Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1896 — “Tree of Ten Thousand Images.” [ARTICLE]

“Tree of Ten Thousand Images.”

In his “Souvenirs de Voyage au Thibet,” Pere Hue speaks of a wonderful tree which had the strange habit of producing images and hieroglyphics upon Its leaves. Sometiipes religious figures take the place of the letters. He called she mysterious thing "the tree of one thousand images.” These imagfts are found on the leaves, on the stems, and on the trtmk. Near the temple of Buddha, In the village of Liousar, Thibet, this great tree flourishes. In 1891 Mr. William Rock\vel| started out to see this famous tree. He went to Liousar, a village of about eight hundred Inhabitants, and possessing an immense lamanerie. It shelters about three thousand lamas, or Buddhist priests. But it was in February, and the tree had no leaves. At last Monseigneur Biet, of the foreign mission, the Apostolic Vicar of Thibet, has just solved the mystery. The fake was explained to him by a lamd, who adjured bis faith and became a Catholic. The trick was simple enough, like every other trick when it Is found out. In the spring and In the summer, on dark nights, a lama, with his pockets full of hand stamps, climbs all through the tree and stamps the leaves with all sorts of holy Images and characters, the most numerous being tbe following formula: “Om mane padme om”—glory to Buddha in the lotus. This Is also stamped upon the bark, and the leaves and portion of the bark are sold to the visitors.