The Lepchas of Sikkim are ruled by a chief of their own, have retained the Buddhist religion, and have generally been subject to Tibet. But the fiercer mountaineers of Bhutan have long maintained virtual independence. Savage and illiterate, they have preserved but vague traditions of their history, and the account given by Mr. Bogle is probably as historical as any other.[1] Mr. Eden received a somewhat different account; according to which the present Bhutanese only overran the country about three centuries ago, when they found it occupied by a people from Kuch Bahar, whom they conquered. The invaders were Tibetan soldiers, over whom a lama of the Red sect, named Dupgain Sheptún, acquired paramount influence, as Lama Rimboché, or Dharma Rajah. On his death, the spirit of Sheptún became incarnate in a little child at Lhasa, who was conveyed to Bhutan. When this child grew up, he confined himself to spiritual concerns, and appointed a regent, called the Deb Rajah, to perform all administrative functions. But the real power has long been in the hands of the military governors or Penlos of East and West Bhutan, whose capitals are respectively at Tongso and Paro.
The Muhammadan conquests in Hindustan tended to check the formerly unfettered intercourse between Tibet and the valley of the Ganges, through the passes of the Southern Himalayas, as Mr. Bogle was told by the Teshu Lama; but this obstacle was by no means permanent, and the commercial enterprise of the Newars and Kashmiris brought the land of the peace-loving Lamas into friendly intercourse with peoples whose countries extend from the frontiers of Siberia to the shores of the Bay of Bengal.
Yet an interval of three centuries elapsed, from the time of Father Odoric of Pordenone, before another European set his foot on the soil of Great Tibet.
The present Manchu dynasty (Ta-Tsing) of China, founded by Shun-che in 1651, has produced two emperors of great
- ↑ Pages 33 and 191.
