Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, May 22, 1910, Page 18

THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: MAY 29 1910. Relics i‘wentv-four Hundred Y 150 MILLIONS OF HUMAN BEINGS BELIEVE IN THE BUDDHIST RELIGION (Copyright, 1910, by Frank G. Carpenter.) ALCUTTA, 1910.—(Speclal Corre- spondence of The Bee)—The Buddhist religion is on the eve of a revival. The movement has already made some headway in Japan, Korea and China, and it s having a great Impetus here and in Burma through the discovery of the ®ahes of Buddha which were recently found In a buried chamber near Peshawar. The prophet was born here in India more than 2500 years ago, and he is sald to have died in northern India at the age of 8. There is no doubt as to the authen- tieity of the relics. They were found by the archeological department of the Brit- ish government, and the viceroy of India, Earl Minto, has had them brought here to Calcutta and has made & formal pre- ntation of them to a delegation of* Bud- dhist priests from Burma. The relics were discovered through in- westigations made by angient writings, ‘Which described thelr existence, They lay in a chamber far down ,under the ground below the heavy foundation ‘of a tower, which had long since been blotted from the face of the. earth. They were In a Sronze casket and Inside a crystal box, and they consisted of a mass of grayish white powder and four charred human bones. The box was first carried to Simla, and it is now on its way. to Burma. It prob- ably will be kept at Mandalay and a mighty pagoda erected above it. Pl iy Earl Minto’s Speech. In making his speech to the priests, the wiceroy sald: “The government of India has decided that the relics should remain within the confines of the Indlan empire, and that Burma, as a Buddhist province, and Man- dalay, as its capital, should provide for thelr safe custody. I am sure that the great honor done to Burma will be thoroughly appreciated by its people, and that the relics will be carefully preserved and cherished.” The viceroy concluded with this state- ment, which seems remarkable, ing from the Christian ruler the king of England's greatest He closed: T trust, t0o, that a sultable shrine may be erccted at Mandalay over these relics, where In future years devout pilgrims may gather from all parts of the world to do honor to the memory of the great founder of their religion." The ceremony connected with the pres- entation of the relics was impressive. It occurred in the throneroom of the vice- regal palace, the floor of which was cov- ered with rich golden carpets. The lleu- tenant governor of Burma was present and among the spectators were Lady Minto, Mrs. Anna Besant and the highest of- ficlals of Indla. e The Ashes of Buddha. Suppose the Christian world of today ©ould have authentic information of the discovery of some of the bones and ashes of St Poter or St. Paul? What a sensa- tion it would create. Suppose, further, that they might have reldcs of the Savior which were real beyond the shadow of a doubt? The whole clvilized world would be excited about it. This Is what h happened out here in India. Buddha is @Just as real to these peopie as Christ Is to us, and they have now found this cas- ket containing his bones. During the presentation Mr. Marshall, director of the archeological department of the government of India, described how the relics 'were found. The first informa- tion concerning them came from records left by Chinese travelers who walked over Indla on pligrimages about four or five bundred years after Christ. One of these men was a Buddhist monk, who spent seven years in traveling through Indla col- lecting Buddhist writings and visiting the shrines. He tramped across the Himalaya mountains, stopping in the little province where Buddha was bormn. He walked to Buddha Gaya, where the saint received s great enlightenment, and then Wwent to pray at the various places where the relics of Buddba were kept. In the records of his pllgrimages he described & great pagoda near Peshawar, not far from + where the Emperor Knishka had his pal- | mees. This tower was about fifteen hun- dred feet In circumference, and was higher then the Washington monument. It had thirteen stories, and the top was crowned with » pinnacle of gllded disks attached to an iron plllar. Mr. Marshall says that , this tower lasted for more than three hundred years after the Chinese Buddhists above spoken of had paid thelr visit. Their Tecords stated that the relics of Buddha My under the tower. The origin of the discovery came from & as com- of India, subject. French sclentist who came out to Indla & few years ago to study Buddhism. He had the writings of these pilgrims and from them he located the site of the pagoda as belng under one of twp mounds which is about half a mile east of the city of Pesha- war. At that time there was no tower in existence. It had fallen to ruins centuries ago, and no vestiges were in sight except- Ing these mounds. The Frenchman's name was Foucher. Mr. Foucher