Chapter VI: Front Matter (6)

Leyden meanwhile compiled a work on the _Discoveries and Settlements of Europeans in Northern and Western Africa_, suggested by Mungo Park's travels, edited _The Complaint of Scotland_, printed a volume of Scottish descriptive poems, and nearly finished his _Scenes of Infancy_, a diffuse poem based on border scenes and traditions. He also made some translations from Eastern poetry, Persian and Arabic. At last his friends got him an appointment in India on the medical staff, for which he qualified by a year's hard work. In 1803 he sailed for Madras, and took his place in the general hospital there. He was promoted to be naturalist to the commissioners going to survey Mysore, and in 1807 his knowledge of the languages of India procured him an appointment as professor of Hindustani at Calcutta; this he soon after resigned for a judgeship, and that again to be a commissioner in the court of requests in 1809, a post which required a familiarity with several Eastern tongues. In 1811 he joined Lord Minto in the expedition to Java. Having entered a library which was said to contain many Eastern MSS., without having the place aired, he was seized with Batavian fever, and died, after three days' illness, on the 28th of August 1811.

LEYDEN JAR, or CONDENSER, an electrical appliance consisting in one form of a thin glass jar partly coated inside and outside with tin foil, or in another of a number of glass plates similarly coated. When the two metal surfaces are connected for a short time with the terminals of some source of electromotive force, such as an electric machine, an induction coil or a voltaic battery, electric energy is stored up in the condenser in the form of electric strain in the glass, and can be recovered again in the form of an electric discharge.

Early history.

The earliest form of Leyden jar consisted of a glass vial or thin Florence flask, partly full of water, having a metallic nail inserted through the cork which touched the water. The bottle was held in the hand, and the nail presented to the prime conductor of an electrical machine. If the person holding the bottle subsequently touched the nail, he experienced an electric shock. This experiment was first made by E. G. von Kleist of Kammin in Pomerania in 1745,[1] and it was repeated in another form in 1746 by Cunaeus and P. van Musschenbroek, of the university of Leyden (Leiden), whence the term Leyden jar.[2] J. H. Winkler discovered that an iron chain wound round the bottle could be substituted for the hand, and Sir William Watson in England shortly afterward showed that iron filings or mercury could replace the water within the jar. Dr John Bevis of London suggested, in 1746, the use of sheet lead coatings within and without the jar, and subsequently the use of tin foil or silver leaf made closely adherent to the glass. Benjamin Franklin and Bevis devised independently the form of condenser known as a Franklin or Leyden pane, which consists of a sheet of glass, partly coated on both sides with tin foil or silver leaf, a margin of glass all round being left to insulate the two tin foils from each other. Franklin in 1747 and 1748 made numerous investigations on the Leyden jar, and devised a method of charging jars in series as well as in parallel. In the former method, now commonly known as charging in _cascade_, the jars are insulated and the outside coating of one jar is connected to the inside coating of the next and so on for a whole series, the inside coating of the first jar and the outside coating of the last jar being the terminals of the condenser. For charging in parallel a number of jars are collected in a box, and all the outside coatings are connected together metallically and all the inside coatings brought to one common terminal. This arrangement is commonly called a battery of Leyden jars. To Franklin also we owe the important knowledge that the electric charge resides really in the glass and not in the metal coatings, and that when a condenser has been charged the metallic coatings can be exchanged for fresh ones and yet the electric charge of the condenser remains.

Modern construction.

In its modern form the Leyden jar consists of a wide-mouthed bottle of thin English flint glass of uniform thickness, free from flaws. About half the outside and half the inside surface is coated smoothly with tin foil, and the remainder of the glazed surface is painted with shellac varnish. A wooden stopper closes the mouth of the jar, and through it a brass rod passes which terminates in a chain, or better still, three elastic brass springs, which make good contact with the inner coating. The rod terminates externally in a knob or screw terminal. The jar has a certain capacity C which is best expressed in microfarads or electrostatic units (see ELECTROSTATICS), and is determined by the surface of the tin foil and thickness and quality of the glass. The jar can be charged so that a certain potential difference V, reckoned in volts, exists between the two coatings. If a certain critical potential is exceeded, the glass gives way under the electric strain and is pierced. The safe voltage for most glass jars is about 20,000 volts for glass {1/10}th in. in thickness; this corresponds with an electric spark of about 7 millimetres in length. When the jar is charged, it is usually discharged through a metallic arc called the discharging tongs, and this discharge is in the form of an oscillatory current (see ELECTROKINETICS). The energy stored up in the jar in joules is expressed by the value of ½ CV², where C is the capacity measured in farads and V the potential difference of the coatings in volts. If the capacity C is reckoned in microfarads then the energy storage is equal to CV²/2 × 10^6 joules or 0.737 CV²/2 × 10^6 foot-pounds. The size of jar commonly known as a quart size may have a capacity from {1/400}th to {1/800}th of a microfarad, and if charged to 20,000 volts stores up energy from a quarter to half a joule or from {3/16}ths to {3/8}ths of a foot-pound.

High tension condensers.

