grotesquely-ornamented doorways of a Burmese type,
and a thirteen-ringed cone surmounted by a “ htee ”
and finial, decorated with leaf-clapper bells, is also
suggestive of Burma. The upper part is thickly ornamented
with gold leaf, and the gilt copper plates composing
the rings are each decorated with two incised
figures of Buddha. The lower part of this pagoda—•
which is generally white— is roughly decorated here
and there with colour in an effective way, and the
interior walls and passages are painted with microscopic
finish, in some medium that produces an enamellike
surface.
As one leaves the chorten and enters the main temple,
an exquisitely painted “ Wheel of Life ” (if we may
accept the rough translation which Rudyard Kipling
borrowed for “ Kim ” from Waddell) meets the eye to the
left of the doorway leading from the vestibule to the
central apartment. It is difficult to convey any idea of
the minute finish of this piece of work. . A few will
realise it when I say that it is probably the only product
of man’s brush which rivals the “ Book of Kells ” or the
“ Lindisfarne Gospels.” Up in the balcony above there
is exquisite work, but upon this circle the artist has
lavished an obvious affection and care which must be
seen to be believed. In style it resembles 13th century
illumination, but, for example, no Vision of Hell was
ever drawn with such amazing delicacy and hideous
ingenuity as are the quaint tortures of the damned in this,
representation of the Buddhist Sheol. Inside the central
crimson-pillared hall the only conspicuous object is
the great seated figure of Maitreya, the next Buddha to
be re-incarnated. He is, as always, seated in European
fashion, a tradition which is more suggestive than most The great chorten at the Palkhor choide.
VOL. I