Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist pilgrims : from China to India (400 A.D. and 518 A.D.) / translated from Chinese by Samuel Beal.

  • Faxian
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist pilgrims : from China to India (400 A.D. and 518 A.D.) / translated from Chinese by Samuel Beal. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    relic of the skull-bone of Buddha.1 This Yiliara is entirely covered with plates of gold, and decorated with, tlie seven precious substances.2 The King of the country reverences, in a high degree, this sacred relic. For fear lest any man should carry off the true bone and substitute another in its place, therefore lie ap- points eight persons belonging to the principal families of the country to seal up (every night) the door of the shrine, each one with, his own seal, so as to guard and protect it. At early dawn these eight men all go to the temple, and each one observes if his seal is as lie left it. They then open the door, and haying washed their hands with perfumed water, they take out the bone of Buddha, and place it tipon a lofty throne which, is erected outside the shrine. On this throne is a circular table composed of tlie seven precious substances, with a crystal bell-shaped cupola on the top. Both, the table and the coyer are highly decorated and en- riclied with gems. The bone is of a yellowish-wliite 1 The high part of the skull-bone (ouchniclia) lias a sacred character among Buddhist relics. These relics, called in China She-li (Sarira), are supposed to be imperishable and indestructible. They are found among the refuse of ashes after the cremation of any great saint. The elevated skull-bone is one of the marks of Buddha’s person, and is yet regarded by phrenologists as the index of great religiousness of character. 2 The seven precious substances are gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, cornelian, coral, ruby. (Jul. ii. 482, translates musaragalva [tche-kia] by “amber.” E. Biimouf renders it “coral,” Sansc. Diet.) Fragments of these precious substances are frequently found in small relic-boxes in Buddhist Stoupas, as e.gr. at Sanchi. (Cunningham, Bhilsa Topes.)