496 Mr. S. Davis on the Religions and Social 



This sort of society, although apparently joyless and insipid, may admit 

 of intrigue, and allow room for men of superior parts and address to aspire 

 to places of trust and importance in public concerns, since tlie government 

 of the whole country, as well as particular districts, is completely in the 

 hands of the priests. They are, in fact, the noblesse of the country, exer- 

 cising under the sanction of religion a pre-eminence over the common 

 people, on whose labours they entirely subsist, and to whose services on all 

 emergencies they lay claim. I could obtain no estimate of the number of 

 persons composing this order in Boutan, but from the following observa- 

 tions it will appear how large a portion tlicy must form of the entire in- 

 habitants ; for, besides those lodged in Tacissudon and other castles, there 

 is scarcely a patch of land to be seen, admitting of considerable cultivation, 

 where there is not a village on some adjacent height, inliabited by these 

 people, who draw their support from the industry of the peasants beneath. 

 These villages being always well built, and the houses lofty and wiiite- 

 washed, are often beautiful objects as viewed from the road in travelling 

 througli the country. Each of these fraternities has its chapel, altar, and 

 Lama-groo, or cliief priest, who presides, and sees that the duties of the pro- 

 fession are regularly and properly discharged. There are besides a few who, 

 in the character of faquires, pass their austere and solitary lives in lonely 

 places high up among the rocks and jungle ; and in some parts of Boutan are 

 said to be religious societies of female devotees or nuns, who, like the priests, 

 have their superior and other officers, but all of their own sex.* Provisions 

 and necessaries are regularly supplied to them, but no man dares be found 

 after day-light in the precincts of the place, on pain of severe punishment. 



Their belief in the Metempsychosis does not seem in Boutan very strictly 

 adhered to, any further than as it respects the regeneration of the three prin- 

 cipal Lamas, Lam-Sebdo, Lam-Geysey, and the Rajah Lam-Bimbochy, than 

 which no religious truth (they say) can possibly be more certain. On some 

 enquiry I made concerning their notions of heaven, 1 remember the Rajah 

 said he had been there, but his manner of expression seemed to indicate a 

 desire to put an end to that topic of discourse, under an apprehension, per- 

 haps, that he might be asked to give an account of his adventures on the 

 expedition. It is true we had it signified on our arrival that the Rajah 



* Such hermits and such nuns, as are here described, exist likewise among the Budhists 

 of China. J.F.D. 



