?_

A. Yes; she brought with her to Ceylon a branch of the very Bodhi tree
under which the Buddha sat when he became Enlightened, and it is still
growing.

299. Q. _Where?_

A. At Annr[=a]dhapura. The history of it has been officially
preserved to the present time. Planted in 306 B.C., it is the oldest
historical tree in the world.

300. Q. _Who was the reigning sovereign at that time?_

A. D[=e]vanampiyatissa. His consort, Queen Anula, had invited
Sanghamitta to come and establish the Bhikkhuni branch of the Order.

301. Q. _Who came with Sanghamitta?_

A. Many other Bhikkhunis. She, in due time, admitted the Queen and
many of her ladies, together with five hundred virgins, into the Order.

302. Q. _Can we trace the effects of the foreign work of the Emperor
Ashoka's missionaries?_

A. His son and daughter introduced Buddhism into Ceylon: his monks
gave it to the whole of Northern India, to fourteen Indian nations
outside its boundaries, and to five Greek kings, his allies, with whom
he made treaties to admit his religious preachers.

303. Q. _Can you name them?_

A. ANTIOCHUS of Syria, PTOLEMY of Egypt, ANTIGONUS of Macedon, MARGAS
of Cyrene, and ALEXANDER of Epiros.

304. Q. _Where do we learn this?_

A. From the Edicts themselves of Ashoka the Great, inscribed by him on
rocks and stone pillars, which are still standing and can be seen by
everybody who chooses to visit the places.

305. Q. _Through what western religious brotherhoods did the Buddha
Dharma mingle itself with western thought?_

A. Through the sects of the Therapeuts of Egypt and the Essenes of
Palestine.

306. Q. _When were Buddhist books first introduced into China?_

A. As early as the second or third century B.C. Five of
Dharm[=a]shoka's monks are said--in the Samanta Pas[=a]dika and the
S[=a]rattha D[=i]pan[=i]--two P[=a]l[=i] books--to have been sent to
the five divisions of China.

307. Q. _Whence and when did it reach Korea?_

A. From China, in the year A. D. 372.

308. Q. _Whence and when did it reach Japan?_

A. From Korea, in A. D. 552.

309. Q. _Whence and when did it reach Cochin China, Formosa, Java,
Mongolia, Yorkand, Balk, Bokhara, Afghanistan and other Central Asian
countries?_

A. Apparently in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D.

310. Q. _From Ceylon, whither and when did it spread?_

A. To Burma, in A.D. 450, and thence gradually into Arakan, Kamboya
and Peg