[122]This is the Sanskṛit
vandya, ‘to be saluted.’ I cannot help
thinking that Bante and Bandya may be the origin of the term
Bonze, applied to monks or priests in China, though I believe
Professor Legge connects Bonze with Munshī.
[123]According to Dr. Schlagintweit the number of rules is 250, and
they are detailed in the first or Dulva portion of the Kanjur.
[124]One was a Nepālese princess (called Bribsun) and the other a
Chinese princess (called Wenching). According to Koeppen, they
were worshipped under the general name Dāra Eke—Dāra standing
for the Sanskṛit Tārā and Eke meaning Mother.
[125]Some write Lhāsa (strictly Lhasa). I prefer Lhāssa as best representing
the pronunciation. It means ‘the city of the gods’ (lha or lhā).
[126]Bakshi is probably a corruption of Bhikshu. Koeppen says it is
Mongolian for Ton. Mr. Edgar (Report, p. 39) pronounces Brom Ton
Domton.
[127]Dr. Schlagintweit (p. 73) identifies this with the sect which wear
red dresses, but this must surely be an error for
yellow.
[128]Through the Mongols Tibet gradually came under the power of
China from 1255 to 1720. The dynasty in China is now Manchu.
[129]It is remarkable that the expression
ὁ καταβάς is said of Christ in
the New Testament.
[130]According to the
Times Correspondent Lhāssa stands in no closer
relation to China than the least dependent of Indian States to the
British Empire; history, however, proves that China can, when her
interests demand it, assume a very different position. The military
power of China is not great, but that of the Lāma Government is
nearly
nil. The expulsion of the missionaries Huc and Gabet proves this.
[131]It is said by some that even his excreta are held sacred. They
are dried, ground to powder, and either swallowed or made use of as
charms. Others deny this.
[132]In the
Times newspaper for June 15, 1888, is the following:
‘
How the Grand Lāma of Tibet is appointed.—A recent number of the
Peking Gazette contains a memorial to the Emperor from the Chinese
Resident at Lhāssa, stating that a certain Tibetan official called the
Nominhan (see
p. 286 of this volume) had reported to him that he
had found three young boys of remarkable intelligence and acuteness,
into one of whom beyond a doubt the spirit of the late Lāma of
Tashi Lunpo (one of the two supreme pontiffs) had passed. Thereupon
the Chinese Resident sent a report to Peking, asking that the ceremony
of selecting one of these three children might be permitted. By the time
the authority arrived, the Nominhan with the children had reached
Lhāssa, and a lucky day was chosen for the ceremony. The golden
vase in which the lots are cast was brought and placed before the
image of the Emperor. Prayers were chanted before the assembled
Lāmas, and the children were conducted into the presence of the
Resident and Tibetan authorities in order that their intelligence and
difference from other persons might be tested.’
[133]‘Cloven-headed’ seems a misprint for eleven-headed;
but the account of the creation of Avalokiteṡvara at
p. 487 of
this volume justifies ‘cloven-headed.’—
Corr.
[134]Article on Japan in the last edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
[135]According to one of my Japanese informants Butsu should he
Bhutsu, and the formula should be translated, ‘Reverence to the
Infinite Being.’
[136]My quotations from the travels of Huc and Gabet have been
made from excellent translations by Mrs. Percy Sinnet and W.
Hazlitt, but I have been compelled to abbreviate the extracts.
[137]Published by Messrs. Macmillan & Co. Shway Yoe is an assumed
name. The author’s real name is Scott.
[138]I was told when in Ceylon, that many monasteries in the Kandyan
provinces had misappropriated their endowments and dropped the
schools, which they were bound to keep up.
[139]Notes illustrative of Buddhism as the daily religion of the
Buddhists of Ceylon, by J. F. Dickson, M. A. Oxon.
[140]This is the derivation given by Childers; one might otherwise
have been inclined to suspect some connexion with Preta, a ghost
(pp.
121,
219 of this volume).
[141]The
texts and commentaries of some of these were collected by M.
Grimblot, and translated with notes by M. Leon Feer, in the Journal
Asiatique. The Tibetan Pirit is said to consist of only thirteen
Suttas.
[142]A cold climate necessitates the addition of trousers, and boots
and occasionally shoes are worn.
[143]This is probably permitted with a view to prevent the study of
Mongolian from entirely dying out. It is certain that, although
the Buddhist sacred books have long been translated into Mongolian,
Chinese, and Tungusic, only the Tibetan texts are esteemed as
canonical.
