Maps : Map of Sa-lay township, Upper Burma: present-day Sale, on the Irrawaddy river, just south of Chauk in the Bagan region, near...

Maps

<p style='text-align: justify;'><b>Map of Sa-lay township, Upper Burma: present-day Sale, on the Irrawaddy river, just south of Chauk in the Bagan region, near Mount Popa</b></p><p style='text-align: justify;'>One of three maps of parts of Burma (now Myanmar) presented to Cambridge University Library by Louis Allan Goss in 1910 and now available for viewing in Cambridge Digital Library. By 1886 Goss was Inspector of Schools in Burma and after his retirement he was paid by the Indian Government to teach Burmese language at Cambridge University. All three maps (<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='/view/MS-MAPS-MS-PLANS-R-C-00001/1'>Maps.Ms.Plans.c.1</a>, Maps.Ms.Plans.c.2 and <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='/view/MS-MAPS-MS-PLANS-R-C-00003/1'>Maps.Ms.Plans.c.3</a>) were painted by Burmese artists on cloth (hand woven cotton in various grades) in ca. 1860. The Library is grateful to The Anstruther Literary Trust for Rare Books for funds that have enabled the conservation of all three maps (the image shown here was taken before conservation). Although a small amount of research has been done on these maps, we hope that placing the images on the Cambridge Digital Library will promote greater awareness of their existence, and encourage more research into their origins and purpose.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Sa-lay township is probably modern-day Sale, on the Irrawaddy river just south of Chauk, in the Bagan region near Mount Popa, an extinct volcano in the centre of Myanmar. This is a large map and it is interesting that it has a grid pattern on it (unlike <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='/view/MS-MAPS-MS-PLANS-R-C-00001/1'>Maps.Ms.Plans.c.1</a> which is drawn in a more traditional fashion), indicating, perhaps, a more scientific mapping technique.</p>