It’s hard to describe what kind of smell it is. Here, I need to elaborate further. The way the young man describes the scent is particularly atypical.
In other words, if you haven’t experienced many things with him, it’s hard to understand the kind of taste he talks about. It’s not just a simple smell; it’s a feeling. Not to be modest, my literary cultivation is certainly higher than that of the young man. What he speaks of is a particularly comprehensive sensation. The young man has encountered death countless times, or rather, for a long period, his life was about dealing with death. During those times, he smelled various scents repeatedly, such as the mixed odors of traditional Chinese medicine, mold, and cinnabar that are commonly found in ancient tombs. Because these scents exist in that environment, he subconsciously associates them with death. It’s like how we smell alcohol and think of illness and pain. However, the scents he encountered at that time can only be explained through a long story, rooted in his experiences from the year before he arrived here. These scents are hidden within the aroma of Tibetan incense, and the fact that the young man could detect them indicates that they are quite strong. However, due to the unique smell of the felt itself and the many charcoal stoves roasting nearby, he didn’t immediately distinguish that scent from the smells of the felt and Tibetan incense. These odors must have been brought in, trapped within the Tibetan incense, likely originating from the stove-like objects carried by the Tibetans. That was the smell of a corpse. The Tibetans quickly arranged everything around the girl and left, seemingly not wanting to linger at all. This action seemed unremarkable, but the young man sensed something was off. He glanced at the felt and the patterns on it. With those smells, he instinctively reached for his waist, wanting to grab a weapon, but found nothing there; he had forgotten that he hadn’t brought anything this time. Why did he suddenly become alert? It was because he saw the pattern on the felt. This pattern is called “Yama Riding a Corpse,” depicting the King of Hell riding a female corpse through mountains and rivers. This pattern holds significant meaning in Tibet, serving as one of the most effective designs for warding off evil. The young man suddenly realized the girl’s true identity. “Yama Riding a Corpse” first appeared on an iron thangka, which is a thin piece of iron inlaid with gold and silver foil depicting Yama riding a female corpse through the mountains, surrounded by decorative iron patterns resembling vines, with many skull motifs in the center. Yama is referred to as “Yama Raja” in Sanskrit, so this thangka is also called “Iron Yama Mara Raja Riding a Corpse.” Such imagery was particularly rare before the appearance of this thangka. Many times, people thought these were just exaggerated representations commonly found in Tibetan deity sculptures, where figures trample on corpses or people. However, it was later discovered that this was not the case because, in “Iron Yama Mara Raja Riding a Corpse,” the female corpse often stands out even more than Yama himself. In ancient Tibetan Buddhism, Yama was also referred to as the “Double King.” Ancient Tibetan Buddhists believed that Yama was not a single individual but a pair of siblings, so the female corpse in “Iron Yama Mara Raja Riding a Corpse” is sometimes seen as another feminine embodiment of Yama. At appropriate times, the positions of the female corpse and Yama can be switched, transforming into a female Yama riding a male corpse, though such imagery has yet to be discovered. The female corpse usually has a fierce appearance, with blind eyes, crawling on her elbows and knees, resembling a malevolent spirit, yet with full breasts and very pronounced female characteristics. The young man looked at the girl, whose hands and feet were all broken, and her eyes were blind. Could it be that this girl was Yama’s steed? The young man was too familiar with corpses; the girl must be a living person, and he had an ominous premonition. He had some understanding of “Yama Riding a Corpse,” but he did not comprehend why the girl appeared here in such a state. Was she a sacrifice for Yama? Or was it some kind of ritual? While pondering, the smell intensified from the other side, and the young man heard the girl’s painful moans, but he couldn’t see the specifics through the various felt layers. He was not curious about these matters; if it were elsewhere, he would certainly adopt an indifferent attitude. However, everything here was related to his purpose. He needed to know what this place was and who these Tibetans were. The young man then approached, finding a corner, and peered through the gaps between the felt. He saw that the stove near the girl seemed to be burning, with strange smells mixed with the scent of Tibetan incense pouring out vigorously. For some reason, the girl appeared to be in considerable pain, as if these smells had a strong irritating effect on her. The young man slowly approached and noticed the girl’s complexion had turned a bluish-gray, resembling the color of the female corpse depicted in the images on the felt, which were etched with silver foil. The girl had lost her senses and was moaning in agony, beside her were several strange small incense burners. He cautiously opened one of the incense burners and found it contained a strange powder that emitted a strong odor. He looked around, wedged his fingers into the cracks of the floor, and with a forceful pull, tore off a wooden splinter. He stirred the powder and discovered it contained many tiny fragments of bones; although they had been ground very finely, they were still recognizable as aged remains. This powder was a mixture of Tibetan incense and some desiccated corpses ground together. The young man had never encountered anything like this before and did not know what it was for. When he looked up at the girl again, he suddenly found that she had crawled up, using her elbows and knees to support herself, kneeling and crawling on the ground naked. The young man tensed his nerves, gripping the incense burner tightly; it was the only weapon he could use nearby. With his speed and strength, he could at least buy himself some time to escape, but he felt uncertain because he noticed that the girl’s crawling movements were incredibly swift, not at all resembling the pace of a disabled person. However, the girl did not attack him, nor did she even glance in his direction, but crawled straight toward another direction. The young man followed closely and saw the girl crawl toward a wooden staircase, quickly climbing up. It seemed to lead to the upper level of this lama temple. The young man looked back; the direction from which several Tibetans had come was not the same as the one the girl was heading. The wooden staircase was particularly large, made of logs about the thickness of a bowl, with a distance of about a meter between each section.
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