Reply #7: Once, long ago, in Tibet. . .

[ironflange]

There was a Buddhist monastery high in the mountains. Life was good. One day, though, a group of Mongol warriors happened upon their peaceful retreat, and, Mongols being Mongols, they took it upon themselves to thoroughly sack the place. What they couldn't carry off, they smashed, that mostly being the large statues of the Buddha that were scattered about. They finally left, and the poor monks did the best they could to tidy the place up and try to recover at least some sense of normalcy. They were rather poor, and the invaders had taken what they had of value, so about all they could do was make new clay statues of the Buddha. This done, they went back to their daily routine, poorer now but still happy. Of course, the Mongols came back, but since they had cleaned the monastery out last time they contented themselves with smashing all the Buddha statues again. Maybe they liked the sound. This became a regular event, no sooner did they create and decorate new statues, the bad guys would come back and mess things up again. Finally, the monks had had enough, and decided to do something. They had heard tell of a brilliant French military strategist, who happened to be in Tibet for a time, so a group of them made the long journey on foot to meet the man. He heard their story, then made his recommendation. They were build a dam on the river flowing from their valley, the only route to the monastery, to create a lake. Next, just wait for winter, most of the year at that elevation, so the lake freezes. In the meantime, each monk was to fit his shoes with hobnails or cleats, as the Frenchman knew that the Mongols' hard leather soles would provide little traction. Finally, they were to wait by the frozen lake, and when the Mongols came to cross it, they would ambush them and drive them off once and for all. This was put into practice, and worked perfectly; the monks easily got the better of the invaders who could barely stand up on the slippery surface, let alone fight. The Mongols never returned, and the monks dwelt in peace and happiness for ever and ever. The delighted monks gathered what little gold they had left and created a special medal for the Frenchman, so deep was their gratitude. One side featured an image of the monastery in its mountain home, and the other bore the inscription:

To the Buddha Pest Rink War Tete