SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
India. With the exception of the Hindu Paharias, Buddhism is the religion professed throughout Bhutan.
To my readers who wish to study the subject of Buddhist religion in this part of the world I cannot give better advice than to read Waddell’s “Lamaism,” as I have no intention of entering deeply into it, and will content myself by saying that in both Sikhim and Bhutan the religion is an offshoot of Buddhism, and was introduced into these countries from Tibet by lamas from different monasteries who travelled south and converted the people. Most of the tenets of Buddha have been set aside, and those retained are lost in a mass of ritual, so nothing remains of the original religion but the name. The form of worship has a curious resemblance in many particulars to that of the Roman Catholic Church. On any of their high holy days the intoning of the Chief Lama conducting the service, the responses chanted by the choir, sometimes voices alone, sometimes to the accompaniment of instruments, where the deep note of the large trumpet strangely resembles the roll of an organ, the ringing of bells, burning of incense, the prostrations before the altar, the telling of beads and burning of candles, the processions of priests in gorgeous vestments, and even the magnificent altars surmounted by images and decorated with gold and silver vessels, with lamps burning before them, even the side chapels with the smaller shrines where lights burn day and night, add to the feeling that one is present at some high festival in a Roman Catholic place of worship. I have been present at the services on feast days in the temples in Sikhim, Bhutan and in Lhasa, and no great stretch of imagination was required to imagine myself in a Catholic Cathedral in France or Spain, especially the latter. There is also some resemblance in the dress and vestments of the priests and lamas, and even in some of their customs. Many of them go entirely into seclusion, and they also have certain periods of time devoted to prayer corresponding to a Retreat, during which they see no one.
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