730 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



In Ladak bodies are burned fifteen or twenty days after death, during 

 wliieli time prayers are said by lamas. In the case of a very wealthy 

 man or a chief, after the body has been burned in a metal vessel, 

 the ashes are carefully collected and made into an image of the 

 deceased. A ch'iirten or pyramid is erected for the ashes, and in it are 

 placed various kiuds of grain, precious stones and metal, rolls of 

 prayers and incense. 



The body of a great lama is interred in a sitting posture with his 

 clothes and all the implements of worshii) he was accustomed to use 

 daily. The coftiu is deposited in a ch'iirteu, before which for some time 

 food and water are offered daily, and a light is kept burning every 

 night. (Alex, Cunningham, Ladak, p. 309.) 



As to their signs of mourning, Chinese authors tell us that the Tibe- 

 tans, both " men and women put on mourning clothes, and for one 

 hundred days they wear no colored clothes, and during that period 

 they neither comb their hair nor wash. The women do not wear their 

 earrings and put away their prayer beads, and these are the only changes 

 (in dress) they make. The rich invite lamas at short intervals to come 

 and read the sacred books, so as to procure for the deceased the joys 

 of the nether world. After one j^ear it is all at an end." ( Journ. Koy. 

 Asiat. Soc, n. s., xxiii, p. 233.) 



X. 



RELIGION-LA3IAS-RELIGMOUS ARCHITECTURE-OBJECTS CONNECTED 

 WITH RELIGIOUS WORSHIP. 



It does not enter into the plan of this paper to describe even cur- 

 sorily the religious beliefs of the Tibetans. Many works have already 

 been written on the subject, but much remains yet to be done before 

 we possess a thorough knowledge of it. Buddhism, which was intro- 

 duced into the country in the seventh century A. D,, has remained 

 since then the religion of Tibet. It is that form of Buddhism which is 

 known as Mahayana Buddhism, in which magic demonolatry and mys- 

 ticism have become such commanding features that it is with difficulty 

 that we can trace in the forms of worship obtaining at present in Tibet 

 any of the simplicity characteristic of early Buddhism and still to be 

 found, to a certain extent, among the Buddhists of Southern Asia.* 



The Buddhism of Tibet is usually called Lamaism, the word "lama," 

 written 6/a-»irt and meaning "the superior one," being that given by 

 Chinese and foreigners generally to the members of the Buddhist 

 monastic order in Tibet. In Tibet, however, this word is reserved for 



* Primitive Lamaism may be defined as a priestly mixture of .Shivaic mysticism, 

 magic aud Indo-Tibetan demonolatry overlaid by the thinnest veneer of Mahayana 

 Buddhism. And to the present day Lamaism still retains these features. * # * 

 But neither in the essentials of Lamaism itself nor in its sectarian aspects do the 

 truly Buddhist doctrines, as taught by Sakya Mum, play any leading part. (L. A. 

 Waddell, Lamaism and its Sects, in lmi>. and Asiatic Quarterly Review, vii. and his 

 Buddhism of Tibet, p. 17.) 



