Arakan Library - The Land of The Great Image

Arakan: - One Who Preserves and Takes Care of Their Own Nationality.

Publication by Arakan Action Association (AAA.)

By Maurice Gollis

THE LAND OF THE GREAT IMAGE

THE WHITE ELEPHANT

If it was not easy for Monique to grasp the theological situation in Arakan, it was hardly more possible for him to known what was really happening in polities. There, the three chief personalities were, as we shall see in the last chapters of this book, the Chief Queen, Nat Shin Me, the Mistress of Paradies, and the two rival councilors, Lat Rone and Kuthala. His narrative gives no hint that he was aware of this. But, like any modern visitor to a new country, he tried to find out what he could. After the audience just described, he was conducted on a tour of the palace-city. He saw some curious things and the mention of them here will serve to throw more light upon the Court, on the position of Arakan vis-à-vis the kingdoms farther east, and generally upon the history of the preceding half-century.

What they showed him was the Burmese loot. Thirty-one years before, in 1599. Arakan had inflicted a great defeat upon Burma. This occurred during the reign of thiri-thu-dham-ma's grandfather, the great Razagri (1593-1612). The Burmese then had their capital at Prgu. Under their king, Bayinnaung, who died in 1581, so remarkable had been the success of their arms that their military supremacy was undisputed in that part of the world. In 1564 Ayudhia, the capital of Siam, had been sacked by them and a great booty, including four White Elephants, was carried to Pegu. Fariay Souta, whom we have quoted earlier in this volume in Captain John Steven's bold seventeenth-century translation, gives the picture of Bayin-naung's trisumphal entry into Pegu. 'Braginco,' he says, for so he renders the king's style, as if he were a paynim knight from Aristo, 'Braginoco entered the city in triumph, many wagons going before loaded with idols and inestimable booty. He came at last in a chariot with the conquered queens laden with jewels at his feet, and drawn by the captive princes and lords; before him marched two thousand elephants richly adorned, and after him his victorious troops. He built a palaces as big as an ordinary city. The least part of its beauty was carving and gilding; for the roofs of some apartments were covered with plates of solid gold. Some rooms were set with statues of kings and queens of massy gold, set with rich stones, as big as the life. He was carried on a litter of gold upon many men's shoulders, the reverence paid him more like that accorded a god than a prince.'

Fariay Souta published his book in Lisbon in1666, and Stevens's translation, published by Brome, at the Sign of the Gun, London, appeared in 1695. But the London public had had some first-hand information relating to Pegu as early as 1625; five years before Manrique's visit to Arakan. This was contained in a collection of voyages edited by Samuel Purchas, called Hakluytus Pesthumus or Purchas His Pilgrims. The book included, among other narratives, that of Ralph Fitch, a Londoner, who visited Pegu in 1586. Bayin-naung had been dead five years, and Nanda-bayin was on the throne.Fitch describes the new city of Pegu, and how he was shown the Siamese loot, including one of the White Elephants: the other three may have died. You had to pay half to pay half a ducat to see the beast. If you were lucky, you might get a glimpse of him feeling from silver and gold platters. For his bath in the river he went under a canopy of cloth of gold held by eight men, with a band playing light music in front. 'When he is washed and cometh out of the river, there is a Gentlemen which doth wash his feet in a silver basin,' added Fitch. As for the other loot, he was shown a number of the Siamese golden and bronze images, and, though this was of Burmese, not Siamese, workmanship, a huge statue of Bayin-naung's predecessor, Tabin-shwe-ti, 'a king in golde with a crowne of golde on his head full of great rubies and saphires'. This may mean the statue had a treasure of jewels inside it.

When Razagri invaded Burma thirteenth years later, in 1599, he carried away to Mrauk-U the Siamese loot, the most important items of which were the White Elephant and a pair of ruby ear-rings of which were the Siamese loot, the most important items of which were the White Elephant and a pair of ruby ear-rings of fabulous value. The gold statue of Tabin-sehwe-ti was also taken, along with other images, some of them from Ayudhia. And among the captives was a princess, Nanda-bayin's own daughter.

