Part 34

In Burma the people are merry; hence the images sometimes have a twinkle in the eye and smiling lips.

In China, again, examples sometimes occur of images which do not exhibit Buddha as the ideal of a man who has conquered his passions, but rather with the figure and features of a self-indulgent libertine[257]; while others again portray him with a grim aspect.

We now pass on to the representations of other Buddhas, Bodhi-sattvas, saints, gods and goddesses.

Often two other images are associated with that of Gautama Buddha himself.

And, first of all, his image was joined with the other two persons of the earliest Triad (see p. 175), viz. Dharma (the Law) and Saṅgha (the Monkhood). A sculpture, in a broken and imperfect condition, representing this earliest Triad, and dating from the ninth to the tenth century, was found at Buddha-Gayā. The image of Buddha, under an umbrella-like tree, is in the centre; that of the Saṅgha is on his right, with a full-blown lotus (p. 177, note 2), and having one leg hanging down, while that of Dharma (a female) is on his left with a half-blown lotus. A drawing of this (from Sir A. Cunningham’s photograph) is given below:—

In Nepāl the image of Dharma is always that of a sedent female, who is supposed to be an embodiment of supreme wisdom (prajñā pāramitā), and sometimes has four arms (see note, p. 178).

Next come the images of the Buddhas who preceded Gautama, especially Kāṡyapa Buddha, Kanaka-muni, and Kraku-ććhanda. It is often mentioned that the images of one or other of these three, as of the Bodhi-sattvas, are set up side by side with that of Gautama.

Then, of course, there are the images of the five Dhyāni-Buddhas. Perhaps the commonest of these is that of Amitābha (see p. 203), but images of Akshobhya and Ratna-sambhava are by no means rare.

Then as to the Bodhi-sattvas, of whom Maitreya is the first and the only one worshipped by Buddhists of all countries (see p. 182), Fā-hien records that he saw in Northern India a wooden image of Maitreya Bodhi-sattva eighty cubits high, which on fast days emitted a brilliant light. Offerings were constantly presented to it by the kings of surrounding countries (Legge, 23).

Hiouen Thsang (Beal, i. 134) also describes this image of Maitreya as very dazzling, and says it was the work of the Arhat Madhyāntika, a disciple of Ānanda. He saw another image of Maitreya made of silver at Buddha-Gayā, and another made of sandal-wood in Western India. The latter also gave out a bright light. Probably these images were covered with some kind of gilding.

In the present day the images of Maitreya often represent him with both hands raised, the fingers forming the lotus-shaped Mudrā, the body yellow or gilded, and the hair short and curly.

Passing next to the images of the triad of mythical Bodhi-sattvas, Mañju-ṡrī, Avalokiteṡvara, and Vajra-pāṇi (p. 195), we may gather from what has been already stated (p. 196), that the interaction of Buddhism and Hindūism affected both the mythology and imagery of both systems. Yet it does not appear that the images of the Bodhi-sattva Mañju-ṡrī were ever unnaturally distorted. They are quite as human and pleasant in appearance as those of Gautama and Maitreya. In general Mañju-ṡrī represented in a sedent attitude, with his left hand holding a lotus, and his right holding the sword of wisdom, with a shining blade to dissipate the darkness of ignorance (see p. 201). His body ought to be yellow.

It was not till the introduction of the worship of Avalokiteṡvara that the followers of Buddha thought of endowing the figures of deified saints with an extra number of heads and arms.

The process of Avalokiteṡvara’s (Padma-pāṇi’s) creation and the formation of his numerous heads by the Dhyāni-Buddha Amitābha, is thus described (Schlagintweit, p. 84, abridged):—

Once upon a time Amitābha, after giving himself up to earnest meditation, caused a red ray of light to issue from his right eye, which brought Padma-pāṇi Bodhi-sattva into existence; while from his left eye burst forth a blue ray of light, which becoming incarnate in the two wives of King Srong Tsan (see p. 271), had power to enlighten the minds of human beings. Amitābha then blessed Padma-pāṇi’s Bodhi-sattva by laying his hands upon him, so that by virtue of this benediction, he brought forth the prayer ‘Om maṇi padme Hūm.’ Padma-pāṇi then made a solemn vow to rescue all the beings in hell from their pains, saying to himself:—‘If I fail, may my head split into a thousand pieces!’ After remaining absorbed in contemplation for some time, he proceeded to the various hells, expecting to find that the inhabitants, through the efficacy of his meditations, had ascended to the higher worlds. And this indeed he found they had done. But no sooner was their release accomplished than all the hells again became as full as ever, the places of the out-going tenants being supplied by an equal number of new-comers. This so astounded the unhappy Bodhi-sattva that his head instantly split into a thousand pieces. Then Amitābha, deeply moved by his son’s misfortune, hastened to his assistance, and formed the thousand pieces into ten heads.

