“Then, a golden mystery upheaved itself on the horizon, a beautiful winking wonder that blazed in the sun, of a shape that was neither Muslim dome nor Hindu temple-spire. It stood upon a green knoll, and below it were lines of warehouses, sheds, and mills. Under what new god, thought I, are we irrepressible English sitting now”

—Rudyard Kipling describing the Shwedagon Pagoda in From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches—Letters of Travel vol. 1, 1899.