Burials.—The Ch'hod-ten is a Buddhist temple. There are numerous Ch'hod-ten in Tibet, conse crated to the celestial Buddha, in contradistinction to the Dungten, which are built in honour of the deceased holy men, as a bone or relic receptacle.
In Tibet, where the dead are not burned or buried, but are exposed on high places to be devoured by vultures, there is - a class of men who make removal of the dead their sole avoc,ation. They are called liaga Tongden ; they are a low race, held in dislike, and shunned, but they are generally rich. They go about to the living, begging and extorting money. When refused or ill-treated, they retaliate with abuse, which is often successful. Very good,' say they, you won't give us alms now : you will come into our hands some day, and we will put a rope round your neck, drag your body through the streets, and throw it to the dogs ;' and the latter part is the frequent fate of the poor tnan's body, as these men keep nutnerous dogs to devour the bodies. Tho bodies of the wealthy aro care fully disposed of : they aro carried in a litter t,o the top of a hill set apart for the purpose, the 1111 cut in pieces, the skull and bones pounded in a mortar ; and when all is ready a smoke is raised to attract the vultures, who collect in thousands to eat it up. The sovereign Lamas are, however, deposited entire in shrines prepared for their remains, which are ever afterwards regarded as sacred, and visited with religious awe. The bodies of the inferior Lamas are usually burned, and their ashes preserved iu little metallic idols, to which places are .assigned in their sacred cabinets. Ordinary persons are treated with less ceremony : some are carried to lofty eminences, where they are left to be devoured by ravens, kites, and other carnivorous animals. But they also have places surrounded by walls where the dead are placed. The Mongols sometimes bury their dead ; often they leave thetn exposed in their coffins, or cover them with stones, paying regard to the sign under which the deceased was born, his age, the day and hour of his death, which determine the mode in which he is to be interred. For this purpose they consult some books, which are explained to them by the Lamas. Some times they burn the corpse, or leave it exposed to the birds and wild beasts. Children who die suddenly are left by their parents on the road.
In Spiti, in the N.W. Himalaya, when a person dies, the body is sometimes buried, or burned, or thrown into the river, or cut int,o small pieces and burned. Admonitions are made over the body to the departed spirit, such as, Do not trouble yourself, you cannot enter it (meaning the dead body); in summer it quialy becomes corrupt, in winter it freezes and is too cold for you.
Marco Polo, writing in the 13th century, related that in Tibet they eat raw meat and worship images, and have no shame respecting their wives. In ancient times, according to Herodotus (Prinsep, p. 1), the Tibetans at the Persian court stated that they ate their dead. According to Dr. Scott (Asiatic Researches xv.), when the Blioti of Upper Tibet fought with a Deb raja or governor, or with Pilos, if any one be killed, both parties rushed to obtain tho body, and the successful party took out the liver and ate it with butter and sugar. They also mixed the fat and blood with turpentine, and made candles, which they burned before their idols. The bones of persons killed in war were used for musical pipes. They made beads from the skulls, or set them in silver as water cups to be used in their religious ceremonials. These are doubtless fables.
The Chinese have spacious burial-grounds at Lhassa and Digarchi, and there, as in their own country and wherever they reside, they are well cared for and ornamented. The Lhasfrs one is said to contain 100,000 tombs. In the timo of Wangh, a celebrated raja of Lhassa, there was an insurrection against the Chinese, which ended for the time in the annihilation of the whole army, and the niassacre, by the Tibetans, of the whole Chinese population. The funerals of the Chinese at that time were estimated at 4000. This massacre was punished by the emperor, and since that timo the Chinese supremacy has been finally established all over Tibet. There was a petty insurrection in 1843, in which many Chinese were killed.—Ilooker, p. 118 ; Moorcrofes Travels ; Cunningham's Sikhs ; Journ. Ind. Arch.; Dr. 7'homson's Tr. ; Campbell; 77mkoteski ; and 7'h. Flora Indica ; A. Cunningham in J. A. S. of Bengal, 1855 ; Prin. Indian Autig. ; Rennell's Memoir ; 7'relawney Saunders' Geog. Mag., 1877 ; Mayer, Chin. God. ; 1Vade's Chinese Army,71, 72.