uit or flowers before a small shrine in the house. This is usually done by the wife because he is believed to have more power to intercede with the gods. She also makes offerings to snakes, trees, or obscure spirits in her garden or at a crossroad in the village. Many villages have small temples where priests perform ceremonies Tillotson 6 Throughout the day. Sunrise prayers are said to awake the gods. The god is bathed, clothed, and fanned and even fed while the remains are fed to the worshipers. Songs are also sung, holy texts are read aloud and sunset rituals are performed. There are also thousands of local temples in existence. These can be anything from a small stone box enclosing a "formless effigy swathed in cloth", to a "slightly more imposing edifice with a small tank in which to bathe". India also has many large temples as well as "complex temple cities". There are many holy shrines that many people from all over India take pilgrimages to. Some shrines are local and others are only visited on yearly special festive occasions. In Buddhism, worship and everyday ritual is a little different. Since the beginning, the followers of Buddha were organized into the monastic sangha. Their shaved heads and robes of unsewn orange cloth could identify the members. The bhikkus, the early Buddhist monks wandered from place to place staying in one place for a while only during the rainy season. They believe enlightenment is only possible for humans. The goal of the Buddhist path is to get released from the existence with its suffering and to attain nirvana, which is an enlightened state in which "the fires of greed, hatred, and ignorance have been quenched." Nirvana is a state of consciousness beyond that which has a definition. Buddhism had spread rapidly throughout India, as did Hinduism. Mahayana, a form of the Buddhist religion, and Hinduism began to influence Cambodia by the end of the 2nd century AD. Buddhism was carried to central Asia...
