The Melchizedek Teachings in the Orient

94:10.1In 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.

94:10.2These sim­ple-minded Ti­betans would not wholly give up their an­cient magic and charms. 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. 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. 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.

94:10.3The 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.