Leyden jars are now much employed for the production of the high frequency electric currents used in wireless telegraphy (see TELEGRAPHY, WIRELESS). For this purpose they are made by Moscicki in the form of glass tubes partly coated by silver chemically deposited on the glass on the inner and outer surfaces. The tubes have walls thicker at the ends than in the middle, as the tendency to puncture the glass is greatest at the edges of the coatings. In other cases, Leyden jars or condensers take the form of sheets of mica or micanite or ebonite partly coated with tin foil or silver leaf on both sides; or a pile of sheets of alternate tin foil and mica may be built up, the tin foil sheets having lugs projecting out first on one side and then on the other. All the lugs on one side are connected together, and so also are all the lugs on the other side, and the two sets of tin foils separated by sheets of mica constitute the two metallic surfaces of the Leyden jar condenser. For the purposes of wireless telegraphy, when large condensers are required, the ordinary Leyden jar occupies too much space in comparison with its electrical capacity, and hence the best form of condenser consists of a number of sheets of crown glass, each partly coated on both sides with tin foil. The tin foil sheets have lugs attached which project beyond the glass. The plates are placed in a vessel full of insulating oil which prevents the glow or brush discharge taking place over their edges. All the tin foils on one side of the glass plates are connected together and all the tin foils on the opposite sides, so as to construct a condenser of any required capacity. The box should be of glass or stoneware or other non-conducting material. When glass tubes are used it is better to employ tubes thicker at the ends than in the middle, as it has been found that when the safe voltage is exceeded and the glass gives way under electric strain, the piercing of the glass nearly always takes place at the edges of the tin foil.

Compressed air condensers.

Glass is still commonly used as a dielectric because of its cheapness, high dielectric strength or resistance to electric puncture, and its high dielectric constant (see ELECTROSTATICS). It has been found, however, that very efficient condensers can be made with compressed air as dielectric. If a number of metal plates separated by small distance pieces are enclosed in an iron box which is pumped full of air to a pressure, say, of 100 lb. to 1 sq. in., the dielectric strength of the air is greatly increased, and the plates may therefore be brought very near to one another without causing a spark to pass under such voltage as would cause discharge in air at normal pressure. Condensers of this kind have been employed by R. A. Fessenden in wireless telegraphy, and they form a very excellent arrangement for standard condensers with which to compare the capacity of other Leyden jars. Owing to the variation in the value of the dielectric constant of glass with the temperature and with the frequency of the applied electromotive force, and also owing to electric glow discharge from the edges of the tin foil coatings, the capacity of an ordinary Leyden jar is not an absolutely fixed quantity, but its numerical value varies somewhat with the method by which it is measured, and with the other circumstances above mentioned. For the purpose of a standard condenser a number of concentric metal tubes may be arranged on an insulating stand, alternate tubes being connected together. One coating of the condenser is formed by one set of tubes and the other by the other set, the air between being the dielectric. Paraffin oil or any liquid dielectric of constant inductivity may replace the air.

See J. A. Fleming, _Electric Wave Telegraphy_ (London, 1906); R. A.
Fessenden, "Compressed Air for Condensers," _Electrician_, 1905, 55,
p. 795; Moscicki, "Construction of High Tension Condensers,"
_L'Éclairage électrique_, 1904, 41, p. 14, or _Engineering_, 1904, p.
865. (J. A. F.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Park Benjamin, _The Intellectual Rise in Electricity_, p. 512.

[2] Ibid. p. 519.

LEYS, HENDRIK, BARON (1815-1869), Belgian painter, was born at Antwerp on the 18th of February 1815. He studied under Wappers at the Antwerp Academy. In 1833 he painted "Combat d'un grenadier et d'un cosaque," and in the following year "Combat de Bourguignons et Flamands." In 1835 he went to Paris where he was influenced by the Romantic movement. Examples of this period of his painting are "Massacre des échevins de Louvain," "Mariage flamand," "Le Roi des arbalétriers" and other works. Leys was an imitative painter in whose works may rapidly be detected the schools which he had been studying before he painted them. Thus after his visit to Holland in 1839 he reproduced many of the characteristics of the Dutch genre painters in such works as "Franz Floris se rendant à une fête" (1845) and "Service divin en Hollande" (1850). So too the methods of Quentin Matsys impressed themselves upon him after he had travelled in Germany in 1852. In 1862 Leys was created a baron. At the time of his death, which occurred in August 1869, he was engaged in decorating with fresco the large hall of the Antwerp Hôtel de Ville.

LEYTON, an urban district forming one of the north-eastern suburbs of London, England, in the Walthamstow (S.W.) parliamentary division of Essex. Pop. (1891) 63,106; (1901) 98,912. It lies on the east (left) bank of the Lea, along the flat open valley of which runs the boundary between Essex and the county of London. The church of St Mary, mainly a brick reconstruction, contains several interesting memorials; including one to William Bowyer the printer (d. 1737), erected by his son and namesake, more famous in the same trade. Here is also buried John Strype the historian and biographer (d. 1737), who held the position of curate and lecturer at this church. Leyton is in the main a residential as distinct from a manufacturing locality. Its name is properly Low Leyton, and the parish includes the district of Leytonstone to the east. Roman remains have been discovered here, but no identification with a Roman station by name has been made with certainty. The ground of the Essex County Cricket Club is at Leyton.

LHASA (LHASSA, LASSA, "God's ground"), the capital of Tibet. It lies in 29° 39´ N., 91° 5´ E., 11,830 ft. above sea-level. Owing to the inaccessibility of Tibet and the political and religious exclusiveness of the lamas, Lhasa was long closed to European travellers, all of whom during the latter half of the 19th century were stopped in their attempts to reach it. It was popularly known as the "Forbidden City." But its chief features were known by the accounts of the earlier Romish missionaries who visited it and by the investigations, in modern times, of native Indian secret explorers, and others, and the British armed mission of 1904 (see TIBET).

