1844.] and on Gerard's Account of Kundwar. 193 



I must again repeat, that I communicate what I have learnt with 

 some hesitation, and I shall not be greatly surprized if my errors 

 or misapprehensions are frequent and considerable. It is difficult to 

 obtain a complete and accurate description even of ordinary things 

 from the ignorant, and although I spoke with some men of good local 

 repute, it was plain they knew nothing of the philosophy of the 

 system they professed, or of the origin or meaning of the practices they 

 daily followed; much of this may indeed have been my own fault 

 as, for instance, two Lamas in the Hangrang district calculated eclip- 

 ses, and although suspicious of their ability to do so, I was unable 

 to detect them in mere plagiarism, yet they were ignorant of the 

 lunar cycle, and had the most preposterous notions of the relative sizes 

 and distances of the sun, moon, and planets. 



It may nevertheless be gathered from what I have said, that Moor- 

 croft does not fully discriminate between the sects, although he says 

 there are two of them ; and that Gerard, while aware of their exist- 

 ence, was not so careful in his enquiries as he might have been. 

 Lama is a general appellation, and does not mean either Gelong, a 

 monk of a particular order, or Abbot, the superior of a monastery. 

 Lama indeed should be confined to men of reputed sanctity, and 

 superiors seldom or never address their inferiors as Lamas, while the 

 lower grades always apply the title to those above them. Celibacy is 

 not incumbent on all Lamas, neither are all called " Gelongs," nor are 

 they necessarily attached to a monastery. Ani, simply means woman ; 

 while jamo or jhomo, or chimma, is the proper equivalent of nun. 

 Mr. Vigne Travels, II, 340, infers a difference between red and yel- 

 low Lamas, but Turner appears to confound the individuals of the 

 sects, (Embassy, pp. 86, 103, 170, 242, 250 and 261,) although he 

 tells us of the existence of the two, and of a characteristic difference 

 in their discipline, (p. 314-15). 



The Gooroo of Gerard is a Hindu term, while the Labbrang monas- 

 tery, belonging to the Dukpa sect, cannot have Gelongs or Gelukpas 

 among them. Gerard's description of the dress is not accurate ; he 

 has given what he saw on poor Lamas at their every-day work. I have 

 seen a Lama in black. 



Lamaism is perhaps extending itself in the Himalayas, and it has 

 within the memory of the Kunawarees progressed some miles down 



