DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0652
628
FURTHER IXDIA
Book. VIII.
in the profusion of gilding and carving with which every part is
covered, and to which it is impossible to do justice on so small a
scale.
The same profuse decorations are bestowed upon the monasteries,
one of which is represented in the annexed woodcut (No. 35G),
showing a building in which all the defects arising from the use of so
easily carved a material, are carried to excess. If the colouring and
gilding could be added, it would represent a building such as the West
never saw, and, let us hope, never will see; for, however dazzling
its splendour, such barbaric magnificence is worthy only of a half-
civilized race.
S:0. Burmese Kioum. (From Col. Byrnes' 'Embassy lo Ava.')
The naked form of these monasteries—if the expression may^be •
used—will be understood from the following Woodcut (No. 357) of
one recently erected at Mandalc, and, though inhabited, not quite
finished. It is five storeys in height, and, if I mistake not, as nearly
reproduces the Lowa Maha Paya of Anuradhapura, as the circular
Mengun pagoda does the Abhayagiri or Ruanwelli dagobas there.
Here, however, the storeys have lost their meaning; only one storey
is used as a residence 1—the first, or " piano nobile," as we would call
it. The upper storeys are only ornamental reminiscences of past
utilitarian forms, but which evidently once had a meaning. Had the
building been completed—perhaps it is now—it would have been
ornamented with carving as richly as that represented in the pre-
1 Yule's 'Mission to Ava,' p. 163.
FURTHER IXDIA
Book. VIII.
in the profusion of gilding and carving with which every part is
covered, and to which it is impossible to do justice on so small a
scale.
The same profuse decorations are bestowed upon the monasteries,
one of which is represented in the annexed woodcut (No. 35G),
showing a building in which all the defects arising from the use of so
easily carved a material, are carried to excess. If the colouring and
gilding could be added, it would represent a building such as the West
never saw, and, let us hope, never will see; for, however dazzling
its splendour, such barbaric magnificence is worthy only of a half-
civilized race.
S:0. Burmese Kioum. (From Col. Byrnes' 'Embassy lo Ava.')
The naked form of these monasteries—if the expression may^be •
used—will be understood from the following Woodcut (No. 357) of
one recently erected at Mandalc, and, though inhabited, not quite
finished. It is five storeys in height, and, if I mistake not, as nearly
reproduces the Lowa Maha Paya of Anuradhapura, as the circular
Mengun pagoda does the Abhayagiri or Ruanwelli dagobas there.
Here, however, the storeys have lost their meaning; only one storey
is used as a residence 1—the first, or " piano nobile," as we would call
it. The upper storeys are only ornamental reminiscences of past
utilitarian forms, but which evidently once had a meaning. Had the
building been completed—perhaps it is now—it would have been
ornamented with carving as richly as that represented in the pre-
1 Yule's 'Mission to Ava,' p. 163.