The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume I)Bigandet, Paul Ambroise
Religion
The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume I)
Bigandet, Paul Ambroise
Buddhism -- Burma; Burma -- Religion; Gautama Buddha
The tribes that have not as yet been converted to Buddhism have
no other worship but that of the Nats. To mention only the
principal ones, such as the Karens, the Khyins, and the
Singphos, they may differ in the mode of performing their
religious rites and superstitious ceremonies, but the object is
the same, honouring and propitiating the Nats. This worship is
so deeply rooted in the minds of the wild and half-civilised
tribes of Eastern Asia, that it has been, to a great extent,
retained by the nations that have adopted Buddhism as their
religious creed. The Burmans, for instance, from the king down
to the lowest subject, privately and publicly indulge in the
Nats' worship. As to the tribes that have remained outside the
pale of Buddhism, they may be styled Nats' worshippers. Hence it
may be inferred that previous to the introduction or the
preaching of the tenets of the comparatively new religion in
these parts, the worship of Nats was universal and
predominating.
[7] Raci or Rathee means an hermit, a personage living by
himself in some lonely and solitary recess, far from the
contagious atmosphere of impure society, devoting his time to
meditation and contemplation. His diet is of the coarsest kind,
supplied to him by the forests he lives in; the skins of some
wild animals afford him a sufficient dress. Most of those
Rathees having reached an uncommon degree of extraordinary
attainment, their bodies become spiritualised to a degree which
enables them to travel from place to place by following an
aërial course. In all Buddhistic legends, comedies, &c., they
are often found interfering in the narrated stories and
episodes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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