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

16 THE ROMANTIC EAST
are in reality towers of victory, and each story has
its projecting roof or cornice, closely resembling
the projections on the Burmese pagoda spires.
The Burmese name for pagoda is zedi, and pay a
means a shrine or its image.
Both the pagoda and the dagoba
are lineal
descendants of the tope at Sanchi, and to the great
Asoka, the builder of the Indian monument, Burma
and Ceylon owe their architecture and their religion.
The Buddhists say that Asoka sent the missionaries
Sono and Uttaro to convert Burma, and that
Buddhism became the Burmese state religion in the
second century of our era ;
but Western historians
think that Buddhism was introduced into Burma
three centuries later from Ceylon. In both
countries practically
the whole of the indigenous
population remains Buddhist to this day, those
who profess other religions being immigrants or
their progeny.
The Burmese pagodas are similar in general
form to the Thuparama Dagoba, at Anuradhapura,
and others of the same type in Ceylon ; and, like
the dagobas, are gigantic reliquaries built over
some sacred object.
They are not only identical