Map of Burma.] As we steam up the river for some miles inland, let us
consider, with the help of a map, the main features of the geography of
the land which we are about to visit. In this map is shown nearly the
whole of the great southeastward peninsula of Asia. The areas which are
coloured green are lowland, those which are yellow are upland, and the
brown signifies highland and mountain. A ridge of highland, broken only
at two or three points, runs southward through the centre of the map,
separating Burma and the river basins of the Indian Ocean from Siam and
the river basins of the Pacific Ocean. This great divide of the drainage
is continued beyond the southern edge of the map through the Malay
Peninsula for some distance. It ends near Singapore in the southernmost
point of Asia, only one degree north of the Equator.
In Burma, parallel with the dividing range, are three other ridges,
striking southward side by side. These separate three valleys, through
which flow severally the Salween, Sittang, and Irawaddy rivers. The
valley of the Salween, as the yellow and brown colours upon the map
indicate, is less deeply trenched between its bounding ranges than are
the other two valleys. As we should therefore expect, the Salween river
has a steeply descending course broken by rapids, and is of small value
for navigation. At its mouth is the port of Moulmein. The valley of the
Sittang, which is a short river, prolongs the upper valley of the
Irawaddy, which latter river makes a great westward bend at Mandalay,
and passes by a transverse passage right through one of the parallel
mountain ridges. Beyond this passage it bends southward again, accepting
the direction of its tributary, the Chindwin river. The great port of
Rangoon is placed on a tidal channel at the eastern edge of the Irawaddy
delta. The railway from Rangoon to Mandalay runs through the Sittang
valley and does not follow the Irawaddy. There is navigation, however,
by the Irawaddy past Pagan and Mandalay northward to Bhamo, which is
close to the Chinese frontier. The coastal plain of Burma is known as
Arakan where it runs northward from the Irawaddy delta, and as
Tenasserim where it runs southward from that delta along a coast beset
with an archipelago of beautiful islands. The delta itself bears the
name of Pegu, or Lower Burma; while the region round Mandalay is Upper
Burma.
[Sidenote: 7.
Plan of Rangoon.] We are in the Rangoon river. A tall, pointed pagoda
appears on a hill to the right, and presently, as the channel bends to
the west, we approach the busy commercial front of Rangoon city,
surmounted by the golden spire of the great Shwe Dagon Pagoda.
[Sidenote: 8.
Shwe Dagon Pagoda, from across the Royal Lakes.] [Sidenote: 9.
The Shwe Dagon Pagoda, Rangoon.] [Sidenote: 10.
Images of the Sitting Buddha.] [Sidenote: 11.
Earning Merit at the Shwe Dagon Pagoda.] Rangoon, apart from its chief
Pagoda, is a modern city. Fifty years ago it was a village. To-day it
has a quarter of a million people. A wharf-fronted road, the Strand,
follows the shore of the main river for several miles. Up the Pegu
tributary to the east for several other miles are many rice mills with
tall chimneys throwing out black smoke. The harbour is busy with
shipping. There are great timber yards, and there are oil mills, for the
products of Burma are, first and foremost, rice, and then timber,
especially great logs of teak—harder than oak, and then petroleum. Back
from the Strand is a well kept town, with broad streets at right angles,
though as yet there are few really impressive buildings to compare with
the public buildings of Madras. There is a beautiful group of lakes, the
Royal Lakes, set in wooded public grounds, and across these is the
finest view of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, like a great hand-bell placed on a
low hill. This pagoda is said to be the most frequented in the Buddhist
world, for it has as relics eight hairs of Gautama, the founder of the
Buddhist religion. It began some two thousand years ago as a small
village fane. In successive ages the original structure has been encased
afresh and afresh, until as the result of work done in the days of Queen
Elizabeth, the great pagoda was completed which is now the glory of
Rangoon. It rises to a height of nearly 400 feet, and is solid, there
being no chamber within. The brickwork of which it is built makes a
series of steps or ledges, so that it would be possible to climb for
some distance up the spire. The whole is plated with gold-leaf, and the
gilding is constantly renewed by pious devotees, who thus earn merit.
The word “Shwe” in the name of this pagoda signifies golden. On the
summit is a “hti,” or umbrella, of exquisite workmanship and material.
