Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/226

 CHAPTER XI. NAM-WA MONASTERY AND THE SIXTH PATRIARCH. F ROM U-shek, on the North River, a walk of ten miles brings us to the celebrated monastery of Naw-wa. The road winds among hills, some of which are steep and rocky, and thickly covered with trees. Many small villages are passed with groves of large pine trees behind them. It is November, the time of the second rice harvest, and the people are every where busy cutting the ripened grain. One man, who has fallen down in a chill by the roadside, unable to bear his load of rice any farther, excites our sympathy. Before the monastery is reached we cross five plains of rice, whose rental adds much to the annual income of the cloister. As we are approaching one of the oldest, and, in former times, one of the most celebrated Buddhist institutions. in China, it is interesting and useful to notice all that passes under our eyes, and to compare it with the past. Two special objects-a place and a man-must be kept in mind, as it is their conjunction which has given such wide fame to this historic institution. In reference to the place it is recorded that in the first year of the Emperor Teen-kam, about 502 A.D., a Sanskrit-speaking