a
surprise. The high Lama explained the different images and threw handfuls
of rice over them as he called them by their respective names, all of
which I tried hard to remember, but, alas! before I could get back to the
_serai_ and scribble down their appellations, they had all escaped my
memory. A separate entrance led from the living part of the monastery
into the temple.

Lights, burning in brass bowls, their wicks being fed with melted butter,
were scattered on the floor in the central quadrangle, and near them lay
oblong books of prayers printed on the smooth yellow Tibetan paper made
from a fibrous bark. Near these books were small drums and cymbals. One
double drum, I noticed, was made from reversed sections of human skulls,
and my attention was also attracted by some peculiar headgear worn by the
Lamas during their services and ceremonies. On these occasions they not
only accompany their chanting and prayers with the beating of drums and
clashing of cymbals, but they at the same time make a noise on cane
flutes, tinkle hand-bells, and sound a large gong. The noise of these
instruments is at times so great that the prayers themselves are quite
inaudible. Unfortunately, I failed to see any of the awe-inspiring masks
which are used by Lamas in their eccentric and mystic dances, during
which, when the Lamas spend the whole day in the temple, they consume
much tea with butter and salt in it, which is brought to them in cups by
Lamas of an inferior order, acting as servants. They pass hour after hour
in their temples apparently absolutely absorbed in praying to the God
above all gods, the incarnation of all the saints together united in a
trinity, the _Kunjuk-Sum_.

_Kunjuk-Sum_, translated literally, means "the three deities," and some
take it to refer to the elements, air, water and fire, which in the
Tibetan mind are symbols of speech, charity and force and life. One great
point in Buddhism, as everyone knows, is the advocation of love and
respect to one's father and mother and the prohibition against injuring
one's neighbours in any way. According to the precepts contained in some
eight hundred volumes called the Kajars, the Tibetans believe in a heaven
(the Deva Tsembo) free from all anxieties of human existence, full of
love and joy, and ruled over by a god of infinite goodness, helped by
countless disciples called the _Chanchubs_, who spend their existence in
performing charitable deeds among living creatures.