Thirty-one years pass and another European views this loot. Manrique is conducted into a building, the rooms of which were paneled with scented timbers, such as sandalwood and eagle-wood, the latter an aromatic wood with a sweet cloying fragrance, which clings always to it in a damp hot climate, but in the their colder air of England evaporates, as I have found, so that a walking-stick which once could scent its corner on a close tropic night is now odourless. Passing through these perfumed chambers he came to a pavilion known as the 'House of Gold', the walls of which were plated with gold. Along the ceiling was a golden creeper, like a melon or a marrow plant, with many gourds or pumpkins mounded in the same metal, like the vine which at that date was in the Great Mogul's audience hall, though that was more in the Chinese style, the stalk being of agate, the leaves of emeralds and the grapes of garnets, 'In this chamber were seven idols of gold, each the size and shape of a man, the metal being thicker than two finger breadths,' writes Manrique. They were covered with precious stones of great size. In the courtyard was the statue of Tabin-shwe-ti. There was a hole in it, for it had been cut open to get at the jewels which it contained. In a further room Manrique was shown a golden casket, standing on a golden table, carved with devices and studded with gems. This contained the ear-rings. 'I must confess', say he, 'that I have seen very many rich and valuable things in other parts of the East, but when they opened that casket for me and I saw the Chaukna-gat ( the ear-rings) I was thunderstruck, finding that I could scarcely look on them owing to the intense brilliancy they emitted. They are each made of a ruby, like a pyramid or obelisk, as long as the little finger, the base being the size of a bantam's egg.' In addition to these jewels, which were part of the regalia, he saw a great quantity of golden flasks and ewers, all part of the Burmese loot, as he was informed.

He was then taken to visit the White Elephant, and saw him again on several occasions. The creature's origin and history interested him so much that he devotes no less than three chapters to the subject. These give a legendary history, some account of the Arakanese invasion of Pegu, and of the triumphal return of Razagri with the White Elephant 'which in his eyes was of greater value than all the kingdoms of the world'. And he goes on: 'I myself saw in Arakan the adornment and service of this elephant. Speaking as an eyewitness I can say that then when he went out, even on an ordinary occasion, as in springtime to take his bath, he was conducted there under a white canopy embroidered with the insignia of royalty, and to the sound of music. Following him were servants with golden water-heaters, ewers, scrapers, and other golden utensils of the bath.' On days of festival he wore a coat of crimson velvet, edged with gold and embroidered with pearls. A gold pectoral studded with diamonds and rubies clasped the coat in front, while a heavy gold chain was used as a girth. His tusks were banded with gold, in which precious stones of many colures were set.

Was this elephant one of the four which the Burmese King Bayin-naung took away from the King of Siam in 1563? That it was the same elephant which Ralph Fitch saw in 1586 is certain. But was that elephant certainly one of the four? I think we can assume that it was. Supposing that in 1563 its age was fifteen years, in 1640 it would have been eighty-two. For elephants that is a ripe, but by no means an unusual, age. What an extraordinary life the animal had had, the petted darling for nearly a century of the kings of three kingdoms!

Why did these kings go to such enormous expense in keeping a White Elephant? Why did they regard it as the most valuable of their possessions? Why did they make war on each other on account of it? Manrique's long account affords no answer to these questions. He thought the White Elephant was a god or a devil. But it was not, it was a symbol, a symbol of royalty. Further India derived its ideas of royalty from Hinduism. Just as Christianity has been harnessed to supply rites and ceremonials to make kingship more august, so it was with Hinduism. The Buddhist kings of Further India were obliged to use Hindu rites, for Buddhism did not provide any. In Apostolic Buddhism there was no place for rulers; governments were regarded as one of the Five Evils. For that reason there was a Hindu element in all Buddhist courts. A corps of Brahmins was maintained to supervise the coronations, the royal funeral, and, for instance, the royal ploughing ceremony. The Brahmins had charge of the White Elephant. They were the repositories of an ancient traditions which had to do with the glorification of absolute monarchy.

The Emperor of China was considered, as Son of Heaven, to be Lord of the World, and similarly in India from the most ancient times there existed the tradition that the Emperor of India was Universal Emperor. In historical times emperors, like Asoka in the third century B.C and Harsha in the seventh century A.D., had ruled over the vast spaces of Hindustan. But long before them there were legendary monarchs, supposed to have been Cakravartin or Universal Emperors. In the old Burmese history, called the Glass Palace Chronicle, there occurs this sentence: 'Not even the Universal Monarch, King Mandhata, sovereign ruler of the Four Great Islands and the two thousand lesser isles surrounding them, and of the Two Limbos of the world of spirits, was free from rise and fall, separations and the breach of death.' The Buddhist writer does not deny the existence of Universal Monaechs, but claims that even they, incomparably great though they were, had to submit to the vicissitudes of fortune, determined by the balance of their good and evil actions in past existences, and must pass from death to death until at last they reached the perfect enlightenment which was the Buddha-state.