[144]The indomitable persevering Hungarian traveller, Alexander
Csoma de Körös, already mentioned (at
p. 70), was the first European
to throw light on the Tibetan language. He had been impelled to
acquire it by the task he had imposed on himself of searching out the
progenitors of his race. More than eighty years ago he set out on his
travels, and his search ultimately brought him to Tibet. There he
devoted himself to the study of the Tibetan language and its sacred
literature, taking up his abode in the monastery of Pugdal, in defiance
of intense cold and other hardships. But his heroic energy did not end
there. In 1831 he travelled from Tibet to Calcutta, and in that city,
about the year 1834, published his Grammar and Dictionary of the
Tibetan language, besides his table of contents of the Kanjur and the
extra-canonical treatises. At length fancying himself qualified for the
accomplishment of his self-inflicted task, he started off again, and died
in Sikkim in April 1842. He is buried at Dārjīling. We Englishmen,
who ought to have taken the greatest share in these linguistic
conquests—so important in their bearing on the interests of our
Indian frontier—have hitherto, to our great discredit, almost entirely
neglected them. Meanwhile, St. Petersburg and Paris have founded
chairs of the Tibetan language, and nearly all that has been effected
for promoting the study of Tibetan has been due to Russian and
French scholars, and to German and Moravian missionaries, especially
to Jäschke and Hyde.
I am glad, however, to see from the annual address delivered by
the President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and published in the
Report for February, 1888, that this reproach is now being wiped out
by our fellow-subjects in India. Babu Pratāpa Chandra Ghosha is
bringing out in the Bibliotheca Indica the Tibetan translation of the
Buddhistic work Prajñā-pāramitā, forming the second division of the
Kanjur, while Mr. Sarat Chandra Dās, C.I.E., is editing the Tibetan
version of the Avadāna-Kalpalatā (a store-house of legends of Buddha’s
life and acts), and compiling a Tibetan-Sanskṛit-English Dictionary.
Great credit is due to our Indian Government for the publication of
Jäschke’s Tibetan-English Dictionary.
[145]As corpses
are exposed to be devoured by animals in Tibet human
bones are easily obtained for this purpose.
[146]As
before stated (
p. 306, note) I have been compelled to
abbreviate the translator’s version and occasionally to vary the
expressions, and have therefore felt it right to omit inverted commas.
[147]According to Schlagintweit this sect (also called Brugpa,
p. 272) are
especially worshippers of the Dorje (see
p. 322), and are therefore Tāntrikas.
[148]This I heard from his own lips.
[149]The abstract has been made by me from a copy of Sarat Chandra
Dās’ Report kindly lent to me by Sir Edwin Arnold. But I learnt
much from Mr. S. C. D. in personal conversations. In my numerous
quotations I have ventured to make a few alterations in the English.
[150]This is the Tibetan name of Avalokiteṡvara or Padma-pāṇi. It
is often spelt Chenresi, or Chenresig, or Chenressig.
[151]The Lion is an emblem of the Buddha, and he is called Ṡākya-siṉha,
‘the Lion of the Ṡākya tribe’ (see pp.
23,
394).
[154]See Mr. Clements Markham’s Tibet, p. cxiii.
[156]See my ‘Brāhmanism and Hindūism,’ p. 367.
[157]I found, when in the South of India, that an image of Bhavānī in
a Hindū temple was very like that of the Virgin Mary in an adjacent
Roman Catholic Church. I was told that the same Hindū carver
carved both.
[158]We know that Hindūism, in the end, adopted Buddha himself,
and converted him into one of the incarnations of Vishṇu (see ‘Brāhmanism
and Hindūism,’ p. 114).
[159]These good deities, according to Schlagintweit, are represented
with formidable countenances and dark complexions, and a third eye
in the forehead—probably the eye of wisdom, as in the Dhyāni-Buddhas
(see
p. 203 of these Lectures).
[160]See the account of the female demons called Tanma at
p. 457 of
these Lectures.
[161]The shape is not quite the same as that of the Phurbu, but
there can be no doubt of its being a kindred weapon. I purchased my
specimen at Dārjīling, and was assured that it came from Tibet, and
was used by the Tibetans in the same way as the Phurbu.
[162]See ‘Brāhmanism and Hindūism,’ p. 345.
[163]See my work on ‘Brāhmanism and Hindūism,’ pp. 357, 358,
370, etc.
[164]See the translation of a horoscope given in ‘Brāhmanism and
Hindūism,’ p. 373.
[165]According to Schlagintweit, those amulets which are curved round
to a point are intended to represent the leaf of the sacred fig-tree.
