Rajadhiraj’s Rangoon Relics and a Mon Funerary Stupa

Donald M. Stadtner

Abstract—At the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Burmese War (1852-

1853), derelict brick monuments were cleared to construct barracks at the foot
of the hill capped by the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon (Yangon). One stupa
disclosed nine objects, the most important of which were three gold reliquaries,
a band incised with a fifteen-line record in Pali and a bowl containing twenty-
one bone fragments.
The incised band can be attributed to the Mon king, Rajadhiraj (reigned
c. 1384 – c. 1420), whose capital was ancient Hamsavati, or modern Pegu
(Bago). As the sole inscription associated with this leading Mon ruler, the band
marks a significant addition to less than a handful of surviving records from the
14th and early 15th centuries in Lower Burma (Myanmar).
The Pali inscription recorded religious donations occasioned by the cremation
of Rajadhiraj’s queen. The bone fragments within the bowl are likely the
queen’s, suggesting that the stupa was a funerary monument.
The three gold reliquaries were probably produced in Lower Burma but share
affinities with Sri Lankan examples. Reliquaries imported from Sri Lanka, and
from Eastern India, probably played an incalculable role in shaping designs of
Southeast Asian reliquaries and also brick and stone stupas.
This treasure-trove has been the subject of occasional notices, but a fresh
examination is merited in view of its importance for understanding Mon
civilization and funerary traditions in Southeast Asia during the 14th and 15th
centuries.

The discovery
The objects were uncovered on 13 April 1855, while “leveling one of the
pagodas on the Eastern heights (the site of the new European Barracks)” (Sykes
1860: 299).1 Old maps and descriptions indicate that these barracks were located
“about a quarter of a mile” southeast of the Shwedagon Pagoda (St. John 1895: 201).
The brick stupa enshrining the relics was among a “forest of small pagodas” inside
1
This important trove has been largely overlooked since Sykes’ summary of the finds in 1860. The
gold helmet was included in a catalogue published by the Victoria and Albert Museum (Lowry
1974) which was followed by an article in which the gold band was incorrectly attributed to
Dhammaceti and the gold helmet to Banya Thaw, or Queen Shinsawbu (Singer 1992).

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64 Donald M. Stadtner

the earthen ramparts southeast of the Shwedagon in the mid-19th century (Grant
1995: 29). Three or four small stupas appearing in this area on a map dated to 1852
certainly stood for many more (Khin Maung Nyunt 2000: 34) (Fig. 7). Hundreds of
brick stupas dotted the Rangoon landscape in the 19th century, but only a score or so
were in good repair and under worship, such as the Shwedagon, Sule and Botataung
(Grierson 1825; Grant 1995).
The small but impressive treasure-trove was sent to Calcutta and then on to
the East Indian Company’s Court of Directors in London where they entered the
Company’s museum by 1856. The items were exhibited at a meeting of the Royal
Asiatic Society in June 1857, and subsequently noted by Col. W. H. Sykes in the
Society’s journal in 1860. The objects were thereafter transferred by 1879 to the
South Kensington Museum, London (later the Victoria and Albert Museum), apart
from the gold band whose whereabouts remains unknown but whose text was
included as an eye-copy in the aforementioned journal (Sykes 1860: Pl. IV) (Fig. 6).
Nine objects were enumerated in Sykes’ article: “Model of a gold pagoda
[reliquary] in three pieces, a larger ditto in four pieces, smaller ditto in three pieces
(imperfect), gold helmet set in jewels (broken), gold tassel, gold leaf scroll, small
gold cup with ruby on top, gold belt set with jewels, gold bowl with cover.” (Sykes
1860: 299). Only four of the nine are now accounted for, all in the Victoria and
Albert Museum.2 The gold bowl contained twenty-one blackened and calicined bone
fragments.
The objects were created by the repoussé technique in which gold sheets were
formed in the desired shape and then hammered from one side, resulting in raised
ornamentation on the exterior. Since the sheets are thin, finished objects are easily
subject to breakage. Repoussé was practiced throughout India and Southeast Asia
from early in the first millennium and was also used widely during Pagan’s classic
period (c. 11th – c. 13th centuries). However, these objects from Rangoon are the
only significant surviving examples of repoussé in Lower Burma between the 13th
and 16th centuries.3 In Thailand, by contrast, numerous specimens of gold repoussé
have been recorded during the same period, notably those interred within the crypts
2
The gold objects in the museum are the stupa (height 13.5 inches), the helmet (height 7.5 inches),
a tassel of sixteen stems, and a small bowl with lid containing bone fragments. The waist belt set
with 71 stones (length 27 inches), the gold cup and the smallest stupa (fragmentary) (height 2.5
inches) went missing from the museum long ago. The only illustration of the belt is found in Sykes’
lithograph (Pls. I, III) (Fig. 1). The complete gold stupa, de-accessioned in 1958, was 14.5 inches
in height, 7.5 inches in diameter and was set with 24 rubies (Fig. 3). The twenty-one irregularly
shaped bone fragments vary in size, from just under 1 inch in length to slightly more than 2 inches.
3
The Botataung Pagoda, Rangoon, provides a rare instance of an excavated relic chamber. A stupa-
shaped stone casket contained a small stone image of the ‘fat monk’, probably Gavampati, and a
tiny gold repoussé stupa with a single seated Buddha on each side of its base; inside were two small
bone fragments, together with a hair relic coated in lacquer (Luce 1985: Fig. 72; Stadtner 2011:
115). The repoussé stupa is of crude workmanship but is one of the few surviving examples from
this age in Lower Burma.