_Site and General Aspect._--The city stands in a tolerably level plain, which is surrounded on all sides by hills. Along its southern side, about ½ m. south of Lhasa, runs a considerable river called the Kyichu (Ki-chu) or Kyi, flowing here from E.N.E., and joining the great Tsangpo (or upper course of the Brahmaputra) some 38 m. to the south-west. The hills round the city are barren. The plain, however, is fertile, though in parts marshy. There are gardens scattered over it round the city, and these are planted with fine trees. The city is screened from view from the west by a rocky ridge, lofty and narrow, with summits at the north and south, the one flanked and crowned by the majestic buildings of Potala, the chief residence of the Dalai lama, the other by the temple of medicine. Groves, gardens and open ground intervene between this ridge and the city itself for a distance of about 1 m. A gate through the centre of the ridge gives access from the west; the road thence to the north part of the city throws off a branch to the Yutok sampa or turquoise-tiled covered bridge, one of the noted features of Lhasa, which crosses a former channel of the Kyi, and carries the road to the centre of the town.

The city is nearly circular in form, and less than 1 m. in diameter. It was walled in the latter part of the 17th century, but the walls were destroyed during the Chinese occupation in 1722. The chief streets are fairly straight, but generally of no great width. There is no paving or metal, nor any drainage system, so that the streets are dirty and in parts often flooded. The inferior quarters are unspeakably filthy, and are rife with evil smells and large mangy dogs and pigs. Many of the houses are of clay and sun-dried brick, but those of the richer people are of stone and brick. All are frequently white-washed, the doors and windows being framed in bands of red and yellow. In the suburbs there are houses entirely built of the horns of sheep and oxen set in clay mortar. This construction is in some cases very roughly carried out, but in others it is solid and highly picturesque. Some of the inferior huts of this type are inhabited by the Ragyaba or scavengers, whose chief occupation is that of disposing of corpses according to the practice of cutting and exposing them to the dogs and birds of prey. The houses generally are of two or three storeys. Externally the lower part generally presents dead walls (the ground floor being occupied by stables and similar apartments); above these rise tiers of large windows with or without projecting balconies, and over all flat broad-eaved roofs at varying levels. In the better houses there are often spacious and well-finished apartments, and the principal halls, the verandahs and terraces are often highly ornamented in brilliant colours. In every house there is a kind of chapel or shrine, carved and gilt, on which are set images and sacred books.

The Jokhang.

_Temples and Monasteries._--In the centre of the city is an open
square which forms the chief market-place. Here is the great temple of
the "Jo" or Lord Buddha, called the Jokhang,[1] regarded as the centre
of all Tibet, from which all the main roads are considered to radiate.
This is the great metropolitan sanctuary and church-centre of Tibet,
the St Peter's or Lateran of Lamaism. It is believed to have been
founded by the Tibetan Constantine, Srong-tsan-gampo, in 652, as the
shrine of one of those two very sacred Buddhist images which were
associated with his conversion and with the foundation of the
civilized monarchy in Tibet. The exterior of the building is not
impressive; it rises little above the level of other buildings which
closely surround it, and the effect of its characteristic gilt roof,
though conspicuous and striking from afar, is lost close at hand.

The main building of the Jokhang is three storeys high. The entrance
consists of a portico supported on timber columns, carved and gilt,
while the walls are engraved with Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan
characters, and a great prayer-wheel stands on one side. Massive
folding doors, ornamented with scrollwork in iron, lead to an
antehall, and from this a second gate opens into a courtyard
surrounded by a verandah with many pillars and chapels, and frescoes
on its walls. On the left is the throne of the grand lama, laid with
cushions, together with the seats of other ecclesiastical dignitaries,
variously elevated according to the rank of their occupants. An inner
door with enclosed vestibule gives access to the quadrangular choir or
chancel, as it may be called, though its centre is open to the sky. On
either side of it are three chapels, and at the extremity is the
rectangular "holy of holies," flanked by two gilded images of the
coming Buddha, and screened by lattice-work. In it is the shrine on
which sits the great image of Sakya, set about with small figures,
lamps and a variety of offerings, and richly jewelled, though the
workmanship of the whole is crude. In the second and third storeys of
the temple are shrines and representations of a number of gods and
goddesses. The temple contains a vast accumulation of images, gold and
silver vessels, lamps, reliquaries and precious bric-à-brac of every
kind. The daily offices are attended by crowds of worshippers, and a
sacred way which leads round the main building is constantly traversed
by devotees who perform the circuit as a work of merit, always in a
particular direction. The temple was found by the members of the
British mission who visited it to be exceedingly dirty, and the
atmosphere was foul with the fumes of butter-lamps.

Besides the convent-cells, halls of study and magazines of precious
lumber, buildings grouped about the Jokhang are occupied by the civil
administration, e.g. as treasuries, customs office, courts of justice,
&c., and there are also private apartments for the grand lama and
other high functionaries. No woman is permitted to pass the night
within the precinct.

In front of the main entrance to the Jokhang, in the shadow of a
sacred willow tree, stands a famous monument, the Doring monolith,
which bears the inscribed record of a treaty of peace concluded in 822
(or, according to another view, in 783) between the king of Tibet and
the emperor of China. Before this monument the apostate from Lamaism,
Langdharma, brother and successor of the last-named king, is said to
have been standing when a fanatic recluse, who had been stirred by a
vision to avenge his persecuted faith, assassinated him.

Potala.

