774 
THROUGH ASIA 
as well as in the modern religious art of India it is a 
quite common design to represent Gautama Buddha 
surrounded by seven bodhisatvas. The bronze we are 
now considering might be interpreted as such a design, 
the figure at the top being Buddha, with six, not seven, 
bodhisatvas at his side. But Gautama is always repre- 
sented on a larger scale than his attendant incarnations, 
and in the bronze all six figures are the same size, and 
larger than the seventh. Hence the subject of the bronze 
must belong to another category. 
“A being,” writes Grunwedel, “whose special satva, 
or attribute, is bodht, or the gift of recog'nition, grives 
utterance, in the presence of a Buddha, and whilst in 
the act of doing some pious deed, to the desire that in 
a later re-incarnation he may be a Buddha. According 
to the teaching of Buddhism, Gautama Siddhartha (the 
Buddha) himself gave utterance to a desire of this nature 
in the presence of a former Buddha, and was preceded by 
six such Buddhas, each of whom in his own time was the 
Light of the World and the all-embracing Predicate of 
Perfect Truth (Dharma). The good deeds which Buddha 
performs cause him at each fresh re-incarnation to make 
a continual higher advance, through successive grades, 
towards absolute perfection, until finally in the heaven at 
Tusita he resolves to assume a fresh incarnation in human 
shape, so as to show sinners the way of salvation, and at 
last enter himself into the bliss of Nirvana.” 
The bodhisatva of the present generations is Maitr^ya, 
or Maidari, to give him the name by which he is known to 
the Mongols; I visited his great temple at Urga on my 
way home in the year 1897. 
Thus we see that Gautama had six predecessors or 
bodhisatvas, and will be succeeded by yet another, who 
will be the last this present world will have. Now the 
seven figures on the bronze shield represent the six 
bodhisatvas who preceded Gautama, and the one that 
is still to come, namely Maidari; but Gautama Siddhartha 
himself is wanting. That however is easily accounted 
for. Though Gautama himself is absent, the aureole or 
