TIBET. 



of the chief lama of the district, or Daeb Raja. There is no town 

 near the palace, but a few clusters of houses are distributed in different 

 parts among the fields. 



" A Tiuet village," says Mr. Turner, " by no means makes a hand- 

 some figure. Tne peasant's house is of a mean construction, and 

 resembles a brick-kiin in shape and size more exactly than any thing 

 to which I can compare it. It is built of rough stones, heaped upon 

 each other without cement, and, on account of the strong winds that 

 perpetually prevail here, it has never more than three or four small 

 apertures to admit light. The roof is a flat terrace, surrounded with 

 a parapet wail two or three feet high : on this are commonly placed 

 piles of loose stones, intended to support a small flag, or the branch of 

 a tree ; or else as a fastening for a long line with scraps of paper, or 

 white rag strung upon it, like the tail of a kite : this being stretched 

 from one house to another, is a charm against evil genii, as infallible 

 in its efficacy as horse-shoes nailed upon a threshold, or as straws 

 thrown across the path of a reputed witch." 



Manufactures, commerce. ...The manufactures of Tibet are prin-« 

 cipaliy shawls ana woollen cloths. The exports from Tibet, which 

 go chiefly to China and Bengal, consist of gold dust, diamonds, 

 pearls, coral, musk, rock-salt, tincal, woollen cloths, and lamb skins ; 

 in return for which are imported from China, silks, satins, gold and 

 silver brocades, tea, tobacco, and furs of various kinds ; and from 

 Bengal the productions of that country, and a variety of English com- 

 modities and manufactures. 



" A very small quantity of specie, and that of a base standard, is 

 eurrent in Tibet. It is the silver coin of Nipaul, here termed inder- 

 millee ; each is in value about one third of a sicca rupee, and they 

 are cut into halves, third parts, and quarters. This, which is the 

 only money, serves to obtain the exigencies of life, but never enters 

 into important contracts in the larger concerns of trade ; in all such 

 transactions, the equivalent is made in bullion, that is tareema, talents, 

 or masses of gold and silver, which bear a value in proportion to the 

 purity and specific gravity of the metal."* 



Government, religion.. ..The government of this country is in- 

 timately connected with its religion, the civil authority, as well as the 

 spiritual, being in the hands of the lamas, or sovereign pontiffs, of 

 whom the chief, called the Dalai Lama, or Grand Lama, is not only 

 submitted to and adored by the Tibetians, but is also the great object 

 of veneration among the various tribes of Tartars who roam through 

 the vast tract of continent which stretches from the banks of the 

 Vol^a, to Corea, on the Sea of Japan. He is not only the sovereign 

 ponciff, the vicegerent of the Deity on earth; but, as superstition is 

 ever the strongest where it is most removed from its object, the 

 more remote Tartars absolutely regard him as the Deity himself. 

 They believe him to be immortal, and endowed with all knowledge 

 and virtue. Every year they come up from different parts, to worship 

 and make rich offerings at his shrine ; even the emperor of China, 

 who is a Manchew Tartar, does not fail in acknowledgments to him 

 in his religious capacity, though the lama is tributary to him, and 

 actually entertains, at a great expence, in the palace of Peking, an 

 inferior lama, deputed, as his nuncio, from Tibet. The opinion of those 

 who are reputed the most orthodox among the Tibetians is ? that when 



• Turner, p. 372. 



