The Grand Lama is the head of the church as reorganized by Tsong-kha-pa.  In Tibet the priesthood attained to temporal power comparable with the Papacy.  The disintegration of the government divided the whole land into small principalities and among these the great monasteries were as important as any temporal lord.  The abbots of the Sakya monastery were the practical rulers of Tibet for seventy years (1270-1340).  Another period of disintegration followed but after 1630 the Grand Lamas of Lhasa were able to claim and maintain a similar position.

Mongolian Buddhism is a branch of Lamaism distinguished by no special doctrines.  The Mongols were partially converted in the time of Khubilai and a second time and more thoroughly in 1570 by the third Grand Lama.

7.  Nepal exhibits another phase of degeneration.  In Tibet Indian Buddhism passed into the hands of a vigorous national priesthood and was not exposed to the assimilative influence of Hinduism.  In Nepal it had not the same defence.  It probably existed there since the time of Asoka and underwent the same phases of decay and corruption as in Bengal.  But whereas the last great monasteries in Bengal were shattered by the Mohammedan invasion of 1193, the secluded valley of Nepal was protected against such violence and Buddhism continued to exist there in name.  It has preserved a good deal of Sanskrit Buddhist literature but has become little more than a sect of Hinduism.

Nepal ought perhaps to be classed in our second division, that is those countries where Indian culture was introduced not by missionaries but by the settlement of Indian conquerors or immigrants.  To this class belong the Hindu civilizations of Indo-China and the Archipelago.  In all of these Hinduism and Mahayanist Buddhism are found mixed together, Hinduism being the stronger element.  The earliest Sanskrit inscription in these regions is that of Vochan in Champa which is apparently Buddhist.  It is not later than the third century and refers to an earlier king, so that an Indian dynasty probably existed there about 150-200 A.D.  Though the presence of Indian culture is beyond dispute, it is not clear whether the Chams were civilized in Champa by Hindu invaders or whether they were hinduized Malays who invaded Champa from elsewhere.

8.  In Camboja a Hindu dynasty was founded by invaders and the Brahmans who accompanied them established a counterpart to it in a powerful hierarchy, Sanskrit becoming the language of religion.  It is clear that these invaders came ultimately from India but they may have halted in Java or the Malay Peninsula for an unknown period.  The Brahmanic hierarchy began to fail about the fourteenth century and was supplanted by Siamese Buddhism.  Before that time the state religion of both Champa and Camboja was the worship of Siva, especially in the form called Mukhalinga.  Mahayanist Buddhism, tending to identify Buddha with Siva, also existed but enjoyed less of the royal patronage.