[46]
A form, however, different from both these, is given by one who, with
the exception perhaps of M. Hue, had better opportunities than most
others for ascertaining the meaning of the words and hearing their
actual pronunciation: this was Captain Turner, who was nominated by
Warren Hastings, in the year 1783, to undertake an embassy to the
Court of Thibet, at Lassa.
He, however, makes no mention of the Sanscrit translation above given,
and confesses his inability to obtain, even at the head-quarters
of Thibetian Buddhism, a satisfactory explanation of the origin or
import of the sentence. The following account, taken from Captain
Turner's Report on his Mission, may be of interest, as it explains
the circumstances under which an event so unusual as an embassy to
the Court of Thibet was agreed to by the Grand Lama.
In 1772, a frontier warfare having broken out between the "Booteas,"
dependants of Thibet, and the English Government, in consequence of
the aggression of the former, Teshoo Lama, at the time regent of Thibet
and guardian of the Delai Lama, his superior in religious rank, united
in his own person the political authority and the spiritual hierarchy
of the country, subservient only to the Emperor of China.
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