Page:Narratives of the mission of George Bogle to Tibet.djvu/48

Rh precious metals, and are skilful weavers and potters. Their language is said to be more nearly allied to that of Burma than to any other of the same group; but it has not yet been exhaustively studied. It is now confined to the valleys of the Tsanpu, Upper Indus, Sutlej, and Chenab. The early history of the Tibetans, before the introduction of Buddhism, is probably quite fabulous; although there is some trace of the old religion of Tibet lingering in the eastern province of Kam. It is called the Bon or Pon religion, and appears to have been a worship of the powers of nature, with a creed identical with the Chinese doctrine of Taossé. The people still have deities of the hills, the trees, the dales, and lakes.

It was centuries after the death of Sakya Muni in India, in 543, that the light of his doctrine spread over the Tibetan plateau. The disciples of Buddha long had to contend against opposition in their own country; their religion of peace and goodwill, not to man only, but to all the animated creation, was very gradually accepted, and it was more than three centuries before the famous King Priyadarsi, or Asoka, made Buddhism the religion of the State in India. Then a new era dawned upon the world. Former inscriptions of ancient kings that have been