Unburied Buddha

Lamaist Tibet became a godless land nearly nine months ago when death came to the second, and more spiritual, of its "living gods," His Serenity the Panchen (or Tashi) Lama, "Buddha of Boundless Light" (TIME, Dec. 13). Long dead was Tibet's latest temporal god, the Dalai Lama. Last week, according to reports from India, Tibet still lacked living gods, was becoming increasingly embarrassed at having in its midst one god who was extremely dead. From Jyekundo, where the Panchen Lama died, a retinue of 1,000 lamas, Chinese soldiers and relations of the Buddha set out last winter to take his body to Lhasa, to bury it with proper ritual. Unable or unwilling to embalm it, they wrapped it, in a sitting position, in cloths.

Traveling ten miles a day in stately procession, they encamped at night in lamaseries or caravansaries, surrounded the Panchen Lama with hundreds of yak-butter lamps. The caravan finally arrived in Kanze, where the Panchen Lama remained last week, sitting odorously in his cerements. The Chinese troops wished to accompany the body to Lhasa; the Tibetans wanted no foreign soldiers; neither side gave in. Of authentic infant candidates to reincarnate and succeed either the Dalai or Panchen Lamas, no word had reached the outside world last week.

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