LHASA. AND CENTRAL TIBET. 739 



However, the people still revere the ritods, and the tombstones of 

 some of them are coveted last resting- places for the dead; upon them 

 the corpses are cut up for the distribution of the flesh and bones 

 among the griflin-vultures. 



The relic curios, in which Galdan is rich, show us to what an extent 

 the famous Tsongkapa took possession of the minds of his followers. 

 His successor after his death sought memorials of the existence of 

 the dear teacher, not content with his works. Ho did not believe that 

 a teacher could pass away leaving no footprints, and search was made 

 for these everywhere about the monaster\'^ he established^ — where he 

 passed his last years. His searches did not end in failure, and in 

 various groves and among the rocks he saw traces of the wonder of 

 the teacher, and explained them by one or another incident in his 

 biography, and, conversel}^, with his biography explained those traces. 

 Frequently meditating about his idolized teacher, ho drew and chis- 

 eled his image upon rocks, and the images of the Buddhas, his pro- 

 tectors. In course of time all these signs and statues made by the 

 closest of pupils of Tsongkapa under the known influence of supersti- 

 tion began to be taken for wonderful relics and each worshiper began 

 to venerate them. 



It is characteristic that such relics are being discovered u}) to the 

 present time. Thus the present Dalai Lama obtained from a rock a 

 treasure, consisting of a hat and other articles, ascribed to Tsongkapa. 

 He deposited the treasure in a special chest and placed it for safe- 

 keeping at the sarcophagus of Tsongkapa and on its phxce erected a 

 monument. 



We will now briefl}^ describe the other prominent monasteries and 

 cities we visited. They are Tashilhunpo, and the cities of Shigatsze, 

 Gyantsze, Samye, and Tsetang. 



The monastery of Tashilhunpo is about 170 miles west of Lhasa, to 

 the right of the river Brahmaputi'a, on the south side of a mountain 

 peak that forms an arm between that ri^'or and its tributary, the 

 Nyangchu, and was established in 1447 by a pupil of Tsongkapa, Ge- 

 dun-dru, who is regarded as the flrst incarnation of the Dalai Lama. 

 There are about 3,000 monks within this place, divided into three 

 religious and one mystical faculties. The head of the monaster}'^ 

 is the incarnation of "Panchen erdeni," who maintains the monks 

 there. Five stone idols and gilt roofs in Chinese tityle constitute the 

 ornaments of the monasterj^ 



About two-thirds of a mile northeast of Tashilhunpo, upon a sep- 

 arate rock, stands the castle Shigatsze, at the foot of which grew up 

 a city of the same name, with a population of scarcely above 6,000 

 or 7,000. Here are stationed small Chinese and native garrisons. 

 The castle itself is well known from the fact that during the conquest 

 of Tibet in the middle of the seventeenth century by the Mongol 



