The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-24
ART IN A JUNGLE BURIED CITY
PROF. DOW TELLS OF THE GLO-
RES or ANURADHAPURi.
4 Metropolis Centuries Before the Chris
tian Era. which the Ceylon Forest
Has Swallowed With the Treasures
OF Buddhist Art which IL Contains.

Prof. Arthur Wesley Dow, in the last
lecture of a series on the fine arts in Have
never Hall, Columbia University, yester-
day afternoon. guided about 2G0 persons,
nearly all OF them women. into the heart
OF Ceylon jungle and showed them some
good stereoptcon Vows OF Cingalese
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 few mo-
ments at one OF the rest houses the Eng
lish Government has erected along the
road; they peeped into Cingaese homes
on village outskirts, where they saw women
weaving mats (soon to be lost art in Cey-
lon because of the invasion Of factory made
stuff and potters modelling earthen ves-
sells of clay.
Just before reaching the journeys end.
Prof. Dow took the entire company. like
80 many personally conducted Cooks tour
lists up a lofty mountain side and showed
them the vast Ceyon jungle-a very solemn
and melanch oily sea Of dark foliage reaching
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 il. Prof. Dow's audience fully be-
lieved him when he said that as he first
looked 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 Wondering ruins
OF the long forgotten city, Anuradhapura,
the Lost City Of the Jungle The real
subject OF his lecture was Buddhist Art
in Anurndhapura. He was in the lost
city in person just year ago 1t was
swallowed up by the jungle. after other
forces had destroyed it, some 1000 years
ago. just what obhterated this centre of
Buddhist art, Prof Dow said. was alto
gether vague and uncertain. But appar-
emily it covered a larger area than any
modern city, had fine streets, the roadways
covered with fine white sand and the side
walks with fine blocks. 1t was in fertile,
highly cultivated plain. whore the gentle
Cingalese built vast and beautiful temples
The ruins left behind in the jungle fully
bear out all the stories OF AnuradhapurHn
glores, about which ancient Cingalese
records and Chinese travellers tell In
its architectural and sculptural art. Prof
Dow said. it was at least TO be mentioned
in the same breath II not actually com
pared with Athens in the age OF Pericles
Only a small part Of the ruins has been
excavated and cleared OF the jungle growth
They are buried, some Of them, twenty feet
beneath the present surface. Great trees
have sent their roots deep down into the
mould and their irresistible pressure
through ages has rent the solid masonry
apart as effectively as would a blast of
dynamite. But the sculptured walls and
columns are still. in many instances. al
most perfectly preserved, leaving perma-
nent record OF the art which derived its
impetus and inspiration from Buddhism.
Anuradhapura is still a sacred spot 70
Buddhsts and many Buddhist pilgrims
20 there annually. Scattered all through
the jungle Whereabouts are vast dagobas
or relic shrines, some Of them rivalhng in
size the Pyramids Of Egypt-great dome
shap ped structures whereof the model was
the circular curved dome Of a great water
bubble as il rises to the surface. An Eng
lish traveller of mathematical tendencies
once computed that the Observation-Disclosures
which composed one of them would build
a railway tunnel twenty miles long or make
wall three feet thick which would reach
from London to Edinburgh, while the coat
OF building the structure could not have
been less than the modern equivalent OF
A. 900 600 or S25 600 600.