[ ties. The visible head of Buddhism lived formerly in
j China, but since the fourteenth century in Tibet, vt here he is called Dalai Lama (see L.AMAIBM). The sacred
j books of Buddhism treat of cosmogony, dogmatics, ethics, asceticism, and liturgy, and are very numer- ous. Buddha is said to have preached 84,000 sermons. The Ganjour (tradition) consists of 11(5 volumes, and with the commentaries (Dandsour), of "jo8 volumes. They were originally composed in Sanscrit, but were later translated into the languages of the other Buddh- ist nations. The form of religious worship Ci ntains many points (veneration of relics, auricular confession, beads, processions, etc.) which bear a striking resem- blance to practices of the Roman Church, acknowl- edged by all, but explained differently. The tidiest information on these, points will be found in Hardy, Eastern Monackism | London, 1850).
IV. History. — St. Hilaire (I)ii Bouddkisme, Par- is, 1855, 8vo), following principally M. Eugene Bur- nouf, fixes a minimum date for the birth of the Buddha in the 7th century B.C. It is true that the
! contents of the Buddhist works themselves supply no dates, and the inferences are uncertain by which any date of the lifetime of Sakyamuni himself can lie de- duced. If the indications of the Singhalese documents be followed, the death of the Buddha is placed in B.C. 543. According to deductions from Chinese authori- ties, it might have taken place much earlier; and if
J the Buddhist character of the rock inscriptions at Guir- nar, Delhi, and Bhabra be acknowledged, the spread of the religion in those countries from '-'on to 100 years before the Christian era is established. Megasthenes met with Buddhists on the banks of the Ganges; and time must be allowed for the rise of Buddhism in its original seat in Central India, fin- its expulsion as a heresy from the bosom of Brahmaism, its develop- ment as a specific religion, and its distribution, not in a line, but on an immense arc of countries contermi- nous with India proper. The creed of Buddhism was fixed and developed by oecumenical councils, the first df which was held by Casyapa, a disciple of Buddha, and largely attended. "'I he Buddha bad written nothing himself; but his chief followers, assembled in council immediately after bis death, proceeded to re- duce his teaching to writing. These canonical writ- ings an- divided into three classes, forming the Tripi- taka, or 'triple basket.' The first class consist of the
Soutras, or discourses of the Buddha; the second con- tains the Vinaya, or discipline; and the. third the Ab- hidkarma, or metaphysics. The first is ev;d< ntly the
fundamental text, out of which all the subsequent writings have been elaborated. The other two coun- cils] robably revised and expanded the writings agree d
upon at the first, adding voluminous commentaries.
As to the dates of the other two councils there are ir- reconcilable discrepancies in the accounts ; but, at all [ events, the third was not later than 1'lU B.C., so that
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the Buddhist canonical Scriptures, as they now exist, were fixed two centuries and a half before the Christian era. The Buddhist religion early manifested a zeal- ous missionary spirit, and princes and even princesses became devoted propagandists." It also established foreign missions, most of which were highly success- ful. In consequence of its great extension, Buddhism split into a northern and a southern branch, the former of which, embracing the Buddhist churches of Nepaul, China, Corea, Japan, Tartary, Mongolia, and Tibet, ad- mitted much of the former mythologies of these coun- tries into their creed; the southern Church extended from Ceylon over the whole of Farther India. In the land" of its birth, India, Buddhism had to endure a long-continued persecution, and was at last entirely driven out, after it had flourished there about twelve hundred years. The time of its introduction into the other countries is as uncertain as its early history in general. It is said to have made its first appearance in China about B.C. 217, but it was not actually estab- lished before about A.D. GO. It suffered several per- secutions, in the third of which, in 845, 4600 monas- teries were destroyed, together with 40,000 smaller edifices. A census, taken in the thirteenth century, stated the number of temples at 42,318, of priests and monks at 213,418. In Japan it spread in the fifth or
fiery Saivas and the bigoted Mussulmans, has been half ruined by the blundering excavations of amateur antiquaries. . . . The great tope itself is a solid dome of stone and brick, 106 feet in diameter, and 42 feet in height, springing from a plinth of 14 feet, with a pro- jection of oi feet from the base of the building, and a slope of 2J feet. The plinth or basement formed a terrace for the perambulation of worshippers of the en- shrined relic ; for, on the right pillar of the north gate- way there is a representation of a tope and of two wor- shippers walking round it, with garlands in their hands. The terrace was reached by a double flight of steps to the south, connected by a landing 10 feet square. The apex of the dome was flattened into a terrace 34 feet in diameter, surrounded by a stone rail- ing of that style so peculiar to Buddha monuments that I will venture to call it the 'Buddhist Bailing.' . . . Many of the pillars of this colonnade are now ly- ing at the base of the monument, and several portions of the coping or architrave prove that the enclosure was a circular one. . . . Within the upper enclosure there was a square altar or pedestal, surrounded by pillars of the same description, but much taller, some of which are still lying on the top of the dome. . . . The total height of the building, including the cupo- las, must have been upward of 100 feet. The base of