TIBET. 
311 
Gylongs, for the performance of daily service in the Goomba, or 
temple. Four Lamas, chosen from amongst them, superintend and 
direct their religious ceremonies. 
One is annually elected from among the Gylongs, whose duty, for 
the time being, is that of attending to the due preservation of regula¬ 
rity and order; he inspects the distribution of provisions ; has a right 
at all times to enter the apartments of the priests; is present at all re¬ 
ligious assemblies and processions; and is armed, as a badge of office, 
with a wand in one hand, and a small brazier of burning incense, pen¬ 
dent by three chains from the extremity of a staff, in the other. With 
these insignia of his office, he is at liberty to mark any visible inatten¬ 
tion by slightly burning the party, or by a blow. The terrors of his 
office and his station, devolve, at the expiration of one year, on another 
of the Gylongs ; during his continuance in authority, he is styled 
Kegwi. 
Youth intended for the service of the monastery, are received into 
the establishment, at the age of eight or ten years; they are then called 
Tuppa; and are occupied in receiving the instruction suited to their 
age, and the duties for which they are designed. At fifteen they are 
usually admitted of the order of Tohba , the first step in their religious 
class; and if, after passing through a careful examination, they are 
found sufficiently qualified, from that of Tohba they are admitted into 
the order of Gylong, between the age of twenty-one and twenty Tour. 
They then become eligible, according to the weight of their interest, or 
strength of their pretensions, to the superintendence of some endowed 
monastery, of which there are multitudes spread all over Tibet, with 
