140 
L. A. Waddell —Buddhist Pictorial Wheel of Life. [No. 3, 
flowers of which the inhabitants, male and female, make the wreaths 
and garlands which they wear. They are dressed in silk ; and when 
the heroes are not engaged in fighting they spend their times in all 
sorts of gaiety with their wives. In the right hand corner is shown 
the birth from the lotus flower and the acquirement of a mate, a wish¬ 
granting tree and a cow. The rest of the picture is devoted to their 
misery, which consists in their hopeless struggle and fatal conflict with 
the gods. The commander of the forces is seen in conclave with his 
leaders,* horses are being saddled and the ‘ heroes ’ are arming them¬ 
selves with coats of mail and weapons. Another scene shows the battle 
raging along the border separating their country from heaven, and the 
General mounted with his staff as spectators in the background. The 
warriors of the first line are all killed and horribly mangled by the 
weapons hurled at them by the gods, these weapons being composed of 
adamant ([Dorje phdllom ), while the weapons of the Litamayin are of 
mere iron. The Dorje—the thunderbolt of Jove is the peculiarly potent 
weapon of the gods. A most deadly weapon possessed both by pods and 
Lhamayin is a spiked wheel, which is thrown so as to revolve like a cir¬ 
cular saw and each of the spikes is armed with a different sort of 
weapon. The other weapons used by both combatants are arrows, 
spears, swords, and hatchets. The second line of the troops is in full 
flight on perceiving the absolute defeat of their companions at the front. 
The ultimate fate of every Lhamayin is to die painfully warring 
against the gods with whom they are in constant 
The misery of the c011 fh c t and they have no access to the nectar 
with which a wounded god obtains instant 
recovery. Another scene depicts the women of the community gathered 
round “ The Reflecting Lake of Perfect Clearness ” after the departure 
of their mates to the battle. In this lake are mirrored forth all the do¬ 
ings and ultimate fate of their absent mates, and there is also shown 
the region of rebirth of themselves and their spouses—which is nearly 
always hell owing to the passionate life which they lead in the Asura 
world. And while their lovers die painful and passionate deaths, the 
misery of the womenfolk of this world is to look into this fascinating 
lake and experience the horror of such hideous spectacles. In the pic¬ 
ture some women are shown peering into the lake and on the other two 
banks they are giving vent to their grief. 
One of the chief sources of the miseries of the Lhamayin world is 
that it has no book and is therefore void of religion. In this view 
it is lower than the human world, though otherwise of higher rank. 
* Note that greatness ut‘ rank is shown by enlarged bodily dimensions, 
