penned the map was too old for arduous exploration, but the map and the essay fell to his successor, a dynamic, fanatical Portuguese Jesuit missionary named António Andrade. He was galvanized by the tale, and determined to go in search of these people.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

In 1624 Andrade set out from Akbar's court, armed with the map, and at first followed yogis and wandering pilgrims on the road across the mountains. Proceeding by way of Hardwar and the gorge of the Alaknanda he reached Badrinath on the northern slopes of the Himalaya. Traveling via the rugged and nearly impassable Mana pass he was the first European to cross the Himalaya and descend into Tibet.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

"Immediately beyond this place there rise lofty mountains, behind which lies an awful desert, which is passable only during two months of the year. The journey requires twenty days. As there is an entire absence of trees and plants here, there are no human habitations, and the snowfall is almost uninterrupted; there being no fuel travellers live on roasted barley meal, which they mix with water and drink, taking with them nothing that requires fuel to cook."

Antonio del Andrade

 

Abandoned by his guides and with only two Christian companions Andrade continued northwards despite heavy snow, intense cold and problems with altitude.

 

"Our feet were frozen and swollen, so much so that we did not feel it when later on they touched a piece of red-hot iron…to this must be added a great aversion to food of any kind, and a violent thirst which could hardly be quenched by eating snow."

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Andrade and Marques arrived at Tsaparang, the capital of the Guge kingdom, in August 1624. Strategically located on the Silk Road, Tsaparang was then a thriving fortress city, but due to its unfertile land, it depended totally on imported food.

 

"From the supplies, such as corn, rice, fruit, grapes which were sent me by the king’s order I cannot but conclude that Tibet is a fertile country, but then the capital is a great exception, for it is the most barren spot I ever saw. ... The food is mainly imported, even figs, peaches and wine, and all this has to come twelve days’ journey..... On account of the sterility of the country, Kashmir merchants say that hell lies just underneath it."

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Despite the harsh environment and isolation, there is no doubt that the kingdom was flourishing. He relates that a caravan of more than 200 traders arrived carrying coarse silks and a great quantity of porcelain from China, an event which was said to happen every year.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

During this first stay Andrade was favorably regarded by the king who sent him a departure gift of 2,000 rare figs and a letter of safe conduct.

 

"...we give him full authority to teach us a holy law. ...We shall not allow anyone to molest him in this, and we shall issue orders that he be given a site and all the help needed to build a house of prayer. Moreover, we shall give no credence to any malicious accusations of the Moors against the Padres, because we know that, as they have no religion, they oppose those who follow the truth."

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Andrade stayed only twenty five days in Guge but a year later he was back in Tsaparang with a Jesuit group. On Easter day, April 12th 1626 he laid the foundation stone of the first Christian church in Tibet. The king had provided an excellent site, close to his palace, well positioned to receive the morning sun. To ensure greater privacy a road was shifted to avoid the church area.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Andrade set about establishing his mission, communicating his comments in letters back to Goa. In one of these he became the first to publish the now ubiquitous ‘Om mani padme hum’, the six-syllabled Sanskrit mantra particularly associated with Avalokiteshvara the Bodhisattva of compassion. (Mani means "jewel" or "bead" and Padma means "the lotus flower", the Buddhist sacred flower.)