Chap. H.] A BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 145 



roof. Ill an inner apartment dimly lighted by lamps 

 where the air is heavy ^vith the perfume of the yellow 

 champac flowers, are tlie jnlamas or statues of the god. 

 One huge recumbent figure, twenty feet in length, repre- 

 sents Buddlia, in that state of bhssful repose which consti- 

 tutes the elysium of his devotees ; a second shows him 

 seated under the sacred bo-tree in Uruwela ; and a third 

 erect, and with the right hand raised and the two fore- 

 fingers extended (as is the custom of the popes in confer- 

 ring their benediction), exliibits him in the act of exhort- 

 ing his earhest disciples. One quadrangular apartment 

 which surrounds the enclosed adytus is hghted by windows, 

 so as to exhibit a series of paintings on the inner wall, 

 illustrative of the narratives contained in the jatakas\ or 

 legends of the successive births of Buddha ; the whole exe- 

 cuted in the barbarous and conventional style which fi'om 

 time immemorial has marked this pecuhar school of eccle- 

 siastical art.^ 



As usual, within the outer enclosure there is a small 

 BQndu dewale (which in this instance is dedicated to the 

 worship of the Kattragam dexiyo), and near to it grows 

 one of the sacred bo-trees, that, hke every other in Ceylon, 

 is said to have been raised from a seed of the patriarchal 

 tree planted by Mahindo, at Anarajapoora, more than two 

 thousand years ago.^ The whole estabhshment is on the 

 most unpretending scale* ; for nine months of the year the 

 priests visit the houses of the villagers in search of alms, 

 and during the other three, when the violence of the rains 

 prevents their perambulations, theu' food is brought to 

 them m the pansela; or else they reside with some of 



^ For an accoimt of the Pansiya- 

 pauas-jataka-pota, ^vitll the 550 births 

 of Buddha, see ante, Vol. I. Pt. iv. 

 ch. X. p. 514. 



^ On the subject of the early paint- 

 ings of the Singhalese temples, see 

 ante, Vol. I. Pt. iv. ch. vii. p. 472. 



* B.C. 289. For an account of its 



VOL. II. 



planting, see Vol. I. Pt. rn. ch. iii, 

 p. .341 ; and for a description of the 

 tree, as it exists at the present day, 

 Vol. II. Pt. X. ch. ii. 



^ In a Buddhist temple, as in the 

 original temple of the Jews, ''all the 

 vessels thereof are of brass." — Exod. 

 xxvii. 19. 



