After a cremation much chang is consumed by
the friends, who make presents to the bereaved family. The value of
each is carefully entered in a book, so that a precise return may be
made when a similar occasion occurs. Until the fourth day after
death it is believed to be impossible to quiet the soul. On that day
a piece of paper is inscribed with prayers and requests to the soul
to be quiet, and this is burned by the lamas with suitable
ceremonies; and rites of a more or less elaborate kind are afterwards
performed for the repose of the soul, accompanied with prayers that
it may get 'a good path' for its re-birth, and food is placed in
conspicuous places about the house, that it may understand that its
relatives are willing to support it. The mourners for some time wear
wretched clothes, and neither dress their hair nor wash their faces.
Every year the lamas sell by auction the clothing and ornaments,
which are their perquisites at funerals. {2}
The Moravian missionaries have opened a school in Leh, and the wazir,
finding that the Leh people are the worst educated in the country,
ordered that one child at least in each family should be sent to it.
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