SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
right of electing the Deb Raja is vested in the superiors of their order jointly with the lamas. . . .” “Their sacred profession, so far from disqualifying them from the conduct of civil affairs, is the means of advancing them to it. They are often appointed to the government of provinces, employed as ministers, or entrusted with other offices of the first consideration in the State.” Turner found that the governing class was educated in the monasteries. The distinction which Bogle intended to draw between the priests and the lamas was probably that the lamas were those who, having received a religious or semireligious training in the monasteries, elected afterwards to enter the secular posts of Government, retaining at the same time a close connection with the religious side of the national life, especially in the matter of celibacy. They were represented by the Deb Raja, his governors, ministers, and councillors, in contradistinction to the priesthood, who, with the Dharma Raja as its head, concerned itself primarily with the religious administration of the country. The institution of caste was unknown, and in the absence of any sort of hereditary distinction any one might rise to the highest office.
The appointment to offices, the collection and management of the revenue, the command and direction of the military force, and the power of life and death were vested in the Deb Raja.
The provincial governors were entrusted with very ample jurisdiction. The policing of the country, the levying of taxes, and the administration of justice were committed to them. Complaints against them were seldom preferred or attended to, and their judgments were revised by the “Chief” only in capital cases or others of great consequence. They were not continued long in one station. They lived in a large palace surrounded by priests and officers, and their duties were an epitome of the court of the “Chief.”
Among the non-governing class of the population, nearly every one was a landholder or husbandman. There
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