The Na-kyaik-shit-tso (28 Gaudamas at Kemendine [Rangoon])
Photographer: Watts and Skeen
Medium: Photographic print
Photograph from the Curzon Collection, of a Buddhist shrine at Kemmendine, Rangoon (Yangon), taken by Watts and Skeen in the 1890s. This view shows twenty-eight images of Gautama Buddha arranged in rows. They are seated on plinths in the position known as bhumisparsha mudra, where the fingertips of the right hand touch the ground below. This refers to Buddha calling on Mother Earth to witness the moment of his enlightenment. The images are housed in a building roofed with corrugated iron, a material adopted for use in Burmese religious architecture in the 19th century in conjunction with more traditional materials such as wood. Kemmendine is a suburb of north-west Rangoon.