The Living Buddha does not die. His soul sometimes passes intothat of a child born on the day of his death and sometimestransfers itself to another being during the life of the Buddha.

This new mortal dwelling of the sacred spirit of the Buddha almostalways appears in the yurta of some poor Tibetan or Mongol family.

There is a reason of policy for this. If the Buddha appears in thefamily of a rich prince, it could result in the elevation of afamily that would not yield obedience to the clergy (and such hashappened in the past), while on the other hand any poor, unknownfamily that becomes the heritor of the throne of Jenghiz Khanacquires riches and is readily submissive to the Lamas. Only threeor four Living Buddhas were of purely Mongolian origin; theremainder were Tibetans.

One of the Councillors of the Living Buddha, Lama-Khan Jassaktu,told me the following:

"In the monasteries at Lhasa and Tashi Lumpo they are keptconstantly informed through letters from Urga about the health ofthe Living Buddha. When his human body becomes old and the Spiritof Buddha strives to extricate itself, special solemn servicesbegin in the Tibetan temples together with the telling of fortunesby astrology. These rites indicate the specially pious Lamas whomust discover where the Spirit of the Buddha will be re-incarnated.

For this purpose they travel throughout the whole land and observe.

Often God himself gives th............