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Figure 1. Rangoon treasure-trove, lithograph. After Sykes, Pl. I

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66 Donald M. Stadtner

Figure 2 (above). Gold Reliquary. c. 1400 – c. 1420. h. 13 ½ inches. Courtesy: Victoria

and Albert Museum

Figure 3 (opposite). Gold Reliquary, inset with 24 rubies. h. 14 ¼ inches. Whereabouts

unknown. Courtesy: Victoria and Albert Museum

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68 Donald M. Stadtner

Figure 4 (above). Gold helmet,

inset with precious stones. c.
1400 – c. 1420. h. 7 ½ inches.
Courtesy: Victoria and Albert
Museum

Figure 5 (left). Gold bowl, with

lid, containing twenty-one bone
fragments. c. 1400 – c. 1420
Courtesy: Victoria and Albert
Museum

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 Rajadhiraj’s Rangoon Relics and a Mon Funerary Stupa 69

Figure 6. Eye-copy of gold band inscription. After Sykes, Pl. 4

Figure 7. Rangoon, 1852. Sule Pagoda, circled. After Khin Maung Nyunt, p. 34

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70 Donald M. Stadtner

Figure 8 (above). Ayutthaya gold reliquary, inset with

precious stones. Wat Ratchaburana, c. 1424. After
Prathum, p. 24.

Figure 9 (top right). Reliquaries, Adu Aludeniya, c.

14th century. Colombo Museum. Courtesy: Sanjeeva
Rambukwella

Figure 10 (below). Reliquary set, silver and gold. Wat

Phraphut, Narathiwat Province. c. 11th – c. 14th century.
After Piriya, Pl. XIII

Figure 11 (right). Gilded reliquary. Possibly from crypt

of Sa Si stupa, c. 12 – c.14th century. Sukhothai Museum.
Courtesy: Paisarn Piammettawat

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of two temples at Ayutthaya: Wat Mahathat, c. 1374 (Prathum 2005), and Wat
Ratchaburana, c. 1424 (Pattaratorn 2005).
The principal items in the Rangoon trove were shown in a lithograph included
in the Society’s journal (Fig. 1). The brick background, together with untamed
vegetation, imparts the impression of a fresh discovery, but perhaps the objects
were artificially arranged to create a ‘picturesque’ effect. A cloth covering seems
to have once fitted over the gold helmet. The ringed spire of the stupa, now in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, was broken off at the top and never recovered; the
smallest stupa retained only its base, visible on the bottom right (Fig. 1). Since the
relic chamber was not invested by treasure-seekers, this breakage probably occurred
when the enveloping brick stupa was dismantled.
All the items were acquired by the South Kensington Museum in 1879, the
year the East India Company collection was transferred to the museum. Most were
“exhibited in a case”, at least by the mid-1890s (St. John 1895: 199). The gold belt
and gold cup with a ruby on its cover were in the museum in 1895 but cannot be
traced today (St John 1895: 201). The complete stupa reliquary was de-accessioned
in 1958, for unknown reasons, but was captured in a black-and-white photograph
(Fig. 3). Its present whereabouts is unknown. The only well-known object from the
assemblage is the gold helmet (Lowry 1974: 28) (Fig. 4).

The incised gold band

The Pali scholar, V. Fausböll, inspected the gold band at the Royal Asiatic
Society, London, in 1858 and prepared a translation that Sykes included in the article
of 1860. An eye-copy of the inscription was also appended to the translation, one that
Fausböll probably produced himself (Sykes 1860: pl. IV) (Fig. 6). The characters
of the inscription relate only loosely to modern Burmese, but Fausböll completed
his translation from the original band, judging from one of his endnotes. The Pali
record, with diacritical marks, was included with Fausböll’s translation.
By 1895, however, the incised band went missing in London. Fausböll reported,
thirty-five years after the publication of his translation, that the band had been hand-
delivered to him in 1858 at the “Asiatic Society’s Rooms”, removed from the East
India House Library for his examination; he conjectures that the gold strip “must
now be kept in either the India Office Library or in the Indian Museum attached to
it.” (St. John 1895: 433). The band probably remains in London, perhaps now in
The British Library, which absorbed the holdings of the India Office Library, or in a
cabinet at the Royal Asiatic Society.
Sykes presented two translations, one by Capt. T. S. Sparks made in 1855 and
the other completed by Fausböll in 1858. Both translations differed markedly, but
similarities prove that the two translators worked from the same inscription. Sparks’
reading was beset by numerous errors, while Fausböll’s was generally correct.

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Sparks, for example, read a date (846), written not in numerals but in words; he then
converted 846 to the Burmese Era, producing 1484-1485. How Sparks was misled
is easy to appreciate, since he mistook atta for aṭṭha (eight) and settha for saṭṭhi
(sixty) and so on (Tun Aung Chain, personal communication). Fausböll’s translation
appears in the Appendix, with minor emendations.
The inscription opens with the donor described as “the son of Setebhissara”,
or the son of the Lord of the White Elephant. The Pali compound is comprised of
three words, seta (white), ibha (elephant) and issara (lord). The Lord of the White
Elephant is a common royal epithet in Southeast Asia but was particularly associated
in Mon chronicles and inscriptions with Banya U (reigned c. 1348 – c. 1384), the
father of Rajadhiraj (Tun Aung Chain, personal communication). That Banya U is
the only king to be described as Lord of the White Elephant in a list of Mon rulers in
the Shwedagon Inscription is another strong reason for identifying Banya U with the
holder of this title in the gold plate inscription (Pe Maung Tin 1934: 15, 20).
Since the donor of the gold band states that he is the son of Setebhissara, that
is, Banya U, then the band and the deposits can be associated with Rajadhiraj. Also,
Rajadhiraj is explicitly described as “the son of the Lord of the White Elephant” in
one Mon chronicle (Tun Aung Chain 2010: 51). The great Mon king, Dhammaceti
(reigned c. 1470 – c. 1492), can be excluded as the donor of the gold band since his
father did not belong to a royal family and hence could not have borne the title of
Lord of the White Elephant.
Banya U inherited a white elephant that was originally gifted by a king of
Sukhothai to a Mon ruler in Mottama named Wareru (reigned c. 1287 – c. 1296), or
Warow, known only to chronicles. The monarch from Sukhothai gifting the white
elephant would have been the celebrated Ram Khamhaeng (reigned c. 1279 – c.
1299) (San Lwin 2007: 9; Tun Aung Chain 2010: 41). This palladium passed on to
Wareru’s descendants, finally going to Banya U during whose reign the elephant
expired. The gift of an elephant from Sukhothai is likely legendary, but Banyu
U adopted the title of Lord of the White Elephant (see below). The connections
between Sukhothai and Mottama, known as Bann in Thai epigraphs, are still to be
worked out, but inscriptions and chronicles in Thailand attest to religious exchanges
between Mottama and Sukhothai and with monks who had trained in Sri Lanka
(Griswold & Prasert 1972; Pattaratorn 2009; Skilling 2007).
Rajadhiraj is a Pali title, “king of kings”, and was adopted by many Mon
rulers in Pegu. His personal sobriquet was Sutasoma Rajadhiraj, which appears both
in inscriptions and in some Mon chronicles (Pe Maung Tin 1934: 15, 20). Sutasoma
enjoyed regional status and was mistakenly conflated with Wareru in at least two
Thai chronicles (Wyatt & Aroonrut 1998: 36-37; Griswold and Prasert 1972: 55).
The name Sutasoma was adapted from a Jātaka, Mahāsutasoma (no. 537), in which
the bodhisatta, Sutasoma, persuaded a man-eating monarch named Porisād to reform
his diet. Rajadhiraj adopted this name when a Burmese prince defiantly proclaimed

