The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-03-31
ART IN A JUNGLE BURIED CITY
Prof. Dow Tells of the Glories of An.
uradhapura.

Prof. Dow Tells of the Glores of An
uradhapura.
Prof. Arthur Wesley Dow, in the
last lecture OF a series on the fine arts
in Havemeyer hall, Columbia uriver-
sity, guided about 200 persons, nearly
all of them women, into the heart OF
a Ceylon jungle and showed them
some good stereopticon views OF Gin
galese scenery. They travelled with
him in the Royal Mail Coach" drawn
part of the time by horses and part
Of the time by oxen; they halted with
him for a few moments at one OF the
rest houses the English government
has erected along the road; they
peeped into Cingalese homes on vii
lage outskirts, where they saw women
weaving mats (soon to be lost art in
Ceylon because of the invasion OF fac
tory made stuff and potters modelling
earthern vessels of clay.
Just before reaching the journeys
end, Prof. Dow took the entire COM
pany, like SO many personally con-
Quoted Cooks tourists, up lofty
mountain side and showed them the
vast Ceylon jungle-a very solemn and
melancholy sea of dark foliage reach
ing to the horizon and only broken
here and there by blue mountain
peak. The jungle itself, Prof. Dow
said, was as silent as the picture OF it,
not even the note of bird or the
droning of an insect coming from 1t.
Prof Dow's audience fully believed
him when he said that os he first look
ed over that lonely eXpanse sense
Of desolation came over him such as
he had never felt before.
Then, at one skip, the professor
landed his tourists among the moul-
dering ruins of the long forgotten city,
Anuradhapura, the Lost City of the
Jungle" The real subject of his lee
ture was Buddhist Art in Anuradhap-
ura." He was in the "lost city" in
person just year ago. 1t was swal-
lowed up by the jungle, after other
forces had destroyed it, some 1000
years ago. Just what obliterated this
centre of Buddhist art, Prof Dow said,
was altogether vague and uncertain.
But apparently it covered a larger
area than any modern city, had fine
streets, the roadways covered with
fine white sand and the sidewalks
with fine blocks. 1t was IN fertile,
highly cultivated plain, where the gen.
hut nd
temples.
The ruins Aeft behind in the jungle
fully bear out all the stories of Anur-
adhapuran glories, about which ancient
Cingalese records and Chinese travel
ers tell In its architectural and
sculptural art, Prof Dow said, it was
at least to be mentioned in the same
breath, if not actually compared with
Athens in the age of Pericles.
Only small part of the ruins has
been excavated and cleared of the jun
gle growth. They are buried, some of
them, 20 feet beneath the present sur
face. Great trees have sent their roots
deep down into the mould and their IT.
resistible pressure through ages has
dent the solid masonry apart as effec-
lively as would a blast of dynamite
But the sculptured walls and columns
are still. in many instances, almost
perfectly preserved, leaving a perma-
nent record of the art which derived
it's impetus and inspiration from Budd-
hism.
Anuradhapura Is still a sacred spot
to Buddhists, and many Buddhist pill
grims go there annually. Scattered
all through the jungle hereabouts are
vast dagobas, or relic shrines, some
of them rivaling in size the Pyramids
of Egypt--great dome shaped struc-
lures whereof the model was the cir
cular curved dome of a great water
bubble as it rises to the surface. An
English traveller of mathematical ten
denotes once computed that the ma
ls-bricks-which composed one
of them would build a railway tunnel
90 miles long or make a wall three
feet thick which would reach from
London to Edinburgh, while the cost
of building the structure could not
have been less than the modern equi-
valent of e5,000,000 or $25, 900, 000.--
New York Sun.