xxxvi INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



known to us, by a Mongol term, signifying ' The Ocean ; ' 

 the other at Tashilunpo (' The Hill of Grace') or Digarchi, 

 styled in Tibetan the Panchhan Rinbochhi, or ' Most Excel- 

 lent Jewel.' In rank, sanctity, and spiritual dignity these 

 may be regarded as equal ; but in extent of temporal 

 dominion the Lhassa Pontiff vastly surpasses his colleague. 



These two Princes of the Church are in a manner inde- 

 feasible. Whenever one or other shuffles off this mortal 

 coil he proceeds to resume it again under the form of a 

 child born to succeed to the dignity, and indicated by 

 miraculous signs as the reincarnation of the departed Pon- 

 tiff. This is the system of supernatural succession of those 

 reborn saints whom the Mongols term KJiubilghan. 



The history of its institution is buried in obscurity ; but 

 the old Red-cap hierarchy, at least in some of its sects, had 

 established the hereditary character of the higher eccle- 

 siastical dignities. To preserve this was impossible under 

 the celibate enforced by Tsongkaba ; and the system of 

 succession by pretended reincarnation may have been a 

 scheme artfully devised to preserve union among the Yellow 

 sect, who might easily have been split by the discords and 

 intrigues of an elective papacy, as those causes again and 

 again split the Catholic world, until it came under the 

 compressive force exercised upon it by the existence of 

 seceding Churches. However that may be, it came to pass, 

 sooner or later, that not only those two chief pontiffs, but 

 also the secondary and tertiary dignitaries of the hierarchy 

 came to hand on their succession in the same supernatural 

 manner. 



The transmigration of souls, or what is most simply 

 described by that expression, is well known to be a pro- 

 minent doctrine of all Buddhism. Among the northern 

 Buddhists also, after many centuries, had arisen a doctrine 

 (derived probably from the Hindu Avataras) which repre- 

 sented the Bodhisatvas (i.e. potential or designate Buddhas, 

 awaiting in a celestial repose the time of their accomplished 

 Buddhahood) as occasionally and voluntarily assuming 

 human form. Thence by a third step Lamaism evolved its 



