Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c42.26

c42.26

That the Far Eastern influence in the buildings of this period is readily discernible will no doubt be admitted, but at the same time the racial reactions of the people have translated the forms communicated to them from the profoundly ancient civilization of China, into their own idiom. Perhaps the monument that is least effected by this change of direction in the minds of the Burmese from westward to eastward, and one that indicates in the most marked manner the connecting link between India on the one hand and China on the other, is the great Shwe Dagon Pagoda at Rangoon. This stupa-pagoda is not only a national monument, but is also fully representative of the spirit of Burma in its more modern phase. It enshrines within its reliquary eight sacred hairs of Gautama, and is recorded to be of very ancient foundation, although the present structure dates principally from the middle of the sixteenth century. From the ground level of the platform on which the stupa stands it rises to a height of about 370 feet, or a little higher than St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Its imposing appearance is however increased by the fact that it is poised on a mound, partly natural and partly artificial, shaped into two rectangular terraces, one above the other, each side, according to the customary orientation of this type of building, facing one of the cardinal points. In its architectural aspect, the Shwe Dagon Pagoda shows how far the Buddhist stupa, in the course of time and when removed from the country of its origin, has departed from the traditional mound-shaped pile to become a tall tenuous structure with only a suggestion of the tumulus body traceable in its composition Summarized it consists of a wide terraced base of 1355 feet circumference supporting a tapering spire of slender proportions, divided into zones by transverse concentric string-courses, and surmounted by a richly decorated finial or *hti*