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
found existing in his own days, in the schools he resorted to,
and re-echoed many tenets upheld by the masters under whom he
studied the sciences and the training to morals and virtue. He
enlarged and developed certain favourite theories and principles
which had found favour with him; at the same time, for the
purpose of leading his disciples to perfection, he enforced many
disciplinary regulations, almost similar to those he had been
subjected to during the years of his probation. He was certainly
an ardent promoter of the perfected and improved system he
endeavoured to introduce.
[8] The Thingan or Tsiwaran is composed of three parts--the
thinbaing, resembling an ample petticoat, bound up to the waist,
with a leathern girdle, and falling down to the heels; the
kowot, which consists of a sort of cloak of a rectangular shape,
covering the shoulders and breast, and reaching somewhat below
the knee; and the dougout, which is a piece of cloth of the same
shape, folded many times, thrown over the left shoulder when
going abroad, and used to sit on when no proper seat has been
prepared. The colour of these three pieces, constituting the
dress of a recluse, is invariably yellow. The jack-tree supplies
the material for dyeing the cloth yellow. In order to maintain a
spirit of perfect poverty among the members of the order of the
recluse, the Wini prescribes that the tsiwaran ought to be made
up with rags picked up here and there, and sewed together. The
rule, in this respect, at least as far as its spirit goes, is
thoroughly disregarded, and has become almost a dead letter.
The hairs of the head and the beard, being too often objects
which vanity turns to its own purposes, are, to say the least,
mere superfluities. A stern contemner of worldly things must, of
course, do away with things which may prove temptations to him,
or at least afford him unnecessary trouble. Hence no layman can
ever aspire to become a Rahan unless he has previously submitted
to the operation of a complete shaving of the head, including
even the eye-brows.
CHAPTER III.
_A Name is given to the child -- Prediction of the Pounhas
respecting the child -- Death of Maia -- Miraculous occurrence
at the child's cradle -- Adolescence of the Phralaong -- He sees
the four signs -- Return from the garden to the royal city._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume I) — John Shaqi
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