ristianity, and it
would seem that a ritual common to Tibet and Japan can be explained
only as borrowed from India. Further, although Tsong-kha-pa may have
come in contact with missionaries, is it likely that he had an
opportunity of seeing Roman rites performed with any pomp? It is in
the great choral services of the two religions that the resemblance is
visible, not in their simpler ritual. For these reasons, I think that
the debt of Lamaism to the Catholic Church must be regarded as not
proven, while admitting the resemblance to be so striking that we
should be justified in concluding that Tsong-kha-pa copied Roman
ceremonial, could it be shown that he was acquainted with it.

The life and ritual of the Lamas have often been described, and I need
not do more than refer the reader to the detailed account given by
Waddell in his _Buddhism of Tibet_ ,[1067] but it is noticeable that
the monastic system is organized on a larger scale and inspired by
more energy than in any other country. The monasteries of Tibet, if
inferior to those of Japan in the middle ages, are the greatest
Buddhist establishments now existing. For instance Depung has 7000
monks, Serra 5500 and Tashilhunpo 3800: at Urga in Mongolia there are
said to be 14,000. One is not surprised to hear that these
institutions are veritable towns with their own police and doubtless
the spirit of discipline learned in managing such large bodies of
monks has helped the Lamaist Church in the government of the country.
Also these monasteries are universities. Candidates for ordination
study a course of theology and are not received as novices or full
monks unless they pass successive examinations. In every monastery
there is a central temple in which the monks assemble several times a
day to chant lengthy choral offices. Of these there are at least five,
the first before dawn and the last at 7 p.m. Though the value of
Lamas' learning and ritual may be questioned, it is clear that many of
them lead strenuous lives in the service of a religion which, if
fantastic, still expresses with peculiar intensity the beliefs and
emotions of the Tibetans and Mongols and has forced men of violence to
believe that a power higher than their own is wielded by intellect and
asceticism.

There seems to be no difference between Tibetan and Mongolian Lamaism
in deities, doctrines or observances.[1068] Mongolian Lamas imitate
the usages of Tibet, study there when they can and recite thei