The image is life-size and exquisitely modelled, and represents a handsome young prince. The crown on its head is said to be the gift of Tsong-khapa, the great reformer. The Kunyer said that the image represented the Buddha when at the age of twelve; hence the princely apparel in which he is clothed and the dissimilarity of the image to those seen elsewhere.[1] On the four sides of it were gilt pillars with dragons twined around them, supporting a canopy. On one side of the image of the Buddha is that of Maitreya, and on the other that of Dipankara Buddha.[2] Behind this, again, is the image of the Buddha Gang-chan wogyal, and to the right and left of the latter those of the twelve chief disciples of the Buddha.
We were also shown the image of the great reformer, Tsong-khapa, near which is the famous rock, called Amolonkha, discovered by Tsong-khapa.[3] On this rock is placed the bell with a gem in the handle, supposed to have been used by Maudgalyayana, the chief disciple of the Buddha.
After the image of the Buddha, the most celebrated statue in this temple is that of Avalokiteswara with the eleven faces (Shen-re-zig chu-chig dzal). It is said that once King Srong-btsan gambo heard a voice saying that if he made a full-sized image of Shenrezig, all his wishes would be granted him; so he constructed this one, in the composition of which there entered a branch of the sacred Bo tree, some soil of an island in the great ocean, some sand from the River Nairanjana,[4] some gosirsha sandalwood, some soil from the eight sacred places of India, and many other rare and valuable substances. All these were first powdered, then, having been moistened with the milk of a red cow and a goat, made into a paste and moulded into a statue. To give it additional sanctity, the king had a sandalwood image of the god brought from Ceylon put inside of it.
This statue is also known as the "five self-created" (nya rang chyung); for the Nepalese sculptor who made it said that it had sprung into shape rather than had been moulded by him, and it is
- ↑ On the various celebrated images of the Buddha, see 'Land of the Lamas,' p. 105, note 2. Kunyer is the "keeper of images."—(W. R.)
- ↑ Maitreya (Chyamba, in Tibetan) is the Buddha to come in the last period of this cycle, and Dipankara (Mar-me dzad) is the Buddha of the first period. The historical Buddha, or Sachya tubpa, is the Buddha of the present era.—(W. R.)
- ↑ Our author calls it "a fossil rock … discovered in a rock cavern in Tibet." I can offer no explanation of the nature of this relic.—(W. R.)
- ↑ A river of Magadha famous in early Buddhist history, and in which the Buddha is said to have bathed after attaining omniscience.—(W. R.)
