730 LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 



important business place, as well as the connecting link in the com- 

 merce between India and northern Tibet and China with the East. 



The market place is located around the central or temple section, 

 where all the ground floors of buildings and open spaces in the streets 

 are occupied b}^ stores and small exhibits of merchandise. Women 

 are preeminently the sales people, although in the stores of the Kash- 

 miris and Nepalese men do the selling. 



About the town stand the principal monasteries of Tibet, Sera, 

 Brebung, and Galdan, known under the common name Serbre yesum. 

 Brebung, the largest, is about 7 miles northwest of Lhasa; next comes 

 Sera, about 2 miles north of the city, and last, Galdan, about 20 miles 

 distant to the left of the river U-chu, on the incline of the steep 

 mountain Brog-ri. They belong to one ruling sect of Tsongkapa and 

 were organized during his lifetime, at the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century. The Dalai Lama is regarded as the head of them all. There 

 are 15,000 to 16,000 monks in all, of which 8,000 to 8,500 are in 

 Brebung, 5,000 in Sera, and 2,000 to 2,500 in Galdan. In the Galdan 

 monastery there is a vice-Tsongkapa, under the name, the "Galdan 

 golden throne," a position established inunediately after the death of 

 the organizer, at the suggestion of his pupils and disciples. Li olden 

 times that office was tilled by the choice of the Galdan monks, but 

 on account of the confusion that followed elections the present method 

 of installation was instituted, and the position is now tilled in six-year 

 terms by two Lamas, or, more correctly, wandering ecclesiastics, 

 •"'Chzhuds," in the order of their service in the higher positions of 

 their temple. The present incumbent is the eighty-tifth superior 

 since Tsongkapa, or the eighty-sixth superior of Galdan, counting the 

 reformer as the tirst. 



Each of the monasteries has its laws and its own land, and they are 

 thus independent of one another. The Brebung monastery is the most 

 influential, l)ecause of its wealth and numbers, which are both the cause 

 and the eflect. Much of this superiority is also due to the fact that 

 Brebung monks were elevated to Dalai Lamas, to whose lot it soon fell 

 to l)e at the head of the spiritual and civil government of Central 

 Tibet. The lamaiste monasteries are now not so much places of refuge 

 for ascetics, as schools for the clergy, beginning with the alphabet and 

 reaching to the highest theological knowledge. 



It is true that the public school begins the instruction in religion, 

 but the elementaries as well as the domestic occupations of adults 

 are taught by private teachers chosen by the pupil. Nevertheless, 

 every one, be he a boy tive or six 3'ears old or a mature and even old 

 person, is regarded as a member of the congregation and receives 

 maintenance by becoming subject to the monastery laws. The prm- 

 cipal suliject taught is theological philosophy, which consists of tive 



