ty.

With some rare exceptions the imperial benefactions go very little way
towards the construction of the Lamaseries. Those grand and sumptuous
monuments, so often met with in the desert, are due to the free and
spontaneous zeal of the Mongols. So simple and economical in their dress
and manner of living, these people are generous, we might say,
astonishingly prodigal in all that concerns religious worship and
expenditure. When it is resolved to construct a Buddhist temple,
surrounded by its Lamasery, Lama collectors go on their way forthwith,
provided with passports, attesting the authenticity of their mission.
They disperse themselves throughout the kingdom of Tartary, beg alms from
tent to tent in the name of the Old Buddha. Upon entering a tent and
explaining the object of their journey, by showing the sacred basin in
which the offerings are placed, they are received with joyful enthusiasm.
There is no one but gives something. The rich place in the "badir"
ingots of gold and silver; those who do not possess the precious metals,
offer oxen, horses, or camels. The poorest contribute according to the
extent of their means; they give lumps of butter, furs, ropes made of the
hair of camels and horses. Thus, in a short time, are collected immense
sums. Then, in these deserts, apparently so poor, you see rise up, as if
by enchantment, edifices whose grandeur and wealth would defy the
resources of the richest potentates. It was, doubtless, in the same
manner, by the zealous co-operation of the faithful, that were
constructed in Europe those magnificent cathedrals whose stupendous
beauty is an abiding reproach to modern selfishness and indifference.

[Picture: Buddhist temple]

The Lamaseries you see in Tartary are all constructed of brick and stone.
Only the poorest Lamas build for themselves habitations of earth, and
these are always so well whitewashed that they closely resemble the rest.
The temples are generally built with considerable elegance, and with
great solidity; but these monuments always seem crushed, being too low in
proportion to their dimensions. Around the Lamasery rise, numerous and
without order, towers or pyramids, slender and tapering, resting
generally on huge bases, little in harmony with the tenuity of the
constructions they support. It would be difficult to say to what order
of architecture the Buddhic temples of Tartary belong. They are always
fantastical con