14 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol, XIII. 



Buddha ^akyamuni holding the alms-bowl of lapis-lazuli color/ On 

 the altar in front is depicted a golden bowl containing rubies, lapis 

 lazuli, white conch-shell and turquois. In the foreground is a lotus- 

 pond with three flowers widely unfolded; on the central one three gems 

 of oblong form are figured, — lapis lazuli, turquois, and ruby, emblematic 

 of the well-known prayer formula Om mdni padme hum ("Oh, the jewel 

 in the lotus!") and of the three precious objects (Sanskrit triratna), 

 which are Buddha, his doctrine, and the clergy. In the upper portion 

 of the same painting, two of the Arhat are represented, Angaja and 

 Vakula, the latter holding and stroking an ichneumon which has the 

 ability of spitting jewels; they are gradually dropping into a plate.^ 

 A tribute-bearer of grotesque racial type is offering to the saint gems in 

 a bowl containing an ivory tusk, a coral-branch, and precious stones of 

 blue, green, rose and pink colors. This is not the only Arhat to whom 



1 The alms-bowl (pdlra) of the historical Buddha was a plain pot; the miraculous 

 relics of later times which were passed oflE as Buddha's alms-bowl form an interesting 

 subject for the historical mineralogy of the East. The general history of the bowl 

 or bowls has been traced by H. Kern (Manual of Indian Buddhism, p. 90) and H. 

 Yule (The Book of Ser Marco Polo, Vol. II, pp. 328-330). Here, only the different 

 materials should be pointed out. Fa Hien who started for India in 399 saw the bowl 

 in Peshawur (Purushapura) and describes it as being "of various colors, black pre- 

 dominating, with the seams that show its fourfold composition distinctly marked" 

 (Legge, Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, p. 35). The latter clause in Legg&'s 

 rendering does not seem to be quite correct; but however this may be. Fa Hien's 

 account, it seems to me, bears out the fact that the bowl seen by him was carved from 

 onyx in various layers in the style of cameo-work (compare G. Watt, /. c. Vol. II, 

 p. 174). Hiian Tsang (St. Julien, M^moires sur les contr^es occidentales, Vol. I, 

 p. 106; S. Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. I, p. 99) speaks of the 

 pdtra, but does not furnish a description of it. Li Shi of the T'ang period (not of the 

 twelfth century, as Wylie, Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 192, says), in his Su po 

 wu chi (Ch. 10, p. 2; ed. of Hu-pei tsung whi shu chil), makes the statement that 

 Buddha's alms-bowl in Peshawur was of blue (or green) jade {tsHng yu), or in the 

 opinion of others of blue (or green) stone {ts'ing shi) ;t\ienth.ete:i.t of Fa Hien is repro- 

 duced. In view of the ultramarine color in which the Buddhist alms-bowls appear 

 on paintings in China and Tibet, it is permissible to think in this case of lapis lazuli; 

 indeed, the word tsHng shi, in this sense, is used in the Wei lio (Hirth, China and the 

 Roman Orient, p. 72). A still earlier reference to Buddha's alms-bowl in the coun- 

 try of the Ta Yiie-chi, already pointed out by F. Hirth (Chinesische Studien, p. 251) 

 is contained in the commentary to the Shut king written by Li Tao-yiian who died in 

 527 (his biography in Pei shi, Ch. 27) where likewise the term ts'ing shi is employed, 

 and I concur with Hirth in the opinion that it should be translated in this case by 

 lapis lazuli. In Tibetan portrait-statues of bronze, the alms-bowl is often actually 

 represented and carved from lapis lazuli (A. Grunwedel, Mythologie des Buddhis- 

 mus, p. 79), as the outcome of the tradition that the mendicant's platter brought 

 from Nepal to Tibet by the princess K'ri-btsun in the seventh century and working 

 many miracles was made of lapis lazuli (S. Chandra Das, Narrative of a Journey 

 round Lake Yamdo, p. 79, Calcutta, 1887). According to Marco Polo (Yule's 

 edition. Vol. II, p. 320) the dish of Buddha brought to China for Emperor Kubilai 

 from Ceylon was "of a very beautiful green porphyry," while Yule quotes a Chinese 

 account written in 1350 to the effect that the sacred bowl in front of the image of 

 Buddha in Ceylon was neither made of jade, nor copper, nor iron, but that it was of a 

 purple color, glossy, and when struck sounding like glass. 



^ The same attribute of the jewel-spitting ichneumon (Sanskrit nakula) appears 

 in the hands of Kubera, the God of Wealth, guarding the northern side of the world 

 mountain Sumeru. 



I 



