Another Opinion Is That The
Bon Religion Was Originally A Mere Fetishism, And Related To Or Identical
With Shamanism; This
Appears to me very probable and easy to reconcile
with the former supposition, for it may afterwards, on becoming acquainted
With the Chinese doctrine of the 'Taosse,' have adorned itself with many
of its tenets.... With regard to the following particulars, I have got
most of my information from our Lama, a native of the neighbourhood of
Tashi Lhunpo, whom we consulted about all your questions. The
extraordinary asceticism which struck Marco Polo so much is of course not
to be understood as being practised by all members of the sect, but
exclusively, or more especially, by the priests. That these never
marry, and are consequently more strictly celibatary than many sects of
the Lamaitic priesthood, was confirmed by our Lama." (Mr. Jaeschke then
remarks upon the bran to much the same effect as I have done above.)
"The Bonpos are by all Buddhists regarded as heretics. Though they worship
idols partly the same, at least in name, with those of the Buddhists,...
their rites seem to be very different. The most conspicuous and most
generally known of their customs, futile in itself, but in the eyes of the
common people the greatest sign of their sinful heresy, is that they
perform the religious ceremony of making a turn round a sacred object in
the opposite direction to that prescribed by Buddhism. As to their dress,
our Lama said that they had no particular colour of garments, but their
priests frequently wore red clothes, as some sects of the Buddhist
priesthood do.
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