ACCOUNT OF BIIIitAn. Ml 



ly, nor can they say how many years it is, since the first Dherma Raja 

 came to Punakha from Lenja. These particulars are contained in a 

 Lamta or history of the Dherma Raja; but the only copies of it are in 

 the hands of the reigning Dherma and Deb Rajas, and it is not procur- 

 able. The present Dherma Raja was not regenerated in Lhassa ; the rea- 

 son of which is as follows : previously to the death of the late Dherma Ra- 

 ja, the Deb Raja and other Counsellors of state, entreated the Dherma 

 saying " You have hitherto been regenerated in Lhassa, and in bringing you 

 here, a great expense is unnecessarily incurred." Upon which the Dher- 

 ma replied, " I will become regenerated in the Shasheb caste, and in 

 *f Tongsa," and accordingly here-appeared inTongsa, and is of the Shasheb 

 caste. In like manner as the Dherma Rajas at the age of three years 

 declare their regeneration, other persons in Bhutan also at the same age 

 make similar declarations, and if there is a wife or child or relation of the 

 person in his former birth alive, they present something to the parents of 

 the child, and carry him to a Gelum or monk who has forsaken the world, 

 or to the Dherma Raja or some place of worship, and there make a Ge- 

 lum of him. If no relation of the child in, his former birth remain, his pa- 

 rents themselves make a Gelum of him, in the manner above described. Of 

 this kind of Gelums 50 or 60 might be found, but before or after three years 

 of age, none of them can recollect their former existence : in this manner 

 "also are regenerated the Lama of Lhassa, Gyu Rimbichu, and the Lama of 

 Digercha, Penjelam or Tesu Lama, and the ruler of Chake called Chake- 

 Jam. 



The Bhuteas consider the Dherma Raja as their spiritual guide, in- 

 carnate Deity, and Sovereign prince ; but in respect to the internal Go- 



lives will be about .^50 years, and if from this we deduct the value of one life, on account of the advanc- 

 ed age of the first Dherma Raja, and the period which the reigning one has still to live, the re- 

 mainder, 315 years, will approximate very nearly to the period when the present Cooch Behar Dy- 

 nasty first appeared, the founder of which may have been the expelled Cocli Raja. This is the 012th 

 year of the Cooch Behar sera. — T. 



Q2 



