Unfortunately, nothing is known about how or when the statue was later found, nor how it came to be owned by the then Governor of Ceylon, the soldier Sir Robert Brownrigg, who brought Tara to Britain. Ceylon had been taken over by the British from its Dutch rulers during the Napoleonic wars, and in 1815 Robert Brownrigg had conquered the last remaining independent Sri Lankan kingdom on the island.
不幸的是,沒有人知道它從何地出土,又是如何來到他手里的。早先,在拿破侖戰爭期間,英國從荷蘭手里接管了錫蘭。1815年,布朗里格征服了島上最后一個獨立王國。1822年,他將這座度母雕像帶到了英國。
Many centuries before, the island had abandoned the particular strand of Buddhism in which Tara had played such a prominent part, and her statue may well have been removed from the temple and buried for safekeeping during that religious upheaval. But if no longer revered in Sri Lanka, Tara is in many places very much a living force, especially in Nepal and Tibet. And today millions of people, all over the world, still turn-as they did in Sri Lanka 1,200 years ago-to Tara, to see them through.
數個世紀以前,斯里蘭卡居民遺棄了度母占主導地位的獨特佛教派系。在宗教紛爭中,為了保全這座銅像,有人將它從廟里移出來埋到地下。度母在斯里蘭卡的地位已不復當年,但她在尼泊爾和中國西藏等地仍舉足輕重。現今世界上還有數百萬人,一如1200年前的斯里蘭卡信眾, 向度母祈求佑護。
來源:可可英語 http://www.ccdyzl.cn/Article/201512/415725.shtml