NOTES ON THE ETHNOLOGY OF TIBET. 683 



sometimes on foot, at others on horseback. In this resi)ect the Tibetan woman is 

 very free, but she is, nevertheless, the slave, the drudge of one or more husbands; 

 she is bought like any other goods without asking her consent. In this way she, by 

 right, becomes a kind of household chief, but she has to submit herself to all the 

 wishes, the caprices, the brutal passions of her husbands. * * * In all heathen 

 countries the woman is looked down upon as an inferior creature to man. The 

 Tibetans have even a word to designate her by, which m9,y be translated by "low 

 creature."" 



Father Hue (Souveuirs d'uii voyage dans la Tartarie et le Thibet, ii, 

 p. 260) looks at the subject in a different light. 



One thing which tends to make me believe that in Tibet there is possibly less 

 depravity than in certain other heathen countries, is the great freedom enjoyed by 

 the women. Instead of vegetating imprisoned in their homes, they lead a laborious 

 life full of activity. Besides having the care of their households, they monopolize 

 all the small commerce of the country. They peddle goods here and there, spread 

 them out in the streets, and keep nearly all the retail shops. In the country they 

 also take a large share in all family pursuits. 



Chinese authors have found the cause of this superior position of 

 Tibetan woman over those of most other Asiatic countries in their 

 superior physique (Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s., xxiii, p, 230, also 

 Land of the Lamas, p. 211), but it is probably in part due to Buddhism, 

 and still more to i)olyandry. The former by admitting women into the 

 sangha raised them materially in the- social scale ; the latter by the 

 important role it makes them play in the family life has had the same 

 effect.t 



Inheritance. — Property is inherited by the sons or brothers of the 

 deceased. The daughters or wife get nothing. It is common, if not 

 usual, for a wife, on the decease of her husband, to shave her head and 

 become a nun or ani. This custom is also found among the Mongols. 



According to Chinese authors (but I have been unable to corroborate 

 their statements), none of the personal property of a deceased person 

 is inherited by his relatives. 



One-half of the property of the deceased is given away in charities and the other 

 half is sent to the Lamas, who are invited to read the sacred books to his intent and 

 entertained while so doing. It follows that all the (personal) property of the 

 deceased is disposed of, the parents, children, husband, or Avife retaining no part of 

 it whatever. (Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s., xxiii, p. 232.) 



The real estate remains, however, in the family, and, consisting 

 usually of a large house and some very small and not by any means 

 fertile fields, not sufficient to support several families, it is usual to 

 keep the estate undivided; all the children of the deceased live in the 

 house of their parent, the sons only taking one wife to themselves- 



*Sman-ia (pronounced vmnla). This inferiority is not very noticeable among 

 pastoral or nomadic tribes. 



Uaeschke, Tib. Engl. Diet., s. v. sptoi, says: "Several neighbors or inhabitants 

 of a village, who have a common Ih'a and thus become rus-pa-{ichi(j-chig , ' members of 

 the same family,' are called spun or brothers. This common tie entails on them the 

 duty, whenever a death takes place in their number, of caring for the cremation of 

 the dead body." 



