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

292 TIBET.to amuse me. I listened with attention to his discourse : he hadthe reputation of superior talents ,and to this, no doubt, he owed hiselevation, in the time of the former Lama, with whom he was saidto be in high favour; nor was he less distinguished by the presentRegent.A large reflecting telescope, which Ihad brought with me, affordedan inducement to Soopoon Choomboo, for visiting me inthe eveningof Sunday, the 19th of October. I shewed him, through it, several starsnot visible to the naked eye; but I found, that he was neither ignorantof the satellites of Jupiter, nor of the ring of Saturn; and I learntfrom him, that allthe distinguished planets, were the seats of some orother of the objects of their veneration.To this circumstance, indeed,the Tibetians attribute their brilliancy and splendour; and point outtheir revolutions, together with the glorious orb of day, round theimaginary mountain Soomeroo, whose summit is, in their apprehension,the elevated station, of the chief of allthe gods.This may be sufficient to shew the extent,and nature, of their proficiencyin the sciences. It intimates also their agreement with theirsouthern neighbours, in an original derivation of their scientific knowledgefrom one common source.There appears indeed to have been,from the remotest time, a connection and intercourse between Tibet andIndia. I collected, as I have already hinted, from repeated conferenceswith the Regent, and with Soopoon Choomboo, as well as from othersources, that the established opinion here is, that they derived theirreligion and learning from the west. Whether their first Lama, thefounder of their faith, had his origin ir\ Gya, (Durgeedin) or Benares,