sects may be compared with that given by Schlagintweit,[1] to which nothing practically had been added.[2]
As Lāmaism lives mainly by the senses and spends its strength in sacerdotal functions, it is particularly rich in ritual. Special prominence, therefore, has been given to its ceremonial, all the more so as ritual preserves many interesting vestiges of archaic times. My special facilities for acquiring such information has enabled me to supply details of the principal rites, mystic and other, most of which were previously undescribed. Many of these exhibit in combination ancient Indian and pre-Buddhist Tibetan cults. The higher ritual, as already known, invites comparison with much in the Roman Church; and the fuller details now afforded facilitate this comparison and contrast.
But the bulk of the Lāmaist cults comprise much deep-rooted devil-worship and sorcery, which I describe with some fulness. For Lāmaism is only thinly and imperfectly varnished over with Buddhist symbolism, beneath which the sinister growth of poly-demonist superstition darkly appears.
The religious plays and festivals are also described. And a chapter is added on popular and domestic Lāmaism to show the actual working of the religion in everyday life as a system of ethical belief and practice.
The advantages of the very numerous illustrations—about two hundred in number, mostly from originals brought from Lhāsa, and from photographs by the author—must be obvious.[3] Mr. Rockhill and Mr. Knight have kindly permitted the use of a few of their illustrations.
