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Big Bell of Burma Golden Pagoda

Big Bell of Burma Golden Pagoda

Edward W. May
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Kindle version of vintage magazine article originally published in 1899. Contains lots of great info and illustrations seldom seen in the last 120 years.

Read excerpt -


The number of pious pilgrims who annually journey to the Golden Pagoda, to make offerings of jewels, flowers and flags, is to be reckoned only by the num¬ber of people who inhabit the whole wide land. First, the pilgrims prostrate themselves before the big bell. After some time of meditation they feel themselves worthy to enter the glorious Golden Pagoda. The pagoda stands on a mound surrounded by a moat and is reached by peculiar drawbridges. The base is 1,350 feet square, and the umbrella shaped pin¬nacle rises to the height of 375 feet. The material of which the pagoda is built cost $250,000. The labor cost nothing, as the services of the priests and devotees were given gratuitously. There are four great stairways leading to the platform, and there are four cardinal points at which are shrines and temples, as seen in the accompanying pictures. All about the platform are innumerable smaller shrines, miniature temples, bell-shaped and with spire surmounted with little umbrellas, like the main edifice. These little shrines are marvels of carved woodwork and red lacquer. They have tapering roofs one above the other, till they, too, end in a golden spire full of little bells with tongues that voice out delicious tinkling music when disturbed by the soft breezes. The tones are faint, but clear and distinct, — "the silver stir of strings in hollow shells."

The entrances to the pagoda are guarded by white stone images of dogs, elephants and griffins. Some of these are fully sixty feet in height, and horrible in their ugliness to the eye of a foreigner. The approaches to the entrances, through long, narrow passages, are also guarded by griffins of stone, wood and plaster. The high walls of these passages are hung with the designs of native artists, symbolizing the awful punishments to be administered in the hereafter to those who have not walked the righteous path of Buddhism. Battered about the lesser shrines are colossal statues of the fourth and, the last of the Buddhas, Gautama. These images are graven in stone, in brass, in alabaster, and in wood. As they appear to the foreign eye, no attempt has been made to arrange them. They seem to have been dumped down wherever there was room for them. A peculiarity of these giant statues is that each has enormous hands and long, stiff fingers.

Now, the reason for the eminent veneration of the Golden Pagoda lies in the wonderful treasures of sanctity which are buried under the floor of its inmost shrine. These are the relics of the four Buddhas who have manifested themselves to man during the present Buddhaggabba. Here are gathered the Staff of Kokoothanda; the Water-dipper of Konaggama; the Bathing-robe of Kathaba, and eight hairs from the head of Gautama.
Language
English
Pages
9
Format
Kindle Edition
Release
October 07, 2012

Big Bell of Burma Golden Pagoda

Edward W. May
0/5 ( ratings)
Read Download
Kindle version of vintage magazine article originally published in 1899. Contains lots of great info and illustrations seldom seen in the last 120 years.

Read excerpt -


The number of pious pilgrims who annually journey to the Golden Pagoda, to make offerings of jewels, flowers and flags, is to be reckoned only by the num¬ber of people who inhabit the whole wide land. First, the pilgrims prostrate themselves before the big bell. After some time of meditation they feel themselves worthy to enter the glorious Golden Pagoda. The pagoda stands on a mound surrounded by a moat and is reached by peculiar drawbridges. The base is 1,350 feet square, and the umbrella shaped pin¬nacle rises to the height of 375 feet. The material of which the pagoda is built cost $250,000. The labor cost nothing, as the services of the priests and devotees were given gratuitously. There are four great stairways leading to the platform, and there are four cardinal points at which are shrines and temples, as seen in the accompanying pictures. All about the platform are innumerable smaller shrines, miniature temples, bell-shaped and with spire surmounted with little umbrellas, like the main edifice. These little shrines are marvels of carved woodwork and red lacquer. They have tapering roofs one above the other, till they, too, end in a golden spire full of little bells with tongues that voice out delicious tinkling music when disturbed by the soft breezes. The tones are faint, but clear and distinct, — "the silver stir of strings in hollow shells."

The entrances to the pagoda are guarded by white stone images of dogs, elephants and griffins. Some of these are fully sixty feet in height, and horrible in their ugliness to the eye of a foreigner. The approaches to the entrances, through long, narrow passages, are also guarded by griffins of stone, wood and plaster. The high walls of these passages are hung with the designs of native artists, symbolizing the awful punishments to be administered in the hereafter to those who have not walked the righteous path of Buddhism. Battered about the lesser shrines are colossal statues of the fourth and, the last of the Buddhas, Gautama. These images are graven in stone, in brass, in alabaster, and in wood. As they appear to the foreign eye, no attempt has been made to arrange them. They seem to have been dumped down wherever there was room for them. A peculiarity of these giant statues is that each has enormous hands and long, stiff fingers.

Now, the reason for the eminent veneration of the Golden Pagoda lies in the wonderful treasures of sanctity which are buried under the floor of its inmost shrine. These are the relics of the four Buddhas who have manifested themselves to man during the present Buddhaggabba. Here are gathered the Staff of Kokoothanda; the Water-dipper of Konaggama; the Bathing-robe of Kathaba, and eight hairs from the head of Gautama.
Language
English
Pages
9
Format
Kindle Edition
Release
October 07, 2012

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