The title Tibyuzaung means bearer of a white umbrella, the mark of kingship. It was borne by Kunzaw, the last king but one before Nawyăta. He was deposed by his son and successor Sokkăde. A deposed monarch has a right to retain the white umbrella. He became a monk, and appears in the ancient costume of the Buddhist order.
Maung Po Tu was a trader of Ava, who was killed by a tiger when he was going to buy tea from the Palaungs in the Shan States. He had the misfortune to offend the nat of the Kălădaung ("Indians' Hill") by sticking upright in the ground the spoon with which he stirred the contents of his rice-pot. The story, seemingly modern, may possibly be connected with phallic worship, of which there are survivals in the Tai country.[1]
Snake-worship.—Snake worship, as already mentioned, has left traces even in the purer form of Buddhism now practised in Burma, but it is not of these that I now propose to treat. There is a very remarkable shrine at Tăgaung on the Irrawaddy, a hundred and twenty four miles north of Mandalay; now a mere village, but regarded by the Burmese as their most ancient capital. Buried deep in the ground is a huge log, the upper part of which is carved into the semblance of a head measuring, with the headdress, over four feet in height, and covered with gold-leaf. The features are grotesque: bulging eyes, a long-bridged nose with exaggerated nostrils, a very short chin, and no mouth. Between the eyes are leaf-like ornaments suggestive of a dragon's crest, and there are conventional ears somewhat in the shape of tails. Once a year the doors of the shrine are thrown open, and adults permitted to see the image, if they dare to look, and make offerings to it. Children are not allowed to
- ↑ For illustrations of some of these images, and of the tree-cutting ceremony, see the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute for the second half of 1915, quoted above. The actual headdress worn by one of the priestesses at the ceremony witnessed by me is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
