White Lama

PENTHOUSE OF THE GODS--Theos Bernard--Scribner ($3.50).

Son of American Yoga-believers from Arizona, husky, 20-year-old ex-Lawyer Theos Bernard is the first white man to become a Tibetan Lama. In 1936 he took a Master's degree in philosophy at Columbia University (specializing in Buddhism), spent the next 16 months in India and Tibet. He was allowed to enter the

Potala, Tibetan holy-of-holies, mainly on his word that he wished to become a Buddhist missionary in the U. S.

His six months in Tibet are described in Penthouse of the Gods. An unusual travel book, particularly outstanding for its photographs, it describes his journey from India through the 18,000-foot passes of the Himalayas, the diplomatic wangling which got him an official invitation to the "forbidden city" of Lhasa, his novitiate in the big monasteries of Drepung, Sera and Ganden, with monk populations from 5,000 to 10,000. The climax is, of course, the fussy, interminable ceremony at which he became a full-fledged Lama, a Western reincarnation of a long-dead Tibetan saint. For readers who picture Tibet from James Hilton's Lost Horizon, Lama Bernard's account should be an eye-opener.

His book will not make many Western converts, but the Yoga fortitude he showed is unquestionable. Ceremonials in the windowless temple room, lit with thousands of butter lamps, frequently lasted from sunrise to sunset, with 10,000 monks repeating one chant up to 108,000 times. Author Bernard braved the black chamber of horrors filled with fiendish and erotic idols, kept his head during four days of solitary confinement in a rock cave.

Among other disciplines it was necessary to learn to do without sleep. This was because he lived with wealthy, sophisticated Tibetan Minister Tsarong Shape, and was much entertained. Tsarong Shape and his set, who lived in modern houses with radio and plumbing, liked to eat seven-hour meals, go to horse races, nine-hour plays, shoot dice, and talk about such things as amateur photography.

Up to the best romantic version are Author Bernard's descriptions of Tibet--a more spectacular Arizona--and of magnificent Tibetan handicraft and art works. But even realists are likely to gag at his matter-of-fact details of Tibetan life: of monks who take special pride in a lifetime's grime that encrusts their golden robes; of communal toilets in open streets; of Tibetan burials, in which corpses are coiled as at birth, then hacked to pieces and fed to vultures.

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