their small quota to its splendour. It is in such
episodes as these that the fundamental democracy of
Eastern life is most happily revealed. For the East,
and especially this East about which this book is written,
is above all things tolerant. Time has taught it the
faculty of leaving the individual alone. To live and
to let live is its philosophy ; and it is the keynote of
the life that daily throngs the platform of the Shway
Dagon.
This platform, with a perimeter of nearly fourteen
hundred feet, is the place of worship. The pagoda itself
has no interior. It is a solid stupa of brick raised
over a relic chamber. A cutting made into its centre
has revealed the fact that the original pagoda had
seven casings added to it, before it attained its present
proportions. The shape of the pagoda is that of an
elongated cone. It is divided by Burmese convention
into twelve parts: 1 first, the base surrounded by a
great number of small pagodas; then the three terraces,
called Pichayas ; next the B ell; the inverted
Thabeik, or Pegging bowl ; the Baungyit, or twisted
turban; the Kyalan, or ornamental lotus flower; the
Plantain Bud; the brass plate for the Hti, or umbrella ;
the Hti ; the Sein bwin, or artificial flowers; the Vane;
and last of all, the Seinbu, or bud of diamonds.
O f these the h ti with its accessories is of exceptional
interest. It was presented to the pagoda by
1 For some of these particulars I am indebted to a little book on " The
Pagoda,” compiled by my old friend and chief, the late Thomas Hesketh
Biggs, Comptroller of Burma, to whose memory I would pay this tribute.
96
Mindon Min, King
of -Burma, and its
transmission from
Mandalay to Rangoon
-was almost a
political event. The
placing of ktis on
the chief pagodas of
the country h a s
always been an expression
of sovereignty
in Burma,
and few indeed of a
more striking description
can well be
imagined. The king
strove hard, therefore,
to secure the
c o n s e n t of the
British Government
then established in
Rangoon, to the
placing of his gift by
his own representatives
upon the summit
. of the Shway
Dag6n; but, for
sound p o l i t i c a l
reasons,•without success.
The gorgeous
v o l . 1.
GOING .UP TO .TH E PAG O D A
object, valued i at \ ,¿60,000, was
97 H