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

25 6 TIBET;;more vociferous clamour of crowded congregations, joined vvitiia fullchoral band ; left me no room to doubt, that I was close to the scene,of some of the most solemn and mysterious ceremonies of their religion.I lost little time in endeavouring to ascertain the truth of my conjectures;but I trod upon tender ground. Any indication of extraordinarycuriosity, even in the common affliirs of life, w^as sulficient toraise, in an instant, an host of suspicions, against which, I should havebeen compelled eternally to combat ; and religion, especially amonga people so bigotted to its forms, was a subject to which I adverted,with stillmore scrupulous caution.From various inquiries, however, at length I collected, that thechapel in which the Gylongs met tooffer up their daily prayers, wasbut a short distance from us. Their stated periods of devotion werethe rising of the sun, noon, and sunset. Among two thousand fivehundred Gylongs, appointed for the service of the monastery, thegreater part were expected to be present on each occasion.On everythird day, the morning was devoted to proclaiming aloud the attributesand praises o!' tlic Supreme Being ; a service which was performedwith a vehemence of vociferation perfectly astonishing, and, as Ithought, altogether inconsistent with the decorum of a well regulatedassembly.The object of this solemn meeting, as far as I could collect, was forevery individual present to repeat, and enforce with all his powers ofutterance, the praises of the Deity ; and we need not wonder thatfrom such a congregation, wlio had attained by long practice to a