Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-24

nANGOON, Bur1na.-To all but th'
II merchant mariners, the invading
AZ hosts of industry whose ship;
crowd each other in the narrow rivei
harbor Of this greatest port in Farther
India, Rangoon is the site of the noblest
shrine in the Buddhist world. Ran
COON the city is less than three-score
years old, but the Shwe Dagon, the
great Rangoon pagoda, has lifted It's
slender spire toward heaven for twenty
five centuries. In the year that Jeru-
salem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar
two generations before the expulsion OF
the Tarquins from Rome, a century
before the defeat of the Greeks at
Thermopylae, 900 years before Julius
! Caesar crossed the Rubicon, almost six
centuries before the beginning of the
| Christian era, the Buddhist converts of
! lower Burma obtained some relics of
the body of the late departed teacher,
| Gautama, the Buddha. Selecting spot
hallowed as sacred by the devotees of
| lesser religions from the time the world
was young, these relics were enshrined
on a high hill about two miles distant
from the deepest and swiftest of the
| many mouths of the Irrawaddy river
| The stupa or pagcda erected then was
only twenty seven feet high and the
relics were buried in the center of the
pile of masonry, never again to be
seen of the eyes of man.
Time went on and the religion of the
Buddha spread throughout the greater
part of the east. In time its native In
dia forsook its teachings, the mission
aries of the Cross and the Crescent In
their turn, by prayer and by sword,
reduced the boundaries of it's influence,
but Burma remained ever true. Pious
men protected the old pagoda by build
las,11
sonry. Shrines were built about its
base by the faithful, and devout pill
grims gilded 1t with pure gold -Four
hundred years ago, just about the time
it was found that America was not a
part of India, the pagoda was complet-
ed, and since that day 1t has not been
added to in stature nor in girth. al
though it's rich establishment is the
never ending concern of the devout.
Today the Shwe Dagon stands high
on a platform partly a natural hill and
partly an artificial extension. 1t lifts
its tapering golden head $40 feet high.
which Is 100 feet higher than the dome
of the capitol at Washington and as
righ as the Park row building in New
York. 1t Is solid structure and has,
of course, no windows or other open
lngs. 1t is entirely covered with gold
leaf. the offerings of thousands of
Buddhist pilgrims.
Surmounting the spire Is golden |
"tf" or umbrella, which is the inevi- |
table complement of every pagoda In |
Burma. From 1t depend scores of gol-
den and silver bells which respond to |
every trifiing breeze with musical tin
Under the ''tl' is a por-
ton of the spire representing the lotus
flower and the inverted begging bowl
of Buddha. This portion is covered
over with thick sheets of gold, and con-
sequently is impervious to weather and
to time. The gilded portions of the
show the effects of time In
places where the leaf was too thin, or
has been suffered to remain too long
without care. The great golden ''ti"
now Gaping the structure was put up
by one of the last kings of Burma at a
cost of S25O,O00, although the "tt" IT.
self and it's golden and Jeweled orna-
nentation was paid for by popluar sub
5cription.
The pagoda platform is reached by a
ong flight of stairs broken by frequent
and crossing the ancient pro-
Lecting moat over a modern bridge. The
Is covered over and both sides
are lined with the shops of those who
sell flowers and gold leaf for offerings,
,r the candles and paper prayers which
ire necessary to worship If one would
icquire great merit, soda water and all
;orts of soft dinks" in bottles, sweets
md more substantial food, cigars and
.heroots. The pagoda is always live
y place and there is no end to the busi-
less day, for the last straggler at mid
hight has not departed before the ear
lest worshiper of the morn is at hand I
Burmese girls and women keep the ,
hops, and children all "unabashed, un- !
and unafraid," beguile the !
tourist into buying roses and
asmines. s
Leaving the stairs and the shops. one
nds himself on the square platform
f the pagoda. Here he is lost In a
irritable forest of slender pagoda spires
nd smaller shrines. Every wealthy
buddhist seeks to acquire merit, In his
Ia age, by building a pagoda. The
yhole country is dotted with them. but L
he group about the base of the Shwe q
)agon is the most remarkable. There d
re to be seen ancient and decaying Y
tructures in the purest Burmese style, +
naffected by contact with the outside h
'orld. Such as these are ingeniously
with intricate teak wood
"a ond eoYexyo 70 Hx-iT, rofca for tho n