V 
306 T I IS E T. 
This appellation is said to have been given it, on account of the cold¬ 
ness of the climate, by the teachers who first came from India, and 
who promulgated the religion which prevails among them. 
I shall, for very obvious reasons, decline entering into any formal 
discussion respecting the nature of this religion. It is evidently a 
subject, to acquire a competent knowledge of which, necessarily de¬ 
mands a long residence in the country, and an accurate and critical 
acquaintance with its language. I shall therefore content myself, as I 
have hitherto done, with communicating faithfully, such superficial 
information as I was enabled to obtain, respecting the religion of Tibet, 
and with delineating what occurred to my own immediate observation, 
respecting its external forms. 
It seems, then, to be the schismatical offspring of the religion of the 
Hindoos, deriving its origin from one of the followers of that faith, a 
disciple of Budh, who first broached the doctrine which now prevails 
over the wide extent of Tartary. It is reported to have received its 
earliest admission, in that part of Tibet bordering upon India, (which 
from hence became the seat of the sovereign Lamas) to have traversed 
over Mantchieux Tartary, and to have been ultimately disseminated 
over China and Japan. Though it differs from the Hindoo in many of 
its outward forms, yet it still bears a very close affinity with the reli¬ 
gion of Brahma, in many important particulars. The principal idol in 
the temples of Tibet is Mahamoonie 3 , the Budha of Bengal, who is 
worshipped under these and various other epithets, throughout the 
great extent of Tartary, and among all the nations to the eastward of 
* This terra is Sanscrit, and literally signifies Great Saint. 
