TALAPOINS is the name given by the Portuguese, and after them by other European nations, to the Buddhist priests, or rather monks, of Siam, and is supposed to be derived from the fan which they always carry, usually made of a leaf of: the palinyrastree, and hence, says Crawfunl (' Journal of Embassy to Siam '), denominated by the Sanskrit word Talpat. Tad is the common Indian name for the palmyra ; and the older travellers give Talapa as the Siamese word for a fan. By the Burmese the Talapoins arc said to be called Italians, whence seems to come the name Itaulina, given to them by the 31ohannuedans ; as by the Chinese they are called Ifo-changi ; in Tibet, Lama-sen or Lamas; and in Japan, Bonzes. (Prevost, 'Histoire Gendrale des Voyages,' vi.; and Christianisme en Chine, en Tartarie, et an Thibet,' par M. Hue, 1857.) In Ceylon time name for the priests is stated by Sir J. E. Tennent, in his ' Christianity in Ceylon, 1850, to be Samna naros, the name also given to them in Siam ; apparently the same word as the Samaneans, or Buddhists of Behar, quoted by Pliny and Strabo from 3legasthenes, rte. 300.
They are, as has been stated, a species of monks living in com munities of from ten to some hundreds, and employing their time in devotion, religious study, and meditation, and in begging, or rather receiving alms, for they are not permitted actually to solicit charity.
Their dresses of yellow cotton or silk (which are essential to the priesthood, and the quitting of which is an abandonment of the order) are of the same fashion as those of time Buddhist priests in Ava and Ceylon, and present a highly favourable contrast to the rags and squalidity of the general population. On the other hand, a tala poin is not only separated from society by being condemned to celibacy, and is prohibited from possessing property, but is expected to observe very strictly several of the precepts of the national religion which are very little attended to by anybody else, especially the prohibitions against the slaying of animals (although they will eat them when slain), stealing, adultery, lying. and drinking wine. Sir J. E. Tennent states that they are wretchedly poor, and in point of education rise little above the peasantry, but that they are superstitiously sincere.