How ancient mariner undid curse, and seeking Buddha's favour

SHAGGY DOG/Albert Jack: AN ALBATROSS around one's neck is considered to be a lifelong burden from which there is no escape.

In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (from Lyrical Ballads and a Few Other Poems, 1798), Samuel Taylor Coleridge tells the story of a sailor whose ship was trapped by ice and who was visited by an albatross.

The bird was regarded as a lucky symbol at sea and, sure enough, soon afterwards the vessel was freed from the ice.

But then the hapless mariner shot the albatross and almost instantly a curse befell the ship.

The furious crew hung the dead bird around the sailor's neck as a punishment, but one by one each of them died, eventually leaving the mariner alone.

Then, while watching the beautiful sea snakes in the water around the ship, the mariner began blessing them and the albatross dropped from his neck. The ship was freed once again and the sailor's life had been saved.

From then on, the man travelled the Earth telling his tale and encouraging love for all God's creatures.

The moral of the story is that an albatross is a symbol of personal guilt, and freedom from it must be earned.

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To butter someone up is to flatter them with smooth talk. Some suggest this is linked with the smooth way butter spreads on to bread, to make it more palatable.

We might continue to believe this until we visited the Hindu temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu (supposedly the largest temple in the world).

There guides speak of the ancient custom of throwing butterballs of ghee (the clarified butter used as the basis of all Indian cooking) at the statues of gods, a method of seeking favour by "buttering up the gods".

We also know that during celebrations for the Tibetan New Year, the lamas at all the monasteries create "butter flowers" or sculptures out of coloured butter.

These are then traditionally displayed on the 15th day of the Tibetan lunar year following a religious ceremony the previous evening.

The tradition of creating butter sculptures, to worship statues of Buddha, can be traced to the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) and the belief that such offerings would bring peace and happiness for the full lunar year. This tradition was known as "buttering up the Buddha".

Extracted from Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep by Albert Jack; published by Penguin Books

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times