and in Central Asia.  Many of the Pandits who laboured at the translation of the sacred books into Tibetan were Kashmiris, and it was even in Kashmir that several of the translations were made.  But these were not the only circumstances that made Kashmir a holy land to the Northern Buddhists.  In the end of the 9th century the religion was extirpated in Tibet by the Julian of the Lamas, the great persecutor Langdarma, and when it was restored, a century later, it was from Kashmir in particular that fresh missionaries were procured to reinstruct the people in the forgotten Law. (See Koeppen, II. 12-13, 78; J.  As. ser.  VI. tom. vi. 540.)

“The spread of Buddhism to Kashmir is an event of extraordinary importance in the history of that religion.  Thenceforward that country became a mistress in the Buddhist Doctrine and the headquarters of a particular school....  The influence of Kashmir was very marked, especially in the spread of Buddhism beyond India.  From Kashmir it penetrated to Kandahar and Kabul,... and thence over Bactria.  Tibetan Buddhism also had its essential origin from Kashmir;... so great is the importance of this region in the History of Buddhism.” (Vassilyev, Der Buddhismus, I. 44.)

In the account which the Mahawanso gives of the consecration of the great Tope at Ruanwelli, by Dutthagamini, King of Ceylon (B.C. 157), 280,000 priests (!) come from Kashmir, a far greater number than is assigned to any other country except one. (J.  A. S. B. VII. 165.)

It is thus very intelligible how Marco learned from the Mongols and the Lamas with whom he came in contact to regard Kashmir as “the very original source from which their Religion had spread abroad.”  The feeling with which they looked to Kashmir must have been nearly the same as that with which the Buddhists of Burma look to Ceylon.  But this feeling towards Kashmir does not now, I am informed, exist in Tibet.  The reverence for the holy places has reverted to Bahar and the neighbouring “cradle-lands” of Buddhism.

It is notable that the historian Firishta, in a passage quoted by Tod, uses Marco’s expression in reference to Kashmir, almost precisely, saying that the Hindoos derived their idolatry from Kashmir, “the foundry of magical superstition.” (Rajasthan, I. 219.)

NOTE 4.—­The people of Kashmir retain their beauty, but they are morally one of the most degraded races in Asia.  Long oppression, now under the Lords of Jamu as great as ever, has no doubt aggravated this.  Yet it would seem that twelve hundred years ago the evil elements were there as well as the beauty.  The Chinese traveller says:  “Their manners are light and volatile, their characters effeminate and pusillanimous....  They are very handsome, but their natural bent is to fraud and trickery.” (Pel.  Boud. II. 167-168.) Vigne’s account is nearly the same. (II. 142-143.) “They are as mischievous as monkeys, and far more malicious,” says Mr. Shaw (p. 292).