198 
BURMA AND ITS PEOPLE. 
Sep., 1891. 
reaches the final consummation of Nirvana, in which state he 
will for ever attain perfect repose and cessation from all 'personal 
consciousness. But if he fails in this extinction of earthly 
desires, he may relapse into one of the lower forms through 
which he has already passed, or even be re-born into one of 
the 186 divisions of hell, where he must pass at least 500 
years, of which each day equals fifty earthly years, after which 
lengthy purgation he may be re-born once more into a better 
state. 
The Buddha’s fraternity was a monastic communism in 
which all were bound by certain obligations of celibacy, 
poverty, and mutual confession, but it was not in any true 
sense a priesthood, and its vows were and are not ever 
irrevocable. 
Personal extinction was the summum bonum of its 
religious aspirations, and the brotherhood was to become 
co-extensive with the whole world. 
The elaborate hierarchy of Thibet, with its Llamas, 
bishops, and orders of priests is a gross corruption of the 
Buddha’s system, and it is in Burma that the latter still 
retains most of its primitive simplicity. A knowledge of the 
facts which I have summarised in a few words will, I think, 
enable my friends to follow with greater interest such portions 
of my further discourse as refer to the Burmese Hpoongyees 
and the Kyoungs or dwellings of their brotherhoods. 
On leaving Rangoon by the line of railway which now 
connects that port with the ancient capital of Mandalay, and 
will shortly be extended to Bhamo and ultimately connected 
with the Indian lines in Assam, you pass through very varied 
scenery. For perhaps fifty miles together you travel through 
dense jungle where forest trees shut out the noonday sun ; 
occasionally you emerge into open tracts where thousands of 
acres are cultivated with paddy by a system of laborious 
irrigation ; once more you plunge into the depths of the forest 
and yet again pass into a region where, at intervals, clusters 
of native dwellings stand buried among plantains and cocoa 
and Palmyra palms, while here and there the bungalows of 
European residents indicate a British station. 
A cottage in the jungle is shown in Plate 9. 
Orchids hang in thousands from the branches of the trees, 
and now and again a tinge of colour among the topmost 
boughs proclaims that the gorgeous Vanda teres is in bloom ; 
giant creepers and lianas clasp the tree trunks or hang in 