It is said to have cost sixty thousand pounds. In the vane are 5,000
gems—diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. The base of the pagoda is
surrounded first by shrines of varying sizes, and then by a flagged
courtyard, which again is fringed with canopies and halls opening
towards the pagoda, with many carved screens and arches, and innumerable
shrines and altars, and images of Gautama. Flights of steps roofed over
with teak descend from the courtyard, and one of the lower entries is
guarded by great grotesque figures, partly lion and partly griffin, made
of plastered bricks. We see one of them in this view. Then we have two
very interesting pictures: the one represents three images of the
Sitting Buddha from one of the shrines on the flagged courtyard at the
foot of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, and the other shows a pilgrim “earning
merit” by putting gold leaf on to the pagoda itself.
[Sidenote: 12.
The Sule Pagoda, Rangoon.] There is another considerable pagoda in the
city, the Sule Pagoda. We have it here, with a corner of a building
adjacent of European architecture, the Municipal Offices. Observe the
watering of the streets by hand labour.
[Sidenote: 13.
A Typical Burman.] [Sidenote: 14.
Burmese Gambling, Rangoon.] The Burmese are a short, sturdy people,
merry and happy, and akin rather to the Japanese in temperament than to
the people of the Indian Peninsula. The features of their faces are
obviously Mongolian. They have the oblique eyes of the Chinaman. Here is
a typical Burman with a rose coloured wrap round his head. The Burmese
women, whose praises have been sung through the world, are dainty and,
according to a more or less Chinese standard, not infrequently
beautiful. They love to clothe themselves in silks of brilliant and
delicate hue. Excessive industry is certainly not a failing of the race,
yet there are no poor. We have here a group of Burmese gamblers at
Rangoon. The theatres play all night and the spectators go home by
daylight. The “pwe,” or show, consists invariably of three parts—a
prince, a princess, and a clown; it may be compared with our traditional
harlequinade. Both Indians and Chinese are migrating to Burma in great
numbers, but agricultural work is still chiefly in native hands.
[Sidenote: 15.
Elephants lifting Teak.] [Sidenote: 16.
Elephants Pushing Teak.] [Sidenote: 17.
Tusker Elephant.] [Sidenote: 18.
Tusker Elephant lifting Teak.] [Sidenote: 19.
The Same.] One of the most curious and typical sights of Rangoon is that
of elephants manipulating the great logs of teak wood in the timber
yards. The logs are cut in the forests of the north of Burma, and are
floated for hundreds of miles down the Irawaddy in large rafts, until
they are stranded at a creek near Rangoon, called Pazundaung. Elephants
are then employed for the purpose of moving and piling up the logs. The
male elephant is very powerful and has strong tusks, on which he carries
the logs, preventing them from falling with his trunk, but the female
elephants are not so strong, and do not as a rule lift the logs off the
ground, but merely drag them, or push them with the head. We have here
two cow elephants, the one forty years old and the other seventy. We
have them here again, one of them at the command of her rider pushing
the logs forward with her head. In the next scene is a male elephant
with tusks. He is fifty years old, and we realise his power in the next
two views, where we see him poising on his tusks a great tree trunk.
These huge animals are fed entirely on a grass which grows along the
banks of the Irawaddy not far from Rangoon. Machinery is now taking the
place of elephants in the timber yards, and Rangoon is, therefore,
likely to lose one of its most interesting sights.
[Sidenote: 20.
A Rice Mill, Rangoon.] [Sidenote: 21.
The Same.] While we are on the river front let us glance also at a rice
mill, where a process equivalent to thrashing is carried out, the grain
being separated from the husk. The black smoke is from the paddy husks
used to supply the motive power of the mill. Paddy, or unthrashed rice,
is mostly brought to Rangoon by water, though more than a million and a
half tons now come annually by rail. After the milling process is
complete, the rice is packed into bags for shipment all over the world.
[Sidenote: 22.
A Burmese Railway Train.] We will take train and run by the Burmese
Sittang Railway over the broad levels of the delta, passing through
fields from which the paddy has recently been cut. Only the ears are
lopped off, and the straw is burnt as it stands. The Burmans are mostly
yeomen, each owning his cattle and doing his own work in the field.
Beyond Pegu we follow the Sittang River, with hill ranges low on the
eastern and western horizons, until we come to Mandalay, once capital of
the independent kingdom of Upper Burma. This kingdom was annexed to
India in 1885 at the conclusion of the third Burmese war. Mandalay is
the last of three capitals a few miles apart, which at different times
in the past century have been the seat of the Burmese kings. Amarapura,
a few miles to the south, was the earliest, and Ava, a few miles to the
west, was the capital from 1822 to 1837.