[166]In this it did good service, at least for a time; for the cost of
marriage-ceremonies among the Hindūs often cripples the resources
of a family for years. The marriage of the poorest persons sometimes
entails expenses in gifts to the Brāhmans, etc., to the amount of 300
rupees.
[167]Mr. Scott points out in his ‘Burman’ that this is especially the
case in Burma.
[168]Scott’s ‘Burman,’ p. 125.
[169]My authority for this is Mr. J. F. Dickson’s pamphlet called
‘Notes and illustrations of Buddhism,’ etc.
[170]Scott’s ‘Burman,’ i. 282.
[171]The Dāgabas of laymen have no umbrellas at the top (see
p. 505).
This privilege is only accorded to the monkhood (Scott’s ‘Burman’).
[172]This is mentioned by Huc as well as by Koeppen.
[173]He is sometimes represented seated on a Lotus, or born from a
Lotus.
[174]Om is borrowed from the Hindūs. It is their most sacred syllable,
symbolical of their triad of gods, Brahmā, Vishṇu, and Ṡiva, denoted
by the three mystical letter A, U, M (see my ‘Brāhmanism,’ p. 402).
When imported into Buddhism it may possibly symbolize the Buddhist
triad. Om is sometimes translated by Hail! Hūm, as a particle
of solemn assent, is sometimes translated by Amen! I prefer to treat
both Om and Hūm as untranslatable ejaculations.
[175]I had formed this opinion long before I saw the same view hinted
at in one of Koeppen’s notes (see my ‘Brāhmanism and Hindūism,’
p. 33). It is certainly remarkable that the name Maṇi is applied
to the male organ, and the female is compared to a lotus-blossom
in the Kāma-ṡāstras. I fully believe the formula to have a phallic
meaning, because Tibetan Buddhism is undoubtedly connected with
Ṡaivism.
[176]Some think, however, that the six syllables owe their efficacy to
their symbolizing the six Pāramitās or transcendent virtues.
[177]Dr. Schlagintweit mentions (p. 121) that when Baron Schilling
visited a certain convent he found the Lāmas occupied in preparing
100 million copies of Om maṇi padme Hūm to be inserted in a prayer-cylinder.
He also states that the inscription relating to the foundation
of the monastery of Hemis in Ladāk (see
p. 433 of these Lectures)
records the setting up of 300,000 prayer-cylinders along the walls
and passages of the monastery.
[178]The
Maṇi-padme prayer is itself for shortness often called Maṇi.
[180]So says Schlagintweit, but he adds that in some places passers
by keep them to the right. Mr. Sarat Chandra Dās also mentions
this.
[181]According to Sir Richard Temple (Journal, p. 198) travellers
walk first on one side and then on the other.
[182]Schlagintweit (p. 253) says this is the horse which constitutes
one of the seven treasures (see
p. 528 of these Lectures). It brings
good fortune to the man who keeps it flying on a flag.
[183]The gem called Norbu is another of the seven treasures.
[184]Dr. Schlagintweit says that a Dhāraṇi to the following effect is
often written on the flag: ‘Tiger, Lion, Eagle, and Dragon, may
they co-operate Sarva-du-du-hom! (‘Tibetan Buddhism,’ p. 255).
[185]The number 108 seems sacred, as the sole of Buddha’s foot is
said to have that number of marks upon it.
[186]Common people in Buddhist countries are satisfied with 30 or
40 beads.
[187]This is a great Tibetan saint, author of a hundred thousand songs.
[188]Translated for me by Mr. Sarat Chandra Dās, who was my
companion during part of my sojourn at Dārjīling.
[189]Hiouen Thsang says that this place is near Prayāga (the modern
Allahābād), and that Aṡoka built a Stūpa there. (Beal, i. 231.)
[190]General Sir A. Cunningham puts the date at about
A.D. 150.
[191]See the account given in ‘Brāhmanism and Hindūism,’ p. 442.
[192]Many images and sculptures were abstracted by the Burmese, but
many never reached Burma, for they accidentally fell into the Ganges
in the process of being transported there. The colossal image found
outside the temple is now in the Calcutta Museum (see the engraving
opposite to
p. 466).
[193]Mr. Beglar gave me specimens of the fragments, which I have still.
[194]The umbrella is symbolical of supremacy. See
p. 523.
[195]The lion is often associated with Buddha, who is called Ṡākya-siṉha
(see
p. 23), and whose throne is therefore called a
Siṉhāsan.
