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
In this system the two
contending elements of good and evil have each its own advocates
and supporters. A Hindu Milton might have found two thousand
years ago a ready theme for writing, in Sanscrit or Pali, a poem
similar to that more recently composed by the immortal English
bard.
[5] From what has been already mentioned of the life of our
Phralaong, we may see that many particulars regarding his birth
and his childhood have been described with sufficient accuracy;
but little or nothing is said of his adolescence, at least until
the age of sixteen, when he gets united to the famous and
youthful Yathaudara. In common with many other great men, almost
all the years of the private life of this celebrated and
extraordinary personage are wrapped up in a complete obscurity.
We may conclude from his great proficiency in the knowledge of
those sciences and attainments befitting his high situation, he
was not remiss, since he was enabled to set at defiance the
greatest masters of those days. In the midst of pleasures he
knew how to devote the best part of his time to study, unless we
suppose that science was infused into his mind by no exertion of
his own. The Burmese have a regular mania for dividing with a
mathematical precision what at first appears to admit of no such
division. Virtues, vices, sciences, arts, &c., all, in a word,
are subjected to a rigorous division, which, if arbitrary in
itself, has the great advantage of conferring a substantial help
to the memory.
[6] The triumphant return of Phralaong from his garden to the
city, when he is attired with the richest dress, is commemorated
by Buddhists, at least in Burmah, on the day a young boy is
preparing to enter into a monastery of recluses for the purpose
of putting on the yellow robe, and preparing himself to become
afterwards a member of the order, if he feel an inclination to
enlist in its ranks. Phralaong was bidding a last farewell to
the world, its pomps and vanities. So the youthful candidate is
doing who is led processionally through the streets, riding a
richly-caparisoned horse, or sitting on an elegant palanquin,
carried on the shoulders of men. A description of this ceremony
will be found in the notice on the Buddhistic monks or
Talapoins.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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