A Burmese wonderland; a tale of travel in Lower and ... - Khamkoo

120 A BURMESE WONDERLAND.
about eight years old when Kyanzittha first saw him,
and it is evident from the Myazedi inscription that later
on a passionate aSection existed between this father
and son. The history of Bm-ma has no parallel to the
devotion whereby Kyanzittha educated his own boy
to regard the baby Alaung-Sithu as the heir.
Considering
his time, the vicissitudes of his youth, and above
all the ill-treatment of Anawratta, Kyanzittha's loyalty
to Anawratta's baby grandson is amazing.
A Chinese author, writing a century later in 1225
A.D., has thrown some hght on the civiUzation of
Pagan. It was then a great city, and the population
of the capital and suburbs was probably not less than
100,000. The people, we are told, wore the hair coiled
on the forehead, and bound with silk. The Chins pile
the hair forward in the same way still. The King
wore a peaked hat such as may be seen in the statue
of Kyanzittha in the Ananda Pagoda. The now empty
wastes of Pagan were then thronged with people ; and
foreign ships from India, Ceylon and Malay lay in the
Irrawaddy below the Lawkananda Pagoda. Pagan was
the centre of the Buddhist world, but the majority of
its pagodas had not then been built. There was no
Gawdaw-Pahn, and no Thatbyinnyu in those days.
The
Shwe-Sandaw, Paleik, Bu Paya, Patho-tha-mya, and
Lawkananda existed. Kyanzittha himself completed the
Shwezigon begun by AnawTatta, and added unique
splendour to his capital in 1090 A.D., by erecting the
incomparable Ananda. He also built the Nagayon and