[Pg v]
The origin of the present work dates back to the years1852, 1853, 1854, and 1855, when portions of it appearedin the "Journal of the Indian Archipelago and EasternAsia," edited by J. R. Logan of Penang (vols. vi., vii.,viii., and ix.). The first complete edition was printedat Rangoon in Burmah in 1858, and a second, muchenlarged, at the same place in 1866.
Very few copies of either of these editions reachedEurope, and both are entirely out of print. The presentthird edition—a faithful reprint of the second—issued,with Bishop Bigandet's sanction, for the benefit ofEuropean and American scholars and readers, will, therefore,it is hoped, be gladly received.
Buddhism and Gautama, the faith and its founder,whose followers are between four and five hundred millionsof the human race, were comparatively unknown inEurope but a generation ago, and yet this great faith hadcontinued for four and twenty centuries to spread overthe vast lands of the East, taking deep and enduring rootin all, from Bhotan, Nepaul, and Ceylon, over Further[Pg vi]India to China Proper, Mongolia, Mantchooria, Tibet, andJapan.
Buddhism, as it is found in Burmah, has a particularclaim to the attention of a diligent and attentive observer.We there have that religious creed or system as purefrom adulteration as it can be after a lapse of so manycenturies. Philosophy never flourished in Burmah, and,therefore, never modified the religious systems of thecountry. Hinduism never exercised any influence onthe banks of the Irrawaddy. Chinese and Burmese haveoften met on battlefields, but the influence of the MiddleKingdom has never established itself in Burmah. Inother words, Chinese Buddhism has never been ableto penetrate into the customs and manners of the people,and has not attempted to communicate its own religionto its southern neighbours. It would seem that the trueform of Buddhism is to be found in Burmah, and that aknowledge of that system can only be arrived at by thestudy of the religious books of Burmah, and by attentivelyobserving the religious practices and ceremonies of thepeople. This is what Bishop Bigandet has endeavoured todo throughout his work.
Mr. Alabaster, the author of a very popular workon Siamese Buddhism, testifies to the great value ofthe Bishop's work, which, he remarks, is in one sensecomplete, for whereas the Siamese manuscript concludeswith the attainment of omniscience, the Bishop hadmaterials which enabled him to continue the story tothe death of Nirwana (Neibban in the Burmese Paliform). He might have added that the work modestly[Pg vii]entitled "Life of Gaudama" is a complete expositionof the great system of Eastern Asia. The metaphysicalpart, which is the very essence of the system, has receiveda due consideration, and the body of religious has