The famous Potala hill, covered by the palace of the Dalai lama, forms
a majestic mountain of building; with its vast inward-sloping walls
broken only in the upper parts by straight rows of many windows, and
its flat roofs at various levels, it is not unlike a fortress in
appearance. At the south base of the rock is a large space enclosed by
walls and gates, with great porticoes on the inner side. This swarms
with lamas and with beggars. A series of tolerably easy staircases,
broken by intervals of gentle ascent, leads to the summit of the rock.
The whole width of this is occupied by the palace. The central part of
this group of buildings (for the component parts of Potala are of
different dates) rises in a vast quadrangular mass above its
satellites to a great height, terminating in gilt canopies similar to
those on the Jokhang. Here on the lofty terrace is the grand lama's
promenade, and from this great height he looks down upon the crowds of
his votaries far below. This central member of Potala is called the
red palace from its crimson colour, which distinguishes it from the
rest. It contains the principal halls and chapels and shrines of past
Dalai lamas. There is in these much rich decorative painting, with
jewelled work, carving and other ornament, but the interior of Potala
as a whole cannot compare in magnificence with the exterior. Among the
numerous other buildings of note on or near Potala hill, one is
distinguished by the Chinese as one of the principal beauties of
Lhasa. This is a temple not far from the base of the hill, in the
middle of a lake which is surrounded by trees and shrubberies. This
temple, called Lu-kang, is circular in form, with a _loggia_ or
portico running all round and adorned with paintings. Its name, "the
serpent house," comes from the tradition of a serpent or dragon, which
dwelt here and must be propitiated lest it should cause the waters to
rise and flood Lhasa.

Another great and famous temple is Ramo-ché, at the north side of the
city. This is also regarded as a foundation of Srong-tsan-gampo, and
is said to contain the body of his Chinese wife and the second of the
primeval palladia, the image that she brought with her to the
Snow-land; whence it is known as the "small Jokhang." This temple is
noted for the practice of magical arts. Its buildings are in a
neglected condition.

Another monastery within the city is that of Moru, also on the north
side, remarkable for its external order and cleanliness. Though famous
as a school of orthodox magic, it is noted also for the printing-house
in the convent garden. This convent was the temporary residence of the
regent during the visit of the British mission in 1904. Other
monasteries in or near the city are the Tsamo Ling or Chomoling at the
north-west corner; the Tangyä Ling or Tengyeling at the west of the
city; the Kundä Ling or Kundeling about 1 m. west of the city, at the
foot of a low isolated hill called Chapochi. Three miles south, beyond
the river, is the Tsemchog Ling or Tsecholing. These four convents are
known as "The Four Ling." From their inmates the Dalai lama's regent,
during his minority, was formerly chosen. The temple of medicine, as
already stated, crowns the summit (Chagpa) at the end of the ridge
west of the city, opposite to that on which stands the Potala. It is
natural that in a country possessing a religious system like that of
Tibet the medical profession should form a branch of the priesthood.
"The treatment of disease, though based in some measure upon a
judicious use of the commoner simple drugs of the country, is, as was
inevitable amongst so superstitious a people, saturated with
absurdity" (Waddell, _Lhasa and its Mysteries_).

The three great monasteries in the vicinity of Lhasa, all claiming to
be foundations of Tsongkhapa (1356-1418), the medieval reformer and
organizer of the modern orthodox Lama Church, "the yellow caps," are
the following:--

1. _Debung_ (written '_Bras spungs_) is 6 m. west of Lhasa at the foot
of the hills which flank the plain on the north. It is one of the
largest monasteries in the world, having some 8000 monks. In the
middle of the convent buildings rises a kind of pavilion, brilliant
with colour and gilding, which is occupied by the Dalai Lama when he
visits Debung once a year and expounds to the inmates. The place is
frequented by the Mongol students who come to Lhasa to graduate, and
is known in the country as the Mongol convent; it has also been
notorious as a centre of political intrigue. Near it is the seat of
the chief magician of Tibet, the Nachung Chos-kyong, a building
picturesque in itself and in situation.

2. _Sera_ is 3 m. north of the city on the acclivity of the hills and
close to the road by which pilgrims enter from Mongolia. From a
distance the crowd of buildings and temples, rising in amphitheatre
against a background of rocky mountains, forms a pleasing picture. In
the recesses of the hill, high above the convent, are scattered cells
of lamas adopting the solitary life. The chief temple of Sera, a
highly ornate building, has a special reputation as the resting-place
of a famous _Dorje_, i.e. the _Vajra_ or Thunderbolt of Jupiter, the
symbol of the strong and indestructible, which the priest grasps and
manipulates in various ways during prayer. The emblem is a bronze
instrument, shaped much like a dumbbell with pointed ends, and it is
carried solemnly in procession to the Jokhang during the New Year's
festival.

The hill adjoining Sera is believed to be rich in silver ore, but it
is not allowed to be worked. On the summit is a spring and a holy
place of the Lhasa Mahommedans, who resort thither. Near the monastery
there is said to be gold, which is worked by the monks. "Should they
... discover a nugget of large size, it is immediately replaced in the
earth, under the impression that the large nuggets ... germinate in
time, producing the small lumps which they are privileged to search
for" (Nain Singh).

3. _Galdan._--This great convent is some 25 m. east of Lhasa, on the
other side of the Kyichu. It is the oldest monastery of the "Yellow"
sect, having been founded by Tsongkhapa and having had him for its
first superior. Here his body is said to be preserved with miraculous
circumstances; here is his tomb, of marble and malachite, with a great
shrine said to be of gold, and here are other relics of him, such as
the impression of his hands and feet.

_Samyé_ is another famous convent intimately connected with Lhasa,
being said to be used as a treasury by the government, but it lies
some 36 m. south-east on the left bank of the great Tsangpo. It was
founded in 770, and is the oldest extant monastery in Tibet. It is
surrounded by a very high circular stone wall, 1½ m. in circumference,
with gates facing the four points of the compass. On this wall Nain
Singh, who was here on his journey in 1874, counted 1030 votive piles
of brick. One very large temple occupies the centre, and round it are
four smaller but still large temples. Many of the idols are said to be
of pure gold, and the wealth is very great. The interiors of the
temples are covered with beautiful writing in enormous characters,
which the vulgar believe to be the writing of Sakya himself.

