adminThese scents are hidden within the fragrance of Tibetan incense, and the fact that the young man could detect them indicates that the odors are quite strong. However, because the felt itself has a unique smell, combined with the many charcoal stoves nearby roasting, the young man couldn’t immediately distinguish the scent from the felt and the incense.
These smells must have been brought in with the incense, likely from something similar to the stoves being carried by the Tibetans. It is the smell of a corpse.
The Tibetans quickly arranged everything around the girl and left, seemingly in no mood to linger. This action seemed unremarkable, but the young man sensed something was off. He looked around at the felt and the patterns on it. With those scents, he instinctively reached for his waist, intending to grab a weapon, but he found nothing there; he had forgotten that he hadn’t brought anything with him this time.
Why did he suddenly become vigilant? It was because he saw the pattern on the felt.
This pattern is called “Yama Riding the Corpse,” depicting the king of hell riding a female corpse through mountains and rivers. This image holds significant meaning in Tibetan culture, serving as a powerful protective symbol against evil. The young man suddenly realized the girl’s true identity.
Tibetan traditional patterns are quite diverse, and if these felts were collected from different periods, the designs should vary. However, all the felt here, despite minor differences, bore the same image.
“Yama Riding the Corpse” first appeared on a metal thangka, a thin piece of iron inlaid with gold and silver foil depicting Yama riding a female corpse through the mountains. The thangka is surrounded by decorative iron patterns resembling vines, with many skull motifs in the center.
Yama is referred to as “Yama Raja” in Sanskrit, hence this thangka is also called “Iron Yama Raja Riding the Corpse.” Such images were rare before the appearance of the thangka; many believed they were merely exaggerated depictions common in Tibetan divine imagery, showcasing figures trampling on corpses or people.
However, it became apparent that something was amiss, as in the Iron Yama Raja Riding the Corpse, the female corpse often has a more prominent depiction than Yama himself.
The female corpse typically has a fierce countenance, blind eyes, and crawls on her elbows and knees, resembling a malevolent spirit, yet her chest is full, exhibiting distinctly feminine features.
The young man observed that the girl’s hands and feet were all broken, and her eyes were blind. Could it be that this girl is Yama’s mount?
The young man was all too familiar with corpses, and he had an unsettling premonition that this girl was still alive. He had some understanding of Yama Riding the Corpse, but he couldn’t comprehend why the girl appeared in this state. Was she a sacrifice for Yama? Or was it part of some ritual?
In the midst of his thoughts, the scent from the other side became even more intense. The muffled sound of the girl’s painful moans reached the ears of the man in the oil bottle, but he could not see the specific situation through the various felt layers. He was not particularly curious about these occurrences; in other circumstances, he would certainly adopt a dismissive attitude toward them. However, everything here was connected to his purpose.
What exactly was this place, and who were these藏民 (Tibetan people)? He had to find out. So, he leaned forward, found a corner, and through the gaps between the felt, he saw that the stove near the girl seemed to be burning. The strange scent mixed with the aroma of Tibetan incense was surging out intensely.
For some reason, the girl exhibited considerable pain, as if these smells had a strong stimulating effect on her. The man in the oil bottle slowly approached and discovered that the girl’s complexion had turned a greyish hue, reminiscent of the color of the female corpse etched in silver foil in the illustrations on the felt. The girl had lost her senses, moaning in agony, while beside her were several peculiar 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, inserted his fingers into the gap in the floorboards, and with a forceful pull, he ripped off a wooden splinter. He stirred the powder and discovered it contained many tiny fragments of bones. Although they had been ground very finely, it was still evident that they were aged bones. This powder was a mixture of Tibetan incense and ground remnants of some desiccated corpses.
The man in the oil bottle had never encountered anything like this before and did not understand its purpose. When he looked up at the girl again, he suddenly noticed that she had crawled up, supporting herself with her elbows and knees, naked and crawling on the ground. He tensed his nerves, gripping the incense burner tightly with one hand; it was the only weapon he could use nearby. Given his speed and strength, a swing of it could at least buy him some time to escape, but he still felt uncertain because he realized that the girl’s movements, crawling on her elbows and knees, were remarkably swift, showing no signs of being a disabled person.
However, the girl did not attack him; she didn’t even glance in his direction but crawled straight toward another direction.
The man followed closely and saw the girl crawling toward a wooden staircase, and in an instant, she climbed up. It seemed to lead to the upper level of this lama temple.
He looked back; that was the direction where several藏民 had come from, which was not the same direction the girl was going. The wooden staircase was particularly large, made from logs as thick as a bowl’s rim. The distance between each step was about a meter.
The staircase led to an entrance above, wide enough for a Liberation truck to pass through. The door was hung with felt and adorned with yellow ancient silk embroidered with red Tibetan characters. From the faded color of the silk, it felt like it was something from at least several centuries ago. He instinctively sensed that this staircase was not meant for people to use, as humans could not possibly climb it; it was prepared for this girl. So, where did this staircase lead?
