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TRANSL/ITION OF A BURMESE 



it. When Thare Khettar a was destroyed A. D. 94, one portion of the inhabitants re- 

 moved and settled at Pagan, where another capital was built, and another dynasty of 

 kings established, which flourished 1176 years, and lingered 80 years longer. Pagan was 

 destroyed by the Chinese, and 80 years after that event, a chief and descendant of the 

 Tagoung race of kings, named Thado-men-bya, conquered the last remains of the 

 Pagan dynasty, and founded the city of Ava and a new dynasty of kings, about the year 

 of Christ 1364. Hence, the kings of Ava to this day consider themselves as descended 

 from the Tagoung line of kings, and one of their titles Ne-dwet-Bliuren, erroneously 

 translated by us (king of the rising sun), means a king come out of or descended from the 

 sun as the Tagoung kings were considered. In the same manner the kings of Ava pride 

 themselves upon being of the ThaJcya or Thakee race, and the late king Mendara-gyee, 

 when he married his eldest son to his eldest daughter referred, according to the 31st 

 volume of the Burmese history, to the established custom among the Thakee royal race. 

 The term Thado may be derived from Tha-dau royal son, although some Burmese con- 

 sider it to be the same as Tha-to, a son in addition. At present, it is conferred as a 

 title on princes and the highest ministers of state. The old Kyee Woongyee is a Thado. 

 Tagoung is described as having been destroyed by the Tartars and Chinese, but there 

 are to this day some remains of an old city said to be visible there. 



7. — The Lord of the white Elephant and great king of righteousness, or Tshen-byoo- 

 thaken tara mengyee, are common titles of the kings Pagan and Ava. In the Burmese 

 years 467 and 468, or A. D. 1105 and 1106, the person who bore these titles was a king 

 of Pagan named Aloung tsee thoo, and the latter half of the fourth volume of the 

 large Burmese history contains an account of his reign, and refers particularly in one 

 part, to an old inscription which is said to be still extant at Ava, commemorating some 

 charitable gifts made by this king to a temple called Shive Mouthau, in which inscription 

 he is styled " Lord of thirty-six white Elephants." He is also described in the Burmese 

 history, as having reigned for the long space of 75 years, between the Burmese years 455 

 and 530 or A. D. 1093 and 1168; as having exercised dominion over Arracan, Basseia 

 and Tinnasserira as well as over Ava, Pagan and Prome; and as having travelled more 

 than is usual with Burmese kings, — having visited China overland and Acheen and 

 Ceylon ("). On the day of his birth, the large honorary drum or gong, which agreeably 



(*) This king aiso visited on shipboard, but by what route does not appear, the Jamboo tree on 

 the northern end of this island— our north pole ! 