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himself Porisād, emulating the king who relished defeating and then eating other
rulers (San Lwin 2007: 124, 174). The relationships between Banya U, Rajadhiraj
and their descendents are indicated in the genealogy below, based on later chronicles
and Mon inscriptions (Tun Aung Chain 2002: 38).

Mon kings ruling from Pegu

1. Banya U (accession, Mottama, 1348) 1369-1384
2. Rajadhiraj, son of 1 1384-1420
3. Dhammaraja, son of 2 1420-1423
4. Banya Ramkuit, brother of 3 1423-1446
5. Banya Barow, grandson of 2 1446-1450
6. Banya Kendaw, son of 3 1450-1453
7. Mamohtau, brother of 6 1453
8. Banya Thaw (Shinsawbu) 1453-1470
daughter of 2, mother of 5
9. Dhammaceti, son-in-law of 8 1470-1492
10. Banya Ram, son of 9 1492-1526
11. Dakaratpi, son of 10 1526-1538

Fausböll first misinterpreted the Pali title Setebhissara, or Lord of the White
Elephant, but the correct meaning was advanced years later by R.F. St. Andrew St.
John, an antiquarian familiar with Lower Burma. He was also the first to correctly
associate the epithet with Banya U and the gold band with Rajadhiraj, identifications
endorsed in the same year by Fausböll (St. John 1895).4 The most common Mon
term for Lord of the White Elephant in 15th century Mon inscriptions was tila ciṅ
batāṅ, with minor variations (Shorto 1971: 172).
Banya U is described as Lord of the White Elephant in the sole surviving stone
inscription from his reign, a Mon and Pali epigraph discovered in 1998 in the Twante
township, about twenty miles west of Rangoon (Bauer 2012). The object of the
inscription was to record that in 724 (Burmese Era), or 1362, Banya U erected a
structure, or “prāsada” (the Sanskrit word is used), associated with Kyaik Jra-ngam,
probably a stupa named Jra-ngam once located in the village in which the inscription
was found (Bauer 2012; Christian Bauer, personal communication). This is the
earliest Mon inscription belonging to the line of kings ruling from Pegu. Following
this record dated to 1362, there is a hiatus of extant Mon inscriptions for at least
forty years until the gold band inscription of Banya U’s successor, Rajadhiraj. The
next dated Mon inscription does not appear until many decades later, in 1455, the
Kyaikmaraw stone inscription of Banya Thaw, or Queen Shinsawbu. Such a paucity

4
Lowry almost certainly read these brief notices by St. John and Fausböll, since he tentatively but
correctly identified the son of Banya U as Rajadhiraj (Lowry: 1974: 28).

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74 Donald M. Stadtner

of early Mon inscriptions adds to the importance of the incised band.

The aforementioned Twante inscription also recorded the year of Banya
U’s accession, 710 (Burmese Era), or 1348, a date in agreement with most of the
chronicles (Tun Aung Chain 2011: 48; Halliday 2000: 97). Banya U is said in the
chronicles to have shifted the capital from Mottama to Pegu in 1369, but this donation
of 1362 near Twante makes it certain that he patronized monuments in the Rangoon
area at least seven years before the king’s alleged shift from Mottama to Pegu.
Another reason to connect the gold band with Rajadhiraj is the king’s
description of himself in the inscription as “a lion towards hostile barbarians”, or
“sattumātangakesara”, an appellation consistent with his reputation as a leader
defending Mon sovereignty. This epithet, whose first occurrence appears in the gold
band, was likely echoed in later chronicles in which he was termed Sīharājā, or Lion
King (Halliday 2000: 98; Tun Aung Chain 2010: 51; San Lwin 2007: 174). A pair
of additional titles found in the gold band reinforces Rajadhiraj’s reputation as a
leading Mon monarch, such as King of All Kings (“sabbārājissarorajā”) and Lord
of All Kings (“sabhārajinda”) (Sykes 1860: 302). That these three epithets figure in
no other 15th century Mon inscriptions underscores the likely association of the gold
band with Rajadhiraj.