[Sidenote: 23.
The 450 Pagodas from Mandalay Hill.] At Mandalay we are again on the
banks of the Irawaddy. There is a hill in the northern suburbs several
hundred feet in height, from which we may look over the city. The houses
are so buried in foliage that, seen from the height, the place appears
almost like a wood of green trees. The square Dufferin Fort, with walled
and moated boundary, and sides more than a mile in length, is
distinguishable in the centre, but for the rest there is none of the
ordinary panorama of a European city. One striking feature, however,
lies at our feet, a little to one side. It is a square group of 450
white pagodas, with a more considerable gilded pagoda in the centre.
Beside each of these pagodas there stands a large stone, and on these
stones are inscribed quotations from the sacred books of the Buddhists.
In the distance to the southeast are the hills inhabited by the Shan
tribes.
[Sidenote: 24.
The Moat, Fort Dufferin.] [Sidenote: 25.
King Thebaw’s Palace.] [Sidenote: 26.
The Aindaw Temple, Mandalay.] [Sidenote: 27.
Maker of Temple Htis, Mandalay.] The Dufferin Fort was built around the
Palace of King Thebaw, the last of the Burmese dynasty. It is enclosed
by a square of red walls pierced by three gates on each side, each gate
bearing a pointed pagoda-like super-structure. Without there is a broad
moat, a hundred yards wide, with lotus plants, floating in it like water
lilies. This moat is crossed by five wooden bridges. Inside the walls is
the King’s Palace, of which we have here the spire, surmounted by a
“hti” finial. This spire is called by the Burmese the “Centre of the
Universe,” since it is in the centre of Mandalay, which they claim as in
the centre of the world. A “hti” we may observe again at the summit of
the great Aindaw Temple in the south of Mandalay, and here we have one
before it has left the home of its maker.
[Sidenote: 28.
The Queen’s Palace.] [Sidenote: 29.
The Verandah of King Thebaw’s Palace.] [Sidenote: 30.
Entrance to the Arakan temple, Mandalay.] We return to the Fort, and to
the palaces within it. This is the Queen’s Palace, a very beautiful
building of gilded teak, exquisitely carved, and here is the verandah
where King Thebaw in 1885 surrendered to the British generals. He was
taken away to India, and there he still lives under surveillance on the
Malabar Coast. Here we have the entrance to the Arakan Temple, specially
venerated by Buddhists, for it contains a great image of Gautama, over
twelve feet high, made of brass. Pilgrims gain merit by placing gold
leaf upon this figure. This is the building which Kipling spoke of as
the Moulmein Pagoda; it is not, however, a pagoda, which is a solid
spire, but a temple.
[Sidenote: 31.
Sappers and Miners, Fort Dufferin.] [Sidenote: 32.
Crossing the Moat, Fort Dufferin.] [Sidenote: 33.
A Garrison Family.] Burma has been gradually annexed to India as the
result of three successive wars. The first ended in 1826, and then the
low-lying coastal strips known by the names of Tenasserim and Arakan
were taken, and also the great valley of the Brahmaputra, known as
Assam. In 1852 the country of Pegu, or Lower Burma, comprising the delta
of the Irawaddy, was annexed, but Upper Burma round Mandalay remained
independent. The last king of Mandalay was Thebaw, a notorious tyrant,
guilty of the most horrible atrocities. Being anxious to maintain his
independence, he intrigued with the French in the lands of Tonkin and
Annam to the east of Burma, and as a result brought upon himself the
conquest of his country in the time when Lord Dufferin was Viceroy of
India. It took fully ten years to reduce Burma to order, for the land
was infested with dacoits or robbers, as it is still in some of the
remoter districts. Every village in those days was defended by a
palisade. Here we have two views of a party of troops in Fort Dufferin,
with the King’s Palace in the background, and then a family scene in the
married quarters of the garrison. The Burman does not make a good
soldier, for he has very little sense of discipline. Even the police of
the province are for the most part Gurkhas, Sikhs, and Punjabi
Musulmans.
[Sidenote: 34.
The Bazaar, Mandalay.] [Sidenote: 35.
The Flower and Seed Market, Mandalay Bazaar.] The Bazaar or market of
Mandalay, as in every other Indian city, is the centre of public life.
