chap, xviii TEMPLES IN SIAM 229
his
knees and the other at his side. It is more than 60 feet high, and
around this large idol there are more than 300 others of different
sizes, which represent all kinds of attitudes of men and women.1
All these idols are gilt, and there is a prodigious quantity of these
pagodas in all the country. This results from the fact that every rich
Siamese builds one to perpetuate his memory. These pagodas have towers
and bells, and the walls inside are painted and gilt, but the windows
are so narrow that they give but little light. The altars are laden
with costly idols, among which there are generally three of different
sizes close to one another.2 The two pagodas to which, as I
have said, the King goes in state, are surrounded by many beautiful
pyramids, all well gilt; and that in the island where the Dutch have
their house has a cloister connected with it, the facade of which is
very fine. In the middle there is, as it were, a great chapel all
gilded within, where a lamp and three wax candles are kept alight in
front of the altar, which is covered with idols, some being of fine
gold and the others of gilt copper. The pagoda in the middle of the
town, and one of the two which the King visits once in the year, as I
have related, contains nearly 4,000 idols, and it has around it, like
that 6 leagues from Siam, a number of pyramids, the beauty of which
causes one to wonder at the industry of this nation.
When
the King appears all the doors and windows of the houses have to be
closed, and all the people prostrate themselves on the ground without
daring to raise their eyes towards him. As no one should be in a place
more elevated than the King when he is passing through the streets, all
those who are in their houses must descend. When his hair is cut one of
his wives is employed on that duty, as he does not allow
1
It is possible that this is a mistake, as some images of Buddha have an
effeminate appearance. For images in pagodas at Bangkok, see Young, op. cit., 272 S. ; Hastings, Ency. Religion and Ethics, xi. 482.
2
Vast accumulations of figures of Buddha characterize these temples,
even those which are deserted. The well-known seated and recumbent
figures of Buddha, made of marble or lacquered wood, which are brought
to Europe, have generally been obtained from deserted pagodas in Burma
or Siam.
