CHAPTER XIII
RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT IN TIBET
T h e spiritual heads of the Tibetan Church are the
Grand Lama of Tashilhumpo (Shigatse), aged twenty-
four years, who has a great spiritual personality but
little territorial power, and the Dalai Lama at Lhasa,
whose authority is supreme in church and state. The
latter has been hitherto ever a minor: the ages of the
last four incumbents being eleven years, eighteen years,
eighteen years and eighteen years. A regent (Gyalpo) is
consequently a perpetual necessity, and he makes it his
business to see that his ward never attains majority.
On the death of a Dalai Lama his soul reincarnates into
a new-born infant, and curiously this infant generally
belongs to a wealthy family: Tubdan Gyatso, the
present Dalai Lama, took the precaution to poison his
regent, and so has survived to the age of thirty years,
the first to attain majority in the last one hundred
years.
In Tibet the ordinary mortal transmigrates, while
the Dalai and Tashi Lamas and many others reincarnate,
and one must know the difference between transmigration
and reincarnation, since half the pleasure of Tibet
is lost unless one knows the rudiments of the Buddhist
faith and a few of the more obvious teachings of the
Lamas. The country is the most intensely religious of
all the kingdoms on our earth, for the gods and demons
of Tibet rival the two million deities of Hinduism in
TIBETAN CHARM, JUG, AND BELL
Silver casket with charm worn on the person
Jug for pouring water into the small bowls which are placed’on altars in front
of the idols
Bell with thunderbolt handle (dorje) commonly used by lamas in all temples.
Note the face on the handle