found himselt unable to make the excavations required to verify his theory. He presented his evidence, how- ever, to Dr. Spooner of the archeological department of the Indian government, and the latter took up the work. That was two years ago. Bince then the mounds have been dug over and the remalns of the great tower found.. The heavy foundation was uncovered and it was shown to have been larger than any other known Buddhist pa- 8oda. It was square, with massive walts of dressed stone, and, according to the records of Heuen Chwang, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, it was so lofty that four towers had to be bullt at the corners to hoist the coping stones into place. The remains of these towers have been found. After the dimensions of the pagoda had been outlined, and the heavy foundation uncovered, the British archeologlsts sank a shaft down through the stone floor to & depth of twenty feet, and came to the relic chamber described in the records. There in that litle stone room that had been buried from the sight of man for over 2,000 years, they found a bronze casket seven inches high and five Inches in dlameter. It was round, and it had a 11d slightly curved at the top, made to represent a tull-blown lotus, upon which a small figure of Buddha sat. Along the lld of the box, which overhung, was a frleze of flying geese, and lower down, around the main body of the casket were figures of Buddha, beautifully carved, representing him in the ditferent stages of his life. In the center of these was engraved a large, standing figure of King Kanishka, the great Buddhist ruler and conquerer of the time the casket was made, and there were also inscriptions stating that the maker was the head en- gineer of this king. Upon opening the casket a lump of rock crystal was found within. This had been hollowed out at one end for the reception of the relic. It was originally sealed with clay, but the molsture had detached the seal, and this was found lylng at the side of the crystal. Colns bLearing the head 62 Kanishka were also found. The govern- ment of India considers tho relics as be- yond any doubt genuine. i A Buddbist Revival, During my present trip around the world I have traveled extensively through the great lands of the Buddhists. I first stopped In Japan, where the more advanced followers of this religion are moditylng thelr faith to suit our modern civillzation 1 saw @ temple in Kyoto which has an In come of $200,000 & year, agd in Korea found the missionaries of that church at work. The Buddhists are adopting the same plans fo propagating their faith as those used by us Christians. They have Budd- hist Young Men's associations, correspond- Ing to our Young Men's Christian associu- tloas, and are now publishing tracts and distributing all sorts of religious documents. During my stay In China 1 visited the great lamasaries outside Peking, where the Dalal Lama, who had come from Tibet, was stopping while engeged in conferences with the high Chinese officials. While in Burma 1 inspected many of the Buddhist monas- teries there, and talked with the high priests, and laid flowers upon the shrines of the Golden Pagoda at Rangoon. That pagoda s bullt over eight hairs which came from the head of the great Buddha, and its sanolity s surpassed only by that of the temple at Kandy, which contains Buddha's tavorite tooth, This tooth was brought to Ceylon more than sixteen centuries ago by a princess, who concealed it In her clothing. Since then it has been fought over and captured and recaptured during several wars, and it is now o holy that it & shown only with the consent of the government. The tooth looks more like the tooth of a crocodile than that of &« man. It is & plece of tvory about an inch in diameter and ws long as my little finger. It reposes on a lotus flower of pure gold under a nest of seven bells of 801d set with jewels. People come from all parts of the Buddhist world to worship at this shrine; and it is sald that asingle pil- &rim upon one occasion laitl 6,000,000 flowers upon it. Next to Ceylon and Burma, I find that Slam is the chlef Buddhist countty of this part of the world. It has no relics of the saint, but the splendop of its temples beg- gers description. 1 visited one at Bang- il i By enn UNDER THE BO-TREE , A SUGGESTION OF BUDDHA GAYA WHERE THE GREAT PROPHET WAS TEIMPTED AND RE - kok which has & carpet or woven silver wire and contains a little gold god set with emeralds and other precious stones. Bang- kok has hundreds of figures of Buddha plated with gold, and in one temple there 1 saw what is perhaps the largest idol of the world. It is a sleeping Buddha so heavily plated that It shines like a new wedding ring. Tt is 150 feet long, and its arm is as big around as a flour barrel. s ey Indian Buddhism. India should have more Buddhists than any other land. It was here that Bud- dha was born. Here he spent his whole life, and from here his religion spread to other parts of the world. Today, of the three hundred millions of