File:Shans at home. With two chapters on Shan history and literature (1910) (14577577740).jpg

Identifier: shansathomewitht00miln (find matches)
Title: Shans at home. With two chapters on Shan history and literature
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Milne, Leslie, Mrs., 1860-1952 Cochrane, Wilbur Willis
Subjects: Shan (Asian people)
Publisher: London : John Murray
Contributing Library: University of British Columbia Library
Digitizing Sponsor: University of British Columbia Library

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hang from theroof; they have quaint pointed covers, and are gailypainted in bright scarlet and gold. In the corner,raised by a bamboo stand above the level of the floor,there is sometimes a large wooden chest, also deco-rated with gold and scarlet paint and mosaic designsmade with small pieces of looking-glass. In this boxsacred Buddhist writings are kept. Before it is a rowof vases filled with marigolds, sunflowers, orchids,or pink and white lotus blossoms, according to theseason. Roses are rare in districts far from railways,and although the jungles are full of wild peach andapricot trees, their delicate and lovely flowers arenever used as sacred offerings. Sometimes, if theveranda is large, a low platform is raised at one endand the box and baskets are placed there instead ofin the living-room. There are no shelves in a Shan house. Ropesare tied across the rooms at the sides near the matwalls, garments and quilts being thrown over them,Great hats, worn by all Shan men, women, and
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I ii GONGS 105 children, hang from wooden pegs on the walls, wherethey look like shields. At one side of the room hangsa gong, large or small, according to the wealth ofthe householder. These gongs are always struck asan Amen to a prayer, after the recitation of anyof the Buddhist Scriptures. In the house of a chiefthere are at least three gongs, whose tones uniteharmoniously with each other. If the great one sounds /L ^= , the tone of the next is ^ and the smallest-^ ^ =^. The gongs are ex- cellent in quality and timbre ; they are not made in theShan States, but are imported from Burma or China.They are struck when the chief is going to eat, tosleep, or to pray ; they are not a signal to him thathis dinner is ready, or that it is prayer time, but theyare a sign to people outside the house that he mustnot be disturbed. Ordinary people sleep and eatwithout the sounding of gongs, but they are alwaysstruck, in house or monastery, after a prayer. The bedrooms of a Shan house are behind th

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