176 



TRANSLATION OF A BURMESE 



list differs from that given by Mr. Paton, and many of the names cannot be made to 

 agree. A circumstance owing probably as much to the careless and inaccurate manner 

 in which Burmese and Arracanese copyists transcribe names, as to the difference between 

 the two languages. 



10. — Pyoo-thaken-nge, or little Pyoo-thaken, is supposed to have been a 

 priest, and some imagine that it was a name given to the disciple Theeri Kathaba, 

 who had come from Pagan as a subordinate in the mission from the king. 



11. — Pya-tho is the Burmese month, which usually falls partly in our December and 

 partly in January. 



12. — This is the Burmese vulgar era, styled by them Kauza-thakkareet. The 

 epoch was established in the year of Christ 638, by a king of Pagan named Poutpa- 

 TSAU-RAHAN. The calendar had been once before altered by Thoo-moun-daree, a 

 king of Prome, in the year of Christ 78, or 622 years after Gaudama's death. It is 

 remarkable, that the Siamese vulgar era, called by them Chooli Sakarat, was established 

 in the same year of Christ 638 as the Burmese ; and by a king of their own named Phaya 

 Krek Miboon, and Phaya Chooli Chakka-p,hat. 



13. — This month falls, usually, partly in our October and partly in November. 



14. — The present Burmese year is 1196, and if this inscription be considered as having 

 been put up in the year 468 or A. D. 1106, it will now be 728 years old. 



15. — Flags made of cloth and paper, of round cylindrical and of flat forms, curiously 

 cut and adorned, and often having prayers and requests written upon them, are presented 

 to temples, and hung up near them and near monasteries as ornaments. 



16. — Plates full of boiled rice, with fruit and fish, are laid before temples and images 



e 



of Gaudama, as religious offerings, and this food is afterwards eaten by the pagoda 

 slaves, or by dogs and birds. Lights are also offered and placed as ornaments. They 

 are intended to illuminate the good works of a Buddhist, The word joined to lights in the 

 inscription is read by some Burmese as " a thousand," a number often said to be offered, 

 and by others as " set up," a common expression applied to lights. 



17. — The sense here is not very clear in the original, whether these twenty-one young 

 persons composed the suite of the mission, or were purchased at Gaga and allotted as slaves 

 to the temple, agreeably to the custom in Burmali, in order to reside constantly near the 

 building, to take charge of it and keep it clean and in order. The Burmese vakeels take 

 the latter sense, and assume that the Jogees, who are now at Buddha Gaga, are lineally 

 descended from the young men placed in A. D. 1106 to take care of the edifice then 



