this account, flock to a particular spot in great numbers. This act is considered highly meritorious, and may be supposed to have had its origin in the belief of the people in transmigration. The Buddhists of Ceylon, according to Captain Mahony, have prayers adapted to circumstances, which are used privately in their houses, and publicly in the presence of the congregation. They are recorded to have been handed down from Buddha. The Buddhists are obliged to pray three times a day about five in the morning, at noon, and towards the fall of night. Their devotions are addressed to Buddha and his rahatoons (apostles), with a religious respect for his code of laws, and the relics both of him and his rahatoons. The four first days of the changes of the moon are dedicated to public worship; but they have no fixed days for public festivals or thanksgivings. All are, however, at liberty to select such for themselves, which they particularize by different acts of devotion addressed to their saviour Buddha. The Buddhas believe in the efficacy of charms and in the influence of particular days on mundane affairs, and usually consult a cabalistical doctor before they commence any undertaking of importance. These charms, they imagine, will preserve them from danger and sickness, and the bite of snakes, and render them invulnerable against either the sword or a musketball. Friday is with them, as it was in former times commonly with us, an unlucky day, on which a Burman will, on no account, commence a business of consequence. The Jainas have been considered a subdivision of the sect of Buddha; but they differ from it, in some respects, as much as they do from the Brahmans in others. The Buddhas do not admit of castes, neither do they believe in a Supreme Being. The Jainas do acknowledge one, but deny his power over, or interference in either the creation of the world or any thing contained in it. They might, therefore, like the Buddhas, as well discard their belief altogether; the Buddhas admit into their temples images of the Brahminical deities, but do not in Ceylon, Ava, or Siam, acknowledge them as objects of worship: the Jainas both admit them, and, in a limited degree, do, I believe, so acknowledge them. The offerings made by the Buddhas in their temples are various: "boiled rice; fruits, especially the cocoa-nut; flowers, natural and artificial; curious figures made of paper, gold-leaf, &c. &c." The rich present* white golden ornaments, elegant slippers, and other articles of a more costly description. Some, as a mark of their devotion, gild a portion of a temple, and others gild other parts; so that the whole becomes, by these means, fresh gilt. The king of Ava thus displays his munificence annually, by gilding anew many large temples: the heir-apparent also expends considerable sums in the same way. At the age of eighty years, Gautama having entered Nivana, commanded that his images and relics should be worshipped. The largest and most celebrated of the temples and pagodas erected in honour of him are pyramidical, or in the form of a dome. Fig. 6, plate 31, represents the great pagoda, or golden temple, called Shoe Dagoon, near Rangoon in the Burman dominions, and the dome-topped pagoda, fig. 8, in the same plate, one at Villigaam in Ceylon. The former is splendidly gilt, and is considered to be about three hundred and fifty feet in height, but there are others said to be five hundred feet. Round the tee, or umbrella at the top, are suspended a number of small bells, which, with those from tees of a great quantity of smaller pagodas that surround the great one, being set in motion by the wind, keep up a constant tinkling, but not unpleasing sound. These immense structures are sometimes of solid brick work, and at others mounds of earth faced with brick, having numerous niches round them, containing sculptured and other images of Buddha richly gilt. (See fig. 3, plate 31, from a large carved model of one of the pagodas.) Many of the images of Buddha, which formerly adorned the great praws or pagodas and the surrounding temples, are now in England, these sacred edifices having been despoiled by the conquerors of Ava. The * The white umbrella is an emblem of royalty, and, ornamented with deep gold fringe, &c. is borne over the head of the king, as well as over that of the deity. Those of the princes of the blood are gilded and without fringe; the woognhyes, or ministers, are red; hereditary governors of provinces, yellow; inferior governors, or myoowuns, blue; subordinate officers, black with long handles; and the common people, the same colour, with shorter handles. Buddhist Pagodas and Temples from Casts, in Metal Gill, Carvings &c. |