Tibetan Monasteries

Of all the wonders of the Tibetan religión none is so striking as the abnndance of monasteries. These great assemblages of religions honses are fall of monks, or lamas, and the marvels associated with them are truly snrprising. Their number is amazing. They literally swarm in the inhabited portions of Tibet, and a traveler journeying throngh the country passes monastery after monastery in endless snccession. So numerous are they that Mr. Rockhill, the indefatigable American explorer of Tibet, tells that, while the population of eastern Tibet is but small, one-fifth consista of lamas. He also says that in his jonrney from Jyeknndo, in Tibet, to Tachien-lu, on the frontier of China, a distance of 600 miles, he passed 86 large monasteries, flve of which contained from 2,000 to 4,000 lamas. Many monasteries in other parts are equally large. The great monastery of Kumbum, near the Lake Koko Nor, contains 4,000 monks. Chiamdo, which is one of the chief towns in eastern Tibet and contains 12,000 inhabi tanta, seems to be half composed of a gigantic monastery, and Captain Bower, in his recent journey through Tibet, passed the large town of Riuchi, which seemed to him to be all monasteries. The wealth of some of these monasteries is