Mr. William Woodville Rockhill,[115] speaking of the fair at Kumbum, says:
I found there a number of Lh’asa Tibetans (they call them Gopa here) selling pulo, beads of various colors, saffron, medicines, peacock feathers, incense sticks, etc. I had a talk with these traders, several of whom I had met here before in 1889. * * * One of them had a Swastika (yung-drung) tattooed on his hand, and I learned from this man that this is not an uncommon mode of ornamentation in his country.
Count D’Alviella says that the Swastika is continued among the Buddhists of Tibet; that the women ornament their petticoats with it, and that it is also placed upon the breasts of their dead.[116]
He also reports[117] a Buddhist statue at the Musée Guimet with Swastikas about the base. He does not state to what country it belongs, so the author has no means of determining if it is the same statue as is represented in [fig. 29].
INDIA.
Burnouf[118] says approvingly of the Swastika:
Christian archæologists believe this was the most ancient sign of the cross. * * * It was used among the Brahmins from all antiquity. (Voyez mot “Swastika” dans notre dictionnaire sanskrit.) Swastika, or Swasta, in India corresponds to “benediction” among Christians.
Fig. 32.
FOOTPRINT OF BUDDHA WITH SWASTIKA, FROM AMARAVATI TOPE.
From a figure by Fergusson and Schliemann.