Dharma Wheel

Indrajala wrote:

JKhedrup wrote:I can only speak for the gelug tradition with which i am familiar, but at least a majority were exposedto tbetexts in the first few years, and were abke to read them at least. But yes, many did not finish their education or worked.

Regardless of how we feel about it now in 2013, at the time it would have understandably seemed warranted to have a different term for the religion in Tibet.

Yes, I suppose so, given that one was likely to be an ignorant western barbarian with no civilization and manners at that time.

ChNN doesn't really find the term lamaism very offensive.

Sherlock wrote:ChNN doesn't really find the term lamaism very offensive.

Yes, but the manner on which it was used by Waddell and others suggests degeneration and backwardness -- hardly the actual state of Buddhism in Tibet at the time, when there were bhiḳsus holding the strictest vinaya, great meditators everywhere, and panditas in all the monasteries.