The lamas here are divided into two sects, which differ slightly in their vows. In the one called Shen-tang srung-lug, a man may take vows when sixty years of age; while in the other, called Shen-tsang lug, he must take the vows of abstinence and piety as soon as he has finished his final clerical examinations. The high priest, or Je Kadub rinpoche, Yung-drung gyal-tsan by name, administers vows and ordains monks.
The rules of moral discipline, called tsa-yig, written on a broad sheet of pasted daphne paper, are posted in a conspicuous position in the monastery. When an ordained monk is found guilty of violating these rules, and particularly those of chastity, he is immediately punished and expelled from the monastery. Such punishments are, however, commutable into fines, such as the payments of money to the lama who ordained him, and providing entertainment and presents for the other monastic authorities and the members of the congregation.
The marriage ceremonies of the Bonbo are the same as those of all other Tibetans; so also the funeral rites, although some communities throw their dead into rivers and lakes.[1] After death the body is kept in the house twenty-four hours, after which it is removed to the temple or monastery. On the fourth day the ornaments and clothes worn by the deceased are placed before the gods, and prayers offered to them to take charge of his soul. At the end of the ceremony the corpse is removed to the cemetery, where it is cut into pieces to be devoured by vultures and dogs.[2]
Ugyen left Shendar ding on August 5, and stopped at noon at the hot springs of Langpag, where the Tashi lama has a temple-like house in charge of an officer. The water is so hot that meat can be cooked in it in half an hour.
Proceeding thence they came to Non chu, where he saw the Non chu lama rinpoche, who made many inquiries about Calcutta, the railways, telegraphs, and telephones of which he had heard travellers speak. He himself, he said, had invented a telephone, and was just then engaged in making a new instrument with which he
- ↑ This is also done among Buddhists, as in the Palti lake country. See supra, p. 139.
- ↑ Moorcroft, 'Travels,' ii. 68, refers to Bonbo lamas when he describes the lamas of Pin (in Ladak), who allow their hair to grow and become matted, and who wear black. Nain Singh makes mention of the Bonbo country of North Tibet, which he calls "the Ombo, or Pembo country," Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, xlvii. p. 107.—(W. R.)
