PEOPORTION OF LAMAS TO LAITY. 259 



are admitted to a few monasteries, but their number is extremely 



small, and individually they are illiterate, old, and 



decrepit. 



Only three monasteries belong to the Karmapa, viz., Ralang, 



Eamtek, and Phodang, and of these Phodang is now in reality the 



chief, although Ralang is the parent monastery. 



At present the most flourishing monasteries in Sikhim are the 

 Njingmapa, Pemiongchi, and the Karmapa Phodang. 



The names of the monasteries, as will be seen from the translations 



given in the second column of the table, are mostly 



mo^asterier' °^ ^^^ Tibetan and of an ideal or mystic nature, but some 



are physically descriptive of the site, and a few are 



Lepcha place-names also of a descriptive character. 



'J he lamas number nearly one thousand, and are very numerous in 

 Proportion of lamas Proportion to the Buddhist population of the country, 

 to the Buddhist popu- In 1840, Dr. Campbell estimated^ the Lepchas and 

 lat>o°- Bhotiyas of Sikhim at 3,000 and 2,000 respec- 



tively; but Mr. White in his census of Sikhim in March 1891 gives 

 the population roughly as — 



Lepchas ... ... ... 5,800 



Bhotiyas ... ... ... 4,700 



Nepalese, &c. ... ... ... 19,500 



30,000 



As the Nepalese are all professing Hindus, the lamas are now 

 dependent on the Bhotiyas and Lepchas for support, and we thus get 

 a proportion of one lamaic priest to every 10 or 11 of the indigenous 

 population. But this does not represent the full priest-force of those 

 two races, as it takes no count of the numerous devil-dancers and 

 Ijepcha priests patronized by both Bhotiyas and Lepchas. 



III.-THE TEMPLE AND ITS CONTENTS. 



The temple had no place in primitive Buddhism. It is the out- 

 come of the worship of relics and images, and dates 

 e Temp e. from the later and impurer stage of Buddhism. 



Its proper name is Lka-kfiaiiff or "God's house;" but as it serves 

 the jDurpose of an assembly room and school, it is 

 t» names. ^j^^ called respectively Du-khang^ (a meeting-room) 



and Tsug-lak-hhang^ (an academy), although the former name is 

 strictly applicable only to the hall in the lower flat in which the 

 monks assemble for worship. 



The Oriental, page 13 | ^ Adu-khang. | ^ ^rtsug-lag-khang. 



