Laos.—Similarly, for instance, De Caine relates (p. 113) that Buddhists of Laos offer parts of their bodies at the image of Buddha, in the pagoda at Phnom in Upper Laos. The interpreter to the French mission made an offering of his forefinger up to the half of the upper joint. It was chopped off with a chopper by the attendants of the pagoda.
In China, monks try themselves with great severities. Buddhism has never taken a high place amongst the philosophies and religions of the country, though recognised as a state religion from A.D. 65, under the emperor Ming-ti. Buddh ist missionaries had entered China in the third century before Christ. A missionary is mentioned in the Chinese annals, in the year 217 B.C.; and about the year 120 B.C., a Chinese general, after defeating the barbarous tribes north of the desert of Gobi, brought back as a trophy a golden statue of Buddha (Muller's Lectures, p. 139). There was much intercouse between the Buddh ists of India and China for some centuries after the introduction of Buddhism into China ; but in the 10th century, after A.D. 975, the religious visitors to China became greatly more numerous. Chinese pilgrims also had passed years in India studying their religion, and they wrote narratives of their travels. Of these, there have been pub lished the travels of Fa Hian, A.D. 399-414 ; of Hiwen Tlisang, A.D. 628-645 ; and of Hoei Singh, who set out A.D. 518. A later traveller, Khi-Nie, who journeyed A.D. 964-976, was sent by the em peror of China, at the head of 300 monks, to seek relics of Buddha, and to collect palm books. Such pilgrimages continue ; and Colonel Yule met men at Hardwar who had crossed the Himalaya from Mah-Chin, to visit the holy flame at Jawala mukhi in the Panjab (Yule, ii. 411). The Chinese Buddhist invocation is, Oh me to Fo! Oh me to Fo! In China and Mongolia, according to MM. Hue and Gabet, theistic Buddhists acknowledge an Adi-Buddha, or eternal Buddha, whom they consider to be God over all. In Ceylon and Indo Chinese countries there is no such belief (Yule, i. 242). Chinese Buddhists are in different sects or schools, on 'account of differences in opinion on matters of philosophy. But though the religion is one of the recognised State creeds, Buddhists are not allowed to hold office.
Amongst the Japanese, the religion of Buddha and the Sintu religion have equal precedence. Their Buddhist priests use the Chinese language in their worship, except in their poetry, which is in Japanese. Bishop Smith of Victoria says there
were in Japan, at his visit, eight_sects or orders of Buddhist priests,—Tendai, Shinngong, Dzen, Oobaku, Jiodo, Hokki, Ikko,—whose priests are allowed to marry, and Nichiren. Shiu, Shu, or Ju is placed after the proper name, designating each sect. At Dyboots, in Japan, is a bronze figure of Buddha, 53 feet high.
The Loo-Choo islands Buddhism is less perfect than that of the Japanese.
The Korean Buddhists and Buddhism were made known to Mexico by Chinese priests in the 5th century A.D., and had followers in that country until the 13th century, when the conquering Aztecs put an end to it.
Perhaps no religion equals the Buddhist in its injunctions as to tenderness for animal life ; yet tho Chinese, amongst whom are many Buddhists, and the Burmese, all of whom are Buddhists, are, as races, amongst the least merciful of mankind ; are cruel, revengeful, and remorseless shedders of the blood of their fellow-man. The Burman Buddhist will not kill a quadruped animal for food, but he cats with readiness all animals that have died of disease, or that have been killed by others ; and fish and the shrimp tribe, which their rivers and seas produce, are eaten in quantities greater than by any other known race.
Much of the costume of Buddhist priests and of the ritual has a similarity to those of Christians of the Romish and Greek forms ; and De Guignes, De Gama, Clavijo, Anthony Jenkinson, all notice statements regarding the Greek Church, the Chinese, and the Burmans, indicative of a belief in the identity of the form of worship. When Dr. Richardson and Captain MacLeod, in their explora tion of the countries east of Burma, fell in with Chinese traders, these generally claimed them as of their own religion. In the Chinese temples are a number of images not unlike the Christian representations of Mary and of some of the saints, lamps and wax lights are on the Buddhist altar, the priests are robed in the sacred vest ments called pluvials in Christian ritual books, processions of suppliants occur as with Christians, and chanting is in a style almost exactly like the Gregorian chants of Christian churches. Early Christian missionaries to China believed these to have been introduced among them by the devil clumsily imitating holy things, and grasping at the honours due to God (Yule, ii. 551).