As soon as a pongyee has expired, the body is reverently washed by the elders, who were his supporters. The body is then opened, the viscera extracted, and buried anywhere without ceremony. The cavity of the abdomen is filled with hot ashes and various preservative substances. Long swathes of white cotton-cloth are wrapped as tightly as possible round the corpse from head to foot, over which are placed the yellow robes of the order. Another coarser wrapping of cotton-cloth is tightly wound over this, and then thickly covered with black varnish, on which gold leaf is applied, so that the whole is gilt. A coffin is prepared from a single log, hollowed out, which many old pongyees keep in their monasteries ready for their demise. The body, having been placed in this, is left for some weeks to dry up, for most of such venerable and aged recluses are little more than a frame-work of bones, covered with a withered skin. The cover is at length nailed on; the coffin is thickly covered with a resinous varnish and gilt. It is temporarily laid in state in the monastery, on a high dais, ornamented with tinsel, gilding and paper lace, surmounted by a white umbrella, or canopy of muslin, and is constantly visited by pilgrims from the surrounding country, who make their obeisance and present offerings of flowers, etc., to it. As soon as sufficient funds have been collected, a building, called Nibban Kyeng (that is, Monastery of the Dead), is erected for the reception of the body. With obscure and inferior monks this is only made of bamboos and thatch; but with a distinguished and venerated monk it is a substantial structure, with large, handsome pillars of iron-wood or teak, roofed with shingles. This is open all around, or is only surrounded by a railing to keep out animals. In the centre, within a high sarcophagus, richly but rudely adorned with gilding, glass, mosaic work and painting, is enshrined the coffin, to await, perhaps, for four years the final funeral rites. At length, the time of waiting has passed; the preparations are complete; a fortunate day has been fixed upon, and for weeks previous, the town where the ceremony is to take place, and all the surrounding country, has been astir with the arrangements for and expectation of the great event. The coffin is placed on a gigantic car, solidly constructed, and with four heavy solid wooden wheels, surmounted with a canopy similar in form and construction to that crowning the funeral pyre. This lofty turret is drawn along by hundreds of men, and placed in the centre of the plain. The next day, the _fun_ begins. Two great ropes of twisted canes, or coirs, are fastened to the funeral car in front and behind, long enough for a hundred people to hold on to each and to pull each way. The people group themselves about either rope as they belong to one or other of two neighboring villages. Then comes a tug, each trying to pull the car away from the other.