Page:Gospel of Buddha.djvu/338

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Tooth of Buddha" is perserved, and on this occasion was able to obtain some leaves from the sacred Bodhi tree which I wished to possess." She also became acquainted in Kandy with Dr. Kobekaduwe Tikiri Banda, a Singhalese physician who belonged to a Buddhist family and is the son of a Kandian chief. He had studied in England for a long time and possesses a remarkable knowledge of the country and people of India and Ceylon, by which I thus had an opportunity to profit.

Fräulein von Kerckhoff gathered further material for my purposes in Gampola, a place in the mountains about an hour's ride from Kandy, on the occasion of a visit to the family of the district judge, Mr. De Livera, and by the acquaintance with Mr. J. B. Yatawara Rata-Mahatmaya, Governor of the District and a zealous Buddhist, who has translated into English part of the Jatakas (stories of the various rebirths of Buddha) in collaboration with the late Prof. Max Müller, of Oxford.

Later, in December, 1910, she sent me leaves from the Bodhi tree at Anuradhapura, the sacred city of the Budidhists, where there are ruins of ancient palaces and temples, and where stands that Bodhi tree which Mahinda, the first Buddhist apostle in Ceylon, is said to have planted from a branch of the sacred Bodhi tree in Buddhagaya under which Buddha attained enlightenment.

With regard to customs, habits and usages at princely courts I received information, though to be sure referring mainly to Java, through Prince Paku Alam, his uncle Prince Noto, his sisters and other relatives, all of whom talked Dutch fluently with Fräulein von Kerckhoff. She was also kind enough to send me all the interesting photographs she could find of famous Indian temples and ruins, views of native life, types and landscapes, pictures of the newly excavated temple ruins of Sarnath, where Buddha first preached after attaining enlightenment, and particularly also of the

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