The two sculptures before the entrance show us, to the left, a princess in a garden of fruit-trees, with a suckling at her breast, and many playing children all round about her. And opposite to them, to the right, we see an Indian,—_not_ buddhistic—prince with much more children in such another garden. All the children wear a crescent of the moon on the hind part of their heads, but both the children and their parents miss everything that might have spoken of a buddhistic character. The prince himself wears a three stringed cord of a caste (_upavîta_), and is therefore characterised as a _not_ buddhistic one. Buddhism doesn’t know any caste. Nevertheless, there are Dutch scholars who suppose this prince to be _Buddha_’s father, this woman _Buddha_’s mother. Even professor _Kern_ wrote to me that this woman with her suckling should be nobody else but _Mayâ_ with her son in _Lumbini_ garden. The Indian prince however, remained inexplicable. The buddhistic king of Siam, _Chula Longkorn_, gave me in 1896 another and far better explanation which solved all difficulties, and to which I’ll come back again after having first given a superficial description of the gigantic images we see in this temple. Let us therefore enter through the opened iron railing now replacing the wooden inner door, which for more than some 70 years ago, was used perhaps, as fire-wood. The space before the unadorned south-easterly back-wall is occupied by a heavy altar-shaped throne not yet long ago newly built in an exceedingly simple style. And on this throne sits a colossal _Buddha_ image, by no means however, a nude one, so as professor _Veth_ wrongly wrote in his standard work: “_Java_,” but this is dressed in the cowl of the _southern_ Buddhists uncovering his right shoulder and arm; his two legs dangling and resting on a small cushion with his two hands before his breast in such a posture (_mudrâ_) as the Mahâyânists, the followers of the “_Big Carriage_” of the _northern_ church, generally (not always) give to the _first_ of their five _Dhyâni-Buddhas_. In Ceylon and in Farther India however, there where _Hînayânism_ of the _southern_ church still exists, which doesn’t know any Dhyâni-Buddha, this posture simply means “_blessing_.” To the right of this Buddha nearly 4 yards high, we see a _buddhistic_ prince seated on a throne abundantly decorated with nâgas, lions, and elephants, and ornamented with lotus-cushions and feet cushions. The monk’s hood, the bottom of which goes under the princely garb over his left shoulder and breast, and the small _Buddha_ image in his crown characterise him as a _Buddhist_, and that in contradistinction to the other prince we see opposite him, to the left of the Buddha. And though this prince also has his seat on an equally richly ornamented throne, yet we don’t see any image in his crown, and then he doesn’t wear a monk’s hood, but only the three-stringed _upavîta_ which characterises him as _not_ buddhistic.