66 Gatir Das Bysack — Notes on a Buddhist Monastery [No. 1, 
Hamilton, who had accompanied Mr. Bogle to Tibet, to Bhutan on two 
successive missions, one in November 1775, and the other in July 1777. 
With theso the px - esent theme has no concern. 
Mr. Bogle was again appointed an envoy to Tibet in April 1779, 
and Puran Gir Gosain, who had returned with him, was also to have 
accompanied the mission as before, but it was postponed on account of 
the arrival of the news that the Taslii Lama was, at the invitation of 
the old Chinese Emperor Kiinglung, about to start for Peking. During 
this delay Mr. Bogle, with all the persevering zeal he possessed in the 
cause of the Government, made the grand project of presenting himself 
before the Chinese Court, through the influence of the Lama, that he 
might thereby explain matters in a proper way, in the hope of removing 
Chinophobia from the Tibetan authorities in the matter of dealings with 
foreigners. And in this affair also, as on other important occasions, 
Puran Gir, the trusted and favourite agent of the Lama and the Bengal 
Government, was desired previously to join the Lama before he left 
Tibet. This the Gosain accordingly did, when the Lama had already 
started on his journey, and accompanied the Lama to the Chinese capital 
where his most important services will be described further on. There 
was the greatest probability of the success of Mr. Bogle’s most wisely 
conceived scheme, which was founded upon the previous assurances ho 
had received from the Lama while at Tashi Lhunpo, and which, as 
the sequel will show on the evidence of Puran Gir, the good honest 
Lama had almost brought about, but the death of the Lama in November 
1780 from small-pox at Peking, and of Mr. Bogle at Caloutta in April 
1781, prevented the realisation of this great object. 1 
According to the politico-religious theory which regulates the elec- 
tive hierarchical Government of Tibet, and of its dependencies, and of 
the territories which acknowledge a theocratic sway, a grand Lama 
revivifies himself after his death in some infant form which is discover- 
ed by some signs, and the child becomes the succeeding Lama. There 
are two principal Lamas in Tibet : one the Tashi Lama, at Tashi 
Lhunpo, the other the Dalai Lama at Lhasa, with equal authority, but 
the latter, on account of the residence of Chinese officials and troops 
at his capital, is assumed to be the superior. 
At the time of Bogle’s mission in 1774, the Dalai Lama was a minor, 
and the Tashi Lama was his Regent, and on account of his learning, 
piety and great virtue, was deservedly esteemed and rovored through- 
out Buddhadom. On his death, his brother Chanjo Kusho was ruling 
at Tashi Lhunpo, as Regent during the interregnum. 
This Regent communicated to Warren Hastings the sad intelligence 
1 Markham, Hid.., Introd., p. lxx. 
