occupations of the buddhist monks.
the whole life of a recluse being confined within a narrow compass, we will have very little to say regarding his daily occupations. as soon as a talapoin has left at an early hour the sleeping horizontal position, he rinses his mouth, washes his face, and recites a few formulas of prayers, which he lengthens or shortens according to his devotion. he attires himself in his professional costume, gets hold of his mendicant’s pot, and sallies forth, in company[297] with some brethren or disciples, in quest of his food. he perambulates the streets in various directions, and, without any solicitation on his part, receives the rice, curry, vegetables, and fruits which pious donors have been preparing from two to three o’clock in the morning, watching at the door of their houses the arrival of the yellow-clad monks. having received what is considered sufficient for the day, he returns to the monastery, and sets himself to eat either what he has brought, or something more delicate and better dressed which his supporter, if he has any, has sent to him.
on the principal festivals, or on extraordinary occurrences, abundant alms are brought to his domicile. sometimes he is called by a pious donor to come and receive them in the pagodas, or in large temporary sheds erected for the purpose reserved for the occasion. they consist chiefly of mattresses, pillows, betel-boxes, mats, tea-cups, and various articles he is allowed to make use of. on these occasions he repays his benefactors by repeating to them the five great precepts, and some of the principal tenets of the buddhistic creed, and the chief points of the law. he enumerates at great length the numerous merits reserved to alms-givers. on this point it must be confessed that he is truly eloquent, and his language flowing and abundant: his expressions are ready at hand and most glowing, calculated to please the ears of his hearers and warm their souls to make fresh efforts in procuring him more copious alms. occasionally he will recite long praises in honour of gaudama, the last buddha, for having during his previous existence practised eminent virtues, and thereby qualified himself for the high dignity of phra. the sermon goes on sometimes in pali or sacred language, which neither he nor his hearers can understand.
the phongyies are sometimes requested to visit the sick, not so much for the purpose of ministering to the spiritual wants of the sufferer as for affording him some relief by his presence. it is believed that the appearance of a holy[298] personage may have some effect in freeing the diseased from his distemper, and frightening the evil spirits that may be the mischievous agents in harming patients. the visitor repeats over them some points of the law that are intended to act as antidotes against the agency of the wicked one. phongyies are very particular on the point of etiquette. when one of them has to enter into upper-storied houses, the yellow-habited religious, previous to his venturing into the lower story, will make it sure that there is no one, and particularly no woman, in the upper apartments, as it would be highly unbecoming that any man, and a fortiori a woman, should have their feet above his head. to avoid such an indecorous contingency, in case the sick person lies in a room upstairs, the phongyie has recourse to an expedient few, i presume, would have thought of. by his direction a ladder is brought, the lower part of which rests on the street, and the upper leans on one of the upper windows; up goes the pious visitor, who by such a contrivance reconciles the observance of etiquette with the compliance to his duty. the writer confesses that he was much amused the first time that he witnessed such a feat performed at penang by a siamese phongyie. the little crowd, attracted by this novelty, exhibited a curious mixture of feelings. some laughed; many remained silent; but their deportment was evidently indicative of the respect and admiration that seemed to them to inspire the scrupulously tender conscience of the religious.
we must allow that the talapoins confer a truly invaluable benefit upon the people of these countries by keeping up schools, where the boys resort for the purpose of learning to read, write, and acquire the rudiments of arithmetic. in this respect they are eminently useful, and the institution, though to a certain extent burthensome to the people, in this respect deserves well of the country. the many abuses that at present attend it are almost fully atoned for by the great service its members gratuitously render[299] to their countrymen. there are no other schools than those under their management. the tyrannical governments of siam and burmah do not take any steps to propagate instruction among their subjects, whom they look upon as slaves, fit only for bodily labour. the houses of talapoins are so many little seats of elementary learning; and as they are very numerous throughout the country, every facility is afforded to male children to learn to read and write. the female children are excluded from partaking of this great boon by the strictness of the monastic regulations. it is a great misfortune, much to be lamented, as one half of the population is thus doomed to live in perpetual ignorance. owing to the gratuitous education given by the buddhist monks, there are very few men throughout the breadth and length of burmah who are not able to read and write. it is true that too often the knowledge thus acquired is very superficial and incomplete. but as regards the other half of the population, it may be stated that scarcely a woman among thousands can be found capable of spelling one word.
