Colossal Figure, Buddha Entering Nirvana.
"Et Si Voz Di Qu'il Ont De Ydres Que Sunt Grant Dix Pas....
Ceste grant
ydres gigent."...]
NOTE 2. - This is the meaning of the phrase in the G. T.: "Ceste grande
ydre gigent," as may be seen from Ramusio's giaciono distesi. Lazari
renders the former expression, "giganteggia un idolo," etc., a phrase very
unlike Polo. The circumstance is interesting, because this recumbent
Colossus at Kanchau is mentioned both by Hajji Mahomed and by Shah Rukh's
people. The latter say: "In this city of Kanchu there is an Idol-Temple
500 cubits square. In the middle is an idol lying at length which measures
50 paces. The sole of the foot is nine paces long, and the instep is 21
cubits in girth. Behind this image and overhead are other idols of a cubit
(?) in height, besides figures of Bakshis as large as life. The action
of all is hit off so admirably that you would think they were alive."
These great recumbent figures are favourites in Buddhist countries still,
e.g. in Siam, Burma, and Ceylon. They symbolise Sakya Buddha entering
Nirvana. Such a recumbent figure, perhaps the prototype of these, was
seen by Hiuen Tsang in a Vihara close to the Sal Grove at Kusinagara,
where Sakya entered that state, i.e. died. The stature of Buddha was, we
are told, 12 cubits; but Brahma, Indra, and the other gods vainly tried to
compute his dimensions. Some such rude metaphor is probably embodied in
these large images. I have described one 69 feet long in Burma
(represented in the cut), but others exist of much greater size, though
probably none equal to that which Hiuen Tsang, in the 7th century, saw
near Bamian, which was 1000 feet in length! I have heard of but one such
image remaining in India, viz. in one of the caves at Dhamnar in Malwa.
This is 15 feet long, and is popularly known as "Bhim's Baby." (Cathay,
etc., pp. cciii., ccxviii.; Mission to Ava, p. 52; V. et V. de H. T.,
p. 374: Cunningham's Archael. Reports, ii. 274; Tod, ii. 273.)
["The temple, in which M. Polo saw an idol of Buddha, represented in a
lying position, is evidently Wo-fo-sze, i.e. 'Monastery of the lying
Buddha.' It was built in 1103 by a Tangut queen, to place there three
idols representing Buddha in this posture, which have since been found in
the ground on this very spot." (Palladius, l.c. p. 10.)
Rubruck (p. 144) says, "A Nestorian, who had come from Cathay told me that
in that country there is an idol so big that it can be seen from two days
off." Mr. Rockhill (Rubruck, p. 144, note) writes, "The largest stone
image I have seen is in a cave temple at Yung kan, about 10 miles
north-west of Ta t'ung Fu in Shan-si. Pere Gerbillon says the Emperor K'ang
hsi measured it himself and found it to be 57 chih high (61 feet).
(Duhalde, Description, IV.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 418 of 655
Words from 218092 to 218600
of 342071
