xxxiv IXTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



has deviated so far from the original form of Sakya's 

 doctrine, would be worthy of more careful study than they 

 have yet received. And this study might, possibly, suggest 

 wholesome considerations to some Avell-meaning persons 

 among our countrymen j"ust now. 



In its older forms Lamaism was a kind of Buddhism 

 corrupted, on the one hand by the aboriginal Shamanism, 

 and on the other hand by Sivaite magic and mysticism. 

 It also allowed, at least in certain cases, of the marriage 

 of priests, under varying conditions and limitations, kin- 

 dred to those which strictly belonged to the character of 

 the pure Brahman. Thus, certain of the hierarchy were 

 allowed to live in the married state until an heir was born ; 

 others until the son also had an heir. And the sacred 

 dignities were thus often hereditary in the literal sense. 



In the middle of the fourteenth century arose the great 

 reformer of Lamaism in the person of Tsongkaba, born in 

 the province of Amdo, at the spot now marked with con- 

 sequent sanctity by the great monastery of Kunbum.' 

 Tsongkaba was a reformer, manifestly, not in the spirit of 

 Luther or Calvin, but rather in that of Francis or Dominic ; 

 but we are not in a position to indicate very clearly the 

 scope of his reforms. He did, however, evidently make 

 some considerable effort to revert to the original practices 

 of Buddhism. And the most visible and external of his 

 reforms, the substitution of the yellow cap and robe for the 

 red which had characterized the older Lamas, was an in- 

 stance of this. Such also was the more important mea- 

 sure of recalling the priesthood to a strict and universal 

 profession of celibacy. The old Indian Buddhism did 

 recognise wedded persons under certain secondary vows as 

 lay brothers and lay sisters, but knew no such persons as 

 married sramanas, or full members of the Church. Tsong- 

 kaba also greatly checked, or strove to check, the inter- 

 vention of magical practices among the faithful. These 

 were excessively prevalent among the older Lamas, — as, 



^ sKu-b/a/i (pronounced Ku-bum, or K'lai-bmn), 'the 100,000 

 images/ some thirty or forty miles south of Sining. 