That there was or had been or might be again such a being as a Universal Monarch was the tradition of Hinduism and cited. Any king might aspire to become a Universal Monarch. It was the dreaming hope of every king. India had now fallen to the Mohammedan conqueror. But there were kings, great kings, in Further India, Buddhist kings watched over by Brahmin priests and astrologers. Now that the Mogul had come and strangled the classical land, one of these kings might be fated to become Lord of the World, a conception which since the coming of the Blessed One had taken a greater significance, for the Universal Monarch would be the instrument by which the peace and happiness of the Excellent Law would be extended to the whole world. In such a dispensation, the Universal Monarch would appear as a Buddhist figure of the highest conceivable rank; maybe, it would turn out that he was Maitreya, the Saviour long foretold. To become a Universal Monarch was therefore a hallowed ambition, far transcending mere governance of the whole world. It was a dream, incomparably lovely, and though no monarchs since the times of such personages as King Mandhata had fully realized it, at any time it might again become a reality.

How could a king tell whether he might hope for such a glorious destiny? How could mankind tell that he was soe destined? We are here in the realms of Hindu-Buddhist fantasy. The answer was that a Universal Monarch-to-be would have possession of the Seven Jems. And these Jems, what were they? All seven were great rarities, for sure. One of them was the Golden Wheel. This wheel, of course, was the wheel of the Law, an impression of which was on the foot of every Buddha. But the Golden Wheel itself? Ah, we cannot know. But we can well imagine. Were we able to interrogate an old court Brahmin, he would tell us that this was the identical wheel which King Mandhata had received from Paradise, or was the wheel which the first Buddha, Kakusandha, had caused Vishnu to make for him, or was the wheel which was thrown up by the sea dragon on the shore of Suvanabhumi enveloped in flames- or all three of these wheels. Another of the Jems was the Divine Guardian of the Treasury. What manner of guardian ghost this was I cannot tell. But, since we are in the realm of fantasy, why should it not have been the very guardian ghost that once I saw rising from the topmost enclosure of the palace-city, where had stood the Golden Room of the Kings? But pass to the next Jems, the Horse, the Jewel Maiden, and the Jewels that Wrought Miracles. As to these, assuredly King Thiri-thu-dhamma possessed the last, for if his ear-rings were impotent to give sight to the blind or transport a man to heaven, no Jewels, even of the imagination, could have accomplished it. The sixth Jem was a General who had never been, nor ever would be, defeated, perhaps the most difficult of all the Jems to acquire.

And now the last Jem. It clarifies my whole argument. This Jem was the White Elephant. The reader is thus fully documented. He will perceive precisely why Bayin-naung invaded Siam in 1563 and why Razagri invaded Burma in 1599. Each was the most powerful monarch their countries had produced. Each was a devout Buddhist. Each allowed himself to dream that perhaps he was destined to be that Universal Sovereign who, it had long been foretold, would come as a Saviour, a new Buddha, and restore the Golden Age. But an essential step was to secure a White Elephant. On his triumphal return to Arakan, Razagri immediately struck medallions, on which, preceding all his styles, he inscribed the greater style Hsin Hpyu Shin, Lord of the White Elephant. As long as the animal lived, his successors, including Thiri-thu-dhamma, retained this glorious title, always hoping it might be vouchsafed to them to realize its implications. These medallions or coins have been dug up in the palace-city. I have a few of them before me as I write. The title continued to be used till 1652, after which date it may be assumed the White Elephant died, though Dutch envoys in 1660 said they saw it.

Much more might be written about the White Elephant. For instance, to give it a more Buddhist complexion, there was stated to lodge in it the soul of a future Buddha, not the next Saviour, but one to come in the remote future, when the soul, through countless migrations, had worked its way upwards to enlightenment. This belief was founded on the fact recorded in the Buddhist classics that the last Buddha had in previous incarnations been a White Elephant.

Finally, the White Elephant was not strictly speaking white at all, but an albino with pink and yellow eyes, a pale-brick shade of skin, white-edged ears and white-tipped trunk, five white hind toe-nails, and russet hair.

Arakan Library was founded by a group of Arakan Action Association (AAA) in exile in Thailand from Burma in 2007 doing to voice for the knowledge, the people democratic and human rights.

Arakan Action Association (AAA)

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