In a paper on Burkhan printed in the Journal of the American Oriental
Society, XXXVI., 1917, pp. 390-395, Dr. Berthold Laufer has come to the
following conclusion: "Burkhan in Mongol by no means conveys exclusively
the limited notion of Buddha, but, first of all, signifies 'deity, god,
gods,' and secondly 'representation or image of a god.' This general
significance neither inheres in the term Buddha nor in Chinese Fo; neither
do the latter signify 'image of Buddha'; only Mongol burkhan has this
force, because originally it conveyed the meaning of a shamanistic image.
From what has been observed on the use of the word burkhan in the
shamanistic or pre-Buddhistic religions of the Tungusians, Mongols and
Turks, it is manifest that the word well existed there before the arrival
of Buddhism, fixed in its form and meaning, and was but subsequently
transferred to the name of Buddha."
XV., pp. 323 seq.
BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT.
The German traveller von Le Coq has found at Turfan fragments of this
legend in Turki which he published in 1912 in his Tuerkische Manichaica,
which agree with the legend given by the Persian Ibn Babawaih of Qum, who
died in 991. (S. d'OLDENBOURG, Bul. Ac. I. des Sc., Pet., 1912, pp.
779-781; W. RADLOFF, Alttuerk. Stud., VI., zu Barlaam und Joasaph).
M.P. Alfaric (La Vie chretienne du Bouddha, J. Asiatique, Sept.-Oct.,
1917, pp. 269 seq.; Rev. de l'Hist. des Religions, Nov.-Dec., 1918,
pp.
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