OBJECTS OF RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL 143 



156. Buddha reclining (passing into nirvana). — Alabaster, gilt 

 and encrusted with colored stones. Length, 2 feet 5 inches. Burma. 

 (Cat. No. 216130, U.S.N.M.) Bequest of S. S. Howland. 



157. Buddha reclining. — Bronze. Length, 10 inches. Burma. 

 (Cat. No. 216129, U.S.N.M.) Bequest of S. S. Howland. 



158. Buddha. — Bronze. Represented reclining (entering nirvana). 

 The eyes are inlaid. Round the brow is a sort of diadem, formed 

 of a band encrusted with pieces of colored glass. Length, 9% inches. 

 Burma. (Cat. No. 315526, U.S.N.M.) Bequest of Alfred Louis 

 Moreau Gottschalk. 



159. Horns of Buddha. — Bronze, lacquered and gilt. According 

 to the tradition preserved in the Jatakas, which form a part of the 

 Buddhist sacred literature, Gautama had passed through 550 exis- 

 tences in all created forms — as God, as man, as animal — till in his 

 last incarnation, as the son of Suddhodanna, he appeared as the 

 savior of mankind. These horns are believed by the Laos to be the 

 actual horns of Buddha from a former incarnation as a bull. They 

 were found at a relic shrine (stupa) claimed to have been erected on 

 the spot where this bull is said to have died. The shrine and the lake 

 near by still bear the name of this bull and are regarded as a sacred 

 spot. On the front of the horns is carved in archaic style Buddha in 

 the witness position; on the back, standing with the arms hanging 

 flat on the sides. Height, 7% inches; length of the base, 8% inches. 

 Laos, Further India. (Plate 43 (upper). Cat. No. 217625, U.S.N.M.) 



160. Buddha's footprint (Buddhapada) . — Cast from the original at 

 Buddhagaya, Magadha, India. Supposed footprints of Buddha are" 

 found in various Buddhist countries, to which devout Buddhists 

 make pilgrimages and present offerings. Most celebrated are the 

 footprints on the gateways of the tope of Sanchi, in Bhopal (central 

 India) on which are marked beside the wheel 108 compartments, 

 each occupied by some sacred object, (as a trident, a flower, a candle, 

 a book, angels, the planets, etc.).^° Length, 25K inches. India. 

 (Plate 43 (lower), Cat. No. 76219, U.S.N.M.) 



2. IMAGES OF BODHISATTVAS AND OTHER DIVINE BEINGS 



161. Amitabha. — Wood, lacquered and gilt. Seated in the "easy 

 pose" (Jalita sana), the left leg hanging down with inclination slightly 

 inward, the right drawn up and loosely bent. The ushnisha is 

 gathered to a knot or tuft. The forehead was adorned with a metal 



"o Most famous is the footprint on Adam's Peak in Ceylon, which Buddha is said to have left on the 

 occasion of his mythical visit to Ceylon. The cavity of about 5 feet long on the summit of the peak has 

 been claimed by the Buddhists for Buddha, by the Sivaites for Siva, by the Christians for St. Thomas 

 who, according to tradition, had carried Christianity to India, and by the Mohammedans for Adam, who 

 alighted on it when he was expelled from Paradise. The name Adam's Peak was given to the mountain 

 by the Portuguese, who called it Pico de Adam. The Portuguese authorities were divided between the 

 conflicting claims for the footprint of St. Thomas and the eunuch of Queen Candace, mentioned in Act? 

 viil, 27. The footprint of Buddhagaya is now worshipped as that of Vishnu. 



