Mysterious Country 1: Mist-Shrouded Champa,Volume 5: Chapter 1: The City of Four Million Pagodas

“Luck” is a thing that, to some people, is like a birth mother; but to others, it is like a stepmother.

Sima Hui felt that his group of people were probably raised by a stepmother. They fell along with the collapsing cocoon like plant into the deepest part of the Savage Mountain giant rift valley. The terrain here was special. Who knew how many years ago, after a cataclysmic upheaval that overturned heaven and earth, water veins had sunk and the mountain body had gradually hollowed out, causing large swathes of primeval forest to sink into the earth’s depths.

Inside the rift valley, umbrella shaped spore plants subsequently grew, completely concealing the underground forest. Over years and ages, mud actually accumulated into marsh. This deep cave with a vertical depth of over two thousand meters never saw daylight again. So the trees in this enclosed and humid region decayed extremely slowly, their color dark green, appearing in the eye as densely packed patterns like brocade. If no changes occurred, perhaps even after tens of thousands of years, their vessels would maintain their original form.

Until the earthquake bomb loaded in the Mosquito special transport plane was detonated by someone, chemical defoliant diffused everywhere, destroying the thick vegetation that sealed the rift valley’s bottom space. The marsh then subsided, finally exposing this region.

Because the detonation point was not at the very center of the rift valley, the distant vegetation also all died, but the damage was not severe. Still countless pillar like root veins hung into the underground. The four remaining survivors of the expedition team had no choice but to move deeper along the rift valley bottom, following the remains of the underground plants, hoping to find an area where they could climb upward.

Who would have thought that in this deep and verdant underground forest, there was actually hidden a wall built from gold. The towering and erect wall was covered by soil and withered vines. Peeling away the dust revealed dazzling golden light. Under the heavy darkness and thin mist, it was fundamentally impossible to see the scale of this golden wall. One could only see the reliefs on the gold bricks layered upon layer, infinite and endless, yet complex and orderly, exquisitely wonderful, their craftsmanship almost unlike anything made by human hands.

Sima Hui and the others raised their searchlights and looked for a long time. One by one, they were dumbstruck. They saw that every gold brick before them was cast into the outline of a layer of human faced ancient pagodas. Every seven layers combined into one whole. At the pagoda base coiled pythons, their forms varied, ever changing, no two alike. The gold reliefs in the pagoda body covered the vault of heaven and the great earth, from stars and sun and moon above to walking beasts and living creatures below, graceful celestial maidens, ferocious giant pythons, warriors with elephant heads and human bodies, even wars with clashing weapons and armored horses, and gods and buddhas looking down upon all living beings. All things in the universe, from the greatest to the smallest, could be said to be included without omission.

Myanmar was deeply influenced by ancient Indian culture. For thousands of years, Buddhism flourished without decline. Every region had famous temples and ancient monasteries. But the gods and buddhas in these gold reliefs had peculiar and manifold forms, full of strange and exotic religious colors from foreign lands. They even differed greatly from the common images of gods and buddhas seen anywhere in the world. It seemed one could glimpse from them the mysterious silhouette of an ancient dynasty long vanished.

The four could never have dreamed that in the deep mountains and old forests of northern Myanmar, there would be so many gold bricks. They successively peeled away the withered branches and fallen leaves on both sides. Gold bricks inlaid with gems and reliefs continuously appeared. They truly didn’t know whether this wall had an end. The more they looked, the more dazzling and bewildering it became. However, the searchlight could only illuminate a dozen or so steps ahead. This feeling was like blind men touching an elephant. There was no reference object nearby. It was completely difficult to judge the true state.

While everyone was sighing in admiration, they only felt a great sense of oppression rushing toward them. This wall covered with gold reliefs was like a silent and cold god. It sat quietly, calmly accepting the gazing and exclamation of mortals. After Sima Hui and the others looked for a long time, they couldn’t help but feel fear in their hearts, chills down their spines. The power of religion could make humans frenzied. Perhaps only based on this reason could such a magnificent and splendid miracle be achieved. Witnessing the existence of these gold reliefs would immediately make the term “inconceivable” from Buddhist dharma surge into one’s mind.

Sima Hui looked while his heart pounded: the scale of this wall was difficult to estimate. It lay horizontally sleeping underground, seemingly impossible to walk around. Heaven knew how many gold bricks it had used. The wall’s base had already sunk a large section into the ground. The greater part was hidden in darkness. What was seen before one’s eyes was merely one corner. It was fundamentally impossible to imagine how the ancients of over a thousand years ago had built it. In this Savage Mountain giant rift valley shrouded by lingering mist that had devoured countless lives, why was such an enormous amount of gold buried here? Which dynasty and generation had left it? These gold bricks with inlaid reliefs fitted together tightly and orderly, like the wall of a building. But what shape and scale did it have?