India, not more than one in & thousand is a follower of Buddha. There are between nine and ten millions of that faith in Burma, and many more in Ceylon and parts of farther India. The Buddhists of Hindustan number less than 300,060, They are found in small numbers along the northern frontler of Bengal and upon the lower, slopes of' the Himalayas. In Nepal, where Buddha was born, he has still many followers, and in Kashmir, near where these ashes were found, there are of his believers perhaps 40,000 all told. The religion at first had great sway. It spread throughout Hindustan, and at the time of King Kanishka, who bullt the great temple over the ashes recently found, it was one of the predominant faiths. Afier that it began to decline and It was almost wiped out at the timo the Moham- medans came in and took possession of northern India. Today there are something “after like 150,000,000 Buddhists in the world, but this estimate is based upon figures which cannot be verified. The religion is the chief one of Japan, two-thirds of the Chinese are supposed to believe it, and its most ardent followers are Tibetans and the Mongolian population of Asia. There are Buddhists in Siberia and in the Dutch Hast Indies, and the faith is supposed to be alive In Korea, although the priests there are low fellows and 'are desplsed and rejected of men In the Footprints of Buddha. During my present stay in India I have walked in the footprints of Buddha. I passed the birthplace on my Way up the Himalayas. He was the son of a king who lived on thelr slopes, In southern Nepal, and his boyhood was spent in the most beautiful scenery under the shadows of the highest mountains on earth. During the earlier part of his life he enjoyed such luxury as only Indla knows. He was glven every pleasure, was married to a charming princess and in due time had a beautiful son. During this period ho was kept from the sight of all evill, sorrow and pain, for fear that his contemplative and aescetic nature might lead him to take to the church. It was not until he was almost 2 years of age that he learned of the troubles of mankind, and decided upon the great renunclation. He then gave up his palace, cut off the long hair and putting on the clothes of a beggar went forth upon the highways. He spent six years in wan- dering about in his efforts for the attain- ment of peace. He practiced one religlon anoth he fasted and prayed; he mortified the flesh in every way, and went I "y I through struggle after struggle and temp- tation after temptation, until at last at Buddha Gaya, he found the light and went to Benares, where he first gave it to man- kind. Buddha ‘a 1s to the Buddhists. the most holy spot upon earth. The Bo tree, under which Buddha sat during his great contemplations they believe to be the cen- ter of the earth. They will tell you that the original tree still stands and that branches of' it have been carried to Cey- lon and there sprouted. This tree is situ- ated near a Buddhist temple which is about seven miles from the little city of Gaya. It lles some distance south of the Ganges, 802 miles by rall from Calcutta, and Is reached by wdy of Patha, where the great oplum factorles are. As the crow flies it is about 125 miles from Benares. The temple, which stands near the trea, was erected about 30 years after Buddha's death and 18 hence ahout 1,300 years old. It is 160 feet high and the wall of its tower is fourteen feet thick. It fs in the form of a pyramid of nine stories, embel- lished with niches and moldings. I have no space to speak of the tree or its surround- ings. The shrines are chlefly in the hands of the Brahmins, although there are a few Buddhist monks who worship in & monastery nearby. They say their prayers before a beautiful statue of Buddha, wWhich has been brought from Japan. Buddha Gaya has about 100,00 pllgrims a year. T The Great Temptation. It was on this spot that Buddha, ac- cording to & manuscript supposed to date from the third century before Christ, spent six years in penance and mortifica- tion of the flesh. During that time he sat cross-legged under the Bo tree fast- ing and praying. He became a living skeleton, was naked and covered with dirt, and an object of contempt to tho villages about. He was tempted by both angels nd devils, Leglons of demons, some of which had thousands of heads, fought uround him to vain. They threw Itoosevelt Grows Younger. ENRY Beach Needham describes in Collier's Weekly the glowing physical condition of Theodore Roosevelt as noted at the land- ing stago at Naples. “The first thing that struck o in Colonel Roosevelt's appearance, & he walked down the gangway, was his clothes. Hé wore a gray tweed suit—and it was well pressed! The wrinkle to the coat, the bag to the trousers, so usual with him, were conspicuously absent. Whether this be & characteristic of second youth or not, I can't say. The first near view of his sunburnt face told the story of his regener ation. How Mike Donovan would have en- joyed this first sight of him! 1 