CHAPTER XX
T A N G Y I -S W A Y-DA IV
A / ’ENAN-GYAT is the lesser brother of Yenan-
X Gyaung, and, like it, a place of oil-wells and commercial
adventure. A certain luminous interest is
imparted to it by the little war that wages here between
the two companies which are exploiting i t ; but I am
concerned to-day with the great white building which
gleams on the summit of the Tangyi hills, a' thousand
feet above the world. From its platform there is a
view of Pagan that is unsurpassed in Burma, and a
legend of the people tells that in a bygone day the
Buddha stood upon this peak, and prophesied the
coming greatness of the city.
A little above Yenan-gyat is the village of Ayadaw,
to which the river runs up in a side channel. From
here the road to the pagoda marches along the foreshore
under white cliffs. The strewn wreckage of
timber, the sandy shore, the fragrant water, have that
about them that recalls the fringe of the sea. Half
a mile more brings me to the village of fSekwa, lying
at the mouth of a valley. The road turns up at a right
angle through the fenced homesteads of the village, over