The romantic East: Burma, Assam, & Kashmir - Khamkoo

60 THE ROMANTIC EAST
To the north is a white pagoda with trees growing
on it, then comes the great bell, in size second only
to the one in the Kremlin (which weighs about 200
tons)
hung on big timbers resting on brick piers,
and supported on stones inserted below the lip
which measures over 16 feet in diameter. The
bell is nearly 12 feet high, 6 to 12 inches thick, and
weighs
80 to 90 tons. South of the bell is the
unfinished pagoda, a mass of solid brickwork 165
feet high and 230 feet square, split from top to
bottom by the earthquake of 1839 and torn by
thunderbolts, one corner entirely gone and the
rest fallen to ruins. It stands on a platform 450
feet square, and there are over 8,000,000 cubic
feet of bricks in this unfinished temple, which was
begun by King Bo-daw-paya
in the closing
years
of the eighteenth century. South of the temple
on the river bank is
the white Sibyo pagoda, with
a porch in front and steps down to the water's edge.
We left the steamer at Mandalay, but one can
go all the way from there to Rangoon by the
Flotilla, a distance of 708 miles, stopping 120 miles
down at Nyaungu, noted for its fine basket-wares
covered with so-called lacquer, which is really made