2o2 



THE AMERICAX MUSEUM JOURNAL 



by the nation. Tlie Temple of 

 Heaven, with its golden dome glow- 

 ing like a great Ijall of fire above 

 the pnrple tiles of its sloping roof, 

 the white marble altar open to the 

 sky, made saercd hy tlie worshi]) of 

 China's most illustrious empci-ors. 

 the beautiful p'ni Ion. and tin- juai'- 

 ble walks belong to China's postei'- 

 ity as records of her ancient glorie-. 

 But such rare treasures need care 

 to protect them from tlie ravages 

 of time and weather. 



When I visited tin- 'rciiiplc of 

 Heaven less than two years ago. I 

 found its spaciouscourtyardschoki'(l 

 with uncut grass and its beautiful 

 walks and tile-capped walls almost 

 obscured l)y growing weeds. The 

 tiny roots were slowly but surely 

 accomplishing their deadly work. 

 The marble slabs were cracked, tlie 

 tiles broken, and the walls crum- 

 Ijling: the great round tem])le itself 

 was filled with dust and decay. In 

 a very few decades this almost sa- 

 cred spot will present only a hea]* 

 of ruins overgrown witli grass and 

 weeds, and one more page will have 

 been torn from the 1)Ook of China's 

 history. 



The "Yellow Temple," not far 

 from Peking, is one of the most sacred 

 spots near the capital. Here are buried 

 the garments of a holy Tashi lama Avho 

 came as an ambassador from Tibet tn 

 Peking. It was the lama Pauchan 

 Bogdo from Tashi Lumpo, who died of 

 smallpox in 18T0. The ashes of his 

 cremated corpse were .sent to Tibet, but 

 over his clothes the artist emperor, 

 Ch'ien Lung, erected a stupa in old 

 Hindu style, a mausoleum of marble 

 and gold. When I visited it first, in 

 1912, a yellow-robed priest showed me, 

 with sorrow in his eyes, the atrocious 

 destruction which had been inflicted on 

 this sacred monument in 1900. This 

 was during the Boxer Eebellion. when 

 Japanese soldiers w^antonly knocked 

 off the heads of statues with the butts 



of their rifles and damaged bas-reliefs, 

 but fortunately only a small part of the 

 marvelous detail was destroyed by this 

 act of vandalism. 



On my second visit, in 191(3, after an 

 absence of four years, 1 M^as appalled at 

 the signs of decay. The ancient temple 

 of gray wood, with faded but magnifi- 

 cent columns, yellow, blue, and green, 

 was full of cracks and rifts. It was 

 already leaning and seemed about to 

 fall. In place of a beautiful ifai lou 

 which formerly faced the stupa, lay a 

 heap of plaster, stone, and 3'ellow tile. 

 It is a very, very old temple but with 

 a little care could still be made to stand 

 for years. 



At the end of Ha-ta men street are 

 the "Temple of Confucius" and the 