remember talking with Donovan, an ex-pugilist, but & thoroughly good citizen, who acted ot one time, as Roosevelt's physical trainer. After commenting on the then president's remarkable physique, Donovan added, with something of a sigh: “‘But he's got on about twenty pounds too much. Dieting would take him down, but he just can't diet. You see, he has to g0 to dinners and banquets and he will keep nibbling.' Before Koosevelt left the White House the ‘twenty pounds’ was nearer forty, De- spite his violent exercise—including the 100-mile ride—he was beginning to show heaviness about his jaws and embonpoint. All that is gdne now. He seems noy to have & pound of superfluous welght. His eyes are markedly bright—and nothing by them. His skin is clear and his cheeks hard. Wrinkles are scarcely to be found— indeed, many a woman on the “right side of 40" would be delighted it her face were as free from crow's feet. What little gray there is In his mustache and hair is not visible &' fow feet away. It wil be easy enough for a country cditor to run a photo- graph of Roosevelt taken when he was civil servico' commissioner and get away with it.” A Bluff and & lareback. Caught without the goods, after making a daring blutf, abashed, confused, but des perately retalllant, and victorlous in the cnd, Lr. John O. Reed of the academic faculty of the University of Michigan into a corner Thursday by Pres dent Cyrus Northrop in the universiy chapel, relates the Minneapolis Journal. Thence ho emerged after guthering some solf-possession and landed “Prexy” Northrop a verbal wallop that put him iato quiescence. Dr. Reed, who attended alumni dinner ta Bt Paul, cane vvel the chapel with Dean Morumer C. Cooley and Prof. Wiltred B. Shaw of Michigan for the purpose of telling the young men and women of Minnesota how much better off they are than Rockefeller or Carncgie He arose to speak, and, flxing an eye vn President Northrop, sald that outl of con sideration for his venerable gray hair he would desist from telling the usual string of storles with which he always starts a talk to students, because he knew President Northrop had been laughing at them for years and he did not wish to bore him. Then Dr. Reed began his speech. ‘“Tell us some of those stories” said Presidert Northrop. Instantly there was an uproar. Tell us some of those storles, said everyone in the room. In vain Dr Reed tried to speak of contentment and show them how much better off they were than the rich of the earth. “Tell us some of those stories!” Then through the blushes, coughing and a’heming of Dr. Reed the truth came out There were Bo storles. It was & blult. backed the Michigan Tho corner shook where Prosident 3 chuckled in his gle Then Dr. Ree looked dangerousl “Very well,” he said, 1 story He told of a man who had fiftcen chil- dren and he took them all to the eircus They wanted to seo the bear and that was all they cared to When they had gono in and looked at the bear the man of great and noisy family asked the circus proprie- tor how much he owed him. “Not & cent,” sald the proprieior bear enjoyed looking at you and you ily just as much as you enjoyed looking at him." Whereupon sllence tinged gathered In the corner where sat Pr Northrop and he sald not anoth during the remainder of the address tiop and ho Northrop. tell you a eyes flashed at President will The with gloom 1dent word How Blaine Floored a Duke. It 1s a good story which Chauncey M Depew tells of & dinner that the late King Edward, as prince of Wales, once gave in honor of James G. Blaine, on one of his visit Ingland before he had even been a candidate for the presidency. The one disagreeable man at the dinner was a duke of the royal hduse, who had a reputation for lack of tact. During a lull in conversa tion he blurted out he greatest outrage in history was the revolt of your people against King George 1II. There was no justification for it then, and there is no excuse for it now.” The prince, acoording to Dr. Depew, was plainly embarrassed. The one man wuo had the tactfulness to carry of the situation was Mr. Blaine who, in & carefully modulated voice, replied: “Perhaps If George III had possessed as much diplom: great-grandson, America might etill be English.” The prince of Wales, after the subject was passed, gripped Blaine's hands with & twinkle of admiration. to A GOLD PLATED PAGODA FOR BUDDHA Polsoned arrows, but before they fell they were changed into flowers. In addition there were hordes of the most beautiful women from girlhood to maturity who tried to attract the salnt by thelr charms They tried every one of the two and thirty modes of making men fall, but they were powerless against Gutama Buddha, who had conquered and risen above all carnal desires. In addition there were hundreds of other temptations of which this manu- script tells; but Buddha vanquished them all, and came to perfection, After that he bathed himself in the river nearby, and partook of food made for him by a village malden from the milk of & thou- sand cows. His life