_Population and Trade._--The total population of Lhasa, including the lamas in the city and vicinity, is probably about 30,000; a census in 1854 made the figure 42,000, but it is known to have greatly decreased since. There are only some 1500 resident Tibetan laymen and about 5500 Tibetan women. The permanent population embraces, besides Tibetans, settled families of Chinese (about 2000 persons), as well as people from Nepal, from Ladak, and a few from Bhotan and Mongolia. The Ladakis and some of the other foreigners are Mahommedans, and much of the trade is in their hands. Desideri (1716) speaks also of Armenians and even "Muscovites." The Chinese have a crowded burial-ground at Lhasa, tended carefully after their manner. The Nepalese (about 800) supply the mechanics and metal-workers. There are among them excellent gold- and silversmiths; and they make the elaborate gilded canopies crowning the temples. The chief industries are the weaving of a great variety of stuffs from the fine Tibetan wool; the making of earthenware and of the wooden porringers (varying immensely in elaboration and price) of which every Tibetan carries one about with him; also the making of certain fragrant sticks of incense much valued in China and elsewhere.

As Lhasa is not only the nucleus of a cluster of vast monastic establishments, which attract students and aspirants to the religious life from all parts of Tibet and Mongolia, but is also a great place of pilgrimage, the streets and public places swarm with visitors from every part of the Himalayan plateau,[2] and from all the steppes of Asia between Manchuria and the Balkhash Lake. Naturally a great traffic arises quite apart from the pilgrimage. The city thus swarms with crowds attracted by devotion and the love of gain, and presents a great diversity of language, costume and physiognomy; though, in regard to the last point, varieties of the broad face and narrow eye greatly predominate. Much of the retail trade of the place is in the hands of the women. The curious practice of the women in plastering their faces with a dark-coloured pigment is less common in Lhasa than in the provinces.

During December especially traders arrive from western China by way of Tachienlu bringing every variety of silk-stuffs, carpets, china-ware and tea; from Siningfu come silk, gold lace, Russian goods, carpets of a superior kind, semi-precious stones, horse furniture, horses and a very large breed of fat-tailed sheep; from eastern Tibet, musk in large quantities, which eventually finds its way to Europe through Nepal; from Bhotan and Sikkim, rice; from Sikkim also tobacco; besides a variety of Indian and European goods from Nepal and Darjeeling, and _charas_ (resinous exudation of hemp) and saffron from Ladakh and Kashmir. The merchants leave Lhasa in March, before the setting in of the rains renders the rivers impassable.

The tea importation from China is considerable, for tea is an absolute necessary to the Tibetan. The tea is of various qualities, from the coarsest, used only for "buttered" tea (a sort of broth), to the fine quality drunk by the wealthy. This is pressed into bricks or cakes weighing about 5½ lb., and often passes as currency. The quantity that pays duty at Tachienlu is about 10,000,000 lb., besides some amount smuggled. No doubt a large part of this comes to Lhasa.

_Lhasa Festivities._--The greatest of these is at the new year. This
lasts fifteen days, and is a kind of lamaic carnival, in which masks
and mummings, wherein the Tibetans take especial delight, play a great
part. The celebration commences at midnight, with shouts and clangour
of bells, gongs, chank-shells, drums and all the noisy repertory of
Tibetan music; whilst friends exchange early visits and administer
coarse sweetmeats and buttered tea. On the second day the Dalai Lama
gives a grand banquet, at which the Chinese and native authorities are
present, whilst in the public spaces and in front of the great
convents all sorts of shows and jugglers' performances go on. Next day
a regular Tibetan exhibition takes place. A long cable, twisted of
leather thongs, is stretched from a high point in the battlements of
Potala slanting down to the plain, where it is strongly moored. Two
men slide from top to bottom of this huge hypothenuse, sometimes lying
on the chest (which is protected by a breast-plate of strong leather),
spreading their arms as if to swim, and descending with the rapidity
of an arrow-flight. Occasionally fatal accidents occur in this
performance, which is called "the dance of the gods"; but the
survivors are rewarded by the court, and the Grand Lama himself is
always a witness of it. This practice occurs more or less over the
Himalayan plateau, and is known in the neighbourhood of the Ganges as
_Barat_. It is employed as a kind of expiatory rite in cases of
pestilence and the like. Exactly the same performance is described as
having been exhibited in St Paul's Churchyard before King Edward VI.,
and again before Philip of Spain, as well as, about 1750, at Hertford
and other places in England (see Strutt's _Sports_, &c., 2nd ed., p.
198).

The most remarkable celebration of the new year's festivities is the
great jubilee of the _Monlam_ (_s Mon-lam_, "prayer"), instituted by
Tsongkhapa himself in 1408. Lamas from all parts of Tibet, but chiefly
from the great convents in the neighbourhood, flock to Lhasa, and
every road leading thither is thronged with troops of monks on foot or
horseback, on yaks or donkeys, carrying with them their breviaries and
their cooking-pots. Those who cannot find lodging bivouac in the
streets and squares, or pitch their little black tents in the plain.
The festival lasts six days, during which there reigns a kind of
saturnalia. Unspeakable confusion and disorder reign, while gangs of
lamas parade the streets, shouting, singing and coming to blows. The
object of this gathering is, however, supposed to be devotional. Vast
processions take place, with mystic offerings and lama-music, to the
Jokhang and Moru convents; the Grand Lama himself assists at the
festival, and from an elevated throne beside the Jokhang receives the
offerings of the multitude and bestows his benediction.