Within the nine provinces and four seas, things never seen by the eye, never heard by the ear, strange and bizarre matters, who knew how many there might be. Although Sima Hui, Luo Big Sea, and A Cui had been in these deep mountains and old forests of a faraway land for some years, their knowledge of Myanmar’s customs and history was still limited. None of them could make sense of it.

A Cui looked until her heart grew hairy. She said to Sima Hui: “These gold reliefs seem somewhat different from the bodhisattvas in Myanmar temples. They look very strange.”

Sima Hui nodded and said: “I once heard that when the Buddha Shakyamuni was born, he descended into the Western Kshatriya royal house of Kapilavastu. When born, one finger pointed to heaven and one hand drew on the earth, declaring ‘Only I am supreme.’ He emitted great wisdom light, illuminating the ten directions of worlds. Golden lotus flowers surged beneath his feet, supporting his sixteen foot golden body. He could transform and change, neither great nor not great, neither all-pervading nor not all-pervading, universally saving all beings under heaven. His precious appearance was dignified, his wondrous dharma boundless, called the Teacher of Gods and Humans. But the gods and buddhas on these gold reliefs are so strange and ferocious. I feel these damned things don’t look like good types at all. Everywhere they reveal evil…”

Luo Big Tongue, suddenly seeing this gold, couldn’t help but have many feelings. He patted the face of a god or buddha on the relief with his hand, reminding Sima Hui: “Can you watch your mouth? In such a dignified and sacred place, you shouldn’t talk nonsense. We’re all from poor peasant backgrounds. When have we ever seen this? Anyway, this is the first time in my life I’ve felt that gold is actually so ordinary. It can actually be used as a building material, no different from wood, earth, stone, or tile. If all this were transported out of the mountains and exchanged for weapons, how many troops could it equip? Not to mention making a comeback and occupying Rangoon would be no problem. If used sparingly, starting a third world war wouldn’t be an issue either. I, Luo Big Tongue, have had a lifelong ambition to be Minister of Defense. When purchasing weapons, we absolutely must not want American made. Although American made is advanced, the failure rate is high. It still has to be Czech, Canadian, or Soviet made for sturdiness. Soaked in pouring rain or in rivers and marshes for half a day, you can still pick it up and fire…”

A Cui advised Luo Big Tongue not to entertain thoughts of scraping gold from the Buddha’s face, lest disaster be invited upon himself. Moreover, when everyone had escaped from the earthquake bomb’s detonation site, they had all suffered chemical burns from the defoliant. Although they still didn’t know exactly which industrial chemical toxin was loaded in the shock bomb’s bay, judging from the degree of damage and pollution to the underground plants, it probably wouldn’t have good results in the end. Now, having survived the disaster, they were already among the fortunate in misfortune. What they should consider now was only escaping Savage Mountain as soon as possible and crossing the border back to China before their time limit arrived. How could they still have the mind to entertain such thoughts?

Sima Hui said: “A Cui, what you said really makes sense. But gold is indeed something that moves people’s eyes and is loved by all who see it. Not only do we Chinese people like it, people of all countries in the world like it. It is a symbol of peace. I feel that if we brought all the gold and gems out for the sake of world peace, even if the Buddha knew, he would certainly feel very gratified…”

While Sima Hui spoke with A Cui and Luo Big Sea, he stole a glance at Yu Feiyan. He discovered her expression was anxious, even carrying a few degrees of terror. He didn’t know what the reason was. A certain great person once said well: “A tomb robber who doesn’t want to get rich is not a qualified tomb robber.”

Sima Hui felt the situation was abnormal and asked Yu Feiyan whether she knew something.

Yu Feiyan was after all a figure who stood out in the dark characters trade. Seeing the countless ancient pagodas on the gold reliefs, she already had some outline in her heart. But like seeing a leopard through a bamboo tube, she temporarily didn’t dare to assert. When Sima Hui asked her, she came back to her senses and responded: “The quality of these gold bricks is somewhat strange. They don’t look like real gold. But what substance they are, I also can’t distinguish. Moreover, this relief is neither a wall, nor a temple or ancient city. I’m afraid it’s not any building we can imagine. And it fundamentally shouldn’t appear in Savage Mountain…”

Hearing this, everyone was even more puzzled and confused. Although they had fought for years in the northern Myanmar mountain regions, they had never heard of this matter. Their stomachs were full of questions, but they didn’t know where to begin asking.

Yu Feiyan said with a grave expression: “This place is very likely the Golden Spider City built by King Anu Jaya, also called the City of Four Million Pagodas.”

