1892.] 
L. A. Waddell —On the site of Buddha's death . 
41 
who are supported out of the funds of the temple, and who on the numer¬ 
ous feast days dance naked in a room adjoining the shrine. These orgies 
are part of the Shakti worship so peculiar to Kamrup, but nowhere is it so 
grossly conducted as at this temple.* The Nati and the idol-car are also 
conspicuous at the degenerate Buddhist temple of Jagannath at Puri. 
At the eastern base of the hillock, on which this temple stands, is a 
fine large tank, called by the Lamas Yon-chhah tshof , or ‘ the lake of 
excellent water.’ This pond, it is said, was made by Buddha with one 
prod of his staff, when searching for the huge bowl already described 
which he unearthed here. This pond is also said to be tenanted by 
fearful monsters. 
I have been unable to ascertain positively whether any Buddhist 
building existed here previous to the Lamas’ fixing on the site as the 
Kusanagara of Buddha’s death. Certainly no monastery existed here at 
the time of Hiuen Tsiang’s visit to the Kamrup (Gauhati) court in the 
seventh century A. D., for he says of this country that ‘ the people have 
“no faith in Buddha, hence from the time when Buddha appeared in the 
“ world even down to the present time there never as yet has been built 
“ one Sanghdrama as a place for the priests to assemble.The refer¬ 
ence which Taranath§ makes to the great stupa of Kusanagara as being 
situated here, in Kamrup, was taken from report and thus would 
merely show that the present Lama-tradition was current during his 
time. Any cliaitya or other Buddhist building would seem to have been 
subsequent to the seventh century; and in all probability marked a 
site visited by the great mediteval apostle of Lamaism, Guru Rimbochhe 
or Padma Sambhava. The different accounts of this great teacher’s 
wanderings vary considerably, but he is generally credited in the 
Padma Kahthang and elsewhere with having traversed most of the 
country between Lower Asam and Tibet. There is no evidence of 
Buddha having visited Asam. And in this view it is to be noted 
that the Bhotan Lamas call the chief image of this shrine Ndmo Guru 
or ‘ The Teacher,’ one of the epithets of Padma Sambhava. And the 
images on either side of it are also those of Padma Sambhava, viz., 
‘ Ogyen Guru,' a mild form, and Dorje Dol'd, a demoniacal form of this saint. 
Further, the chief of 1 the eight Sages ’ or rig-dsin || (i . e., receptacle of 
knowledge) of the Lamas is named Hungkara; and a common title 
of the religion of the Vedas and Puranas proceeded.”—H. H. Wilson, Preface to 
Vishnu Purdna. 
* They have their counterpart in the lepoSouAoi of the Greek Strabo VIII, 6 p. 20. 
t t op. dt. 
§ Vassilief’s Le Bouddisme , trad, du Rnsse par M. G. A. Comm©, p. 44, 
II 
T 