[196]This will be evident to any one who examines it attentively. The
socket-hole of the umbrella-ornament may be easily detected.
[197]The form of ritual observed was like that I witnessed at Gayā,
and described in my ‘Brāhmanism and Hindūism,’ p. 310.
[198]See my ‘Brāhmanism and Hindūism,’ p. 434.
[199]That is, ‘the lord of deer.’ Sāraṅga is a kind of deer, and the
Buddha was probably called so because he is fabled to have wandered
about as a deer in this very place in one of his former births (see
p. 111 of this volume). The legend is that he was born eleven times
as a deer, and on this account a deer is one of the sacred symbols of
Buddhism. We learn from General Sir A. Cunningham (i. 105) that
the name Sārnāth properly belongs to a temple dedicated to Ṡiva near
the Buddhist monument, and the epithet ‘Lord of deer,’ is equally
applicable to the god Ṡiva, who is often represented in the act of
holding up a deer in his hand.
[200]The name Dhamek may possibly be a corruption of Dhamma-ćakka
(Dharma-ćakra).
[201]Fā-hien says that the old city was girdled by five hills. These
hills are now called Baibhār (on which are five Jain temples), Vipula,
Ratna, Udaya, and Sona-giri. A long account of the place will be
found in Cunningham’s ‘Ancient Geography of India,’ pp. 462-468,
and in his ‘Archæological Report,’ i. 20. Bimbi-sāra seems to have
built the town, which was afterwards improved by Ajāta-ṡatru, and
the site of the new portion being not quite identical, the new town
was called ‘new Rāja-gṛiha.’ Legge’s ‘Fā-hien,’ p. 81. There are
several hot springs in this locality.
[202]Ajāta-ṡatru seems first to have sided with Buddha’s enemy Deva-datta.
[203]It may be mentioned here that any place or house in which the
Buddha resided for a time was afterwards called Gandha-kuṭī (probably
from the fragrance of the perfumed offerings always to be found in
it). Hence the Bambu grove at Rāja-gṛiha, and the Jeta-vana at
Srāvastī (
p. 407), were both Gandha-kuṭīs.
[204]A magnificent edition of this work in Tibetan, Mongol, Manchu,
and Chinese came into the possession of the French Missionaries
(Huc, ii. 74).
[206]Fā-hien says, ‘Here lived Buddha for a longer time than at any
other place,’ and on that account, perhaps, was called Dharma-pattana
(Beal’s ‘Records,’ ii. 1). It was at this place that the Brahmaćārīns
killed a courtesan, and accused Buddha of adultery and murder (see
Legge, p. 59; Beal, ii. 8).
[207]Legge, pp. 57, 59; Beal, ii. 5.
[208]Another statue, claiming to be the genuine sandal-wood image,
was at Kauṡāmbī (see
p. 412).
[209]A kūṭāgāra is properly any building with a peaked roof (kūṭa) or
pinnacle.
[210]Cunningham (i. 301) gives a full account of the place.
[211]The story is fully narrated in the second and third books of the
Kathā-sarit-sāgara of Soma Deva. See my ‘Indian Wisdom,’ p. 511.
King Udayana is said to have been a contemporary of the Buddha.
[212]See my ‘Indian Wisdom,’ p. 486.
[213]See Hiouen Thsang’s account of it,
p. 471. Another similar
image belonged to King Prasenajit at Ṡrāvastī, see pp.
408,
471.
[214]The name is said to have been derived from that of a Nāga, who
lived in a neighbouring tank. See the description in two Chinese
Buddhist inscriptions found at Buddha-Gayā. R. A. S. Journal, vol.
xiii.
[215]This Utpalā must be the same as Utpala-varṇā (see
p. 48 of this
volume).
[216]A Yojana is variously estimated at 4 or 5 or 9 English miles.
[217]Hiouen Thsang states that this name, which means a ‘hump-backed
virgin,’ is derived from the fact that an old sage (Ṛishi), who
possessed supernatural powers, cursed ninety-nine daughters of king
Brahma-datta for refusing to marry him, and made them deformed
(Beal, i. 209). A different legend is given in my Sanskṛit-English
Dictionary.
[218]This is very instructive in regard to the numerical proportion
between Brāhmans and Buddhists at this place.
[219]According to Cunningham, about
B.C. 450.
[220]One for each of the 84,000 elements of the body (
p. 499). The
real number of Stūpas was 84, but, as usual, three ciphers have been
added.
[221]It is difficult to understand exactly what these Aḍḍhayoga, Prāsāda
and Harmya were. In some Buddhist countries storied houses are
considered objectionable, as no one likes to submit to the indignity of
having the feet of another person above his head.
