i66 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



TIBETAN DANCERS. 



\_Caictiaa. 



than the restoration to flesh of an ordinary layman's soul. To ascertain when that takes place, 

 several means are resorted to. Sometimes the deceased had, before his death, confidentially 

 mentioned to his friends where and in which family he would reappear, or possibly his will 

 contained an intimation with the same purport. In most cases, however, the sacred books and 

 the official astrologers are consulted, and they, by virtue of an extraordinary wisdom amounting 

 to inspiration, after many ceremonies and long periods of contemplation, give all who are 

 interested the information they seek. It can be easily imagined that extraordinary and 

 startling consequences may result from the introduction of the same soul as the vivifying 

 principle in members of different and probably hostile families. 



What must be regarded as the Lamaist clergy consists of four orders; and the lowest 

 of these, having no claim to holiness on the grounds of good works done by predecessors, 

 recruits its ranks on the principles of personal merit and theological proficiency. It has four 

 grades. Every member must make the vow of celibacy, and by far the greater number of 

 them live in convents. A Lamaist convent, or lamaiserai, consists of a temple, which forms its 

 centre, and of a number of buildings connected with the temple, appropriated as the meeting- 

 rooms, library, refectory, dwellings, and for other worldly and spiritual wants of the monks. 

 Lamaism has likewise its nuns and nunneries. The Lamaist Sacred Books bear the name 

 of the Kandjur, and consist of 1,083 distinct works, which, in some editions, fill from 

 102 to 108 volumes, folio. The political authority of the Dalai Lama is confined to Tibet, 

 but he is the acknowledged head of the Buddhist Church also throughout Mongolia and China. 



The Bonba are sometimes called the " Sect of the Black," to distinguish them from the 

 " Red " or " Yellow " Lamaists, these appellations arising from the colour of the garments 

 worn by the members of the respective sects. The Bonba have eighteen principal gods and 

 goddesses, of whom the most popular and the one universally worshipped is the " Tiger-god 

 of Glowing Fire." Those Bonba who, when travelling, camp in black tents are presumably 

 very orthodox, and perhaps divide their worship among a dozen at least of their divinities. 