Re-evaluating Rajadhiraj
Rajadhiraj and Dhammaceti are considered the two most important kings in
Mon history, the former for defending the Mon realm from forces from Inwa, or Ava,
and the latter for his reform of the saṅgha. Apart from Banya U’s aforementioned
stone inscription of 1362 and the undated gold band from Rangoon, the history of
this formative stage of Mon history has until now relied entirely on later chronicles.
The gold band inscription however discloses important facets of Rajadhiraj’s career
that prompt re-thinking his biography known hitherto only from later chronicles.
The chief source for Rajadhiraj is the acclaimed Mon chronicle, Akran
Kamraulwī Rājadhirāj, known more widely in its Burmese translation, Yazadarit
Ayedawbon, or Struggles of Rajadhiraj (Nai Pan Hla 1977; San Lwin 2007; Fernquest
2006). This text and later Mon histories extol the king’s military feats, especially the
outmaneuvering of his nemesis, Mingaung (reigned c. 1400 – c. 1422) (San Lwin
2007; Halliday 2000: 97-98; Tun Aung Chain 2010: 50-51). The chronicle traditions
focus on the king’s military feats, while his patronage of the saṅgha receives scant
mention, a picture challenged by the evidence of the gold band inscription (see
below). Moreover, the chronicles record conflict between Prince Rajadhiraj and
his father’s household in Mottama, but no such discord appears in the gold band
inscription in which Rajadhiraj in fact pays homage to Banya U (Tun Aung Chain
2010: 50-51; San Lwin 2007).
Neither the gold band inscription nor the stone inscription of 1362 makes

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reference to Wareru, the purported founder of the dynasty in Mottama, known only
to chronicles. If Wareru was so pivotal in Mon history, then how to explain his
absence in all of the Mon inscriptions from this entire era? Indeed, such silence casts
doubt on both the very historicity of Wareru and the assertion in the chronicles that
the Mon capital was first in Mottama and then later shifted to Pegu. It is likely that
the chroniclers sought to link the regional prestige of Mottama, a major commercial
and religious hub, with the dynasty that formed in Pegu around the middle of the 14th
century by Banya U. Mottama certainly had religious connections with Sukhothai,
but perhaps later chroniclers wove a semi-legendary or fictitious king named
Wareru into a narrative linking Sukhothai and Mottama to Pegu. By Dhammceti’s
time Mottama was firmly within the Mon realm, the city’s long monastic history
summarized in the Kalyani Inscription.
Ascribing a specific date to the incised band during Rajadhiraj’s thirty-six year
reign is not possible. However, the cremation of his unnamed queen can perhaps
provide a clue in as much as the deceased was likely the chief queen. This marriage
probably occurred at the beginning of Rajadhiraj’s reign, since a king’s marriage to
his chief queen usually occurred soon after his accession (Tun Aung Chain, personal
communication). Some of Rajadhiraj’s children are named in chronicles but their
mothers are unidentified; the four daughters of the gold band are probably children
from different wives and were likely adolescents upon entering the monastery. The
gold band inscription also recorded that Rajadhiraj himself joined the monastic
life once and his late queen twice. Taken together, these factors suggest that the
enshrinement of the relics perhaps occurred between the middle and end of his reign,
say c. 1400 – c. 1420.
The characters of the inscription, known only from the eye-copy published
in 1860, offer few indications concerning its date (Fig. 6). Mon inscriptions, with
their peculiar orthographic conventions, can be dated far more accurately than those
composed in Pali; however, the paleography of the incised band suggests that it
belongs sometime between the 14th and 16th centuries (Christian Bauer, personal
communication).

The royal donations

The object of the gold band inscription was to record Rajadhiraj’s extensive
benefactions made to the saṅgha occasioned by the queen’s cremation. The principal
donations included sixty cottages for senior monks (“kuṭi”), twenty-six monasteries
(“vihāra”), nine stupas (“thūpa”) and four ordination halls (“baddhasīmā”) (Sykes
1860: 303).5 These monuments have left no trace but they were perhaps constructed
5
Kuṭi likely indicates individual cottages for senior monks but it may mean “rest houses” for
pilgrims and worshippers. The same term is used often in inscriptions at Sukhothai where it refers
to a cottage for a senior monk (Griswold and Prasert 1969: 45).

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in the vicinity of Shwedagon. The grant was maintained by donated agricultural

land, together with 378 measures, or ticals, of gold (“suvaṇṇa”), 2,500 of silver
(“rūpiyā”) and 5,200 of copper (“kansas”, commonly known as ganza). Other gifted
items to the saṅgha included one hundred white umbrellas and two gold covered
kammavācās (manuscripts containing special Pali passages). Also, five hundred
slaves were liberated and enrolled into monastic life (Sykes 1860: 303).
These donations occurred after Rajadhiraj performed a “pūjā” [a ceremony]
to her hair five times”, a ritual otherwise unknown in Mon or Burmese historical
sources and in neighbouring Thailand. The practice of making donations at the time
of a royal cremation enjoyed a long history in Theravada societies. In Sri Lanka,
for example, king Parakramabahu I (reigned c. 1153 - c. 1186) commemorated his
mother’s cremation by constructing a stupa at the site of the funeral pyre, coupled
with numerous additional religious donations (Geiger 2003: Pt. II.122). Chronicles
associated with Ayutthaya record a number of instances of religious monuments that
were established on the sites of cremations (Cushman 2000: 11, 15, 16). In Chiang
Mai the cremation of a princess at a monastery in 1522 occasioned a presentation
of silk robes to monks and the construction of a library; in addition, more than two
hundred individuals were ordained, mirroring the mass ordinations known from
Rajadhiraj’s incised band (Jayawickrama 1968: 180). Hence, the king’s donations
in Rangoon at the time of the cremation reflect long-standing Theravada traditions.
Rajadhiraj’s incised gold sheet interred within a funerary monument also finds
analogies in Thailand. One gold band, dated to 1385, was probably placed inside
a relic chamber in a “square cetiya” (square base stupa) containing the corporal
remains of a king at Sukhothai; the donor was a celebrated monk, Mahāsāmī
Saṅgharāja, from Mottama (Griswold & Prasert 1973: 128). Another incised gold
band was found inside the chief gold reliquary stupa at the aforementioned Wat
Ratchaburana; on both sides was written the name and possible title of a Brahman
ritualist (Pattaratorn 2005: 88-89). Wat Ratchaburana was built to commemorate
the cremation site of two royal brothers, according to two later chronicles. Another
example, an unpublished incised gold sheet in the Sukhothai museum, refers to a
ceremony for interring unspecified corporal remains. In Sri Lanka, inscribed metal
plaques were also deposited in stupas (Paranavitana 1946: 24). Gold sheets were also
reserved for noteworthy communications, such as a gold letter, or “suvaṇṇapatta”,
sent from Dhammaceti to his counterpart in Sri Lanka (Taw Sein Ko 1893: 41).
The twenty-one calicined bone fragments found within the gold bowl were
almost certainly extracted from the queen’s funeral pyre; the largest bones measured
slightly over two inches in length (Fig. 5).6 The other objects in the trove, such as the
6
Bone relics associated with the Buddha were normally far smaller. These were thought to be in
three small sizes, that of “mustard seeds, broken grains of rice and split green peas”, a formulaic
classification begun as early as Buddhaghosa (Strong: 11). An inscription from Keng Tung, 1451,
relates directly to this description (Griswold & Prasert 1978: 85); also, an inscription, 1399, from

