Page:Korea (1904).djvu/282

230 from the life of Gautama, the apostle of the Buddhistic creed. A gilded image figures as the centre of a golden group of seven past and future godheads, incarnations of the One and sublime Sakya-muni, whose future reappearance is anticipated by the faithful. Brass incense-burners, candlesticks, and a manuscript book of masses in Chinese and Korean characters, resting upon a faded cover of soiled and dusty brocade, furnish the front of the altar. Before this high altar, wonderfully impressive and inspiring in the dim religious light of the vast interior, a priest spends certain hours of the day and night in profound obeisance, intoning, chanting and gabbling monotonously and with constant genuflections, the words Na-mu Ami Tabul. This expression is a phonetic rendering of certain Thibetan words, the meaning of which the Abbot himself was unable to explain; when transcribed in Chinese characters it appears equally unintelligible.

Other temples in this particular monastery are dedicated to The Abode of Virtue, The Four Sages, and The Ten Judges. Within these edifices Sakya-muni and his disciples sit in different attitudes of ineffable abstraction, contemplating gruesome pictures of demons, animals, and the torments awarded in after-life to the wicked. Many of the buildings of Chang-an have been restored within recent years. The work has been completed long since, and the spacious courtyards are now well kept. The temples are clean and spotless, the whole monastery bearing witness to the care with which it is maintained.

Besides the more important temples, there are many smaller shrines, set within some forest nook; a stage for the more important religious observances, bell and tablet houses, stables for the ponies of the numerous visitors, a