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BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM.
are liberal contributors to the temples at public festivals, and to the itinerant mendicant brethren, giving largely from their stores of sheep, and wool, and butter, and various articles of consumption. The chief maintenance of the Lamas is, however, their own industry. In the Buddhist countries of the south, as Ceylon, Siam, and Ava, and apparently in China, a priest is strictly prohibited from exercising any mechanical art, or following any secular occupation; but in Tartary, the Lamas are permitted to support themselves by their own industry, even whilst living in the monastery: the monastery being, in fact, a small town of a priestly population, dwelling in houses, in streets collected round a principal temple or temples, and the main buildings occupied by the Pontiff with his staff and servants. The other Lamas are the sculptors, painters, decorators, and printers of the establishment; those who are qualified are the schoolmasters of the children of the neighbourhood, who have no otlier teachers; and those who are not engaged in the service of the monastery may employ their time for their own profit. There are amongst them, consequently, handicraftsmen, as tailors, shoemakers, hatters; some keep cattle and sell the milk and butter to the brethren, and some even keep shops; the consequence is great inequality of condition; those who are active and enterprising become opulent, whilst the inert and idle, who trust solely to the pittance which is doled out periodically to every member, from the common fund, may be almost in a state of starvation.
