1844.] and on Gerard's Account of Kundwar, 185 



restriction on the Neengmas. The Lamas admit proselytes at all 

 ages, and any one can become a Dookpa, Geloopa, or Neengma ; the 

 chief Gelong of Kamun said he would admit me. There are two 

 other sects peculiar to Chinese Tartary, Sakeea who wear red, and 

 Degooma, yellow caps. In Tibet, the chief of a monastery is called 

 Lama, and the inferior orders are styled Gelong. Here, (Kunawur,) 

 most of the clergy are named Lama, and the heads of the convents of 

 Kamun, Labrung and Shealkur, are denominated Gelong and Ge- 

 roo. Neither Gelongs nor nuns smoke tobacco, although the Lamas 

 do ; neither of them drink spirituous liquors. The Grand Lama of 

 Lahassa, called Gealong Rimboche, who resides at Potala, is the 

 chief pontiff of all the Lamas. The next in succession to the Grand 

 Lama of Lahassa is Panchin Rimboche, of Teshoo Loomboo. The 

 third in order is Lochawa Rimboche, these three personages are all of 

 the Geloopa sect. — Gerard, p. 1 17-21. 



(All that Moorcroft and Gerard say, should be read, as well as the 

 above extracts.) 



I am imperfectly acquainted with the results of the enquiries of the 

 late Csoma-de-Koros, but we do not, I think, yet possess a full and 

 accurate knowledge of Buddhism as it exists in Tibet, and all our 

 accounts perhaps contain, like the above extracts, some error and 

 confusion. Mr. Hodgson indeed, and others have thrown much 

 light on Buddhism as a speculative religion, but it may be as difficult 

 for us to explain the variety of sects at present existing from the study 

 of Sanscrit or Tibetan books, as it would be for a learned stranger 

 to infer Popery and Protestantism from a simple perusal of our own 

 Scriptures. A complete knowledge of the present sects might enable 

 our scholars to trace in many instances the peculiar tenets of different 

 orders to their sources, and so give us much curious information re- 

 garding the progress of error from philosophical refinement to gross su- 

 perstition ; but this knowledge however desirable, is still to be acquired. 



I heard of four principal sects of Lamas, 1st Gelukpa, 2nd Dukpa, 

 3rd Ningma, and 4th Sakhia, to which may be added the peculiar 

 sects of the Banbos and Pitchobas or Nangbatchos. Turner (Embassy, 

 314) mentions the Shammars, and says they include all the red sects. 

 The word is, I presume, connected with the Shamanism of the an- 

 cients. Gerard alludes to " Decgromas," but of this sect I did not learn, 



