Buddhism in its connexion with Brahmanism and Hinduism and in its contrast with Christianity . n tree, togain new life by rooting themselves in the groundbeneath. Some Buddhist pilgrims happened, at themoment of my visit, to be worshipping at the temple,deputed ly the King of Burma to present observed that they had brought packets of gold-leaf,and had gilded the stone steps that surrounded the performed this act of homage, they sat nearmuttering their prayer-formularies. No doubt theybelieved it to be the very Bodhi-tree of Gautamastime, the stem of which had been mirac
Buddhism in its connexion with Brahmanism and Hinduism and in its contrast with Christianity . n tree, togain new life by rooting themselves in the groundbeneath. Some Buddhist pilgrims happened, at themoment of my visit, to be worshipping at the temple,deputed ly the King of Burma to present observed that they had brought packets of gold-leaf,and had gilded the stone steps that surrounded the performed this act of homage, they sat nearmuttering their prayer-formularies. No doubt theybelieved it to be the very Bodhi-tree of Gautamastime, the stem of which had been miraculously pre-served, though, had it been really so, the stem wouldhave been about twenty-three centuries old. Consider-ing the well-known properties of the Pipal tree, it ispossible that the worshippers were, after all, payinghonour to the descendant of the original tree, thefact, no doubt, being that as each tree began todecay a new one was produced, by the dropping ofseeds into the old roots and the springing up of fresh ^ Mr. Beglar gave me specimens of the fragments, which I have ANCIKNT HIJ)I)11ISL : AT Jil I) Mil A-C A YA, AS UKSTORED IX IS84. [To face imgc 393 ANCIENT TEMPLE AT BUDDHA-GAYA. 393 scions. Probably most of the sacred trees in theneighbourhood of Buddhist temples throughout India,Ceylon, and Burma were originally raised from seedsbrought from the ancient Buddha-Gaya tree. It is a received tradition that a shoot from this treewas taken by the Missionary Mahendra, son of Asoka,in the third century to Ceylon, and planted atAnuradha-pura, where its descendant still flourishes. When I again visited Buddha-Gaya in 1884, I foundthat the old pyramidal temple had been restored ac-cording (as is conjectured) to Hiouen Thsangs descrip-tion of the Vihilra of his day. It is said that the late Burmese government, notvery long ago, spent about thirty thousand rupeesin building a wall round the temple and makingexcavations with a view to its restoration. T
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectbuddhism, bookyear188
