Andaman and Nicobar Islands: worshippers at a Buddhist temple. Colour process print.

1913

1 print : process print, printed in colours ; image 15.3 x 20.7 cm

Worship at the pagoda. An English bishop once asked the worshippers at the pagoda what they said in their prayers. The reply was, "we are praying for nothing and we are praying to nobody." Nevertheless on all festival days, the whole population, and every evening the aged, repeat the regular Pali doxologies before the shrines. The women are dressed in their gayest clothes with flowers in their raven tresses, and the old men, fingering their rosaries and always apart, are equally zealous in their praises of the Buddha who is a model of holy life and not an answer of prayer.

Wellcome Collection 3198598i