Memoir on the History of the Tooth-relic of Ceylon: With a Preliminary Essay on the Life and System of Gautama Buddha |
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ambassador ancient antiquity appears Archbishop ashes Aśoka Bâhu Bo-tree Bodhisatvas Bombay bone Bragança Brahmanism Buddhist called canine tooth century Chaitâyana chaityas chamberlain chieftain Chinese Christian church Colombo Constantino Couto Dâgobâ dalada Dantapura Decada deposited Dhátuvansa disciples doctrine Don Juan dynasty elephant faith funeral pile Gautama Buddha Geography of India gold Guhasiñha hand-flags hands Hindu honour human India Jaffnapatam Jour Kalinga Kandy Kandyan Kapila karandua Khema king of Kandy king of Pegu kingdom Korles latter Lond Mahavansa Maligâva temple Mandana Misra modern monarch monks moral objects offer palace Pâli Pându pavilion philosophical Portuguese possession prince principal Râja reign relic relics of Buddha religion religious Royal Asiatic Society sacred sage Śâkyamuni Sânkhya Sanskrit shrine silver Sinhalese Souza stúpas talapoens tion took tooth of Buddha tooth-relic of Buddha TOOTH-RELIC OF CEYLON Topes translated tree Turnour Vedas Viceroy viháras worship
Popular passages
Page 56 - All but one of the karanduas are small, not exceeding a foot in height, and wrapped in many folds of muslin. One is of much greater size, and uncovered, and, with its decorations, makes a most brilliant appearance. It is five feet four and a half inches high, and nine feet ten inches in circumference at its base. It is of silver, from three-tenths to four-tenths of an inch thick, and gilt externally. It consists of three different pieces, capable of being separated from each other. Its workmanship...
Page 56 - It was of a dirty yellow colour, excepting towards its truncated base, where it was brownish. Judging from its appearance at the distance of two or three feet, (for none but the chief priests were privileged to touch it,) it was artificial, and of ivory, discoloured by age. Never a relic was more preciously enshrined; wrapped in pure sheet-gold, it was placed in -a case just large enough to receive it, of gold, covered externally with emeralds, diamonds, and rubies, tastefully arranged. This beautiful...
Page 56 - ... of Boodhoo, to which the whole island was dedicated, and which is considered by good Boodhists as the most precious thing in the world. The temple is small, of two stories, built in the Chinese style of architecture. The sanctum is an inner room, about twelve feet square, on the upper story, without windows, and to which a ray of natural light never penetrates. You enter it by folding doors, with polished brass pannels, before and behind which is a curtain. The splendour of the place is very...
Page 14 - As a man elevated upon a mountain surveys, in calmness, the plains below, so does the virtuous man behold without emotion, the struggles of the sinful multitude.
Page 39 - Abbey are believed to have flourished there twelve hundred years ago; the olives in the Garden of Gethsemane were full grown when the Saracens were expelled from Jerusalem; and the cypress of...
Page 50 - ... and grandeur with which the tooth was received, that I confess I cannot command suitable language to describe them. In fact, everything that all the emperors and kings of the universe combined could contribute to such a solemnity, each eager to display his power to the utmost, all this was realised by the acts of this barbarian king. " The tooth was at last deposited in the centre of the courtyard of the palace, under a costly tabernacle, upon which the monarch and all his grandees presented...
Page 44 - ... service, all of which could be provided for out of so great a ransom. After mature deliberation, a resolution was come to that it was not competent to part with the tooth, since its surrender would be an incitement to idolatry, and an insult to the Almighty ; crimes which could not be contemplated, though the state, or even the world itself, might be imperilled. Of this opinion were the prelates, the inquisitors, the vicar-general of the Dominicans, Fra Manuel de Serra of the same order, the...
Page 54 - It is a piece of discoloured ivory, or bone, slightly curved, nearly two inches in length, and one in diameter at the base ; and from thence to the other extremity, which is rounded and blunt, it considerably decreases in size.
Page 5 - Nothing is stable on earth, he used to say — " nothing is real. Life is like the spark produced by the friction of wood. It is lighted and is extinguished; we know not whence it came or whither it goes. It is like the sound of a lyre, and the wise man asks in vain from whence it came and whither it goes. There must be some supreme intelligence where we could find rest. If I attained it, I could bring light to...
Page 45 - ... Viceroy, since there was nothing to prevent the Buddhists from making other idols ; and out of a piece of bone they could shape another tooth in resemblance of the one they had lost, and extend to it the same worship; whilst the gold that had been rejected would have repaired the pressing necessities of the state. In Portugal itself much astonishment was expressed that these proceedings should have been assented to. "To commemorate the event, and to illustrate the spirit which had dictated an...