Note 5 — Chapter XVII
Reading edition
During the present lawka, or existence of the world, four Buddhas are said to have appeared. The dispensation of each lasts 5000 years. Gaudama Buddha was the last of the four, and his death, according to the Ceylon histories, occurred B.C. 543, but according to Professor Muller, B.C. 477, or a year after that of Confucius. A lawka is a whole revolution of nature. The world, according to Buddhists, is continuously destroyed and reproduced, but each lawka lasts an incalculable length of years.