WD540(2)

‘Old Monastic houses - a Road in Rangoon.’

THE building occupied by Major Phayre, the Commissioner, as a temporary residence at the time of the Mission, is one of the few remaining old Kioungs or dwellings of the Poongees, or priests of old Rangoon, and stands at the west side of the principal road leading to the great Pagoda, which is seen at the extreme of the drawing.

Throughout Burmah, the Monasteries, or dwellings of the priests, which are always in the immediate vicinity of a temple, and generally attached to it, partake of the sanctity, the honors and privileges of the pagoda, and other religious edifices. The triple roof is an architectural distinction peculiar and permitted only to these monastic buildings, and to the residence of the King, the Heir apparent, and ‘Lord White Elephant.’ The very beautiful seven-roofed pyasath of the Tzoum or sanctuary, of which numerous specimens are found in Captain Tripe's Photographs, is confined elsewhere to the Royal Palace, crowning the spire of which, also, is found the graceful and gilded Tee, an honorable distinction appertaining only to persons and things sacred or royal. In presence of the Priesthood, however, even the King ‘wears his honors meekly,’ — for on visiting a pagoda, or monastery he will remove his shoes, whereas a Poongee, or Priest, on entering the royal palace or presence, is not, it is said, under the necessity of doing the same tiling.

The Kioungs are built entirely of wood, and raised on massive pillars about seven feet from the ground; but the stairs, with their gracefully convoluted and massive sides, are invariably of brick and plaster, — the only bit of masonry belonging to the edifice.

The old buildings here represented, dilapidated and dismantled of their ornament, convey not the slightest conception of the gorgeous monasteries of Umeerapoora.