316 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
called by Europeans Monchabo. The first, dis~ 
tant six taings, or twelve miles, from Sagaing, 
is celebrated for a temple of immense size, built 
by the late King; and the last, ten taings, is 
well known as the birth-place and seat of Go¬ 
vernment of Alompra. We ascended a consi¬ 
derable way up the higher range, from which a 
beautiful and magnificent prospect of the lower 
country is presented : this consists of the towns 
of Ava and Sagaing, the river with its islands, 
the lake Remyat-gyi’-ang, with the stupendous 
temple of Kaong-m’hu-d’hau on its banks close 
below. Both ranges are covered with temples 
innumerable. Sometimes the sides of the de¬ 
composed rocks are excavated to the distance of 
twenty or thirty yards, and these shafts, cased 
with brick and mortar, form the principal por¬ 
tion of the temple, the outer wall and a portion 
of the roof only being visible. In one low tem¬ 
ple of this description we found a recumbent 
image of Gautama, occupying the whole build¬ 
ing, and of the enormous length of very nearly 
seventy-five feet, each foot measuring twelve 
feet. The soles were sculptured in the manner 
in which the foot of Guatama is always repre¬ 
sented, with a great variety of emblematic and 
hieroglyphic figures. The temples and statues 
are generally very ill constructed: of the latter. 
