10 



On the Code and Historical MSS. of the Siamese, [July 



scenery of the* island itself, with its " many peaked, riven and detach- 

 ed rocks," and a stately mausoleum containing the bones and ashes of 

 thousands of priests, are confessed by the worthy missionary to have 

 totally bewildered his imagination. The vespers of the priests Mr. G. 

 says were chanted in the Pali language, not unlike the Latin service 

 of the Roman church. They held their rosaries in their hands, which 

 rested folded upon their breasts ; their service was regulated by the 

 tinkling of a small bell, and they occasionally beat the drum and large 

 bell to rouse Buddha to attend to their prayers. 



Japan. — Buddhism can be traced distinctly from Corea to Japan 

 (Niphon) in thef 6th century of the Christian era. According to the 

 Japanese annalsj in the year 552 A. D., the king of Fioksae in the 

 west of Corea, sent an embassy to the Daii Mnmei, with an image 

 of Buddha and his classical books. Professor Wilson states that the 

 year 572 was remarkable for the arrival in that kingdom of an immense 

 number of priests and idols. The Japanese annals inform us that this 

 religion, after having encountered some persecutions, soon triumphed : 

 and that about A. D. 600, two zealots of great influence, one the cousin 

 of the empress, built temples and invited priests from Corea. In 

 A. D. 805, the Darri kwanmu caused idols of Buddha^ to be placed in 

 the imperial palaces, and the sacred books procured from India to be 

 read and explained in the temples. 



The traditions of the Japanese, according to^[ Ksempfer's Japanese 

 author, relate that about a thousand years ago there was in Tientensiku 

 (that is the middle Tensiku, whereby must be understood the country 

 of the Malabarians and the coast of Coromandel in India) an eminent 

 fotoke called Mokuren a disciple of Siaka (the Sacya of Sir W. Jones), 

 and that about this time the idol of Amida (Buddha) appeared at a 

 plain in Japan called Naniwa environed with golden rays. 



In an extract from the Chinese work the Choiv-hoe-too-pee?i we find, 

 towards the close of the 14th century, that the emperor Hung-woo 

 sent a Buddhist priest to Japan with a command for that nation to 

 venerate Buddha. 



Mr. Meylan, in his late publication on Japan, published at Amsterdam, 

 states that the Dairi or spiritual emperor still allows strange gods to 

 be imported from Siam or China. 



* According to Japanese annals in the reign of the successor of the emperor Sensin, 

 who died A. D. 70, a celebrated personage arrived from India riding on a white horse and 

 bearing in his hands a sacred book. 



+ Chinese Repository, vol. HI. page 158. 



% The period in which the building of the Buddhist temples in Java commenced — 

 Raffles's Java— vol. II. page 86. 



I Chinese Repository vol. ill. page S03. History of Jfcpan vol. I. p. 167. 



