sponded to, if indeed it has not been
anticipated, and one of the group will courteously come forward to supply
us with any assistance or information we require. Before the railing,
which encloses the sanctuary, two or three worshippers are kneeling in
prayer; and these also examine us for a while with close attention. Or, it
may be that at the time of our visit some religious function is
proceeding. If so, the clergy with their servers are found within the
chancel, clad in gorgeous yellow robes, and genuflecting now and again
before the images which stand above the richly-vested altar. Outside the
sanctuary rails, the congregation is assembled in greater or less numbers,
according to the importance of the day. Around is a profusion of lights
and flowers; while the air is fragrant with the fumes of incense. The
prayers, which the officiating priest recites in monotone, are in Pali, a
form of Sanskrit; and if an air of perfunctoriness pervades his devotions,
let it be remembered that every day, month after month, and year after
year, he may be found chanting these same litanies, of the significance of
which he has but the vaguest idea. Not, however, that he is without belief
in their efficacy; nay, it may be that his very ignorance of their meaning
causes the words he utters to have, in his eyes, a transcendent value.
Above the high altar, in seated posture on lotus-blossoms,(23) are three
colossal images, cunningly wrought and richly gilded, and bearing on their
countenances an expression of placid repose. Perhaps, it is the
_Triratna_, or Three Jewels, that these represent, the Trinity of Buddha,
the Law, and the Order. Or, possibly, this is Buddha, in his triple forms
of existence:--as Sakya-muni, the form under which he lived as man among
men; as Amitabha, his metaphysical existence in Nirvana; as
Avalokitesvara, his reflex in the world of forms, his spiritual son,
generated to propagate the religion established by him during his earthly
career. Or once again, these three images may portray the Buddhas of the
Past, Present, and Future:--Gautama who _was_, the historic founder of
Buddhism; Kwannon, or Avalokitesvara, the head of the present Buddhist
hierarchy, the Buddha who _is_; and Maitreya, or Meroku, the deliverer yet
_to come_, the rehabilitation of past Buddhas foretold by Sakya-muni. Now
and again one may meet with a Buddhist of superior intellectual
attainments, who would explain the acts of worship he offers to