Schlagintweit states, and I have myself observed, that Avalokiteṡvara’s eleven heads are generally represented as forming a pyramid, and are ranged in four rows. Each series of heads has a particular complexion. The three faces resting on the neck are white, the three above yellow, the next three red, the tenth blue, and the eleventh—that is, the head of his father Amitābha at the top of all[258]—is red. In Japanese images the heads are much smaller, and are arranged like a crown, the centre of which is formed by two entire figures, the lower one sitting, the other standing above it. Ten small heads are combined with these two figures.

The number of Avalokiteṡvara’s hands ought to amount to a thousand, and he is called ‘a thousand-eyed,’ as having the eye of wisdom on each palm. Of course all these thousand arms and eyes cannot be represented in images. Still there is an idol in the British Museum which represents him with about forty arms, two of which have the hands joined in an attitude of worship.

A remarkable description of an image of Avalokiteṡvara seen by Sarat Chandra Dās (so recently as 1882) in the great temple at Lhāssa occurs in his ‘Narrative’ (which I here abridge):—

Next to the image of Buddha, the most conspicuous figure was that of Chanrassig (i. e. the eleven-faced Avalokiteṡvara). The origin of this is ascribed to King Sron Tsan Gampo (p. 271 of this volume). Once the king heard a voice from heaven, saying that if he constructed an image of Avalokiteṡvara of the size of his own person, all his desires would be fulfilled.

Thereupon he proceeded to do so, and the materials he used were a branch of the sacred Bodhi-tree, a portion of the Vajrāsana, some soil from an oceanic island, some sand from the river Nairañjana, some pith of Goṡīrsha sandal-wood, a portion of the soil of the eight sacred places of ancient India, and many other rare articles pounded together and made into paste, with the milk of a red cow and a she-goat. This paste the king touched with his head, and prayed to the all-knowing Buddhas and the host of Bodhi-sattvas, that by the merit of making that image, there might be god-speed to the great work he had undertaken—namely, the diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet.

The gods, Buddhas, saints, etc. filled the aerial space to listen to his prayer.

The king then ordered the Nepālese artist to hasten the completion of the image, and with a view of heightening its sanctity, obtained a sandal-wood image of Avalokiteṡvara from Ceylon and inserted it inside, together with the relics of the seven past Buddhas. When the work was finished, the artist said:—

‘Sire, I cannot say that I have made this image, it has passed into self-grown existence.’ Then a current of lightning flashed forth from its feet. Afterwards, the souls of the king and his queen are said to have been absorbed into it, in consequence of which this image is called ‘the five-absorbed self-sprung.’

It is recorded in another tradition that a wonder-working image of Avalokiteṡvara was set up in a monastery near Kabul, and another in Magadha near the Ganges. Any worshipper who approached these idols in devotion and faith were favoured with a personal vision of the saint. The statues opened, and the Bodhi-sattva emerged in bright rays of light (compare Koeppen, i. p. 499).

Originally, and still in Tibet, Avalokiteṡvara (otherwise called Padma-pāṇi) had only male attributes; but in China this deity (as we have already mentioned at p. 200) is represented as a woman, called Kwan-yin (in Japan Kwan-non), with a thousand arms and a thousand eyes. She has her principal seat in the island of Poo-too, on the coast of China, which is a place of pilgrimage.

There are two images of Kwan-yin in the British Museum, one with sixteen arms and the other with eight.

Images of the third mythical Bodhi-sattva—the fierce Vajra-pāṇi, ‘holding a thunderbolt in one hand’—like one form of Ṡiva—are almost as common as those of the merciful and mild Avalokiteṡvara. He has been described in a previous Lecture (p. 201).

