There are the monks and clergy, who are subordinate to the holy and sacred Lamas, the monks and nuns, the abbots and abbesses, chief Lamas, and, over all, the Grand Lama. The monks go bare-headed, though those of high rank wear caps; their heads are shaved, and they are dressed in a yellow robe and high leathern boots, with the mendicant’s food-bowl and the prayer-wheel in their hands. They are collected in vast monasteries scattered over the country, the largest and most numerous being round the city of H’lassa. These monasteries contain many thousands of lamas, and similar establishments are scattered not only in the inhabited valleys, but over the wildest parts of Great Thibet. As there is little wood in the country, the people rarely burn their dead. The dead bodies are usually carried to a high mountain, to be devoured by beasts and birds. The monks’ bodies are, however, burned, and their ashes carefully gathered as relics. Women are not buried or exposed with the bodies of their dead husbands, as was once the case with Hindu women. In fact, this is rendered impossible by the existence of polyandry, one woman in Thibet generally having many husbands. [Illustration: TARTAR WOMAN.] The monasteries are called _Gonpas_; the Lamas’ house, _Labrang_; and the temple, consisting of a room full of images and pictures, Lhakhang. The _Dung-ten_ is a relic repository, such as the _Tope_ of India; and immense votive piles of stones or dykes, from a few feet to half a mile in length, covered with slabs and stuck over with banners inscribed with the Thibetan prayer _Om mani padme hum_, are called _Mani_. The images of Buddha are always seated, with the right hand resting on the knee, the left on the lap, and holding the alms-dish; the body painted yellow or gilt, and the hair short and curly and painted blue. They are of all sizes, and there are other images of beings connected with Buddhistic ideas. The services consist of recitations and chanting of the _Sutras_, or precepts and rules of discipline, to the sound of musical instruments, trumpets, drums, cymbals and conch-shells. The tunes are impressive and solemn; incense is burned during the services, and there are offerings of fruits and grain to Buddha and to the Buddhisatwas, especially to Avaloki-teswara, who is incarnate in the Dalai Lama. Mystical sentences and titles of Buddha are also recited. The bell is used during the performance of service, and the prayer-wheels--metal cylinders, containing printed prayers in rolls, with the axes prolonged to form handles--are in constant use, not only during the service, but on every occasion, being fixed in rows on the walls of temples, near villages, and in streams, to be turned by water. The prayer-wheels have been in use among these people for more than a thousand years, for they are mentioned by the pilgrim Fa-Hian. TEMPLE AT TESHU LUMBO MONASTERY.