Lamaism

Lamaism is a form of Buddhism intermingled with the indigenous Tibetan religion, Bon. Tibetan Buddhism slowly adopted some of the Bon rites, while Bon eventually took on Buddhist teachings and disappeared. Lamaism mainly gained its Buddhist knowledge from Han Mahayana Buddhist sources.
Of the various sects that eventually developed within Lamaist Buddhism, the main ones are Nyingma, Sakya,Kagyu, Bon, and Gelug.
The Nyingma Sect was founded by Padmasambhava, an Indian master of Esoteric Buddhism who was invited to Tibet to preach Buddhism during the later half of the 8th century. This sect is also called the "Red Sect" because the monks of this school wear red hats.
The Sakya Sect is also known as the "Striped Sect" because of the three stripes of red, white, and black that are painted on the walls of all its monasteries.
The Kagyu Sect is also called the "White Sect" because its monks wore white robes in the past.
The Bon Sect is also known as the "Black Sect."It grew directly as an overlay of Buddhism on top of Bon tradition.
By far the most powerful of the Lamaist sects is the Gelug, or the "Yellow Sect," called so because the monks wear yellow hats. It was founded in 1392 by Tsongkapa, an advocate of religious reform, and it grew rapidly into the sect with the largest following. Part of the reason for this is the political support the Yellow Sect received from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) government, which appointed their leader, the Fifth Dalai Lama, to "unifythe tribes" in Tibet. Ganden, Sera, Drepung, Tashilhunpo, Kumbum, and Labrang are the principal monasteries of this sect.