She then briefly explained the course to everyone. It turned out that the so called Golden Spider City was an ancient legend passed down for a thousand years. In the past, there had once been a prominent and powerful Cham dynasty, historically called Ancient Cham. Its territory spanned northern Vietnam and Laos. They worshipped the Vedic Lord of Beasts originating from ancient Hinduism. Within their domain, they abundantly produced gold, beautiful jade, ivory, and gems. Their wealth was temporarily supreme. Therefore they made neighboring kingdoms covetous, repeatedly suffering invasions. But the Ancient Cham people resisted the Central Plains in the north and repelled the Cambodian and Vietnamese dynasties in the south, never falling into disadvantage. It was only when the Yuan Shizu sent great armies to conquer them that they gradually declined. Their descendants still remain in places like Vietnam and Laos.

The cities and the mausoleums of successive rulers of the Ancient Cham people were mostly destroyed in war flames. The few remaining ruins and sites that survived had long become nests for bats and snakes and rats. However, in places like Vietnam, a legend about the Cham dynasty’s Golden Spider City still circulated to this day. The Angkor Wat, Muhunmoni Palace, and Borobudur in Indonesia that have been discovered by archaeologists today, though also called wonders, could not be mentioned in the same breath with it. But there was never sufficient evidence to prove that this legend truly existed.

In the West, there was said to be the Tower of Babel built by the Babylonian king. In the East, there was the Golden Spider City to rival it. During the reign of King Anu Jaya, there was once a city cast from gold, inlaid with various gems and jadeite. The city walls were covered with reliefs of countless pagodas, hence its name. Its luxury and brilliance were extreme, almost able to compete with the sun and moon for radiance. But this city was not a city. It was only because of its great scale that, according to ancient systems where ten li made a city, it received the character “city.” As for what was inside it, or whether the city contained palaces and houses, it was never possible to prove.

The Ancient Cham people exhausted their nation’s wealth on the Golden Spider City, thereby causing their own downfall, finally leading to the misfortune of decline and extinction in later generations. But the various dynasties that invaded and conquered Cham never discovered the traces of this city. So most people believed: “That history is confusing and obscure. This mysterious and unfathomable Golden Spider City may merely be a false legend, not necessarily truly existing in the world.”

Until World War II broke out, outsiders plundered large quantities of cultural relics in places like Vietnam and Laos. Among them were several murals left behind by the Cham kingdom, depicting the form of the City of Four Million Pagodas, providing much precious information for later researchers. People thus discovered that the name City of Four Million Pagodas was actually not accurate. First, four million was a virtual number. No one could say clearly how many pagodas were actually in the gold reliefs. Additionally, it was not a city, nor a temple, wall, mausoleum, or any building in the usual sense.

From those mural paintings, one could see its shape. Roughly, it was a gear shaped building constructed from gold bricks. The middle was oval shaped. The outer side had eight legs of varying lengths extending toward the surroundings. The overall outline approximated a spider. Modern scholars’ understanding of it mostly came from flat murals and documentary materials. Apart from these, there was no other verification. So Westerners called it the Golden Spider City. They believed this was merely an ancient totem or symbol of the Cham dynasty, not necessarily having a physical object.

Even if the Golden Spider City truly existed in the world, it should be within the territory of North Vietnam and Laos. Yu Feiyan, seeing the layered ancient pagodas on the reliefs with her own eyes, knew it was almost certainly the City of Four Million Pagodas of the Cham king. She never imagined it would be buried in the giant rift valley of Savage Mountain in Myanmar. No wonder no one had ever been able to find its traces.

The world’s understanding of this mysterious object called the Golden Spider was always extremely limited. They only knew that this City of Four Million Pagodas was built from countless gold bricks cast with reliefs. No one had ever been able to explain why the ancients built it. Additionally, the Vedic Lord of Beasts worshipped by the Ancient Cham dynasty had no true form, but had several strange and bizarre symbolic forms. Pythons and ancient pagodas were precisely its terrifying aspects, presaging conclusion and death.

Yu Feiyan felt that these gold reliefs faintly emitted a decadent aura of death. Who knew why King Anu Jaya built such a monster. And Green Tomb spared no cost in searching for this object. Could it be merely for the gold? Were there still other secrets hidden in the City of Four Million Pagodas? She also said to everyone: “If we want to live, we should still get as far from here as possible…”

She was speaking to this point when they heard from the depths of the darkness, the sound of withered wood creaking and rubbing and moving. At first scattered and faint, then continuous and dense, piercing until the ear bones ached.

Translation Notes:

Vedic Lord of Beasts (吠陀兽主): A reference to Shiva in his form as Pashupati (Lord of Animals) in Hindu Vedic tradition. The Cham dynasty’s state religion blended Hinduism with local animist beliefs.

Yuan Shizu (元世祖): Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty who sent armies to conquer the Cham kingdom in the 13th century.

Green Tomb (绿色坟墓): The mysterious organization that hired the expedition team. As revealed in previous chapters, it is a secretive group with origins tracing back to the British East India Company.