176 A Burmese inscription. [No. 3 



Translation. 



Be victorious. 1 



When the Bhadoon Prince, 2 the royal son of the great Aloung- 

 Phra, who ruled over the great country of Koonboung, 3 that deposi- 

 tory of all earthly treasures, had enjoyed the golden Palace and 

 Umbrella for fourteen years ; in the year of men 1154, and when* 

 religion had reached (the year) 2336; (then) the Pagoda built 

 on the south side of the Bookan 5 stream where the brother Princes, 6 

 Isoo-la-tham-ba-wa, and Maha-tham-ba-wa, met the daughter of the 

 supposed hermit, named Princess Bhedaree, and (in after times) 

 from their having on that spot become engaged lovers, the Pagoda 

 was called " The ardently desired ;" (the same) having from the 

 lapse of time become decayed ; (therefore) from a sincere benevo- 

 lence, with a fixed and decided desire to engage in a great work of 

 religious merit, which like a placid stream of water ceased not ; and 

 continually remembering the evil — Death ; that one transmigration 

 from a living body goes on to another, and that according to univer- 

 sal law, we pass to another state of existence as surely as the 

 shadow follows the substance ; that of the goods we treasure up in 

 the present life, nothing to the extent even of one hair can follow 

 us, but that we must part from them ; laying to heart that there is 

 a road we must all one day travel, and valuing only such things as 

 are worthy to be used (in a religious building) ; remembering the 

 words of the Divine preacher, and rejecting all unlawful goods ; and 

 accepting only what devout men and women bestow in righteous- 

 ness ; forbidding not what is offered at joyful festivals or mournful 

 assemblies ; receiving all contributions and offerings, and purchas- 

 ing bricks and paying masons' hire; the excellent Abbot Sheng 

 Thee-la-tsa-ya, who resides in the Lee-oung monastery, by virtue of 

 the observance of the rules incumbent on priests, which accumu- 

 lated his religious merits as it were to the thickness of the earth 

 230,000 yoodzana, 7 had in the year 1116 reached the grade of a 

 Pyeen-tseng, 8 and when he had accomplished forty yearly fasts, he 

 prepared a relic shrine, in which to place a representation of Prince 

 Theid-dat 9 going forth to the wilderness ; of his enduring sorrows ; 

 images also of the twenty-eight Buddhas of a former world period ; 



