Pugahm Myo, Kyoung near the Ananda Pagoda, Burma

In 1855 Linnaeus Tripe was appointed official photographer to the British Government of India's Mission to Ava (Burma). Although the mission's main purpose was diplomatic, it was also a pretext for intelligence-gathering about the remote, largely unexplored country. At Pugahm Myo, which contained the most extensive antiquities in the country, Tripe took twenty studies of pagodas, as well as this enigmatic image of a monastery. The complex had only recently been built by a Burmese oil entrepreneur, and thus hints at the riches of the oil trade, the importance of Buddhism, and the philanthropic nature of its wealthy residents, all of which would have represented valuable intelligence to the Government of India.