On the 15th of the first month multitudes of torches are kept ablaze,
which lighten up the city to a great distance, whilst the interior of
the Jokhang is illuminated throughout the night by innumerable
lanterns shedding light on coloured figures in bas-relief, framed in
arabesques of animals, birds and flowers, and representing the history
of Buddha and other subjects, all modelled in butter. The figures are
executed on a large scale, and, as described by Huc, who witnessed the
festival at Kunbum on the frontier of China, with extraordinary truth
and skill. These singular works of art occupy some months in
preparation, and on the morrow are thrown away. On other days
horse-races take place from Sera to Potala, and foot-races from Potala
to the city. On the 27th of the month the holy _Dorje_ is carried in
solemn procession from Sera to the Jokhang, and to the presence of the
lama at Potala.

Of other great annual feasts, one, in the fourth month, is assigned to
the conception of Sakya, but appears to connect itself with the old
nature-feast of the entering of spring, and to be more or less
identical with the _Huli_ of India. A second, the consecration of the
waters, in September-October, appears, on the confines of India, to be
associated with the Dasehra.

On the 30th day of the second month there takes place a strange
ceremony, akin to that of the scapegoat (which is not unknown in
India). It is called the driving out of the demon. A man is hired to
perform the part of demon (or victim rather), a part which sometimes
ends fatally. He is fantastically dressed, his face mottled with white
and black, and is then brought forth from the Jokhang to engage in
quasi-theological controversy with one who represents the Grand Lama.
This ends in their throwing dice against each other (as it were for
the weal or woe of Lhasa). If the demon were to win the omen would be
appalling; so this is effectually barred by false dice. The victim is
then marched outside the city, followed by the troops and by the whole
populace, hooting, shouting and firing volleys after him. Once he is
driven off, the people return, and he is carried off to the Samyé
convent. Should he die shortly after, this is auspicious; if not, he
is kept in ward at Samyé for a twelvemonth.

Nain Singh, whose habitual accuracy is attested by many facts,
mentions a strange practice of comparatively recent origin, according
to which the civil power in the city is put up to auction for the
first twenty-three days of the new year. The purchaser, who must be a
member of the Debung monastery, and is termed the _Jalno_, is a kind
of lord of misrule, who exercises arbitrary authority during that time
for his own benefit, levying taxes and capricious fines upon the
citizens.

_History._--The seat of the princes whose family raised Tibet to a position among the powers of Asia was originally on the Yarlung river, in the extreme east of the region now occupied by Tibetan tribes. It was transplanted to Lhasa in the 7th century by the king Srong-tsan-gampo, conqueror, civilizer and proselytizer, the founder of Buddhism in Tibet, the introducer of the Indian alphabet. On the three-peaked crag now occupied by the palace-monastery of the Grand Lama this king is said to have established his fortress, while he founded in the plain below temples to receive the sacred images, brought respectively from Nepal and from China by the brides to whom his own conversion is attributed.

Tibet endured as a conquering power some two centuries, and the more famous among the descendants of the founder added to the city. This-rong-de-tsan (who reigned 740-786) is said to have erected a great temple-palace of which the basement followed the Tibetan style, the middle storey the Chinese, and the upper storey the Indian--a combination which would aptly symbolize the elements that have moulded the culture of Lhasa. His son, the last of the great orthodox kings, in the next century, is said to have summoned artists from Nepal and India, and among many splendid foundations to have erected a sanctuary (at Samyé) of vast height, which had nine storeys, the three lower of stone, the three middle of brick, the three uppermost of timber. With this king the glory of Tibet and of ancient Lhasa reached its zenith, and in 822, a monument recording his treaty on equal terms with the Great T'ang emperor of China was erected in the city. There followed dark days for Lhasa and the Buddhist church in the accession of this king's brother Langdharma, who has been called the Julian of the lamas. This king rejected the doctrine, persecuted and scattered its ministers, and threw down its temples, convents and images. It was more than a century before Buddhism recovered its hold and its convents were rehabilitated over Tibet. The country was then split into an infinity of petty states, many of them ruled from the convents by warlike ecclesiastics; but, though the old monarchy never recovered, Lhasa seems to have maintained some supremacy, and probably never lost its claim to be the chief city of that congeries of principalities, with a common faith and a common language, which was called Tibet.

The Arab geographers of the 10th century speak of Tibet, but without real knowledge, and none speaks of any city that we can identify with Lhasa. The first passage in any Western author in which such identification can be probably traced occurs in the narrative of Friar Odoric of Pordenone (c. 1330). This remarkable traveller's route from Europe to India, and thence by sea to China, can be traced satisfactorily, but of his journey homeward through Asia the indications are very fragmentary. He speaks, however, on this return journey of the realm of Tibet, which lay on the confines of India proper: "The folk of that country dwell in tents made of black felt. But the chief and royal city is all built with walls of black and white, and all its streets are very well paved. In this city no one shall dare to shed the blood of any, whether man or beast, for the reverence they bear a certain idol that is there worshipped. In that city dwelleth the _Abassi_, i.e. in their tongue the pope, who is the head of all the idolaters, and has the disposal of all their benefices such as they are after their manner."

