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At the height of the worldwide postcard craze, no one produced more vibrant imagery of the Buddhist world than D.A. Ahuja. Here we see Myanmar’s 17th century Kaunghmudaw Pagoda with unique hemispherical dome – most Burmese pagodas are pyramidal structures.

According to Burmese chronicles, the Kaunghmudaw Pagoda enshrines the Buddha’s tooth relic among other religious treasures. This pagoda was intended to resemble Sri Lanka’s Maha Thupa, a structure reputed to hold the largest single cache of the Buddha’s relics.

The image was printed using a lithographic-halftone hybrid process, whereby a black halftone screen was applied on top of a multi-color lithographic substrate. The “divided back” design suggests the card was printed by Ahuja around 1910; he operated out of present-day Yangon.

Constructed in the Sagaing Hills, the Kaunghmudaw Pagoda houses a large marble statue of the Buddha hewn from the local quarry. The dome sits at a height of just over 150 feet (46m).

The use of a white dome was meant to symbolize a connection to the ancient past of Buddhist architecture. Just over a decade ago, however, the military government repainted the dome gold, against the outcry of local Buddhists.

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