The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume II)Bigandet, Paul Ambroise
Religion
The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume II)
Bigandet, Paul Ambroise
Buddhism -- Burma; Burma -- Religion; Gautama Buddha
General A. Cunningham has discovered the ruins of Thawattie, fifty-eight
miles north of Fyzabad, on the Rapti, in a place called Sahet Mahet,
situated between Akaona and Bulrampur, five miles from the former and
twelve from the latter. It was the capital of King Pathenadi, situated in
north Kosala. In the Legend of Buddha we have seen how that monarch was
dispossessed of his throne by one of his sons, and died while on his way
to the capital of Adzatathat, his son-in-law. The ruins of the renowned
Dzetawon monastery have been identified by means of the information
supplied by the writings of the Chinese pilgrims we have often mentioned.
The monastery was distant 1200 paces from the southern gate of the city.
The scarcely less famous Pouppayon monastery was erected to the east
of the Dzetawon. Mounds of ruins in that very same direction leave no
doubt that in their bosom the last remains of that celebrated place are
entombed. It is said that Gaudama, being fifty-five years old, began to
reside permanently in monasteries built for him, and that he spent, out
of the last twenty-five seasons, nineteen in the Dzetawon and six in the
Pouppayon. According to Hwen Thsang, the place occupied by the Dzetawon
monastery was a square, having 1000 cubits on each face or side. Besides
the monastery, there were two temples and two tanks within the enclosure.
[59] In treating of the precept of never touching women, it is added in
the Wini that this prohibition extends to one’s own mother; and even
should it happen that she fall into a ditch, her son, if a Talapoin, must
not pull her out. But in case no other aid is near at hand, he may offer
her his habit, or a stick, to help her out; but at the same time he is to
imagine that he is only pulling out a log of wood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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