A CHINESE TEMPLE APPENDIX I. APPENDIX II. BUDDHISM IN THE MODERN WORLD I. BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA I. BUDDHISM IN BURMA 1. At the great Pagoda in Rangoon. Let us visit the great _Shwe Dagon_ pagoda in Rangoon, one of the living centres of the Buddhist world, where amidst a splendid grove of palms and forest trees the golden spire rises high above a vast platform crowded with shrines and images of the Buddha. Far below is the teeming city bathed in golden light, and humming with life; here all is still save for the rustle of leaves and the tinkling of innumerable bells upon the great pagoda pinnacle, and the shouting of a class of boys in the monastery school near by. (a) _A Monastic School_.--Some two score of them are seated round a kindly old monk in his faded yellow robe. And all are shouting at the top of their voices repeating in unison certain words, of whose meaning they do not seem to think! (b) _Its Moral Teaching_.--As we draw near we realise that these are phrases from a popular Buddhist book known as _Mingala Thot_, a summary of the Buddhist beatitudes, which describe the happy life of the Buddhist layman. First they shout a word of Pāli[1] and then a word of Burmese, and lastly the whole phrase. There are twelve verses, of which the following is typical:-- "Tend parents, cherish wife and child, Pursue a blameless life and mild: Do good, shun ill and still beware Of the red wine's insidious snare; Be humble, with thy lot content, Grateful and ever reverent." Many times must these phrases be droned through before they are learned by heart, but gradually their meanings sink in and simple explanations and grammatical notes by the teacher help his class to understand as well as to learn. These moral maxims still exert a powerful influence for good. (c) _Its Religious Instruction_.--Another favourite lesson is a short summary of the excellent qualities of the "Three Jewels" of Buddhism--the Buddha, his Order of Monks, and his Law or teaching; and another celebrates eight victories of the Buddha over enemies temporal and spiritual. Having mastered these preliminary books, the boys will learn the chief _Jātakas_, a strange medley of folklore dressed up in Buddhist guise, and purporting to be stories of the various sacrificial existences of the founder of Buddhism, Sākyamuni, before he became a Buddha. Buddhism is not only a body of moral teachings, but a religion with an elaborate system of beliefs, which makes very great demands upon the faith of its worshippers, and some of these beliefs are embodied in these stories of the former lives of the Buddha. Others are conveyed in legends and hymns, in popular summaries and proverbial sayings universally known and used by the people.