Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.90

c8.90

Between tall forests of sál trees yellow rice-fields spread out in uniform richness. The rice plant, which the Buddhist texts here mention, constitutes to-day, as in ancient times, the chief crop of this country, where the water of the rainy season and of inundations remains long standing on the rich soil of the low lying flats, and renders in great measure superfluous that excessively troublesome artificial irrigation which is elsewhere necessary for rice.† Between the rice-fields we may here and there place villages in the days of the Sakyas such as exist to-day, hidden among the rich, dark-green foliage of mangos and tamarinds, which surround the village site. In the background of the picture, over the black masses of the mountains of Nepal, rise the towering snow-capt summits of the Himalayas.