Because the Tibetans for many years had insulted the government of India and had seized territory claimed by it, English troops under Colonel Younghusband were sent against the invaders in 1903, and after several severe battles reached the forbidden city of Lasa, where a forced treaty was negotiated and signed. But on the withdrawal of the English troops the policy of exclusion was immediately resumed. Russia to-day has much greater influence in Tibet than has England. The present condition of Tibet resembles in many respects that of Europe during the Middle Ages. The country is under the suzerainty of China, which has a representative called an amaban and several thousand troops at Lasa to maintain its claim. Though an extremely trying climate prevails on these highlands, the hermit-like, priest-ridden people know no better home and are contented with their lot. Of its three and one-half million inhabitants, one in seven belongs to the priestly class called lamas. At the head of this priesthood, as well as at the head of the state, are two leaders, the chief one, the Dalai Lama, or "ocean of learning," and the other the Bogodo Lama, or "precious teacher." With their subordinates, these two are supposed to have power not only over life and death, but over the reincarnation of the soul and entrance to the regions beyond rebirth. This isolated table-land is the seat of a former Buddhism better known by the name of Lamaism. A deep but crude religious feeling tainted with the grossest superstitions pervades the whole people, whose ignorance of other learning is appalling. When a person dies a lama must be present to see that the soul is properly separated from the body and to direct the spirit on its journey to paradise; the lama must also influence its rebirth in a happy existence and provide for its entrance upon Nirvana, or eternal rest. Many a mountain contains hollowed-out cells in which hermit monks spend their lives in silent meditation. On an island in one of the lakes, where they can be reached only when the lake freezes, reside twenty monks. In the midst of this wild and majestic scenery each rock and stream has its deity and saint, together with its appropriate legend. Although the Buddhist monks do not believe in God as a creator, their religion demands audible and written prayers; indeed, prayer-wheels are frequently used to facilitate the repetition of prayers. Prayers numbering hundreds and even thousands are carefully written and placed, rolled up, in drum-wheels, which are revolved by wind, water, or hand power. Each revolution of a wheel is supposed to say all the prayers enclosed in it.