Strange felt and talismans; several Tibetan locals hurriedly left, indicating that there must be something extraordinary inside. Men Youping pressed down on the stairs to test their sturdiness, and with a little force, his body leaped up instantly. Instead of stepping on the crossbeams, he sprang up along the long poles on either side of the stairs.
Before he could reach the yellow satin at the door, a gunshot rang out, striking the wood at his feet and causing it to explode. Men Youping reacted quickly, jumping out in an instant, grabbing the felt hanging nearby, and flipping himself down. Almost simultaneously, gunfire erupted from below, with bullets hitting the stairs. By the time the bullets shifted to the felt, Men Youping had already slipped into it. He held his breath and looked in the direction of the gunfire.
He saw a flicker of blue light; it seemed that a person dressed in a blue Tibetan robe was moving swiftly among the felt. Men Youping pressed his hand to the ground, listening to the sounds to discern the person’s direction while feeling around for anything he could use for defense. Just as his hand touched the floor, a bullet came through several layers of felt, and he barely managed to move his head in time for the bullet to graze past his ear. He immediately realized that his opponent was not an ordinary person and was not easy to deal with. However, Men Youping had plenty of experience with such individuals. He suddenly stood up and ran almost flat against the ground, hearing bullets whizzing past him from behind. In the blink of an eye, he reached a charcoal stove and stepped on the burning coals.
The coals erupted into a burst of sparks, and using this leap, Men Youping jumped over a person’s height, grabbing hold of a piece of felt and hanging silently behind it like a bat.
Almost simultaneously, several bullets struck the charcoal stove, knocking it over. Then, the person in the blue robe charged over. In this kind of urban combat-style concealed shooting, although the shooter had very powerful weapons, they lacked any informational advantage. If they encountered someone agile, they could easily be ambushed. The best strategy was to run in the direction from which the shots were fired, as the shooter would inevitably have to leave after firing, making the area they vacated safe.
The shooter was most affected by the gunfire; after multiple shots without hitting anything, the likelihood of being ambushed increased significantly. You never knew how close someone might have gotten while you were shooting. In this seemingly concealed area where the felt provided no real cover, this method proved to be the most practical. Thus, the man in the blue robe quickly reached the edge of the felt, and almost as soon as he arrived, Men Youping dropped down heavily from above, his knees pressing down on the blue-robed man’s shoulders.
With the combined weight, gravity, and speed, the blue-robed man was instantly brought to his knees. Men Youping twisted his waist but did not tightly grip the man’s head; instead, he clamped down on his hand, forcefully twisting it to disarm him of the long gun he was holding. The gun fell to the ground, and Men Youping kicked it away with his heel. After stabilizing himself, he looked to see who the person was.
Before he could clearly see what was happening, the other party reacted very quickly, drawing a hidden knife and sending a flash of cold light straight towards the face of the man in the oil bottle. While he had no way to deal with a gun, if someone wanted to fight him, that would truly be seeking death. The man in the oil bottle slightly sidestepped, avoiding the blade, and his fist struck the blue-robed man’s nose through a gap in his defense. At that moment, if anyone were nearby, they wouldn’t have had time to see how he had made his move; all they would hear was the dull thud of a fist hitting flesh, and the blue-robed man fell to the ground.
The man in the oil bottle crouched down and quickly seized the blue-robed man’s knife hand, applying a little force, causing the blue-robed man to be completely immobilized, and the knife slipped from his grasp. Looking down, he saw a particularly young Tibetan youth, no more than eighteen or nineteen years old, who was in immense pain, repeatedly speaking something in Tibetan. The man in the oil bottle knew that the gunfire had alarmed many people, and he couldn’t stay here for long. Just as he was about to knock him out and leave, he saw more blue-robed Tibetans suddenly emerge from behind the felt, numbering in the dozens, all holding long guns aimed at him. The man in the oil bottle sighed lightly, but then saw all the Tibetans squat down, performing the most respectful gesture of the Tibetan people towards him.
This so-called most respectful gesture was essentially prostration, and after the prostration, one of the oldest blue-robed Tibetans presented a colorful hada.
I actually found this to be a very strange scene. The act of presenting a hada appears in many stories and has become a politically charged ritual, but in Tibet, presenting a colorful hada is indeed the highest form of etiquette.
However, the situation just now was quite bizarre; such a scene suddenly emerged, and I found it quite unbelievable while reviewing the information. Then, Luodan appeared in front of the man in the oil bottle and spoke in very fluent Chinese, “We have been waiting for you for a long time, Mr. Zhang. Please accept our apologies and the hada we present to you.”
The man in the oil bottle calmly looked around at the people and saw Luodan pull out a yellowed black-and-white photograph from his pocket and hand it over.
“Everything was arranged by Mr. Dong; what he said was indeed correct.”
The photograph showed Dong Can dressed in Tibetan attire. The man in the oil bottle took it, flipped it over, and saw a line of text: “The secret is right here; they can help you.”
