518 
TIBET. 
through the walls, near their foundation, for the sole purpose of admit¬ 
ting dogs, or other beasts of prey. On the rock above, a platform 
overhung the inclosure, which had been constructed for the conveni- 
ency of precipitating the dead bodies with greater ease, over the walls, 
into the area. And here, I understood, the only rites performed, in 
honour of the dead, were merely such as tended to facilitate the de¬ 
struction of the body by dogs, or birds of prey. But though this was 
the general receptacle, yet there were some who declined the use of 
it, and conveyed their friends to the summit of some neighbouring 
hill., where, I was told, they disjointed and mangled the dead body, 
that it might become a more easy prey to carnivorous birds. I con¬ 
cluded, that there was a strong prejudice in their minds, of some idea 
of pollution attached to “ being given to the dogs,” which was suffi¬ 
cient to create a preference of the contrary practice. 
In Tibet, as well as in Bengal, an annual festival is kept in honour of 
the dead. On the 59th of October, as soon as the evening drew on, 
and it became dark, a general illumination was displayed upon the 
summits of all the buildings in the monastery; the tops also of the 
houses upon the plain, as well as in the most distant villages, scattered 
among the clusters of willows, were in the same manner lighted up 
with lamps, exhibiting all together, a brilliant and splendid spectacle. 
The night was dark, the weather calm, and the lights burnt with a 
clear and steady flame. The Tibetians reckon these circumstances of 
the first importance, as, on the contrary, they deem it a most evil 
omen if the weather be stormy, and their lights extinguished by the 
wind or rain. 