In the Pitt-Rivers collection at Oxford there is an image of this Bodhi-sattva engaged in combating the power of evil. It is remarkable that the figures of three monkeys are carved underneath, one stopping his ears with his hands, another stopping his eyes, and another his mouth, to symbolize the effort to prevent the entrance of evil desires through the three most important organs of sense.

With regard to the images of female deities we may observe that Tārā, the wife or Ṡakti of Amogha-siddha (p. 216), is represented as a green sedent figure; her right hand on her knee, her left holding a lotus.

A standing image of the goddess Paṭṭinī (p. 217 of this volume) may be seen in the British Museum.

In a temple which I visited near Dārjīling I saw the image of the Padma-sambhava or ‘lotus-born’ form of Buddha occupying the centre of the altar, with the images of Gautama Buddha and of Buddha Āyushmat, or the ‘Buddha of Life,’ on each side.

Sir R. Temple (Journal, p. 212) relates how in a chamber of a Sikkim monastery there were three figures, the central of which, with a fair complexion, was Amitābha, that on its right Gautama Buddha, and on its left Gorakh-nāth (see p. 193 of this volume).

In the monastery of Galdan (p. 441) Mr. Sarat Chandra Dās saw the golden image of Tsong Khapa (with his golden chain and his tooth and his block-prints), along with the images of Amitābha, Gautama, Maitreya, Bhairava (the awful defender of Buddhism), Yama ‘the lord of death,’ and his terrific messengers.

In the great Cho Khang at Lhāssa (see p. 459) he saw images of Avalokiteṡvara, Mañju-srī, Maitreya, Kuvera, Padma-sambhava, with an immense number of others, and especially one of the terrific goddess Paldan (or Pandan) who is feared all over Tibet, Mongolia, and China, as the greatest guardian deity of the Dalai and Tashi Lāmas and of the Buddhist Dharma. He found her shrine infested with mice, who are believed to be metamorphosed monks.

At Sera (p. 442) he saw images of the Buddha in his character of ‘demon-vanquisher,’ along with Maitreya (in silver), Avalokiteṡvara, the six-armed Bhairava, the goddess Kālī, Dolkar (= Tārā, p. 271), the Tāntrik Vajra-vārāhī, the sixteen Sthaviras (pp. 48, 255), and a great variety of others.

At Radeng (p. 273) he saw a golden image of Milaraspa (p. 384).

In the monastery of Sam ye (p. 448) he saw images of the Indian Paṇḍits who brought Buddhism into Tibet, with a vast number of other images.

At Tashi Lunpo he saw golden images of Buddha and Maitreya, besides images of 1000 other Buddhas (p. 189), and the four guardians of the quarters (p. 206).

At Yarlung he saw an image of Vairoćana Buddha, besides images of the sixteen Sthaviras, and a gigantic image of the king of the Nāgas, and a terrific representation of the demon Rāvaṇa (of the Rāmāyaṇa).

At Mindolling he saw fresco paintings of the six classes of beings (p. 122) inhabiting the six corresponding worlds. Of course delineations of the Jātakas (p. 111) and pictures of all kinds were common in monasteries and temples everywhere.

The two wonder-working images brought from Nepāl and China have been already mentioned (p. 271).

As an illustration of the monstrous superstition and idolatry prevalent in modern Buddhist countries, I venture, in conclusion, to quote, with abridgment, the following description of an idol seen by Miss Bird in Japan (see her ‘Unbeaten Tracks in Japan,’ published by Mr. Murray):—

In one shrine is a large idol spotted all over with pellets of paper, and hundreds of these may be seen sticking to the wire-netting which protects him. A worshipper writes his petition on paper, or, better still, has it written for him by the priest, chews it to a pulp and spits it at the divinity. If, having been well aimed, it passes through the wire and sticks, it is a good omen, if it lodges in the netting the prayer has probably been unheard.

On the left there is a shrine with a screen, to which innumerable prayers have been tied. On the right sits one of Buddha’s original sixteen disciples (see p. 47 of these Lectures). A Koolie with a swelled knee applied it to the knee of the idol, while one with inflamed eyelids rubbed his eyelids on it!

LECTURE XVII. _Sacred Objects._

Next to the subject of images and idols comes that of certain sacred objects which Buddhists of all Schools—whether adherents of the Hīna-yāna or Mahā-yāna systems—hold in veneration; for example, relics, relic-receptacles or Stūpas, foot-prints, trees, utensils, bells, symbols, and animals.

