Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/18

10 scenery of the island itself, with its "many peaked, riven and detached rocks," and a stately mausoleum containing the hones and ashes of thousands of priests, are confessed by the worthy missionary to have totally bewildered his imagination. The vespers of the priests Mr. G. says were chanted in the Páli language, not unlike the Latin service of the Roman church. They held their rosaries in their hands, which rested folded upon their breasts; their service was regulated by the tinkling of a small bell, and they occasionally beat the drum and large bell to rouse Buddha to attend to their prayers.

Japan.—Buddhism can be traced distinctly from Corea to Japan (Niphon) in the 6th century of the Christian era. According to the Japanese annals in the year 552 A. D., the king of Fioksae in the west of Corea, sent an embassy to the Daii kinméi, with an image of Buddha and his classical books. Professor Wilson states that the year 572 was remarkable for the arrival in that kingdom of an immense number of priests and idols. The Japanese annals inform us that this religion, after having encountered some persecutions, soon triumphed: and that about A. D. 600, two zealots of great influence, one the cousin of the empress, built temples and invited priests from Corea. In A. D. 805, the Darri kwanmu caused idols of Buddha to be placed in the imperial palaces, and the sacred books procured from India to be read and explained in the temples.

The traditions of the Japanese, according to Kæmpfer's Japanese author, relate that about a thousand years ago there was in Tientensiku (that is the middle Tensiku, whereby must be understood the country of the Malabarians and the coast of Coromandel in India) an eminent fotoke called Mokuren a disciple of Siaka (the Sacya of Sir W. Jones), and that about this time the idol of Amida (Buddha) appeared at a plain in Japan called Naniwa environed with golden rays.

In an extract from the Chinese work the Chow-hoe-too-peen we find, towards the close of the 14th century, that the emperor Hung-woo sent a Buddhist priest to Japan with a command for that nation to venerate Buddha.

Mr. Meylan, in his late publication on Japan, published at Amsterdam, states that the Dairi or spiritual emperor still allows strange gods to be imported from Siam or China.