1857.] The Remains at Pag&n. 17 



adorned these monuments. The renewals and repairs have been 

 executed by barbarous and tasteless hands. Of this I shall speak 

 more fully by and bye. 



The second great temple of Pagan is the Thapinyu — " the Omnis- 

 cient." 



It is stated to have been built in the reign of A-loung-tsee-chyoo 

 Men, grandson of the king who erected the Ananda, about the year 

 of our era 1100.* 



It stands within the ancient walls, some five hundred yards to the 

 south-west of the Ananda, and its taper spire, rising to a height of 

 two hundred and one feet from the ground, overtops all the other 

 monuments. 



Its general plan is not unlike that of the Ananda, but it does 

 not, like the latter, form a symmetrical cross. The eastern porch 

 alone projects considerably from the wall. The body of the building 

 forms a massive square of more than one hundred and eighty feet 

 to the side. 



The characteristic of the Thapinyu is the great elevation of the 

 mass before considerable diminution of spread takes place, and the 

 position of the principal shrine high above the ground. 



We have first a spacious two-storied basement like that of the 

 Ananda, then two receding terraces. But here the usual gradation 

 is interrupted. The third terrace, instead of rising a few feet only 

 like the others, starts at one leap aloft to a height of some fifty feet 

 in a truly massive and stupendous cubical donjon, crowned again 

 at top by a renewal of the pyramidal gradation of terraces, and by 

 the inevitable culminating spire. 



Within this donjon, in a lofty vaulted hall opening by pointed 

 gateways to the east, north and south, and directly under the apex 

 of the spire, sits the great image of the shrine. This is, with one 

 exception, the only instance I have seen in these temples, in which 



* The dates given are those traditionally ascribed to the temples, and are the 

 same with those already given by Crawfurd. Major Phayre considers the inscrip- 

 tions at Pagan, so far as he had time to examine them, to confirm these dates, 

 very remarkable as they are under the circumstances. 



B 