We know that Kublai Khan had constituted a young prince of the Lama Church, Mati Dhwaja, as head of that body, and tributary ruler of Tibet, but besides this all is obscure for a century. This passage of Odoric shows that such authority continued under Kublai's descendants, and that some foreshadow of the position since occupied by the Dalai Lama already existed. But it was not till a century after Odoric that the strange heredity of the dynasty of the Dalai Lamas of Lhasa actually began. In the first two centuries of its existence the residence of these pontiffs was rather at Debung or Sera than at Lhasa itself, though the latter was the centre of devout resort. A great event for Lhasa was the conversion, or reconversion, of the Mongols to Lamaism (c. 1577), which made the city the focus of sanctity and pilgrimage to so vast a tract of Asia. It was in the middle of the 17th century that Lhasa became the residence of the Dalai Lama. A native prince, known as the Tsangpo, with his seat at Shigatse, had made himself master of southern Tibet, and threatened to absorb the whole. The fifth Dalai Lama, Nagwang Lobzang, called in the aid of a Kalmuck prince, Gushi Khan, from the neighbourhood of the Koko-nor, who defeated and slew the Tsangpo and made over full dominion in Tibet to the lama (1641). The latter now first established his court and built his palace on the rock-site of the fortress of the ancient monarchy, which apparently had fallen into ruin, and to this he gave the name of Potala.

The founder of Potala died in 1681. He had appointed as "regent" or civil administrator (_Deisri_, or _Deba_) one supposed to be his own natural son. This remarkable personage, Sangye Gyamtso, of great ambition and accomplishment, still renowned in Tibet as the author of some of the most valued works of the native literature, concealed the death of his master, asserting that the latter had retired, in mystic meditation or trance, to the upper chambers of the palace. The government continued to be carried on in the lama's name by the regent, who leagued with Galdan Khan of Dzungaria against the Chinese (Manchu) power. It was not till the great emperor Kang-hi was marching on Tibet that the death of the lama, sixteen years before, was admitted. A solemn funeral was then performed, at which 108,000 lamas assisted, and a new incarnation was set up in the person of a youth of fifteen, Tsangs-yang Gyamtso. This young man was the scandal of the Lamaist Church in every kind of evil living and debauchery, so that he was deposed and assassinated in 1701. But it was under him and the regent Sangye Gyamtso that the Potala palace attained its present scale of grandeur, and that most of the other great buildings of Lhasa were extended and embellished.

For further history and bibliography, see TIBET. Consult also LAMAISM.
(H. Y.; L. A. W.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The name given by Köppen (_Die lamaische Kirche_, Berlin, 1859,
p. 74) is "La Brang," by which it is sometimes known.

[2] Among articles sold in the Lhasa bazaars are fossil bones, called
by the people "lightning bones," and believed to have healing
virtues.

L'HÔPITAL (or L'HOSPITAL), MICHEL DE (c. 1505-1573), French statesman, was born near Aigueperse in Auvergne (now Puy-de-Dôme). His father, who was physician to the constable Charles of Bourbon, sent him to study at Toulouse, whence at the age of eighteen he was driven, a consequence of the evil fortunes of the family patron, to Padua, where he studied law and letters for about six years. On the completion of his studies he joined his father at Bologna, and afterwards, the constable having died, went to Rome in the suite of Charles V. For some time he held a position in the papal court at Rome, but about 1534 he returned to France, and becoming an advocate, his marriage, in 1537, procured for him the post of counsellor to the parlement of Paris. This office he held until 1547, when he was sent by Henry II. on a mission to Bologna, where the council of Trent was at that time sitting; after sixteen months of wearisome inactivity there, he was by his own desire recalled at the close of 1548. L'Hôpital now for some time held the position of chancellor to the king's sister, Margaret, duchess of Berry. In 1553, on the recommendation of the Cardinal of Lorraine, he was named master of the requests, and afterwards president of the chambre des comptes. In 1559 he accompanied the princess Margaret, now duchess of Savoy, to Nice, where, in the following year, tidings reached him that he had been chosen to succeed François Olivier (1487-1560) in the chancellorship of France.

One of his first acts after entering on the duties of his office was to cause the parlement of Paris to register the edict of Romorantin, of which he is sometimes, but erroneously, said to have been the author. Designed to protect heretics from the secret and summary methods of the Inquisition, it certainly had his sympathy and approval. In accordance with the consistent policy of inclusion and toleration by which the whole of his official life was characterized, he induced the council to call the assembly of notables, which met at Fontainebleau in August 1560 and agreed that the States General should be summoned, all proceedings against heretics being meanwhile suppressed, pending the reformation of the church by a general or national council. The States General met in December; the edict of Orleans (January 1561) followed, and finally, after the colloquy of Poissy, the edict of January 1562, the most liberal, except that of Nantes, ever obtained by the Protestants of France. Its terms, however, were not carried out, and during the war which was the inevitable result of the massacre of Vassy in March, L'Hôpital, whose dismissal had been for some time urged by the papal legate Hippolytus of Este, found it necessary to retire to his estate at Vignay, near Étampes, whence he did not return until after the pacification of Amboise (March 19, 1563). It was by his advice that Charles IX. was declared of age at Rouen in August 1563, a measure which really increased the power Of Catherine de' Medici; and it was under his influence also that the royal council in 1564 refused to authorize the publication of the acts of the council of Trent, on account of their inconsistency with the Gallican liberties. In 1564-1566 he accompanied the young king on an extended tour through France; and in 1566 he was instrumental in the promulgation of an important edict for the reform of abuses in the administration of justice. The renewal of the religious war in September 1567, however, was at once a symptom and a cause of diminished influence to L'Hôpital, and in February 1568 he obtained his letters of discharge, which were registered by the parlement on the 11th of May, his titles, honours and emoluments being reserved to him during the remainder of his life. Henceforward he lived a life of unbroken seclusion at Vignay, his only subsequent public appearance being by means of a _mémoire_ which he addressed to the king in 1570 under the title _Le But de la guerre et de la paix, ou discours du chancelier l'Hospital pour exhorter Charles IX. à donner la paix à ses sujets_. Though not exempt from considerable danger, he passed in safety through the troubles of St Bartholomew's eve. His death took place either at Vignay or at Bellébat on the 13th of March 1573.

