Page 334 - The Secret Museum

better preserved example of a Tibetan abbot’s costume from the same era; however it

might one day be included in future shows about Tibetan clothes. The costume I saw
is most interesting because of its story, and there isn’t room to tell that story on a
small museum card.

It belonged to the last abbot of Tengye Ling monastery in Lhasa. This was quite an
important monastery in Tibet, because it was the one from which the regents of Tibet
were chosen.

The regents ruled Tibet in between Dalai Lamas, while the next reincarnation of
the Dalai Lama was being found to take over from where he had left off in his
previous lifetime. The regents were also reincarnated, but they were easier to find, as

they tended to turn up in this particular monastery in Lhasa. The abbot of the
monastery who owned this costume had been regent until the 13th Dalai Lama was
appointed.

The 13th Dalai Lama’s name was Thubten Gyatso. He was enthroned at the Potala
Palace in Lhasa in 1879 aged 19, and so became the temporal and spiritual ruler of
the Tibetans. The ruling Chinese Qing officials were not happy, however. The
previous Dalai Lamas, from the fifth until Thubten Gyatso, had all mysteriously died
before they reached the age to take the throne. However, the 13th had survived, and

was a strong, healthy and energetic young man. A Chinese official was quoted as
saying, ‘Affairs had been managed very badly,’ in the case of Thubten Gyatso. What
could they do?

Their solution, some speculate, was to ask the abbot who owned this costume,
Demo Rinpoche, to try to bump him off.

The abbot sewed evil charms into the soles of a pair of boots very similar to the
ones in storage at the museum today and gave them to Terton Sogyal – a close
confidant of the Dalai Lama, who was very spiritually accomplished, especially in
relation to Shinge, the Lord of Death. The abbot thought this would bring them close
enough to the Dalai Lama – the boots would walk in the same rooms as him each day.

Then he waited for the hidden charms to work their dark magic.

Sure enough, the Dalai Lama began feeling terribly ill. He consulted an oracle.
The oracle said that there was a plot on his life. A pair of boots was to blame. An
investigation was made and Terton Sogyal said that the abbot had given him a new
pair of boots as a gift and, funnily enough, every time he wore them he got a
nosebleed.

The boots were torn open and inside one of the soles was a scrap of paper with
the Dalai Lama’s name on it and a black magic symbol. These were the deadly
charms that were casting a spell on the Dalai Lama.

The abbot, his brother, his minister, his wife and their associates were arrested,
and the National Assembly sentenced them to death. Of course, this was a step too far
for the benevolent 13th Dalai Lama, so, instead, he had them punished. Each of them