The narratives of the Chinese travellers, frequently mentioned before, teem with descriptions of such objects. Take, for instance, Fā-hien’s account of the district of Nagāra, near Peshawar in Northern India (Legge, 34-40), in which several sacred objects are stated to exist—such as a fragment of Buddha’s skull, one of his teeth, portions of his hair and nails, his alms-bowl, his staff (contained in a wooden tube, so heavy that even a thousand men could not lift it), his robe, and the impression of his shadow. This was at the beginning of the fifth century of our era.

Fā-hien’s statements are confirmed by Sung-Yun, the next Chinese traveller mentioned before (p. 161 of this volume[259]), who started on his journey rather more than a century after Fā-hien.

We then visited the Ki-Ka-lam temple near Nagāra. This contains the yellow robe (Kashāya) of Buddha in thirteen pieces. Here also is the staff of Buddha, in a wooden case covered with gold-leaf. The weight of this staff is sometimes so heavy that a hundred men cannot raise it, and at other times it is so light that one man can lift it. In the city of Na-kie (Nagarahāra) is a tooth of Buddha and also some of his hair, both of which are contained in precious caskets. Morning and evening religious offerings are made to them.

We next arrive at the cave of Go-pāla, where is the shadow of Buddha. To anyone entering the cavern, and looking for a long time (or, from a long distance) at the western side of it opposite the door, the figure, with its characteristic marks, appears; on going nearer, it gradually grows fainter and then disappears. On touching the place where it was, there is nothing but the bare wall. Gradually retreating, the figure begins to come in view again, and foremost is conspicuous that peculiar mark between the eyebrows (ūrṇa), which is so rare among men.

Before the cave is a square stone, on which is a trace of Buddha’s foot (Beal’s Translation, p. cvii, abridged).

Hiouen Thsang, the third traveller, confirms the statements of his predecessors in regard to the relics in this district, and adds as follows:—

There is another little Stūpa, made of the seven precious substances, in which is deposited the _eye-ball_ of the Buddha, large as an Āmra fruit, and bright and clear throughout. It is deposited in a sealed-up casket (Beal, i. 96).

It is easy to perceive from the above extracts that the worship of certain sacred objects connected with the founder of Buddhism had become even in Fā-hien’s time a marked feature of Buddhism. In fact, the number of such objects increased so rapidly that before long it became usual to classify them under three heads as follow[260]:—

(1) Ṡārīrika (or Ṡarīra-dhātu or simply Ṡārīra), objects which once formed part of the Buddha’s body, such as a bone, a tooth, a hair, a nail.

(2) Pāribhogika, ‘objects possessed or used by the Buddha,’ such as his seat, alms-bowl, drinking-vessel (kumbha), staff, vestments, and even his spittoon. Under this division is placed the Bodhi-tree.

(3) Uddeṡika, objects worshipped as in some way commemorative of the Buddha or of some event or incident in his life.

It would be difficult to decide under which of these categories the _sacred books_ containing the Buddha’s Law are to be placed, and yet they are deeply revered, and at the present day almost deified, as if they were intelligent and omniscient beings. They are wrapped in costly cloth or silk, and their names are mentioned with the addition of honorific personal titles. Occasionally such sacred books are placed on a kind of rude altar, near the road-side, that passers-by may place offerings of money upon them[261].

Without attempting, therefore, to follow any particular classification, we proceed to notice some of the chief objects in the order of their importance, beginning with relics.

_Relics._

Adoration of relics constitutes an important point of difference between Buddhism and Brāhmanism; for Brāhmanism and its offspring Hindūism are wholly opposed to the practice of preserving the ashes, bones, hair, or teeth of deceased persons, however much such individuals may have been revered during life.

I remarked in the course of my travels through India that articles used by great religious teachers—as, for example, robes, wooden shoes, and seats—are sometimes preserved and venerated after their death. All articles of this kind, however, must, of course, be removed from the body before actual decease; for it is well known that, in the minds of Hindūs, ideas of impurity are inseparably connected with death, and contamination is supposed to result from contact with the corpses of even a man’s dearest relatives. Nor is the mortal frame ever held in veneration by the Hindūs as it was by the ancient Egyptians, and as it generally is in Christian countries.