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gold belt studded with gems and the gold helmet, can plausibly be identified as the
queen’s personal effects. A direct analogy are the many objects of a personal nature,
such as jewellery and vessels, found within a special chamber at Wat Ratchaburana
c. 1424 (Pattaratorn 2005).
The gold band contains the only reference to a royal cremation among Mon
inscriptions. Cremations are also rarely referred to in Mon chronicles; even the
cremation of the celebrated Dhammaceti receives scant mention (Tun Aung Chain
2010: 102). One Mon chronicle refers to the bones of a cremated noble placed in a
golden urn buried on the platform of the Shwedagon, but such references are rare
(San Lwin 2007: 79). Royal funerary stupas however were probably built in the
vicinity of the Shwedagon Pagoda and the Shwemawdaw Pagoda in Pegu, but none
have survived or are recorded. In contrast to Mon sources, Burmese chronicles
routinely recorded the deaths of royal court members and their place of cremation
but no mention is made of the final disposition of corporal remains (Tun Aung Chain,
personal communication). An exception is King Mindon (reigned 1853-1878) whose
tomb stands near the restored palace in Mandalay.
Thailand furnishes far greater information about funerary stupas during the
14 and 15th centuries, both in chronicles and inscriptions (Jayawickrama 1968:
th

147,180; Griswold & Prasert 1969: 47; Cushman 2000: 15, 18). One epigraph for
example records permission for a neighbouring king to enter Sukhothai in order to
pay homage to a stupa containing the relics of a deceased king (Griswold and Prasert
1970: 92). A poem associated with the Ayutthaya court records that a “grieving son
…. erected a stupa for [the relics of]” of his father, the late king (Griswold and Prasert
1976:143). The remains of King Borommatrailokanat and his son were enshrined in
1492 inside a stupa at Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Ayutthaya (Santi 2005: 61). The ashes
of the celebrated King Tiloka (reigned c. 1441-1487) were interred in a newly built
stupa, a brick monument still standing in the compound of Wat Chet Yod, Chiang
Mai. (Jayawickrama 1968: 147). Hence, the evidence in ancient Thailand suggests
that funerary stupas were constructed with some frequency, providing a contrast to
the meager examples known in Burma.
By the Rattanakosin period (1782 - present) funerary stupas containing
the remains of kings became customary, witnessed by four enormous stupas
commemorating the first four kings of the Chakri Dynasty in the compound of Wat
Phra Chettuphon, or Wat Pho, Bangkok. A recent royal cremation was for the sister
of King Rama IX in 2008, with six processions, the last of which culminated with
the interment of the cremated remains in a stupa at Wat Ratchabophit.
The gold band inscription is in addition the only Mon record attesting to

Sukhothai describes two relics from Sri Lanka as “middle-sized like a broken rice grain, like
crystal” and the second as “small as a mustard-seed” and coloured like the bikula (Mimusops
elengi; bakul, Sanskrit), fruit or flower; this description of the relics is repeated twice, on both faces
of the stone panel (Griswold & Prasert 1969: 44, 52).

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78 Donald M. Stadtner

Mon monarchs, their queens and their children enlisting in monasteries. The pious
Dhammaceti never entered the saṅgha during his reign but was a monk only before
becoming king, according to chronicles. Sukhothai period inscriptions furnish
instances in which the king and other relatives entered a monastery for a period and
then returned to royal duties (Griswold & Prasert 1971: 202). This practice was also
known in 15th century Chiang Mai (Jayawickrama 1968: 136).
The gold band inscription concluded with the donor’s wish that his good works
would be rewarded by his becoming a Buddha, a theme echoed in Dhammaceti’s
Kalyani Inscription of 1476 and in certain Sukhothai inscriptions (Skilling 2007:
192-193; Patrick Pranke, personal communication).

