RELIGION IN TIBET

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From THE URANTIA BOOK

Part III, 94, 10
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In Tibet may be found the strangest association

of the Melchizedek teachings combined with Buddhism,

Hinduism, Taoism, and Christianity.

When the Buddhist missionaries entered Tibet, they

encountered a state of primitive savagery very similar

to that which the early Christian missionaries

found among the northern tribes of Europe.

These simple-minded Tibetans would not

wholly give up their ancient magic and charms.

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Examination of the religious ceremonials of

present-day Tibetan rituals reveals an

overgrown brotherhood of priests with shaven

heads who practice an elaborate ritual embracing

bells, chants, incense, processionals, rosaries,

images, charms, pictures, holy water, gorgeous

vestments, and elaborate choirs.

They have rigid dogmas and crystallized creeds,

mystic rites and special fasts.

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Their hierarchy embraces monks, nuns,

abbots, and the Grand Lama. They pray to angels,

saints, a Holy Mother, and the gods. They practice

confessions and believe in purgatory.

Their monasteries are extensive and their

cathedrals magnificent. They keep up an

endless repetition of sacred rituals and believe

that such ceremonials bestow salvation.

Prayers are fastened to a wheel, and with

its turning they believe the petitions

become efficacious.
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 Among no other people of

modern times can be found the observance of

so much from so many religions;

and it is inevitable that such a cumulative liturgy

would become inordinately cumbersome

and intolerably burdensome.

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The Tibetans have something of all the

leading world religions except the simple teachings

of the Jesusonian gospel: sonship with God,

brotherhood with man, and ever-ascending citizenship

in the eternal universe.
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(It should be noted that THE URANTIA BOOK passage

came out in the first half of the 20th century, and

cannot account for the current state of

religious evolution in Tibet.)

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