An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

BOOTAN. 651 HE morning after my arrival at Tassisudon, I sent the Gosein Poorungheer,who accompanied me as interpreter, to the palace, to arrangethe ceremony of our introduction, and fix a time lor the deliveryof the dispatches, with which I had been charged by the GovernorGeneral, to the Daeb Raja.After a short absence, he returned with information, that the Raja,who isalso a Lama, had for some days past devoted himself to Pooja(religious ceremonies), on account of the death of a Gylong, of highrank in the religious order, and greatly renowned for his sanctityand age. How much longer those rites might employ him, Poorungheercould not, with any degree of certainty, ascertain ; but, he wastold that, until their conclusion, the Raja would continue in private,his attention being wholly turned from the affairs of the world, and noperson would be permitted to interrupt him. At tlie same time, it wasmtimated to me, that the principal officersabout his court would^ inthe interval, be ready to receive our visits ; but I chose to declinewaiting upon them, until Ihad seen the Raja himselfHaving just arrived among a people, whose peculiar customs I hadyet to learn, I confess that the mysteriousness which seemed to prevail,and this apparent difficulty of access, suggested to me, no veryfavourable opinion of my new friends. It occurred to me, that thedelay probably originated, in a plan concerted to magnify the importanceand piety of their chief: an opinion to which many of myattendants industriously endeavoured to give strength.This, however,was a rash and hasty inference; as I had the satisfaction to have