The three gold reliquaries

The study of stupa-shaped reliquaries in Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka
in the first half of the second millennium is in its infancy despite a great number of
surviving examples. Many are without firm provenances, in as much as they were
removed in the course of unauthorized digs and are now in museums and private
collections. Also, reliquaries, even those recovered in sanctioned excavations, may
have often been produced in locations quite distant from their find spots. In addition,
less than a handful of examples from this entire age in Burma, Thailand and Sri Lanka
can be dated with much precision or certainty, a fact enhancing the significance of
the three gold stupas from Rangoon attributed here to the early 15th century on the
basis of the gold band inscription.7
Stupa-shaped reliquaries played a number of diverse functions, only one of
which was to contain corporal remains. The three gold reliquaries from Rangoon for
instance contained no bodily remains but were merely among the precious objects
interred with the queen’s bones. The stupa-shaped gold reliquary found in one of the
crypts at Wat Ratchaburana, c. 1424, was also empty (Pattaratorn 2005: 89) (Fig. 8).
Other evidence for empty containers in the shape of stupas are the portable offerings
sent by Dhammaceti from Pegu to honor the famous Tooth Relic in Sri Lanka. These
included a “golden relic container” (“suvaṇṇamaya-dhātu-mandira”, Pali) fashioned
in the shape of a stupa (“cetiya”, Pali), “a relic-receptacle made of crystal” and a
“stone alms-bowl, embellished with sapphires of great value”; whether the ‘golden
relic container’ was a work of repoussé or a gilded bronze is unknown (Taw Sein Ko

7
These from Rangoon and the gold casket from a crypt at Wat Ratchaburana, c. 1424, (Pattaratorn
2005) are among the few examples that can be dated with a degree of certainty. Others would
include eight stupa-shaped objects of diminishing size, one placed inside the other, excavated from
a stupa within the compound of Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Ayutthaya, a set likely dating to the late
15th century, with shapes conforming closely to Sri Lankan designs (Subhadradis 1981: Fig. 105).
Another set, comprised of seven caskets, was found in the crypt at Wat Mahathat, Ayutthaya, c.
14th century. No metal reliquaries in Sri Lanka from this period can be dated with much precision.

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 Rajadhiraj’s Rangoon Relics and a Mon Funerary Stupa 79

1893: 40, 207). These objects, without relics, were likely placed in the immediate
vicinity of the Tooth Relic reliquary. Upon receipt of these offerings, the Sri Lankan
king set the Tooth Relic temporarily inside the “golden vessel” (suvaṇṇamaya-patta,
Pali) from Pegu (Taw Sein Ko 1893: 43, 210). The same practice is noted in the
following century when Bayinnaung (reigned c. 1551 – c. 1581) also sent an empty
reliquary to Sri Lanka for temporary enshrinement of the Tooth Relic (Tun Aung
Chain 2004: 108). Even in the late 19th century an elaborate metal reliquary crafted in
Moulmein was transported on a steamship to Colombo to offer to the relic in Kandy
(Stadtner 2011: 183). These examples underscore the enduring ties between Upper
and Lower Burma with Sri Lanka.
One Pali term for a reliquary was “karaṇḍa”, known in religious chronicles of
Sri Lanka (Geiger 1986: 211; Strong 2004: 128, 136; Paranavitana 1946: 24). These
objects normally contained relics and were interred within stupas or they could be
presented, without relics, to monasteries as donations, to judge from a late 10th or
11th century stone inscription from Mihintale, Sri Lanka. This record speaks of both
a “registrar of caskets” (karaṇḍa-lēkhaka, Pali) and a “keeper of caskets” (karaṇḍu-
atsamu, Pali). A special structure in this monastery preserved the reliquaries and
was termed the “reliquary house”, or dhātu-gēha (Pali) (Wickremasinghe 1904:
101-102). The context makes it clear that this “reliquary house” was for the safe
storage of caskets and was not a stupa. It can be conjectured that the laity presented
empty caskets, as offerings, that were placed in a special structure located within the
monastic compound.
Reliquaries were fashioned from a variety of materials, such as bronze, crystal,
stone, silver, gold, and even stoneware. One reliquary assigned to 15th century
Thailand even combined a metal base and an ivory finial.8 Some are only a few
inches in height, while the largest in Thailand is a gilded bronze standing nearly
three feet in height, now in the Sukhothai museum and said to be found in the crypt
of Wat Sa Si, Sukhothai, attributed to the 14th century (Fig. 11) (Rooney 2008: 86).
Also, the shape of reliquaries and their ornamentation varied widely (Figs. 8-11).
Indeed, no two reliquaries are identical, even those belonging to the same hoard. The
three gold stupas in the Rangoon trove for example appear similar but differences
emerge upon closer inspection, such as the disposition of the encircling bands below
the drum. (Figs.1-3).
One enduring tradition was the interment of superimposed stupa-shaped objects
of diminishing sizes (Strong 2004: 13, 110; Geiger 1986: 211). The relic itself was
placed in the smallest, innermost casket, usually made of the most precious materials,
such as gold or crystal. Such sets of caskets are known from inscriptions at Pagan but
no complete examples have been located (Than Tun 1978: 131). An inscription from
Keng Tung, dated 1451, speaks of a graduated series of six containers made of gem

8
British Museum, Accession number OA 1957.1014.2

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80 Donald M. Stadtner

crystal, gold, silver, sandalwood, ivory and copper (Griswold & Prasert 1978: 83-84).
Sets of reliquaries have survived at Ayutthaya, at Wat Phra Si Sanphet (Subhadradis:
1981: Fig. 105), Wat Ratchaburana, c. 1442 (Pattaratorn 2005) and Wat Mahathat
(Pratum 2005: 21). Another was found at Wat Praphut, Narathiwat Province, comprised
of an outer silver container, seven inches in height, containing two smaller gold caskets;
it has been attributed to the c. 11th - c. 13th centuries (Piriya 1980: 222; Jacq-Hergoualc’h
2002: Fig. 209) (Fig. 10).9 Many single caskets in museums likely once belonged to
dispersed sets but it is usually impossible to be certain.
The influential role that Sri Lanka played in determining the shapes of Southeast
Asian stupas has long been recognized, but the details of this complex transmission
are not completely understood. The process began at least as early as the 11th century
in Burma, at Pagan, with brick stupas revealing Sri Lankan influence, sometimes side
by side with examples exhibiting features from Eastern India.10 Traveling architects
or monks may have been the prime instigators of such influence, but it is more likely
that portable reliquaries imported from Sri Lanka to Southeast Asia played a far
greater role in furnishing the prototypes than has hitherto been suggested.
Sri Lankan stupas are marked by well established characteristics: three
prominent parallel rings encircling the dome at the base, a broad rectangular block
capping the dome which supported a wide solid circular shaft that was in turn
surmounted by a tapered finial comprised of tightly spaced rings of diminishing
sizes (Paranavitana 1946; Gatellier 1978). The base is designed with elephants
arranged in a frontal position in some cases. Many of these basic features have been
observed among numerous brick stupas at Pagan. However, Pagan period architects
largely rejected both Sri Lankan and East Indian forms and favored an indigenous
design in which the wide diminishing rings of the spire emerged directly above the
dome, without a crowning block; there are also no prominent bands encircling the
base of the drum. Among the best known examples at Pagan are the Mingalazedi and
Shwezigon stupas. The Shwedagon stupa in Rangoon also largely follows this basic
contour, testimony to the endurance of this design.
Although Sri Lanka influence waned by the end of the Pagan period, celebrated
Sri Lankan stupas at Anuradhapura directly inspired at least two monuments in Burma,

