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In the capital of Burma—a city called Rangoon—is one of the largest and most wonderful of these pagodas. This pagoda is called the Shwe Dagon Pagoda. It looks like a giant ice cream cone turned upside down and is nearly as high as the Washington Monument. It is built of brick, but the outside is covered with sheets of solid gold—a glorious, dazzling sight in the sunlight. Around the bottom of the pagoda are little cell-like rooms in each of which is an idol, and underneath the center of the pagoda is a box in which, it is said, there are eight hairs from the head of Buddha. On the tip top of the pagoda is—what do you suppose? A church would have a cross, a mosque a crescent, but the pagoda has an umbrella!—with little tinkling bells hanging to it.
Rice is the chief and almost the only food of most of the people in Asia. They eat boiled rice just so, without sugar or cream, and they eat it for breakfast, luncheon, and dinner. Rangoon is the chief rice market ofthe World.
The people in Burma and Thailand are more like the Chinese than like the people in India. Burma is a republic but Thailand is a kingdom. Until after World War II, Thailand was named Siam. Then the people changed the name of this country of Siam to Thailand. If a man suddenly changed his name from Mr. Jones to Mr. Baker some people would still think of him as Mr. Jones and call him Mr. Jones instead of Mr. Baker. Many people still call Thailand, Siam.
