Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-02-07
ADAMS PEAK.
Cefm's Hoiy Mountain, to which Buddhists
Make PiIRrimagts.

CeilH's H0iy Mountain, TO which Buddhise
Make Pilgrimage"
(Conhill Magazine
Far away in the mystic East there
rises high to the sun great natural
altar. at which, since the dawn Of ages,
man has without ceasing worshipped
until now. Over the dark-eyed, i'm
passive people Of that strange, unalter-
able East ages flow and leave no mark;
hundreds Of generations are born and
pass away and no change is wrought
among them. There is an awful
ness in their steady immobility. Dynas-
ties may rise and fall, governments may
come and 60, the name of their belief
may be changed and little differences in
ritual and service may spring up, but
from aon unto Gon the people are un-
changed. 1t is the same life that they
lead and the same things that they
worship. Back. far back into the night
of time-so far back that the very
memory of those then living is irrevO-
cably lost in the void Of the forgotten
past-the dark-skinned people, wan
dering naked and unshamed in the for
est depths the Island of Ceylon, looked
with wide eyes, in which the freshness
and the wonder of the youth-time of man
kind still Shoue with the brightness of
the dawn, upon Adams peak, the
great solitary mountain, rising lonely
in its grandeur and height from the low
hills around it and the sea of forest at
its feet. Clouds capped its heights. the
very lightniDgs themselves, which they
so dreaded and reyered. seemed born
among its greatrocks and ravines and,
gazing upon its sublimity in storm and
upon its majesty in peace, they
innocently wondered until won
der grew to worship. So slight
have been the changes wrought
upon it, rocks by the wear and
tear of four thousand years Of storm
that the very paths to its sacred sum
nit that were followed centuries before
the beginning of the present era are
worn by the feet Of the weary pilgrims
of to-day. There is legend that the
iron chains fastened to the walls Of rock
to give the pilgrims safety along the
precipices of that last sky league -
we're placed there in the time and by
the order of Alexander. The
links, though worn, are sound even
yet. About a mountain such as
this, beautiful in itself, long
considered to be the Hottest in all Cey-
Ion, and holy, if only from the steady
voice of four thousand years of prayer,
legends are sure to gather, cloud-like
and thick. Adams peak is clothed
from base to summit with one great
robe of myth and tabled story. Not
rock but has its history, not brook
without its legends Of worshipper or
worshiped. Beneath this oyerhsngiug
cliff Gautama Buddha slept, upon that
dizzy height Buddha, in his second in
carnation, prayed Although sPe-
cialy Sacred to Buddha, it is
not only Buddhists who regard
J this mountain as holy spot;
Hindoos and Mohammedans respect
and reverence it, as, too. did our own
Christian people, in earlier and simpler
times than these. But although the
whole mountain is regarded as holy by
the Oriental people, it is only the
sacred footprint on the bold crag
at the very summit that is actually
worshipped. To perform a prIlgrim-
age to this and TO lay an offering upon
it is to a Buddhist what visit to
Mecca is to Mohammedan. The time
for the greatest number Of PILGRIMS to
visit the mountain is April and May,
but all the year round a steady stream
Of deyotees flows to this shrine of the
most holy of all the relics Of their great
teacher.