9
The photograph here shows only two stupas but a third, innermost gold casket, in the shape of a
stupa, was included in another photograph (Sujit 1988: 23).
10
The earliest examples would include the West and East Hpetleik temples, the former showing
influence from Eastern India, the latter from Sri Lanka. The best example of Sri Lankan influence
at Pagan is the huge Sitana-gyi stupa (no. 987), complete with small elephants around the square
base. A bronze reliquary probably imported from Eastern India to Pagan was discovered long
ago at Pagan (Luce 1969: III. 449a); it closely resembles a metal reliquary attributed to Eastern
India, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession number 1982.460.3) and many
reliquaries associated with Tibet (Zwalf 1985: Fig.198). Reliquaries from Nagapattinam, Tamil
Nadu, may have been known in Burma but none have been found; their design shows Sri Lankan
elements but also unique features (Ramachandran 2005: nos. 70-75).

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 Rajadhiraj’s Rangoon Relics and a Mon Funerary Stupa 81

both attested to by accompanying inscriptions. One in Sagaing, dated to 1431, was

said to be modeled after the famous Ratanaceitya (modern Ruwanwelisaya) built
by King Dutthagamani (Than Tun 2004: 225). The other, the famous Kaung-hmu-
daw stupa near Sagaing, was described as resembling the Thuparama, although its
shape bears no resemblance to the Sri Lankan Thuparama (the inscription is dated to
1650; Stadtner 2011: 237). Both stupas in Upper Burma were major royal donations
and the Kaung-hmu-daw stupa ranks among the nation’s largest, highlighting the
religious and cultural importance of Sri Lanka.
Although the Sri Lankan-style stupa lost favor in Burma, it became ubiquitous
in the Ayutthaya and Sukhothai realms and in subsequent periods, coexisting side
by side with stupas based on entirely different indigenous designs (Gosling 1998;
Santi 2005; Woodward 1993). Unlike in Burma, Sri Lankan-style stupas remained
influential into the modern era, judging by the massive rebuilt central stupa at Nakhon
Pathom and the Phra Sri Rattana Chedi within Bangkok’s palace compound.
No Sri Lankan metal reliquaries from the middle of the second millennium
can be securely dated by inscription, so comparisons with Southeast Asia examples
must remain tenuous and tentative. However a partial parallel with the Rangoon
reliquaries are unpublished bronze caskets in the Colombo museum that have
been assigned to the Gampola period (1345-1406) (Fig. 9).11 This was an age that
witnessed many connections among the saṅghas of Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand.
Affinities with the Rangoon examples include the same three bands at the base and
the large rectangular block crowning the dome. Unlike the Rangoon examples,
the encircling bands are ornamented with simple incised foliate designs. Also, the
complex and prominent base moldings of the Rangoon examples are completely
absent in these Sri Lanka examples.12 This comparison indicates that these examples
from Lower Burma adopted certain Sri Lankan features but verged sharply away
from Sri Lankan models in other respects. Also, large reliquary stupas made by the
repoussé technique are unknown in Sri Lanka during this period. The evidence leads
therefore to the conclusion that the Rangoon reliquaries were likely produced in
Lower Burma and were not imported from Sri Lanka.
11
These reliquaries were discovered in 2004 within a ruinous brick stupa at Uda Aludeniya, a
village near Kandy. Seven tiny bone fragments, each wrapped in gold foil, were found inside a gold
dome-shaped object that was inside a silver stupa surrounded by twenty-two silver and gold seated
Buddhas (T.K. Nimal P. de Silva, personal communication) (Fig. 9). A smaller third reliquary was
part of the same hoard but it contained only a seated bronze Buddha. The surviving tapered spire of
one of the Rangoon reliquaries is similar to Sri Lankan examples attributed to this period (Listopad
2003: 35, 36). Other reliquaries with clear connections to Sri Lanka are known in Rakhine, from
Mrauk-U (Gutman 2001: Fig. 59).
12
The raised floral patterns encircling the base of the Rangoon repoussé reliquaries are similar to
a certain number of bronze reliquaries associated with Sri Lanka (see Zwalf 1985: Fig. 214 and
Coomaraswamy 1914: Pl. XXVII, 189). Bronxe reliquaries attributed to the Polonnauva period
(993-1235) are designed with the three rings below the dome but are without the floral bands on
the base (see Listopad 2003: pp. 34-35).