Even the living body is regarded as a mass of corruption, a thing to be held in contempt, and a constant impediment to sanctity of life. How much more then ought every part of a dead body to be got rid of without delay! Hence in the present day a corpse is burnt, and its ashes are generally scattered on the surface of sacred rivers or of the sea.

It is true that the bodies of great Hindū ascetics and devotees are exempted from this rule. They are usually buried—not burnt. Not, however, because the mere corporeal frame is held in greater veneration, but because the bodies of the most eminent saints are supposed to lie undecomposed in a kind of trance, or state of intense ecstatic meditation (samādhi).

The Buddhist, too, is a thorough Hindū in contemning the living body; but when the corpse is burnt, he does not scatter the ashes on rivers. He takes measures to preserve them.

We know that according to the teaching of Brāhmanism the burning of a corpse is followed by religious ceremonies called Ṡrāddhas[262]. The greater the number of Ṡrāddhas which a living man is able to perform in behalf of his deceased relatives, the greater is the benefit which accrues to their souls; and if the dead man’s soul happens to be in one of the hells, the sooner it is released from its purgatorial pains.

A true Buddhist, on the other hand, considers all such Ṡrāddhas as useless; although it is certainly a fact that in the end the more developed Buddhism of the North invented similar ceremonies, called Bardo (see pp. 293, 334).

True Buddhism, in short, has only one way of honouring ancestors, and only one method of keeping alive the memory of those perfected saints whose whole personality has become extinct, and whose transition into other forms of life has finally ceased.

The calcined ashes, or certain unconsumed portions of the body—such as fragments of bone or hair or nails or teeth—are deposited in relic-shrines.

Of course the most sacred of all Buddhist relics are those of the Buddha himself. It is said that after the cremation of his corpse the chief remains consisted of four teeth, the two cheek-bones, and fragments of the skull. But it is believed that, even before his death, portions of his hair and nails were preserved and placed under Dāgabas (Stūpas). One legend relates that when Gautama had decided on abandoning all worldly associations, his first act was to cut off the mass of his hair, with its ornament (ćūḍā-maṇi), and that these were taken up by the god Indra to the Trayastriṉṡa heaven, and there placed under a Dāgaba and worshipped by the gods.

Fā-hien, in a passage already alluded to, says that in the country of Nagāra there is a particular spot where Buddha shaved off his hair and clipt his nails, and, having done so, proceeded to erect a lofty mound or Stūpa to enshrine them, as well as to be a model for all future Stūpas (p. 504 of this volume).

Hiouen Thsang relates a tradition that when the two travelling merchants Trapusha and Bhallika (see p. 40) were converted, the Buddha gave them at their own request some of his own hair and nail-parings, besides his alms-bowl, staff, and a portion of his clothing, and bade them deposit each article in Stūpas or Dāgabas. The two merchants, it is narrated, went home to their own country and acquired an enormous stock of religious merit by being the first to erect a Stūpa for the reception of personal memorials of the great Buddha. According to a tradition the two merchants were from Burma, and the shrine which was erected to receive eight of his hairs afterwards developed into the great Rangoon Dāgaba (Pagoda). It may be inferred from this legend (as Dr. Oldenberg has already remarked) that the care of the Buddha’s relics, and the institution of ceremonies in their honour, were in the first instance left to the devotion of religiously minded Buddhist laymen.

‘What are we to do,’ Ānanda asks of the Master, when his end is drawing near[263], ‘with the body of the Perfect One?’ ‘Let not the honours due to the body of the Perfect One trouble you, Ānanda. Seek ye rather perfection for yourselves. There are, Ānanda, wise men among the nobles, the Brāhmans, and the citizens, who believe in the Perfect One; they will honour the body of the Perfect One.’

Hiouen Thsang (Beal, ii. 40) also states that when certain Indian Rājas, eight in number, heard of the Buddha’s death, they collected armies and marched to Kusi-nārā (p. 424) to seize portions of the relics; but the prince of Kusi-nārā refused to give them up. In the end the matter was settled amicably, and the relics were divided, so that each of the eight princes might take a share. Then all departed to their own homes, and each prince built a Stūpa over his own portion of the relics. The gods also took their portions.