40 parat Candra Das — Note on Dokahang. [Feb. 



be very indistinct. "Dokalzang" is considered holiest among the 108 

 volumes of the Kahgyur collection, on account of its containing the 

 names of 1,005 Buddhas of the present Kalpa, a forecast of future Bud- 

 dliism and its power for leading humanity to the state of Bodhi, or En- 

 licrhtenment. There is a small picture at each end of the title-page. [See 

 Plate No. I.] One of them is Buddha ^akya Muni with a disc of Saint's 

 glory of blue light round liis head, and the other is Maitreya, the coming 

 Buddha. On the back of these two figures of Buddbas there are two rain- 

 bows shewing their celestial position. An equal number of disciples and 

 followers attend them both. In the picture of fakya Muni his two 

 disciples, fariputra and Maud Graljayana, are offering him food from 

 their alms-bowls. Ananda, his personal attendant, is waiting for orders^ 

 and Sublmti is standing in a devotional mood to note down whatever 

 may drop f lom his lips in the way of instruction. An Indian king with 

 his wife and child sits on the floor at the foot of Buddha's seat, in 

 anxious expectation of hearing his sermons. The child is looking to 

 the father for wisdom who is dressed in blue typifying worldliness. 

 The Tibetan artist liaving no idea of the dress of an Indian Bdvi has 

 made the queen look like the wife of a Dokpa chieftain of Northern 

 Tibet. In tlie picture of Maitreya, his disciples are offering him burnt 

 incense, and a basket full of gems, gold and silver. A Tibetan high- 

 lander, sitting on his knees, with his wife and child, is offering him a 

 large blue gem, called Indra Nila. The child is looking to his mother 

 in love for love. The father is dressed in yellow shewing more of re- 

 ligion. The coming Buddha Maitreya — the personification of love — will 

 bring the Mahayana Buddhism to perfection. He can, therefore, accept 

 gold and silver. Buddha f akya Muni was an ascetic, and called Mahd 

 C'?-a7nana of the highest order, he having absolutely renounced the world, 

 and preached the Qravaka doctrine of perfect poverty, and not touch gold, 

 silver &c. In some pictures and wood engravings of Tibet, Maitreya, the 

 coming Buddha, is seated on a chair — a posture which is evidently foreiga 

 to India. As the Mahayana School of Buddhism obtained its highest de- 

 velopment in the Bactrian Etnpire of the Greeks, which included in it 

 Kashmir, Cabul, Kandahar, Herat, and the valley of the Oxus, &c., it is 

 pi-obable that from there the Light of the East was transmitted 

 Westward, or that Christianity was foreshadowed in Sanskrit Bud- 

 dhist works. The similarity of Christianity to Mahayana Buddhism is 

 striking and Maitreya, the coming Messiah of the Buddhists, who is 

 now the Regent of the Lord in Heaven, called Tushita, will come to 

 this Earth to make all mankind blessed and glorious. 



The two pictures represent the two stages in the spiritual progress 

 of Humanity. The first picture shows a condition of progressive self» 



