File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18134525196).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo18amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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2o2 THE AMERICAX MUSEUM JOURNAL by the nation. The Temple of Heaven, with its golden dome glow- ing like a great Ijall of fire above the pnrple tiles of its sloping roof, the white marble altar open to the sky, made saercd hy the worshi)) of China's most illustrious empci-ors. the beautiful p'ni Ion. and tin- juai'- ble walks belong to China's postei'- ity as records of her ancient glorie-. But such rare treasures need care to protect them from the ravages of time and weather. When I visited tin- 'rciiiplc of Heaven less than two years ago. I found its spaciouscourtyardschoki'(l with uncut grass and its beautiful walks and tile-capped walls almost obscured l)y growing weeds. The tiny roots were slowly but surely accomplishing their deadly work. The marble slabs were cracked, the tiles broken, and the walls crum- Ijling: the great round tem))le itself was filled with dust and decay. In a very few decades this almost sa- cred spot will present only a hea)* of ruins overgrown witli grass and weeds, and one more page will have been torn from the 1)Ook of China's history. The "Yellow Temple," not far from Peking, is one of the most sacred spots near the capital. Here are buried the garments of a holy Tashi lama Avho came as an ambassador from Tibet tn Peking. It was the lama Pauchan Bogdo from Tashi Lumpo, who died of smallpox in 18T0. The ashes of his cremated corpse were .sent to Tibet, but over his clothes the artist emperor, Ch'ien Lung, erected a stupa in old Hindu style, a mausoleum of marble and gold. When I visited it first, in 1912, a yellow-robed priest showed me, with sorrow in his eyes, the atrocious destruction which had been inflicted on this sacred monument in 1900. This was during the Boxer Eebellion. when Japanese soldiers w^antonly knocked off the heads of statues with the butts
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of their rifles and damaged bas-reliefs, but fortunately only a small part of the marvelous detail was destroyed by this act of vandalism. On my second visit, in 191(3, after an absence of four years, 1 M^as appalled at the signs of decay. The ancient temple of gray wood, with faded but magnifi- cent columns, yellow, blue, and green, was full of cracks and rifts. It was already leaning and seemed about to fall. In place of a beautiful ifai lou which formerly faced the stupa, lay a heap of plaster, stone, and 3'ellow tile. It is a very, very old temple but with a little care could still be made to stand for years. At the end of Ha-ta men street are the "Temple of Confucius" and the

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