1 186 
THROUGH ASIA 
knees, bring their folded arms to their forehead and breast, 
mumble their prayers, and again prostrate themselves 
with their arms stretched out in front of them. This 
performance they repeated time after time, until I grew 
tired of watching them. 
The front wall of the temple was pierced by three 
doors, handsome specimens of solid hammered brass. 
The doors stood open, but the doorways were in part 
closed by curtains. We entered, and found ourselves in 
TEMPLE OF TSUNG KAIiA IN KUM-BUM 
a real museum; that is to say, a noble and lofty hall, 
reaching up to the gilded roof, in which the light was 
tempered to a deep and mystic twilight, so that I was 
involuntarily put in mind of the Uspensky cathedral in 
Moscow, which contains similar gilcled images, lighted 
candles, and a similar dim religious twilight. 
In the centre of the hall was a colossal fio-ure of the 
o 
sublime 1 sung Kaba, about thirty feet high, seated, and 
draped entirely with mantles, except his head and hands. 
Silently, solemnly, contemptuously the image of the god 
appeared to gaze down upon the pilgrims who in the sweat 
