Few countries are naturally so difficult of access as Tibet. It is a lofty plateau. To reach it from any side frightful mountains must be passed. Not only is the country itself difficult to reach, but the Tibetans do not like strangers. They do everything in their power to keep white men out of the country. Few travellers of our race have ever been to the heart of Tibet. Recently the American traveller, W. W. Rockhill, has visited that country and written interestingly of it, and later Walter Savage Landor claims to have had exciting adventures there. But the journey that is best known and has been most talked of was made more than fifty years ago by two French missionaries named Huc and Gabet.

Starting from China these gentlemen traversed Mongolia and Tatary and penetrated to the sacred Tibetan city of Lhassa. They returned to China over a different route. It was a fearful journey. The road led along the side of vast cliffs, over raging torrents where the bridges were composed of chains hung from bank to bank with boards laid crosswise of them, through snowdrifts, and over sheets of glacier ice.

The people of Tibet vary in stature, color, hair, and other characters, but all are Mongolic and all speak Tibetan. Some of the tribes are nomads—either herders or pillagers; others are settled and live by agriculture, notwithstanding the climate. In Lhassa itself they are tradespeople and traders. They are good weavers and make excellent woollen stuffs. They are skilled goldsmiths, and their fine wares go to decorate the temples and monasteries. They make the finest incense in the world.

The most important thing in Tibet is religion. Their religion, which is called Lamaism, is a sort of Buddhism peculiar to Tibet. Tibet might be called a theocracy, or a land where a god rules. For the ruler of Tibet, called the Dalai-lama, is considered no common man, but a real god on earth. Many centuries ago, in India, there lived a man named Gautama or Sakyi-muni. He was wise and good, and the new religion which he taught was a great improvement upon the Brahmanism of India. On account of his wisdom and goodness, he was called Buddha, but he never claimed to be himself a god. Since his death, however, many millions of people in many lands have worshipped him as a god.

All Buddhists believe that there may be many Buddhas—that Gautama was one Buddha, and that there were others before him and will be others hereafter. In Tibet, however, they think that there are always Buddhas on earth, and that when one Buddha dies his spirit at once enters the body of some little babe, who becomes a Buddha in his place. The Dalai-lama is the greatest of living Buddhas. There are many others in different parts of Tibet and Tatary, all of whom are worshipped as gods. The Dalai-lama lives in Lhassa, the sacred city, in a beautiful palace, and has many priests to serve him. He is the all-powerful being in the land.

But he does not trouble himself about governing his people. He appoints a nomekhan to rule for him. The nomekhan has four kalons who are appointed to assist him. These four appoint all the other officers, most of whom are lamas or priests. Really the lamas control everything in Tibet. Generally they live together in great buildings called lamaseries. These are to be seen everywhere in the land, and are often perched upon the summits of lofty mountains, from which they overlook the country for miles around. Some lamaseries contain but a few priests, others contain many thousands. The lamas are at once known from the people by their dress.

The lamas receive support from the common people, and when it is not brought to them, they go to gather it. Huc met two lamas on horseback gathering gifts of butter from the shepherds. “Their course is this: they present themselves at the entrance of each tent and thrice sound a marine conch.^[1] Thereupon some member of the family brings out a small roll of butter, which, without saying a word, he deposits in a bag suspended from the saddle of each lama’s horse. The lamas never once alight, but content themselves with riding up to each tent, and announcing their presence to the inmates by the sound of the shell.”

When a Dalai-lama dies, search is made for the new one. Prayers are said in all the lamaseries, processions are made, incense is burned. Even the common people everywhere pray. There are certain signs by which a baby shows that the spirit of a lama has entered him. All parents who think their baby the one send word to Lhassa and bring their babies there. All are carefully examined, and the three who best show the signs of being Buddha are taken. After fasting for six days, the priests who decide the matter take a golden urn containing three little fish of gold, upon each of which is engraved the name of one of the three babies. The urn is shaken and one of the fish is drawn. The baby whose name is engraved on it becomes the Dalai-lama. To the unlucky babies before they are sent home a present of five hundred ounces of silver is given.

Every day near sunset in Lhassa, all the men, women, and children stop whatever they may be doing and gather in the public squares of the city. There, grouped by sex and age, they kneel and chant their evening prayer. This prayer would seem to us curious, for it asks for nothing. The commonest prayer is—om mani padme hum, which means “the jewel in the lotus.” By the jewel they mean divine power. The lotus is a water-lily. The prayer is about the same thing as calling on the name of God. This prayer they repeat over and over again.

To write this prayer where it will be seen is a good act. One may see it everywhere. It is printed on the flags that fly above the buildings. Pious rich men pay lamas to go through the country and chisel these sacred words on rocks and cliffs.

Tibet is the land of prayer wheels. Prayer wheels contain the prayer written many times: every time the wheel is turned, so many prayers are supposed to have been said. Prayer wheels are of all sizes. The commonest stand near lamaseries, and are set to turning with the hand. Some lazy lamas, however, find it too much work to turn the wheels themselves and so arrange them that they are turned by wind or water.

On the twenty-fifth of each month pious lamas “send horses to weary travellers.” On the roads there are many hardships, and travellers often become weary and perish. To help them the lamas send them horses, and the way they do it is this. Going to some lofty summit where the wind blows heavily, they throw strips of paper bearing pictures of horses into the air, and the wind carries them away. The lamas believe that by this sacrifice of paper horses they supply real ones to the needy travellers.