[222]The objection to the hollow of trees was that spirits, ghosts, and
goblins often took up their abode there.
[223]The term Vihāra was afterwards usually applied to temples, or
to buildings combining temple and monastery in one.
[224]Some authorities place them in the sixth century of our era.
[225]This is curiously illustrated in a recent letter from a resident in
Burma to the Editor of the
Times newspaper, in which it is stated that
about six months after King Theebaw had been deported, some of his
things were exhibited by us in the lower rooms of the Rangoon
Museum, to the great disgust of his Burmese admirers, who asked,
‘how we dared place their king’s things in a lower room where people
could walk above them?’
[226]It is for this reason that in the Tibetan language they are called
Gonpa.
[227]So described in a pamphlet on Buddhist Monasteries in Lahoul, by
a Moravian Missionary.
[228]Mr. Sarat Chandra Dās gives the names of 1026 monasteries.
Koeppen makes 3000 monasteries and 84,000 Lāmas.
[229]A small river flowing into the Tsanpo or Brahma-putra.
[230]The hill is called Potala, and the palace-monastery is named after
it. Koeppen says it has three peaks, but the illustration in Markham’s
account of Manning’s journey (p. 256) shows three long summits
rather than peaks. The hill is called Buddha-la by Huc (ii. 140), but
Koeppen (ii. 341) is more correct in stating that Potala is the name of
a sea-port on the river Indus, called Pattala by the Greeks, and now
Tatta. There is a tradition that this Potala was the original home of
the Ṡākya tribe (see
p. 21 of this volume).
[231]Koeppen translates this by the German sau, but says it may also
mean ‘Hintere Berg.’
[232]Messrs. Huc and Gabet failed in their attempt to obtain an interview
with the Dalai Lāma of 1846.
[233]It may also mean temple of Lhāssa and ‘abode of gods,’ in which
case Lā would be for Lhā.
[234]Huc says ‘four leagues;’ Koeppen ‘drei meilen,’ which is incorrect.
[235]These
are also mentioned by Sarat Chandra Dās and by Markham
(p. 130, note 3), and again, differently spelt, at p. 264, note 1.
[236]For his services as an explorer and surveyor Nain Singh enjoys
a Government pension, and has been awarded the gold medal of the
Geographical Society. Sarat Chandra Dās has been made a C.I.E.
[237]My authority for all these details is Dr. Burgess’ Report.
[238]Copies of these were made for me by a Sinhalese artist.
[239]In this description I have chiefly followed Mr. Scott.
[240]This description is based on Koeppen, ii. 234, and on the narrative
of Sarat Chandra Dās’ journey in 1881, 1882.
[241]Sarat Chandra Dās mentions a ‘flag-pole forty feet high, on which
are some inscriptions, two tufts of yak hair, and several yak and sheep-horns.’
Possibly this may be the obelisk mentioned by Koeppen.
[242]One of these is the terrific goddess Paldan (
p. 491), worshipped
by all Tibetans and Mongols, and identified with the goddess Kālī.
[243]My authority for this is Bishop Edward Bickersteth, the present
Bishop in Japan.
[244]See my ‘Brāhmanism and Hindūism’ (published by Mr. Murray of
Albemarle Street), pp. 2-20.
[245]Another ancient statue but not so old, though of a highly interesting
type, was procured by me (for the Indian Institute at Oxford)
from Buddha-Gayā on the occasion of my last visit in 1884, through
the kind assistance of Mr. Beglar. It is in the erect attitude.
[246]See ‘Brāhmanism and Hindūism,’ p. 214.
[247]A good
example of this tight-fitting robe is afforded by the
ancient statue of the Buddha, mentioned at
p. 467, note.
[248]When Gautama renounced his family and caste, he doubtless
discarded the cord, just as a true Sannyāsī is required to do (
p. 78).
[249]In the Jaina statues, the lobes of the ears, so far as I have
observed, always touch the shoulders.
[250]Some think that this represents the wheel of the Ćakra-vartī
emperor, or the wheel of the law, or the cycle of causes, or the continual
revolution of births, deaths, and re-births. Dr. Mitra maintains
that a lotus, and not a wheel, is always intended, though the lotus is
often so badly carved that it may pass for any circular ornament.
[251]Dr. Rajendralāla Mitra considers that curly locks were given to
Gautama Buddha because the possession of curls is believed to be an
auspicious sign. Some have actually inferred from the curl-like knobs,
that Buddha was a negro!