j30 COGGIN BROWN: THE BURMA EARTHQUAKES OF MAY 10.12. 



2. Carved and ornamented wooden monasteries (pongyi kyaunge) 



including the royal palace at Mandalay, rest-houses 

 (zayats), wooden shrines, theins, iazaungs, and the like. 



3. Masonry temples, Such as the Ananda and others, peculiar 



to Pagan and other old sites in Upper Burma. 



We are only concerned here with buildings of the first class, 



the wooden structures of class 2, escaped with 



Pagan temples an- ^ j. while an examination of the 



ancient Pagan temples which I made two 



months after the earthquake, proved that they suffered little or 



no damage. 



The common classification of solid pagodas (which are ungues" 



tionablv the direct lineal descendants of the 



d jaa88ifioation of pago- anc i en t Indian Buddhist stupas), or zedis, is 



as follows : — 



1. Pat-daw Zedi, those containing relics of a Buddha 



or Eahanda. 



2. Paribawga Zedi, those containing implements or garments 



which have belonged to the Buddhas or sacred person- 

 ages. 



3. Dhamma Zedi, those containing books or texts. 



4. Udeiksa Zedi, those built from motives of piety, and con- 

 taining statues of the Buddha or models of sacred build- 



"O 



ings. 



The last two classes are by far the most numerous, and the 

 devastation which the earthquake caused to such buildings in the 

 Shan States and Upper Burma was confined to these groups. 



Most of the Burmese pagodas are constructed of brickwork and 



covered with stucco. Their peculiar method 



Construction of Bur- r i r .i j j 



niesc pagodas. °* construction can be seen from the appended 



drawing (PI. No. 2). Stone and laterite have 



also been used but this is very rare. 



The outside is usually whitewashed, and in some cases richly 

 gilt as well. They are slender conical piles, the chief peculiarity 

 of which is the inward curvature of the contour on both sides. 

 Shan pagodas are very much more slender in the spire than the 

 Burmese ones. They retain the hti or umbrella which the Siamese 

 pagodas discard. All the larger pagodas stand on a wide, open 



