Then, a golden mystery upheaved itself on the horizon - a beautiful, winkling wonder that blazed in the sun, of a shape that was neither Muslim dome nor Hindu temple spire. It stood upon a green knoll... 'There's the old Shway Dagon,' said my companion... The golden dome said, 'This is Burma, and it will be quite unlike any land you know about.'
naar Rudyard Kipling, Letters from the east (1889)