SELF-CREMATION OF BUDDHISTIC MONKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2401, 8 March 1900, Page 60

SELF-CREMATION OF BUDDHISTIC MONKS.

It is known that the Buddhistic monks or , bonzes, in order to move the hearts of their -co-religionists, will inflict the severest bodily .chastisement upon themselves, and even mutilate their members. Their fanatical zeal and their desire to enter into the bliss of the Nirvana at times drive them even to suicide. ' On the island of Patu is found a high cliff from which those priests and monks who are ambitious to attain the holi-

ness of Buddha hurl themselves into death. This place is called " the abyss of the goddess of mercy."' Others seek to secure the same end by ascending a funeral pyre which they set on fire with their own hands. The coolness and utter contempt of suffering and death which often accompany self-cremation almost surpasses belief. (Several years ago an announcement was made that on a certain day a young priest from the cloister of " the Mount ol the Spirits" would burn himself alive. The faithful of both sexes who desired to be present at the • ceremony were urged to be present in good time, and were asked not to forget to bring something along as a gift to the zealous ecclesiast. When the multitude arrived at the 'cloister, another bonze, jealous of the attention and gifts secured by his colleague, declared that he, too, would burn himself alive, and hastened to make his preparations. Two piles of wood were erected, one on each side of the temple, so that those who could not get a good view of the one ceremony could do so of the second. During the hours pi'eceding the ceremony, the candidates for death were .surrounded by their relatives and friends and a curious crowd of outsiders who had come to ask of t^em their influence in the world above. Magnanimously, both promised to aid all in their power, permitted themselves to be venerated as true Buddhas, and thereby increased the finances of the cloistei 4 materially. Finally, the hour had come. Slowly they passed" between kneel.ing crowds, and then, chanting and singing, ' took their positions. The first of the two ascended the pile, erected in the shape of a tent, and lighted it with his own hands, using an ordinary match. The multitude could, through the door and the openings of the tent, watch every stage in the crema-

tion. Until the flames and smoke ma do it impossible any longer to behold the monk, he could be seen in the flames, singing a sacred hymn and beating the time with a skull carved out of -\vcod. An hour later the second candidate fpr death made his debut. He had closely watched his predecessor, and coolly entered his own tent of death, and passed through the ordeal as the other. The ashes and bones of the two were carefully gathered and deposited in the cloister of Wen-Ohao, where they are preserved as sacred relics. Women, too, in their religious devotion, cremate themselves, although their favourite way of seeking death for the cause is to hurl themselves into some sea or river and drown. Ko other type of religion on earth produces such exhibitions of fanaticism as are produced by Buddhism.