82 
Gaur Das Bysack — Notes on a Buddhist Monastery [No. 1, 
cessor did, he always speaks of him with great appreciation, calls him 
a Hindu Gosain, a kind of roligious hermit or pilgrim, and says, “Motives 
“ of religious duty, which, among the order of Goseins more specially, 
“ attaches peculiar respect to every kind and degree of penance, having 
“ occasionally led Poorungheer among the different tribes of Tartars, ho 
“had acquired, during his residence amongst them, a very competent 
“ knowledge of their manners, and of their language, which he spoke 
“ with apparent ease ; and by the exemplary regularity of conduct he 
“ had uniformly preserved in his intercourse with the inhabitants of 
“ these regions, I fouud that he had strongly recommonded himself to their 
“ notice, and obtained the favour of all their chiefs.” 1 And again that 
he as well as the Tibetan Pauima “ were men of acute understanding 
“ and ready information, and from them much knowledge was collected 
“ both of the country from which they came, and of the way which led 
“ to it.” 
It was a grand and momentous occasion when the Bengal Mission 
arrived in Tibet. It was the celebration of a festival on the Tashi 
Lama’s (a Boddhisatwa) having sacrificed his Buddhahood for the 
behoof of his devotees and reappeared in the flesh. There was a mighty 
stir and flutter throughout the Buddha domains, extending on the 
one hand to China and Tartary, and on the othor to Bhutan, Sikkim 
and Nepal. Magnificent preparations, calculated to produce a specta- 
cular effect, were made to remove the infant Lama from his house in the 
Painon valley to the monastery of Tharpaling for his training. Turner 
sought, through the mediation of Puran Gir, to obtain for him admittance 
into the arena of the imposing ceremony, but the assiduous Gosain failed 
in his endeavour. Chinoso jealousy of strangers was apprehended, and the 
Regent’s and Soipon Chenpo’s conversation on a former occasion ex- 
plained this, when they cited Puran Gir as witness to “ the anxiety they 
“ had laboured under, in contriving to conduct ” the Captain to Tashi 
Lhunpo. Captain Turner was perfectly satisfied as to the genuineness 
of this dread of Chinese influence, though this nation deify the Lama. 
He says in the recital of their embarrassments, “ though they are averse 
“ to own any immediate dependance upon the Chinese, I could plainly 
“ trace the greatest awe of the Emperor of China, of his officers 
“ stationed at the court of Lassa styled Umbas, as well as of the Jasoos, 
“ and the Raja of that place, Gesub Rimbochay 2 who had usurped even, 
1 Turner ; ibid., p. 38, note. 
‘ Properly Gyetshab Rinpochhe (also called Sadag for which Turner finds no exact 
English equivalent, bnt supposes it to mean Prime minister and something more, 
ibid., p. 245} is a temporal sovereign who, during the minority of the Dalai Lama 
at Lhasa, presides as the Rogont. As this minority is of frequent occurrence, the 
