532 THE POPULAR SCIENCE -MONTHLY. 



custom does not lead to so many difficulties as it might be supposed it 

 would, and the chief troubles arising out of it concern the fatherhood 

 of the children. The housewife occupies rather a commanding than 

 a subordinate position. 



Three ways of burying the dead prevail. The poor sink their 

 dead in one of the mountain-streams ; those of a better class hang 

 the bodies upon a tree, where they are consumed by birds, and the 

 bones are afterward thrown into the river ; the rich cut the bodies up 

 into small pieces, pound the bones and mix them with Jamba, and 

 then carry the remains to the mountains, where they are left for 

 the birds. These are old customs, and have no connection with 

 religion. 



Buddhism was introduced in the seventh century, and soon became 

 the national religion. The present line of Dalai Lamas is in succession 

 to the reformer Tsong-Kaba, who flourished in the fourteenth century, 

 and denounced the corruptions into which the religion had fallen. The 

 branch of the church which it represents is called the yellow sect, in 

 distinction from the red sect of followers of the old dynasty, which 

 prevails in the principalities of the southern Himalaya range. A dy- 

 nasty of lamas, the Teshu lamas, founded by another reformer in the 

 fifteenth century, resides at Teshulumbo, near Shigatze, and is on the 

 best of terms with the Dalai Lamas. The lamas are believed only to 

 change form when they die, their identity passing to some child. So, 

 on the demise of the Dalai Lama, the new lama is sought out in ways 

 that are known to the priests, and is always found in some obscure 

 family, thus leaving people of any influence always free from gov- 

 ernmental care and influence. He is carefully brought up, so as to be 

 always as a child, and under the entire control of the priests, who re- 

 ceive their reward in the power they exercise, and in the rich gifts 

 that are brought by the pilgrims who come from all Buddhist coun- 

 tries to seek the Dalai Lama's blessing. Besides the two orthodox 

 chiefs, there exist in Thibet and Mongolia one hundred and three 

 Kutuktus, or heads of cloisters, to whom an immortality similar to 

 that of the Grand Lamas is ascribed. 



The priests, by virtue of their ownership of all the land in the 

 country, exercise a despotic power over the people, who can hold only 

 as their tenants, and keep them under complete spiritual control. They 

 are thus enabled to keep the country isolated, and to defy the Chinese 

 Government, while they are willing and even anxious to enjoy its pro- 

 tection. 



