This promotional watercolour painting for the Rangoon Medical Hall features the wooden statues of the Gautama Buddha and his disciple Ananda in a shrine atop Mandalay Hill in Mandalay, Myanmar. The statues depict a scene from a local legend where the Gautama Buddha is said to have prophesied that 2,400 years after his death, a city committed to the revival and study of Buddhist teachings will be founded at the foot of Mandalay Hill. Here, the Gautama Buddha is seen pointing at the city of Mandalay, which was founded 2,400 years after his death in 1857 CE by King Mindon (r. 1853 – 1878) of the Konbaung Dynasty.Commissioned by King Mindon, the shrine and the wooden statues were completed on 22 Mar 1860, before being consumed by a fire in 1892. The hermit U Khanti completed the restoration of the shrine and the statues in 1909, where it survives until today and is known locally as Shweyattaw Hpaya (“Golden Pointing Buddha”).