Externally it is of little interest, having been constructed since the
conquest, but internally it is an epitome of the varied peoples who have
thronged of late into the growing centres of Burmese trade. Here is a
scene in the fruit market; but it is the silk market which delights the
Burmese lady, who will be seen there accompanied by her maid, making
purchases and enjoying the touch of more than she buys, as in similar
places in Europe. The most striking contrast which is presented by Burma
to one accustomed to Indian life is the freedom of the women, who move
about unveiled. In Burma, under the Buddhist religion, we have neither
seclusion of women nor the distinctions of caste. The city of Mandalay
has a population of about 190,000, so that it is now smaller than the
upstart Rangoon.
[Sidenote: 36.
Ferryshaw Siding, near Mandalay.] [Sidenote: 37.
Mora.] [Sidenote: 38.
Katha.] Let us make a voyage up the Irawaddy to the border of the
Chinese Empire. This is a river scene a short way above Mandalay, with a
group of white pagodas conspicuous on the bank, and here is a village
scene. There follows a view at Katha, a large straggling village on the
Irawaddy, remarkable for its many pagodas, most of them ruined. The
majority of the Burmese pagodas are thus dilapidated for the reason that
there is considered to be no merit in merely restoring an existing
Buddhist shrine. The wealthy devotee prefers therefore to erect a new
pagoda. The Shwe Dagon is an exception, for it contains sacred relics.
[Sidenote: 39.
Raft on the Irawaddy.] [Sidenote: 40.
On the Irawaddy.] [Sidenote: 41.
In the defile between Katha and Bhamo.] [Sidenote: 42.
The Same.] [Sidenote: 43.
Burmese Children.] [Sidenote: 44.
Cart with solid Wheels.] [Sidenote: 45.
Lacquer Workers.] Here we have a raft of bamboos and teak logs floating
down the river, and then a typical river craft with a great oar for a
rudder. Our steamer must progress with care, measuring the depths with
bamboo poles at either bow. None the less, navigation extends for more
than nine hundred miles from the sea. From Mandalay to Katha the bank of
the river is in most places low and sandy, but between Katha and Bhamo
there are striking defiles, where the ground rises with wooded fronts
from the water’s edge. There is population along the banks the whole
way, as is evidenced by the pagodas amid the vegetation. Here are three
little Burmese villagers, and then a rustic cart with solid wheels, and
here a picture showing the process of the famous lacquer work of Burma.
A “shell” is first made of very thin and finely plaited bamboo, and this
is covered with a pigment which, when dry, is softened on a primitive
lathe. Then red lacquer is put on by hand, and the bowl is dried in the
sun. When dry it is buried for some days in order that it may harden.
Finally it is engraved, and often inlaid with gold.
[Sidenote: 46.
Bhamo from the Irawaddy.] [Sidenote: 47.
China Street, Bhamo.] [Sidenote: 48.
Kachin Women, Bhamo.] [Sidenote: 49.
Houses at Bhamo.] We approach Bhamo, at the head of the Irawaddy
navigation, lying low along the bank of the river, twenty miles from the
Chinese frontier. There are naturally many Chinese at Bhamo. This is
China Street. Here, on the other hand, is a group of Kachin women,
heavy-faced, in picturesque costume. The Kachins are the hill tribes of
the northern frontier of Burma, as the Shans are of the eastern frontier
and the Chins of the western. Until quite recently the Kachins often
raided the caravans passing from Bhamo to China. They are now becoming
civilised under British rule. The Burmese people proper, of ancient
civilisation, are a relatively small population confined to the valley
and the delta. Here we see a row of houses at Bhamo, raised high upon
piles. The change which has come over Burma since the British occupation
may be appreciated from the fact that twenty years ago it was no
uncommon sight on the voyage up from Katha to Bhamo to see along the
river banks, and on rafts floating down the river, the dead bodies of
Kachins who had been tortured to death under the terrible rule of the
kings of Mandalay.
[Sidenote: 50.
The Gokteik Gorge and Bridge.] [Sidenote: 51.
Native House, Hsipaw.] [Sidenote: 52.
The Bazaar, Hsipaw.] From Mandalay a railway runs eastward into the Shan
country. At one point this line crosses a gorge by a steel bridge,
nearly half a mile long and over 800 feet above the water of the stream.
The bridge is so light in design that its great size and real solidity
are difficult to grasp. Beyond this bridge we come to the chief place of
the Shans, Hsipaw. Here are a couple of scenes in Hsipaw, the one of a
Shan house, the other of a Shan market.
[Sidenote: 53.
