8 The Remains at Pagan. [No. 1. 



The Pagan ruins extend over a space about eight miles in length 

 along the river, and probably averaging two miles in breadth. The 

 present town of Pagjin stands on the river side within the decayed 

 ramparts of the ancient city, near the middle length of this 

 space. 



This brick rampart and fragments of an ancient gateway shewing 

 almost obliterated traces of a highly architectural character, are the 

 only remains at Pagan which are not of a religious description. If 

 any tradition lingers round the site of the ancient palaces of the 

 kings, who reigned here for so many centuries, our party missed it. 



Of the number of the temples at Pagan, I feel scarcely able to 

 form any estimate, the few days which we spent there having been 

 chiefly devoted to a detailed examination of some of the most 

 important. But of all sizes I should not guess them at less than 

 eight hundred, or perhaps a thousand. 



All kinds and forms are to be found among them ; the bell-shaped 

 pyramid of dead brick-work in all its varieties ; the same, raised 

 over a square or octagonal cell containing an image of the Buddha 5 

 the bluff knoblike dome of the Ceylon Dagobas, with the square 

 cap which seems to have characterized the most ancient Buddhist 

 Chaityas as represented in the sculptures at Sanchi, and in the 

 ancient model pagodas in the Asiatic Society's Museum ; the 

 fantastic Bo-phya or Pumpkin Pagoda, which seemed rather like 

 a fragment of what we might conceive the architecture of the moon, 

 than anything terrestrial ; and many variations on these types. 

 But the predominant and characteristic form is that of the cruciform 

 vaulted temple, which we have described above. 



Three at least of the great temples, and a few of the smaller ones 

 of this kind, have been from time to time repaired, and are still 

 more or less frequented by worshippers. But by far the greater 

 number have been abandoned to the owls and bats, and some have 

 been desecrated into cow-houses by the villagers. 



In some respects the most remarkable of the great temples, and 

 that which is still the most frequented as a place of worship, is the 

 An and a. 



11 This temple is said to have been built in the reign of Kyan-yeet- 

 tha, about the time of the Norman conquest of England. Tradition 



