have you ever seen the dusty cobwebs and the mould in the cellarsof some ancient castle in italy, france or england? this is thedust of centuries. perhaps it touched the faces, helmets andswords of a roman augustus, st. louis, the inquisitor, galileo orking richard. your heart is involuntarily contracted and you feela respect for these witnesses of elapsed ages. this sameimpression came to me in ta kure, perhaps more deep, morerealistic. here life flows on almost as it flowed eight centuriesago; here man lives only in the past; and the contemporary onlycomplicates and prevents the normal life.

"today is a great day," the living buddha once said to me, "the dayof the victory of buddhism over all other religions. it was a longtime ago--on this day kublai khan called to him the lamas of allreligions and ordered them to state to him how and what theybelieved. they praised their gods and their hutuktus. discussionsand quarrels began. only one lama remained silent. at last hemockingly smiled and said:

"'great emperor! order each to prove the power of his gods by theperformance of a miracle and afterwards judge and choose.'

"kublai khan so ordered all the lamas to show him a miracle but allwere silent, confused and powerless before him.

"'now,' said the emperor, addressing the lama who had tendered thissuggestion, 'now you must prove the power of your gods!'

"the lama looked long and silently at the emperor, turned and gazedat the whole assembly and then quietly stretched out his handtoward them. at this instant the golden goblet of the emperorraised itself from the table and tipped before the lips of the khanwithout a visible hand supporting it. the emperor felt the delightof a fragrant wine. all were struck with astonishment and theemperor spoke:

"'i elect to pray to your gods and to them all people subject to memust pray. what is your faith? who are you and from where do youcome?'

"'my faith is the teaching of the wise buddha. i am pandita lama,turjo gamba, from the distant and glorious monastery of sakkia intibet, where dwells incarnate in a human body the spirit of buddha,his wisdom and his power. remember, emperor, that the peoples whohold our faith shall possess all the western universe and duringeight hundred and eleven years shall spread their faith throughoutthe whole world.'

"thus it happened on this same day many centuries ago! lama turjogamba did not return to tibet but lived here in ta kure, wherethere was then only a small temple. from here he traveled to theemperor at karakorum and afterwards with him to the capital ofchina to fortify him in the faith, to predict the fate of stateaffairs and to enlighten him according to the will of god."the living buddha was silent for a time, whispered a prayer andthen continued:

"urga, the ancient nest of buddhism. . . . with jenghiz khan onhis european conquest went out the olets or kalmucks. theyremained there almost four hundred years, living on the plains ofrussia. then they returned to mongolia because the yellow lamascalled them to light against the kings of tibet, lamas of the 'redcaps,' who were oppressing the people. the kalmucks helped theyellow faith but they realized that lhasa was too distant from thewhole world and could not spread our faith throughout the earth.

consequently the kalmuck gushi khan brought up from tibet a holylama, undur gheghen, who had visited the 'king of the world.' fromthat day the bogdo gheghen has continuously lived in urga, aprotector of the freedom of mongolia and of the chinese emperors ofmongolian origin. undur gheghen was the first living buddha in theland of the mongols. he left to us, his successors, the ring ofjenghiz khan, which was sent by kublai khan to dalai lama in returnfor the miracle shown by the lama turjo gamba; also the top of theskull of a black, mysterious miracle worker from india, using whichas a bowl, strongtsan, king of tibet, drank during the templeceremonies one thousand six hundred years ago; as well as anancient stone statue of buddha brought from delhi by the founder ofthe yellow faith, paspa."the bogdo clapped his hands and one of the secretaries took from ared kerchief a big silver key with which he unlocked the chest withthe seals. the living buddha slipped his hand into the chest anddrew forth a small box of carved ivory, from which he took out andshowed to me a large gold ring set with a magnificent ruby carvedwith the sign of the swastika.

"this ring was always worn on the right hand of the khans jenghizand kublai," said the bogdo.

when the secretary had closed the chest, the bogdo ordered him tosummon his favorite maramba, whom he directed to read some pagesfrom an ancient book lying on the table. the lama began to readmonotonously.

"when gushi khan, the chief of all the olets or kalmucks, finishedthe war with the 'red caps' in tibet, he carried out with him themiraculous 'black stone' sent to the dalai lama by the 'king of theworld.' gushi khan wanted to create in western mongolia thecapital of the yellow faith; but the olets at that time were at warwith the manchu emperors for the throne of china and suffered onedefeat after another. the last khan of the olets, amursana, ranaway into russia but before his escape sent to urga the sacred'black stone.' while it remained in urga so that the living buddhacould bless the people with it, disease and misfortune nevertouched the mongolians and their cattle. about one hundred yearsago, however, some one stole the sacred stone and since thenbuddhists have vainly sought it throughout the whole world. withits disappearance the mongol people began gradually to die.""enough!" ordered bogdo gheghen. "our neighbors hold us incontempt. they forget that we were their sovereigns but wepreserve our holy traditions and we know that the day of triumph ofthe mongolian tribes and the yellow faith will come. we have theprotectors of the faith, the buriats. they are the truestguardians of the bequests of jenghiz khan."so spoke the living buddha and so have spoken the ancient books!