202 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



7 providing for a numerous family, exposes her 

 " new-born infant to perish in the fields ; a crime, 

 " however odious, by no means I am assured un- 

 '* frequent."* 



In almost every country of the globe individuals 

 are compelled by considerations of private interest 

 to habits, which tend to repress the natural in- 

 crease of population; but Tibet is perhaps the 

 only country, where these habits are universally 

 encouraged by the government, and where to re- 

 press rather than to encourage population seems 

 to be a public object. 



In the first career of life the Bootea is recom- 

 mended to distinction by a continuance in a state 

 of celibacy; as any matrimonial contract proves 

 almost a certain hinderance to his rise in rank, or 

 his advancement to offices of political importance. 

 Population is thus opposed by the two powerful 

 bars of ambition and religion; and the higher 

 orders of men, entirely engrossed by political or 

 ecclesiastical duties, leave to the husbandman and 

 labourer, to those who till the fields and live by 

 their industry, the exclusive charge of propa- 

 gating the species.t 



Hence religious retirement is frequent,^ and 

 the number of monasteries and nunneries is consi- 

 derable. The strictest laws exist to prevent a 

 woman from accidentally passing a night within 

 the limits of the one, or a man within those of the 



* Turner's Embassy to Tibet, part ii. c. x. p. 35 1 . 

 t Id. c. i. p. 172. 

 J lb. 