After his death Pibrac, assisted by De Thou and Scévole de
Sainte-Marthe, collected a volume of the _Poemata_ of L'Hôpital, and
in 1585 his grandson published _Epistolarum seu Sermonum libri sex_.
The complete _Oeuvres de l'Hôpital_ were published for the first time
by P. J. S. Dufey (5 vols., Paris, 1824-1825). They include his
"Harangues" and "Remonstrances," the _Epistles_, the _Mémoire_ to
Charles IX., a _Traité de la réformation de la justice_, and his will.
See also A. F. Villemain, _Vie du Chancelier de l'Hôpital_ (Paris,
1874); R. G. E. T; St-René Taillandier, _Le Chancelier de l'Hospital_
(Paris, 1861); Dupré-Lasalle, _Michel de l'Hospital avant son
élévation au poste de chancelier de France_ (Paris, 1875-1899);
Amphoux, _Michel de l'Hospital et la liberté de conscience au XVI^e
siècle_ (Paris, 1900); C. T. Atkinson, _Michel de l'Hospital_ (London,
1900), containing an appendix on bibliography and sources; A. E. Shaw,
_Michel de l'Hospital and his Policy_ (London, 1905); and Eugène and
Emile Haag, _La France protestante_ (2nd ed., 1877 seq.).

LIAO-YANG, a city of China, formerly the chief town of the province of Liao-tung or Shêng-king (southern Manchuria), 35 m. S of Mukden. It is situated in a rich cotton district in the fertile valley of the Liao, on the road between Niuchwang and Mukden, and carries on a considerable trade. The walls include an area about 2½ m. long by 2 m. broad, and there are fairly extensive suburbs; but a good deal even of the enclosed area is under cultivation. The population is estimated at 100,000. Liao-yang was one of the first objectives of the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese War, and its capture by them resulted in some of the fiercest fighting during the campaign, from the 24th of August to the 4th of September 1904.

LIAS, in geology, the lowermost group of Jurassic strata. Originally the name seems to have been written "Lyas"; it is most probably a provincial form of "layers," strata, employed by quarrymen in the west of England; it has been suggested, however, that the Fr. _liais_, Breton _leach_ = a stone, Gaelic _leac_ = flat stone, may have given rise to the English "Lias." Liassic strata occupy an important position in England, where they crop out at Lyme Regis on the Dorsetshire coast and extend thence by Bath, along the western flank of the Cotswold Hills, forming Edge Hill and appearing at Banbury, Rugby, Melton, Grantham, Lincoln, to Redcar on the coast of Yorkshire. They occur also in Glamorganshire, Shropshire, near Carlisle, in Skye, Raasay (Pabba, Scalpa and Broadfoot beds), and elsewhere in the north of Scotland, and in the north-east of Ireland. East of the belt of outcrop indicated, the Lias is known to occur beneath the younger rocks for some distance farther east, but it is absent from beneath London, Reading, Ware, Harwich, Dover, and in the southern portion of the area in which these towns lie; the Liassic rocks are probably thinned out against a concealed ridge of more ancient rocks. The table on following page will serve to illustrate the general characters of the English Lias and the subdivisions adopted by the Geological Survey. By the side are shown the principal zonal ammonites, and, for comparison, the subdivisions preferred by Messrs Tate and Blake and by A. de Lapparent.

The important fact is clearly demonstrated in the table, that where the Lias is seen in contact with the Trias below or the Inferior Oolite above, there is, as a rule, a gradual passage from the Liassic formation, both downwards and upwards; hence Professor de Lapparent includes in his _Liassique System_ the zone of _Ammonites opalinus_ at the top, and the Rhaetic beds at the bottom (see OOLITE; RHAETIC). Owing to the transgression of the Liassic sea the strata rest in places upon older Palaeozoic rocks. The thickness of the Lias varies considerably; in Dorsetshire it is 900 ft., near Bath it has thinned to 280 ft., and beneath Oxford it is further reduced. In north Gloucestershire it is 1360 ft., Northampton 760 ft., Rutland 800 ft., Lincolnshire 950 ft., and in Yorkshire about 500 ft.

The Lias of England was laid down in conditions very similar to those which obtained at the same time in north France and north Germany, that is to say, on the floor of a shallow sea; but in the Alpine region limestones are developed upon a much greater scale. Many of the limestones are red and crystalline marbles such as the "ammonitico-rosso-inferiore" of the Apennines; a grey, laminated limestone is known as the "Fleckenmergel." The whitish "Hierlatzkalke," the Adnet beds and the "Grestener beds" in the eastern Alps and Balkan Mountains are important phases of Alpine Lias. The Grestener beds contain a considerable amount of coal. The Lias of Spain and the Pyrenees contains much dolomitic limestone. This formation is widely spread in western Europe; besides the localities already cited it occurs in Swabia, the Rhenish provinces, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxemburg, Ardennes, Normandy, Austria-Hungary, the Balkan States, Greece and Scania. It has not been found north of Kharkov in Russia, but it is present in the south and in the Caucasus, in Anatolia, Persia and the Himalayas. It appears on the eastern side of Japan, in Borneo, Timor, New Caledonia and New Zealand (Bastion beds); in Algeria, Tunisia and elsewhere in North Africa, and on the west coast of Madagascar. In South America it is found in the Bolivian Andes, in Chile and Argentina; it appears also on the Pacific coast of North America.