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 LAMAISM LAMAR 117 derived from their immense landed estates, and partly from the practice of arts founded on the superstitious reverence in which they are held by the rest of the population. They are phy- sicians, astrologers, fortune-tellers, and ma- gicians. Children are baptized on the third or tenth day after birth, and are confirmed as soon as they can speak and walk. These ceremonies must be performed by the lama. Marriage is a civil and not a religious rite, but the auspicious day for its performance can only be learned from the lama, and it is considered highly im- portant that it should be accompanied by his prayers. The interment of the dead is for- bidden, and there are no funeral ceremonies requiring the presence of the lama. After death the bodies of distinguished persons and of wealthy laymen are burned. The bodies of the common people are exposed to be devoured by beasts and birds of prey, or by sacred dogs kept 'for the purpose ; but the auspicious day and hour when and the place where the body must be exposed must be determined by the lama. When rich persons are about to die, the lama must be present to assist the departure of the soul by making a small hole in the scalp. He also says masses for the departed soul until it is released from Yama, the infernal judge, and is ready to enter upon its new existence. For these and numberless other services the lama must be rewarded according to the means of the person for whose benefit they are ren- dered. The lamas also make and sell idols, amulets, relics, consecrated pills, and other things of this kind. They print all the books, and to them literary education is almost exclu- sively confined. There are three great festi- vals, and innumerable smaller ones. The first great festival, in commemoration of the victory of Sakyamuni over the six heretic teachers, is celebrated at the time of new moon in Febru- ary. It also marks the commencement of the new year and of spring, and hence the victory of warmth and life over darkness and cold. It is the Thibetan carnival, and lasts for 15 days, during which the population abandon them- selves to every kind of pleasure. The second is held in commemoration of the incarnation of Sakyamuni, and is the oldest festival of Buddhism. It marks the commencement of summer, and is characterized by the procession of idols. The third is the water festival at the commencement of autumn. Of the other fes- tivals, the most important is the lamp festival, in commemoration of the translation to heaven of bTsong-Kha-pa. There are also a great num- ber of fasts, the objects and characteristics of which it would be tedious to enumerate. Small chapels, prayer wheels, the turning of which is considered equivalent to the utterance of the prayers inscribed upon them, sacred inscrip- tions on walls and columns, and silken flags inscribed with prayers and hoisted upon con- secrated poles, abound in the streets and along the highways. The lamas assemble three times each day for worship, at sunrise, noon, and sun- set. The worship consists principally in the recitation of prayers and sacred texts, accom- panied by a chaotic clamor of horns, trumpets, and drums. When the grand lama appears in public he sits cross-legged, is clothed in splen- did robes of fine woollen or silk richly wrought with gold, and distributes his blessings in si- lence by the motion of his hands. The archi- tecture of the lamaic temples is a mixture of the Chinese and Indian styles. They are square, and in Thibet always face the east, in Mongolia the south. They are divided into three apart- ments, the entrance hall, the main hall with two parallel rows of columns, and the sanctu- ary in which are the chief idol, the altar, and the throne of the chief lama. The walls are generally painted in lively colors, and the halls adorned with carpets, statues, and various orna- ments. The temple is surrounded by the build- ings necessary to supply the temporal and spirit- ual wants of the lamas, the whole forming the dGon-pa, monastery or lamasery. The great body of lamaic literature is contained in two immense collections : the bKa 1 hGyur or Kan- jur mentioned above, a copy of which is in the national library at Paris, and the fa Tan hGyur (pronounced Tanjur), in 225 volumes, which consists mostly of translations from Sanskrit and Prakrit of treatises on dogmas, philosophy, ethics, medicine, grammar, and other sciences, of fragments of epic poems, vocabularies, and various other matters. The imperial library of St. Petersburg possesses both these collec- tions. The KanjuT is regarded as sacred, the Tanjur merely as high authority. Only a very small number of lamas possess any real knowl- edge of either collection. Like other Buddh- ists, the Lamaists recognize no worship of gods. The essence of all that is holy is com- prised in an ideal trinity designated by the name dKon-mTchhog-gSsum, three precious jewels, viz., the Buddha, the doctrine, and the priest- hood. Far beneath these are many good and evil beings, partly gods borrowed from the In- dian pantheon, partly spirits from the ancient religions of the Mongol nations. The inter- vention of the lamas is necessary to propitiate these and ward off their evil influence, but they are not properly objects of worship. See Csoma de Koros, "Asiatic Researches," &c. ; Hue, Souvenirs (Pun voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet et la Chine (Paris, 1852; English translation by W. Hazlitt, 2 vols. 12mo, 1852) ; Karl Ritter, Erdlcunde von Asien ; K. Fr. Kop- pen, Lamaische Hierarchie, &c. (Berlin, 1859). LAMANTIN. See MANATEE. LAMAR, a N. E. county of Texas, separated from the Indian territory by Red river, and bounded S. by the N. fork of Sulphur river ; area, about 950 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 15,790, of whom 4,410 were colored. It has an un- even surface, diversified by woodlands and fer- tile prairies, and suitable for grazing. The chief productions in 1870 were 5,390 bushels of wheat, 474,361 of Indian corn, 9,104 of oats, 16,347 of sweet potatoes, and 6,753 bales