1HJ TIBET, 



being servilely officious, they are always obliging ; the higher ranks 

 are unassuming, the interior respectful in their behaviour ; nor are 

 they at all deficient in attention to the female sex; but as we find them 

 moderate in all their passions, in this respect also, their conduct is 

 equally remote from rudeness and adulation. A remarkable custom 

 prevails in this country, directly contrary to the usual customs of the 

 east, by which a woman is permitted to marry all the brothers of a 

 family, without any restriction of age or numbers. The choice of the 

 wife is the privilege of the elder brother. The ceremonies of mar- 

 riage are neither tedious nor intricate. The elder brother of a family, 

 to whom, as has been observed, the choice belongs, when enamoured 

 of a damsel, makes his proposal to her parents. If his suit be approv- 

 ed, and the offer accepted, the parents with their daughter repair to 

 the suitor's house,, where the male and female acquaintance of both 

 parties meet and carouse for the space of three days, with music, danc- 

 ing, and every kind of festivity. At the expiration of this time the 

 marriage is complete. The priests of Tibet, who shun the society of 

 women, have no share in these ceremonies, or in ratifying the obliga- 

 tion between the parties. Mutual consent is their only bond of union* 

 and the parties present are witnesses to the contract, which is formed 

 indissolubly for life. 



The Tibetians expose their dead bodies within walled areas, which 

 are left open at the top, and have passages at the bottom to admit 

 birds, dogs, and beasts of prey : no other funeral rites are performed 

 but such as tend to facilitate the destruction of the body by the vora- 

 cious animals, who are, as it were, invited to devour it. Some bodies 

 are conveyed by the friends of the deceased to the summit of some 

 neighbouring hill, where they are disjointed and mangled that they 

 may become a more easy prey to carnivorous birds. The bodies of the 

 sovereign lamas are, however, deposited in shrines prepared for their 

 remains, which are ever after considered as sacred, and visited with 

 religious awe ; those of the inferior priests are burnt, and their ashes 

 preserved in little hollow images of metal. An annual festival is ob- 

 served in Tibet, as in Bengal, in honour of the dead, which is celebra- 

 ted by a general illumination of the houses and other buildings. 



Cities, chief towns, edifices. ..Lassa, or Lahassa, is considered 

 as the capital of Tibet, and is situate in a spacious plain ; the houses 

 are not numerous, but they are built of stone, and are large and lofty. 

 The celebrated mountain of Putala, on which stands the palace of the 

 Dalai Lama, or grand lama, the high priest and sovereign of Tibetj 

 is about seven miles to the east of the city. 



Teeshoo Loomboo,or Lubroug, the seat of Teeshoo Lama, and the 

 capital of that part ot Tibet immediately subject his authority, is, in 

 fact, a lart;e monastery, consisting of three or lour hundred houses, in- 

 habited by gylongs, a kind of monks or priests, besides temples, mau • 

 soleums, and the palace of the sovereign pontiff, with the residences 

 of the various subordinate officers, both ecclesiastical and civil, belong- 

 ing to the court It is included within the hollow face of a high rock, 

 and has a southern aspect. Its buildings are all of stone, none less 

 than two stories high, flat roofed, and crowned with a parapet, rising 

 considerably above the rest. 



The castle or palace of Tassisudon in Bootan, stands near the cen- 

 tre of the valley of the same name. It is a stone building of a quad- 

 rangular form. The outer walls are lofty, being above thirty feet 

 high, and enclose a central square building, which is the habitation 



