CHAPTER XIV

THE CITY AND ITS TEMPLES

Sullen monks--A Lama runs amok--The environs of Lhasa--The Lingkhor--The Ragyabas--The cathedral--Service before the Great Buddhas--The Lamas' chant--Vessels of gold--'Hell'--White mice--The many-handed Buddha--Silence and abstraction--The bazaar--Hats--The Mongolians--Curio-hunting--The Ramo-ché--Sorcery--The adventures of a soul--Lamaism and Roman Catholicism--The decay of Buddhism--The three great monasteries--Their political influence--Depung--An ecclesiastical University--The 'impossible' Tibetan--An ultimatum--Consternation at Depung--Temporizing and evasion--An ugly mob--A political deadlock 265-285