. New China and old : personal recollections and observations of thirty years. Bishop Heber ofa priest in Kandy. No, he replied, the godsworship me. Yet Buddha repudiated worship, and encouragedman, even the lowest and poorest, with the idea ofreaching the same exalted but impersonal state of PariNirvana without the aid of God or any one outsidehimself Northern Buddhism, however, true to thereligious instincts of man, quietly ignores the high-soar-ing philosophy, and, as Sir Monier Williams points out,Buddha, the despiser of gods and of divine worship, ismet by the irony of his fate, being wor
. New China and old : personal recollections and observations of thirty years. Bishop Heber ofa priest in Kandy. No, he replied, the godsworship me. Yet Buddha repudiated worship, and encouragedman, even the lowest and poorest, with the idea ofreaching the same exalted but impersonal state of PariNirvana without the aid of God or any one outsidehimself Northern Buddhism, however, true to thereligious instincts of man, quietly ignores the high-soar-ing philosophy, and, as Sir Monier Williams points out,Buddha, the despiser of gods and of divine worship, ismet by the irony of his fate, being worshipped in 10,000idol forms. The Chinese must fall down and worshipsome God, and images of any kind are deified atonce in their imagination. Adjoining the beautifullysituated temples of Tien-chuh and Ling-yin, beyond thewestern lake of Hangchow, a square red-walled buildinghas been erected. I entered, on the occasion of myfirst visit, at the chief gate. The air was thick andheavy with clouds of incense, and with the fumes ofburnt-out tallow candles. This great hall contains. Lohan. 177 500 images, each one of nearly double life-size, arrangedon either side of a long nave, with side-aisles; andcloisters on a higher level. The nave was broken hereand there by the shrines of images of special dignityand worth, with a canopy over their heads, and a light-throwing sliield of glory behind the shrine. There theysit in every imaginable posture—some in rapt contem-plation ; some with a broad smile of pleasure on theirwell-wrought faces ; some with the great protuberanceon the forehead which is supposed to betoken super-human intelligence ; some in an ecstasy of excitementplay a flute; some few appear in a threatening ordefiant attitude; some again are in a state of evolutionor transformation, half the old face remains, and halfthe new face is ready to pass slowly over the old ; andfrom the breast or head of some a small and completeimage of Buddha is emerging. These are Lohan ; ex-pec
Size: 1285px × 1945px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthormouleart, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1902
