Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-04-10

A MANDALAY MONASTERY.
A Remarkable Religious Edifce in the
Burmese Capital.
Bombay Gazette.
"There are two great religious edifces
in Mandalay which it is the duty, as it is
the pleasure, of the traveller to see. The
city, like all Burmah, teens with pagodas
and temples. Every hilltop, every plain,
every grove of trees, every garden has
its graceful building in white OF gold.
giving evidence Of the piety and of the
lavishness of their innumerable founders.
The amount of money thus expended
during centuries, and now still lavished
year by year and month by month, is
past the counting of all the clerks of the
banks in England. The roads, the places,
the Notifications, the aqueducts that
might havd been built with all this brick
and mortar, to say nothing of the stucco
or the gold leaf, sometimes an inch thick!
A chance fire burnt down the great pag-
oda, and the gold melted from it's i'm
mense surface is said to have been worth
Is lakhs! 1t was replaced by Theebaw,
and more gold added. This enormous
waste of the national resources, perse-
vered in through generations, may &C
count for the manifest poverty of the
population, which lives for the most part
in habitations of wickerwork, eked out
with mating. There is no accummula-
ton of property; every family lives an
ephemeral life; those that come after will
live the same
"The palace in Mandalay is composed
of planks carved and gilt profusely in
deed; but there is not pucka wall to
give consistence or permanence to sin
gle wing of it. Three OF four miles away
the plinth of pagoda was built by Min
domin with such an extravagant waste of
solid material that, even as it stands, it is
said to be the greatest mass of brickwork
in the world. An notwithstanding
else would suffice rent it, and the pa
CODA never was built on it. But there it
remains. This was only one of the vast
religious structures which marked that
monarch's reign. In Mandalay itself he
erected monastery-the Like which
there-is-not'-the Incompatible, which
possesses room unquestionabiy the finest
in all Mandalay. 1t would be no great
stretch of fancy to say it is the finest in
the world. The building is composed of
a series of bold terraces, six in number.
rising one above another, the central one
being the highest. The golden room is
carried on thirty-six pillars, some of
which are seventy feet high, the ceiling
reaching its greatest elevation in the
high central terrace, under which is CO.
lossal figure of Gautuma beside golden
throne. The boldness of the general de-
sign, the noble proportions of the i'm
mense hall, and the great height attained
over the throne and the statue ell the
mind with surprise and pleasure. Pillars,
walls, and ceiling are richly gilt, glass
inlaying frightening the brilliancy.
''The chief commissioner has shown
his appreciation of the beautiful in pre-
scribing the Incompatible as the scene of
the great ceremony, if circumstances
permit of its being held. Externally
the building is vast, but plain in design
and material-the walls are white stucco,
and severely plain. But the mass, bath
ed in the bright sunlight, is imposing in
its simplicity. Not far from the Incom-
parable is 4 pagoda of great size and
perfect symmetry, covered with gliding,
and rising up among no less than 464
little chapels-if such they may be call
ed each containing large tablet of
white marble, on which is inscribed
portion of the sacred Buddhist books,
Thus the whole of the law is displayed,
cut in marble, to the eyes of the inquir-
er. The pagoda, with its surrounding
buildings, must have cost from II to Is
lakhs. 1t bears the title of the Royal
Merit-signifcant of the conviction in
dulged in by Mindo Min that in build
ing this great religious edifce, with its
instructive surroundings, he had earned
for himself the great reward, when the
time should come, 'to reign among the
spirits (not to die like an ordinary NOR
tai. He would merit nirvana itself,
and have done with the sin and suffering
of existence. King Theebaw, L hear,
was engaged in constructing magnif-
cent building, to cost % lakhs, at some
distance from Mandalay; structure SO
vast as to establish his royal merit be-
yond all doubt or cavil. But it will new
er be finished"