The History of Sagamoni Borcan [Shakyamuni Buddha]

The History of Sagamoni Borcan and the beginning of Idolatry

In the Island of Seilan there is a very tall mountain.

It rises right up so steep and precipitous that no one could ascend it, were it not that they have taken and fixed to it several great and massive iron chains, so disposed that by help of these men are able to mount to the top.

The Saracens say that on this mountain is the sepulchre of Adam our first parent.

But the Idolaters say that it is the sepulchre of Sagamoni Borcan [Shakyamuni Buddha].

• Before his time, there were no idols.

They hold him to have been the best of men, a great saint.

• Idols were made in his name.

He was the son of a great and wealthy king.

He was of such an holy temper that he would never listen to any worldly talk, nor would he consent to be king.

When the father saw that his son would not be king, nor yet take any part in affairs, he took it sorely to heart.

At first, he tried to tempt him with great promises, offering to:

• crown him king
• surrender all authority into his hands.

The son, however, rejected his offers.

So the King built a great palace and placed his son in it.

He was waited on there by a number of maidens, the most beautiful that could be found.

He ordered them to divert themselves with the prince, night and day, and to sing and dance before him, so as to draw his heart towards worldly enjoyments.

But ’twas all of no avail, for none of those maidens could ever tempt the king’s son to any wantonness, and he only abode the firmer in his chastity, leading a most holy life, after their manner thereof.

He was so staid a youth that he had never gone out of the palace. He had never seen a dead man, nor anyone who was not hale and sound for the father never allowed any man that was weak or old to come into his presence.

However, one day that the young gentleman took a ride, and by the roadside he beheld a dead man.

The sight dismayed him greatly, as he never had seen such a sight before.

Incontinently, he demanded of those who were with him what thing that was?

They told him it was a dead man.

He asked: “How then do all men die?”

“Yea, forsooth,” said they.

Whereupon the young gentleman said never a word, but rode on right pensively. And after he had ridden a good way he fell in with a very aged man who could no longer walk, and had not a tooth in his head, having lost all because of his great age.

When the king’s son beheld this old man he asked what that might mean, and wherefore the man could not walk?

Those who were with him replied that it was through old age the man could walk no longer, and had lost all his teeth.

And so when the king’s son had thus learned about the dead man and about the aged man, he turned back to his palace and said to himself that he would abide no longer in this evil world, but would go in search of Him Who dieth not, and Who had created him.{2}

So what did he one night but take his departure from the palace privily, and betake himself to certain lofty and pathless mountains.

And there he did abide, leading a life of great hardship and sanctity, and keeping great abstinence, just as if he had been a Christian.

When he died they found his body and brought it to his father.

When the father saw his son dead before him which he loved better than himself, he was distraught with sorrow.

He caused an image in the similitude of his son to be wrought in gold and precious stones, and caused all his people to adore it.

They all declared his son to be a god.

They tell moreover that he hath died 84 times.

The first time he died as a man, and came to life again as an ox.

• Then he died as an ox and came to life again as a horse.
• And so on until he had died 84 times.
• Every time, he became some kind of animal.

But when he died the 84th time, they say he became a god.

They do hold him for the greatest of all their gods.

They tell that the aforesaid image of him was the first idol that the Idolaters ever had.

From that have originated all the other idols. And this befel in the Island of Seilan in India.

The Idolaters come there on pilgrimage from very long distances and with great devotion, just as Christians go to the shrine of Saint James in Gallicia.

They maintain that:

• the monument on the mountain is that of the king’s son
• the teeth, and the hair, and the dish that are there were those of the same king’s son, whose name was Sagamoni Borcan, or Sagamoni the Saint.

But the Saracens also come there on pilgrimage in great numbers.

They say that:

• it is the sepulchre of Adam our first father, and
• the teeth, and the hair, and the dish were those of Adam.

Whose they were in truth, God knows.

But according to the Holy Scripture of our Church, the sepulchre of Adam is not in that part of the world.

The Great Kaan heard of this.

So he thought he would get hold of them somehow or another.

He despatched a great embassy for the purpose in 1284.

The ambassadors, with a great company, travelled on by sea and by land until they arrived at the island of Seilan, and presented themselves before the king.

They were so urgent with him that they succeeded in getting 2 of the grinder teeth, which were passing great and thick.

They also got some of the hair, and the dish from which that personage used to eat, which is of a very beautiful green porphyry.

When the Great Kaan’s ambassadors had attained the object for which they had come they were greatly rejoiced, and returned to their lord.

When they drew near to the great city of Cambaluc, where the Great Kaan was staying, they sent him word that they had brought back that for which he had sent them.

On learning this the Great Kaan was passing glad, and ordered all the ecclesiastics and others to go forth to meet these reliques, which he was led to believe were those of Adam.

The whole population of Cambaluc went forth to meet those reliques.

The ecclesiastics took them over and carried them to the Great Kaan, who received them with great joy and reverence.

They find it written in their Scriptures that the virtue of that dish is such that if food for one man be put therein it shall become enough for 5 men.

The Great Kaan averred that he had proved the thing and found that it was really true.

So now you have heard how the Great Kaan came by those reliques; and a mighty great treasure it did cost him! The reliques being, according to the Idolaters, those of that king’s son.