260 
TIBET. 
apparently regardless of our presence. It was his duty, together with 
others, who occasionally relieved him, to pray eternally upon the same 
spot, and keep alive the sacred fire, that burns before the shrine. Two 
ponderous doors, painted with vermilion, and embossed with huge 
gilded knobs, made the whole fabric ring, as their pivots grated within 
the sockets, and their massy sides came with strong concussion against 
the walls. It now appeared, that the building we had hitherto seen, 
served only as a case, to cover a most beautiful pyramid placed within 
it. At the base of this pyramid, the body of the late Lama was depo¬ 
sited in a coffin of pure gold, made by command of the Emperor of 
China, upon the decease of the Lama at his court, and in which the 
body was conveyed, with the utmost solemnity and state, from Pekin, 
through the provinces of China and Tibet, to Teshoo Loomboo. His 
votaries all the way, paid the most profound homage to his manes, 
and thought themselves peculiarly blessed, if they could but touch 
the pall, or any part of the bier, as the funeral procession passed 
slowly along. 
It is the custom in Tibet, to preserve entire the mortal remains of 
their sovereign Lamas only; every other corpse is either consumed by 
fire, or given to be the promiscuous food of beasts and birds of prey. 
As soon as life has left the body of a Lama, it is placed upright, sit¬ 
ting in an attitude of devotion, his legs being folded before him, with 
the instep resting upon each thigh, and the soles of the feet turned 
upwards. To a person unused to the practice, this must be a posture 
of extreme constraint; though Lam Rimbochay, of Rootafi, has repeat¬ 
edly placed himself in it before me, with much apparent ease. 
