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BUDDHISM. 47
age to age in honour of new divinities. None the less surprising is it that, in
virtue of a parallel evolution in two distinct centres, the outward forms of
Buddhism and Catholicism should have maintained their resemblance, not only in
their main features, but even in their details. The Buddhist priests are tonsured
like those of Rome ;
like them, they wear flowing robes covered with gold brocade ;
they fast, hold spiritual retreats, mortify the flesh, confess the faithful, ask for the
intercession of the saints, and make long pilgrimages to the holy shrines. Celibacy
also, originally a meritorious act, has become the rule for the lamas, and by the
side of the temples there have sprung up communities of men and women whose
only aim in life is to work out their spiritual welfare. Everything is alike even in
the internal arrangement of the sacred edifices the same altars, candelabra, bells,
reliquaries, holy-water fonts. The lamas officiate with mitre and crosier, and
robed in dahnatica and cope. They bow to the altar and kneel before the relics,
intone the service, recite the litanies, utter words in a language unknown to the
congregation, solicit offerings for the repose of the faithful departed,
lead the
processions, pronounce blessings and exorcisms. Around them the youths of the
choir sway the censers suspended with five chains, while the congregation tell their
beads and rosaries.
In other respects also the Tibetan clergy, recruited principally from the first-
born of every family, resemble the priests of mediaDval times. From them flows
all knowledge ; the printing establishments are in their cloisters ; and besides the
sacred writings, the " Kanjur and Tanjur," printed
for the first time about 1750
in '337 volumes, they take care that nothing is published except works in harmony
with the faith, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, or scientific serials, besides numerous
books of magic. It is also the lamas that is, the " unsurpassed " who administer
justice, and who through the tithes and traffic have got possession of the national
wealth. Although Buddhism was at first the religion of equality, and attracted
the poor by the abolition of caste, it reinstated caste by the supremacy of the priesthood.
They command, and all obey ; the unity of faith is absolute around each
monastic centre. The conversion of the Tibetan prelates would involve that of the
whole nation, and of millions of Buddhists beyond the frontiers. In striking at
Lassa, the Roman missionary strikes at " the idol on its throne," and " to triumph
here means to grasp the sceptre of High Asia." Everything would be prepared
beforehand for the acceptance of the religion of the West. To form a native clergy
the church would have at hand legions of lamas already accustomed to the laws of
celibacy and the hierarchy. To receive her monastic orders she would ha\e
numerous Buddhist convents already devoted to abstinence, to prayer and study.
To display the pomp of her magnificent ritual she would have temples where have
long been celebrated imposing
on the people as on -the South American uplands inhabited by the Quichuas. But,
as Markham remarks, the Ecuador and Peruvian Andes are the Tibet of the New
rites. Nowhere has Catholicism taken such a hold
World in all that regards their industries, food, manners, and customs. Quichuas
and Tibetans cross the mountain passes in the same spirit of awe, and before the
cairns of sacred stones recite their prayers with the same devotion.