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

TIBET. 275of the Hindoo mythology.All of these are to be met with in this collection,as I gathered from the communications of the Goseins, withwhom I had afterwards frequent opportunities of visiting the galleryat my leisure. The idols, I learnt, were not all of equal sanctity ; someof them merely represented devout and pious men, in different acts ofreligion, or exercises of their iaith.Whilst I resided at Teshoo Loomboo, Iaccidentally obtained knowledgeof one method, by which this cabinet isoccasionally recruited.A senior of the Gylongs, or priests, who was styled Lama, whichis the highest rank in that order, happened to die in an apartmentnot far from our own, and the occasion gave rise to a long and noisyceremony of invocation, prayer, and purification, in the habitationwhere he had lived. His body, I was informed, was burnt withsandal wood, and its ashes were afterwards carefully collected, andlodged witliin a small brass image, which was immediately translatedto a place, among the other sacred inhabitants of the gallery. Thiscabinet, therefore, probably contains the earthly remains of a longseries of generations of Gylongs, who from their superior sanctity, havein ail ages, been deemed worthy to contribute to its decoration, byincreasing the quantity of its hallowed furniture. Merit has thus, inTibet, a brazen monument erected to its memory.Tiie manufacture of images, is an art for which they are famous inthis country.Teshoo Loomboo has an extensive board of works, establishedunder the direction of the monastery, and constantly employedin this manufacture. When images of their fabrication were pointedout to me. by the side of others, which had been brought from China,Nn