p. 101

98

...either side is really the entrance. When at the top of these stairs (postal 90) there is but a platform and more stairs, so one climbs on and on up steps which cannot be seen from the road below until the top of the hill is reached. This is levelled so as to form a huge platform. In the center is the Golden Pagoda (postal 91) and is surrounded with shrines (postal 92). Each is supplied with idols of Buddha and an altar. The people, men, women and children came with flowers which they might buy from little Burmese ladies on the stairs afer kow towing and saying their prayers they placed the flowers on the altar. Palm trees everywhere and a broad circular street surrounds the big Pagoda with its circle of shrines and outside is another circle of many shrines big and little. A rich man or woman "acquire merit" by building such a shrine and some were evidently vastly expensive. Two or more were made of glass mosaic and were effectively pretty. The architecture is rather Chinese I should say and the decoration is a mass of color. It is a pity...