revived and he straightway became whole. His course forth from &aya was & triumphal pre slon in which the gods and others t part. Flowers rained = upon him, tanks of water sprang up by the wayside and divine music gas constantly heard. From the Bo tree the prophet went forth to preack. He traveled over north- ern Indla, and continued preaching until B. C. 477, wher he died at 80 ycars of age. Just where he dicd we do not know, but the ashes In the casket may indic that it was somewhere In northern I dia, not far from Peshawar. The u kindly say his death was caused by eating much pork ok te too Some Duddhist Bellefs, The Buddhist rellgion contalns many beautiful things, but it has nothing of the worship of God as we know Him. It Is practically athelstic, and is a religion of despair rather than hope. It considers personal existence a source of e and one of its theories is that the greatest evll of mankind is birth. Without that w could not have old age, misery and death; and we would not have to go through the long line of transmigrations by which man rises and descends to heaven or hell, According to Buddhism one's soul, like that of John Brown, is always marching on. This moment he dles he is born again, his soul passing at once into the form pof a man, a dog or some other animal, or worse than all, Into \a woman, If he es- capes the latter fate may go down, down, down, through the different degrees of animal life, until he falls into one of the hundr€d od1 Buddhist hells, which are in the middle of the earth, where the suf- ferers spend 10,000,000 years or more before they rise again. Or he may go upward to glory into better and better states, until he at last reaches the heaven where the shortest life s 10,000,000,000 years. The Buddhist fairy stories tell how thelr great teacher lived as an elephant, as a camel, as & gnat, & swallow or an eagle. He ‘went through every form of existence on the earth, in hell, and in heaven, and when he attained the perfect knowledge he could recall them all. The Buddhist belleves in cause and ef- fect. It says that man's misfortunes all come from his bad actions, and all his good from his good ones, Heaven means the extinction of desires. This is the great end of life. To wipe out all passion, al he feeling and even all ideas. It is & sort of a religlous trance or ecstacy, known as the Nirvana. s The Commandments of Buddhism. The Buddhist religion has fts ten com- mandments which are taught to the chil- dren. The first five are: . Thou shalt not take any life at all. Thou shalt not steal. . Thou shalt not commit adultery, . Thou shalt not lle. 6. Thou shalt not Uquors. The second five are obligatory chiefly on the priests in the monasteries, and by all other good people on holy days. They are: 1 Thou shalt not eat after midday. . Thou shalt not dance or play upom musical instruments. 3. Thou shalt not use cosmetics. 4. Thou shalt not stand or sleep on ele- vated places. 6. Thou shalt not touch gold or silver. The theory of the religion is that every one must work out his own salvation, and that no one can help another except by example. drink intoxlcating Fe] Buddha Not a God. It Is & mistake to speak of the worship of Buddha, He is not a god, but a teacher, His followers look upon him as having been & mortal man, and they belleve that any mortal may aspire to be what he was, Ho Is their idea of the perfect man, and his life is perfect life. Nevertheless, pray before his shrine use his name in their prayers. And this brings me to the var of Buddhlst praying. In 5 these people are centuries behind the tmes, but as (o their religion they have cconumized energy and adopted many inventions. You may remember the of the American who had a beautiful | written out for him covering possible need. 1t was full of Christianity and brotherly love. He the head of his bed and every Jumping in, folded his hands and rev said: “Oh! Lord, them's my sentiments. Amen.” Well, that man was much like the Bud- anist write out prayers on long scrolls which fit into round metal boxes attached by pivots to handles, so that when they give the handle & twlst the box cos. taining the scroll whirls around. They be. lieve they get merit for the prayer at every whirl, and some of them keop their wheely whirling all day. In the Himalayas and¥ Tibet are wheels of & similar nature worked by windmills and waterpower; and, I doubt not, now that electricity is coming in, they will harness the lightning in thelr race toward salvation. The Buddhists have no fixed services, no regular religlous meetings and no re liglous forms of marriages or burials. Untll recently they have had no regular preach- ing, although they are now holding serv- ices in Japan and elsowhere. They do not belleve that anyone but yourself can help you toward salvation, and it is only as re- minders of the example of Buddha thelr temples have been erected. FRANK G. CARPEN the they and »us methods most th oy his every pasted it on night befo ntly I'hey ; A ears Old Are Discovered in India .