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

260 TIBET.apparently regardless of our presence. It was his duty, together withothers, who occasionally relieved him, to pray eternally upon the samespot, and keep alive the sacred fire, that burns before the shrine.Twoponderous doors, painted with vermilion, and embossed with hugegilded knobs, made the whole fabric ring, as their pivots grated withinthe sockets, and their massy sides came with strong concussion againstthe walls. It now appeared, that the building we had hitherto seen,served only as a case, to cover a most beautiful pyramid placed withinit. At the base of this pyramid, the body of the late Lama was depositedin a coffin of pure gold, made by command of the Emperor ofChina, upon the decease of the Lama at his court, and in which thebody was conveyed, with the utmost solemnity and state, from Pekin,through the provinces of China and Tibet, to Teshoo Loomboo.Hisvotaries all the way, paid the most profound homage to his manes,and thought themselves peculiarly blessed, if they could but touchthe pall, or any part of the bier, as the funeral procession passedslowly along.It is the custom in Tibet, to preserve entire the mortal remains of\i their sovereign Lamas only; every other corpse is either consumed byfire, or given to be the promiscuous food of beasts and birds of prey.As soon as life has left the body of a Lama, it is placed upright, sittingin an attitude of devotion, his legs being folded before him, withthe instep resting upon each thigh, and the soles of the feet turnedupwards.To a person unused to the practice, this must be a postureof extreme constraint;though Lam Rimbochay, of Bootan, has repeatedlyplaced himself in it before me, with much apparent ease.