[Bon-po seems to be (according to Grenard, II. 410) a “coarse naturism combined with ancestral worship” resembling Taoism.  It has, however, borrowed a good deal from Buddhism.  “I noticed,” says Mr. Rockhill (Journey, 86), “a couple of grimy volumes of Boenbo sacred literature.  One of them I examined; it was a funeral service, and was in the usual Boenbo jargon, three-fourths Buddhistic in its nomenclature.”  The Bon-po Lamas are above all sorcerers and necromancers, and are very similar to the kam of the Northern Turks, the bo of the Mongols, and lastly to the Shamans.  During their operations, they wear a tall pointed black hat, surmounted by the feather of a peacock, or of a cock, and a human skull.  Their principal divinities are the White God of Heaven, the Black Goddess of Earth, the Red Tiger and the Dragon; they worship an idol called Kye’-p’ang formed of a mere block of wood covered with garments.  Their sacred symbol is the svastika turned from right to left [Symbol].  The most important of their monasteries is Zo-chen gum-pa, in the north-east of Tibet, where they print most of their books.  The Bonpos Lamas “are very popular with the agricultural Tibetans, but not so much so with the pastoral tribes, who nearly all belong to the Gelupa sect of the orthodox Buddhist Church.”  A. K. says, “Buddhism is the religion of the country; there are two sects, one named Mangba and the other Chiba or Baimbu.” Explorations made by A——­K——­, 34. Mangba means “Esoteric,” Chiba (p’yi-ba), “Exoteric,” and Baimbu is Boenbo. Rockhill, Journey, 289, et passim.; Land of the Lamas, 217-218; Grenard, Mission Scientifique, II. 407 seqq.—­H.  C.]

There is an indication in Koeppen’s references that the followers of the Bon doctrine are sometimes called in Tibet Nag-choi, or “Black Sect,” as the old and the reformed Lamas are called respectively the “Red” and the “Yellow.”  If so, it is reasonable to conclude that the first appellation, like the two last, has a reference to the colour of clothing affected by the priesthood.

The Rev. Mr. Jaeschke writes from Lahaul:  “There are no Bonpos in our part of the country, and as far as we know there cannot be many of them in the whole of Western Tibet, i.e. in Ladak, Spiti, and all the non-Chinese provinces together; we know, therefore, not much more of them than has been made known to the European public by different writers on Buddhism in Tibet, and lately collected by Emil de Schlagintweit....  Whether they can be with certainty identified with the Chinese Taosse I cannot decide, as I don’t know if anything like historical evidence about their Chinese origin has been detected anywhere, or if it is merely a conclusion from the similarity of their doctrines and practices....  But the Chinese author of the Wei-tsang-tu-Shi, translated by Klaproth, under the title of Description du Tubet (Paris,