ch as the compass,
gunpowder, porcelain, paper, printing, &c.--known and practiced
thousands of years before these were rediscovered by the Europeans,
ought to receive some trust for their records. And from Lao-tze down to
Hiouen-Thsang their literature is filled with allusions and references
to that island and the wisdom of the Himalayan adepts. In the "Catena
of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese," by the Rev. Samuel Beal, there
is a chapter "On the TIAN-TA'I School of Buddhism" (pp. 244-258) which
our opponents ought to read. Translating the rules of that most
celebrated and holy school and sect in China founded by Chin-che-K'hae,
called Che-chay (the Wise One), in the year 575 of our era, when coming
to the sentence which reads "That which relates to the one garment
(seamless) worn by the GREAT TEACHERS OF THE SNOWY MOUNTAINS, the school
of the Haimavatas" (p. 256), the European translator places after the
last sentence a sign of interrogation, as well he may. The statistics
of the school of the "Haimavatas," or of our Himalayan Brotherhood, are
not to be found in the general census records of India. Further, Mr.
Beal translates a rule relating to "the great professors of the higher
order who live in mountain depths remote from men," the Aranyakas, or
hermits.

So, with respect to the traditions concerning this island, and apart
from the (to them) historical records of this preserved in the Chinese
and Tibetan sacred books, the legend is alive to this day among the
people of Tibet. The fair island is no more, but the country where it
once bloomed remains there still, and the spot is well known to some of
the "great teachers of the Snowy Mountains," however much convulsed and
changed its topography by the awful cataclysm. Every seventh year these
teachers are believed to assemble in SCHAM-BHA-LA, the "Happy Land."
According to the general belief it is situated in the north-west of
Tibet. Some place it within the unexplored central regions,
inaccessible even to the fearless nomadic tribes; others hem it in
between the range of the Gangdisri Mountains and the northern edge of
the Gobi desert, south and north, and the more populated regions of
Khoondooz and Kashmir, of the Gya-Pheling (British India), and China,
west and east, which affords to the curious mind a pretty large latitude
to locate it in. Others still place it between Namur Nur and the
Kuen-Lun Mountains, but one and all firmly believe in Scham-b