The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 2 eBook

It is worthy of note that the unfortunate King then reigning in Pagan, had in 1274 finished a magnificent Pagoda called Mengala-dzedi (Mangala Chaitya) respecting which ominous prophecies had been diffused.  In this pagoda were deposited, besides holy relics, golden images of the Disciples of Buddha, golden models of the holy places, golden images of the King’s fifty-one predecessors in Pagan, and of the King and his Family.  It is easy to suspect a connection of this with Marco’s story.  “It is possible that the King’s ashes may have been intended to be buried near those relics, though such is not now the custom; and Marco appears to have confounded the custom of depositing relics of Buddha and ancient holy men in pagodas with the supposed custom of the burial of the dead.  Still, even now, monuments are occasionally erected over the dead in Burma, although the practice is considered a vain folly.  I have known a miniature pagoda with a hti complete, erected over the ashes of a favourite disciple by a P’hungyi or Buddhist monk.”  The latter practice is common in China. (Notes by Sir A. Phayre; J.A.S.B. IV. u.s., also V. 164, VI. 251; Mason’s Burmah, 2nd ed. p. 26; Milne’s Life in China, pp. 288, 450.)

NOTE 3.—­The Gaur—­Bos Gaurus, or B. (Bibos) Cavifrons of Hodgson—­exists in certain forests of the Burmese territory; and, in the south at least, a wild ox nearer the domestic species, Bos Sondaicus.  Mr. Gouger, in his book The Prisoner in Burma, describes the rare spectacle which he once enjoyed in the Tenasserim forests of a herd of wild cows at graze.  He speaks of them as small and elegant, without hump, and of a light reddish dun colour (pp. 326-327).

[1] This is the name now applied in Burma to the Chinese.  Sir A. Phayre
    supposes it to be Turk, in which case its use probably began at
    this time.

[2] In the Narrative of Phayre’s Mission, ch. ii.

[3] Dr. Anderson has here hastily assumed a discrepancy of sixty years
    between the chronology of the Shan document and that of the Chinese
    Annals.  But this is merely because he arbitrarily identifies the
    Chinese invasion here recorded with that of Kublai in the preceding
    century. (See Anderson’s Western Yunnan, p. 8.) We see in the
    quotation above from Amyot that the Chinese Annals also contain an
    obscure indication of the later invasion.

[4] Compare the old Chinese Pilgrims Hwui Seng and Seng Yun, in their
    admiration of a vast pagoda erected by the great King Kanishka in
    Gandhara (at Peshawur in fact):  “At sunrise the gilded disks of the
    vane are lit up with dazzling glory, whilst the gentle breeze of
    morning causes the precious bells to tinkle with a pleasing sound.”
    (Beal, p. 204.)

CHAPTER LV.