Travels in India (Tavernier) 145.3

145.3

This results from the fact that there is no rich Siamese who does not have one built to perpetuate his memory. These pagodas have towers and bells, and the walls inside are painted and gilt, but the windows are so narrow that they afford but little light. The altars are laden with costly idols, among which there are generally three of different sizes close to one another. The two pagodas to which, as I have said, the King goes in state, are surrounded by many beautiful pyramids, all well gilt; and that which is in the island where the Dutch have their house has associated with it a cloister, the facade of which is very fine. In the middle there is, as it were, a great chapel all gilded within, where a lamp and three wax candles are kept alight in front of the altar, which is covered with idols, some being of fine gold and the others of gilt copper. The pagoda, which is in the middle of the town, and is one of the two which the King visits once in the year, as I have related, contains nearly 4000 idols, and it has around it, as has that which is at 6 leagues from Siam, a quantity of pyramids, the beauty of which causes one to wonder at the industry of this nation.