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82 Donald M. Stadtner

Another reason pointing to a local origin is suggested by a motif found on one

of the encircling bands of the example in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Fig. 2).
This is the kīrtimukha (Sanskrit), or ‘face of glory’, a fanciful face spewing forth
vegetal ornament. The motif began in India but is widely encountered throughout
Southeast Asia. At Pagan, the kīrtimukha was used over the centuries, both in
stucco and in mural painting, where the faces appear in a continuous horizontal row.
The kīrtimukha is found in Sri Lanka but is generally employed alone, as a single
motif, usually in the center of a doorway or above a Buddha image; the kīrtimukha
never seems to have been used on reliquaries from Sri Lanka or from other parts of
Southeast Asia.13 It must be said that the kīrtimukha motif, while common in Upper
Burma, has not yet been noted in Lower Burma in the 15th century; but so little has
survived in Lower Burma that this is scarcely surprising.
One reliquary differing sharply from those from Rangoon and Sri Lanka is the
aforementioned casket from Wat Ratchaburana, c. 1424 (Fig. 8). Not only are the
three characteristic rings at the base absent but also the block capping the dome, two
chief Sri Lankan features. Also, the elaborate bands of precious stones embedded
within raised bands on the exterior finds no counterpart in other known examples.
One possibly vital match with the Rangoon trove however is an inverted square
motif adorning the lowest register. In the Ayutthaya example it alternates with a
circular design, while in one of the Rangoon caskets it is placed between couchant
lions (Figs. 2, 8). That this identical motif is used in an identical fashion in these
two roughly contemporaneous examples is probably not coincidence and suggests a
distant common origin. The source may be Sri Lanka but no similar examples have
yet turned up among the known Sri Lankan reliquaries. The compelling similarity
of this motif in the examples from Ayutthaya and Rangoon raises critical questions
that can only be answered upon the discovery of additional reliquaries in Southeast
Asia and Sri Lanka.

Conclusion
Rajadhiraj’s Rangoon relics open a new window to better understanding the
formative phase of the Mon kingdom which arose by the middle of the 14th century
in Lower Burma. This celebrated Mon ruler, Rajadhiraj, has been previously known
only from later chronicles, but the gold band inscription yields significant new
information that challenges previous interpretations. Painted in the later chronicles
as primarily a military leader, this inscription reveals that the king entered the
monastic life once during his reign and that he was an active patron of the saṅgha.
The gold band and the stone inscription dated to 1362 also provide convincing

13
Another name, “kalā”, is also used for this motif. Connections between this motif in Sri Lanka
and Thailand have been noted (Pattaratorn 2009: 184).

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 Rajadhiraj’s Rangoon Relics and a Mon Funerary Stupa 83

evidence that the first two Mon rulers at Pegu, Banya U and his son Rajadhiraj,
were sponsors of religious monuments in the Rangoon area, hitherto recorded only
by the later Shwedagon Inscription and later Mon chronicles. This brief survey of
stupa-shaped caskets from Burma, Thailand and Sri Lanka also underscores not only
their tremendous diversity but also the need for a comprehensive documentation of
reliquaries. These objects, though small in themselves, can shed much light on the
larger issues in Southeast Asian history and civilization.

Appendix
Pali Inscription (Fausböll translation)

1. Having bowed down to the Three Gems, that good (work which has been
preformed) the by Ruler of the Lords of the whole World, the son of Setebhissara
[Lord of the White Elephant], the Prince shining with faith and mercy, the fleet Sun.
2. That meritorious, spotless (work) done in conjunction with his Queen, will
I, who am steadfast in the excellent commandments of the All-knowing, faithfully
relate.
3. The King of Kings, endowed with faith, assumed the monkish habit once, the
exalted Queen twice; living without desire, they both maintained pure lofty virtue.
4. The King, Ruler of all Kings, anxious for the Three Gems, caused his
excellent four beautiful daughters to enter the monastic life.
5. The wise Lord of all kings, a lion toward hostile barbarians, having liberated
250 slaves, had them ordained priests.
6. When the faith-endowed Queen had gone to heaven, after conferring
blessings, a like number of persons entered the religious life
7. The most faithful, glorious Lord of Kings having burnt on the pyre the most
exalted of human beings, he made pūjā [a ceremony] to her hair five times.
8. Sixty fair cottages [kuṭi, rest houses, or individual cottages for senior monks],
and twenty-six vihāras, four ramparts [baddasīmā, or ordination halls] and nine
stupas were erected (by him).
9. A hundred domestic slaves, seventy-eight suvaṇṇas, two thousand three
hundred (and) five hundred rupees were granted (by him). [this should read: 378
measures, or ticals, of gold (suvaṇṇa), and 2, 500 ticals of silver (rūpiyā)]
10. Two hundred kansas (goblets) and five thousand gananas, three thousand
sukas were granted, and also three hundred ambanas of pepper. [should read: 5,200
of copper (ganza, not kansas or goblets).
11. A piece of land comprising one hundred fields was given for continued
maintenance; one hundred and fifty daily meals were dressed [prepared] (by him) in
his house.

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84 Donald M. Stadtner

12. Also a hundred splendid (gold) handled white umbrellas, were offered (by
him) and five hundreds sets of eight articles required for monks.
13. Having opened his granaries, gifts were given to the citizens, and two gold
covered kammavāchas were provided (by him).
14. That Prince thus expresses his desire that such a good work should be
rewarded: “For this good work may I be hereafter an incomparable Buddha;”
15. And while I am an incomparable Buddha may the most excellent and
glorious Queen be my wife, may there not be such a separation for me in the worlds
to come.”

Acknowledgements
Foremost thanks go to U Tun Aung Chain who first suggested that the gold
band should be associated with Rajadhiraj. Also, without his assistance, I could not
have filled in many historical blanks. For unraveling the trove’s accession history in
the Victoria and Albert Museum, John Clarke was always there to answer questions.
For matters relating to the Kalyani Inscription, I turned often to Jason Carbine and
Patrick Pranke. For Mon epigraphy, Christian Bauer shared his customary insights.
For providing comparisons from Sukhothai and Ayutthaya, I am indebted to Chedha
Tingsanchali. For information relating to the Uda Aludeni reliquaries, I am grateful
to T.K. Nimal P. de Silva. Thanks also to Robert Brown for kindly reviewing the
completed manuscript.

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