great
religious buildings. It is not specially impressive by its majesty or
holiness; it is certainly wanting in order and arrangement. But on
entering the platform one feels that one has suddenly passed from this
life into another and different world. It is not perhaps a very
elevated world; certainly not the final repose of the just or the
steps of the throne of God, but it is as if you were walking in the
bazaars of Paradise--one of those Buddhist Paradises where the souls
of the moderately pure find temporary rest from the whirl of
transmigration, where the very lotus flowers are golden and the leaves
of the trees are golden bells that tinkle in the perfumed breeze.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 124: For the Pyus see Blagden in _J.R.A.S._ pp. 365-388.
_Ibid._ in _Epigr. Indica_, 1913, pp. 127-133. Also reports of _Burma
Arch. Survey_, 1916, 1917.]

[Footnote 125: So C.C. Lowis in the _Gazetteer of Burma_, vol. I. p.
292, but according to others the Burmese chronicles place the event at
the beginning of the Christian era.]

[Footnote 126: Sometimes called New Pagan to distinguish it from Old
Pagan which was a name of Tagaung. Also called Pagan or Pugama and in
Pali Arimaddanapura.]

[Footnote 127: See the travels of Kia Tan described by Pelliot in
_B.E.F.E.O._ 1904, pp. 131-414.]

[Footnote 128: More correctly Taung-ngu.]

[Footnote 129: For the history and present condition of Buddhism in
Burma the following may be consulted besides other works referred to
in the course of this chapter.

M. Bode, _Edition of the Sasanavamsa_ with valuable dissertations,
1897. This work is a modern Burmese ecclesiastical history written in
1861 by Pannasami.

M. Bode, _The Pali Literature of Burma_, 1909.

The Gandhavamsa: containing accounts of many Pali works written in
Burma. Edited by Minayeff in _Jour. Pali Text Soc._ for 1886, pp. 54
ff. and indexed by M. Bode, _ibid._ 1896, 53 ff.

Bigandet, _Vie ou Legende de Gautama_, 1878.

Yoe, _The Burman, his life and notions_.

J.G. Scott, _Burma, a handbook of practical information_, 1906.

_Reports of the Superintendent, Archaeological Survey, Burma_,
1916-1920.

Various articles (especially by Duroiselle, Taw-Sein-Ko and R.C.
Temple) in the _Indian Antiquary_, _Buddhism_, and _Bulletin de
l'Ecole Francaise de l'Extreme Orient._]

[Footnote 130: So too Prome is called Srikshetra and the name
Irrawaddy represents Iravati (the modern Ravi). The ancient town of
Sravasti o