the talapoins being much addicted to sloth and indolence, the schools are undoubtedly miserably managed. the boys are often left to themselves without regular control or discipline. when a boy enters the monastery as student, his teacher places into his hands a piece of blackened board, whereupon are written the first letters of the alphabet. the poor lad has to repeat over and over the name of the letters, crying aloud with all the powers of his lungs. he is left for several weeks at the same subject, until his instructor is satisfied that he knows his letters. in the next step the boy is directed to study the symbols of the vowels which are to be joined with consonants so as to form syllables and words. when this is done he is initiated into the art of uniting together and articulating properly the several consonants with the symbolic characters. he slowly shapes his course through the apparently much-complicated system of all the combinations[300] of letters, so as to be able to spell correctly all the words of the language. owing to the lack of order and method on the part of the teachers, boys spend a long time, sometimes one or two years, in mastering those difficulties, which, if properly explained, would much shorten the time usually devoted to such a study.
the burmese alphabet, with the various combinations of letters and symbols for making words, is based on a most perfect and scientific methodical and simple process, borrowed from the sanscrit. the method is plain and easy, as soon as it is understood. any person that has received some education, and whose mind is somewhat developed, will be able, with the occasional assistance of an intelligent master, to go all over the various combinations in less than two months. the results derived from the method adopted by the burmans are so great and complete that, after having gone over the general alphabet with attention, the beginner is able to read all the burmese words he may meet with. we do not mean, of course, to say that he will be able to pronounce every word correctly. this is another thing altogether. but it is no less evident that the system used by burmese in the combinations of letters leads to results infinitely more satisfactory than those obtained through the system of elementary reading and spelling used in europe.
unacquainted with the rules of grammar, the teachers are incapable of imparting any sound knowledge of the vernacular language to their numerous pupils. hence writing, as far as orthography goes, is extremely imperfect; the spelling of words, having no fixed standard, varies to an indefinite extent. as soon as the scholars have mastered the difficulties of the long and complicated alphabet, some portions of the sacred writings are put into their hands for reading. the result is that the burmese in general acquire some knowledge, more or less extensive, of their religious creed. though none among them can be found who understands comprehensively the buddhistic[301] system, yet most of them are possessed of a certain amount of more or less limited information concerning buddha and his law. in this respect they are perhaps ahead of many nominal christians in several countries of europe, who dwell in large manufacturing towns and remote country districts and belong to the lower classes, and who live without even a slight acquaintance with the essential tenets of the christian creed.
in addition to the eminently useful task of teaching youth, the buddhistic recluse devotes occasionally some portion of his time to the useful labour of copying manuscripts on palm-leaves, either for his personal use or to increase the small library of his monastery. the work is considered as a very excellent one, deserving of great merits, and much recommended by the rules of the society. it is a matter of regret that the native laziness of the phongyies, as well as their total want of order in acquiring knowledge, thwart to a great extent the practical working of the wise provisions made by the framer of the rules. were it not for such causes, copies of all the best and most interesting works on the religious system of buddhism would be greatly multiplied, and could be easily procured; whilst now they are exceedingly scarce and hardly to be had at all. the few copies to be had with much difficulty are to be paid for very high. all the books are made of palm-leaves. the leaves are about twenty inches in length, and from three to four in breadth. on each face of the leaf from seven to nine or ten lines are written. a copyist uses a style of iron by way of pen. with the sharp point he scratches the epidermis of the leaf to form the letters. in order to render the letters perfectly visible, he rubs over the page just written with a piece of rag some petroleum, which, penetrating into the parts scratched by the style, causes the letters to become quite distinct and apparent.
the talapoins spend the best part of the day sitting in a cross-legged position, chewing betel and conversing with[302] the many idlers that are always to be found in great numbers about their dwellings. when tired of the vertical position, they adopt the horizontal one, reclining the head on pillows and gently submitting to the soporific influence of good morpheus. they have always in their hands a string of beads, on which they are wont to repeat certain devotional formulas. the most common is the following, “aneitsa, duka, anatta;” meaning that everything in this world is subjected to the law of change and mutability, to that of pain and suffering, and to that of entire and uninterrupted illusion. there is, indeed, an immense field opened to a reflecting mind by these three very significative expressions for carrying on serious and prolonged meditation; but none of the talapoins, at least of those i have been acquainted with, are capable of understanding comprehensively their meaning. they often repeat the forty great subjects of meditation, and the rule enjoins them to be zealously addicted to contemplation, which is pronounced to be the chief exercise of a true follower of buddha. but how can there ever be expected from weak and ignorant persons the habitual practice of so high an exercise, requiring an intellectual vigour of the very first order? they must repeat on their beads at least a hundred and twenty times a day the four following considerations on the four things more immediately necessary to men, food, raiment, habitation, and medicine: “i eat this rice, not to please my appetite, but to satisfy the wants of nature. i put on this habit, not for the sake of vanity, but to cover my nakedness. i live in this kiaong, not for vainglory, but to be protected from the inclemency of the weather. i drink this medicine merely to recover my health, that i may with greater diligence attend to the duties of my profession.”
