336 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxxvi. 



lighted along the shores of the sea or lake or river by which a city 

 or village is situated.'* One hundred and eight rupees are commonly 

 given in alms, while in China 108 blows are an ordinary punishment 

 for malefactors. 



Alongside of the full rosary of 108 beads, employed by the monks, 

 there are in vogue rosaries of 18 and 16 beads, representing, respec- 

 tively, the 18 lohans, or chief disciples of Buddha counted by the 

 Chinese, and the IG rohans of the Japanese. The common people, 

 moreover, use indifferently rosaries of 30 or 40 beads. 



The material of the Buddhist rosaries varies according to the 

 taste, Avealth, and rank of the owner. The commonest are made of 

 seeds, wood, pebbles, shells, glass, or bone; the more costly of jade, 

 turquoise, coral, amber, silver and gold, and even of pearls and 

 other gems. Marco Palo relates that the king of Maabar (that is, 

 Malal)ar), whom he visited about 1290 A. D., had a necklace of 101 

 (doubtless an error for 108) large pearls and rubies to count his 

 prayers upon. Much in favor for rosary beads is the wood of the 

 sacred Bo-tree (Indian Pilpal. a species of fig, Ftcus religiosa) , under 

 which Sakya Muni attained to the state of Buddha. 



The countries in which the Buddhist rosary is most widely used 

 are Tibet, China, and Japan.'' 



A. TlliKTAN KOSAUIKS. 



The rosary in Tibet — ^called tt'c?i(/wa, " string of beads "" — is not 

 only an essential part of the outfit of the lamas, as the Buddhist 

 monks are called there, but is eterywhere in appearance. The patron 

 god of Tibet, Cheresi or Paclmapani, is represented with a rosary in 

 his hand, and nearly everj?^ man and woman carries a rosary, holding 

 it in the hand, or attached to the girdle, or wearing it around the 

 neck as a necklace, or twisted around the wrist as a bracelet. Lay-, 

 men also use it to assist in ordinary calculations, like the sliding balls 

 of the Chinese, in their business transactions. 



The material is not only varied according to the taste and wealth 

 of the ow'ner, but is also determined by the particular sect to which 

 the devotee belongs, and the deity to whom worship is to be rendered. 

 The head lama of a large and wealthy nionastery may have rosaries 



" rompnre Lafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, London, I, p. 107. 



^As regards Burma, Mr. Waddell (Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, LXI, p. 25) 

 relates that he met several Burmese monks " possessed of a rosary, called 

 • Bodhi,' consisting of 72 black snbcyliiidrical beads, which I understand were 

 composed of slips of a leaf inscribed with chai'med woi-ds and rolled into 

 pellets with the aid of lacquer or varnish." He adds (p. 3.3) that the Burmese 

 " seem to use their rosary for repeating the names of the Buddha Trinity, 

 namely, Phra or Buddha, Tara or Dharnia [law], and Sangha [the congrega- 

 tion), and the number of their beads in their rosary is a multiple of 3 by 3, as 

 with the Hamas." 