Pagan.] [Sidenote: 54.
The Ananda Temple, Pagan.] [Sidenote: 55.
The Ananda Temple, nearer view of the west side.] [Sidenote: 56.
Buddha Image at Pagan.] To realise the antiquity and the splendour of
early Burmese civilisation, we must descend the Irawaddy below Mandalay
to a place called Pagan. There, for some ten miles beside the river, and
for three miles back from its bank, are the ruins of a great capital
which flourished about the time of the Norman Conquest of England. From
the centre of the ruined city it is impossible to point in any direction
in which a pagoda or a temple is not visible. We have here a general
view of the remains, and then the Ananda Temple, seen in the midst of a
bank of vegetation, from which at various points rise other smaller red
and white ruins. The Ananda Temple was built more than eight hundred
years ago by the Thatons, the original inhabitants of the country, who
were overcome by the invading Burmans. Some thirty thousand of these
Thatons were brought to Pagan as slaves, and set to build the pagodas
and temples, just as during the captivity in Egypt the Israelites were
employed in building the pyramids. Here is the Ananda Temple close at
hand, white and glittering in the sunshine, as though built of sugar. If
we enter the great portal—there are three other portals similar, for the
plan of the building is that of a cross—we find facing us a huge image
of the Buddha, over ten yards in height.
Buddhism was developed from Hinduism. It originated as a revolt from the
excessive ritualism of the Brahmans. We have seen that Hinduism became
an all-embracing system of religious ritual and social organisation, but
that alongside, as it were, of this process there was evolved a
philosophical system based upon two theories: the belief in a Universal
Soul as the centre of reality, and the belief in the ultimate identity
of the Individual and the Universal Soul. In the sixth century before
Christ India was seething and fermenting with spiritual thought. A great
teacher was called for, and such a one was given to the world in
Gautama, the Buddha, that is to say, the Enlightened or Awakened One.
Gautama was born on the frontiers of Nepal at the foot of the great
Himalaya range about the year 557 before Christ. He was the only son of
a chief or king. At the age of eighteen he was married to the daughter
of the chief of a neighbouring clan, and a son was born to him. But the
yearnings of a reformer were stirring within Gautama, and he could not
rest. So one night in secret he left his wife and infant and went out
into the world a wanderer in search of “that inward illumination on
‘great matters,’ which was the cherished dream of every thinker in that
memorable era.” He followed to no purpose the paths of metaphysical
speculation, of mental discipline, and of ascetic rigour, and at last on
one eventful night, as he sat under the Bodhi Tree at Gaya, in Behar,
“he reaped the fruit of his long spiritual effort, the truth of things
being of a sudden so clearly revealed to him that from henceforth he
never swerved for a moment from devotion to his creed and to the mission
that it imposed upon him.”
The truth which Buddha discovered and preached to humanity was that the
salvation of man lay not in sacrifices and ceremonial, nor in penances,
but in spiritual effort and a holy life, in charity, forgiveness, and
love. The sages of Hinduism had taught as a doctrine for the few that
the Universal Soul is the only reality, and is therefore the real self
of every man. Buddha gave to the world a system by which the truth of
this doctrine could be realised in the life of an ordinary man.
The four-fold truth on which Buddha’s whole scheme hinges may be
expressed as follows:—Life on earth is full of suffering; suffering is
generated by desire; the extinction of desire involves the extinction of
suffering; the extinction of desire, and therefore of suffering, is the
outcome of a righteous life. But how is desire with the suffering which
it generates to be extinguished? The answer of Buddhism is that the
eightfold path which leads to the extinction of suffering is by “Right
Belief, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Effort, Right
Means of Livelihood, Right Remembrance and Self-discipline, Right
Concentration of Thought.” In Buddha’s system, as he himself gave it to
the world, doctrines and beliefs are of secondary importance. Fully
alive to the truth that “what we do, besides being the outward and
visible sign of our inward and spiritual state, reacts naturally and
necessarily on what we are, and so moulds our character and controls our
destiny,” he formulated for his followers a simple system of moral
rules, obedience to which would set them on the path which leads to
salvation. On this path there are successive stages, and each of these
stages is marked by the breaking of some of the fetters which bind man
to earth and to self, and when all the fetters are at last broken then
the Holy One, as he is now called, has reached his goal. In other words,
he has attained to that state which Buddhists call Nirvana, a state of
“perfect knowledge, perfect love, perfect peace, and therefore of
perfect bliss.”