Ostende, December 5, [presumably 1887]

My Dear Doctor: --- You must really forgive me for my seeming neglect of you, my old friend. I give you my word of honor, I am worried to death with work. Whenever I sit to write a letter all my ideas are scattered, and I cannot go on with the Secret Doctrine that day. But your letter (the last) is so interesting that I must answer it as asked. You will do an excellent thing to send to the Theosophist this experiment of yours. It has an enormous importance in view of Hodgson’s lies and charges, and I am happy you got such an independent corroboration; astral light, at any rate, cannot lie for my benefit.

I will only speak of number 4, as the correctness about the other three letters you know yourself. I. This looks like the private temple of the Teschu Lama, near Tchigadze --- made of the "Madras cement"-like material; it does shine like marble and is called the snowy "Shakang" (temple) --- as far as I remember. It has no "sun or cross" on the top, but a kind of algiorna dagoba, triangular, on three pillars, with a dragon of gold and a globe. But the dragon has a swastica on it and this may have appeared a "cross." I don’t remember any "gravel walk" --- nor is there one, but it stands on an elevation (artificial) and a stone path leading to it, and it has steps --- how many I do not remember (I was never allowed inside); saw from the outside, and the interior was described to me. The floors of nearly all Buddha’s (Songyas) temples are made of a yellow polished stone, found in those mountains of Oural and in northern Tibet toward Russian territory. I do not know the name, but it looks like yellow marble. The "gentleman" in white may be Master, and the "bald-headed" gentleman I take to be some old "shaven-headed" priest. The cloak is black or very dark generally --- (I brought one to Olcott from Darjeeling), but where the silver buckles and knee-breeches come from I am at a loss. They wear, as you know, long boots --- up high on the calves, made of felt and embroidered often with silver --- like that devil of a Babajee had. Perhaps it is a freak of astral vision mixed with a flash of memory (by association of ideas) about some picture she saw previously. In those temples there are always movable "pictures," on which various geometrical and mathematical problems are placed for the disciples who study astrology and symbolism. The "vase" must be one of many Chinese queer vases about in temples, for various objects. In the corners of the temples there are numerous statues of various deities (Dhyanis). The roofs are always (almost always) supported by rows of wooden pillars dividing the roof into three parallelograms, and the mirror "Melong" of burnished steel (round like the sun) is often placed on the top of the Kiosque on the roof. I myself took it once for the sun. Also on the cupolas of the [dagoba] there is sometimes a graduated pinnacle, and over it a disk of gold placed vertically, and a pear-shaped point and often a crescent supporting a globe and the svastica upon it. Ask her whether it is this she saw, Om tram ah hri hum, which figures are roughly drawn sometimes on the Melong "mirrors" --- (a disk of brass) against evil spirits --- for the mob. Or perhaps what she saw was a row of slips of wood (little cubes), on which such things are seen:

[Two drawings occur here, see the original letter transcription and also see Fig 1. and Fig 2. below]

If so, then I will know what she saw. "Pine woods" all round such temples, the latter built expressly where there are such woods, and wild prickly pear, and trees with Chinese fruit on that the priests use for making inks. A lake is there, surely, and mountains plenty --- if where Master is; if near Tchigadze --- only little hillocks. The statues of Meilha Gualpo, the androgyne Lord of the Salamanders or the Genii of Air, look like this "sphinx;" but her lower body is lost in clouds, not fish, and she is not beautiful, only symbolical. Fisherwomen do use soles alone, like the sandals, and they all wear fur caps. That’s all; will this do? But do write it out.

Yours ever,
H.P.B.

by Emil Schlagintweit, LL.D.

[1863]

p.173

The boots are made of stiff felt, either white or red, and are ornamented with perpendicular blue stripes. They reach up to the calves. The soles are of double-felt, sometimes furnished, besides, with a sole of leather. These soles form a very solid and unyielding support for the foot, protecting it very well against sharp stones, much better than do the shoes worn by the Turkistanis, the sole of which consists of thin leather only, which gives neither protection against the roughness of the ground nor support to the foot; the advantages of the Tibetan boots are, however, sometimes secured by thick felt-stockings.

p.189-190

In the side halls of the temple is generally situated the library, the volumes being regularly arranged on shelves, and wrapped in silk. In the corners are placed tables bearing numerous statues of deities; and the religious dresses, the musical instruments, and other things required for the daily service, are hung up on wooden pegs along the walls. Benches are also placed in the temple, upon which the Lamas take their seat, when assembled for prayer.

The roof of the temples is supported by two rows of unornamented wooden pillars painted red, and dividing it into three parallelograms; large silken fans, called Phan, striped white and blue and with unravelled fringed edges, together with musical and other instruments, are suspended to these pillars; while from the crossbeams hang numerous Zhaltang, or pictures of deities, each fastened to two red sticks, and generally covered with a veil of white silken cloth. The altar stands in the central gallery, and consists of differently sized wooden benches, beautifully carved and richly ornamented; the smaller ones are set upon the larger before a partition of planks on which hang fans of the five sacred colours (viz. yellow, white, red, blue and green) held together by a crescent, the convex side of which was turned upwards. Upon these benches are ranged the offering vessels, statues of Buddhas and gods, and some instruments and utensils used in religious worship; amongst the latter is always seen the mirror Melong which is used in the ceremony Tuisol; then some bells and Dorjes, together with a Chorten containing relics and having occasionally a niche with the statue of some deity; also a vase with peacock feathers and a sacred book is never wanting. The offering vessels are of brass, and similar in shape to the Chinese tea-cups; they are filled with barley, butter, and perfumes, in summer with flowers.

p.194-195

The most general style [of a Chorten] is the following: The base is a cube, upon which rests the inverted cupola; this cupola is the principal part; it encloses the objects enshrined, and in it is the hole leading to the space for the offerings. A graduated pinnacle rises above it, and this is either a cone of stones or a wooden spire; it is surmounted by a disk placed horizontally and a pear-shaped point, or, instead of it, by a crescent supporting a globe and the pear upon that.

p.260-261

The offerings are, in some cases, weapons and living animals, one of the chief objects being an arrow, to which five silken strips of the five sacred colours are fastened, called Darnai janpa, "ornament of five strips of silk," as well as a disk of brass, called Melong, "a mirror," upon which the mystical syllables om, tram, ah, hri, hum are inscribed as here follows:--

[A drawing occurs, see Fig 1. below]

p.268

"Prints from slips of wood used in Tibet as a supposed protection against evil spirits"

[A plate image occurs here, see Fig 3. below]