Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
H.P. Blavatsky The Light-Bringer
By GEOFFREY A. BARBORKA
H. P. Blavatsky In Tibet
THEOSOPHISTS are much interested in learning about the time that H.P.B. was in Tibet, for if she was a messenger of the occult Brotherhood, she must have undergone certain experiences in Tibet and received training under her Teachers there.
One thing is certain : she was very reticent about giving information as to how or when she entered Tibet. The reason is obvious. She had given her pledge to maintain secrecy regarding her doings in that 'Forbidden Land,' as Tibet was referred to in her days. Nevertheless, by searching through available data, an interesting account may be given of her presence in Bod-las—as the land of Tibet is referred to by her Teachers. Probably the most direct statement that Mme. Blavatsky gave concerning the period she was there was made in answer to a journalist who was critical regarding her stay in Tibet and her qualifications :
her qualifications : I have lived at different periods in Little Tibet as in Great Tibet, and that these combined periods form more than seven years. Yet, I have never stated either verbally or over my signature that I had passed seven consecutive years in a convent. What I have said, and repeat now, is, that I have stopped in Lamaistic convents; that I have visited Tzi-gadze, the Tashi-Lhunpo territory and its neighbourhood, and that I have been further in, and in such places of Tibet as have never been visited by any other European, and that he can ever hope to visit.
The events described took place in the 1860-70 period. Later on, however, Mme. Blavatsky narrated how on one occasion she entered Tibet. But this was in 1882 after the Theosohpical Society headquarters had moved to Adyar :
When journeying from Chandernagor to Darjeeling, instead of proceeding to it direct, I left the train half way, was met by friends with a conveyance, and passed with them into the territory of Sikkim, where I found my Master and Mahatma Koot Hoomi. Thence five miles across the old borderland of Tibet.
One of the very few accounts which Mme. Blavatsky penned regarding her stay with the Masters in Tibet may be traced to the year 1870. In a letter dated January 6, 1886 she stated that the episode occurred 'sixteen years ago'.
I went to bed and I had the most extraordinary vision...in my sleep I saw them both [the Masters], I was again (a scene of years back) in Mah. K.H.'s house. I was sitting in a corner on a mat and he walking about the room in his riding dress, and Master was talking to someone behind the door. 'I remind can't'—I pronouncd in answer to a question of His about a dead aunt. He smiled and said 'Funny English you use.'Then I felt ashamed, hurt in my vanity, and began thinking (mind you, in my dream or vision which was the exact reproduction of what had taken place word for word 16 years ago) 'now I am here and speaking nothing hut English in verbal phonetic language 1 can perhaps learn to speak better with Him.' (To make it clear with Master I also used English, which whether bad or good was the same for Him as he does not speak it but understands every word I say out of my head; and I am made to understand Him—how I could never tell or explain if I were killed but I do. With D.K. I also spoke English, he speaking it better even than Mah. K.H.) Then, in my dream still, three months after as I was made to feel in that vision—I was standing before Mah. K.H. near the old building taken down he was looking at, and as Master was not at home, I took to him a few sentences I was studying in Senzar in his sister's room and asked him to tell me if I translated them correctly—and gave him a slip of paper with these sentences written in English. He took and read them and correcting the interpretation read them over and said 'Now your English is becoming better—try to pick out of my head even the little I know of it.' And he put his hand on my forehead in the region of memory and squeezed his fingers on it (and I felt even the same trifling pain in it, as then, and the cold shiver I had experienced) and since that day He did so with my head daily, for about two months. Again, the scene changes and I am going away with Master who is sending me off, back to Europe. I am bidding good-bye to his sister and her child and all the chelas. I listen to what the Masters tell me. And then come the parting words of Mah. K.H.
In another letter, this time written to Dr. Hartmann, Mme. Blavatsky gives a detailed picture of one of the Tibetan temples near Shigatse and also describes the characteristics of most other temples, f Further evidence that Mme. Blavatsky was in Tibet and received in struction from those who later sent her to the western world appears in a letter written by one of her instructors. This letter was written in French five years before the founding of The Theosophical Society and sent to one of the members of her family, who had not heard from her for many years. It was addressed to Nadyejda A. Fadeyev— in translation :
The noble relatives of Mme. H. Blavatsky have no cause whatsoever for grief. Their daughter and niece has not left this world at all. She is living and desires to make known to those whom she loves that she is well and feels very happy in the distant and unknown retreat she has selected for herself. She has been very ill, but is so no longer; for owing to the protection of the Lord Sang-gyas she has found devoted friends who take care of her physically and spiritually. Let the ladies of her house, therefore, remain calm. Before 18 new moons shall have risen—she will have returned to her family.
At the time the letter was received the following notation was made upon the envelope in Russian and signed by the recipient (in translation) :
Received at Odessa November 7, about Lelinka probably from Tibet—November 11, 1870. Nadyejda F.J Lelinka is the Russian 'pet name' of Yelena (the Russian form of Flelena). Furthermore, a memorandum concerning the receipt of the letter was sent to Col. Olcott by Nadyejda Fadeyev dated June 26, 1884, from Paris :
Two or three years ago I wrote to Mr. Sinnett in reply to one of his letters, and I remember telling him what happened to me about a letter which I received phenomenally, when my niece was on the other side of the world, and because of that nobody knew where she was—which made us deeply anxious. All our researches had ended in nothing. We were ready to believe her dead, when—I received a letter from Him Whom I believe you call 'Kouth Humi,' which was brought to me in the most incomprehensible and mysterious manner, in my house by a messenger of Asiatic appearance, who then disappeared before my very eyes. This letter, which begged me not to fear anything, and which announced that she was in safety—I have still, but at Odessa. Immediately upon my return I shall send it to you, and I shall be very pleased if it can be of any use to you.
