Page:Sikhim and Bhutan.djvu/38

 Sikhim is not so priest-ridden as Bhutan and Tibet. As a class the lamas are disliked, but also feared by the people, on account of the belief that the lamas have the power to do them harm.

As a rule the lamas are ignorant, idle and useless, living at the expense of the country, which they are surely dragging down.

This is particularly the case in Bhutan, where the lamas are fed, clothed and housed at State expense, and as their numbers have steadily increased, they have become a very heavy burden which cannot long be borne, and an evil which I hope may soon be curtailed by the method proposed by Sir Ugyen Wang-chuk, namely, the gradual reduction by leaving vacancies, occurring through death and other causes, unfilled, and the limitation of the number admitted to each monastery.

There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, and I have met several lamas, notably the Phodong Lama of Sikhim and others like him, men who were thoroughly capable, who acted up to their principles, and whom I thoroughly respected, but I am sorry to say such men were few and far between. The majority generally lead a worldly life and only enter the priesthood as a lucrative profession and one which entails no trouble to themselves.